episode #20 - The Midas Touch

episode # 7 of 2nd season / Air Date: 11/15/74  
 written by Donald L. Gold & Lester William Berke and Peter Allan Fields    Directed by Bruce Bilson

Oscar Goldman is on his own somewhere in the Nevada desert, checking out some mining operation - there's gold in them there hills, $25 million worth, and Oscar is all smiles. But, he doesn't show up for work on Monday and Steve Austin gets a call from Oscar's worried secretary. After some quick investigation and speaking with Oscar's old college bud (Farley Granger), Steve realizes that it seems like Oscar has gone crooked: he appears to have a 2nd secret office and may be planning to take the gold from a government operation for himself. Of course, Steve figures Oscar is being set up.
In the end, this turns into a very standard thriller, with Austin and Goldman captured by the real corrupt crooks at the gold mining location. There are no real surprises, despite a reveal, and Austin's bionics are almost incidental to this plot; he could be any normal man-of-action here. There's also an odd, compact representation of OSI here - what about all the other people who work there? Shouldn't there be a general alarm or a national concern with Goldman's disappearance? For this story, the organization seems composed of Austin, Goldman and Goldman's secretary - that's it.  BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10