Two Hundred A Day - Episode 94: The Becker Connection

Episode Date: November 28, 2021

Nathan and Eppy get to see Jim helping out a friend in S3E16: The Becker Connection. Becker's been moonlighting with the Narco squad, and suddenly some stolen heroin shows up in his car tire! Suspended while under investigation by internal affairs, Dennis turns to Jim for any help he can provide - which involves Angel, a washed-up Vegas comedian, and turning the tables on a crooked cop. We get to see a lot of good character beats woven into a fun plot, and found this one a great episode that really delivers what we tune into the show for! In our Answering Machine segment we mention: * The Twinkie Defense (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie_defense)) * The Maintenance Phase podcast (http://maintenancephase.com) (their episode on the Twinkie Defense is from 11/2020) * The Rockford Files movies are available to buy on Amazon (Collection 1 (https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Files-Movie-Collection/dp/B002LFQIL2/)) (Collection 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Files-Movie-Collection/dp/B00UT57BFS/)) We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Dael Norwood's historical research (https://daelnorwood.com/) * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Jay Thompson, Matthew Lee, Kip Holley, Dave P, and Dave Otterson! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show * Spoileralerts.org (http://spoileralerts.org) for the adding machine audio clip * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

Hi, um, I'm confused. Is this dial-up prayer? Well, should I call back when the Reverend's in the office, or what? Welcome to 200 A Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Paletta. And I'm Epidaeus Ravishaw. And before we get into this week's episode, we have a blinking light on our answering machine, so we're going to see, we'll see who's left some messages for us real quick. Who's looking to buy the goat? Please, please someone take this goat. So our first note here is from Patreon where patron and friend of the show,

Sam commented about our recent episode on the movie, on the 90s movie, Friends in Foul Play. We mentioned there's a line in there where Beth, in her brief but aggressively good appearance, tells Jim to stock up on Twinkies or something to that effect. Yeah. And we were like, we don't know why she said that. So Sam says, best line about Twinkies ring a bell. or something to that effect yeah and we were like we don't know why she said that um so sam says best line about twinkies ring a bell i think it is almost certainly a reference to the twinkie defense and he links to the uh twinkie defense entry on wikipedia which uh i'll put in the show notes do you know what that what this is what this is referring to actually i sam i was like

didn't we talk about this but we didn't sam and i talked about this okay uh and it's, I was like, didn't we talk about this? But we didn't. Sam and I talked about this. And it was like, I don't want to mischaracterize it, but the person was. So it's a reference to a real case. It's the trial of a guy who shot Harvey Milk. Right. In San Francisco in the 80s. Oh, boy. I guess I could bring up the page to find out the

information anyway this is not a thing that actually has any legal standing but it's this there's a cultural concept 70s in the 70s um he was basically he was like crazed from an over abundance of like sugar and he had he was in poor health and that contributed to his mental state um i i mean i've heard the phrase i didn't really connect it with anything in real life but uh recently and by recently i mean sometime within the last year because what is time um there's a podcast that i listened to that went in a deep dive on this. And it was super interesting talking about the actual circumstances of the case, as well as the kind of cultural attachment, like the I don't know, the meme, the meme status of the defense. It's an episode of a podcast called Maintenance Phase. I heard it as a cross post on a podcast called You Are Wrong About as they share a host.

cross post on a podcast called you are wrong about uh because they share a host right and uh you know both both recommends i'll put the link to the actual um episode in the show notes it's it was more about like he was depressed and was eating a lot of twinkies was evidence that he was depressed rather than yes yeah i'm sorry the sugar thing is like part of the meme that yeah the myth that comes out it's like the the um mcdonald's coffee thing like when you learn the true horrific facts behind that you're like well yeah of course you should have sued and should have ended mcdonald's at that time also a good episode of you're wrong about about that oh well so they they beat me to all these punches there you go that's kind of what their whole deal is. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, so that does make sense in context with the movie. He's going to need something for his, you know, some basis for defense. Eat a lot of Twinkies. There'll be evidence that you're depressed. Which is a sad commentary on the eating of junk food, I suppose. And we have one other question concerning the movies uh that was asked a couple times in various places but uh where can one watch the rockford files 90s movies yeah where nathan can one watch the rockford files 90s movies well

they do not appear to be on any streaming service uh i did a slightly deeper dive check just to see if there are any obscure ones that that they had popped up on um but yeah as far as i know they're basically only available on dvd so and that's how we've watched them we both thanks to the patrons of the show we have invested in physical media, uh, in order to do the, do, do the podcast. So we both have the DVD sets. There are two sets. Each one is four movies that first and second four. Um,

and you know, depending on internet, whether they can run anywhere from high teens to low thirties of dollars, um, you know, depending on the sellers and everything but they're generally available on amazon for something in the in the tens of dollars when we went to dvd we detached ourselves from an understanding of of how to watch the rockford files like when we started

only some episodes were available no all of them were available but then yes so to the best of my recollection a brief history of the streaming status of the rockford files so when i started watching the show upon your recommendation the entire series was available on netflix and i watched through the fifth season uh i did not get, I did not finish the sixth season in that initial watch. I've never seen the last episode because I'm saving that for the podcast. And I think there's one other one

in the sixth season that I haven't seen. Anyway, by the time we decided to do the show, only the first three seasons were streaming. I believe they were on Hulu. Does that sound right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they come off of netflix they've gone to hulu and it's only seasons one two and three so our first like year of the

show we only did episodes from those three seasons so that people could watch them right and then we invested in the dvd sets uh technically i have the blu-ray set which just means that they're louder as far as i can tell i think the visual quality is basically the same. So then they left Hulu and there was a period of time where they weren't available streaming at all. And then IMDb TV started, which is an Amazon thing. Amazon, yeah. They were on that. And then once Peacock started, they recalled a lot of these old shows, a lot of these NBC Universal shows for Peacock to fill out their

library. So the Rockford Files is now available. All six seasons are on Peacock. I don't recall if they're still on IMDb TV or not. If so, they're probably also on Prime, but the movies are not streaming anywhere. You know what? I bet you we always have an IMDb open, right? It's not suggesting that I watch it on IMDb TV. So I'm guessing it's not on it then. Yeah, because usually there's a little box or band. Oh, no. Mine says watch free on IMDb. Oh, yeah, there it is.

I just wasn't looking in the right spot. Oh, and now it wants me to rate the Becker connection. Me too. Well, we'll get to that at the end of the show. Well, I'm going to give it 10 out of 10. Okay, so yes. Oh, I don get to that at the end of the show. Well, I'm going to give it 10 out of 10. Okay, so yes. Oh, I don't want to make it on count. Sorry.

