Triangle

David Banner(Bill Bixby) is working as a lumberjack in a place called Jordantown where he begins a romance with an attractive lady named Gale Weber(played by Andrea Marcovicci) Unfortunately, the owner of the town, Ellis Jordan(played by Peter Mark Richman) is incredibly jealous of this affair, and he wants Gale to break it off. When she refuses, he gets two henchman to first buy off, then scare off David, who has a poignant change of heart and returns to the town, only to face more trouble as they both discover the surprising reason for Ellis' jealousy... Fine episode has a believably developed romance and good guest cast, particularly Richman, whose character avoids the usual clichés. Also features the last appearance of Jack Colvin as Mr. McGee, though that wasn't the intention at the time...

The Fifth Season of "The Incredible Hulk" only had 7 episodes that are really believed to be part of the shortened 4th Season due to a writers strike in the early 80's. By the end of the Fourth Season the series seemed to be running out of steam and ever since "Interview with the Hulk" the episodes were pretty mediocre.

The Fifth Season started horribly with "The Phenom", which I don't believe was intended as a season opener. "Triangle" was the last episode that was aired until many months later two remaining episodes ("Slaves" and "A Minor Problem") were aired. It's possible that those two episodes were the only real Season 5 episodes.

Anyway, "Triangle" is not half bad. David falls for a local girl and the nutcase with the most influence there tries to run him out of town.

Once again fate rears it's ugly head and prevents David from having a fulfilling existence. He genuinely cares for this woman but after two notable Hulk-outs he must exit the town before relentless reporter Jack McGee tracks him down.

The episode is well acted, has a solid role for Charles Napier and the Hulk action is good. Also, this episode was the swansong in the original series for Jack McGee, who once again misses out on the big story.

What we have here is a story which would have not only fit in pretty much any TV drama, it would have fit in almost any of them better than in the Hulk: Our hero falls in love with a small town girl named Gale, Gale is also lusted over by a man who "owns the town", he takes Gale prisoner and tries to get rid of our hero.

There are two big problems with this plot (and that's in addition to its lack of credibility and having been done to death). First, David courting a woman, as I've said before, makes him look callous and selfish. Unlike "Married", the scenes of David's romance with Gale provide no excuse for him getting involved with her, nor any sense of a strong personal connection between them. He apparently just wanted to get laid and didn't care who got hurt. Second, there's no drama. We know the villain wouldn't actually hurt Gale, he has no chance of hurting the Hulk, and no one else bothers to get involved. There's absolutely nothing at stake for the entire episode, and therefore nothing to get excited about.

McGee's first and only appearance of season 5 is a total waste. There's a lot of build-up with him investigating the Hulk's appearance, trying to interview the villain, and following a car which has David in it, but it's all abruptly dropped before it amounts to anything. One second McGee is in hot pursuit - the next, that's the last we've heard of him. Seriously.

Writer Andrew Schneider (in his final Hulk script) threw in a climactic plot twist which is both genuinely shocking and makes the basic plot more credible than in other productions. The trouble is, it's left to the end. The episode therefore fails to deal with the fallout of this twist, and even makes the laughable implication that it somehow resolves the entire problem. Equally laughable is the part when the villain's hoods inexplicably attack David when his ride drops him off. This episode is a horrendous, ill-conceived mess, like an unfinished first draft which got shuffled in with the shooting scripts by mistake.