Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter and McCall investigate a rich girl for murder.

Episode 2.4 “Rich Girl”

(Dir by James Whitmore, Jr., originally aired on October 19th, 1985)

When an elderly millionaire named Ralph Flagg (Robert Rockwell) is shot and nearly killed, his much younger wife, Ginger (Lois Hamilton), is arrested for the crime. Even though she’s acquitted, McCall and Hunter continue to believe Ginger tried to kill her husband for his money. When Ginger plunges off a balcony, they start to have their doubts. What if the mastermind behind the violence is actually Ralph’s daughter, Cynthia (Dorian Lopinto)? Hunter goes undercover as a former basketball player turned golf hustler and gets close to both Cynthia and her loutish boyfriend, Bradley (John Calvin).

The plot doesn’t provide as many twists as one might hope. From the start, it’s made clear that Cynthia and Bradley are the murderers. Bradley may be the more openly evil of the two, but Cynthia is definitely the mastermind. When it starts to seem as if Bradley is going to turn on her, Cynthia shoots him and then claims it was self-defense. When it appears that Cynthia is going to get away with that murder as well, Hunter and McCall convince Ralph to change his will so Cynthia must confess to her crimes if she wants to inherit his fortune. Cynthia responds by going home, grinding a couple of pills into her ice cream, and then apparently committing suicide while a tear rolls down her cheek.

Agck!

That ending really took me by surprise. Cynthia went from being the episode’s villain to an almost tragic figure. That said, I’m not really a fan of Hunter and McCall hounding people into suicide. I would much rather they just make good arrests, but that’s not their style.

At least this episode didn’t end with Hunter saying, “Works for me.”