411 Retro Review: Miami Vice Episode 6-One Eyed Jack
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 01.18.2008
Crockett is framed for extortion as Tubbs goes undercover to take out Dennis Farina
“One Eyed Jack”
Airdate: 11/2/1984
Cast
Don Johnson: Sonny Crockett
Phillip Michael Thomas: Ricardo Tubbs
Olivia Brown: Trudy Joplin
Saundra Santiago: Gina Navarro Calabrese
Michael Talbott: Dan Switek
John Diehl: Larry Zito
Edward James Olmos: Martin Castillo
Guest Star: Dennis Farina as Albert Lombard. Farina landed “Crime Story” a few years after this that was sort of “Miami Vice” crossed with “The Untouchables.” He also had a stint on “Law & Order.” Dan Hedaya is also in this episode as Ben Schroeder. He’s best known as Carla’s bum of an ex husband Nick on “Cheers.” This episode also marks the debut of Olmos as new vice squad head Lt. Castillo.
A fat bookie takes phone calls in his cluttered office. He has a sign on his desk that says “Bet It All.” Crockett and Tubbs are across the river from the guy’s office on Crockett’s boat. They take pictures and listen to his ramblings on a wiretap. They’re trying to use him to get to his boss, gambling kingpin Albert Lombard. A woman comes into the office and begs Mickey for more time on the money she owes him. A goon comes in and roughs her up. Crockett and Tubbs make the save. The goon throws a bottle of bourbon at them. They fight out to the deck and down a flight of stares. Imagine Snitsky in a handicap match with London and Kendrick. They brawl into a riverside café and Sonny knocks him out with a bottle of ketchup. Tubbs says it was better than any ride on Coney Island. Crockett and the woman lock eyes. That can’t be leading to anything good. Credits!
It turns out that Crockett and the woman are friends. Her name is Barb. He last saw her at her wedding eight years ago. She’s in debt for $11,000. She’s paid $7,000 already. Some guys the other day stole all the tools from her husband’s shop. DeMarco is the guy pressuring her and he’s the right arm of Lombard. She refuses to file a complaint and cause more trouble. Instead she asks Sonny to go to DeMarco and ask for her husband’s equipment back.
At the station Lt. Castillo shows up for his first day on the job. Olmos looks so young and thin here. You can tell right away that he doesn’t like the lax condition of the vice squad. Tubbs describes him as “Charles Bronson by way of Havana.” Sonny introduces himself. Castillo asks if he’s filed an incident report yet. Sonny says no. Castillo stares a hole in him and his gaze says it all. Great scene to establish his character as a hard ass who doesn’t have to yell to get things done.
We cut to a musical montage of women in bikinis at a pool party. Sonny sits down at a table with a man in dark glasses and a fedora. It’s Vincent DeMarco. Crockett tries to talk tough to get the equipment back. He either puts the stuff back today or Crockett makes his life hell. Sonny leaves and Lombard enters. Vincent tells him that Sonny will be no trouble.
Game wardens attempt to corral Elvis back at Sonny’s boat. They received a complaint that he crashed a boat party. Crockett reveals that Elvis is an auxiliary member of the vice squad and therefore not under regular animal laws. A drug sniffing alligator would probably straighten up a lot of junkies. Crockett gets a call from DeMarco. He wants to deal with Sonny directly.
At the meeting, DeMarco gives Crockett an envelope for $8000. They sold the equipment already. Sonny takes the envelope and is immediately busted by internal affairs officer Ben Schroeder. Back at the precinct, Schroeder goes over the charges against Crockett. They’ve known that someone has been on DeMarco’s payroll and an informant fingered Crockett. Crockett lays out the frame job, but Schroeder isn’t buying it. Castillo seems to be on the fence. Tubbs sticks up for Crockett. We get the title of the episode as Schroeder calls Crockett a “one eyed jack.” He shows one face to the world and he has another side he keeps private.
Crockett talks with Barb’s husband Jerry. She left to meet a girlfriend a short while ago. Jerry is determined to stick by his wife and help her lick her gambling addiction. Tubbs puts out an APB on Barb. He also has word about a poker game that Lombard runs at a swank club.
Barb walks up to a car with DeMarco in the passenger side. He ushers her into the car. He has an idea to settle their debt.
