The Fugitive (TV Series) Echo of a Nightmare (1966) User Reviews

Two Emotional Story lines

[mduggan-706-994042 · 9/10 · 7 June 2010]

Jane Washburn is a policewoman in plain clothes. Kimble is robbed of $100 by thugs, and a uniformed colleague assists him. Astutely, Jane becomes suspicious when Kimble doesn't want to report the crime to police, and states that only $10 was taken. She insists on driving him out of town, and unexpectedly cuffs him to herself. This comes as a shock to him and to viewers, since we haven't seen any policewomen so far in this series. Gutsy, she throws the key to the handcuffs into the river. She thinks this will force Kimble to wait for backup, never guesses that he will insist that she run with him into hiding.

There are two emotional stories here. One is that Kimble must act like a thug, forcing Jane to come with him, and clamping his hand over her mouth anytime someone approaches. Must he become a thug in order to maintain his flight?

The other line is that (unbeknownst to Kimble) Jane was kidnapped at 15. Kimble winds up looking a lot like a second kidnapper, and she is terrified. But we find out she was not then, nor is she now, helpless. This is a very unusual female character for this series, and Shirley Knight is quite good.

Handcuffed to a harpy

[Christopher370 · 8/10 · 25 August 2023]

I really enjoyed Shirley Knight throughout this episode, but I didn't like her character so much. As a policewoman I thought it was pretty unprofessional to handcuff herself to Kimble without cause, and even more dangerously for her to do it as she was driving the car.

Of course anyone who is handcuffed by surprise like that is going to become agitated and put up a fight and she's lucky she didn't lose control of the car and go flying off the bridge.

And even more irresponsibly, she casually tosses the key over the bridge into the water. Did she really think this man who towers over her would just sit there like a good boy and wait for police?! Silly woman.

I was glad when Kimble dragged her butt all over the fields in search of a hacksaw because she brought all of it onto herself.

We learn from her past though that she's an irresponsible person, who allows her father to take the rap for a justifiable murder she committed in self defense when she was a teenager.

Another reviewer here states it was made clear that she was sexually violated, but we learn that she actually wasn't and that she bludgeoned her attacker repeatedly with a hammer as he came toward her. So she prevented any violation upon herself.

She allowed her father to lose his career on the police force for taking the fall for the murder without ever coming forward to admit the truth.

And that is what cut short his life. And what probably twisted the knife even further and cut off a few more years in poor old Dad, she had the nerve to become a cop herself after he's thrown off the force for what she did. What's incredible is that she doesn't seem to carry too much guilt for it.

It was only in the Epilogue that she wisely handed in her badge for being an unprofessional cop, but her superior was having none of that and insisted she stay on the force. I guess he thought it was ok for his police officers to handcuff people by surprise who appear questionable to them and just toss the keys in a nearby lake.

What she did was literally kidnapping and as Kimble said, "If I wasn't a fugitive, i'd sue you for false arrest". And it's never made clear if she admitted to her superiors in the end that it was she who kidnapped Kimble and not the other way around.

But this woman apparently has difficulty coming forward with the truth so Kimble probably now had a "Kidnapping a cop" charge added to murder hanging over his head after this.

All that said, I must stress that it was only the character I despised but felt that Shirley Knight was wonderful in the role. I bet Kimble was glad to be free of her though when he sliced those cuffs in half. I'm surprised he didn't just leave her in that tool shed and made a beeline to the tracks and hop the next freighter.

But the good doctor and person he is couldn't leave her even though she deserved it. And even after he fixes her up she has the nerve to point a double barrel shotgun at him to keep him from leaving.

I loved how Kimble just kept going out the door....it's too bad he didn't laugh at her as he left, but then she probably would have got mad at that and blew him away.

The prisoner takes a prisoner!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 22 April 2017]

starts with a mugging by four creeps female cop gives him ride-- cuffs him to her, tosses away key

Soon after the episode begins, a group of punks jump Richard Kimbell and steal his wallet. A cop sees this happening and gives chase...and Kimble tries to just walk away nonchalantly. Well, a woman (Shirley Knight) offers to give him a ride and soon she grabs his hand and handcuffs it to hers. She's an off-duty policewoman and knows something is amiss, as why should a victim leave like this instead of dealing with a cop? Well, Kimble is NOT thrilled and doesn't come along quietly. Instead, he takes her prisoner and forces her to go on the run with him...but when she hurts her ankle, this does mess up his plans.