I believe as long as you have an Amazon, if you're logged into your Amazon account, because mine just started playing when I clicked on the link. So, yeah, I guess they're also available on IMDb TV, which is Amazon. So there you go. Wow, it keeps asking me to rate this episode. What is going on? So that's the long and short of it i think if uh at some point i mean we were talking about this in our plus expenses about how the curation of of this sort of stuff is it's it's starting to disappear so eventually all we'll be left with is the echoes that is our podcast right of the rockford files

the the memory of the rockford files... I mean, we could have just invented a 70s detective TV show. This whole thing could be one long creative writing exercise. Yeah, just us improv-ing our enjoyment thereof. And I'm not saying we didn't. I know. Who's to say? Well, thank you everyone for uh your leaving some some messages on our answering machine uh we kind of collect them over over time and then do these every every so often when we have a couple to do all at once so uh if you

sent us something and don't hear it for a while that's just because we're waiting for a couple more to come in don't worry we saw it yeah and we're happy that you had something to say uh yeah and our recording is a little out of sync with real time so so who knows who knows when this one who knows when you'll hear this these these searing insights could be anytime should we proceed to the episode itself i believe we should and uh this one is an epi pick yeah so this is uh season i'm gonna i've got to go back and rate it now uh season 3 episode 16 the becker connection and i i'm not gonna lie i probably chose it just because becker is in the i've been i've been craving uh some of the uh core cast and quite a few of them make appearance in this in this episode so that was nice uh but i had a vague recollection of this episode and i wanted to make sure because at the

time going into it i thought is my recollection of this episode or am i thinking of the um the four pound brick i think is what we figured we were both kind of remembering there was the one the um the other one where he helps becker out because he buys into the oh that's the farnsworth that's the farnsworth stratagem yeah the farnsworth stratagem uh and um so uh i wanted to give us and also i mean it's got dennis's face right there right on the imdb yeah so the smack dab in the middle of season three uh yeah this is in a good string of episodes this comes in between um the trees the bees and tt flowers yeah parter and then the episode after this one was just another Polish wedding. So if you're watching in January, February 77, you have a good, good month of Rockford Files to enjoy.

Which I guess, you know, tips my hand. I think this is a good episode. Yeah, I quite enjoyed this episode too. episode yeah i quite enjoyed this episode too um so this one is uh directed by reza bari who we have seen before in a couple episodes um we're about halfway through his rockford work he is one of the most prolific tv directors uh i believe the stat is that he has over 430 episodes of television wow to his credit as a director in addition to some movies and stuff. Uh, and he also was instrumental in opening sequences,

including the iconic Hawaii five, Oh, surf wave thing. When we finish out the, uh, the, the Betty cycle, we'll,

we'll see if there's anything else fun to, to talk about with him but um so far his episodes have been good and fun yeah i was just scrolling through his massive catalog here trying to find the rock profiles and just seeing which ones he he did uh the writing credits on this one is that is a story by chas floyd Johnson, who's the executive producer, I believe, of the show. I believe we talked about him when we did Fowl on the first play.

Ah. Unless we talked about him when we did The Deep Blue Sleep, because he did the story on those as well. Anyway, one of those episodes. We went more into him and some interesting stuff about his history and how he ended up on the show. There, one of those episodes. We went more into him and some interesting stuff about his history and how he ended up on the show.

There's one more episode where he contributed the story in the next season. But yeah, so the credits are a story by Chaz Floyd Johnson and Ted Harris. Ted Harris has exactly one other writing credit, which is a single episode of the

1994 Robocop TV series and no other information that i could find and the teleplay is by juanita bartlett yay which uh is great because this is a very this is a good character yeah hot blend and uh we get to see a lot of good Jim and Dennis and Jim and Angel interaction. And that's all good, solid stuff. Fairly dramatic Jim and Peggy, or not Jim and Peggy, Dennis and Peggy stuff too, which I thought was very well done. Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that pretty quick. Yeah.

So in order to get us to that, let's go ahead and talk about our preview montage. All right. pretty quick yeah so in order to get us to that let's uh go ahead and talk about our preview montage all right well uh my preview montage is dennis angel stand-up comedian stand-up comedian chapman yes i just want all that thank you very much uh i do have a note here where i was like whoa there's going to be a chase beneath a pier and a gunshot it's not beneath a pier as we'll we'll learn did you have the same i did yeah i was like oh that's clearly a pier yeah right that's but um i guess i'm just accustomed to tv the only times i've ever seen anyone under a pier are in a movie or on tv so yeah i don't i don't believe they exist otherwise. But yeah, pretty straightforward. We go into it clearly knowing that Becker's being framed for whatever's going on. There's no ambiguity there.

Yeah. There's a little bit of ambiguity about some of his behavior. Right, and that'll show up in the episode. Yeah, short and sweet, and then we get into it. It's time to appreciate our patrons over at patreon.com slash 200 a day thanks to you we're a 100 listener supported show why become a patron for as little as one dollar an episode in addition to keeping us going and exclusive episode previews our patrons get plus expenses a bonus podcast where we casually chat about the media we're

enjoying and the things going on in our lives. We extend special thanks to our Gumshoe patrons supporting this episode. Dale Norwood wrote a book, Trading Freedom, How Trade with China Defined Early America. It's about fast ships, cheap drugs, and American political economy. Published by the University of Chicago Press, find it wherever good books are sold. University of Chicago Press. Find it wherever good books are sold. Chuck from whatyou'rereading.com. Paul Townend, who also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color at fruitloopspod.com. Shane Liebling, check out RollForYour.party for all of your online dice rolling needs. Jay Adan, check out his amazing miniature painting skills over at jayadan.com.

miniature painting skills over at jayadon.com, Dave P., Dave Otterson, Kip Hawley, Matthew Lee, and Jay Thompson. And finally, we can't thank our detective patrons enough for their generous support of the show. Eric Antenor at Antenor on Twitter, Brian Pereira at Thermaware, Bill Anderson at Billand88, and of course, Richard Haddam, at Richard Haddam. We follow them, too, at 200pod. Rate and review wherever you get your podcasts, tell a friend who you think would like it, and check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron

is right for you. We start our episode off at Casa Becker, Dennis and Peggy's house, where there's a big group of people setting things up for a surprise birthday party for Dennis. Yeah. Jim is there, of course, and an array of other friends. We do see in a couple of shots that Billings is there in street clothes, which I really appreciated.

I guess he has a couple of days off. I don't know. Yeah. I really appreciate it. I guess he has a couple days off. I don't know. Yeah. Peggy is worried that they're going to run out of food, which she's quickly reassured, I think, by Jim that everything's going to be fine. There's a fun dynamic here that starts right off the bat with Peggy and Jim where I really enjoy the way he's supporting her throughout this.

