User Reviews

The Face of Fear begins with a husband (Paul Carr) trying to convince his agoraphobic wife, Vickie (Carrie Snodgress), to go on a trip out of town with him, but she doesn't feel strong enough to handle it and he leaves without her. Vickie later musters up the strength to take her dog for a walk on the beach when she witnesses a woman being murdered in the house of a neighbor. When she contacts the police to report the incident, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) and crew investigate the home where the crime took place only to find a different man owns the home and there is no signs of a struggle or a body. This casts doubt on her story, but Vickie's therapist (Dixie Carter) stands up for her saying that the condition would not make her delusional or confused as agoraphobics tend to be highly observant people with a penchant for great detail. Quincy (Jack Klugman) eventually begins to believe that Vickie did actually witness a murder and that she may also be in danger as an eyewitness.

I found this to be a reasonably good episode where there is a social phobia/disorder featured along with an interesting murder mystery plot. There has been a couple of episodes now in the series where we see both types of stories woven together rather than just one or the other being featured, and I think this approach works much better than just having a social issue focused story told on its own. While we do see the killer right in the opening scenes, there is still a mystery element as we don't know the motive for the crime or how all the parties are connected, so I appreciated this aspect as well.

My only complaint about this story is that we have to endure more group therapy scenes as part of the education on the treatment for agoraphobia. There has been way too much group therapy featured on Quincy episodes during Season 7 and I'm tired of it at this point, but luckily it is only a brief part of this story. Aside from that, this is a pretty entertaining and interesting episode which I recommend viewing!

While "The Face of Fear" is clearly a social issue episode of "Quincy", it also deals a lot with a murder investigation and you get to see Quincy do his job as a coroner (instead of as a grandstander who makes tons of speeches about a particular social topic of the week). So, it is a bit better than the average season 7 show--a season made up mostly of Quincy NOT investigating crimes but blustering about social issues.

The show begins with an agoraphobic (a person who is afraid to leave their home) taking a short walk from her home. While this is a MAJOR step in her treatment, this isn't all positive--she also witnesses a murder that naturally scares the crap out of her!! However, and this is where is gets a bit lame, when she brings the police, the murderer and victim are gone and the homeowner claims it's all a mistake. Why is this lame? The cops quickly dismiss the woman and assume no crime occurred! Way to go Monahan--perhaps the dumbest cop in the history of TV!! It was amazing when later in the show, Quincy actually said "..Lt. Monahan is rough around the edges but he's a competent officer..."--even though Monahan almost always tries to convict the wrong person and ignores real crimes!! I think Stan Laurel or Curly Howard would have been better cops! Can Quincy help sort all this out before the lady becomes the next victim of the killer or his accomplice?

The show starts off poorly. The lady's therapist (Dixie Carter) speechifies about agoraphobia. While it is good to explain this disorder to the laypeople out there, it sounded much more like she was preaching AT the audience--a major problem in some "Quincy" shows, though for once it was not Quincy doing the speechifying!! Later, the show becomes like a combination of the movies "The Window" (where a child witnesses a murder and no one believes him) and "Wait Until Dark" (where a blind woman is terrorized by killers). It's all very familiar stuff, but exciting and well done--though a bit unrealistic how almost everyone disbelieves the lady so quicky (even the security guard at the end).

By the way, I had a very cruel thought. In order to treat agoraphobics, couldn't a therapist set up this same scenario (using actors, not real murderers of course) in order to force the patient to leave their home? Sick...but possible!

'The Face of Fear' marks a welcome return to actually seeing Quincy devote his time to establish a cause of death (instead of speaking to a panel at a hearing) but it involves a by-story that has nothing at all to do with the crime committed in the episode: namely, agoraphobia. The story involves a lady who suffers from agoraphobia and happens to witness a murder. Her condition has no relation to the overall story and simply serves as another excuse for the makers of 'Quincy M.E.' to trot out another medical condition that they felt needed to be brought to the attention of the viewing audience. Quincy is alerted to the condition by (naturally) an attractive, female psychiatrist who asks him to drop everything and attend a therapy session in an attempt for him to help her prove that the agoraphobic lady actually witnessed the crime and isn't nuts. Quincy (as always) goes beyond the scope of his duties and in doing so becomes more aware of the condition, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with solving the crime that the lady witnessed. If the phobia was somehow related to the main story (the murder that Quincy investigates), then that is acceptable but since it has nothing to do with it, it can only be seen as another attempt to educate the audience rather than entertain them. To make things worse, the agoraphobic lady is outside on the beach when she witnesses the murder! I was disturbed also to see (for the first time in the series) Quincy threaten a man accused of knowing who was responsible for the murder of the Hispanic woman that he would be going to prison for a long time, which is what one would expect from Lt. Monahan, but not Quincy. The ending is also quite ridiculous with Quincy magically knowing where to find the agoraphobic lady when she is in danger (he naturally assists Monahan even though, as coroner, he is not required or authorised to do so) and actually orders Monahan around during the final chase, which is absurd. Quincy's foolishness in participating in the chase also means he ends up having a gun pointed at him, which is unheard of for a coroner. The actual forensic work that Quincy does in this episode (or rather, orders Sam to perform) is mildly interesting, especially when one considers that he immediately assumes that the deceased Hispanic lady is automatically the one that the agoraphobic lady saw murdered. Quincy also instantly identifies the murder 'weapon' with his naked eye in a matter of seconds, another amazing feat. Overall, I found this episode annoying for the reasons of the agoraphobia having no relation to the murder case, the fact that Quincy acted like a cop and also for the weak, weak ending at Danny's, which doesn't even deserved to be mentioned here.