- Title: Scarecrow and Mrs. King – If Thoughts Could Kill
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. Mind-control is the subject of “If Looks Could Kill.” When an agent (Herb Mitchell) has a breakdown and begins shooting up the Agency, Lee (Bruce Boxleitner) manages to stop him. Sent to the hospital for both his injured knee and overdue physical, Lee becomes the new subject of a former Agency scientist (Michael Fairman) now working at the hospital responsible for the previous agent’s behavior. Now he has his sights set on Scarecrow.
Already working as a volunteer at the hospital, Amanda (Kate Jackson) attempts to help Lee as much as possible. Eventually she pieces together clues between his nightmares and a secret lab in the hospital’s basement where Dr. Glazer has been brainwashing Lee to kill Billy Melrose (Mel Stewart). Showing a bit of moxie, Amanda steals an ambulance and interrupts Billy’s speech just in time to prevent Scarecrow from completing his programming.
Fairman is adequately creepy as the scientist whose ego, and reputation, was bruised after being shut down by Lee and Billy. Stephen Lee is cast as the doctor’s willing assistant. Given the doctor’s previous research, you would think someone other than Amanda would put two and two together before Lee almost kills his friend in front of a room full of people, although Scarecrow does come to deduce Billy was the target of the first agent’s attack. Along with Scarecrow’s brainwashing, the episode is notable for the odd stuffed animal used as a trigger to relay orders to the unwitting assassins.