And obviously it's going to become more and more important as this goes on. But yeah. uh, it just, I really enjoy the way he's supporting her throughout this. Uh, and obviously it's going to become more and more important as this goes on. But yeah, we pretty much see this whenever Peggy's in an episode, but Jim is friends with Peggy just as he's friends with Becker. Yeah. Yeah. Or with Dennis, I should say like in the way that when,

you know, sure you have like a, I guess like a primary friend, right? Like whoever you have a preexisting relationship with and then you meet their spouse or something and then you become friends with them as well. Yeah. So you have a different relationship, but it's still, you know, warm and friendly. And I think that is reflected in their dynamic really well, which is a testament to the character of Peggy and Pat Finley, who plays her.

Of course, we all know that this isn't going to go however one wants. Everyone hides as Dennis arrives. And then the phone rings right as he walks in. He's in his gym clothes. He answers the phone. He's being told he has to come to the station right away. And he clearly is not happy to hear this,

but you know, it's his job. It's what he's gonna do he says that he'll get dressed uh and he'll be right there he throws his bag down to the ground and then surprise great just great reaction from uh from dennis he's like his downtrodden look is is magnificent there's a lot of ways this could go but the way he plays it is just just perfect dennis just yeah yeah yeah we see him being super not happy about this yes but like stifling that because he knows that he shouldn't like that everyone means well yeah yeah

uh and he you know he he says that i'm sorry but i have to get back to the station you all have a good time i should be back soon he goes upstairs to change uh peggy tells everyone to eat and goes to follow him and uh this is a just a wonderful moment of peggy and dennis so like he's mad and he can be mad at peggy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like he's the pressure of the crowd. Isn't there? It's not that he's mad at Peggy. It's just that he, I mean,

he is, but it's that he's in a situation where he can let his guard down enough to be mad. Yeah. Yeah. He can express his anger. Yeah. Peggy,

you know, doesn't want him to be upset, obviously. Yeah. And they have an exchange where he says that I hate surprise parties. And she says, you know that. where he says that i hate surprise parties and she says you know that and she says that she didn't know that i'm like i bet this is something that has never come up yeah but once she acknowledges that you know sure okay maybe

that was a mistake he continues to find things to be mad about yeah and she just like shuts down every single one and how much is it going to cost lasagna is not exactly a budget breaker well what are they going to do wash it all down with tap water what about drinks everybody brought their own that's great that's really great you know what that makes me look like i tell you what you look like dennis but it's your birthday it's just it's great every step of the way he's looking for something to be angry about but peggy isn't gonna put up with his crap right yeah yeah she's she's uh even if she technically made an oopsie yeah when they go

up there's also this lovely bit where when they they go up where Jim just started takes over hosting duties, like just, all right, everyone let's, you know, like, and, um,

I dig that. That's good stuff. Both because he is our main character and because, uh, yeah, we get the sense that he's, he's probably the closest friend. Um,

so, uh, downstairs there's, there's big awkward energy, awkward energy as everyone makes stilted small talk. Lots of compliments on the lasagna. Once Peggy comes back down and then Becker comes back down, he apologizes. But he does need to go talk to the talk to the captain. But he should be back. Then we see that he goes outside, but his engine's flooded.

He can't get his car to turn on. Jim goes to talk to him, offers him a little help, asks him if he needs a little help. And Dennis replies, yeah, you want to finance a new car? He does ask Jim for a lift. And Jim, of course, is more than happy to oblige. So we get the title of the Becker connection over them as as they walk and then we cut to a racetrack of course the rest of our credits over footage of these cars racing on this

track this scene introduces us to our villains who we then will not see for a while yeah marty who is a kind of smooth talking not even smooth but kind of a glad handing kind of guy uh who is a kind of smooth talking, not even smooth, but kind of a glad handing kind of guy who is coming in to see Alex Kasajian. There's a group of guys. He's he's clearly the boss. He's the big guy. I at first referred to Marty as the guy wearing plaid. But then when he got into a two shot, I was like, oh, they're both wearing plaid. but then when he got into a two-shot, I was like, oh, they're both wearing plaid.

They're just very different plaids. But yeah, Kasajian is not happy to see him. It says he's not ever supposed to come around without an official invite. Marty says that he did what you asked, but the boss very clearly explains that he doesn't need people to tell him that they did what he asked. That's why he bought them.

He specifically says, well, I bought you and I bought the cop. If you don't do what you're asked, then they have something to talk about. This is a good threat, yeah. I definitely thought that the race car stuff was gonna be relevant at some point, but other than

as a setting piece, there's no more there's no uh drag racing or anything of the of that nature it was an interesting cut because it's you know jim and dennis get in the car and then we're off to the races they're not um yeah i thought the same thing the uh marty here is is exactly who you'd expect him to be his name uh i didn't uh is marty golden and it just he is he's a perfectly named character is what i'm saying i don't know any marty goldman's in real life or golden yeah marty marty golden's in real life but this is just uh who he is and very eager please please. I think as we know from the preview montage, he is the washed up comedian that we are going to see Jim talking to later.

The angel's going to heckle. Yes, that angel's going to heckle. I'm looking forward to that. All right, down at the station, we get into the meat of our plot here. Becker's brought in to Chapman's office, where he's also being faced with two guys from internal affairs and captain o'reilly something important is happening uh there's a whole recording setup this is so this is good snappy dialogue um a lot of this episode from the

perspective that we're that we get from becker we get a good kind of snapshot of the um code of silence dynamic in the police force it's not called out specifically it's not a huge it's not like an issue like this isn't an issue episode about that or anything but it is clearly present in uh what how becker responds and what becker tells other people later in the episode and i think that really felt pretty um contemporary like that felt relevant yeah and there's this thing with becker where um as the episode progresses there's he's getting you know beaten down by by the department by by what's happening here. And he still has kind of a, he holds on to like, there's a line, we'll probably get to it, but much later on in the episode where he's like, there are very few dirty cops.

Yeah, he has to believe that for his own peace of mind. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, like, he's stuck in this spot where he he feels like a true believer and he's he's the one who's under the under the microscope right now who's uh on the fire in the hot seat there we go that's that's oof it is after hours yeah we're we're doing an evening recording so some of our uh some of some of our language here isn't exactly scintillating. We can blame that. Yeah, so what we get here is that Becker transferred to Narco for a couple weeks.

I mean, it's like a month assignment, I guess, and it's been three and a half weeks. He's basically moonlighting. He's picking up overtime over there. And then he's going to come back to his regular beat, which is robbery and homicide. He doesn't like the work, but it pays well because there's so much overtime. Yeah.

