Harry is listening to a football game on his car radio at a gas station. Kyle, the teenage attendant takes Harry's credit card, studies the name, and runs it through the old-school carbon machine. Harry signs the receipt and drives away. Kyle stares after him. Harry pulls up to his apartment building but doesn't get out of the car because the game has gone to an important play.
"What the hell are you doing?" Harry asks as Kyle gets into the passenger seat. Kyle answers with a question of his own: "Do you remember me?" Harry replies that Kyle works at the gas station. The kid pulls a revolver, thumbs the hammer back, and says, "You've got 10 seconds to tell me who I am." This is starting to remind me of the opening scene in The Sixth Sense. Theme song. Kyle counts and gets to four. Harry starts to remember.
Flashback. The title card tells us it's January 28, 1986. Students are sitting in an auditorium watching a broadcast of the Challenger launch. Harry sits next to a girl, gripes that they have to watch this, and thinks it would be cooler if they were all stoned. "Then ditch," says the girl, "Go watch it in your grandpa's opium den." Kyle sits on the other side of the girl. They argue.
The girl says proudly that her father got a nosebleed from snorting too much cocaine the night before. The kids count down to liftoff of the Challenger, then cheer and applaud. The room goes silent as the Challenger malfunctions.
Cap'n Rufus pulls down a homemade banner that says CHICAGO BEARS '86 SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS. It's not even in Chicago's colors. He asks Judy and Doug to have Harry report to his office when he comes in. Doug wonders how long he'll last under the new captain. "He's not Jenko," Judy agrees.
Harry updates the captain on his case. He thinks someone is dealing drugs on Roosevelt High's campus through a student named Jeanine. Cap'n Rufus is annoyed that Harry hasn't made more progress in 2 weeks. Harry explains that Jeanine is standoffish. Rufus tells Harry to go through Jeanine's brother. Harry says the siblings don't get along. Rufus doesn't think Harry has exhausted the possibilities to crack the case yet, not even close. He tells Harry to befriend the brother and get invited to Jeanine's house. "Captain Jenko would never..." Harry starts, but Rufus cuts him off.
Harry and his unnamed girlfriend watch Reagan's speech about the Challenger disaster. Harry remembers the astronauts' moon landing when he was a kid in Vietnam: "I felt safe because friends of the American soldiers were up there watching over us." His girlfriend says that watching the explosion made her realize what it would feel like to lose Harry.
At Lincoln High, a police officer passes out JUST SAY NO pamphlets that have the phone number of a drug abuse hotline printed on them. If a family member has a drug problem, the kids shouldn't be afraid to get help. Kyle asks, "So you're saying we should be snitches?" The police officer says not to think of it as snitching: "If someone is hurting our families like a user or a pusher, we owe it to our brothers and sisters to act aggressively upon that problem."
In art class, Kyle makes a creepy bust out of clay. Harry likes the bust. Kyle's guidance counselor won't let him take more art classes, but the teacher lets him use the studio after school. "She won't go out with you, man," Kyle tells Harry, who's seen the Asian following Jeanine, "You don't wanna get what you're goin' after. She's...she's a major cokehead. She sells too. Jeanine's trouble." Their parents aren't helpful either because they're both addicts.
Harry suggests that Kyle could help Jeanine by reporting whoever is selling her the drugs. "Maybe," says Kyle. Harry thinks he's interrupted Kyle and starts to leave. Kyle thanks Harry for listening.
Kyle walks home. His dad pulls his pickup into the driveway, having finished a roofing job "on time for a change." He has a check in hand. Kyle asks his dad not to go to his dealer with the check. Dad says he deserves to relax after work. Um, coke does the opposite of relax you. Kyle goes up to his room and slams the door. He throws his schoolbooks and a pile of laundry. He rips all the blankets off his bed. Through the wall, Kyle hears his dad calling his dealer Donny. Kyle looks at the JUST SAY NO flyer.
That night, Kyle walks into a police precinct. He gives the desk sergeant a paper bag and a slip of paper. "I just got this from a guy named Donny," he says, "Here's where he lives." The desk sergeant looks in the bag and sees plastic bags full of weed and coke. "Okaaaaay," he says. Kyle gives him another piece of the paper: "These people sent me to buy it. If you go to their house, you'll find more drugs." The desk sergeant asks how Kyle knows that. Kyle admits, "They're my parents."
Still in flashback, Doug introduces Judy to Blowfish the new janitor. Blowfish does his party trick for Judy, who looks disturbed. Doug introduces Blowfish to Harry who's "recently perfected a new police method of getting suspects to turn themselves in." "It's the Asian way," Harry jokes. Judy can't believe Kyle turned in his own parents. "That sounds a little Hitler Youth to me," says Blowfish. Doug explains that Kyle's parents are addicts; Harry is sure Kyle has tried other ways of helping them. He feels good that Kyle will be better off now.
Jeanine sits on her bed at the Riverbend County Youth Shelter, morosely looking out the window. Kyle comes in. "I want you to understand," he starts. Jeanine doesn't want to hear it. Kyle claims he didn't know their parents would be arrested; he just wanted the drugs out of the house. He wanted their parents to stop hurting themselves. "That's straight out of the Nancy Reagan BS at school! I can't believe you fell for that!" Jeanine says angrily.
"They were ruining our lives," says Kyle. Jeanine yells, "No! You mean they were ruining yours! You couldn't have things your way, so you wrecked them for everybody!" She calls Kyle a narc and pushes him. She knocks Kyle's chair over and starts slapping at him. Two youth shelter workers come over and pull Jeanine off her brother.
