We open with an older couple checking into a rural motel. Before they ever bring their bags into the room, the man, John Colter, leaves for a gas station, apparently to have them fix a bad tire. His wife tells him to just bring the bags in when he returns. Their conversation is overheard by a man we see who is quite interested in them. This man follows Colter and runs him off the road.
He gets out and goes up to Colter asking about the location of diamonds. Colter says, "Diamonds...what"-and is conked on the head. The man shoves Colter to the passenger seat, drives the car a short distance from the road. The man pulls out both suitcases, quickly looks inside, not finding what he seeks, and retrieves his own car and carries Colter to be placed in the trunk of the other man's car. He drives off somewhere and there asks Colter more about diamonds. Everything Colter says, plus cards in his wallet get the bad guy convinced he might have the wrong man. He ties up Colter and leaves him, and makes a phone call where he learns that he indeed did make a mistake, specifically with the license plate number being almost the same as the car of the man, Harry Barlowe, with the diamonds. That man's business partner, had hired the bad guy to rob, and he gave him the motel he knew the man and gave him the license number.
But our holdup man got mixed up on the license number and grabbed the wrong man. He is advised to go back to the motel and wait for the right man, figuring police are just looking for Colter. But of course, we've also been following Dan, whose men have found Colter's abandoned car and on learning he and wife had no valuables, has figured they grabbed the wrong man. Right then, here comes Barlowe, with an almost identical car with an almost identical license plate number and, Dan learns, is carrying expensive diamonds on a business trip, where only his wife-unseen, but traveling with him, and his business partner back in Chicago knew about the diamonds.
The man follows Dan and a police woman posing as Barlowe's wife and runs him off the road, but as soon as he gets out, Dan pulls his gun and tells him he is the police. The man fires, runs off and is chased by Dan where with help from a backup unit, gets his man.
Too many episodes in this series can be summed up this way: Robber is cornered after Dan's roadblocks prevent his escape and Dan and his men move in and capture him. This episode had some figuring, plus put Dan and a female officer in some danger while posing as intended victims. Overall, a pretty good episode.
What was wrong starts with the crooked plans. Since only Barlowe and his partner knew about the diamonds. Since he didn't kill Colter after Colter had seen him, the plan apparently did not include murder. But the way he demanded the diamonds as soon as he approached Colter, made it obvious he knew about them-which would have to implicate the partner in Chicago.
Now that partner took time to describe the car with exact license number, told him Colter would be traveling with his wife and stopping at that specific motel, but never described Barlowe or his wife. Luckily, Dan got the female deputy inside the motel before the bad guy ever saw the real diamond merchant and wife. Mathews and the deputy couldn't have looked much more different than the real people, at least Mathews. The "wife" looked more like she would be his daughter, or niece, and that alone might well have given away the trap to the bad guy.
What really made no sense is that this supposed diamond merchant would not want to put those jewels in the motel safe as soon as he arrived. Now the bad guy never considered that Colter had taken the gems into the room, perhaps carrying them in a large envelope placed in his inside jacket pocket. He pulled him over, clobbered him before even talking to him, and made a very quick, search of the two large suitcases. He didn't even look through the car to see if there might be some other hiding place for a small bag or large envelope. He put the man in his own car and drove far away, leaving behind the suitcases and Colter's vehicle and only then tried asking where the gems were.
Even if he got the man to talk, those diamonds are back at his own vehicle, or possibly in the motel room or the motel safe. A crook who wasn't so dumb would much more likely have questioned Colter without clubbing him, and quizzed him to learn if they were in this vehicle or on his person before driving away from there.
I think we are supposed to believe it was a clever plot, but really it was dumb from start to finish. The partner in Chicago would have to be implicated. Dan didn't need ten minutes to have the phone records checked to learn about numerous calls that connect the Chicago man with someone from the area of the crime. And while the amount was never mentioned, how did the Chicago partner knew he could trust this hired robber to not just take and sell the jewels elsewhere leaving him with nothing? A double cross would leave this previously honest businessman with no recourse-what's he going to do, phone the police and turn in his partner? Since he has been an honest businessman, he likely had few criminal connections. One wonders how he ever contacted the bad guy in the first place.
I think he was supposed to stop the couple en route to the next city and decided to stop the husband only when he heard about the trip to the service station. But those gems would have been likely in the room or already in the motel safe. He'd have been better off-without the mistaken identity of course-had he stopped them both between towns when he knew the diamonds would be in the car.
