"Yours truly, Dumbo Maxwell is chugging across the finish line. Folks up in the gallery yelling Go Geezer Go!"

This is one of my favorite episodes from Season One. Again it's not the crime story that makes this episode shine, but the character development again. A lot of people criticize the subsequent seasons for overblown plots, and really that's the fault of the networks trying to turn the show into 'monster of the week', and it was always at its best when Cannell kept it focused on the characters and their lives trying to cope with the suit. In the extras, Cannell goes into the development of the show at some length, and later comments about how much he had to fight the studio interfering in the stories of this show. Ironically it was the studio's meddling that ultimately caused the demise of this show, and I hope somebody looks back at some of the Cannell shows now and realises they should have left him alone. Of course that's not to say that some of the 'monster of the week' episodes aren't good, but we'll get into that in Season Two.

In this case, it's focused on what happens when we achieve our ambitions, or get left behind unfulfilled. We've all been there, trapped in the dead-end job that goes nowhere, while lesser employees are boosted up the ladder without any merit. It's a joy to watch Robert Culp's Maxwell grapple with his advancing age and lack of career prospects as the younger team members are advancing upwards. He plays the obsessive angle just right. It's also nice to have an episode that focuses on Pam a bit, and shows what a superb actor Connie Selecca is.

And on top of all this, we get a new power - pyrokinesis. I like the running joke that's been going this season about how many government-issue cars Ralph has managed to destroy so far. In a way, the fact that Ralph lost the instruction book for the suit is a stroke of genius, since it stops him from becoming too powerful, or making things too easy, a fact that's eluded too in a later season.

This is a great episode, and easily one of the best of Season One.

Episode Synopsis:

Bill's waiting out in the desert for Ralph, and filling in time by reading the obituary section of the paper. Ralph arrives late, and Bill complains about how he's sitting around sizzling in the desert, and how useless Ralph is with the suit. They need to get in some practice time. Ralph hasn't got long to spend though because he has a meeting with the principal, and Pam couldn't make time to get sandwiches and Cokes because she has a work meeting. As usual Bill thinks his priorities are more important than everyone elses. Bill wants Ralph to try to see if the suit can do pyrokinesis. Ralph concentrates on starting a fire on a bush in front of him, but accidentally sets fire to Bill's government-issue car. The car explodes, and Ralph apologises as it is the third car this year he's destroyed. Bill is worried he's going to get in trouble for it, so he'd better get Pam to organise a legal defense.Meanwhile, Pam is meeting with her boss who offers her a junior partnership in the law firm that she works for. Ralph meets with the principal who gives him a promotion to Temporary Vice Principal. Ralph's first job is to discipline Tony Vilicana. Bill doesn't get a promotion but gets a newer and much younger boss, who wants him to explain how he's totalled another car.

Bill is depressed that he's not going anywhere, missing out on the promotions despite his years of service. Ralph receives his new office as part of his promotion, and Pam accepts the partnership offer. As Pam and her boss leave the restaurant, two thugs follow them and plan to trap them. They make their move in an alley and stop the limo. They threaten Pam's boss, Clarence, about not buying off the commission because Springsong won't stand investigation, and that they'll kill him if he doesn't behave. Luckily, they mistake Pam for Clarence's daughter. Pam asks Clarence whats going on, but he just makes an excuse and brushes it off.

Ralph tells Bill about his new promotion at work, but Bill is too busy obsessing about having a coronary to notice. When Ralph tells him about Pam's new promotion though, Bill is dismayed. The world's gone bad because he's been passed by and everyone else is moving ahead. Bill's upset because a work colleague his age recently died, and like Bill he was passed over and went nowhere. Bill's thinking about retiring, but Ralph isn't having a bar of it. They're both in this together, and Bill is not abandoning Ralph with the suit and the little green guys. Pam arrives home and interrupts, she's in trouble and not happy after the gunmen incident.