Harry's girlfriend Cheryl brought him a cake and an astronaut snowglobe for his birthday. Harry thanks her. He blows out the candles and wishes his name was Jim. When his parents knew they would have to flee Vietnam, they told Harry to pick an American name; one of his favorite TV shows was The Wild Wild West and the main character's name was Jim West. They kiss. Harry hears kids complain about their parents all the time while he's undercover and he'd give anything to see his again. Cheryl says, "I can't fill that hole." Harry asks her not to make another one.
Kyle and Jeanine sit in the courtroom gallery. Kyle's dad had no idea his habit harmed Kyle and Jeanine; he wants the judge to consider that he was trying to find a drug treatment program at the time he got arrested. That's probably a big fat lie. Kyle's dad requests the same sentence his wife received: probation and admittance to the county hospital's drug rehab program. He wants to retain custody of the children because he can't stand losing them to a foster home.
"I beg...allow me...my natural right," the judge quotes Kyle's dad, "You are a very selfish man, Mr. DeGray." The judge doesn't believe he cared about keeping his children until he got convicted. The judge is sympathetic to Kyle and Jeanine but thinks the family will eventually be grateful to Kyle about his decision.
"You were selling drugs and giving them to your daughter, contributing to her delinquency," the judge goes on. He sentences Mr. DeGray to 30 months to 5 years in minimum security prison.
Kyle and Jeanine sit in the office of a counselor or social worker. The actor was featured in an earlier episode as the coach of Augustana High School's steroid abusing football team. "I was led to believe this would help them. Why should we be taken away?" asks Kyle. Jeanine thinks that's what Kyle gets for listening to people. The social worker tells them to stop bickering and that they can't change what happened. The kids have to move on with their lives and that's where the social worker comes in. "Oh wow, it only gets better, huh?" sasses Jeanine.
The social worker ignores her. He tells the teens that they're fortunate. Jeanine and Kyle have an aunt and uncle in Portland who've agreed to take them both in. "No way, my aunt's a total bitch," says Kyle. The social worker tells him, "It's that or foster parents who'll only take you in because they get paid to." Jeanine wants to get away from Kyle. Kyle doesn't understand why his life is getting ruined; he didn't break the law.
The social worker unnecessarily explains that there are laws against selling and doing drugs. "Ain't no law stronger than family. He should get the chair," Jeanine snarls. The social worker admonishes her. "This may not sound very good right now, but you have relatives who care about you," says the social worker. He promises it'll be a better environment and a fresh start.
Harry dreams about a bunch of people dressed all in white standing on a beach, including him and Jeanine. The Challenger explodes overhead. Ronald Reagan intones, "The future doesn't belong to the faint of heart; it belongs to the brave." Vietnamese soldiers run out of the jungle and start shooting the people on the beach. Harry's best friend Tai is killed. So is Cheryl. Harry wakes up in a cold sweat.
Harry drives to Cheryl's house, races up the porch stairs, and pounds on the door. She doesn't answer. He sits on the stairs, sniffles, and hangs his head.
At the youth shelter, Kyle packs a bag and leaves his room. He peeks into Jeanine's and sees his sister is asleep. Kyle slips out the front door. Wonderful security at a place for vulnerable teenagers.
Cheryl heads toward the porch with a bag of groceries and sees Harry on the steps. It's obvious he's been crying. Cheryl hugs him.
Back in the present, Kyle is still holding a gun on Harry. Kyle has counted all the way to six after telling Harry he'd only count to three. Harry bumps Kyle's arm, causing Kyle to shoot out Harry's passenger window. Kyle gets out and runs; Harry tackles him and restrains him on the grass in front of the building. He tells Kyle he's a cop. "Oh great! I shoulda known it! You bastard!" Kyle says as he struggles.
In the interrogation room, Harry is sporting a bandage on one arm from where the bullet grazed him. Kyle hates Harry. "When I was 16, you took away my life," Kyle says, then refreshes Harry's memory on the finer points, "...You put a gun to my head 3 years ago, only you pulled the trigger." Harry reminds Kyle that the teen is the one who chose to turn his parents in.
Harry doesn't understand why Kyle blames him. Kyle's parents were the addicts and the school sponsored the "Just Say No" assemblies. Kyle thought Harry was his friend and really cared. We find out that Kyle dropped out of school shortly after the arrests and Jeanine still won't speak to him. He again accuses Harry of taking away his family and asks how many other lives Harry has ruined. This must have touched a nerve because Harry leaves the room.
Harry goes to his locker and blows some dust off the astronaut snowglobe. Harry uses a precinct computer to look up Kyle's name and sees that social services sent Kyle to the county youth shelter because his parents were convicted of possession of a controlled substance. Harry goes to the social worker's office and asks for his help finding someone.
Jeanine's house is modest but well-kept. There's a large Sacred Heart painting and a crucifix over the fireplace. A stroller sits in the hall. Jeanine hasn't spoken to her brother since he ran away from the shelter. Harry repeats that he just wanted to help Kyle. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Jeanine says, "I don't think you can understand the pain of having your parents taken away." Harry thinks he can. Jeanine is upset that Harry told Kyle to "betray" their parents.
"My mother died of cancer," Jeanine continues, "My father is still in prison. He refuses to see his own daughter, his own grandchild....Kyle didn't have to go to the police. He could've called one of those helpline numbers or turned to God for help." She quotes the part of the Lord's Prayer about forgiving trespasses. "Then forgive Kyle," says Harry, "He needs someone." Jeanine says Kyle is a lost soul and not welcome in her home.
