User Reviews

Episode 18 of season three, entitled "Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain" guest stars Lois Nettleton. As the story opens she is walking the downtown streets (Hollywood?) in full regalia sporting a coiffured poodle too boot. We're left to guess she spies Tod demoing a LP in a record store and, finding him interesting, follows. Tod is "slumming" solo, this time there's no mention of Buz and his illness, in Bel Air at swank "Hotel Bel Air" living the life at night and working as a oil roughneck during the day. Tod relaxes to his new LP and notices there is a dog on the patio adjacent his room. The dog is a "come hither" to the owner, a beautiful mysterious woman who goes nameless. Tod begins a romance with the mysterious beauty. After drinks he wishes to see her again, but she remains allusive. Tod is hooked. As if out of smoke, while Tod talks on the telephone to his work partner, Lee played by the excellent Robert Duvall, she appears again in his room. Another romantic night ensues and Tod begs her to reveal her name to which she simply replies: "suppose I said I was the queen of Spain". As the evening ends Tod and "Isabell", as he calls her in reference to the queen of Spain, park in front of her, supposed, residence. She tells Tod tomorrow is her birthday and Tod talks her into an impromptu date to see a special sunrise. He waits while she is to get her bag, only she tips a custodian to tell the young man outside the queen has left to find her ship. Tod is alone and confused.

Like the Hall and Oates song, "She's Gone". After a few days Tod finds out his exclusive credit card is missing so he goes to the bun-co department of the L.A. police department. This is on advice of the credit card company and within a day Tod knows why as a company representative, a great cameo by Harvey Korman, finds Tod as he works in the field. Mr. Mills, the card company representative, gives Tod the bad news that almost $10K in charges have accrued on his card over just the few days that it was missing before he reported it and he's liable. Tod isn't just heartbroken, he now stands to be working his life away to get out of debt. Of course, he ties one on and Lee (Duvall) tries to help him through it. After sobering up with a refreshing Turkish bath Tod decides to walk home and clear his head further. The walk is through a seedy part of town and with a random glance in a soup kitchen's window Tod sees "Isabell" working in the mission. A fight among the patrons and Tod ensues as Tod attempts a citizen's arrest. Tod and "Isabell" are hauled down to bun-co to no avail as there is no way to prove the girl,real name Susan Anderson, is anyone other than that. Soon Tod falls in love all over again, this time with Susan. When he returns to see her again he finds she left the mission and told the commander to tell Tod her ship has sailed for Spain. Well, she isn't psycho in the fullest sense of the world, but she's definitely an enigma!

Lost again, Tod asks the police lieutenant to meet him at the bar where he and "Isabell" first fell in love. As he seeks help in tracking down his flame he gets a phone call - you guessed it, from Susan Anderson. Tod is to meet her the next day at the UCLA theater. When Tod shows up he once more meets his love interest as yet another person, Lila Gunther. Lila asks if he has time to see the new theater before his his meeting. Tod acquiesces and as she shows him the shiny new theater she asks him to audition a intro to a play she's hoping to stage. In the play if a person says yes to something it is as if they say no to everything else making life a pale imitation of what it can be. People are meant to be migratory, constantly moving on as there are no single truths but many with varied existences and no ties. After the play's monologue is finished Tod finally gets it that he fell in love with someone who really doesn't exist anymore...it was a character and that role is over.

This is a kind of episode that requires some commitment as it is a slow to reveal itself type thing. It is pretty cerebral (not pure entertainment and not for kids) and, though, it has some nice California cinematography it really doesn't have that local color travelogue thing which colors so many Route 66 episodes. The story is the star, Lois Nettleton does real justice in bringing it to life, Tod adds the right touch as a heartbroken lover, and Duvall and Korman add some light spice. I must say it was a nice change of pace and a well written and executed episode. For sure one that is polarizing as it is a sorrowful story of unrequited love with little or no action. A established TV series still taking left field chances, this is what makes Sterling Silliphant an amazing series creator/writer.

Tod is alone again but he's in California, not Tennessee. Specifically, he's in LA, where he encounters a young woman in various guises, including a seductive, sophisticated lady and a Salvation Army worker. It turns out, (as we find out at the very end) that she's an actress, or at least an acting student, who impersonates people out in the world as practice for her roles and to see if she can do it convincingly. Route 66's sister show Naked City, (done by the same producers), did a show with the same premise, (but a very different plot), called "Dust Devil on a Quiet Street", (11/28/62).

The episode is a showcase for the great Lois Nettleton, who is equally convincing as the glamorous lady, the Salvation Army worker and also the college student, (although she was in her 30's at the time). I always said she had an actress's face: she could be beautiful if the part called for it or plain if that was what was needed. I think she was one of the best actresses on TV at the time and always a pleasure to watch. Here she has a long speech in a theater at the end, explaining who she is and what she does as if it was a play, right out of Pirandello.

But the big thing in this episode is the presence of a buddy for Todd, played by Robert DuVal, (in a toupee), named Lee, who seems to have all the lines Buz would have. His scenes are not vital to the plot: he's a sounding board in one scene and helps Todd get over a drinking spree in another. They could have been cut out or the lines given to another character, like a bartender. But they aren't. It's as if Buz's lines were just read by Duval as "Lee". It's quite a contrast to the fully re-written episodes in Tennessee. This suggests to me that this one was done in a hurry, as if they expected George Maharis to be in this episode and in the last moment, he had to beg out. Maharis is still in the opening credits but there is no mention of Buz and no communication with him, by letter or phone, (there is a brief phone conversation with "your old buddy Lee"). All of this makes it seem as if this was the first episode after Maharis had left the show for the final time and that "A Gift for a Warrior" might actually have been the last episode Maharis filmed after he attempted another comeback. Another alternative is that DuVal may have been auditioning to become Todd's new partner. If he was, nothing came of it.

A very poignant story ( that obviously some reviewers here can not get ) about a person who has been so hurt in their life- probably as a child- that they have created a 'fantasy world' of make believe and illusion, to protect themself. She realizes this, having picked 'Todd' as the 'one for her' but the 'self punishment' takes over.. the metnal illness. Todd is not willing to ( in myopinion ) give her an alternate ending having decided she's 'too broken' to fix... So a very sad ending. When he asks her how the 'story ends' and she says, 'and they all go their own ways'.. She is in essence pleading for him to not give up but he takes the easy way and leaves. Also very sad..

Maybe I'm not a fan of the show and I don't know how this average rating is 8. This woman stole money from him and he finally got it back. He should have cut his losses and moved on. She's like a tv version of Blanche from Streetcar named desire. Wasted 45 minutes of my life all just to see Robert Duvall in one of his earlier roles.