Reviews

1970's handling of creepy guys who won't leave women alone. Amy is a bank teller who is being harassed by a wealthy customer of her employer. Because she'd once had coffee with the guy before realizing he wasn't for her, the police have dismissed it as a lover's quarrel and refuse to do anything until he does something illegal.

In desperation, she goes to the Barnaby Jones agency for assistance. The younger Jones takes a fancy to her and tries to help. Along the way, he makes a number of blunders I find surprising, including not noticing two distinctive jeeps following them during a 90-minute drive out of town that enables them to further follow them down an isolated stretch of road later. Another reviewer also mentioned the unlikely scenario of the much shorter J. R. able to deck the stalker in the face pretty easily.

He carries no weapon with him until they are forced to seek shelter in a cabin and finally arms himself with a knife. Whereas, Barnaby Jones shows up, after doing all the work for the police, and immediately pulls a gun, apprehending the accomplice.

I also cringed when J. R. asked Amy if she was sure she wanted her stalker to stop.

Two unsatisfactory resolutions end this episode about two women willing to steamroll over the men they claim to love in order to get what they want.

Lee Meriwether has been in love with her butler, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., for a while now and is sure he feels the same way. She wants a weekend on the island to explore those feelings. Zimbalist readily admits his mutual attraction, but the class struggle is harder for others to accept. Meriwether's gossipy contemporaries threaten to ruin Fantasy Island's reputation if he doesn't put a stop to the relationship. Roarke deftly handles this by threatening to reveal the scandalous details he's learned about them via the significant vetting he does of guests before their arrival on the island (besides, of course, the endless criminals that somehow manage to end up there). Lawrence is equally insistent with the women's resentful servants that this is none of their business. Zimbalist cannot proceed with this romance if he cannot be on equal footing with Meriwether by being able to hold his own monetarily, something hard to do for a man trained as a butler. She leaves the island with him vowing to keep working on him...which essentially means she's going to sexually harass her employee.

Meanwhile, Roarke probably got snippy with Meriwether's friends because Cyd Charisse's whiny selfishness is getting on his last nerves. Cyd is an old flame and former dancer who has to use a cane because she was in a terrible accident for which Roarke wrongly blames himself. She wants to dance one more time. Roarke can do that easily. Less easy to deal with is Cyd's determination that she can still have Roarke at the same time. He cannot convince Cyd that he does love her, but cannot leave Fantasy Island and still be the man she thinks she knows. Is this an admission that Roarke and the island have some kind of symbiotic relationship? Does he not have his powers when he leaves the island? She doesn't care about any of that and wants to be able to have her cake and eat it, the frosting, sprinkles and celebratory writing and all. He cautions her that being able to use her leg permanently would require a big sacrifice. She barely ponders this before asking for the trade without bothering to ask what she would have to sacrifice to get it. It's Roarke's love and her memory of loving him. He makes the trade and she doesn't seem the worse for the wear, leaving to star in Cesar Romero's new Broadway show. It's hard to believe this woman is Roarke's type. As rushed and implausible as I felt Roarke's romance with Helena Marsh was in season 2, at least she had the virtue of a life selflessly devoted to others.

I finally pinned the Roarke/Lawrence relationship in this episode. Lawrence is a butler with privileges. Unlike the hero-worshipping Tattoo who shared a mutual friendship and trust with Roarke, Lawrence is an employee. He's willing to question Roarke's judgment and offer a bit of wisdom here and there, but, in the end, he's Roarke's butler. We see him constantly serving Roarke meals and drinks. The series may have lost a difficult actor when it ditched Herve, but it also lost the linchpin of the series - the friendship between Roarke and Tattoo.

Red Buttons shows up to spend a weekend being a tough guy like the movie heroes he sees all the time. After standing up for a native being sexually harassed by a guest - does Roarke really make his staff put up with that? - Buttons finds himself drafted by the natives to protect them from modern-day pirates bleeding them dry (and, again, why does Roarke allow that?). The lessons of learning how to lead by example are important, yes, but shouldn't be necessary because, if Roarke really is the law on this island, Buttons should have just been able to flex his muscles at the beach instead of risking his life.