Harry sits across from Mr. DeGray in a prison visitation room. Mr. DeGray blames his poor parenting on not having a good role model and says Kyle wasn't a good son. Harry tells him not to let the past ruin the future. "You feel a little guilty?" asks Mr. DeGray, "You used some dumb teenager to advance your future and now you know how dumb you were. Some stuff you broke you just can't fix."
Harry goes to Cheryl's house and knocks on the door. She answers. "Hi, remember me?" he says. Cheryl coolly replies, "Yeah" and shuts the door in his face. At the Chapel, Fuller and the staff bring a birthday cake to Harry's desk. He blows the candles out.
Back at Cheryl's house, she checks the answering machine. Harry's voice comes out of it. He's rehearsed what he wants to say, "but these machines only give you one chance. We need to talk." Harry tries to make a joke that he's not pregnant. He asks Cheryl to call him and leaves his number. Cheryl erases the tape. Harry's asleep on his couch, presumably after waiting for the phone to ring.
The next day, Cheryl checks her mailbox and finds the astronaut snowglobe in it. Harry, parked across the street, watches as she tosses it in the garbage.
A judge who looks like a younger version of Judge Judy asks if Kyle wants to make a statement before sentencing; he doesn't. Harry stands up and asks to speak on Kyle's behalf. He tells the judge there were extenuating circumstances that caused Kyle to pull a gun on him. "He pleaded guilty," the judge says. Harry doesn't think Kyle thought about the consequences of what he did. "You are way out of line, Officer," says Judge Judy's lookalike.
Harry keeps on talking: "They took his family. But it wasn't his fault." Judge Judy's lookalike gets her bailiff, who sadly doesn't look like Byrd, to escort Harry out. Harry asks why Kyle isn't saying something. Kyle mimes putting a gun to his temple and pulls the trigger.
Harry is on the answering machine again at Cheryl's house. Miraculously, she decides to call him. She wants to sit down with him.
Cheryl and Harry go to a restaurant. Cheryl tells Harry she couldn't get the pain in his voice out of her head. Harry tells her he feels like he killed himself, her, and Kyle. He wants to leave because the restaurant is "too formal." Harry leaves some bills on the table even though neither one of them have ordered anything yet.
Harry and Cheryl sit on a rock by a lake. Cheryl tells him that what happened to Kyle isn't his fault. Harry says Cheryl was the best thing that happened to him; he feels bad about how things ended and wants to fix it.
That night, she and Harry go for a walk by the observatory. Harry feels like the Challenger explosion was an omen about their relationships. Cheryl says, "You left me before you left me." She advises him to let it go that things didn't work out between them. Harry didn't mean to hurt her. Cheryl tells Harry that he can't let losing his parents stop him from loving. He apologizes for ruining their future.
"You didn't ruin my life," says Cheryl, "I'm with someone now who makes me very happy." If this were an episode of Jerry Springer, this would be the part where she reveals she's shacked up with another woman. Harry sighs. He asks Cheryl to dump her new boyfriend and give him another chance. He wants her help to avoid making the same mistake. "I can help you without being in love with you," Cheryl says, then reveals that she's pregnant by her new boyfriend.
Harry asks when she's due. Cheryl is due in 6 months and already has names picked out: Michelle for a girl and Artemis for a boy. Harry smiles, remembering that Artemis was Jim's sidekick on Wild, Wild West. Cheryl gives Harry a big hug. Yeah, potentially naming your child after a character from your ex-boyfriend's favorite TV show isn't weird at all.
Harry visits Kyle in jail. Mr. DeGray is out on bail and Harry wants to know if Kyle wants to see his dad. Kyle says no. Harry tells Kyle that everyone did mess up his life: "Your parents were bad parents, your sister was a bad sister, and I'm a bad cop." Kyle demands to know why Harry didn't think about that before getting Kyle to turn his parents in. Harry did; he knows kids who were helped by telling someone what their parents were doing to them. He realizes it was the wrong thing for Kyle; social services or NA may have been a better option.
Kyle says it doesn't matter now. Harry takes off his belt and gives it to Kyle. Kyle asks what he's doing. "I'm helping you," says Harry, "You want me to write the note?" Kyle tells Harry that he doesn't want to hang himself. "Then we better move on," says Harry. He picks up his belt and leaves. Kyle sits looking bewildered and confused. End of episode. And on that cheery note, Happy Father's Day!
Case #4.11: "Parental Guidance Suggested"
Judy is watching a house across the street from her through a pair of binoculars. Three guys are in the living room playing poker and drinking beer. A car pulls into the driveway. A couple of people get out, go around the side of the house, and find the spare key under the doormat. Judy hears footsteps behind her. "HELLO!" Doug and Harry shout. Startled, she drops her binoculars. The guys laugh. Cap'n Rufus comes in and informs Doug and Harry that they're late for their shift on the stakeout.
Harry says it's getting harder for them to sneak in because the neighborhood has a Community Alert group. There's been no suspicious activity in the house, but the neighbors think it can't be a coincidence that burglaries spiked after the Labrecques moved in. Harry thinks everybody is suspicious of new neighbors.
Judy goes to bed in the stakeout house. She can't sleep because the couple next door to the Labrecques are arguing so loudly that she can hear them across the street. She gets up and looks out the window. One of the couple's children tries to defuse the argument. The father pulls the living room curtains shut. She soon can't see their shadows because the father threw the lamp on the floor. The boy shouts, "DAD!" Theme song.