We have an exchange where Becker wants to know what's going on and they ask him if he wants an attorney. And he's like, no, I don't want an attorney. I just want to know what's going on. What's happened is that the police property i don't know locker room i guess i say yeah yeah um that contains like evidence and whatnot heroin from the police property room has been stolen and is on the street and they got a tip and they found some of it in his spare tire in his car yes there's the french connection the chinese connection the mexican connection and now there's

a new connection i really enjoy how slick this internal affairs guy is you just feel like anything becker does or anything he says will incriminate himself yeah or or you could feel him steering him away from getting a lawyer and and uh yeah it's good it's good stuff the actor was very familiar to me and it just now occurred to me that i have imdb open um he because he was on hill street blues i believe in a similar role i've never actually watched hill street blues which i should probably probably change at some point John Hinckley yeah that's him

I feel like he's probably been in a lot of stuff he has a very distinctive chin oh he's in Outland but yeah here he turns on a dime from being friendly and we just want to talk to you to accuse Tori we found it sergeant we got tipped

we looked and we found it then it has to be planned prove it you're the new boy in narco it never happened before it happens three days before you're transferred out and there's this long pause before we end the scene on. You want that lawyer now, Becker? We then go to Jim's perspective where he's just been waiting this whole time. Becker's been in there for hours. And Jim, since he gave him a ride, has been waiting for him to come out. Dennis finally comes out and Jim lights into him about waiting for so long.

Becker's in no mood for it. You know, Becker's clearly in a foul mood and jim's like you know he brings up the party and like and he builds up to if you have a problem congratulations you're the only one in the world it better be a beauty and uh becker says uh well this will give you a few yucks it is i've just been suspended and jim immediately his face falls and and becker has pushed past him after saying that he's walking away and he just has this wonderful dennis i i love when when jim gets ramped up in anger at his friends and then they say something and it just pulls the rug out from underneath them and he's just like, oh, okay.

Yeah, I'm not being a good friend right now. I mean, we've seen that happen a few times with Angel. But this one's a classic one. This one's really good. This reminds me of a moment from To Protect and Serve where there's the super fan that is following Dennis around. And, yeah, there's a similar situation where Jim is mad at Dennis about something and Dennis tells him what's really going on and he just flips to. Oh, it's because he's suspended. He's he's being investigated or not investigated, but he's he shoots a guy while apprehending him.

Yeah. And then he has to be on like suspension while they do an internal investigation. Like, yeah, which is just policy. But Jim doesn't know that until dennis tells him the whole story um so it's a similar thing where jim gets mad at dennis and it's like no it's this really serious thing and jim instantly is like oh that yeah my bad to a similar thing where we end up with jim uh you know buying dennis some beers at a bar and uh getting getting the rest of the story which is where we go to in the next scene becker explains the situation to him um and uh jim says that what you know well if you're clean then just let it run its course you know the

theory they're working under is that becker needed the cash and he says who doesn't he and peggy they bought their house on a foreclosure and this year the taxes doubled uh the property taxes on their place doubled money's money's really tight yeah he tells a story about his parents and how his dad worked at a button factory and cashed his paycheck and brought it home and his mom had envelopes and he describes envelope budgeting which is yeah maybe familiar to to some folks but uh you know you you have your envelope for rent for food for clothes etc and then we lived out of those envelopes and this is a setup for something uh um just another line later on in a scene or two about the envelopes one of one of my favorite things going on in this scene um aside

from just like yeah we're kind of getting an idea of the dennis's situation is more dire and he's taking it on himself he might not even be letting peggy know just how bad the financials are yeah yeah and um he gets up out of frustration and then goes to play pinball, puts a quarter in, and then doesn't play. Basically, he's just fretting about. He doesn't know what to do with himself is really what's happening. But I love the business. When he leaves, which he can't do without Rockford because Rockford drove him. Rockford turns to the pinball machine. And there's just like a longer than you'd expect.

Yeah. Yeah, a beat of Rockford, like even pulling the plunger back and letting one of the balls roll. And it rolls as he walks away. It goes. It starts pinging off of some of the bump the upper bumper is the ones that flash and stuff and make noise and so he looks back over his shoulder and then like grins as it just keeps ricocheting around and they're like oh that was a good shot yeah before going after dennis he's not going to play the pinball but yeah we have this like extended beat of jim not wasting the corner

yeah exactly and then i don't know if that was just captured, like it just worked and they just left it in or what. I was thinking about that, too, because like not all it was a good it was a good shot. And that could have literally been a genuine like James Gardner moment. But there's also a thing about money. So, OK, let's get into why this episode is so good for me and you it's a yeah it's a good us episode yeah uh because there's gonna be a lot of food stuff and there's gonna be a lot of money stuff and um the money stuff is gonna get down into the

quarters here like becker doesn't have the money to waste on a pinball machine. Importantly, Jim offers him a few hundred dollars that he can scrape together if he needs to. And Becker kind of waves him off and Jim says, I wouldn't offer it if I wasn't willing to give it to you. Right. Right. And that is 100% true. We end the sequence outside of Becker's house where Jim and Dennis have a little more conversation in Jim's car. You know that story I told you before? I told that to Peggy a long time ago when we first got married. She's got the envelopes now and not enough to put in them.

Now I gotta tell her I'm suspended. How the hell do I do that? Yeah. And Jim just doesn't have an answer, which is very real. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And Jim just doesn't have an answer, which is very real. Yeah. Yeah. At a certain point, you can't help someone else break that kind of, you know, break that kind of news. And so we watch Jim watch Becker slowly and slump shoulderedly walk up to his door. of the score rise as we go inside tight on dennis's face and then pull out to see the leftover party stuff because it never got cleaned up including the happy birthday dennis sign that's

hanging off of one side it's so sad it's so good i love this i like i have dennis framed in the ruins of his party you might know it's here here because it's just it's a great shot. This is a great I mean, Joe Santos, always great. Yeah, this is as most Becker focus episodes are great showcase of his ability to be downtrodden, but not pathetic. Yeah. I mean, he can be pathetic when when needed. But I think we really get the sense of the gravity of he feels like this is a crushing moment.

Like the thing that his entire identity is wrapped up in being a cop has just been stripped away from him. And he has the financial pressure. Yeah. And like, what are you supposed to do? Like, I don't know. It's a big, big moment. We do go from there to to Peg, uh, Peggy vacuuming.

I think mercifully, we don't have to see that actual conversation happen. Becker comes in. He asks if he's had any calls. He already went for his walk. He wants to know when lunch is. And Peggy says, well,

you can have it now if you want, but it's only 10 30. So now we get that flip side where he literally doesn't know what to do with himself. Right. Um, she tells him that he should go down to the station and find out what's going on. Maybe get himself a lawyer that they mentioned.

He does spell out here that getting a lawyer, it's the kiss of death. You get a lawyer and they figure you have to be dirty. But we get a good joke in the cut to get into our next scene where Peggy says, Dennis, you have to do something. Dennis goes, yeah. And then Jim goes, no. Yes. Jim and Dennis are at some vending machines at a car wash, I think. Jim's getting coffee.

