- Title: Spenser for Hire – The Choice
- IMDb: link
For Throwback Thursday we turn the clock back to take a look at another episode of Spenser: For Hire. In “The Choice” Spenser‘s (Robert Urich) five-minutes of fame make the private detective a target for a pair of young sociopaths (Patricia Clarkson and Sam Robards) looking to up the game which until this point has included killing homeless victims no one has missed. Toying with the detective proves to be just the thing. Even after the pair kill a friend of Hawk‘s (Avery Brooks) in front of Spenser, he finds it difficult to get either the police or the girl’s father to take the situation seriously.
“The Choice” follows closely the logic of the character in Robert B. Parker‘s novels. Outmaneuvered and unable to prove the pair are responsible for the murder, but knowing he can egg them on into making a mistake, Spenser sets a trap for the pair of killers (while fooling them to believe they are in control). When the law fails, Spenser allows justice to do its work – this time in the form of Hawk who takes a measure of vengeance out on the killers whose attempt to kill Spenser seriously backfires. This concept of the hardness of the character and a need to get justice, in some form (even one not necessarily respected by the police), is one which will continue to be a major theme of both the character and series.
