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Screencaps for Ep 3.14 added

I have just added theĀ screencaps for Mister Nobody to the episodes' page. Alex Zubatuk, an old man who has sold his shoe repair shop to another shoemaker, is kind of feeling unhappy because he has nothing to do anymore, and his successor does not lead the business as the old man did. After picking up a pair of shoes at his former shoe repair shop with his old friend, Victor Karlinski, Zubatuk takes a walk and witnesses what seems to be a fight over a shoe box, leaving one man killed by a gun shot and the shoe box extinct. Stunned Zubatuk identifies the other man, who leaves the gun behind, to be his best friend's grandson, Marty. With people and even the police on the scene quite quickly, the old man picks up the gun claiming that he killed the man who is soon identified to be some henchman to a well-known mobster. Mike and Steve are close to the crime scene, so our 81 inspectors are responding. When they arrive on the scene, Mike disbelievingly records Zubatuk's confession as he knows the old man since he was a child living on Potrero Hill. Nonetheless, even when Mike threatens Alex with getting him into jail and the punishment due, the old man remains unimpressed, knowing that at his advanced age - in the early 80's - he would not have to stay behind bars for too long. Mike and Steve see right through Alex' eyes and know he is lying in order to protect someone else, but with his guilty plea as well as being in possession of the gun, they cannot do anything about it. Mike arrests Alex, hoping for the unfamiliar situation providing the pressure he needs to tell the truth. But Zubatuk does not even think about. In the meantime, Marty Karlinski tries to explain to the bookie he is doing odd jobs for, Dempsey, that someone tried to kill him for the box he had collected, and that the box had disappeared when he had to get away quickly. In the meantime, Mike lets Alex go, but just for the purpose of observing the old man. It turns out to be a good guess since Zubatuk immediately heads to Marty's house. When Marty is kidnapped by Dempsey's men, his desparate pregnant wife finally gives some key hints to our two cops who need to hurry now since Dempsey has already sent his goons to work Alex over, in an effort to finally recover the valuable content of the lost shoe box: 50,000 Dollars plus - and even more important - a notebook containing all the names and money amounts of his 'clients'. When Alex and Victor find the box in a manhole, they soon realize how foolish Alex' acting is and that all their lives is at risk. In the end, however, the notebook provides them with a good basis for negotiating their (lack of) penalty with D.A. Gerald O'Brien. I like this particular episode for the sense of humor given. In addition, the actors create an entertaining atmosphere of how ageing immigrants might have used to handle things at that time which also appears to be quite authentic due to the actors' actual origins.

There's quite a variety of filming locations featured in this episode. Although it is indicated that Zubatuk's former shoe repair shop, the crime scene, and his accommodation at 'Nadia Baska's Garden' nursing home are in a walking distance, they are actually miles away from each other. The opening sequence at and around the 'Potrero Shoe Repair' shop was filmed at 24th Street and Potrero Avenue, whereas Singer threatens Marty in the northern Mission district. 'Nadia Baska's Garden' is located on Divisadero Street in the Pacific Heights, and Stone traces Alex down to Marty Karlinski's aparment in the Mission again. Demspey's restaurant is located downtown at Ellis and Taylor Streets; part of the huge parking lot right at the corner of Ellis & Taylor (formerly a parking lot for rental cars; where Stone and Keller pull into for 'Dempsey's Steakery') has been built up with a new aparment complex which is blocking the formerly open view onto that corner today. The climax takes us to Nadia Baska's home for the elderly again, with the henchmen's pick-up truck actually crashing in the rear of that area on Clay Street.

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