User Reviews

An early look at the then little known Autism. Betty's friend is murdered at the school for autism that her son attends. In this particular case she doesn't go undercover it's understood why she is there.

The possible suspects include a doctor that Betty's friend Judy clashed with but he proves to have his attention on the the children not battling with Judy. There is a witness to the murder. Darlene one of the young students and with Betty's patience and persistence the two of them solve the murder. The actual killer has one of the oldest motives ever and was the one person who didn't actually belong at the school not for their lack of expertise but the true motive for them " helping out" is less than altruistic . Judy's husband has a change of heart and starts to realize his son is making progress maybe he decides he should too!

The little actress who played Darlene is very good in the role and has quite a prominent role in the episode.

It's a little surprising not only that they tackled this condition but did a pretty decent job of it . Barnaby and JR are mostly in the background but provide solid support for Betty and of course arrive just in time.

By this point, the stories have become repetitive. But I think there is some originality in this episode, with its emphasis on autistic children, who are referred to as 'autistics' in the dialogue. It helps that the story was scripted by two women which gives it a gentle quality (all those scenes of the girls learning to comb their hair and Betty's sensitive dialogue).

The trope of Betty having a friend or good acquaintance that is murdered is used here. And we are told that Judy the murder victim was Betty's closest friend. Why not just say a close friend, or someone she had known for a long time. All of Betty's friends on the series are her closest, most important friends, especially when they turn up dead. But we can overlook that.

If Judy really is Betty's closest friend, then Betty would have had plenty of opportunities to get to know Judy's autistic son and she would already have considerable understanding about autism. So it doesn't exactly ring true that Betty has to learn about autism at the school when she is investigating the cause of Judy's death. Obviously this stultifying exposition was done so that the audience in 1980 could learn about autism.

One thing that works for me is the fact there is no shortage of suspects. In some regards, it's a routine crime mystery for television. Of course we know Betty will solve the case-- mostly on her own, since Barnaby and J. R. have reduced screen time.

Speaking of J. R., it occurs to me that either the director was gay or the producers told the director to emphasize Mark Shera's backside for his many fans. There is a picnic scene where they have J. R. deliberately stand up and walk away from Barnaby and Betty as they're discussing the case, so we can see J. R. go over to a water fountain and bend over to get a drink. It doesn't end there. J. R. Then moseys around in a semi-circle as Barnaby and Betty continue talking, so that we can see J. R. come up along them, photographed closely, showing off his sexy body. You gotta love the obviousness of this camera blocking!

Back to the murder mystery. If you think about it, the story would have worked without drawing attention to autism. The little girl who witnessed the murder and eventually helps Betty identify the culprit could just as easily have been a 'normal' child without any disability who had a mental block due to seeing the murder committed.

Finally I should mention that there is a surprising amount of violence in this episode, though much of it occurs off-camera. The little girl at the school has witnessed a brutal killing, then watches Betty almost knifed by the culprit. In between these dramatic encounters, the girl is almost hit by a car when she wanders away from the school.

It's surprising Judy's widowed husband would want to keep his son enrolled at the school after everything that's happened.