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Storyline
Egan, a criminal, has kidnapped the daughter of a friend of Briggs. One of Egan's confederates will testify against him the next day before a grand jury. Egan's message to Briggs is clear: exchange the witness for his friend's daughter. At this point, Briggs's friend doesn't even know his daughter has been abducted. Briggs begins an emergency operation in which the IMF will snatch the witness out of a heavily guarded hotel room. But Briggs is determined that Egan won't get a chance to kill the witness. Written by
Bill Koenig
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Did You Know?
Trivia
This is the first episode in which the IMF works without being "assigned" by the Secretary. Despite consequently lacking a message-drop scene, the episode has Briggs seen picking a team in the usual manner. Strangely, he selects only Rollin Hand, Dr. Ira Green (previously seen in "Operation Rogosh" and subsequently mentioned in "A Cube of Sugar") and Steve, but Cinnamon, Barney and Willy are all also present in Dan's apartment and take part in the operation.
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Quotes
Daniel Briggs:
Now we'll do it my way, Egan. You wait for my call. And one last little thing. Anything happens to that little girl - anything - and I'll finish you. No matter where you go, no matter what you're doing, I'll find you and I'll kill you. And you know I can do it.
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Lalo Schifrin's famous theme music is included in the opening and closing credits, but "The Ransom" is one of a small handful of episodes in which Schifrin's music is omitted from the main body of the show. Instead, this episode's score is composed by Walter Scharf. Because -- 40+ years later -- the "Mission: Impossible" theme is so intrinsically wrapped up in our memory and image of the whole series, Schifrin's absence is immediately noticeable to anyone watching the episode today (as I just did a few minutes ago).
The script, performances, etc., are outstanding. Along with Rollin Hand's familiar "face-mask" routine (which involves the main villain, played by actor William Smithers), there are two other notable "James Bond-ish" touches: the X-Ray bed flip in the hospital, and the insertion (via remote control) of a small vial of serum into the drinking water of a hotel room, which creates stroke-like symptoms in the person who drinks it.
One minor complaint: There comes a point near the end of the episode when Willie (posing as a "motorcycle cop") seemingly has the opportunity to capture the bad guy ("Egan"). From the standpoint of the plot, there does not appear to be any good reason for Willie to let him go, except to set up a "dramatic" (but not really) moment when Egan is confronted by the father of kidnapped-girl and the IMF team, including Rollin Hand who peels off the mask, seemingly to taunt Egan. Seems to me Egan's demise could have been explained just as well with him off-camera, or perhaps we could see his shock when he realizes that Gorman (the grand-jury witness) really had testified after all. Oh, well. Still a very strong episode overall.