User Reviews

This episode, Richard Kimble NEARLY finishes his quest to find the one-armed man and bring him to justice. It begins with Kimble getting a lead that the man might be in jail in a town...and he finds him! But Fred Johnson (Bill Raisch) runs off and is chased by Kimble and a reporter who is helping him. Johnson's car flies off the road...and he's nearly killed. Kimble rescues him but instead of just handing him over to the cops, he takes Fred to a hideout where he nurses him back to health. Later, when Fred awakens, he admits to killing Mrs. Kimble...but fine good that will do, as by the end of the show the one-armed man has escaped once again...and Kimble is back on the run.

I don't think it's any spoiler to reveal that Fred escaped by the end of the episode. After all, the show went on for 4 seasons...and this is only season 3. Enjoyable but there really is no suspense here...just an interesting story about what could have been.

When a congressman's wife is killed in a home invasion, the local chief of police rounds up all the transients he can find, confining them in a fenced area behind the police station. Reporter Barbara Webb, played by actress Janice Rule, working in Dayton as a reporter for a national news service, comes back to her home town to cover the story. She observes that one of the transients is a one-armed man, and puts his photo in the paper, hoping to lure Kimble to town for a bigger story. In fact, both Kimble and Lieutenant Gerard show up.

Kimble chases the one-armed man, who gets in a collision, and requires Kimble's help to save his life. Kimble and Webb try to get his confession, but the only confession he gives is to nod yes to Kimble's question. Kimble learns for the first time that the man's name is (or probably is) Fred Johnson.

Kimble and Johnson, both fugitives, both manage to escape, and the chase goes on.

This is a key episode in the saga of "The Fugitive". A reporter, (Janis Rule) takes a picture of some suspects being held for a heinous crime and one of them is the one armed man Kimble remembers seeing. Kimble shows up- and so does Gerard. The one-armed man, (we find out his name is Fred Johnson) bolts and Kimble, aided by the reporter, goes after him. There's an accident and Kimble and the reporter rescue Johnson and hold up in an out-of-season camp with some first aid facilities. Kimble has to use all his medical skills to try to save Johnson so he can get him to confess.

At one point he asks him if he killed his wife and Johnson nods his head. Kimble almost collapses in emotion. He's reached his goal but beholds the killer of his wife and the cause of all his problems. But Johnson could wake up and deny it: he needs something in writing. When both Kimble and Johnson are asleep, the reporter fakes a Johnson's signature on a confession as the police close in so she can get a story. For a time Kimble thinks he'll be a free man but holds back from turning himself in after the police have Johnson. Then he calls Gerard and finds out that he's still a fugitive.

Any episode involving Lt. Gerard is always interesting and creates high tension. "Wife Killer" has the added bonus of the appearance and "capture" of the one-armed man, Fred Johnson. Kimble uses his medical skills to save Johnson's life. We know that this episode will not be a series-ender, but nonetheless, the drama keeps the viewers in suspense. Janice Rule and Kevin McCarthy add to the overall quality of the story.

This could have been a great episode if not for the many plot holes that ruin it. I'm just going to run them all down here.

First off, that woman reporter who snapped the photo of Fred in the police yard. Why on earth would she place it with the blaring headline saying "Kimble's One Armed Man"?!

He was just a man with one arm, so it seemed strange that she would automatically connect that to Kimble and make a headline about it in the newspaper. There was really no reason for her to make that connection. What made her think that he was the one that Kimble saw?! I guess maybe she just did it for sensationalist purposes, but if so that's really bad journalism so I can see why her boss fired her from her previous job.

And Kimble seeing the headline and then making a beeline straight to the place without any trepidation or arlem bells going off in his head that it could be a trap set for him. He just carelessly and boldly walks past police officers outside the station to get a glimpse of Fred. Heck, he doesn't even wear sunglasses to conceal his identity!

We see him literally walk right in front of a uniformed cop who doesn't even bat an eye that it could be Kimble. Please.

After a headline like that, surely the local police would be on high alert for Kimble to make an appearance there. After all, it brought Gerard there just as quick.

And later on, after the reporter literally tells Gerard that she witnessed Fred's confession first hand, he doesn't want to hear it and is not concerned in the slightest because all he wants is to get Kimble. Wow. Any law enforcement officer with any sense would have taken a witness to a murder confession a lot more seriously than he did. And why didn't the other police take her words seriously? It's just too great a plot hole to let go.

If Gerard wouldn't listen to it, at least the local police should have. And yet another hole...after Fred knocked out the intern in the end and fled the hospital, that should have automatically made him a suspect to police because why would he knock an intern unconscious to flee the hospital unless he was running from something serious? But none of them seem to care lol.

If not for all these giant plot holes it would've been great, but the episode just plays so sloppily. But to end my review on a positive note, I liked Janice Rule here and enjoyed her character who cared about nothing else but getting her big story.

Kimble's ruefulness towards her selfish quest was well played by David Janssen. You could see his contempt for her while she was snapping all those photos. I hated her, but think that Janice Rule played the part well and is very appealing. I wouldn't have minded having her change her ways and then wound up being with Kimble in the finale.

But then again when she forged that confession you knew she did it more for herself and her story than for helping Kimble, so she was quite a piece of work! I'm sadly rating it a 4 because I think it could've been written a lot better. It's still very watchable if you can ignore all the holes.

And Gerard and the other cop who was trailing the reporter really couldn't tell it was a man that pulled out of the driveway after she switched cars? The car windows weren't even tinted and it was pretty bright in that lot. And especially with all that big hair she had, they really couldn't notice it was a man driving?! Please...Another insulting plot hole! Gerard would not have been that easily duped!

You have to turn your brain off to enjoy this episode and not think too much!