This one is about a priest who hires Joe to find out who's trying to kill him. Then when Joe gets involved, he becomes a target too.
The story elements about the priest, the confession and the murder are interesting and engaging but the problem is the story also features someone coming up with an elaborate scheme to kill somebody when it could have been done much easier, which is a plot element that has been used many times before and seems to be increasing in frequency lately. Peggy even questions the silliness of the scheme at one point when she asks Joe why the killer didn't just kill Joe and the priest at Joe's office, and she's right! Why go through this whole elaborate charade when you could accomplish your goals much easier? Unfortunately, the episode DOES go through the charade and the last third of it is pure insanity as the killer lures Joe and the priest to a radar range so he can kill them there when he could have easily done it at any time before then. Of course, you know nothing's going to happen to Joe because without him there wouldn't be a show, so there's no suspense there.
Casting Anthony Zerbe as a priest is quite a laugh since he made a career out of playing sleazeballs, criminals, killers, etc. He seems to find it pretty funny too since he looked like he was about to break out laughing a couple of times. He's obviously miscast here.
Geoffrey Lewis is extremely annoying with his fake southern accent and stupidity. He always seems to play dumb characters and just isn't a very good actor. I've never liked him.
There are a couple of terrible mistakes, like the closeup of the stuntman as he climbs up the ladder on the side of the building. Then later on you can clearly see the cameraman and the camera reflected in the passenger side doors of the white car Joe is driving as he's about to enter the radar range.
Then there are the clichés - Joe gets shot at but never hit and diffuses a bomb by cutting the colored wires, the killer takes Joe from place to place and provides him with instructions on where to go next as he gets to each place, and Joe's client leaves the hideout after Joe told him not to. That last cliché has been showing up a lot lately and is really getting exhausting.
The real bright spot is Fay Spain's performance as Mrs. Welch, but her part is fairly small. Joe Maross is solid as Ira Welch.
Season six has been very disappointing so far as it consists of two episodes filled with clichés, reused plots, stupidity and sloppiness. It doesn't get much worse than this.
