"House of No Return" is an incredible episode of "Quincy"--incredible because it's hard to believe such a place could exist. In the show, staff at a psychiatric detention facility actually bet on patients--patients who are forced to fight each other like pit bulls or roosters! In addition, the staff routinely steal from residents and shake them down for their social security checks. It's not surprising that in this house of horrors that someone dies--and Quincy becomes involved. It seems that during one of these arranged fights, one of the residents is beaten to death! And, soon after, a resident who goes to the administrator for help is poisoned! So, Quincy does some volunteer work there to figure out what's happening--and in the process meets a resident who is secretly documenting these horrors. But, when Quincy tries to help, he nearly gets this guy killed! What's to come of this?
Despite this seeming like a ridiculous episode, I know of two facilities where similar sorts of things happened--on in Maryland and a more recent one in Corpus Christi, Texas. So, sick as it all seems, a few residential facilities actually have abused residents in similar ways. So, the show did help to draw attention to occasional abuses of patients. Plus, while disturbing, the show was pretty entertaining and well done. Well worth your time.