Kojak. Season 2, Episode 2. "Hush Now, Don't You Die" Rape & Revenge
Solid crime yarn, with interesting characters and lots of colourful language from Theo Kojak, as he plays the hero and tries to put right what he can and stop a bad situation getting worse.
A very young Kathleen Quinlan plays a college girl raped by two guys (one played by an unrecognisable Todd Susman), there's a drunken fight afterwards and one of the guys is shot to death. The Quinlan character refuses to go to the police, but her father tries to track down and kill the remaining rapist. Meanwhile, Kojak and his merry band try to piece the clues together with the murder victim as starting point and everything else a mystery.
The story plays out fast and seems to switch gear - successfully - in each act. The father's lust for revenge is introduced at the right time (to keep things interesting), the detectives close in on the killer's identity at the midpoint of the story but have no real evidence to go on, and - finally - the bad guy decides to eliminate the witness as we enter the final quarter of the tale. Which leads to a satisfying climax.
Every character is well served by the script. Nothing onscreen condones the actions of the Susman character but his home life is sketched in enough detail to make us understand where he is coming from, and - typical of Kojak villains - it lifts up and makes him a much more interesting character.
Kojak is still probably the most interesting person we get to meet here. Telly Savalas rules the screen, and Kojak's lines are delightful. This is an episode where our hero tough talks everybody, even the parents of a recently shot young man take a verbal beating from the lieutenant as he searches for the truth. There's a great moment where he reflects on his desire to help the frightened young woman the center of the mess and everything comes to an end with an enjoyable confrontation between our hero and the rapist.
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Kojak. Season 2, Episode 2. "Hush Now, Don't You Die"