Becker's agonizing over which candy bar to get out of this machine. Yeah. We are coming in to the middle of the conversation where Becker is asking Jim for his help. Yeah. Jim doesn't want to get involved. Of course, it's going to cause more trouble for him and for Jim. Let it play out. He's clean.

They're all cops. They're all on the same side. They can't build a case. But Becker says that he can smell it, that they're going to frame him, that the internal affairs guys they only move up by busting cops i think we see here where like while becker's a true believer he's not an idealist right he is a realist yeah there's there's a fun bit here where it seems that dennis has invited jim to lunch and they're getting lunch out of the vending machine. And that's, um,

another like bit about the money. So yeah, the business during all this is like them getting a couple things out of these vending machines. Yeah. Yeah. This is the, the lunch that Becker said he would, he would host Jim to,

um, Becker does say that as soon as things get hairy, Jim can walk, no arguments, totally his, his call. And Jim, of course finally agrees becker's then distracted i guess by like the the the workers at the yeah car wash i wasn't

quite sure was that becker's car that they yeah i think so yeah all right so he goes and shoes a couple people away from his car yeah and i guess my re again i don't know how car wash has worked at this time my read on that was like he didn't want them to do anything because then he would have to pay them or tip them or something yeah that could be the case so he shoves everything that he was holding into jim's hands and jim just looks at it and then he comes back and he asked jim if he can get a push. Yes. Cause he has to get to another police station cause he has a doctor's

appointment. And Jim just throws his handful of snacks in the garbage as he walks over to his own car. This isn't lunch. Yeah. Yeah. Jim does start poking around. Um,

he is at the station and he starts talking to another, another cop. Um, I think he was at the party. I actually don't remember if he was or not, but this is, uh, Andy Dolan.

Yeah, he was at the party. I remember him. So he's a friend of Becker's. They went through a cat at the police Academy together. He can't believe that Becker did anything dirty he has a clean record must be a frame uh jim explains that internal affair has got a tip so someone you know specifically is is trying to um you know make him look like he's he's suddenly turned dirty um so dolan has a whole thing

where he says that he can't give jim any. There's no, like he can't snitch. Right. He doesn't say this. This is not in the dialogue, but you know, snitches get stitches. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is another part of the code of silence thing, right? Like this is another element of that. Um, Jim just needs a starting point, anything you can give him. And finally, Dolan gives them a name,

Mendoza, a gopher who's been known to gopher for more than a prune Danish, if you know what I mean. Jim is going to leave, but then a woman in uniform grabs him. And Becker had introduced them once at a Lakers game. So she remembers him, right? Right, right. She wants Dennis to know that they're auditing the buy money tomorrow and she can't cover for him so it turns out that he dipped into their the buy money in the narco department or whatever for a break job for

his car and he was intending to put it back but you know you know he forgot or something and it's 150 dollars and i was like that that that passed without comment but then then I realized from Jim's surprised reaction that, oh, right, that's a lot. All right. So $150 through our – what year are we looking at here? 77. All right. Inflation. This is important because I can – all right.

1977. The year is 2020. $150. Calcul150 calculate $677 that is a little overpriced for a break job because and I can tell you that because this weekend while out of town

had to get a 500 and change dollar break job oh no I was so not happy about that yeah um fortunately i had buy money i could dip into uh from your all your narco buying yeah well you know i've been moonlighting on the uh but yeah um there was something about this woman i don't know how it read to you but i felt like this was a setup and it just turned out not to be. It was just an honest.

I was expecting Jim to pay her the money and then someone to nail Jim for either bribing or something. Or yeah, or something like that. Like now that you say it, I see that. I didn't think that in the moment. I've been watching too many noirs that's what's happening in i mean she seems very wholesome as part of it i think uh also in retrospect this is a bit of a subplot right if anything it stands out to me for being a little bit unnecessary plot wise but it's a subplot about Dennis's financial state that is relevant. Well, it's it's part of why the suspicion is on him.

Right, right. Why it's going to be so hard to throw it. Yeah. Yeah. It'll look real bad, right? If they audit the money and he's taken way too much for what he says was a break job and he, quote, intended to pay it back. Like, that's just it looks bad. Jim gives her cash to cover it

so he gives her 150 on the spot then he frowns at the money left in his hand and he makes a phone call to angel and asks how you'd like to pick up an easy 20 yeah he's counting the money yeah uh now we're in it now now we've got angels involved. Angel working to get Becker off the hook here. One thing that, again, I'm just realizing now that I like is that Angel and Becker never interact until the very end. I mean, because until the very end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not like it's not like Becker needs to bring an angel or Jim has to talk Becker into accepting Angel. to bring an angel or jim has to talk becker into accepting angel jim's kind of like all right i need to chase down like this tiniest thing this one name on the street i guess angel can help

yeah i can afford angel barely so we have a little montage here where we cut back and forth between jim talking to men in bars and angel talking to women on the street yeah i was like my notes are like i i love the mystery here i mean i assume jim's interrogating underworld folk but like what is going on with angel what he's what has he sent angel to do is is the question right? Yeah. I was like, is he going to like track down clothes or something? So very specifically the guys that Jim is talking to

are Rockford coded as underworld, right? And the women that Angel talks to are just people going about their daily lives. Yeah, it's just people shopping, people at a bus stop they're all women you kind of just get this feeling in retrospect you kind of just get this feeling that angel took the job and then just went about his normal day which involves just

talking to anybody who'll listen i yeah in retrospect i think it's it's i talked to people on the street right yeah jim you asked me to talk to people on it's I talked to people on the street. Right, yeah. Like, Jim, you asked me to talk to people on the street. I talked to people on the street. I didn't try to talk to anyone relevant. Yeah. So the cross-cutting and the score under it cuts as we go to Angel getting a deli sandwich. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

What's with you, man? Is there a shortage on salami? Hey, how'd it go? It's going okay. Can I have some more peppers, please? Guy's trying to charge me extra for the provolone. What'd you get? A submarine, and I wouldn't recommend it either.

Angel information. Jimmy, can you get this? It's a buck and a quarter, which is way out of line. Yes. I took a screenshot a screenshot i posted it to instagram because the the deli guy the guy serving angel not only has the most amazing mario from mario brothers mustache under his white chef's hat um i mean he's like a line cook right like so he has like a little white like peaked hat and this amazing mustache and then just the look in his eyes just just the look in his eyes as he as he withstands this abuse from angel but he sees that he is in fact going to

get paid for the sandwich is chef kiss and then the camera very clearly shows us that after paying for this dollar 25 sandwich jim has exactly two one dollar bills left um he joins angel at the bar where he's enjoying his sandwich giving the bartender a stink eye as two beers appear in front of them and asks angel what he found out this is a a classic classic Jim Angel moment here. Billy Tata. Billy Tata. I never heard of him. Me neither. I guess he must be new on the show. Yeah, well the name I came up with

was Raphael Sabatini. Well, let me finish the story, huh? Sabatini. That's the name I got from four or five guys. Sabatini. Angel, Raphael Sabatini has been dead for a couple of hundred years. I better tell those guys. Boy dead for a couple of hundred years. I better tell those guys. Boy, what a reputation he's got.