The next morning, Judy walks out the front door carrying a backpack. Cap'n Rufus, posing as her father, comes onto the porch to hand her a bagged lunch. One of the Labrecque boys gets on his motorcycle and rides away. Fuller tells her Mr. Labrecque probably cases the houses through his kids; they find out parents' work hours and vacation plans from their classmates. Maybe they'll get lucky and find out which house they're hitting next. "I hope so," says Judy, "I can't take much more of these bologna and cheese sandwiches you've been making." Next door to the Labrecques, a boy and a girl in a hatchback watch Judy walk toward school.
The science teacher announces that they'll be dissecting a sheep's eyeball the next day. The Labrecque kid isn't paying attention; he's wearing sunglasses inside and making the classroom skeleton put its arm around him. The teacher gives the class until the next day to find lab partners. The bell rings.
Judy goes to her locker. She overhears a teacher talking to the girl from the red hatchback. The teenager has a large bruise on her face. She tells the teacher that she fell in the driveway.
At the surveillance house that afternoon, Judy and Cap'n Rufus watch as another domestic scene unfolds on the front lawn across the street. The family members are screaming at each other about something. The father tells someone, presumably the daughter's boyfriend, that whatever is going on is not his business. He bodily drags his screaming daughter into the house. He slams the door in the boyfriend's face.
Judy and Cap'n Rufus exchange troubled looks. "We're not...here to interfere with domestic squabbles," says Rufus slowly. He looks like he wishes they could. They turn their attention back to the Labrecques house.
That night, Doug and Harry attempt to watch what looks like a steamy soap opera or movie. I say attempt because the picture is scrambled pretty bad. Harry can't seem to fix it. Doug wishes they could call Blowfish; he's good with electronics and could get the cable unscrambled.
Judy comes in. Doug and Harry stand in front of the TV to block the screen. She asks them to turn the TV down because she works the day shift. Harry says they were going to because the TV is broken. "It's a good thing. You see that?" asks Judy. The couple onscreen look like they're about to have sex on a pool table. Doug and Harry play like the picture is still scrambled and they can't see it.
Judy watches the Labrecques neighbors; Dad is drinking a beer and smoking on the front porch. Three Labrecques hurry out of their house and get on their motorcycles. "They're either goin' shopping or about to commit a serial murder," says Doug. He gives Harry some money to buy more junk food, warning, "Don't let the neighbors see you." He hands his partner a walkie-talkie.
Doug asks Judy if she's been able to find out anything about the Labrecques from the older son Homer. She doesn't answer for a minute, then says she hasn't made contact with him yet. Doug asks what she's been doing. "The girl next door, she had a nasty black and blue mark on her face," Judy says. Doug isn't surprised; he saw the girl fall down in the driveway the night before.
"We're supposed to be watching the Addams family, not the Cleavers," he reminds her. Judy thinks the guy next door is abusing his family. Doug asks if she's seen him hit anyway. Judy hasn't, but she knows something isn't right. "There are a lot more kinds of abuse than physical, Doug," she says, "If I were those kids, I'd be at the breaking point." In their rooms that night, Cap'n Rufus and Judy lie awake listening to the yelling across the street.
At school, Judy approaches Rob, the mullet boy from the red hatchback. He asks how she likes her new neighborhood. She asks if he'll be her lab partner. "I'm ditching tomorrow," Rob says, "I don't like hurting things just to see what's inside."
That night, Blowfish hooks some boxes up to the TV so Doug and Harry can watch Skinemax. He hears someone coming and flips the channel to a blender infomercial. Doug wonders what accessories come with the appliance. He comes up with a way to get into the Labrecques house: Blowfish will knock on the door and say the family won a year of free cable, but he has to come inside to install it. Blowfish thinks it's a genius idea.
They watch as Blowfish walks across the street. The Labrecques neighbors have another violent argument. Blowfish rings the Labrecques doorbell, but nobody answers. He starts peeking in their windows and gets caught by three guys in Community Alert jackets. Something breaks at the neighbors' and the teenage girl screams, "BACK OFF!"
Blowfish is escorted off the lawn by the Community Alert guys. "Should we go down there and help him?" asks Doug. Harry says, "No, we'd blow our cover." The neighbor girl runs out of her house crying. Judy leaves. "Good idea," says Doug, "Go down there and tell them he's your cable guy."
Judy passes Blowfish, who shouts after her, "Hey! Judy, talk to 'em! Where you going?" Rob runs out onto the neighbor's porch. Judy asks if he's okay. The girl's mom joins them. Judy says, "I live across the street. I heard some noises and I thought maybe--" The woman goes back inside and closes the door.
In the kitchen, Cap'n Rufus tells Judy that all she probably witnessed was a normal domestic squabble. Judy's seeing what she wants to see regarding the Daniels family. Their difference of opinion turns into yelling. Rob across the street overhears as he's getting into his hatchback. Judy storms out of the house and slams the front door behind her.
Rob draws up level to where Judy's walking. He asks if she's okay. "I thought you were ditching today," says Judy. Rob is. Judy asks if he wants company. Rob has things to take care of by himself. Judy suggests she can drop by later. "No," Rob says quickly, "don't come over." He offers to drop Judy off at school.
That night, Blowfish is back to unscramble the porn channel. He's upset about spending the previous night "in a cell with guys named Bloody Eddie and Derek the Domino." Tom was supposed to identify Blowfish and bail him out, but he pretended he'd never seen Blowfish before. Doug thinks that's funny. "I was strip-searched, hosed down, and naked in front of grown men!" Blowfish shouts. Doug looks out the window and sees Harry being escorted down the street by Community Alert members.
