Main cast: Russell Kiefel (George), Robert Taylor (Peter), Loene Carmen (Katie), and Bryan Brown (The Host)
Director: Lewis Fitz-Gerald

George has quit gambling after the habit nearly cost him his marriage. However, he is still heavily in debt with loan sharks and they are really breathing down on him. Still, he’s feeling good, as he tells the others in his addiction recovery support group, because he’s just bought a new car for the wife. Well, he should have knocked on wood, because a fellow member, Peter, will soon lure him back into the habit. It starts with just one game, like always, and things go downhill from there.

A Sure Thing almost got me at first. The whole thing has a fun Alfred Hitchcock Presents vibe to it, and Russell Kiefel puts on a pretty good performance as a lead character that is both sympathetic and unlikable. The rest of the cast can be wooden at times, but that’s par for the course when it comes to this series.

I am having fun with this episode… until the twist is revealed. I then think back, and I realize that the whole thing doesn’t make sense. For Peter’s plan to work, he needs to accurately deduce right down to the minute details how George would think and say right down to that fateful bet that would seal everyone’s fate, and the fact that he gets to do so is really a suspension of disbelief that I find hard to overcome. The episode completely falls apart there and then.

Shame, really. With a much better thought-out script, this episode would have been a sure thing indeed.