The Fugitive/The Witch

The Witch
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	September 24, 1963
Production Number	4604
Written by	William D. Gordon
Directed by	Andrew McCullough
Produced by	Alan A. Armer
← 1x01 Fear in a Desert City	1x03 → The Other Side of the Mountain
The Fugitive — Season One

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The Witch is the second episode of the first season of The Fugitive.

Starring: David Janssen (The Fugitive)

Guest Stars: Patricia Crowley (Emily Norton), Madeleine Sherwood (Mrs. Ammory), Arch Johnson (Ty Tyson), Gina Gillespie (Jenny)

and Barry Morse (Lt. Gerard) (credit only)

with Crahan Denton (H.R. Ammory), Elisha Cook (Sailor), George Mitchell (Wm. Sturgis), Ray Teal (McNary), Claudia Bryar (Mrs. Sturgis)

Plot Overview

Kimble is now working for a supply company in a tiny rural Missouri community under the name of Jim Fowler. One morning he comes across young Jenny Amory, dawdling at a mill pond on her way to school. Jenny is a precocious child, but with a penchant for fibbing and making up stories to explain her perpetual tardiness and failure to do her homework. She keeps a doll hidden at the pond, and imagines that it is a witch with the ability to perform magic for her benefit.

Kimble later makes a delivery to Jenny's parents. Not wanting to get her into trouble, he denies having seen her. Meanwhile, Jenny sees in Kimble the basis for that day's excuse to her teacher, Emily Norton. She tells Miss Norton that the reason she was late and does not have her homework is because Kimble chased her through the woods. Realizing the potential for danger in Jenny's story, Miss Norton warns her to be certain she is telling the truth. But Jenny only interprets this as disbelief. She is convinced that Miss Norton dislikes her. She also fears Miss Norton because she has stolen some books on witchcraft and mythology from the town library, of which Miss Norton is also the head librarian.

When Kimble later makes a delivery to the school, she confronts him, and he explains the situation to her while the two of them are in the barn near the school. When Jenny is caught spying on them, Miss Norton threatens to tell her mother. But Jenny heads her off by running home and telling her mother that she saw Kimble and her teacher in a compromising position in the barn. Jenny's gossipy mother soon spreads the word around the town, and Emily finds herself the subject of a town council meeting in which her future as a teacher is to be determined. The word has also spread to Kimble's boss, Ty Tyson, who has designs on Emily. He picks a fight with Kimble, and the sheriff, present on the scene, knocks out the fugitive during the fracas.

Kimble awakes in the town jail, where the sheriff informs him that he has determined that the references Kimble used to obtain his job are phony. The sheriff advises Kimble he had best leave town. But when Kimble realizes that the charges against Miss Norton are based on Jenny's lie, he asks permission to appear at the council meeting being held at the local church to clear things up before he leaves.

At the meeting, Kimble soon debunks Jenny's story by bringing up the fact that two other schoolchildren (whom Jenny did not see) were playing in the barn and witnessed nothing untoward between him and Miss Norton. But Jenny turns the tables on him by reviving her story of being chased through the woods, which is lent credence from the fact that Kimble denied seeing Jenny that morning to her parents. The mood against Kimble turns ugly, and he flees the church as a vigilante group is formed to catch him. Jenny also runs from the church when her latest lie also unravels as her father realizes her story about losing her homework as she ran from Kimble is inconsistent with her telling him that day that she did not do it.

Jenny heads for the mill pond, where she calls upon her “witch” to save her from her predicament. Kimble is also hiding at the pond, and Jenny discovers him. Jenny suddenly comes to the realization that her lies have not only gotten her into deeper and deeper trouble, but now endanger Kimble's life. She also faces the reality that her doll has no magical powers and has never helped her at all. Just then the posse, led by Tyson, arrives. Jenny tearfully confesses her lies and begs for them to spare Kimble's life. Chastened, the townspeople disperse.

The next morning, Jenny returns the books she took to Miss Norton and confesses her theft of them. Miss Norton offers to help her find some new ones to read, and the two begin a new relationship. The sheriff makes amends to Kimble by driving him out of town and offering to give him references for his next job. But after his harrowing experience, Kimble knows he will not be using the identity of Jim Fowler again.