Episode #011

Air Date: 14 Dec 1984 (NBC)
Director: Alan J. Levi
Teleplay: A. J. Edison
Story: Joel Surnow & Wendy Cozen

Episode Summary
Night life on the sleazier side of Miami. Gina is out on the street with Trudy, posing as a strung out addicts in need of a fix. The rest of the vice squad regulars are serving as backup. Finally, the person they’re after, a dealer/pimp named Luther, comes along and offers to “take care” of Trudy, and head to a nearby hotel. Zito and Switek are poised to follow them in the van, but the van won’t start. They radio Crockett and Tubbs, who take off in a flash looking for someone who can tell them the location of Luther’s place of business. They run into another junkie who, once suitably threatened, gives up the information. While Sonny and Rico scurry to the hotel room, Gina and Trudy are already there, and Luther is about to stick the needle in Trudy. Gina decides she’s got to try to make the bust alone, and just after she pulls her gun, Crockett and Tubbs burst in. A quick gun battle follows in which some of the dealers and the junkies in the room are shot; others are captured, while one jumps to a fatal escape.

Among those arrested is Mark Jorgenson, Jr., a “poor little rich kid” who’s been in trouble before. Sonny and Rico interrogate Mark, who doesn’t want to rat on his friends, but finally agrees to do so to avoid six months in jail for possession. But before young Mark can make a statement, a hot-shot lawyer strides into the interrogation room with a court order for his release. Vice cannot touch the kid, but they can “rattle his cage,” which is what they proceed to do with Castillo’s blessing. Crockett shows up at a polo match in which Mark is playing – just to say “hello.”

We next see Mark Jr. totally strung out and laying on one of the bathroom floors in the family mansion. Mary McDermott, Mark Sr.’s current love interest, walks in on Mark. The two talk, and Mary appears sympathetic. A little later, when Mark Sr. arrives home and asks about Mark’s whereabouts, Mary tries to protect Mark Jr. by telling his father the boy is asleep. The father suspects the truth, however, and says as much to Mary. The next day, a conversation between the two Jorgensons reveals that they have no rapport. Mark Sr. says the family attorney can get Mark off, provided he goes to a rehab center for six months. Mark balks at that. His father taunts him, saying that, of course, he can finish the semester and polo season first.

Back at OCB, Trudy has run a background check on the elder Jorgenson, who seems to be involved in some very shady dealings, but the authorities haven’t been able to nail him. Tubbs listens to some surveillance tapes from recent investigations of Mark Jorgenson Sr., which pinpoint the location of a warehouse where some illegal activities may be going on. Tubbs quietly breaks into the place and finds a huge shipment of cocaine worth about $75 million on the street. Vice sets up surveillance on the warehouse to catch whoever shows up to claim the shipment. Crockett, meanwhile, goes to some record offices to try to find out who owns the warehouse. He doesn’t have much luck.

Finally, several well-dressed people, including Mary, show up at the warehouse to claim the drugs, and Vice makes the bust. Tubbs tries to get Mary to talk, as he drives her to OCB, but no dice.

Back at the Jorgenson mansion, father and son are having a conversation in which it becomes quite apparent that Mark Sr. is involved with the drug shipment, but what he tells Mark Jr. is that it’s Mary who’s involved, not him, and that he can’t get involved, either. He sends Mark Jr. to negotiate Mary’s release. While Mark Jr. is at OCB, Crockett and Tubbs try to tell him that Mary is merely the middleman for his father’s drug deals, but Mark doesn’t want to believe it. He springs Mary from jail and rides home with her in Daddy’s chauffeur-driven limo. Mark gets dropped off at his own home first. After he’s out of the car, the chauffeur locks the back doors of the limo, and Mary realizes she won’t ever be going home again.

Mary’s body is discovered soon after. Vice summons Mark Jr. to the crimescene, and he finally faces the truth. He agrees to help Vice get his father. Mark goes to see his father at the mansion, wearing a wire. Mark Sr. is distraught and evidently riddled with guilt about Mary. He breaks down, telling Mark Jr. that he’s been tough on him because that’s the way his own father was, always challenging his children to be tough — because they were superior, above the law, etc., as Jorgensons. He said that he admired his son’s sensitivity — the fact that he rebelled against all of that. Then he tells his son that he killed Mary. Mark Jr. bursts into tears and rips open his shirt to reveal the wire. Vice arrests Mark’s father, and the son takes off. Sonny and Rico go back to the house laterto see young Mark, but it appears he’s left for good.

– Daryle Gardner-Bonneau