S03E01 - “The Fourth Man” ★★
Original air date: September 24, 1976
Director: William Wiard; Writer: Juanita Bartlett

User reviews at IMDb say things about this episode like "absolutely one of the best" and "one of the better episodes in the series." I don't think so. The story has numerous problems.

At the airport, Lori Jenivan (Sharon Gless) is an employee for TCA (Trans-Canada Airlines?) who recognizes Timson Farrell (John McMartin), a returning passenger who she booked on earlier flights. She tells him that he is like a "frequent flyer," but he says she doesn't know what she is talking about, that he never went to Detroit (one of his recent trips that she mentions).

Later when it is dark out and Lori is going home from work, having missed the shuttle to the parking lot, some guy is following her in a creepy manner. We don't see the guy's face (does she?); he seems to be backlit. She freaks out and runs away, but drops her purse, which contains her driver's license and other identification.

Lori calls Rockford to come and hold her hand, which he does. (Is Rockford one of those guys who knows everyone like Mike Stone in Streets of San Francisco?) Rockford takes her home, where he suggests he wants to get into her pants, but she declines his offer of protection to that extent.

The mysterious stalker follows her and breaks into her place, despite her putting the stereotypical chair under the doorknob in her bedroom. When Rockford, who only lives a couple of minutes away, returns to provide more protection, the guy shoots at her, but flees.

Rockford calls Becker and some cops arrive to investigate (they find nothing). Becker is pissed off because he was awakened in the middle of the night. Lori thinks that the stalker is Farrell, but she says she couldn't swear to this in court. Farrell is a respectable businessman with a store dealing in rare coins … though he is also (spoiler) a contract killer.

Rockford sets up an elaborate scam with Angel to rent some dumpy house and establish a bogus identity for himself at this address. He goes to Farrell's store, ostensibly to buy a coin to give to a relative as a gift. Putting on a "good ol' boy" persona, name of Jim Taggart, in a far-too-obviously phony manner, Rockford throws a bunch of information at Farrell which gets him to come, pistol in hand, to the rented house where Angel totally bungles everything. When Farrell is hauled down to the police station, a case still cannot be made against him, especially because Angel is a totally lousy witness. Farrell threatens to sue Rockford, which gets Rockford to visit Beth Davenport for legal advice.

Getting certain information from Lori about the days that Farrell took his flights and after checking out microfilmed newspapers at the local library, Rockford figures out that Farrell, who seemed to be pretty professional the way he was shooting when he came to the rental place, is involved in the cities he was visiting with murdering people who were going to testify at some senate subcommitee hearings on organized crime (Rockford's method here is really far-fetched).

Rockford and Becker go to Farrell's place to ask him questions, but he is not there. They guess (yes -- guess!) that Farrell has gone to the airport. When they get to LAX, they have Farrell paged, but when they see him, Farrell makes a run for it … only for him to see some other hit man, Richard Stehler in the credits (Michael Bell), who Farrell mouthed off to earlier in the show, who is now after him! All these people being in the same area of the airport (a relatively large place) at the same time is kind of hard to take.

Outside on the tarmac, the other hit man plugs Farrell point blank and tries to escape, but Rockford and Becker take chase, with Dennis getting wounded. The other hit man is shot by Rockford. There is a suggestion at the end of the show that Stehler survived to spill the beans.

The major problem with this show, among other things, is that Farrell is a really bland villain, not helped by McMartin's performance. Contrary to this, his character has super human qualities, like after talking to Lori at the airport at the beginning of the show, he goes home but returns to stalk her with the intention of killing her, having become totally paranoid that she can put two and two together and figure out his "real job."

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