This is a decent episode but the change of heart that occurs in the female cop seems odd...and a bit hard to understand. Worth seeing even with this minor problem.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 10/10 · 24 November 2006]

Kimble is beaten and robbed by teens. Jane Washburn, brilliantly played by actress Shirley Knight, sees it. She follows Kimble into a restaurant and offers aid. She is puzzled that he does not want to report the crime to the police. He accepts a ride with her.

Jane is small, feminine, reserved and soft-spoken. Kimble gets a big surprise when it turns out she is a policewoman and handcuffs herself to him, hoping to take him back to the station for questioning. Kimble is forced to make a desperate break through the countryside handcuffed to Jane. The police, equally desperate to find Jane, lean hard on the teens to get them to confess and identify the robbery victim so they will know who they are dealing with.

1/25/66 "Echo of a Nightmare" (Spoilers)

[schappe1 · 16 October 2015]

Shirley Knight has a dream role that must have been a nightmare to film. She pretends to help Kimble, who is running from an attempt to mug him, because he doesn't want to deal with the police. Suddenly, she handcuffs him to herself. She's a policewoman and wants to bring him in, realizing that he must be running from the law. But he's bigger and stronger and she suddenly becomes his prisoner. He has to roughly drag and throw her around to keep control of her. He searches for a place to destroy the handcuffs. Her problem isn't just physical: as a teenager, she was abducted and sexually abused, (which the script makes clear without precisely saying it). Her father rescued her and went to jail for killing her abductor but he's not the one who killed him. Now she's relieving that experience.

They finally wind up on a farm where the father, (Arch Johnson) is a blowhard and a bully who has been dominating his wife and son. They leave for his idea of a family outing: the boxing matches. Kimble thinks they be safe while he treats Knight's injured ankle and frees himself. Then he'll leave her to be discovered by the family. But the family comes back early at the insistence of the mother, who hates fighting. But she's about to see another one when her husband confronts Kimble.

A good episode; solid acting

[tavasiloff · 10/10 · 5 July 2021]

A good story line that holds your interest throughout the episode. Solid acting with a great cast, especially Shirley Knight. Knight, by the way, was the first choice as "Weena" in the 1960 classic, "The Time Machine." The role, of course, went to Yvette Mimieux.

Being handcuffed is not always fun

[jsinger-58969 · 8/10 · 19 February 2023]

Dick is rolled by 4 punks who see him get paid in cash at a diner. The doc puts up a good fight, but his assailants run away when a cop approaches. Dick ditches the flatfoot, but the woman he was with follows Kimble and wants to know everything. Dick makes light of it and says it was only $10 or $12, and he has to catch a plane to Denver for a made-up job. She is really a cop herself and calls in to find out that they caught the punks, and it was $112. So she offers a ride to the airport, but handcuffs herself to him in the car. In better times, this could have been an interesting situation, but Dick has been conditioned to dislike cuffs. And then she throws the key away! So Dick has to drag her out of the car and they jump in a convenient slow moving freight. When they reach their stop and jump out, she breaks her ankle. Can it get worse? Well, kinda, because it seems that Jane was abducted at 15 and her father, a cop, found them and killed the guy. At least, he said he did, but Jane really killed him already. So she's having flashbacks, but she remembers a bulletin about an escaped Dr Kimble and thinks he's not so bad for a wife killer. They reach the rural home of the always abusive Arch Johnson, who is yelling at his family about wanting to go to some boxing matches. They think it would be nice to watch other people fight for a change, but change their mind soon after getting there, so they come home unexpectedly. They have a who's sleeping in my bed moment when they see Jane. Arch figures out who everyone is, and he and Janssen's stunt double have quite a Donnybrook. Arch sends the family out to the nearest neighbor who has a phone and round 2 begins. Dick lands a punch which sends Arch into some furniture and he comically hits his head and loses consciousness. Dick then leaves as Jane can't bring herself to shoot him. In the end, Jane remains on the force and Dick, once again, has left the situation in better shape than it was before he got there. Such is the life of..... a fugitive.