Tubbs is kicking butt at the poker game. He takes a break and talks with the pit boss. He lays on a story that he’s a racketeer from Philadelphia in hiding. The pit boss offers Tubbs a possible manager’s job with them.
To the tune of “Wonderful Tonight” Crockett paces the dock. He returns to his boat to find Gina making a romantic dinner for two. They make out. This will get me letters, but “Wonderful Tonight” is Eric Clapton’s worst song by far.
The next morning Tubbs arrives. He isn’t shocked to see Gina there. Tubbs shows off the stash he made. Crockett has references set up for Rico if they check his background. Switek calls. Barb is dead.
They pull her body out of the swamp. Crockett consoles Jerry. He wants revenge, but Crockett tells him to think of his kids and let the police do their job. Castillo questions if it was Lombard’s people who did it and the gets into it with Tubbs.
Tubbs meets with Lombard. He throws a couple questions at Tubbs to test him. He also says he looks a little too dark to be Italian. He says he’s from Southern Italy, so far south it’s actually Africa. Lombard likes his sense of humor. Tubbs then shows off that he can speak some Italian and Lombard likes him even more.
At the station, Schroeder serves Crockett with papers for a pre-trial hearing. Gina lets Crockett know the details of Barb’s death. They don’t have a lot to go on. Tubbs enters. He has a job with Lombard handling his black and Latin action.
Tubbs’ first job is to run a cockfight. Good times. DeMarco fills in Tubbs on their fighting rackets. They get their payoff from Angel the bartender. DeMarco feels the envelope is light. Rico takes him into a back room. Tubbs says he’ll pay off the $4000 he owes that night if Angel will say that he paid the full six grand he owed if anyone asks. Angel thinks something is up, but you get the sense he figures out what is going on and lets Tubbs go. If he can get rid of Lombard he can go back to running the game himself. Tubbs gives DeMarco $4000 only.
Tubbs hangs out in Lombard’s nightclub and dances to “Jump” by the Pointer Sisters. DeMarco fills in Lombard on how well Tubbs did. He says they did $4000. Tubbs comes over while DeMarco dances and brags about how he collected the full $6000. This makes Lombard think that DeMarco is skimming off the top on him. Tubbs reveals to DeMarco that he’s setting him up. I’m interested to see where Tubbs is going with this.
The next morning at the precinct Crockett no showed his hearing. Schroeder gives him lip. Castillo stands up for Crockett. He’s reviewed his record and Schroeder is either a complete idiot or has been had big time. He throws him out. Crockett thanks Castillo. Tubbs arrives. Lombard checked with Angel and he confirmed that Tubbs took $6000 off of him. DeMarco calls to ask Tubbs what his deal is. He comes in. They make him sign a statement that he set Crockett up. They also make him wear a wire for the lunch meeting with Lombard. DeMarco refuses, but Crockett lays out what they can get him on to put him away for a very long time.
Tubbs and DeMarco arrive at Lombard’s boat. Crockett is off in his cigarette boat to the side. Matters get hairy when Lombard decides to leave the harbor. DeMarco confesses that he took the $2000 to pay off the guy that iced Barb so he would skip town. Lombard is not happy. DeMarco reveals that he’s wearing a wire and that Tubbs is a cop. Crockett spies that Barb’s husband Jerry has snuck aboard the boat. DeMarco pulls a gun. Jerry has a gun on the outside. Sonny gets close enough to the boat to jump on. He’s too late, because Jerry kills DeMarco. They book Lombard, but he’s confident he’ll get off.
Later that night, the guys talk about what will happen to Jerry. He’ll get a hard sentence, but the judge might let him off. Lombard is out. Crockett produces some fishing poles and they go out for a little night fishing. Never revealed who the mole for Lombard was on the force. I half expected it to be Schroeder. I also thought that maybe it would be the dead Rodriguez. They never wrapped up the plotline from the pilot of him having extra money to send his kid to private school.
The 411: Olmos has just a few scenes, but he makes the most of them. With little dialogue, but a hard stare he firmly establishes the character of Lt. Castillo. Farina didn’t have much to do as Lombard, but he’s set up to possibly return in the future. With Calderone dead I like the idea of an occasionally recurring nemesis for the guys. Crockett knowing Barb and being framed as a bad cop didn’t really go anywhere, but had potential.
