Smoke Screen

While Richard Kimble has taken many, many jobs over the four seasons of "The Fugitive", I was surprised by this episode because he obtained a job working the fields with migrant workers. He didn't exactly fit in here like he did with most of his other jobs and identities. And, it turns out I am not the only one who thinks this way as the migrant workers don't feel he belongs here and they treat him like dirt. Eventually you find out it's because they assume he's actually working for the police or Immigration and Naturalization Service looking to catch illegal aliens!

Things take an interesting twist when a huge fire breaks out nearby. The field workers are encouraged to volunteer to fight the inferno and Kimble, being a real do-gooder, volunteers. This is when he learns the reason the other workers didn't like him, as one of the illegals confides in him all their concerns. This man also has a HUGE concern...his wife is REALLLLY pregnant and it's not going well. Little do all the folks know that this hated man is a doctor...and obstetrician! But how can Kimble help without compromising his identity?!

This is a decent but generally unremarkable episode. Apart from taking a pro-illegal slant, which was unusual for the 1960s, the show is an average and enjoyable installment.

Mexicans harassing a white man because they have profiled and stereotyped him.

Illegals sneaking into America to drop an anchor baby.

A nasty over the top nurse that lacks professionalism, social manners and honesty.

A news station that will risk lives to get a juicy story.

What's not to like? EVERYTHING !!!

Yet we the viewers are suppose to feel sympathy for the parents to be. WRONG !!!

This entry has unexpected application for our own period, given the issues over illegal immigrants from Mexico. Here, Kimball is working as a farm laborer but is shunned by majority of Latino co-workers who suspect him of being an undercover immigration agent. Eventually, he makes friends with one of the co-workers, Paco, and his pregnant wife Maria. The couple, however, is undocumented, and somewhat surprisingly, the script has us sympathize with their lack of "papers" much as we sympathize with Kimball's fugitive status.

It's a pretty good episode. The forest fire inserts are well done, along with the location farm filming, each providing a strongly realistic effect. Also, that fine underrated B-actress Beverly Garland delivers a strong performance as the embattled nurse who must deliver Maria's baby in the field when what's needed is a hospital for a Caesarian delivery. But it's really Dr. Kimball who's put on the spot. All in all, the plot with it's remote radio broadcast seems more contrived than usual, but each plot element does fall into place providing for a generally suspenseful 60-minutes.

Gerrard is plotting Kimble's probable course. He thinks that Kimble might be somewhere in California picking crops.

Gerrard's hunch is right. Kimble is working as a labourer and he is not popular with the migrant workers. They think he is an undercover investigator from the immigration department.

Forest fires means that the migrant workers have been called to put out the fires. Kimble finds himself delivering a baby. It means giving up his cover with a reporter not far behind.

I did think it was very hokey that a pregnant woman just happened to follow her husband into a very dangerous situation.

Kimble owns up to being a doctor and the people who distrusted suddenly believed in him.

It was not the most tightly plotted of episodes. It could had done with a few rewrites. Although the plight of migrant workers is still topical.

Kimble, working as a farmworker, is disliked and distrusted by the others, who suspect him of being a cop or immigration agent. Paco (actor Alejandro Rey), an illegal immigrant, is one of his tormentors.

A forest fire emergency leads to Kimble and others working on fire control. Paco's wife, Maria, follows the men to the fire scene. She goes into labor and is seen by the nurse, Doris (actress Beverly Garland), at the first-aid tent. The nurse declares Maria needs emergency surgery, but there is no doctor, and the fire has cut off the roads. Kimble wants to help, but an eager radio news reporter is snooping around and threatens to uncover his identity.