Amanda: ... you see, sometimes what people don't say is a lot more revealing than what they do say …
(Waiting for Godorsky)

 

Amanda: "You know Lee's just a social drinker."
Francine: "Well then let's just say he's been socializing an awful lot lately."

 

I never had the impression, that Amanda wanted to argue away Lee's drinking habits by calling him a "social drinker".  I always understood it the way that she wanted to point out that Lee never drinks too much. If he drinks alcohol, he does it at social events/in company and never too much. And even if they might often show them drink wine or champagne etc. I agree with Amanda's point of view. Lee never gets drunk or even near that point. It is just not his character to do so. As well as hitting her. But that's another topic.

So the expression "social drinker" is perfectly okay for me. According to this, I'm a social drinker, too. I drink a glass of beer or whine, when we're out at a party or for dinner, but that's all. We don't even have much alcohol in our house, just a few bottles of whine and most of this stuff I use for cooking, not drinking.

What really gets to me is the fact that nobody but Amanda seems to care enough for Lee to try to get through to him and help him. He is working for the Agency for what now - 10 years? And none of his co-workers even tries to talk to him about his problems. Not even Francine who called him a friend in "The Mole" and seems to care at least a bit where he is concerned. But now she does nothing (but complain at the end that she wasn't informed about the case). There's just the watercooler gossip all around.

Only Amanda does care that much and immediately tries to help Lee. I think that he very well realizes that, and even though he laughs it away in that converation with Billy, he must have been affected by her behaviour. Maybe they calculated with it quite a bit but didn't expect that she would react that strongly towards him. Lee just didn't expect anyone, not even her, to care so much about him that it would become necessary to get rough to get her out of the way. And of course he never wanted to get that rough. The shock on his face tells that very clearly after the slap.

 

 

Quotes all from the episode “Burn Out”.
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