episode #32 - The DeJon Caper

episode #19 of 2nd season / Air Date: 3/16/77 written by Arthur Rowe directed by Barry Crane

A routine caper that takes Jaime to France. Rene Auberjonois is well cast (he just seems so French) as Pierre, a French art forger who is forced to accompany Jaime on her mission to nail a big time art thief. Pierre paints these fake copies of well known pieces of art; the big time criminal, with help from an accomplice, then exchanges Pierre's work with the original in the museum or wherever it hangs. He then sells the original to other big time criminals. Simple, no..? Oui - and lucrative. Jaime also dresses up rather tartly as a French coquet...

There are a couple of clever plot turns, the best one being Jaime's idea to fake her and Pierre's deaths with help from her bionic legs, but most of this is the too cute banter between Jaime and the weaselly Pierre; Lindsay Wagner is good as usual as the increasingly exasperated Jaime but cute banter is not a recipe for a better episode. The climax on the boat with the criminals is well done, however, even if the whole fake & still-wet painting plot seems very old. Oh, and, Jaime/Wagner fakes a Swedish accent in the last act - not too convincingly, suggesting farce here not a thriller. BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10