Cap'n Rufus goes across the street to introduce himself to the Daniels'. The wife's name is Pam. They banter about those crazy Labrecques. Rufus asks Pam if Mr. Daniels would mind helping him get a stubborn tree stump out of the backyard. He offers beer and a barbecue in exchange. "My husband's gone," says Pam. She adds quickly, "On business." Rufus asks her to send Mr. Daniels over when he gets back. Pam agrees.
That afternoon, Rob drops Judy off. Cap'n Rufus is sitting on the front steps. "His father's gone," he says. Judy knows; Rob and his sister seem happy about it. "The mother's not," says Rufus. Judy asks what he means. Rufus reminds her again that they're staking out the Labrecques, but he's okay with her keeping an eye on the Daniels family.
Judy sits down next to him. She thinks she could get Rob to open up to her about Mr. Daniels if they make him believe that Rufus is abusive too. Fuller tells her abused kids take a long time to open up. Judy is going to a school show with Rob that night; she asks Fuller to stage a minor incident with her: "This boy needs help now." Cap'n Rufus refuses and goes back in the house.
At the Carson High talent show, the boy onstage is trying his hand at standup comedy. Cap'n Rufus approaches Judy and Rob. In full dad mode, he says, "I don't recall giving you permission to go out tonight, young lady. You get your ass back home...Don't ignore me 'cause you know I can get your attention real quick." Judy hisses at him to stop it. Fuller grabs Judy's arm and yanks her to her feet. Judy shakes him off. She stomps out of the auditorium. Rob follows.
The next morning, Pam knocks on the door of the stakeout house carrying a plate of muffins. Cap'n Rufus invites her in. Pam gets teary eyed and tells Rufus she has nobody to talk to; her family is distant and she doesn't want her friends to know something. Rufus promises to help her. Pam tells him that Mr. Daniels has disappeared.
Cap'n Rufus asks if he took a lot of money out of the bank because he's heard of men who abandon their families doing that. "My husband..." Pam starts. Rufus asks if something happened, if Pam thinks her husband is dead. Pam nods. "Do you have any idea how?" Rufus inquires. "I think..." Pam sighs heavily, "I think my son did it."
Judy and Rob walk around a lake. Rob feels lame, "I'm 17 and this is the first time I've been away for 24 hours straight." Rob's had his escape planned for years. Judy asks if he dug tunnels in his backyard. "Everything else has crossed my mind," he answers cryptically.
They sit down on a bench together. Judy asks about Rob's favorite plan. It was to tie his father to the bedposts while his mom and sisters made sandwiches and grabbed clothes; they'd visit his grandparents in Maine, then go someplace where Mr. Daniels couldn't find them. Rob goes onto that he "really thought [Dad] was the devil. That's the only excuse for the things he did." Rob was so nervous he used to throw up every night before his dad came home.
Rob feels like he's being punished. Judy tells Rob it's not his fault. Rob likes to believe "some angel, some Jedi knight came and took him from our lives." He adds, "That angel will come to you too, Judy." Until that happens, Judy has Rob to confide in.
Later at the house, Judy is upset with Cap'n Rufus for getting a bit too into his role. She asks why he did it. "'Cause I wanted to help him," Rufus replies. Judy frowns, confused. "I've tried to keep that part of me locked away all the years," Rufus goes on, "I remember praying for someone to help me when I was a kid." Judy is now officially the only Jump Street officer who's not an orphan or from an abusive family.
Cap'n Rufus tells her that once his dad drank and "got up enough hate for his own life, he'd take it out on us." His fear of becoming abusive caused him to keep his son Kip at arm's length. He can't remember the last time he talked to Kip. Judy looks out the window and observes that the Daniels' house is quiet. "Mrs. Daniels thinks that Rob may have murdered his father," the captain says. He thinks Mrs. Daniels is right and could understand why Rob would do it.
In Rob's room that night, Judy quizzes him over an anatomy assignment. "Did you know if you cut the jugular, the person only has 2 minutes to live?" Rob asks conversationally. She doubts that information will be on the test. He wants to know how Judy would kill somebody if she had to. Rob used to wish for his father's car to skid off an icy road in winter. When he got older, he knew he would have to wait until his father was drunk before he could do anything. The plan became to prop him up in the shower and use a towel to take his dad's legs out from under him. Judy looks more disturbed by the second.
Judy reports to Cap'n Rufus that Rob told her how he would kill his dad. "Would or did?" Rufus wonders. Judy sighs that they should bring him in for questioning. Rufus wants to wait until the next morning so the family can have a last night of peace together.
Pam knocks on the door again. Fuller opens it. "A mother is supposed to protect her son," Pam mutters. Cap'n Rufus invites her in, but Pam can't stay. Rufus repeats his offer of help. "You can't help anymore," says Pam. Mr. Daniels, it transpires, is alive, well, and back at home.
Later, Cap'n Rufus and Judy talk more about the cycle of abuse. Rufus never hit Kip, but he still hurt his son by being emotionally distant.
At the lake, Rob tells Judy how free he felt when his dad was gone. He doesn't want to go back home. The waiting is scarier. Judy suggests giving Mr. Daniels a chance; Rob says his dad's had too many.
Cap'n Rufus goes across the street to check on Pam. She thinks her husband just needed a weekend away to straighten himself out; he hasn't hurt them since he's been back. Rufus advises her to get out if the abuse starts again.
Upstairs in the undercover house, Doug thinks the Labrecques are nothing more than the neighborhood oddballs and they should go home. Harry agrees. Pam leaves the house with her two daughters and drives away. Fuller tells the boys to keep watch.