Combining the good with the bad, I wind up scoring this one a rather average 7.
He gets out and goes up to Colter asking about the location of diamonds. Colter says, "Diamonds...what"-and is conked on the head. The man shoves Colter to the passenger seat, drives the car a short distance from the road. The man pulls out both suitcases, quickly looks inside, not finding what he seeks, and retrieves his own car and carries Colter to be placed in the trunk of the other man's car. He drives off somewhere and there asks Colter more about diamonds. Everything Colter says, plus cards in his wallet get the bad guy convinced he might have the wrong man. He ties up Colter and leaves him, and makes a phone call where he learns that he indeed did make a mistake, specifically with the license plate number being almost the same as the car of the man, Harry Barlowe, with the diamonds. That man's business partner, had hired the bad guy to rob, and he gave him the motel he knew the man and gave him the license number.
But our holdup man got mixed up on the license number and grabbed the wrong man. He is advised to go back to the motel and wait for the right man, figuring police are just looking for Colter. But of course, we've also been following Dan, whose men have found Colter's abandoned car and on learning he and wife had no valuables, has figured they grabbed the wrong man. Right then, here comes Barlowe, with an almost identical car with an almost identical license plate number and, Dan learns, is carrying expensive diamonds on a business trip, where only his wife-unseen, but traveling with him, and his business partner back in Chicago knew about the diamonds.
The man follows Dan and a police woman posing as Barlowe's wife and runs him off the road, but as soon as he gets out, Dan pulls his gun and tells him he is the police. The man fires, runs off and is chased by Dan where with help from a backup unit, gets his man.
Too many episodes in this series can be summed up this way: Robber is cornered after Dan's roadblocks prevent his escape and Dan and his men move in and capture him. This episode had some figuring, plus put Dan and a female officer in some danger while posing as intended victims. Overall, a pretty good episode.
What was wrong starts with the crooked plans. Since only Barlowe and his partner knew about the diamonds. Since he didn't kill Colter after Colter had seen him, the plan apparently did not include murder. But the way he demanded the diamonds as soon as he approached Colter, made it obvious he knew about them-which would have to implicate the partner in Chicago.
Now that partner took time to describe the car with exact license number, told him Colter would be traveling with his wife and stopping at that specific motel, but never described Barlowe or his wife. Luckily, Dan got the female deputy inside the motel before the bad guy ever saw the real diamond merchant and wife. Mathews and the deputy couldn't have looked much more different than the real people, at least Mathews. The "wife" looked more like she would be his daughter, or niece, and that alone might well have given away the trap to the bad guy.
What really made no sense is that this supposed diamond merchant would not want to put those jewels in the motel safe as soon as he arrived. Now the bad guy never considered that Colter had taken the gems into the room, perhaps carrying them in a large envelope placed in his inside jacket pocket. He pulled him over, clobbered him before even talking to him, and made a very quick, search of the two large suitcases. He didn't even look through the car to see if there might be some other hiding place for a small bag or large envelope. He put the man in his own car and drove far away, leaving behind the suitcases and Colter's vehicle and only then tried asking where the gems were.
Even if he got the man to talk, those diamonds are back at his own vehicle, or possibly in the motel room or the motel safe. A crook who wasn't so dumb would much more likely have questioned Colter without clubbing him, and quizzed him to learn if they were in this vehicle or on his person before driving away from there.
I think we are supposed to believe it was a clever plot, but really it was dumb from start to finish. The partner in Chicago would have to be implicated. Dan didn't need ten minutes to have the phone records checked to learn about numerous calls that connect the Chicago man with someone from the area of the crime. And while the amount was never mentioned, how did the Chicago partner knew he could trust this hired robber to not just take and sell the jewels elsewhere leaving him with nothing? A double cross would leave this previously honest businessman with no recourse-what's he going to do, phone the police and turn in his partner? Since he has been an honest businessman, he likely had few criminal connections. One wonders how he ever contacted the bad guy in the first place.
I think he was supposed to stop the couple en route to the next city and decided to stop the husband only when he heard about the trip to the service station. But those gems would have been likely in the room or already in the motel safe. He'd have been better off-without the mistaken identity of course-had he stopped them both between towns when he knew the diamonds would be in the car.
Combining the good with the bad, I wind up scoring this one a rather average 7.
