Air Date: 18 Mar 1988 (NBC)
Director: Richard Compton
Teleplay: Michael Duggan & Peter Lance
Story: Dick Wolf
Rico escapes the gunplay by diving into the river and staying hidden until they're gone. Sonny rushes in to check on his partner, and after he's gone ahead to check the rest of the scene, Rico, still shaken, notices a lone homeless woman watching him.
The next morning at OCB while going over the details of the ambush, they learn about South Beach's Special Ops team. Lt. Arturo Dominguez, leader of the South Beach squad, arrives to offer information on the situation. Sonny and the rest of the Vice squad believe there's a leak somewhere in South Beach, and that the ripoff was executed by police officers, not rival gangs. Dominguez says that it must be gangs, since a storage warehouse of theirs was robbed earlier in the year.
Another dealer, Noriega, is stopped on the street. While the Special Ops officers take his drugs from the car, he lets them know he's unhappy with the current payment situation. When he asks how much more money they want from him, they execute him.
Sonny and Rico followup on the police equipment that was reported stolen from the South Beach warehouse, and they realize that the more they discover, the more all of this looks like the work of cops.
Gina, Trudy and Stan do some background work on the members of the South Beach squad, and Castillo suggests they try to find out if any of them were juvenile offenders, a suggestion that shocks them.
When Crockett and Tubbs arrive at the scene of Noriega's murder, Tubbs spots the same homeless woman he'd seen when he was ambushed [Eyes of A Stranger]. When she sees him watching her, she runs, and he follows. After he corners her, he discovers that she's Montana Stone, part of South Beach Special Ops, and she just maintains a cover as a homeless person down by the riverfront. He also finds out that reports she filed about the attack he was in hasn't been passed on by Dominguez.
Stan discovers that one group of the Special Ops teams -- Andujar, Mendez, Colón and Perez -- were Cuban immigrants with youth offender records, and had been in the same gang together. Sonny discovers that Dominguez had been the arresting officer in one of Colón's cases.
Castillo sends Sonny and Rico to Dominguez' home to talk to him. They are surprised when his home turns out to be a luxury yacht [ed note: look for the woman walking by as they get out of the car...that's Barbra Streisand]. He isn't home, so they decide to wait around.
Later that night, Dominguez arrives home in a large Mercedes. Crockett and Tubbs immediately begin to inquire about his financial means, and accuse him of running the crew pulling off the hits to be able to afford all this luxury. He says he married well. Finally, he admits that he's been investigating the group himself, but hasn't been able to fit all of it together...he's certain there's a piece he's missing. Dominguez offers to show them all the information he has, at the office in the morning.
That night, someone breaks into the South Beach offices and rifles through some files. Later, at the warehouse, the four dirty Special Ops cops are happy to see Montana when she arrives, and they give her a cash share of the latest take.
Sonny and Rico come to South Beach, and Dominguez shows them the files on several other dealer hits had happened before the river murders. Dominguez notices one of the suspected cops paying a little too much attention to him and his guests, and closes his office blinds.
Dominguez tells them that the only connection he could find was that the groups being hit were all groups South Beach had under surveillance. Sonny wants to take this information to Castillo and get his input on it, so they can try to guess what the rogue group's next move will be.
That night, Dominguez and his wife are murdered on their yacht by the four dirty cops. After learning about the attack, Castillo, Sonny and Rico review all the South Beach files, and discover a pattern in the river murders... Montana Stone reported on all six of the hits. Sonny suspects she had to have been the lookout for the hits. Rico is reluctant to believe she's part of the rogue operation, and goes to find her to find out.
Rico finds her by the river, passing out food. She insists that he help before she'll talk. He asks if she had anything to do with Dominguez' murder, and she denies it. He tells her that he hopes she's not involved, in either the Lieutenant's murder or the hits on the dealers. She stands her ground, insisting that she's not.
Later, Montana calls Colón and tells him that she hadn't wanted to be a part of the Dominguez murder, and asks him how he could do that to his mentor. He tells her that the only thing he learned from Dominguez was that in order to get rich you had to steal the money or marry it. He also tells her that her last tip was worthless, and that her next one had better be a good one, or she'd be the next one they'd hit. While she's at the Special Ops office looking through the files for names to feed to Colón, Rico walks in and arrests her.
Rico talks to Montana at the jail, against the advice of her counsel. She tells them the history of how she and Colón got started stealing drugs from dealers, and how later he suggested using information out of the Special Ops surveillance files to choose their targets. She agrees to make any deal the DA wants as long as all the money's she's taken so far stays in a trust fund for the homeless people she's been helping. Rico tells her the only way is to help them sting Colón.
Rico puts the plan on the table to Castillo: Montana will bring him in as a buyer from New York, and take them all down once the deals done. Castillo tells Stan to write up a phony surveillance report to feed into the South Beach system so Montana can feed that to Colón. As they wire her up before the sting, Montana argues that she'll need a weapon in there, despite what procedure dictates. Castillo agrees once Rico notes that he may need the backup.
Rico and Montana go into the warehouse, where Colón shows them the 100 kilo stash he's built up. As they begin to negotiate terms for the deal, another member of the crew arrives, and he immediately recognizes Rico as a Vice cop, from his visit to Dominguez' office. They all draw down on Rico, but Colón aims at Montana, wanting to know if she was involved at all in the deception.
She insists that she's been fooled too, but manages to say the code word that's the signal for the Vice squad to move in. They storm the warehouse, and in the resulting shootout, Colón shoots Montana. Sonny shoots Colón as he tries to make a break for it. After the shooting is over, Montana dies in Rico's arms.
Later, down by the river with Montana's people, Rico and Sonny take a look at the legacy Montana's left behind, even though her methods left much to be desired.
-- Jo Brooks
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Guest Cast Michele Shay Nick Corri Reni Santoni |
Additional Cast Anna Birden D. Christian Gottshall Rudy Marrocco Julio Oscar Mechoso Victor Rivers Joanna Rolle Mel Shrawder Diane Tiller Anwar Zayden |
Featured Music Underworld, Glory, Glory The Payola$, Eyes Of A Stranger |
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Music by Jan Hammer and John Petersen
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Story Editor Peter Lance
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Miami Casting by |
Casting Assistant Majorie W. Morhaim
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