Mr. Daniels gets drunk in the living room and slaps Rob around. Rob runs upstairs into the master bedroom, drapes a towel over the shower curtain rod in the master bathroom. Mr. Daniels bellows for Rob to bring him some ice.
Cap'n Rufus, Harry, and Doug are watching the Daniels' through binoculars. Mr. Daniels sees them. Doug gets startled and bashes into a floor lamp; everyone in the room hits the deck. Across the street, Rob herds his dad upstairs to the master bathroom. Next door to the Daniels', the Labrecque clan steps onto their front porch. They're armed and heading for the undercover house. The cops draw their guns.
Judy sees Rob start the shower. "Captain, this is just how Rob said he would kill his father," she says. Cap'n Rufus tells Harry to call for backup. The three men head downstairs. Judy watches as Rob closes the bathroom door. The Jump Street team surprises the Labrecques in the living room. A man who appears to be Papa Labrecque explains that they came over to stop the person breaking into the undercover house. Rufus tells Doug to handle the situation.
Judy and Cap'n Rufus run into the Daniels' driveway just as the police cruisers get there. Pam and her daughters are unloading groceries. Rufus tells her that he's a police officer and needs her house key. Pam tells the girls to stay put and unlocks the front door. She follows Judy and Rufus up the stairs. We hear water running.
When they open the bathroom door, Rob is soaking wet and sitting next to the bathtub. Mr. Daniels is motionless in the tub. Fuller checks Mr. Daniels' pulse and says he's still alive. "I couldn't do it, Mom," Rob sobs, "I'm too weak." Pam does her best to soothe him.
The next morning, Judy watches from across the street as the Daniels family hastily packs their blue Jeep. Rob gets into the driver's seat, Pam gets in the other side. I suppose they're leaving Rob's hatchback behind. Mr. Daniels comes onto the porch and we get our first good look at his face. Fans of '80s movies will recognize him as Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club. He scowls, but doesn't appear ready for violence. Rob backs the Jeep out of the driveway.
Cap'n Rufus stares at the phone on his desk. Judy watches from the doorway as he picks up the receiver, dials, and says, "Hello, Kip. It's Dad. How've you been doin', son?" Judy smiles and closes the office door. End of episode.
Harry says it's getting harder for them to sneak in because the neighborhood has a Community Alert group. There's been no suspicious activity in the house, but the neighbors think it can't be a coincidence that burglaries spiked after the Labrecques moved in. Harry thinks everybody is suspicious of new neighbors.
Judy goes to bed in the stakeout house. She can't sleep because the couple next door to the Labrecques are arguing so loudly that she can hear them across the street. She gets up and looks out the window. One of the couple's children tries to defuse the argument. The father pulls the living room curtains shut. She soon can't see their shadows because the father threw the lamp on the floor. The boy shouts, "DAD!" Theme song.
The next morning, Judy walks out the front door carrying a backpack. Cap'n Rufus, posing as her father, comes onto the porch to hand her a bagged lunch. One of the Labrecque boys gets on his motorcycle and rides away. Fuller tells her Mr. Labrecque probably cases the houses through his kids; they find out parents' work hours and vacation plans from their classmates. Maybe they'll get lucky and find out which house they're hitting next. "I hope so," says Judy, "I can't take much more of these bologna and cheese sandwiches you've been making." Next door to the Labrecques, a boy and a girl in a hatchback watch Judy walk toward school.
The science teacher announces that they'll be dissecting a sheep's eyeball the next day. The Labrecque kid isn't paying attention; he's wearing sunglasses inside and making the classroom skeleton put its arm around him. The teacher gives the class until the next day to find lab partners. The bell rings.
Judy goes to her locker. She overhears a teacher talking to the girl from the red hatchback. The teenager has a large bruise on her face. She tells the teacher that she fell in the driveway.
At the surveillance house that afternoon, Judy and Cap'n Rufus watch as another domestic scene unfolds on the front lawn across the street. The family members are screaming at each other about something. The father tells someone, presumably the daughter's boyfriend, that whatever is going on is not his business. He bodily drags his screaming daughter into the house. He slams the door in the boyfriend's face.
Judy and Cap'n Rufus exchange troubled looks. "We're not...here to interfere with domestic squabbles," says Rufus slowly. He looks like he wishes they could. They turn their attention back to the Labrecques house.
That night, Doug and Harry attempt to watch what looks like a steamy soap opera or movie. I say attempt because the picture is scrambled pretty bad. Harry can't seem to fix it. Doug wishes they could call Blowfish; he's good with electronics and could get the cable unscrambled.
Judy comes in. Doug and Harry stand in front of the TV to block the screen. She asks them to turn the TV down because she works the day shift. Harry says they were going to because the TV is broken. "It's a good thing. You see that?" asks Judy. The couple onscreen look like they're about to have sex on a pool table. Doug and Harry play like the picture is still scrambled and they can't see it.
Judy watches the Labrecques neighbors; Dad is drinking a beer and smoking on the front porch. Three Labrecques hurry out of their house and get on their motorcycles. "They're either goin' shopping or about to commit a serial murder," says Doug. He gives Harry some money to buy more junk food, warning, "Don't let the neighbors see you." He hands his partner a walkie-talkie.
Doug asks Judy if she's been able to find out anything about the Labrecques from the older son Homer. She doesn't answer for a minute, then says she hasn't made contact with him yet. Doug asks what she's been doing. "The girl next door, she had a nasty black and blue mark on her face," Judy says. Doug isn't surprised; he saw the girl fall down in the driveway the night before.