Of course, Roarke is rather distracted in this episode. Samantha Eggar plays a returning guest (who, apparently, visited four years ago before the show began) wanting to reconnect with someone she fell in love with during her last visit. Roarke doesn't normally let people come back and get another fantasy, but he goes for it this time. It doesn't take long for the audience or Tattoo to figure out what Samantha's longing glances at Roarke mean. Honestly, I'm surprised female guests falling in love with Roarke doesn't happen more often. After Tattoo confronts Roarke about this, the stunned host does a certain amount of soul-searching before confirming with Samantha that his friend's guess is true, only to admit that he loves her back. Aha! That's why she got another shot at a fantasy! Will marriage plans see fruition? Will Tattoo have to share a room with Samantha's kid? Shouldn't Roarke at least give Red Buttons an extra burst of strength before racing off to go horseback riding with Samantha?

John Saxon returns as a man who wants to discover a mermaid. Roarke delivers in the form of a dangerous siren named Nyah. Fun moment where he has been thoughtful enough to put Nyah in a bathtub with chemicals mimicking sea water, but adds bubble bath because who knows if that's dangerous to sea life, right? He ends up kissing her moments later. His wife bangs on the door and he goes after her, claiming, "It's not what you think!" Dude, you were kissing her so I'd say it's exactly what she thinks. Will married love be strong enough to break Nyah's spell?

Joan Prather plays a woman who just wants one date with a charming man she met once. Roarke admits he almost didn't grant her fantasy, warning her that he thinks the man is dangerous, but only tells her that he doesn't let James Darren live on Fantasy Island and that he has no proof of wrongdoing. This is where transparency is really important, if Roarke is really concerned about his guest's safety. Unfortunately, though Roarke says he'll send a car to pick her from her date, we have no idea if that car ever shows up or if Roarke bothers to have security watch the bungalow since Darren sedates Joan and whisks her off to his island where he is the Jeffrey Epstein of his own private sex trafficking scheme. Since there is some evidence that Roarke lets this happen so he can sic the authorities on Darren, it's only moral luck that Joan isn't violated by one of Darren's customers. An out-of-proportion lesson for someone who just wants a date.

Barbi Benton in her upteenth appearance dressed, once again, as an old lady. This time, she and her best friend, Audrey Landers, of the ubiquitous Landers' sisters that appeared all over the television screen during the '80s, want to revisit their years in the Ziegfeld Follies. Roarke gives them the requisite youth potion and, off they go, to the Fantasy Island Follies rehearsals where they remember a great deal about how legendary Florenz Ziegfeld worked his magic, but less about the big fight over how Audrey stole Barbi's boyfriend back in the day.

Will history repeat itself in this trite and, rather silly, fantasy segment. Roarke is nowhere to be seen giving advice to the gals as he would typically do because he has his hands full. We'll get to that in a moment.

Arte Johnson returns to the island, this time playing a fan of the Wild West outlaw Kid Corey. Johnson has romanticized the Kid, despite admitting that he killed 27 men, not including foreigners. Roarke gives him a lesson in reality as Arte finds himself in real danger which one would think would be self-evident when one wants to go back in time and meet a dangerous outlaw. Fortunately, Tattoo is up to the challenge of hanging around and finally pulling the rope, literally, that saves Arte from the noose at the end.

Barbie & Audrey are on their own and Arte is stuck with Tattoo because Roarke is stunned to recognize Roddy McDowell in his fourth appearance on the island. Unlike the first two appearances, in which he played your standard Fantasy Island characters, this time, he reprises his role as the Devil. One wonders just how much Roarke can predict or control about who sets foot or what happens on his island

That is somewhat relevant as, if he is in total control, he used his god-daughter as a lure to defeat Satan again; hardly an ethical act. If not, he shows remarkable foolishness taking Julie - in only her second episode - with him to confront McDowell at a relatively-tame devilish party he's throwing. As a consequence, McDowell sets his sights on her as a possible way to trap Roarke. Sure enough, within about 60 seconds of encountering Julie in the jungle, McDowell causes a native islander to fall into quicksand. Julie makes only a cursory attempt to rescue the poor girl, without trying to break off a branch herself or even walk around to get closer to her friend, before asking McDowell to help her which he does by causing a branch to fall from a tree. The end. To his credit, Roarke figures out pretty quickly that his god-daughter is in hock to the Devil, but one would have thought he would have taken her aside sooner and explained very clearly the dangers of doing business with Old Scratch. Once again, nit-picking the contracts saves the day.

An earlier reviewer wondered if Julie was added as a possible replacement for Tattoo and it certainly seems like it here. Relegated to babysitting Arte Johnson, Tattoo is nowhere near the action where he might have been more effective or, at least, less naive, ally of Roarke's. At least, he could have been counted on to kick McDowell in the kneecap once or twice.