User Reviews

For some reason, Charlie's Angels was a series from my childhood that had no desire to re-watch. In terms of Aaron Spelling shows on ABC, I was more into The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Dynasty. In fact, I only vaguely can recall certain scenes and episodes from Charlie's Angels, whereas with the other shows I have a more vivid memory, so it's basically like I'm watching this show for the first time. I don't think I even watched every episode back in the day, but as I've started binge watching the show, some memories are being jarred. Actually, I'm binge watching it completely out of order as I started with Season 4 because I was excited to see the S4 crossover with The Love Boat and seeing characters from CA and Love Boat interact. So decided to just watch Season 4 first. I can actually remember some stuff from that episode, but as the episodes have worn on, the rest is a blur. In particular, I don't remember anything about this episode, which is a nice surprise because I have this feeling that this is one of the best of the entire show.

This disturbing and powerful episode focuses on angel Kelly Garrett (played by Jaclyn Smith in a superb performance). When the show started in the mid-70s, Smith was the "third" angel behind Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, but since both of those actresses eventually left the series (Fawcett after Season 1 and Jackson after Season 3), Smith got bumped up to the top spot by Season 4 and this episode is an indicator that she was fit to lead. The plot of this well-crafted hour involves a heroin-addicted criminal Frank Desmond (brilliantly played by veteran character actor Cameron Mitchell) who was just released from a 4-year prison stint who plans to get revenge on Kelly as she was the cop who found the evidence that convicted him of dealing 5 kilos of heroin using his company as a front. Frank's revenge involves drugging Kelly and secretly injecting her with heroin. Also it turns out that Frank had stolen 2 kilos of the impounded heroin before getting convicted and plans to sell it and live it up in Mexico with his best friend. Frank's former employer has a couple of his goons (one played by Steve Kanaly of Dallas fame) tail Frank to recover the 2 kilos. In the ensuing chaos, both Kelly and Frank get kidnapped by the henchmen, who threaten them to tell where the heroin is.

During their captivity, Kelly and Frank air out their grievances. These scenes feature great acting by Smith and Mitchell. Smith is very believable as someone who's been drugged and Mitchell is convincing as a recovering addict. I never expected THIS show to have such a disturbing theme, but the writers and actors really pull it off. The controversial, yet emotional ending is probably one of the most downbeat of the series, as Kelly and Frank part on amicable terms as Kelly understands things from his point of view. My guess is this will probably be one of the most, if not the most, disturbing episode of the show, but Season 4 has me convinced so far that this show is worth re-visiting.