"We're supposed to be watching the Addams family, not the Cleavers," he reminds her. Judy thinks the guy next door is abusing his family. Doug asks if she's seen him hit anyway. Judy hasn't, but she knows something isn't right. "There are a lot more kinds of abuse than physical, Doug," she says, "If I were those kids, I'd be at the breaking point." In their rooms that night, Cap'n Rufus and Judy lie awake listening to the yelling across the street.
At school, Judy approaches Rob, the mullet boy from the red hatchback. He asks how she likes her new neighborhood. She asks if he'll be her lab partner. "I'm ditching tomorrow," Rob says, "I don't like hurting things just to see what's inside."
That night, Blowfish hooks some boxes up to the TV so Doug and Harry can watch Skinemax. He hears someone coming and flips the channel to a blender infomercial. Doug wonders what accessories come with the appliance. He comes up with a way to get into the Labrecques house: Blowfish will knock on the door and say the family won a year of free cable, but he has to come inside to install it. Blowfish thinks it's a genius idea.
They watch as Blowfish walks across the street. The Labrecques neighbors have another violent argument. Blowfish rings the Labrecques doorbell, but nobody answers. He starts peeking in their windows and gets caught by three guys in Community Alert jackets. Something breaks at the neighbors' and the teenage girl screams, "BACK OFF!"
Blowfish is escorted off the lawn by the Community Alert guys. "Should we go down there and help him?" asks Doug. Harry says, "No, we'd blow our cover." The neighbor girl runs out of her house crying. Judy leaves. "Good idea," says Doug, "Go down there and tell them he's your cable guy."
Judy passes Blowfish, who shouts after her, "Hey! Judy, talk to 'em! Where you going?" Rob runs out onto the neighbor's porch. Judy asks if he's okay. The girl's mom joins them. Judy says, "I live across the street. I heard some noises and I thought maybe--" The woman goes back inside and closes the door.
In the kitchen, Cap'n Rufus tells Judy that all she probably witnessed was a normal domestic squabble. Judy's seeing what she wants to see regarding the Daniels family. Their difference of opinion turns into yelling. Rob across the street overhears as he's getting into his hatchback. Judy storms out of the house and slams the front door behind her.
Rob draws up level to where Judy's walking. He asks if she's okay. "I thought you were ditching today," says Judy. Rob is. Judy asks if he wants company. Rob has things to take care of by himself. Judy suggests she can drop by later. "No," Rob says quickly, "don't come over." He offers to drop Judy off at school.
That night, Blowfish is back to unscramble the porn channel. He's upset about spending the previous night "in a cell with guys named Bloody Eddie and Derek the Domino." Tom was supposed to identify Blowfish and bail him out, but he pretended he'd never seen Blowfish before. Doug thinks that's funny. "I was strip-searched, hosed down, and naked in front of grown men!" Blowfish shouts. Doug looks out the window and sees Harry being escorted down the street by Community Alert members.
Cap'n Rufus goes across the street to introduce himself to the Daniels'. The wife's name is Pam. They banter about those crazy Labrecques. Rufus asks Pam if Mr. Daniels would mind helping him get a stubborn tree stump out of the backyard. He offers beer and a barbecue in exchange. "My husband's gone," says Pam. She adds quickly, "On business." Rufus asks her to send Mr. Daniels over when he gets back. Pam agrees.
That afternoon, Rob drops Judy off. Cap'n Rufus is sitting on the front steps. "His father's gone," he says. Judy knows; Rob and his sister seem happy about it. "The mother's not," says Rufus. Judy asks what he means. Rufus reminds her again that they're staking out the Labrecques, but he's okay with her keeping an eye on the Daniels family.
Judy sits down next to him. She thinks she could get Rob to open up to her about Mr. Daniels if they make him believe that Rufus is abusive too. Fuller tells her abused kids take a long time to open up. Judy is going to a school show with Rob that night; she asks Fuller to stage a minor incident with her: "This boy needs help now." Cap'n Rufus refuses and goes back in the house.
At the Carson High talent show, the boy onstage is trying his hand at standup comedy. Cap'n Rufus approaches Judy and Rob. In full dad mode, he says, "I don't recall giving you permission to go out tonight, young lady. You get your ass back home...Don't ignore me 'cause you know I can get your attention real quick." Judy hisses at him to stop it. Fuller grabs Judy's arm and yanks her to her feet. Judy shakes him off. She stomps out of the auditorium. Rob follows.
The next morning, Pam knocks on the door of the stakeout house carrying a plate of muffins. Cap'n Rufus invites her in. Pam gets teary eyed and tells Rufus she has nobody to talk to; her family is distant and she doesn't want her friends to know something. Rufus promises to help her. Pam tells him that Mr. Daniels has disappeared.
Cap'n Rufus asks if he took a lot of money out of the bank because he's heard of men who abandon their families doing that. "My husband..." Pam starts. Rufus asks if something happened, if Pam thinks her husband is dead. Pam nods. "Do you have any idea how?" Rufus inquires. "I think..." Pam sighs heavily, "I think my son did it."
Judy and Rob walk around a lake. Rob feels lame, "I'm 17 and this is the first time I've been away for 24 hours straight." Rob's had his escape planned for years. Judy asks if he dug tunnels in his backyard. "Everything else has crossed my mind," he answers cryptically.
They sit down on a bench together. Judy asks about Rob's favorite plan. It was to tie his father to the bedposts while his mom and sisters made sandwiches and grabbed clothes; they'd visit his grandparents in Maine, then go someplace where Mr. Daniels couldn't find them. Rob goes onto that he "really thought [Dad] was the devil. That's the only excuse for the things he did." Rob was so nervous he used to throw up every night before his dad came home.
