Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther
(Alternate Titles: Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Paula Von Gunther, The Secret Door)
Writer: Margaret Armen
Director: Barry Crane
Airdate: April 21, 1976
Set in: 1942

Synopsis: General Blankenship asks Yeoman Price if she has heard from Major Trevor. She responds that Steve is leading a training exercise. The General is concerned, as the German spy ring, the OBVAIR, appears to be active again. The ring had been silent since Steve had caught their ringleader, Baroness Von Gunther. When the General leaves, Diana transforms into Wonder Woman, and goes to keep an eye on Major Trevor. The simulation he is running involves taking over an Army truck. However, when they "attack" the truck, it goes off the road, and Steve tries to save it. However, the axle has been sawn through, and Wonder Woman throws her golden lasso to Steve just as the truck goes over a cliff and goes up in a fiery blaze.

When he returns to the War Department, the General informs Steve that the truck that was destroyed was in fact full of much-needed weapons headed for front. Steve is concerned—he was ordered to use that truck in his training manoeuvres. The General warns Steve that Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover is holding a hearing, to investigation the recent sabotage linked to Trevor, and the President himself has appointed patriot and business magnate Arthur Deal III to lead the investigation.

A frustrated and confused Yeoman Prince informs him that though she filed the orders, the documents appear to have been stolen from the office. A call comes in, and Steve is instructed by a mysterious man to meet him at the Old Virginia Stables if he wants the stolen documents back. To clear his name, he goes—telling Diana it's too dangerous for her to accompany him. Diana changes to Wonder Woman and follows, hoping to protect him. When Steve arrives, he is ambushed and knocked unconscious. A fire is set, and Steve and a driver are left to die in the flames, while the same mysterious man places a call to the police—topping them off about Nazi spy Steve Trevor.

However, Wonder Woman enters the burning building and loading both unconscious men into a jeep, rescues them before the police arrive. Steve regains consciousness to find himself in Diana's apartment. She tells him that she found him outside her door with a note from Wonder Woman. After a moment of disorientation, he realises he was set up and fills Diana in on the events of that morning. Diana suggests that he visit the Baroness in prison, and he tells her that was his next step.

At Fort Meyer, the Baroness confers in the exercise yard with her henchman, Prison Guard Hansen. They discuss the failed attempts on Trevor's life, and the Baroness prepares for the Major's arrival. Steve and Diana are introduced to the warden, and his young son Tommy. The boy is a fan of Conan Doyle's Holmes mysteries, and babbles about a secret door, but is shushed by his harried father, who insists that the Baroness has been a model prisoner. Steve is nonetheless suspicious—all the the recent sabotage has been near Fort Meyer, and he would like to question the Baroness. The warden escorts them to her cell, while outside, Tommy follows a trail of clues that lead him to a metal key and a secret door which leads out of the prison.

The Baroness feigns a fainting spell, swooning into Steve's arms when he arrives. However, Steve seems oblivious to her transparent attempts to make him feel protective of a weak, vulnerable, and most importantly, reformed woman. He does, however, express interest in her pendant—a golden key of Austrian design. Meanwhile, Diana sees from the baroness' window young Tommy climbing a rickety ladder. When Diana excuses herself to get her steno notebook from the car, the Baroness tries to charm Steve, while insulting the Yeoman. This is obviously the wrong tack to take, however, as a flustered Steve vehemently defends his aid's virtues, citing her hard work and loyalty, but not apparently knowing how to handle criticism of her appearance. Meanwhile, Diana has found a secluded spot to change and stashes her uniform in a locker and Wonder Woman rushes to Tommy's rescue thanks to her golden lasso.

Steve is frustrated by the Baroness lack of information, and wondering why Diana has gone to, leaves the spy ring leader's cell. Meanwhile, the Baroness has seen Wonder Woman with the boy from the window of her cell. Wonder Woman sees Steve exiting the prison, and asking Tommy to retrieve her lasso for her, disappears. Diana catches up to Steve, saying she got lost trying to find her way back to the cell block. Steve chastises her for her dangerous behaviour, but is relieved she's all right. Meanwhile, the Baroness tells Hansen that she needs to contact "Thor" to inform him of the Major's suspicions linking her to the OBVAIR. Hansen admits he's lost his key to the tunnel, and she gives him the key from around her neck.

That night, Tommy takes notes in his casebook from his treehouse of a man using a flashlight to signal from the prison walls, and he watches a cloaked figure being led out the secret door to a car. Like a good little detective, the boy notes the licence plate number. The Baroness arrives her destination—the home of mogul Arthur Deal, in reality a Nazi spy. She informs Deal of Trevor's visit, and they discuss the plot to frame the war hero for their crimes—the sabotage of a rocket shipment. Now that Wonder Woman appears to be involved, they decided she must be dealt with as well if she tries to keep them from capturing Trevor and completing their mission.

The next morning, General Blankenship tells Steve that the hearing has been moved up, and there is little time left for the Major to clear his name. Arthur Deal would apparently like to meet with Steve, to discuss the hearing. Meanwhile, the Baroness finds Tommy, and tricks the boy into giving away where he has hidden Wonder Woman's lasso. When Steve goes to Deal's, he is ambushed by Deal and the Baroness, who show him the lasso and coerce him into signing a confession, or else they will harm his beloved Wonder Woman.

General Blankenship telephone Arthur Deal, who tells him that Steve never arrived and that the hearing will go on as scheduled. The General tells Yeoman Prince he is worried about Steve, concerned that Major Trevor will do something rash to try and prove his innocence. When Steve's jeep is found abandoned, along with the confession, the General tells Diana that if ever they needed Wonder Woman, now would be the time when Steve needs her most. Saying she has some of Steve's private papers at her apartment, Diana slips out of the War Department and as Wonder Woman, rushes to Fort Meyer. A heartbroken Tommy tells her the Baroness and the lasso are both gone, and gives her the licence plate number of the car that took the Baroness away. Mimicking General Blankenship's voice, Diana gets the address from the plate from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and rushes off to Arthur Deal's Arlington Estate. However, when she arrives, she is knocked out with a sleeping gas.

At Fort Meyer, the Baroness absence has been discovered, and Tommy tries to tell his father about the hidden passageway, but the boy is ignored—except by Hansen, who realises the boy found his key. Hansen kidnaps the boy, taking him to Arthur Deal's home, where Wonder Woman is chained and she and Steve are told they are both being taken to Germany, to stand trial for their crimes against the Third Reich. Meanwhile, Tommy's father the warden has found his son's casebook, and the secret tunnel is discovered.

At Deal's, Wonder Woman breaks the chains, and she and Steve make short work of the spies. Tommy is reunited with his father and Steve's name is cleared, while the Baroness is put into solitary confinement, her and Deal's plot to discredit Major Trevor and sabotage of a rocket shipment thwarted.

Curiouser, and Curiouser...
The Baroness Von Gunther is the second and last member of the Wonder Woman comic book's Rogue's Gallery to be adapted for the small screen on the series. However, unlike her comic book counterpart, the Baroness is presented as Steve Trevor's nemesis more than Wonder Woman's, and does not see the error of her ways and turn to the Allies cause. In the comics, Paula actually became Diana's closest friend and lived on Paradise Island where she served much the same function as James Bond's Q, devising fantastically scientific devices.

Applause-worthy: A very agitated Steve stands up for Yeoman Prince when the Baroness insults her (likening her completion to "wet Bisquick"), applauding the Yeoman's hard work and loyalty.

Cringe-worthy: No warden would ever allow his eight year old son free reign inside a maximum security prison. Ever.