The Invasion

Outrageous. Laugh out loud stuff for the final season. Producer Sherwood Schwartz let it ride.

Gilligan stumbles upon a dusty top secret government briefcase. What important documents are inside? Before he can get to that, he accidentally handcuffs himself to the case and it's a wild ride. He's convinced spies will eventually kill him?

And comes another famous dream sequence...

Over the top stuff; Gilligan dreaming he's secret agent 014, sort of a poor man's James Bond. Enter Mr. Howell, now with a shaved head and becoming Mister EVIL. He's the whole show, though Mrs. Howell, Ginger and Maryann are also members of the Evil Agent Club.

PS: Love his cool 60s office. Again, the set decorators had the coolest of cool jobs. Also looks like they borrowed from GET SMART.

The skipper (Alan Hale at his best) has a super gag appearance, playing Gilligan's mom? The makeup crew may have been inspired by Jonathan Winter's hilarious routines playing a grandma, at least the wig is similar. At first glance, I actually thought it was Winters!

Written by Sam Locke, veteran of many classic sitcoms, who was also doing material for Lucille Ball's show at the time.

NOT to be missed. SEASON 3 remastered CBS dvd box set. Released 2004 and 2012. 6 dvds.

"The Invasion" is one of the best remembered episodes, with Gilligan reeling in a locked attache case with handcuffs, indicating that top secret government documents must be inside that any secret agent would have given up his life to safeguard. After he accidentally handcuffs himself to the case, he realizes that enemy spies will now target him for knowing too much: "that's the first time I've been accused of that!" This leads into one of the series' most celebrated dream sequences, Gilligan as secret agent 014 (as opposed to James Bond's 007), a bald Mr. Howell the treacherous Mr. Evil, Lovey, Mary Ann, and Ginger all Evil agents. Most surprising of all is the Skipper as 014's mother, forced to consume his own soup as punishment!