"Cry Silence" was a disappointing episode because the plot makes no sense. This insults an audience who deserve a plot. Ira Welch, played by Joe Maross is Catholic and he goes to confession with Fr. James Conway, played by Anthony Zerbe. Ira confesses that he played a role in a murder. He tells Fr. Conway he works with the handicapped and that he was wounded and almost lost his eyesight. He panics and fears Fr. Conway will make him go to the police. Ira abruptly abandons the confessional without receiving absolution. Fr. Conway had no clue who was behind the confessional screen.
In the next scene, Fr. Conway says goodbye to the pastor Fr. Frank Lawler, played by Stacy Keach Sr. Fr. Conway has decided to leave the priesthood. Suddenly, a car speeds up to run him over but Conway escapes. This also happened the week before.
Conway hires Joe Mannix to find out who is trying to kill him. Conway believes the man in the confessional is trying to kill him because he heard Conway left the priesthood. Conway thinks this man is afraid that former priests are no longer bound by the seal of the confessional and that Conway will tell police that he said he was involved in a murder. This is not correct because a priest whether he is in or out of the priesthood is bound to keep anything he hears in the confessional secret. Other than the scant information Ira provided in the confessional Conway has nothing else. Because Ira said he was wounded Mannix deduces he was wounded in the war. Mannix and Gail search for a wounded veteran working with the handicapped. With Lt. Malcolm's help, they get incredibly lucky and determine that it had to be Ira in the confessional.
Mannix learns that the married Ira was having an affair with Lucy Tilden and hired a hit man, Geoffrey Lewis to kill her because he decided to stay with his wife. Gee, what a nice guy! After Mannix interviews him, Ira becomes nervous and later on in the episode, he commits suicide.
The biggest plot hole is how the hitman knew that Ira went to confession. It makes no sense that Ira would tell him. That would be stupid, especially considering that the hitman was blackmailing Ira to the tune of $1k monthly after he was paid $20k for the hit. Ira was afraid of the hit man, telling about his confession would only provoke the hitman into killing Ira. There is no possibility the hitman knows anything about the confession. Thus, he has no reason to kill Conway. There is no plot, and this fact cannot be ignored.
Lewis the hit man only had one success and that was killing Lucy, otherwise he is incompetent. He failed three times attempting to run someone over with his car. The first two times he tried to run Conway over and Mannix, the third time. Why run over someone in broad daylight where witnesses can identify the vehicle, or his tire track might leave evidence? A hitman is good with a gun, so use the gun!
However, do not use the gun in a public place in the middle of the day. Lewis tries to assassinate Mannix from the top of a building as Mannix walks to his car with his back to Lewis. Why do this in broad daylight? It would be hard to escape from a public shooting. People would run out after hearing gunshots. Police would show up. Lewis would be trapped. Mannix would be a dead man in this situation. There is no way Mannix sees Lewis in his rear-view mirror and ducks in the nick of time. There is no chance Mannix can run to the building without being hit by Lewis. No police show up, no crowds gather, and Lewis escapes.
In another boneheaded move, Lewis is disguised as a delivery man and drops off a bomb disguised as a gift to Peggy at the office. Mannix quickly figures out it is a bomb. He tells Peggy to clear the building and diffuses the bomb himself. Lt. Malcolm expresses some irritation at Mannix for doing this. I don't blame him. Realistically, the police would be all over this and there would be witnesses who would see and place Lewis in his delivery driver disguise and describe the vehicle he drove. It is risky to drop off a bomb and the police have ways to find evidence. For example, did Lewis leave fingerprints on the gift box? Any bomb scare like this would be the top story on the 11 pm news and the community would be on high alert looking for the perpetrator. A smart hitman would not want this much attention.
Lewis stupidly returns to the office when Mannix is out. Realistically, after the bomb scare, the police would likely be keeping close tabs on Mannix's office. It would be insane for Lewis to go there. He ties Peggy up and takes Conway hostage. Mannix had hidden Conway in his office. Why not just kill Conway and Peggy at the office? Why even go to the office? Now Lewis has a loose end because Peggy can describe him to the police.
Lewis holds Conway hostage at some tower on a remote site. He arranges for Mannix to meet him there. As Mannix is driving up to the remote site Lewis attempts to shoot him but misses because Conway who is tied up next to him manages to bump him. A professional hitman would make sure the hostage was not able to do something like that. Even if that happened, Conway in this case, would be shot dead by the hitman.
Although Lewis missed Mannix he still has a rifle with a scope pointed at Mannix who is very much exposed. Mannix can only hope to duck under the car or behind a door. There is no chance that Mannix can run and avoid being shot by Lewis who amazingly does not land a single shot. Incredibly, he loses track of Mannix who manages to run around to a position behind Lewis. Mannix aims his little pistol at Lewis some 30 feet away on a tower and manages to hit him, making him fall to his death below. Conway and Mannix rush over to Lewis who utters a few words before he dies. Conway, the former priest blesses him. This whole shooting scene is offensive to the intelligence of the audience.
In a better plot, Ira writes down his confession and tells Fr. Conway everything in detail. He receives absolution and does his penance. As a Catholic who goes to confession, I write down my confession because it is important to make a good examination of conscience and tell the priest every sin, leaving nothing out. So, writing down a confession is not unusual. You destroy it afterward.
In this case, Ira is in a hurry to meet Lewis and pay the $1k blackmail money and does not immediately destroy his written confession. Lewis happens to find the written confession but somehow Ira warns Fr. Conway who goes to Mannix for help but can offer only limited information because he cannot break the seal of the confessional. Now you have a show. There is no need to have Fr. Conway leave the priesthood. It adds nothing to the plot.
Fay Spain played Mrs. Welch and was effective in her role. I wish she had been given more to do. Maross was good as Ira Welch. Lewis was miscast as the hitman. Zerbe was ok but not given much to work with. Again, he would be more effective as the hit man given his track record of playing bad guys. Stacy Keach Sr. Had a limited role, but he could have played Fr. Conway.
The show papers over issues relating to Peggy's character. Working for Mannix is a dangerous job. Peggy almost lost her life twice in this episode. She is a widow raising her only son who is in grade school. Her husband was killed in the line of duty, and she is all he has in life. The producers overdid the violence at the office and should have toned it down.
Another issue with office violence is that Paseo Verde management would evict Mannix because his private eye business brings a lot of crime to the area. The building was nearly blown up. Every week, there is a shooting, or someone is held at gunpoint. No landlord would tolerate this.
Watch closely in this episode and you may notice that Ira Welch's office first belonged to one Roger Wade memorably played by Simon Scott in Season 2 Episode 1 "Silent Cry."
Jason Evers shoots the hapless Roger Wade dead in his office. Evers played a professional assassin and lives by the rule that no one ever gets to see his face. Wade had seen his face and thus was a loose end. Watching Evers deliver his line about loose ends was funny. This is a great scene which you must see. Evers then pulls the bullet from the wall. I wonder if the bullet hole was still there when the office belonged to Ira.
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