Original air date: February 21, 1996
A joint FBI/101st surveillance operation is thrown into disarray when no one can decide if Captain Simms shot a man in cold blood or in the midst of a hot flash.
Almost interesting facts: Attorney Stacy Pardcek (Anne Lockhart) is the same lawyer who never got to defend Pita in "Manhunt." She is the daughter of June Lockhart of "Lassie" and "Lost In Space" fame (and looks it, too <G>). In "Phoenix," three episodes from now, Richard Comar will reprise his role as FBI Special Agent Bud Demeter, just in time to get himself burned to a crisp.
This episode was clearly written by someone who knows (or cares) nothing about legal procedures or forensics. Just consider:
Nickie tells everyone at the crime scene that Lester Fletcher's dead body was "pumped full of lead" -- but in his foresic report, he says there was only one bullet in the body. Does the writer expect us to believe that Nickie couldn't tell just from looking that there was only one wound?
Nickie's forensic report says the bullet is "so degraded," they couldn't tell whose gun it came from -- but lawyer Stacy Pardcek bluffs Special Agent Carrie Egstrom by claiming that they can prove that a bullet from her gun killed Fletcher. The writer must think the FBI wouldn't be aware of the conclusions in the forensic report!
Considering that Engstrom's fingerprints were all over the gun found in the harbor, why bother with a bluff anyway? I think the writer has read too much Perry Mason!
Engstrom alters Blake's videotape -- but does nothing about her own still pictures...as if it never occurred to her that the defense could subpoena them.
Episode Highlight: Caine accompanies his son while Pita walks through the events he had just lived through hours earlier.
Episode Lowlight: Caine plays his flute above a koi pond, thus torturing some already stunted-looking little koi out of another couple of inches of growth. Poor lil things.
See the torture, DO SOMETHING about it: Please go to
OPHB Koi Pond page rescue a koi and make Old Ping Hai's day! <G>