User Reviews

The first time I watched this episode I rated it a 7, but upon second viewing I found myself enjoying it much more than I did the first time. The episode moves along at a nice pace and Sandy Dennis's performance of Cassie, the young woman who longs to leave the mountain she feels trapped on is especially well done.

When she meets Kimble, she sees him as her way off the mountain because she's too afraid to do it alone. As with many women Kimble crosses paths with during the course of the series, Cassie appears to fall for Kimble, but I think it was more about having someone take her away from the mountain than romantic love. I think she just viewed Kimble as her ticket out.

In the final Act, she confides to him how she looks out the opening of the cave on the other side of the mountain where the road below twists it's way down the mountain and towards the freedom that she longs for.

Many times she's dreamed of taking that road but cannot find the courage to make those first steps due to her fears. So she stays inside the cave content with just dreaming of her freedom instead...until Kimble came along, who she now feels can be the one to take her away.

But when he tells her that he can't take her with him, she initially takes it personally, believing that he doesn't want to be seen in the company of an uneducated mountain woman. To let her know that is not the case at all, he tells her that he'd be proud to walk down any street in any city with her by his side, and when he says it you know that he means it. You can see in his eyes that he's being genuine and Cassie realizes that.

He then tells her that she doesn't need anyone else to come along to take her off the mountain, but only her desire to leave is enough and she shouldn't be afraid to do it alone. It's a very moving and well done scene by both actors while they're talking in the cave.

In the Epilogue, after Kimble is gone we see Cassie packing her suitcase to leave the mountain...by herself. She's surely still afraid, but after crossing paths with Kimble, we know that her will to leave has now become stronger than her fear.

We see this scenario play out a lot throughout the series and I believe it's partly why the show was such a success. Kimble is a catalyst for these various characters who are at important crossroads in their lives when he comes along.

By crossing paths with Kimble, he's the catalyst for the change that needs to happen in their lives. That change is sometimes good and sometimes bad...and a few of them even find themselves at the end of their lives soon after crossing paths with Kimble. He's almost like an angel to these people by helping them cross from one side of a bridge to the other in their lives....and for the ones who find themselves at the end of their lives, it's the ultimate bridge crossing for them.

What ultimately happens to Cassie at the end is left open so the optimistic viewer will view her succeeding in her new life off the mountain, while the pessimist will have her fail and return by the weekend. I prefer the former and think she had a wonderful life and never went back to that godforsaken mountain ever again, thanks to the help of Kimble.

It's an excellent episode that I can find only one minor little flaw with. After running all night, we see Kimble watching the police with the bloodhounds right below him from on top of a hill.

If he were running all night long, he'd have surely been miles and miles away from there by morning light and found the road to hitch to the next city. But then he couldn't have met Cassie and the story couldn't have unfolded, so i'll forgive it.

They could have at least had him twist his ankle to show why he couldn't get too far all night long and why he was still right where the police were the next morning! Still, it's a 10 episode for me, especially for the outstanding performance of Sandy Dennis as Cassie.

The doc's travels find him in a scenic oasis in beautiful West Virginia, where he stops by a local watering hole. None other than Sgt Carter himself, Frank Sutton, tells him to move it move it move it. You see, Kimble is obviously not one of the locals. His personal hygiene is several notches too high, and he just does not blend. Kimble attempts to move it, but he is set upon by several of the bar's regulars. Luckily for Kimble, this is the 60's. Thirty or forty years later, and he would have had to deal with inbred mutant cannibals. The assailants soon lose interest in Kimble and start rolling on the floor, groping each other. Fortunately for us, before one of them can squeal like a pig, the law arrives. And it's Bruce Dern! Bruce is all Barney Fife, wanting to arrest somebody when there has been no damage done at all. The sarge says Kimble started it and Bruce wants to take him in. The doc can't have that and uses his superior fighting skills to subdue Bruce, but sheriff RG Armstrong comes in and knocks Kimble out with the butt of his gun. RG and Bruce would team up again in Corner of Hell, a much superior episode in season 2. Kimble comes to and sneaks out while sheriff RG isn't paying attention. The doc scrambles up a nearby mountain, withe the local cops, bloodhounds and now Ltd Gerard in hot pursuit. Kimble attacks someone following him, who turns out to be a lovely back woods gal who lives with her granny and is hankering to leave the mountain. She knows a secret way to the other side of the mountain and will take Dick there if he takes her with him. Of course Dick says no, she's sweet and beautiful and sophisticated enough for him, but he's a fugitive after all. He tells her she can make it on her own, to go on and find the bright lights of Parkersburg. By this time, the cops are closing in, so she tells Kimble the way out, and distracts and delays the cops long enough to allow Kimble to escape, and remain.....a fugitive.