Frustrating ending and no follow-up leaves a bad taste as this episode concludes. It feels like John Vernon's John Bradford Horn, an unscrupulous kingpin supposedly hidden away out of country, still executing those involved in his company that is no longer of use to him or a possible threat towards him, was supposed to return for another episode, yet we know this never comes to fruition. Horn is obviously set up as a recurring villain that String and Santini never seem to tie down or destroy. That Horn doesn't pay for his crimes is rather infuriating. Alma Grace Patterson (Anne Bloom), is shot when escaping from assassins assigned to take out her boyfriend, Billings (Kurt Grayson), led by Quist (Asher Brauner). She flees into the cavern hideout for the Airwolf, triggering a security beacon, letting String and Santini know their location has been compromised. Finding her wounded and unconscious, String and Santini bring her to a F.I.R.M safe house, masquerading as a barn on a farm. But Grace isn't keen on sharing information about just why she was found at the locale of the Airwolf, avoiding ArchAngel's interrogations, using bubble-headed naïveté. String was not seen by her so he pretends to be a passerby in his Bronco, as Grace covertly "escapes", taken into town where Horn and Quist are waiting for her. Horn, knowing Grace can get him close to, if not in direct possession of, Airwolf, keeps her alive as long as she can be of service to him. But how long can Grace bob and weave the inevitable target of Horn's gunmen? Quist seems to be on Grace's side, he himself looking for favors with Horn, who pays his help with gunfire aimed at them. This episode features Bloom in good form, a "dimbulb" trying to keep herself alive, only doing so because she has connections to those involved in the F.I.R.M and Airwolf. She plays her character wide-eyed and more or less a pushover with a bad taste in men who often either use her or lead her into trouble. But this is Vernon's show, for sure, as he chews scenery with his dark-voiced, grim-faced heavy, an immoral and cold-blooded, unsavory heel. He calmly leads those he no longer needs into their own doom without a hint of guilt, stone-faced and cruel. It is just too bad this episode is it for him. It would have been nice to see Horn get his comeuppance. Because Grace survived the first bullet but didn't cooperate with the heroes, her fate is ultimately sealed, though. When you remain in the company of nefarious cutthroats getting out alive is almost impossible. Seeing the Airwolf nearly captured by Horn is a rarity, but he doesn't get close to it for very long in a concluding shootout on a dock with gunmen firing from a boat (Horn hopping in a chopper and later moved elsewhere, his location never verified as the episode ends without resolution) before the inevitable chopper chase over the ocean. Too bad, this is a missed opportunity.
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