Nurse Samantha (Amy Steele) is blinded by a man who has murdered her patient in the same attack. The shared grief brings her together with the woman's husband Alan Shay (Mark Goddard) who each work with law enforcement to apprehend the assailant. Samantha is set to have an operation to recover her sight and it appears promising. But her attacker (A malefactor with a breathtaking track record of efficiency), who doesn't want her to live long enough to be able to see, and identify him, has other ideas.
Casually corrupt police lieutenant Jake Styles (Joe Penny) and gruff but earnest district attorney J.L.McCabe (William Conrad) both formed a rapport with Samantha and Alan in the aftermath of the murder. They are concerned for her safety despite her assurances. Styles orders a special detail i.e. patrol cops to drive by her place and check in with her in the lead up to her flight. But when an attack upon Samantha by the same killer is thwarted Jake begins to wonder if things happened as they initially appeared to.
In this episode the lush setting they somehow found themselves in again, is not purely accidental. The stylistic formula the show had going required placement of them in such a setting somehow, some way. What the show gave viewers was a mystery with less of the messy police forensics work aspect and more of the intrigue in a setting most of us can find agreeable even if we can't really relate to it. A good, solid teleplay can get you past the setting. That is what they delivered here and would do intermittently during the run of the series.
The multi-layered acting characterization constructed by Amy Steel is what really sells this episode to the audience though. She was cast because she balanced being something of a sex symbol in 1980s popular culture from the Friday the 13th movies with very real acting chops gleaned from excellent schools and a solid theatre background. She was also, by the time they got her for this, a youngish veteran of two TV series and multiple motion picture releases. It was a very agreeable match between role and performer that served to deliver a younger demographic.
There are still implausibilities. But the episode remains one of the better early ones because a better baddie tends to make for a better mystery. This has a transgressor who evolves in an unexpected way. The quintessence of villainy on display reflects another trademark of this series : malignant audacity in the role of the antagonist.
Casually corrupt police lieutenant Jake Styles (Joe Penny) and gruff but earnest district attorney J.L.McCabe (William Conrad) both formed a rapport with Samantha and Alan in the aftermath of the murder. They are concerned for her safety despite her assurances. Styles orders a special detail i.e. patrol cops to drive by her place and check in with her in the lead up to her flight. But when an attack upon Samantha by the same killer is thwarted Jake begins to wonder if things happened as they initially appeared to.
In this episode the lush setting they somehow found themselves in again, is not purely accidental. The stylistic formula the show had going required placement of them in such a setting somehow, some way. What the show gave viewers was a mystery with less of the messy police forensics work aspect and more of the intrigue in a setting most of us can find agreeable even if we can't really relate to it. A good, solid teleplay can get you past the setting. That is what they delivered here and would do intermittently during the run of the series.
The multi-layered acting characterization constructed by Amy Steel is what really sells this episode to the audience though. She was cast because she balanced being something of a sex symbol in 1980s popular culture from the Friday the 13th movies with very real acting chops gleaned from excellent schools and a solid theatre background. She was also, by the time they got her for this, a youngish veteran of two TV series and multiple motion picture releases. It was a very agreeable match between role and performer that served to deliver a younger demographic.
There are still implausibilities. But the episode remains one of the better early ones because a better baddie tends to make for a better mystery. This has a transgressor who evolves in an unexpected way. The quintessence of villainy on display reflects another trademark of this series : malignant audacity in the role of the antagonist.
