This is the season 5 opener of Hunter and is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, definitely my favorite episode this season. Executive producer Roy Huggins had retired at the end of season 4, but his successors have taken over without missing a beat. There is no lengthy prelude like we see in many of the show's episodes, for as soon as the opening credits end, we are plunged right into a robbery-slash-homicide that has occurred at the home of a wealthy couple.
Officers Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) and DeeDee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) quickly take stock of the situation after they arrive at the couple's mansion and find a teen boy (Chad Allen) who is said to have been asleep when his parents were confronted by a robber. Initially, we are told the kid found his dad's gun and used it on his folks, mistaking them for robbers. But there's more to the story. Much more.
While Hunter and McCall carry out their investigation, they gather information to make sense of several loose ends. Primarily, who was the intruder and what happened to them? During this time, Hunter gets personally attached to the kid since the boy's father is now dead and his mother is comatose, still fighting for her life in the hospital. With few leads to go on about the home invasion, Hunter thinks answers can be found by getting the boy to open up and remember what happened. As a result, there is a fair amount of psychotherapy in this episode.
This was one of the show's more shocking plots, for we gradually learn the boy didn't shoot his parents by mistake, but that it was premeditated. His motive for wanting them dead is both chilling and sad. No other TV crime series had featured an underage child as a killer and in fact it was rare for any crime show in the 70s, 80s or 90s to depict patricide. The scene where the boy confesses the truth to Hunter is one of the show's most devastating moments.
The reason why this is one of my favorite episodes of Hunter is that it works against our expectations. We expect the kid to be innocent. We expect his mom to wake up from the coma and for there to be a happier ending. We don't expect a fourteen year old to be one of the more coldblooded killers that Hunter and McCall have ever encountered on the job.
Guest star Chad Allen typically played wholesome characters. He had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere as an autistic lad. He played Wilford Bromley's likable grandson on the family show Our House. And his most well-known TV role would come as Jane Seymour's son on the hit 90s western Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. But here, for a brief moment, he shines as a twisted adolescent with severe emotional problems.
Officers Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) and DeeDee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) quickly take stock of the situation after they arrive at the couple's mansion and find a teen boy (Chad Allen) who is said to have been asleep when his parents were confronted by a robber. Initially, we are told the kid found his dad's gun and used it on his folks, mistaking them for robbers. But there's more to the story. Much more.
While Hunter and McCall carry out their investigation, they gather information to make sense of several loose ends. Primarily, who was the intruder and what happened to them? During this time, Hunter gets personally attached to the kid since the boy's father is now dead and his mother is comatose, still fighting for her life in the hospital. With few leads to go on about the home invasion, Hunter thinks answers can be found by getting the boy to open up and remember what happened. As a result, there is a fair amount of psychotherapy in this episode.
This was one of the show's more shocking plots, for we gradually learn the boy didn't shoot his parents by mistake, but that it was premeditated. His motive for wanting them dead is both chilling and sad. No other TV crime series had featured an underage child as a killer and in fact it was rare for any crime show in the 70s, 80s or 90s to depict patricide. The scene where the boy confesses the truth to Hunter is one of the show's most devastating moments.
The reason why this is one of my favorite episodes of Hunter is that it works against our expectations. We expect the kid to be innocent. We expect his mom to wake up from the coma and for there to be a happier ending. We don't expect a fourteen year old to be one of the more coldblooded killers that Hunter and McCall have ever encountered on the job.
Guest star Chad Allen typically played wholesome characters. He had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere as an autistic lad. He played Wilford Bromley's likable grandson on the family show Our House. And his most well-known TV role would come as Jane Seymour's son on the hit 90s western Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. But here, for a brief moment, he shines as a twisted adolescent with severe emotional problems.
