Spoilers

“The Dancing Bandit”

Marlee Matlin guest starred on Picket Fences as Laurie Bey, aka The Dancing Bandit. Laurie was a deaf woman who would rob banks, and then send the money that she steals to worthy charities in the area. The old Robin Hood mentality. The deaf woman would end each bank job with a dance.

She had a whole gang of experts helping her along the way, including prince Humperdinck himself, Chris Sarandon, who played her husband. The Dancing Bandit Gang were shown to be extremely intelligent and able to pull off remarkable complicated plans, fooling the local police and the FBI.

However, it appeared that Laurie’s luck had run out when she came to Rome, Wisconsin. She wound up shot in the back by Jimmy when she had tried to escape.

Thing was, Laurie had already charmed Jimmy’s son Zach, who was one of the hostages during her attempted bank robbery. Laurie was impressed that Zach knew some sign language and kept calling him cute.

This classic episode really displayed how the intelligence of Matlin’s character and her gang kept them several steps ahead of the FBI and everyone else. That was very impressive and was a cool thing to show. At times, because of their disability, some deaf people are perceived to be less intelligent than others, but there is no stereotype going on here.

Marlee Matlin was charming as could be in this role, a role that she will return to later in the series. She received an Emmy nomination for this episode.

The Dancing Bandit is an excellent episode of Picket Fences.