Jim Rockford is on the way back from another tough luck trip to Vegas, only this time he is accompanied by a stranger drinking a fifth of something. They are pulled over, and things take a turn for the worse, as guns and gun stuff are found in the trunk of a car that is certainly not a Firebird. This leads to an interesting foray into the inner workings of the paper pushers in the US government. A brand new ATF agent is brought on to interrogate Rockford's passenger who turns out to be an arms dealer being set up by National Security. Rockford's lawyer is typically inept, as was the case after Beth left, and Jim once again is a perfect fall guy for the government. The whole story centers around this arms deal and the double cross thrown in by the government, but the episode is about something else - the people who are affected by it.
At first, I didn't like this episode, but after it was over, I liked how much effort was put into the development of all the characters - from Mrs. Bateman, the taskmaster general of the governmental secretarial pool, to Donnegan, played by Lane Smith, who I will always know as the prosecutor in "My Cousin Vinny" (I (clap) dentical!). Everyone's motives are put out there, from the governmental departments, to Mrs. Bateman, to the mysterious passenger Petrankis, to, of course, Jim Rockford himself. I always prefer the older episodes, when Rockford is allowed to riff off of his peers, be it Beth, Angel, or Dennis, but this episode works because as he is trying to save his own hide, he ends up saving someone else, Mrs. Bateman. That last sentence sounded like an after school special, but the care that the writers put into developing the characters pays off with a nice final scene of Mrs. Bateman returning to work.
At first, I didn't like this episode, but after it was over, I liked how much effort was put into the development of all the characters - from Mrs. Bateman, the taskmaster general of the governmental secretarial pool, to Donnegan, played by Lane Smith, who I will always know as the prosecutor in "My Cousin Vinny" (I (clap) dentical!). Everyone's motives are put out there, from the governmental departments, to Mrs. Bateman, to the mysterious passenger Petrankis, to, of course, Jim Rockford himself. I always prefer the older episodes, when Rockford is allowed to riff off of his peers, be it Beth, Angel, or Dennis, but this episode works because as he is trying to save his own hide, he ends up saving someone else, Mrs. Bateman. That last sentence sounded like an after school special, but the care that the writers put into developing the characters pays off with a nice final scene of Mrs. Bateman returning to work.