Tug of War

Kimble is recognized by a small girl at a country store who sees his wanted poster. Kimble flees into the wilderness. Sheriff Morgan Fallon (actor Don Gordon) sets out after Kimble in a helicopter. Meanwhile, retired sheriff Samuel Cole (actor Arthur O'Connell) sets out to find and capture Kimble using old fashioned methods.

Sheriff Cole lost his job 10 years earlier after believing a prisoner who falsely told him he was innocent, who then went on to kill others. Cole wants to prove himself, and make up to the community for his earlier mistake in judgment.

Cole sets a trap and easily captures Kimble, but after Sheriff Fallon arrives, the two of them compete over who will get to bring Kimble in and get the credit. The ruthlessness of Fallon often comes up short against the cleverness of Cole, but if either of them wins, Kimble will lose.

Dick's refusal to do anything but dye his hair and chest to disguise his appearance costs him again in this one. He is spotted again and heads to the hills, but the wily Kimble is soon captured by not just one, but two lawmen. This actually works to his advantage, as the two, the present sheriff and the former one, are at odds with each other. The older one is the good guy here, although he is determined to bring Kimble in to atone for a mistake in judgement he made long ago. The younger one shares a hairline with Dick, but is not above killing both doc and the old man. The old guy has a heart condition which eventually does him in, with help from the despicable Don Gordon, the young guy, who hides his pills. Before he kicks the bucket, the old guy, Arthur O'Connell, shoots Kimble in the leg when he tries to escape. Dick was shot an astonishing eight times in the series, four in the leg and four in the wing. Good thing he paid attention when they taught bullet removal In medical school. Despite the injury looking like it might be fatal at first, Kimble recovers well enough to easily overpower Gordon and make his getaway running away like grandpappy Amos McCoy.

Samuel Cole (Arthur O'Connell) is an old man who was forced to retire from the police force. But he's determined to show everyone he's STILL a force to be reckoned with, so when Richard Kimble is spotted, Sam decides to capture the man himself and prove to everyone that he still has it. At the same time, the hot-shot Sheriff (Don Gordon) is also determined to bring in Kimble...and he's not about to let the old man upstage him...even if that means possibly fighting Sam for the prisoner! On the long trek back into town, the Sheriff keeps looking for an opportunity to get the gun away from Sam and take Kimble himself. In essence, Kimble is just a pawn being tossed between the two men and he is just hoping that when the big conflict occurs that he's able to take advantage of it and make his escape.

This is an odd one...folks fighting over who gets to bring in a man to justice! It works pretty well...mostly because the viewer really isn't sure just how far the Sheriff will go to get Kimble.