User Reviews

A lot of people like this two-parter. I find it talky and lacking in credibility, but can see that people might like it anyway. I think it's because it's a more relaxed episode where Richard Kimble feels he can reveal more of himself. It may have been partially inspired by "Lillies of the Field", the 1963 film Sidney Poitier won his Oscar for. In that one Sidney is reluctantly pressed into service by a group of nuns and winds up building a chapel for them and richer for the experience. Here Kimble comes across a nun, (Eileen Heckart), who is driving over the California mountains in a rickety old car which gives out. Kimble, whose talents seem to have no end, manages to patch the car back together and offers to drive it for her to the next town. The local constables are after him and he hops aboard a train, which turns out to be on a circular track and returns him right back to the same place, where the nun is still waiting in the car. She wants him to drive her over the mountains for a meeting with a priest.

They have various misadventures but have long stretches where they just talk to each other, (it has the feel of a one hour episode padded to two hours). Kimble seems to believe that since she's a nun, he can open up to her, (He's obviously never seen "Papillon"). He talks with his head up, looking ahead and in full voice, which he doesn't usually do on this show as he's trying to avoid being recognized or even leaving an impression. David Janssen is said to have more of a Cary Grant type of personality, full of charm and with a sense of fun. As Richard Diamond he was an in-your-face tough guy. As Richard Kimble, he's trying to blend in with the walls. As O'Hara, US Treasury, he's a modern Elliot Ness. As Harry O he's sardonic and cynical. But not here. He likes the nun and enjoys her company. You realize how similar Janssen's voice and manner is to Cary Grant's. You would have liked to see him have a chance to play lighter characters in at least a semi-comic environment. He would have made an excellent "Mr. Lucky", for example, (much better than lantern-jawed John Vivyan).

It turns out that the nun, who has, (like the nuns in "Lillies Of the Field"), insisted that Kimble is a gift sent to her by God and declaring through all emergencies that God will provide, has actually lost her faith in God and wishes to leave the order because she does not feel that she can continue without her faith. She's traveling to visit this priest to renounce her vows. Kimble the cynic has acquired some of her faith in their good fortune by the time she makes this declaration. It's not believable. Neither is her reasoning: she had been counseling a troubled young Navajo man but became concerned that he was too dependent on her and shut him out to make decisions on his own. He became a criminal and died in the electric chair: in Sing- Sing, (which is 3,000 miles away). Also, why would she have to travel across the mountains to another state to renounce her vows? And why would she attempt to do it in a rickety old car with little chance to get there? I wish I could like this episode as much as other people do, but it's as rickety as the car.

I can't add much to what's already been said in the other reviews here except to say that it's one of my absolute favorites mainly due to the wonderful chemistry between David Janssen and Eileen Heckart. They both play off each other perfectly and by the end of Part One the viewer, like Kimble, has grown to care for Sister Veronica. I also like that there's a little bit of everything mixed into the episode.

There's the suspense of the cops being on Kimble's tail as well as a drunken bully named Chuck who stiffs Kimble of half his pay for unloading hay off his truck. I loved how Kimble managed to get the other half that he was owed later in the episode from him. Ha! And regarding his meager pay...I know it was 1964, but 6 bucks for 3 hours of work seems very low and i'm surprised he would work that hard for such a small amount. I would think even back then, his pay for unloading and stacking all that hay would be at least 10 bucks. Then again, 6 bucks did go a heck of a lot further than it does these days.

Then there's the comedy of riding in the old jalopy that's "looking for a place to die" as Kimble dryly states to Sister Veronica who manages to stay positive through most of the Part One journey. It's not until the fourth act that she loses it and the episode takes a dramatic turn. Now a couple of other reviews here have made mention of a film with a similar story line to this episode, but not everyone has seen that film, so for viewers like us, it's "new" and not a rehashed story that we've seen before. (However, I do want to see that film now.)

That said, I was surprised by her secret when she revealed it to Kimble and learning the true reason for her journey to Sacramento. I thought the entire scene where the caretakers knelt before her and all the faith she displayed throughout the episode up to that point faded away in an instant. You can almost see it drain from her face.... I first thought maybe she's not actually a nun after all but a fugitive just like Kimble. And we do learn that's exactly what she is....but not a fugitive from the police, but from God. It was a very well done and dramatic scene and it left me wanting to hurry to watch part 2.

But (in my personal opinion) this isn't a series to rush through or binge watch but to be savored, so I only watch one episode a night and will tune into Part Two tomorrow. I did watch it for the first time 6 months ago, but at my age I can't remember what I had for dinner last night which is a good thing because it's like seeing it for the first time all over again. I can recall bits and pieces, but not the entire story so I can't wait to tune in to the conclusion.

I think the chemistry between Janssen and Heckart is what makes this episode so special to me, and in a series with so many return actors, it was nice to see her make a return later in the series even though I didn't like the story in that one and left a scathing review on it's page. (I did read that Heckart herself said she was "disappointed" in the script when she read it, so i'm not alone in my distaste for it.) But back to this wonderful episode.....it's one of my absolute favorites of the whole series and a pleasure to sit through and one I can definitely watch again and again. I just wish I saw more 10 star reviews here for it, but I realize and respect that we all have different tastes!