Good, good Angel. So, of course, Angel didn't turn up anything with his inadequate questioning of people on the street. But Jim did get two names. So he gives one to Angel to check out. And then he tells Angel he'll get his money once he actually does that work. We see Angel take a big bite out of his sandwich before yelling at Jim

not to forget the beer as Jim goes to the payphone. He calls Becker's house. Peggy answers. He says it's not important, but she says, whatever you want to talk to Dennis about you should it'll make him feel better he's at Frank's place

well let's take a little break we want to make sure that you know where you can follow all of our other projects and interests online Epi where can our listeners find you? you can google Epidia I am the only one out there that I know of. You

can go to dig a thousand holes dot com. That's the number a thousand. Or you can go to worlds, plural, without master, singular dot com and find my work there. How about you, Nathan? My internet home for all things NDP is at ndpdesign.com You can find all of the links and information for all of my various games, including the World Wide Wrestling role-playing game, my zines, and

podcast projects, of which perhaps there may be more than one. You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter at ndpeoleta. As always, if you want more information about the podcast, go to 200aday.fireside.fm. And now back to the continuing adventures of Jimbo Rockfish. I assume that Frank's Place was a bar, but no. We have exciting stuff is happening music, as I call it in my notes.

As we see Jim checking an address and then wandering into a century cab garage. Dennis is coming out in a cab as Jim walks in. Frank is an ex-cop who runs this century cab. Nobody looks more comfortable being a cabbie than Dennis.

Like, that could have been his calling in life. Fun trivia fact, apparently before he started getting cast and stuff, Joe Santos drove a cab for like three years. See, that's perfect. I forget exactly where I read that. It might have been in the, um, it might've been in the, in the 30 years of the rock profiles.

I don't remember. It might be in the trivia on IMDb. So if I'm wrong about that, I apologize, but I did read it in the last two days and I agree. He is one of nature's cabbies. Yes. I mean,

he's a great police Sergeant, but he's also a great cab driver. Um, Jim hits him with these two names and Dennis recognizes Willie Hatton or as he calls him, Willie the Hat. Becker busted him a week and a half ago trying to unload Mexican mud over a schoolyard fence. But he's he's back out. And Jim posits that maybe he used Becker to deal himself out of his, you know, out of jail or whatever. Dennis gets mad, says, leave him to me. I know how to deal with cockroaches like him.

Peels out in his cab. He mentions that it's not far from his fair, like the motel, whatever, that this guy lives in. And we have a good gag as Jim goes back to his car where he's parked next to a fire hydrant. As Jim goes back to his car where he's parked next to a fire hydrant and he is getting a ticket very slowly written as he tries to explain to the traffic enforcer that he's in a hurry. And most of this, like my notes were like, what is going on here? Because I was suspicious of all authority in this episode. Right, right. But this is just so that Rockford is is too slow to beat dennis to the right to the next scene jim rushes into this hotel in a in a hurry uh asks for willie hatton and the manager has a great line anyone who needs him

knows where to find him but does tell him the room jim heads upstairs. There's no score under this, and it becomes a very ominous walk down a hallway. I feel like we know where this is headed. Yeah. Jim knocks on the door. There's no answer. He goes in. The door's unlocked.

The TV is on. He moves through the space into the bathroom, where we see a man drowned in the bathtub. The timing on this is impeccable, because'm like yes we see jim see this we see the shot and then i'm just expecting expecting it to go to commercial or something or cut to the scene but just as i'm expecting that cut a chair comes out of nowhere and smashes into the back of jim's head and whoever was still in the apartment makes her escape there was something about it that surprised me in a really satisfying way. Yeah, like a genuine, like you weren't expecting it.

Yeah, no, same here. I enjoyed it. And it didn't need to be there for any, there's no plot reason really. It needed to be there or anything. It's just for this like really great effect, I guess. Every so often you have to get the drop on Jim. Yeah. It just has to happen.

Jim groans, puts his, you know, tries to pick himself up, sees a Century Cab matchbook on the ground as we've been, had a couple exchanges on Twitter recently that the art of the matchbook being a clue

has really gone out of style. And that's a real shame. I mean, like this is before cell phones and GPS. That's how you trace someone's movements. People would just leave matchbooks from their previous location in a new location. You just follow it backwards. You have a good gym. Damn this.

Damn this. We go to the station where the internal affairs guys are coming in with Becker. Jim's waiting in the hallway. Becker hopes that there are stories. Jim says, well, did you tell the truth? And Becker says that he's not worried about himself. He's rubbing his jaw and Jim asks him why. And he has a swollen gland.

That's what he was supposed to go see the doctor for, but he canceled it for the cab job because he needs the money. Jim shows him the matchbook. Dennis says that it's evidence. Jim says it's a plant. Dennis says, yeah, but it's also evidence. Yes. Jim informs Dennis that he owes him a yard and a half

for the covering up, break the break job money the argument about whether it's petty cash or not and then that ends with rockford straight up asking him just how hard up for money are you and there's a significant pause before chapman appears to drag jim into his office um so i don't think we go back to i don't think we go back to this theme i guess this this kind of sub subplot of um becker's money woes specifically yeah it's not resolved right i was expecting either some kind of like becker did something that he's like ashamed of and lost some money or something like that and that's why yeah he's like ashamed of and lost some money or something like that.