Rob feels like he's being punished. Judy tells Rob it's not his fault. Rob likes to believe "some angel, some Jedi knight came and took him from our lives." He adds, "That angel will come to you too, Judy." Until that happens, Judy has Rob to confide in.
Later at the house, Judy is upset with Cap'n Rufus for getting a bit too into his role. She asks why he did it. "'Cause I wanted to help him," Rufus replies. Judy frowns, confused. "I've tried to keep that part of me locked away all the years," Rufus goes on, "I remember praying for someone to help me when I was a kid." Judy is now officially the only Jump Street officer who's not an orphan or from an abusive family.
Cap'n Rufus tells her that once his dad drank and "got up enough hate for his own life, he'd take it out on us." His fear of becoming abusive caused him to keep his son Kip at arm's length. He can't remember the last time he talked to Kip. Judy looks out the window and observes that the Daniels' house is quiet. "Mrs. Daniels thinks that Rob may have murdered his father," the captain says. He thinks Mrs. Daniels is right and could understand why Rob would do it.
In Rob's room that night, Judy quizzes him over an anatomy assignment. "Did you know if you cut the jugular, the person only has 2 minutes to live?" Rob asks conversationally. She doubts that information will be on the test. He wants to know how Judy would kill somebody if she had to. Rob used to wish for his father's car to skid off an icy road in winter. When he got older, he knew he would have to wait until his father was drunk before he could do anything. The plan became to prop him up in the shower and use a towel to take his dad's legs out from under him. Judy looks more disturbed by the second.
Judy reports to Cap'n Rufus that Rob told her how he would kill his dad. "Would or did?" Rufus wonders. Judy sighs that they should bring him in for questioning. Rufus wants to wait until the next morning so the family can have a last night of peace together.
Pam knocks on the door again. Fuller opens it. "A mother is supposed to protect her son," Pam mutters. Cap'n Rufus invites her in, but Pam can't stay. Rufus repeats his offer of help. "You can't help anymore," says Pam. Mr. Daniels, it transpires, is alive, well, and back at home.
Later, Cap'n Rufus and Judy talk more about the cycle of abuse. Rufus never hit Kip, but he still hurt his son by being emotionally distant.
At the lake, Rob tells Judy how free he felt when his dad was gone. He doesn't want to go back home. The waiting is scarier. Judy suggests giving Mr. Daniels a chance; Rob says his dad's had too many.
Cap'n Rufus goes across the street to check on Pam. She thinks her husband just needed a weekend away to straighten himself out; he hasn't hurt them since he's been back. Rufus advises her to get out if the abuse starts again.
Upstairs in the undercover house, Doug thinks the Labrecques are nothing more than the neighborhood oddballs and they should go home. Harry agrees. Pam leaves the house with her two daughters and drives away. Fuller tells the boys to keep watch.
Mr. Daniels gets drunk in the living room and slaps Rob around. Rob runs upstairs into the master bedroom, drapes a towel over the shower curtain rod in the master bathroom. Mr. Daniels bellows for Rob to bring him some ice.
Cap'n Rufus, Harry, and Doug are watching the Daniels' through binoculars. Mr. Daniels sees them. Doug gets startled and bashes into a floor lamp; everyone in the room hits the deck. Across the street, Rob herds his dad upstairs to the master bathroom. Next door to the Daniels', the Labrecque clan steps onto their front porch. They're armed and heading for the undercover house. The cops draw their guns.
Judy sees Rob start the shower. "Captain, this is just how Rob said he would kill his father," she says. Cap'n Rufus tells Harry to call for backup. The three men head downstairs. Judy watches as Rob closes the bathroom door. The Jump Street team surprises the Labrecques in the living room. A man who appears to be Papa Labrecque explains that they came over to stop the person breaking into the undercover house. Rufus tells Doug to handle the situation.
Judy and Cap'n Rufus run into the Daniels' driveway just as the police cruisers get there. Pam and her daughters are unloading groceries. Rufus tells her that he's a police officer and needs her house key. Pam tells the girls to stay put and unlocks the front door. She follows Judy and Rufus up the stairs. We hear water running.
When they open the bathroom door, Rob is soaking wet and sitting next to the bathtub. Mr. Daniels is motionless in the tub. Fuller checks Mr. Daniels' pulse and says he's still alive. "I couldn't do it, Mom," Rob sobs, "I'm too weak." Pam does her best to soothe him.
The next morning, Judy watches from across the street as the Daniels family hastily packs their blue Jeep. Rob gets into the driver's seat, Pam gets in the other side. I suppose they're leaving Rob's hatchback behind. Mr. Daniels comes onto the porch and we get our first good look at his face. Fans of '80s movies will recognize him as Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club. He scowls, but doesn't appear ready for violence. Rob backs the Jeep out of the driveway.
Cap'n Rufus stares at the phone on his desk. Judy watches from the doorway as he picks up the receiver, dials, and says, "Hello, Kip. It's Dad. How've you been doin', son?" Judy smiles and closes the office door. End of episode.
Case #4.10: "Wheels and Deals"
This is the second part of an episode that looks like it was the pilot for a series about Booker. Booker is blackmailing Crane, the businessman responsible for Harry getting shot, Tom going to jail, and Booker getting kicked off the police force. He secretly recorded a sex tape of Crane and a woman who is not Mrs. Crane. Since this was a two-parter and the first part isn't available on Hulu, I'm not going to bother. There's no way for a recap/review of this to make sense without seeing all of Part One.
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