Did anyone really think it would be collegial?
Jackie Baillie, grinning like an assassin looking to spear her adversary, rose to begin the 215th official opportunity to politically batter Alex Salmond at Holyrood.
She asked the First Minister to describe himself in one word. Simple reply: “No”.
The now disturbingly smiley stand-in Labour questioner the 10th to fill the role during Salmond’s time in charge didn’t let that response put her off.
She trotted out “bumble”: “sensitive”: “modest”: “meek” and “bashful”, sprinkling of irony included.
Not “proud”, though. That would be bad. The attack was coming.
NHS, justice, and education records were rolled out before it was decided the soon-to-be ex-First Minister was on the rack.
“Given their record of failure, which members of the First Minister’s Cabinet would he recommend should keep their jobs when his deputy takes over?”
Boom! Except it turns out Labour has called for each of the government’s top team to quit, apart from the one person who is about to step down.
“Does that not represent the Labour Party’s unerring ability to miss the target on each and every occasion?” Salmond skewered one final time.
Ruth Davidson was much more serious. She had been on the Scottish Government’s website and said its own indicators showed Salmond’s record “falls well short of his own claims”.
“Oh no it doesn’t,” was the reply, leaving the Tories to point to a list of expenses.
Poor Willie Rennie, just back from injury, tried to keep the peace, albeit with a cheeky “can I just check he is definitely going”?
There was almost a love-in. Salmond joked Nicola Sturgeon wanted the answer and jocular heckles came from the SNP benches.
Alas, quickly it melted into a dig at the Lib Dem leader and UK coalition government.
Fittingly, the whole session ended with an attack on the Conservative Party and a cry of “if only we had more power”.
Alex Salmond summed up in half an hour? This was the session to watch.