User Reviews

Kimble is walking down a country road at night when he comes across Lucey Russell, played by actress Lois Nettleton. Lucey was supposed to meet Lark Adams, who never showed. Kimble helps her fix her car, then gets a ride to town. Neither of them noticed that Lark was nearby, dead.

Lucey is a pretty and seductive young lady who was having an affair with Lark, who is a married man. Mrs. Adams (actress Patricia Smith) presses hard for Lucey's arrest for murder, and suggests Kimble may be involved. The sheriff (actor Malcolm Atterbury) arrests Lucey, but Deputy George Duncan (actor John Larch) strongly believes in Lucey's innocence. He presses Kimble to stay in town to testify on Lucey's behalf at a coroner's inquest. The maneuvering of Mrs. Adams and Deputy Duncan, as well as the fact that Kimble could never lie under oath, even about his own identity, place Kimble in jeopardy.

Dick gets a lift to the middle of nowhere late at night, where he happens upon Lucey, who is having car troubles while waiting for a guy named Lark. Unbeknownst to her, but soon knownst to us, is that Lark is lying dead off the side of the road. Anyways, Lucey forgets about Lark when she sees Kimble and his hair sweater. The doc uses his mad mechanic skills to heal Lucey's car, and she gives him a ride to her place. Dr K spends the night but deputy Barney shows up with news that Lark is dead and it looks like Lucey is a suspect. Dick says he was with her so she has to be innocent, and Barney tells him no problem, just come to the inquest and testify. Kimble does his trademark nervous twitch and says sure, but he tells Lucey to just bring his affidavit with her and they will let her go. Lucey doesn't believe that, since everyone in town hates her, but what can she do? Dick has second thoughts when an old geezer giving him a ride out of town tells him that he is on the jury and the affidavit has been thrown out. Meanwhile, Barney admits to Lark's wife, who looks like Anne Francis on her worst day, that he killed Lark by accident. He was just mad at him because he saw him slap his wife and just wanted to beat him up a little. The wife wants him to let Lucey take the blame, but Barney is conflicted. Anyways, the wife notices Kimble's poster in the sheriff's office, nice someone is paying attention, and steals the poster. She sits next to Dick at the inquest and shows him the poster. Dick starts to leave, but Barney stops him. Things are really getting tense now. Kimble is called to testify but refuses to give his name, because he can't tell the truth but he also can't lie, even though he lies about who he is every week. Fortunately, Barney saves the day by admitting that he was the one who killed Lark. Kimble slips away in the confusion and is seen fixing a kid's skateboard as he is on his way to his next adventure as ....... a fugitive.

What I absolutely love about this episode are the scenes with Richard Kimble (David Janssen) and Lucey Russell (Lois Nettleton). They have great chemistry. Early on, Kimble looks tired, but he's not running from anything, he's not worried or nervous, and he's never looked better. No wonder Lucey is immediately attracted. There's a gentleness to their interaction.

John Larch, playing Lucey's friend Deputy George Duncan, is also very good in this. Over the course of the hour, his emotions run the gamut from nervous to friendly, and from concern and worry to threatening. He has a nice last scene with Lucey.

What rivets me to my seat though is Kimble and Lucey, a woman who in 1964 may have had the town wagging their collective finger at her behavior, but she's actually both strong and kind. Everyone in town hates her or at least disapproves of her because she was involved with a married man and didn't bother to hide it. Director Sydney Pollack did a really wonderful job here. Another very strong performance from David Janssen and quite possibly an even stronger performance from Lois Nettleton.

The title could describe many episodes of "The Fugitive": Kimble wants to get away but he can't just walk away from other people's problems, especially if they involve an injustice or someone who is in danger. Here Kimble is hitch-hiking and comes across a woman whose car won't start. No, it isn't the nun from "Angels Travel in Lonely Roads". Instead it's Lois Nettleton, playing the town tramp, a waitress who "knows" many of the men in town and was out on the road to meet one of them. He never showed up and, significantly, She calls Kimble "Lars", the name of the man she's waiting for. He has a superficial resemblance to him and she thus reveals that she thinks Lars is still alive. He isn't, unfortunately. Unbeknownst to either of them, his body is hidden in the bushes. He fixes her car and she gives him a lift to town. Later the body is found and the whole town assumes that Lois did him in. Kimble is the witness who could prevent her from being convicted. It winds up with an incredibly tense situation where he has returned to testify at the inquest but the widow has found out who Kimble is and she wants him out of town. But the sheriff won't let him leave.

The greatest thing about these old sixties shows is the "stock company" or really good actors that constantly showed up in the guest parts. They were often the best actors and had the most interesting roles, (because they didn't have to be beloved by the audience so they would tune in next week). This episode has several of them: Patricia Smith as the widow, Malcolm Atterbury as the Sheriff, the always excellent John Larch as his very nervous deputy and Lois Nettleton as the accused. Like Suzanne Pleshette, Lois is one of my favorite actresses from the period. I was very sad when we lost them both on consecutive days in 2008.