User Reviews

I've always felt that the leading cause of violence in the world is illusion. Those who cannot or refuse to deal with reality create their own worlds to live in with their own set of good guys and bad guys, and everybody will tend to be in one of those groups, if they are allowed to exist in the dream-world at all. These people then view the real world a threat to their dream world and respond by lashing out at reality or by trying to force the real world to conform to their illusions. There will probably always be such people. The important thing is to keep them away from any real power to minimize the impact of their evil.

Zoom! We're back in Boston and the boys are touring the famous patriotic monuments in the city when they meet a gang of "super patriots" led by Dan O'Herlihy. They call their organization "Awake America" and, predictably, they are worried that 'mongrel' immigrants are taking over the country. They signify their determination to waken America with a Nazi-like salute, (fist to chest and then extended out). The corpulent, sweaty Logan Ramsey looks like Goering but plays a Goebbels equivalent. Frank Sutton is a jumpy bodyguard who I suppose would be Himmler. An actress named DeAnn Mears is the Eva Braun who believes anything O'Herlihy tells her because she loves him.

Todd impresses O'Herlihy when he admonishes some kids not to deface a statue. They are less impressed with Buz, especially when they find out he's adopted: he could be a 'mongrel'. Simon Oakland and Joe Campanella play government agents who convince Tod to infiltrate the organization, (to replace an agent who died in an "accident") to see what they are up to. They know the group has acquired some plastic explosives. It turns out they plan to hold a rally at Paul Revere's statue and plant the explosives on the statue. Sutton will set them off with a rifle shot and many in the crowd will be killed. The incident will be blamed on the opposition and the dead spectators will become, (unwilling), martyrs. (The Burning of the Reichstag!) It ends with Sutton being shot before he can get his shot off and O'Herilhy being carted off in a conveniently available straight jacket.

The show has an obvious relevance to our times, when there is no shortage of extremists. The difference is that the mainstream parties have invited many of them on board because they need the votes. It's a dangerous situation as we've seen such groups take over the politics and eventually the government of a country.

I have gotten very tired of these episodes from shows that rely on hate to move the story along. It is always 100% of the time, a right wing hate groups. It's as if Hollywood is blind to the fact that most of the hate in this world comes from the Left Wing Liberal cooks. And most of them are in politics and are in Hollywood writing this garbage. With that said, I am not stupid enough to believe there are not hate groups from either side of the political fence. There are also hate groups from all races, not just white people. There are also a lot of good people from all races, and good people from both sides of the political fence. This episode has little to like about it and only the episode with Robert Duvall as a drug addict was more of a waste of 50 minutes. Route 66 has some really good episodes, but there are quite a few that just are not worth watching.