In this one, Joe gets drugged by mistake and he tries to unravel what happened while under the effects of the drug.
This general plot outline has been seen many times before, where someone comes up with some elaborate scheme to kill someone and Joe ends up right in the middle of it and is used as a patsy so he can take the fall for it. Sometimes he ends up in it by mistake and other times it's intentional on the part of the killer. In this case, it's by mistake.
As is so typical with this show, numerous plot holes and loose ends drag down the episode, such as how did the killer know Kenbrook would take the coffee cup with the poison in and that no one else would take it? And why did Kenbrook predict Joe would be in the hospital after the race when Kenbrook himself was the target? And who was the woman Kenbrook was talking to on the phone? And why did the nurse say Kenbrook was trying to kill Joe when Kenbrook himself was the target? It's also too convenient that Joe just happened to choose Edna Barrington's room to hide in at the hospital.
Malcolm seemed flabbergasted by the plot too, asking Joe at one point why the killer didn't just shoot Kenbrook, and he's exactly right! Why go through this whole elaborate charade when he could just shoot the guy?
It's obvious all along who the killer is since he's revealed in the opening scene, so there's no mystery here.
The racing scenes at the beginning use obvious stock footage and fake backgrounds and foregrounds which reduce their effectiveness.
The voice of the guy the nurse is talking to in Joe's hallucination in her apartment sounds just like the voice that was used for Joe's double in the previous episode (Scapegoat), which is actually the voice of Dick Ziker, the show's stunt coordinator. It's a really comical voice. I love it.
Joe gets clobbered in the head again and knocked out and gets knocked out a second time later on with a haymaker.
Mike Connors' performance is especially strong and the performances from the rest of the cast are all really good too but unfortunately those fine performances and all of the weird imagery can't overcome all of the plot deficiencies and end up getting wasted. Too bad, because it looked like this was going to be a really good episode, but as it turns out it's only average at best.
This general plot outline has been seen many times before, where someone comes up with some elaborate scheme to kill someone and Joe ends up right in the middle of it and is used as a patsy so he can take the fall for it. Sometimes he ends up in it by mistake and other times it's intentional on the part of the killer. In this case, it's by mistake.
As is so typical with this show, numerous plot holes and loose ends drag down the episode, such as how did the killer know Kenbrook would take the coffee cup with the poison in and that no one else would take it? And why did Kenbrook predict Joe would be in the hospital after the race when Kenbrook himself was the target? And who was the woman Kenbrook was talking to on the phone? And why did the nurse say Kenbrook was trying to kill Joe when Kenbrook himself was the target? It's also too convenient that Joe just happened to choose Edna Barrington's room to hide in at the hospital.
Malcolm seemed flabbergasted by the plot too, asking Joe at one point why the killer didn't just shoot Kenbrook, and he's exactly right! Why go through this whole elaborate charade when he could just shoot the guy?
It's obvious all along who the killer is since he's revealed in the opening scene, so there's no mystery here.
The racing scenes at the beginning use obvious stock footage and fake backgrounds and foregrounds which reduce their effectiveness.
The voice of the guy the nurse is talking to in Joe's hallucination in her apartment sounds just like the voice that was used for Joe's double in the previous episode (Scapegoat), which is actually the voice of Dick Ziker, the show's stunt coordinator. It's a really comical voice. I love it.
Joe gets clobbered in the head again and knocked out and gets knocked out a second time later on with a haymaker.
Mike Connors' performance is especially strong and the performances from the rest of the cast are all really good too but unfortunately those fine performances and all of the weird imagery can't overcome all of the plot deficiencies and end up getting wasted. Too bad, because it looked like this was going to be a really good episode, but as it turns out it's only average at best.