Though the title cleverly references earlier Bixby roles, this episode is a smorgasbord of styles, from the tense opening as David gives himself a precisely timed injection that may cure him of the Hulk, to a goofy sequence as an elderly dandy of a magician presents himself in the restaurant where David is busing tables, to the more dramatic and heartfelt scenes as the rather intricate plot develops.
David winds up as the assistant of the magician, Jasper, who is full of tales of his past glories and is starting up his show once again. There's a lot going on with Jasper: his asthma is acting up, a friend relies on him to help get his theater going, a woman he's been pining after for decades is soon to marry a crook, and his daughter is pursuing him since he (no surprise here) escaped from a medical facility. This might sound like too many plots crammed into one episode and saddled onto one character, but the script beautifully balances and intertwines these threads, making a story which is dense and fast- paced rather than bloated.
This is, in sum, an episode which has it all, and does it all at least reasonably well. We even get to see the Hulk acting as both a problem and a lifesaver, capturing the character's double-edged nature quite nicely. The drama is great, the plot is involving, the human interest is compelling, and the humor is amusing. Season 3's streak of so-so is firmly broken.