And that's why he's being so tight lipped or it's something like he was going to do something for Peggy and it didn't, and it lost money like, or he's going to get her a gift or something, you know, like I could see that also being something. Um, and yeah,

it's never actually resolved. And that's not, I mean, that's not really a problem but i did kind of think it was going to come up again to kind of close that loop at some point right it um i mean we all know about money problems um they're just perennial and uh he's underwater with the house which makes sense if you don't know about money problems may i refer you to our patreon at patreon.com slash 200 a day uh yeah that's good plug um but yeah no i agree like it there's there's a general theme about money problems throughout this episode because

we are watching rockford bleed money and also it's very obvious he's not hired by Dennis. He's just helping a friend out. I mean in a way this is the money he offered to scrape together for Dennis right? He's just he's spending it on behalf of Dennis without just giving him cash. And there's certainly no happy ending where he's

he gets a big bonus or something. Yeah or something like that yeah. It's just not going to happen. Well we go into the scene we've all been waiting for where jim gets hauled in before all the uh all the investigators jim sits down to talk after he is given a very good oblique threat it's not really oblique but a very good i don't know don't make me do this threat from the internal affairs guy yeah we wouldn't want to file former formal charges yes but we can he's uh he's great because he does this like face that's like i'm just trying to be your friend but then he just completely switches it over to with so much power over you right now like it's just yeah don't get it twisted yeah we know we

know who's in charge here um he says that they're making progress and uh the captain i think o'reilly um who is who has been silent this whole time blows blows his top progress what progress we got heroin b hitting the streets right out of narco property we got a police informant drowning in his own bathtub. We got a cop who looks better for it than anybody in town. And you know what I got? Breakfast with the chief tomorrow so I can brief him on when he don't read in the paper or catch on 11

o'clock news. So he points at Jim and says, lock him up. And Chapman says, on what crime? He's like, okay, fine. Lock Becker up. We can do that for 48 hours. And we have the rare, rare evidence of Chapman not just immediately bowing to whoever is in charge. I don't see where that's going to help anything.

So the captain asked Chapman for his personal guarantee that Becker won't cause any trouble out on the streets. And Chapman orders Dennis to to go home stay there he's going to put a man on him so he doesn't leave and absolutely no contact with with rockford jim can leave but he's out of it uh he means that if he catches him mousing around even the edges of this he'll slap him with charges they don't even have on the books yet it's not that it seemed out of character it just is a really interesting little snapshot of Chapman's role in the hierarchy, I guess, where he's like, yeah, he has an authority that he doesn't want to let go of. But he also, you know, finds a way to be

mad at Jim. Yes. And I feel like there's a kind of a sense I might be reading this into it that Chapman's kind of on Becker's side versus internal affairs. I think that's probably true. If it's not in the text, it's in the subtext. You know, I think that the, what's his name? James, James Louise. Is that how it's pronounced? If it's not, then I've been mispronouncing it for the entire run of our show.

He's, he's, I think we've seen him act. Yeah, I think he's probably sitting in this moment thinking about what what Chapman's situation is. And he's probably going through that exact same thing. It's just that Dennis needs to get out of this mess. He probably doesn't like internal affairs and doesn't want him up in his business. And maybe Rockford is a chance. probably doesn't like internal affairs and uh doesn't want him up in his business and maybe rockford is a a chance you know like like you know uh offers a chance for dennis to get out of this or if nothing else maybe rockford does something where they could put rockford up instead of dennis

that kind of thing yeah and and they do legitimately not have anything on them yeah yeah um so the captain follows jim out and calls uh andy dolan over and puts him on jim tells him not to not to lose rockford and to report to him directly all right so jim of course goes home we go to his trailer where he is cooking his own dinner, wearing an adorable little apron. The phone rings and it's Angel. It says that he can give him Marty Golden for $50. Jim, of course, originally offered him $20, but Angel has put in a lot of hours on this. It's not even minimum wage at this point. And we have this great shot of him just chewing on

a stick of gum on his end of the phone while he and Jim are playing chicken about who's going to break first over this. Yes. And Jim ends up ends up saying, OK, fine, fifty dollars. So Marty Golden is a comic. He works at a place called The Stage Left and that he's also does does some schlepping for the owner,ajian angel doesn't doesn't know who that is but jim recognizes the name so that we will know who this is um he's big in automobile racing and he owns i think he says he owns like a car wash and a couple other businesses he has his finger in lots of pies it's fun to think of jim just like just having a catalog of these people i i kind of like the idea that because Jim likes cars, he would know who owns racing tracks.

Yeah, I see that making sense. But yeah, this is a written moment to remind us as audience that this is who we saw in that first scene. Right. Yeah. Angel thought he'd want to see him. So he got them 9 p.m. tickets for the for Marty. Marty Golden's next show. And Jim sure does want to see him, so he got them 9 p.m. tickets for Marty Golden's next show. And Jim sure does want to see him. He hangs up the phone.

Then he sees that his food is burning. And he goes over and pokes at it. I think it was either like a lamb chop or like a... I don't know. Maybe a pork chop? Yeah, like a pork chop thing. It didn't really look like beef. But anyway, it is clearly a piece of meat that he has been tenderly cooking.

He has. Yeah. His lemons. Yeah, he's ready. He had this whole plan and it is it is burned is burned to too much to recover. And he has a very frustrated face as he just throws it straight in the garbage. He gets his coat and then he gets his gun out of the cookie jar. Yes.

So this is a callback to the last episode we did here. We again, we have Rockford's cookie jar. He pulls the gun out, but I don't think he uses the gun at any point from here on out in the episode. Yeah, he has it taken from him. So, yeah, we know because the opening montage ends with a freeze frame on him and the sound of gunfire and then we see him pick up the gun from the cookie jar it it definitely ups the stakes about what's what's going to happen next

so i i enjoyed that but again it's this sort of uh spoiling our expectations because it's it's not a thing that he's going to very rarely wields it, even when he has it. I think he has it so that he can have it taken away. Yeah, exactly. I also noticed, and this isn't just, I don't know, I don't think this is always in the set dressing, but he has

a glass bowl of matchbooks next to the cookie jar. And I was like, matchbooks? But I think it was just how they dressed the set that day or whatever um it is not relevant to the story i was just seeing if there's anything that the uh that the guy who plays marty golden is in that i would recognize he is in a movie called wanton ton the dog who saved hollywood well i mean the name jack carter sounds very the name sounds familiar probably played this

character and everything he was right yeah and he was in a lot of things yeah for instance in er he played mickey goldstein he did a bunch of voices for the run and stimpy show that makes sense wilbur cobb wilbur j cobb and old geezer so we watch andy dolan and his and his partner follow jim to the club so we know jim's still still under surveillance and marty golden uh who sure enough is the guy from the track um is doing some real bad jokes so this is a not like a prosperous fun club. This is a grim. Yeah, this is not not where you want to be performing. I believe this is what we're supposed to take from this. Jim joins Angel at a table.

There's the bit from the preview montage that Marty goal. Yeah, he's dying. Get the hook. That's it. Keep America beautiful. Kill yourself. Angel continues heckling. Marty ignores him and engages with him a little bit.

Then he tells another really bad joke. It totally dies. I love LA, but have you ever been to Vegas? Now there's a town. Last time I was there, they had a slot machine there with a sign over it. It said, in case of atomic attack, hide under this machine. It's never been hit. That's a lemon and two watermelons i don't even know what that means but i like it so i do know what it means oh let me explain the joke to you it's so bad um because the joke itself was a gambling joke right it was about vegas it was a slot machine. Oh, yeah. If there's a nuclear bomb. Yeah.

