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| "Pot of Gold" | ||||
| Season 3, Episode 11 | ||||
| Air date | December 22, 1978 | |||
| Written by | Michael McGreevey | |||
| Director | Gordon Hessler | |||
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Diana travels to England to try to intercept counterfeit printing plates for $100 bills but she captures the courier only after he's handed off Thackery's trained attack dog (who is secretly carrying the plates inside his vest). In Washington, the dog's cage is remotely unlocked, and the dog outruns Steve and his team.
Meanwhile, Bonelli, a small-time crook who arranged to buy the plates is stealing gold because Thackery always insists on being paid in precious metals rather than cash. He and his gang have committed a string of robberies, but don't have enough. They target Pat, an Irish shoemaker, whom they have learned (from a record-keeper) has a large sum of gold. They kidnap Pat, but he mysteriously escapes out of the van when they're not looking.
The crooks catch Pat again at his apartment, and this time force him to take them to the gold, which turns out to be a black cauldron of antique gold coins hidden in the basement of his shop. Pat tricks them into locking him in the basement instead of shooting him, and once again mysteriously escapes and follows them to their hideout.
Having figured out that Bonelli is gathering gold to pay Thackery, Steve comes up with a trap. He leaks word that an armored car is coming to transfer some gold, and has Diana ride along as one of the guards. On the way to pick up the gold, they stop to help what looks like another armored car from the same company, but it's a trap. The crooks lock Diana in the back of her truck and head off in their own to pick up the gold. Unbeknownst to anyone, Pat has slipped inside the back of the crooks' truck. When the truck arrives to be loaded, Pat rushes out with a warning, only to be knocked aside. Wonder Woman arrives and chases the truck as it drives off, but Pat tries to stop it by standing in front of the gate. Wonder Woman is forced to jump off the truck and rescue Pat before he's run down. Pat, surprisingly, is upset that she interfered.
Diana drives Pat home, but he lies to her, claiming he'd been in the truck by accident and had no idea who the crooks were. Lisa, a young girl who's Pat's friend and neighbor, interrupts this yarn, rushing in to express her relief that the bad men hadn't gotten him. Pat gets her to lie to Diana, but Diana isn't buying it. Still in her blue security guard uniform, she follows Lisa out into the hall and gets the girl to trust her with more of the story. Lisa reluctantly admits that Pat has a pot of gold, but that he'd sworn her to secrecy. She also lets slip that she believes Pat is a leprechaun.
Steve recounts the myth. Leprechauns are men entrusted with pots of gold. If you catch one, he'll vanish if you take your eyes off him. If you can keep him, has to give you the gold. Then he has 24 hours to get it back, which he must do unaided. Steve doesn't believe leprechauns are real, but IRAC reminds him that it's no more far-fetched than the existence of Wonder Woman.
Diana tries to follow Pat as he drives to Bonelli's hideout, but he spins his car in a donut, kicking up a cloud of smoke. She follows through the smoke, but when she turns the corner after him, she finds herself in a dead end and no trace of him. She calls in to have Steve order an APB.
Pat sneaks up on Bonelli with a gun, but one of Bonelli's men sneaks up behind Pat and knocks him out. The crooks lock him in a box, which they hoist to the warehouse roof, and then leave to make the exchange with Thackery. Diana pulls up outside next to Pat's car (which apparently had been spotted and called in by someone who got the APB) and changes into Wonder Woman. Pat wakes up inside the box and calls for help. Wonder Woman rushes to his aid, but when she opens the box, it's mysteriously empty and Pat steps out from the shadows behind her.
Wonder Woman wants to work together with Pat, but he chides her, saying she of all people must know the rules by which he's bound. She's momentarily caught off guard by the apparent admission that he really is a leprechaun, but quickly moves on to investigate the hideout. Pat shows her Bonelli's desk. She rubs a pencil over Bonelli's notebook, and Pat vanishes while she's reading the address of the meeting with Thackery.
Thackery accepts the gold, but, in a double-cross, tells Bonelli to retrieve the plates from Rasputin the attack dog, who still has them in his vest. Rasputin does not feel like sharing. Bonelli orders his men to shoot the dog, but while he and his men have been distracted by the dog, Thackery's men have gotten the drop on them. Bonelli's men drop their guns just as Steve and his team burst in and force Thackery's men to drop their guns. Thackery, however, grabs the pot of gold and prepares to run off. Pat tries to stop him, but Thackery gets the better of him and takes him hostage. Thackery loads the gold into his helicopter and forces Pat in with him, but once they're high enough to make their escape, he pushes Pat out. Wonder Woman catches Pat, lassos the helicopter, and brings it down. As a last resort, Thackery orders Rasputin to attack, but the dog mysteriously obeys Pat instead, calmly sitting in front of him. Wonder Woman asks Pat how he did that, but Pat says they both have their secrets and the episode ends.
Cast[]
- Lynda Carter as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman
- Lyle Waggoner as Colonel Steve Trevor, Jr.
- Dick O'Neill as Pat O'Hanlon
- Brian Davies as Thackery
- Steve-Allie Collura as Bonelli
- Arthur Batanides as Maxwell
- Sherrie Wills as Lisa
- Ric DiAngelo as Rancher
- Jeanne Bates as Mrs. Walls
- Jaime Tirelli as Gino
- Gary Epper as Courier
- Tom Kratochvil as IRAC (voice)
Notes[]
- Wonder Woman, standing on the tarmac, lassos Thackery's getaway helicopter and is able to pull it down hand over hand without herself being lifted off the ground.
- It's made clear that Pat is magically required to retrieve the gold himself, but it's ultimately Wonder Woman who saves Pat and captures Thackery with the gold. The episode ends with Pat seeming happy, without mention of the consequences of his failure.
- It's implied that Pat has figured out Wonder Woman's secret identity. In his apartment, he asks Diana how she knew what he'd told Wonder Woman (when there had presumably been no time for Diana to talk to anyone), but is distracted by Lisa's entrance before Diana can answer. At the end of the episode, he cryptically tells Wonder Woman that they both have their secrets, which momentarily takes her aback before she accepts it and smiles.
- A rarity in Season 3, Steve is part of the action in the field. Twice, even. First chasing the dog at the beginning of the episode and then getting in a dramatic fistfight with one of the thugs in the hangar at the end.