User Reviews

The episode begins with Sgt. Friday working the juvenile division. He's talking with a woman about his coming to speak to her women's club about the problem of child abuse. The problem is that Friday wants the talk to be up front and brutal--and shows her some of the photos he might use in his presentation. While she is visibly shaken, she agrees her club members need to see the truth and confirms that the meeting should take place as scheduled.

Gannon interrupts, as they've just gotten a case and need to go. A young boy is reported missing and the men along with some patrolmen go looking. Eventually, he's found but his back is severely bruised and bloody. However, the story the boy tells and his mother tells are at odds with the evidence--the doctor involved will testify that he was flogged with an appliance cord. When they see the boy's estranged father, he spends the whole time talking about himself and seems to care little about the boy. In his mind, he not only divorced himself from the mother but his son as well. But the men cannot give the boy back to the mother, as it's obvious she abused him. She confirms this but still demands her child. Eventually, it's up to a judge to decide, but his hands are tied as there are just too few foster homes and the law only allows him so much power to sentence this awful woman. For her part, she's unrepentant and blames Friday for "making me miss work"!

This is a great episode. First, it helped that the kid, Chris, was absolutely adorable. You really want to hug him tight and it breaks your heart to think of this horrible woman abusing him. Second, it's nice to see that the tough Sgt. Friday is troubled by this case--he has a hard time showing emotion, but it's obvious he cares. Excellent all around--and well worth seeing due to good writing and acting. One of the very best of season 3.

This episode begins with our detectives showing gruesome pictures of physically abused children to a woman who is arranging for them to speak to her women's club on how to be more observant, on the lookout for possible victims, and to consider becoming foster parents.

Most of the episode deals with them dealing with one particular boy who is reported not showing up for school one day. A 9-year-old (or so) was seen at the bus stop, but then disappeared. The boy's bloody handkerchief was found. At his home, his divorced mother seems more concerned about being late for work than her only son's safety. She is clearly a neat-freak to the extreme, including her descriptions of her ex-husband whom she apparently divorced because he would commit the crime of wearing the same shirt for two or three days in a row! Oh the humanity. When Friday shows her the bloody handkerchief all she can do is lament how difficult it will be to wash it. I thought Friday should have tried slapping her into her senses at that point.

They go to the boy's school and as they are talking to a classmate who tells them he was going to run away and that they have a sort of clubhouse nearby, another officer brings in the boy. They look at his back and see several long skinny welts. He says he fell down a hill.

Bill and Joe go talk to the boy's father, on his way out of town. The boy's mother has again cost him a job by phoning his boss and demanding that he get a pay raise. That's the third time she's been such a pain at work that she cost him a job. She won't let him have his court-mandated visitations. He expresses a desire to be with his son, but is thoroughly frustrated that the court system is keeping him from having a chance. Unable to assist him there, Friday and Gannon let him go since it seems clear he has nothing to do with the situation they face.

They confront the mother again and she blames whatever happened on "those other boys, those dirty boys in the neighborhood." The doctor who examined the boy says the welts are recent and caused by being beaten with an electrical appliance cord of some sort. Eventually the mother admits to "disciplining" him for "making a mess in the living room." But that's as far as she'll go. With no option available-father now gone-the judge has few options. She is ordered to psychiatric care, but the boy is returned to her.

This was an emotionally disturbing episode. Seeing it as a kid, I don't know that I previously was ever aware that parents would do such things to a kid. Seeing it decades later today, I still have this picture of the woman at the beginning, the good woman talking to the officers about speaking to her club, after looking at the photos that Friday described details of, staying in the room for a few minutes and putting her head down, sobbing at the horrors of the pictures they showed her. The actor who played the beaten boy did a fine job, helping us sympathize with him even more. I have to give this show an 8.

Now the current descriptions on IMDB say nothing at all about what this episode is all about. All they do is talk about the planned speech to the club-as though it is shown. There is also one of three reviews that was written about a different episode. This reviewer says Friday is giving a speech to a club, not talking to one woman in the office, then they go on a case where they find a beaten child. That part is this episode, but the review goes on to talk about the father beating the hell out of the boy and the wife getting sympathetic treatment. That's not at all what happened here.

It's an interesting story and a little unusual for the series. Friday is giving a speech to a lady's club about child abuse and is interrupted by Gannon. They must go on an immediate case of a missing child.

The child is found with physical wounds and taken to the hospital where the doctor identifies the wounds as the result of whipping, and earlier healed bones suggest the abuse has been going on for a while. The doc spells out the symptoms, and they do in fact match the usual signs, including what the docs call "raccoon eyes".

The mother is pretty, young, blond, neatly dressed, and insistent that the injuries were caused by a fall down a flight of stairs. However, evidence is evidence. During the interrogation, the estranged father shows up and begins to handle his wife roughly until Friday says, "That's enough of that." It develops that the father has beaten hell out of the baby with the wife's complicity. The surprising thing is that neither of the parents is portrayed as especially villainous. The wife almost gets sympathetic treatment, since she will do anything to please the husband she loves, even to the point of ridding them of the baby that "was an accident" and spoiled their lives together. It's not a rare attitude nor a pathological one. The baby was unwanted, hated even, and so was clobbered. Any implications regarding the current issue of abortion are unstated.

The court would love to place the child in a foster home but none is available. The ending is tragic.