The Hitchhiker's second season on USA turns out to be its final season on cable television, after five years of dishing up terrifying and erotic stories of suspense and the supernatural. Back for the last time is Page Fletcher as the title character, a mysterious drifter who wanders in and out of each half-hour playlet, offering pithy and ironic comments about the behavior of the principal players -- and the terrible fates that invariably befall them. Each of season five's 20 episodes is distinguished by the performance of a noted star or character actor, among them Alan Thicke, Lauren Hutton, Lorenzo Lamas, Peggy Lipton, C. Thomas Howell, Elliott Gould, Louise Fletcher, and Rae Dawn Chong. Among the best of the series' final episodes are "Tough Guys Don't Whine," in which a foolhardy film director hires a real street gang to pump up the violence in his latest epic; "Hard Rhyme," the tale of an author who solves his writer's block by "becoming" a jailhouse writer, only to find himself trapped in his new personality; "Trust Me," focusing on two thoroughly reprehensible human beings who get their just desserts while trying to get their mitts on a cache of priceless jewels; "White Slaves," in which a libidinous young man endeavors to abduct and rape a female college student, only to find that it is he who is the real victim; "Living a Lie," a cautionary fable about using stolen credit cards to maintain a sumptuous (and very short) lifestyle; "A Whole New You," which brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "protective custody;" and the last episode of the series, "New Blood," starring Rae Dawn Chong as an ambitious young actress who will do anything -- anything -- to land a job with a rather sinister repertory company. ~ Rovi