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Nobody Lives Forever
Episode #020

Air Date: 29 Mar 1985 (NBC)
Director: Jim Johnston
Writer: Edward DiLorenzo

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Episode #020
- 4.39   Nobody Lives Forever - 256      
Episode Summary
Three out-of-control teenage boys are joyriding, drinking in their car, and harassing other drivers to the point that the car of one driver is forced off a bridge and plunges into the water. These punks finally make a stop at a beach-side lunch wagon, steal money from a bookie on the beach, shoot him and some others, as well as the lunch wagon itself, and take off [Green Onions].

Not a cop in sight. Tubbs is off teasing Crockett about his "heavy" relationship with his new girlfriend, Brenda. Sonny says it's not love, but "lust with potential." Switek and Zito find the punks' stolen and graffiti-decorated car abandoned near the beach.

While Crockett has a romantic dinner with Brenda, these teenagers, fine young specimens of manhood that they are, steal another car [Bad to the Bone]. The vice squad continues following its leads, but it's not the only one searching for these thugs. So is the bookie whose money was stolen.

The next evening, Sonny and Rico head to a bar where they suspect the punks might hang out. Crockett stops at a phone booth to call Brenda, while Tubbs continues on his way into the bar. Then all hell breaks loose, with the teenagers storming out of the bar shooting. They get away. Crockett knows he shouldn't have been on the phone. The punks move onward and upward, hitting a convenience store and killing the clerk. Back at the OCB, when Castillo asks Crockett why he wasn't inside the bar, Rico attempts to cover for him, but Sonny won't allow it and tells Castillo the truth.

Sonny confides in Brenda that his mind hasn't been on the job and that he messed up during the events at the bar. As if his self-recrimination isn't enough, Gina's also giving him a hard time these days because of Brenda. When Crockett declines a dinner invitation from Gina, she tells him she feels used and to stay out of her life.

Still after the marauding teenagers, Tubbs and Crockett go to see Izzy, who's hawking fancy shoes these days, and send him looking for the boys. Rico suggests to Sonny that he take some time off, so he can work out things with Brenda and get his mind back on the job. Crockett does just that. We see him out sailing with Brenda [New Love]. They have some intimate discussions, and it appears that the relationship is becoming more serious, not less.

Izzy finds the teenagers in a restaurant. He approaches them as a shoe salesman. They mercilessly abuse him, dump food on the shoes he showing them, and eventually pull a gun. When a now-terrified Izzy excuses himself to go to a pay phone to let Miami Vice know the boys' whereabouts, in walks Morgan, the owner of the lunch wagon/bookie operation, who accosts the trio of punks. Shooting erupts, Morgan is shot, and the boys take off.

The next morning, Rico goes to Brenda's house to pick up Crockett for work. While Crockett's in the shower, Tubbs has a candid talk with Brenda, eventually telling her that she and Sonny are from different sides of the tracks. She's a wealthy architect with fancy friends and fancy tastes; that's not Sonny. Brenda's offended by this. Tubbs later tells Crockett that Brenda isn't his type, but Sonny's still not listening. Izzy catches up with Sonny and Rico and tells them he's heard the punks say they planned to hit some more lunch wagons.

That afternoon, Crockett and Tubbs stake out the offices of the lunch wagon operation. Though nothing much seems to be happening, they're uneasy. They agree to meet there again the next morning at 6:00 a.m. Sonny spends another night with Brenda, whose pointed questions to him about their future anger him. Brenda fails to wake Sonny for work in the morning, and while Sonny lays sacked out on her couch, Tubbs, alone on the stakeout, is beat up by some of Morgan's security people. Rico thereafter shows up at Brenda's door; when Crockett opens it, he comes face to face with the consequences of his irresponsibility.

Castillo puts Sonny on desk duty after this incident, while Rico, Zito and Switek plan to shut down Morgan's operation and use one of his lunch wagons to bait a trap for the destructive teenagers. Crockett goes out on his boat to think [Heartbeat]. The next morning, Sonny pays Brenda a visit, and talks with her about slowing down the relationship. She agrees (and this is the last we ever see of Brenda).

The punks take the bait. When they approach Tubbs, who's posing as a bookie outside the lunch wagon, for his bag of money, Tubbs pulls a gun and the shooting starts. Two of the teenagers are shot; the third takes off in his car, attempting to run down Tubbs, who's on foot. Crockett shows up just in time to intercept the car. The boy jumps out of the car and with bravado states that "Nobody lives forever." He fires at Sonny, who shoots and kills him.

-- Daryle Gardner-Bonneau

Guest Cast and Music
Guest Cast
Kim Griest
Peter Friedman
Giancarlo Esposito
Frank Military
Michael Carmine
Lionel Chute
Martin Ferrero
Additional Cast
Gusmano Cesaretti
Shari Notowitz
Nancy Jo Mseis
Featured Music
Booker T & The MG's, Green Onions
George Thorogood, Bad To The Bone
Glenn Frey, New Love
Red 7, Heartbeat
Production Credits
Created by
Anthony Yerkovich

Supervising Producer
Liam O'Brien

Produced by
John Nicolella

Executive Producer
Michael Mann

Co-Producer
Richard Brams

Executive Story Consultant
Joel Surnow

Executive Story Editor
Daniel Pyne

Story Editor
Dennis Cooper

Associate Producers
Patti Kent
Frederick Lyle

Music Composed and Conducted by
Jan Hammer

Costume Designer
Jodie Tillen

Director of Photography
James A. Contner

Art Director
Jeffrey Howard

Film Editor
Michael Ornstein

Unit Production Managers
Donald Gold
Tikki Goldberg

1st Assistant Director
Herb Gains

2nd Assistant Director
George Fortmuller

Casting (N.Y.)
Bonnie Timmerman

Casting (Miami)
Dee Miller

Extras Casting
Cheryl A. Louden
Colette R. Hailey

Set Decorator
Robert Lacey, Jr.

Sound
Michael R. Tromer

Sound Editor
John A. Larsen

Music Editor
Jerry Cohen

Stunt Coordinator
Paul Nuckles

Production Assistant
C.C.M. McCrum

Color by
Technicolor

Titles & Optical Effects
Universal Title