Vue back at dealer.
1500 mi since waveplate repair (and from review of the invoice actually quite a bit more)

Wife drove home 40 mi on a 97 degree day. Parked in driveway for 20 min.
Came out to go to dinner and vue would not go into any forward or reverse gear -- only had park and neutral. Turned off and restarted -- no dice.

Took an S car to dinner.

Came back 1.5 hours later -- it's like nothing happened.

I suspect they did not clean out all of the debris from the waveplate failure, and the system has debris lodged in the cooling lines causing it to overheat when the car sits after driving and there is no breeze to cool the tranny.

The TSB for this wave plate failure is SUPER big on the importance of cleaning up the debris from the failure.

The former Saturn dealership subs out their tranny work to a local shop -- who I'm betting doesn't read TSBs on Saturns....

Ideas?

The former Saturn dealership subs out their tranny work to a local shop -- who I'm betting doesn't read TSBs on Saturns....

Ideas?
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I think you have it pretty much covered although not mentioned is the general reputation the transmission developed for poor reliability which points at a poor design in the first place. It probably would not hurt to run a power flush through it if it can be done. Although I don't know that it can be or wasn't but it would not surprise me if not.
I can attest to the fact the transmission in my Chrysler, a 2007 had developed the same type of reliability reputation apparently because a of questionable size when placed in the van from the car application the wight worked against it along with neglect and abuse. It had a reputation well deserved for being failure prone.
It was redesigned in 2002 according to reliable sources and I can attest that the 2007 drives more like a 700r4 than it does as the transmission used in 2001. It must have done some good as it has been reliable and sound. And cooling? It dawned on me when I put a radiator in that there are no transmission lines to it and what appears to be a small aftermarket transmission cooler under the car is the only cooler used. It must work well as it is hotter than Hades here and the transmission has held up well using it. So I intend on using something similar for the 700r4 I am installing in my Hornet.
It looks like the right thing to do. I always though it was silly to run transmission fluid up to the radiator where generally it adds to the heat already in the radiator but it worked most of the time well enough anyway I guess to get the job done. But this looks like a better solution.
you might want to consider doing the same thing if you can get away with it. Which would eliminate any junk trapped in the radiator that should have maybe been cleared out with a flush.

well, for 5 days they drove it a bunch, then parked it to let it heat up, then were not able to reproduce the symptom.

Fluke?
Piece of crap temporarily hung up in valve body, cooler/etc now dislodged and sitting on a filter screen?
gremlin?
Snuffleupagus?

I pick it up tomorrow.

Let's see if I get a diag charge.... I'm bringing the service manager multiple gifts of music....plus I've been visiting them since 97

well, picked it up today -- didn't act up with several stops on the way home in 100 degree heat.

No diag charge. Not sure if related to the gifts of music or my sparkling personality