One of the best season 7 offerings. There is a plane crash in which everyone survives (pilot and 6 passengers) but they are stuck on a snowy mountain. Among them is Little Ned (Anthony Zerbe), an evangelist who gets everyone to confess their sins and promise to repent. Everyone tells some secrets including one man who confesses to being a hitman out to fill a contract. (Hard to believe a professional hitman would do that.) Eventually the hitman and a companion go for help. When the two separate on the way down the mountain, the hitman falls off a cliff but the body is never found. There are a few flashbacks to the plane wreck but the hitman's death is off-camera.
The group is rescued and everyone comes back to civilization and returns to their old habits. Soon someone starts killing them off. One woman (Julie Gregg) survives the attempt on her life but her friend is killed. She calls on Joe. He swings into action and figures out that more survivors are dying. He visits each of them that is left and has two competing theories. Either Little Ned is knocking them off as they did not truly repent or the hitman is still alive and is killing them as they know his secret. I let the plot summary stop there except to say there is a great twist in this story and well worth the time.
This is Zerbe's third of four appearances on the show. Nobody does "man on a demented mission" like he does. See "The Omega Man" movie. HIs first appearance on the show, Death in a Minor Key, is worth seeing also. That should have been a pilot for a TV show. It would have been "In the Heat of the Night" 15 years before that show came on. The pretty Julie Gregg is a fine client and, for once, Mannix has a client who is not hiding anything. Woody Parfrey is making one of his many appearances as a low-life informer. Apparently, he and Eddie Firestone tag team those roles on this show. This is one of his few outings where he isn't dead at the end.
Lt Malcolm lends excellent support throughout the episode. In a pair of rare occurrences, the police are there in a timely manner and Art Malcolm gets to shoot the bad guy.
Case is solved and Joe is not shot, beaten up, or knocked out. He gets paid and a date with Julie. Maybe the date with Julie is his payment. You go, Joe!
The group is rescued and everyone comes back to civilization and returns to their old habits. Soon someone starts killing them off. One woman (Julie Gregg) survives the attempt on her life but her friend is killed. She calls on Joe. He swings into action and figures out that more survivors are dying. He visits each of them that is left and has two competing theories. Either Little Ned is knocking them off as they did not truly repent or the hitman is still alive and is killing them as they know his secret. I let the plot summary stop there except to say there is a great twist in this story and well worth the time.
This is Zerbe's third of four appearances on the show. Nobody does "man on a demented mission" like he does. See "The Omega Man" movie. HIs first appearance on the show, Death in a Minor Key, is worth seeing also. That should have been a pilot for a TV show. It would have been "In the Heat of the Night" 15 years before that show came on. The pretty Julie Gregg is a fine client and, for once, Mannix has a client who is not hiding anything. Woody Parfrey is making one of his many appearances as a low-life informer. Apparently, he and Eddie Firestone tag team those roles on this show. This is one of his few outings where he isn't dead at the end.
Lt Malcolm lends excellent support throughout the episode. In a pair of rare occurrences, the police are there in a timely manner and Art Malcolm gets to shoot the bad guy.
Case is solved and Joe is not shot, beaten up, or knocked out. He gets paid and a date with Julie. Maybe the date with Julie is his payment. You go, Joe!