Ruth Norton, a distraught young stewardess, accidentally runs down Richard Kimble on a San Francisco highway. He's taken to the hospital with a concussion and bad injury to his leg. Kimble takes the blame, so she's cleared of the accident. But feeling guilty, she helps him get discharged and lets him recuperate at her apartment. Through flashbacks, we get the back story of Kimble and his wife losing their baby, his argument with his wife, finding her body that night, his trial and conviction, and his escape. It sets up the basic structure of the whole Fugitive series. In that regard, it's the most important episode of the series outside of the finale.
The main story, though, is about Kimble and the young woman. Ruthie, as Kimble calls her, has just found out that her boyfriend Paul is a married man. Kimble and Ruthie develop a friendship; and Kimble's paramount feeling for Ruthie is protectiveness. Kimble's sense of values, his sympathetic ear, and his caring nature are on full display. Ruthie (actress Pamela Tiffin) is young and beautiful, also gentle and trusting. Over the course of a few days, Kimble counsels her, trying to get her to understand that Paul isn't the right man for her. While Ruthie has fallen in love, Paul is just using her. He tells her that for men like Paul, "if somebody gets hurt, it won't be them. And they'll always find somebody else."
In the epilogue, Kimble takes Ruthie to the same restaurant where she and Paul were meeting at the beginning of the episode, telling her not to avoid the place. Kimble tells Ruthie that he knows she'll be fine, that eventually she'll meet someone right for her. He even tells her to "think of me" when she's there with the new man. In a sense, he's actually asking Ruthie to remember him. It's an unusual thing for Kimble to say. Over the course of his 4-year run, he's admitted to feelings of loneliness, reaching out to people for temporary relief of that loneliness. But he knows that ultimately he has to move on and he's never asked before or after for anyone else to think of him. Dr. Kimble has helped yet another person through her crisis and Ruthie is in tears as she watches this special man walk away. It's a remarkably touching scene, at once showing Kimble's compassion and maturity, but also his sadness. Kimble too has been touched by Ruthie's sweetness and he thanks her for her friendship.