Set Fire to a Straw Man

This series follows up a great episode with a very good one. Kimble is working for a trucking company run by Edward Binns, who warns him to stay away from his sister, (Diana Hyland) and Kimble's otherwise friendly co-worker, (Joe Campanella), tells him the same thing. Hyland turns out to be not only amorous but crazy and she won't let Kimble alone. Also, she has a strange relationship with Campanella's son, (Clint Howard), whom she plies with gifts, placed below a straw-filed scarecrow, which he calls "The Strawman".

Diana Hyland seemed to have a line in obsessed females. She was the woman who was on the lam with the child who was not hers in "When the Bough breaks" from Season 2.

Kimble, under the name Chris Benson, works for George Savano (actor Edward Binns), who owns a successful auto parts distributorship in New Jersey. Kimble's immediate supervisor is Jesse Stransel (actor Joseph Campanella), who at the outset of the show suffers a vicious beating, causing police to snoop around, to Kimble's discomfort.

Kimble discovers that there are many secrets and mysteries involving George, Jesse, Jesse's wife and son, and George's attractive sister Stella (actress Diana Hyland), and that George wants to keep the lid on these secrets.

Stella makes moves on Kimble. George threatens him to get him to stay away, but she will not stay away from Kimble. Kimble comes to learn that she is delusional. (Hyland played a similar delusional woman in the episode When The Bough Breaks).

An angry George confronts Kimble, and tells his secretary that in one hour, she should call the police and inform them that Chris Benson has stolen some radios, and is believed to be wanted elsewhere by the police. Kimble wants to flee, but Stella complicates matters.

Diana Hyland basically reprises her role in When the Bough Breaks in this one. Again, she has lost her baby and again she thinks Dick is the baby daddy. Kimble is driving a truck and working in a warehouse. He is really skilled at making phony driver's licenses. Stella is the sister of Edward Binns, who owns the company. Ed warns Dick to stay away from his sister, but easier said than done, because she is throwing herself at him and she's hot. Joe Campanella works with Dick and he also tells him to stay away from her because she is nuts. Joe and his wife have a little tyke named Johnny, played by Clint Howard. Stella is fixated on Johnny, and we find out that she was impregnated by someone who worked there until her brother ran him out of town. And that offspring is Johnny, who was given to Joe and his wife as a sort of Christmas bonus by brother Ed. And now Stella is thinking that Dick is her old beau. Ed gives Dick an hour to scram, but Dick can't just leave this mess without trying to fix it. And now Stella is hiding the kid somewhere and Ed shows up ahead of the cops. Dick thinks fast and gets Stella to demonstrate how delusional she is. Ed acts surprised at how crazy his sister is, but really he should have known, especially since he is greatly responsible for it. And he helps Dick get away. Clint is found and taken back to the only parents he knows. So it's a happy ending for him, anyway. As for Stella, who knows?

In this episode, Richard Kimble works for a trucking company. Unfortunately for him and others there, the owner's sister is a mess. At first, you just think she's into thrills and excitement but later you realize that she is seriously imbalanced. The problem is that her brother doesn't even come close to understanding the degree to which she's lost her mind and she has a strange fixation on a little boy (Clint Howard) which results in her kidnapping him! Can they get to the child on time and will he be alright?

This episode is enjoyable but also strange and a bit confusing. It's clearly a rather weak installment but is worth seeing.