Episode 52 – A Penny for Your Thoughts
While flipping a quarter into the collection tray of the local newsboy one morning Hector B. Poole is surprised to find that the coin lands on edge. Thereafter, Poole finds he can also hear people’s thoughts.
That day, while at work in the bank, Poole hears the thoughts of a business mogul who is about to take out a large loan thinking about betting all the money on a horse. Poole is startled into saying something out loud about it, and the businessman gets all pissed and the bank manager gets mad at Poole.
A short time later, Poole “hears” an elderly co-worker plotting to rob a bunch of money from the safe at the end of the day. He convinces his boss to have the security guard grab the man as he is leaving and empties out his briefcase. There is no money to be found, turns out, the thoughts Poole heard were just the old man’s fantasies. Unfortunately, the bank manager is not very forgiving and Poole is instructed to clean out his desk.
Before Poole leaves, his boss receives a call letting him know the businessman from earlier was arrested for stealing company funds. This means that had the loan gone through without Poole’s interference, the bank would have been out 200k. As Poole is being offered his old job back, he uses the mental encouragement of a secretary to blackmail his way into a supervisory position by threatening to expose the bank manager’s affair to his wife.
Poole gets the promotion, and he and the secretary walk home together. Poole stops at the same news vendor to buy the evening edition and the coin he tosses into the same tray as before knocks down the one he had left standing on edge. This causes his telepathic abilities to disappear again, which makes Poole inexplicably happy, as they just handed him one of the best days of his life.
A rather weak episode, though I enjoyed watching Dick York play Poole. The whole, coin-on-edge-gives-you-telepathy thing seemed weird in the extreme as well. Meh. Pass.