s1 episodes 27, 28 and 29

Three pretty good episodes as we near the end of Season One.

1.27. 

We have another milquetoast protagonist here, a 52 year-old man who, scrapped for cash and unable to pay his wife's medical bills, takes a dull office job with a secretive boss. The job pays $100 a week salary (“that’s quite generous”). Lorne Greene shows up and things get real (to use today's vernacular). Great set-up, though I'm not completely sold on the ending. But this sort of thing is bread and butter of the series.

Period detail: his 20th floor office has an open-able window. 

1.28 

A man and wife enter an art gallery at closing time. He bought her a painting for their 1st anniversary.   It takes a bit to fetch the painting, and when the wife sees it she is shocked. This isn't what the husband bought. Is this a joke? We actually don’t see the painting until well into the next scene, which is a nice touch.

It turns out it's a painting of the man's first wife, who disappeared a couple years ago. We get some forced exposition between him and his brother-in-law. As the episode develops, tension grows between the married couple. 

This episode had my full attention and I didn’t see the ending coming, although I don't think it's fully plausible.

1.29. 

Mr Appleby owns an antique shop but doesn't want to sell his precious goods. He needs money. A creditor arrives to tell him he needs it soon (this actor voiced Dr Freeze in a bunch of Batman stuff for the next 35 years). 

Appleby is quite the miscreant. I was somewhat bored by the episode until the ending, which I think they nailed. It's of a type they're used 3-4 times this season, sort of a fumble-at-the-goal-line effect (hard to describe without spoilers).