The gunmen report into their boss that they passed along the message to Carter and his daughter Mary. The boss realises that they've made a mistake and threatened him in front of a witness since Carter's daughter is in London. He tells the gunmen to fix it.
Pam explains what happened to Bill and Ralph. They offer to investigate, which means they'll have to check into the law office. Pam suggests they take Bill's car since the bad guys might know what she drives. But they can't because Ralph blew it up - third government car totaled this year. They take Ralph's instead.

At the law office, the gunmen watch as they go into the building. Bill is impressed by the swankiness of the offices, but comments that Pam's office is probably in the basement. It's on the top floor with the other offices, and is very nice. Bill looks disgusted especially since he has a cubicle. Pam asks Bill to follow her, and Bill assumes its Carters office, but it turns out this large plush office would have been Pam's. Bill gets visibly sicker as Pam shows him Carter's office. Ralph goes into Carter's closet and puts on some of his clothes to holograph off of, and starts to pickup some information about a file for Springsong Records. Pam goes into Carter's desk and gets a file for Springsong Records, and Bill just looks confused. Ralph thinks he has the whole thing solved, but he's just been holographing off Pam who has the file. He feels like a fool.

Pam goes out into the hallway and is grabbed by the gunmen who have snuck in. Pam manages to call out. They drag her outside to the car. Ralph flies out the window and chases the car. The car races around the streets and swerves to a stop after a hubcap comes loose. Ralph flies down and crashes through the back window of the car. He disables the gunmen and rescues Pam.

Back at the Bureau, Maxwell hands over the two thugs, and gets a lecture from the new boss about jurisdiction. The two thugs get hauled away to the psychiatric hospital after they talk all about Ralph in the suit. Bill and Pam sit around lamenting how bad their day has been. Ralph offers to rip the handle off the vault at the law office to get the Springsong file, and wants to stay with Pam to make sure she's safe.

Next morning Pam is waiting for Ralph to pick her up when Carter arrives. He wants to explain what's going on, and asks Pam to sit in the car with him while they talk about it in private. Carter then traps Pam in the car, and drives off with her. Ralph arrives moments later to find her missing. Bill arrives later to pick up Ralph, and says he's been investigating Springsong and found a connection to a Mr Hagman and a casino in Vegas. Looks like Carter has angered somebody in the mob.

Ralph and Bill go to visit Mr Hagman, and find him dead in his pool. Bill gets called into Palmer's office again to explain his jurisdictional bungling again, and Bill spills out the details about Hagman's mob connections and Pam's kidnapping. Palmer promptly takes Bill off the case and assigns it to Carlisle. Bill is crushed, and has pretty much given up on the FBI when he has to explain to Ralph that he's been reassigned. Ralph snaps Bill out of his depression, and they head to Ralph's house to see if they can sniff up a fresh lead on Pam.

Carter and Pam are waiting for the Tucson connection to arrive. When he finally arrives Mr Spencer is pretty angry with Carters mess ups, and says he's tied up the mess with Hagman, now he just has to sort out the loose ends like Pam. Pam tells them that she also told Ralph. Carter says he can get hold of Ralph, and Spencer wants them both taken to the junkyard and killed there.

Ralph is at home trying to holograph on Pam using her photo, when Carter calls and arranges the meeting at the junkyard. Ralph is told to come alone, but naturally Bill won't let him. They arrive at the meeting and once Pam is safe with Ralph, Bill tries to badge them. The mob thugs start shooting, and Ralph starts to disable them when the crane operator drops a car on top of Ralph. Pam and Bill fear he's been squashed, but he gets out of the trunk of the car, picks it up and throws it. The mob guys get in their car and try to make their escape. Ralph tries to set fire to their car, but only manages to ignite some junk instead. Bill drops the electromagnet from the crane in the path of the car to stop them escaping. Ralph admits to Pam that for once he's happy he has the suit.

Ralph takes Pam to see his new office at the school. Bill arrives and makes fun of how small his office is, saying that Ralph finally got the phonebooth he always wanted. Pam got to keep her junior partnership, and Bill has been forgiven with Palmer. So much now that Bill wants to go to Washington with Palmer, and expects everyone to pack up and go with him. The episode ends with the group arguing again.