The boys are now in New Orleans and there's some early scenes of them touring their new surroundings. That's important because where they are has as much to do with the appeal of this show as what they do. But we have to have a plot and here we have two of them. They encounter Zina Bethune, another of the many teenage actresses that show up in these early episodes. She wants to experience life but is held back from her embittered, unhappy mother, (Betty Field). The boys, especially Todd, try to help her climb out of her shell. Next door to the hovel in which her penny pinching mother imprisons them is a dilapidated old showboat with a crew of one: grand old character actor Henry Hull, a drunken sot here. But befriends the lonely Zina. He also has a deal going with ruthless, (I kid you not) parrot smugglers who use the boat to store them. The problem is the parrots are carrying a disease potentially fatal to humans. No problem. Tod and Buz beat up the villains and convince Betty to let Zina have some money and freedom so she can live life in the big world.
Zina Bethune, (born 2/17/45 so she is 15 years old in this episode, flirting with Martin Milner, age 28 and George Maharis, age 31) like many actresses, started out a s dancer. Unlike most of those, she continued her career in dance while acting, even having her own dance company. She overcame some severe illnesses to do this: scoliosis, lymphedema and hip dysplasia. It gave her a life-long passion for helping disabled children. Her worthy life ended inappropriately five days before her 67th birthday in a grisly hit- and-run accident. But here she is at the beginning of it all.