Get under this slot machine. It's never been hit. Now, so there's a couple of things going on here. Number one, this guy clearly wants to be in Vegas and he's not. Right. So he's telling Vegas jokes. He says later that like he used to do Vegas and like he actually did do well in vegas at some point in the past and he's clearly trying to recapture that and um the i love the parallel between that and

so angel's whole journey from this point forward is great so that's what's happening there and then when he says that that's a lemon and two watermelons i think he's he's he's saying it's a lemon right it's a bad joke but also it's a lemon and two watermelons i think he's he's he's saying it's a lemon right it's a bad joke but also it's a lemon and two watermelons which probably won't pay out on the slot machine now that you say that i see because yeah those are like things that aren't gonna i'm with you now i never would have gotten there i like i follow the logic of every one of his bad jokes and they all had logic to which is great as well um but But yeah, it's a wonderful scene to watch Angel heckle maliciously, but also as if that's part of what you're supposed to be doing.

Right, that's how he's engaging. I mean, Marty's best material is responding to the heckling. Yeah, exactly. Some of those lines are actually funny. Yeah. And I think this is all, all you know we are not meant to think that he is doing good work like he's not good that's the point i really enjoyed watching angel behave as if he was performing not just a public good but like what marty would want out of

the situation and so so he mentions so we'll talk about Angel for a second. So part of the act is he mentions that it's an open mic and that you can get paid. Yeah. I don't recall exactly what he says, but what Angel takes from it is, hey, they pay you to go up there. Yes. After the set finishes, Jim wants to go catch Marty. Angel says that he'll pick up the tab.

And Jim, I think, is rightfully suspicious. He's like, no, no, no. I want to stay here. I'm done working. I want to watch the rest of the show. And Jim's like, all right. Like, if you want to keep the tab, it's out of my hands. I don't care.

So he goes backstage. The waiter comes over. Angel gives him the ticket and says to give yourself a big tip. It's on the house. And then he jumps up on stage and starts doing prison material. Yes. angel gives him the ticket and says to give yourself a big tip it's on the house and then he jumps up on stage and starts doing prison material yes and what i think is really funny he's dying up there like there's not a single laugh but maybe it's just because the delivery his jokes are actually funny like i i was more amused by angel's prison jokes than Marty's Vegas jokes.

Then I knew this prisoner whose lawyer came to see him in the prison. The lawyer said, everything is terrific. We got everything under control. I got a big pitch going with the parole board, and I have some very close connections with the governor. But in the meantime, trying to escape. Escape. Escape. Just before he goes up, he has this little, there's this back and forth of rockford about him

you know angel being like you remember when i did that in prison i did a set or whatever jim was like they were yelling at you like you did not do well in prison right right right and that's not how angel remembers it no uh but yeah it's a good bit it's a good bit it's a, it's a good bit. It's a good bit. It's a very, it's a, it's very funny. It's pure angel. It's really good. Yeah. Plot wise, uh, there's a couple of goons lurking around and one of them answers or, uh, answers the phone and it's Mr. Cassasian. And he says that, yeah, we got a rock bird.

He's at table eight and they're supposed to go, you know, get him. And then he slips out before they can. So now they have to go find him, whatever he's up to. So in the moment, I did not question this at all. Looking back at it, I'm kind of like, so why is he calling? Like, why is he looking for Jim? But I think this must be this makes sense once the final reveal happens. Right.

Right. Yeah. Wait, does it? I think so. So, OK, around this point also i i started thinking so the only other cop that we've been talking to is this guy handy dolan and we know that there's been stuff being stolen from narco and someone's trying to pin it on dennis so around now is when i was like i bet he's the actual dirty cop.

And so we'll go ahead and issue a spoiler for the last 15 minutes of this episode. That is, in fact, what's going on. So I guess since Dolan is following Jim and he doesn't want Jim to cause any trouble to the situation he has going, maybe he calls Kasajan to tell him, hey, this Rockford guy is coming to your club. Yeah, that's probably probably what's going on here. Like at this point, I think I was envisioning a broader, larger conspiracy than what it turned out to be. So I thought the cop that put Dolan on rockford yeah was also part of it i i thought that might be the case as well yeah i i honestly thought the whole narco squad was was responsible

and they're just they're blaming beckard because he's the only clean one yeah exactly so to me this whole thing was like oh yeah of course they would tell their mob boss that they were tied to what was going on and yeah there's a couple ways it could happen but that that's the one that occurs to me now looking back at it in the moment totally made sense didn't i didn't even not a speed bump yeah clearly you know they're going to interact at some point so um it's very natural but you know sometimes you look for look for the connected tissue and it makes sense. I think, um, Jim catches Marty getting into his car and then, uh, and then in an amazing power move makes Marty slide over into the passenger seat and he sits behind the wheel while he's trying to impress Jim with his Vegas stories.

And in my notes, I go, Jim's behind the wheel, my dude. I guess. You are not in control of the situation. I just, this line is like, hey, you want to slide over for a minute? I was like, how did that work? It's such a power move. This guy is so used to just caving to anyone who has any kind of power over him. But yeah, it was great. It was perfect. to anyone who has any kind of power over him but yeah it was great it was perfect the the next two scenes are a lot of jim telling marty what's going on and asking him about it and marty denying that

he knows anything until he finally tells jim this first part uh he doesn't get too far before there are two goons come running out of the club and uh well the the sequence is marty says take a hike or i'll call the goon squad and then we see them running out and then we see jim see them in the rear view and say you won't have to and he peels out so we have a brief chase um where the goons are following i notice that there are no seat belts being worn so you know standards and practices missed this one yeah um jim manages to take a tight turn that the following car can't make and they uh hit a fire hydrant the car is incapacitated they can no longer follow and jim and marty get away and uh we have a good good line from marty who taught you driving

evil kenevil they pull over marty says that he's feeling sick and then he kind of awkwardly tries to run away but clearly he is not going to be able to escape jim um jim that he's feeling sick and then he kind of awkwardly tries to run away, but clearly he is not going to be able to escape Jim. Jim says he's trying to help him, not hurt him. We go back and forth about not knowing anything. And then Jim mentions a stiff named Willie Hatton, and that tells him that Hatton is dead.

How many ways I gotta tell you? I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, Marty, whatever you say. Hey, you want me to give you a lift back to the club? Those two mastodons ought to be dried off and heading for home pretty soon they saw us together but you know you can tell them you played it cool you didn't tell me a thing they'll go be a story you creep they'll kill me i mean if i talk i'm dead and if i don't talk i'm dead which i love how that gives away the store like yeah yeah we all know that i know something so he was just doing a favor for this guy kasajan to get some club time polish up his act to get back to vegas

um you know kasajan's running dope on the side he has a cop connection and he told marty to talk up a cop named becker on the streets uh as a dirty cop or whatever and marty figures that that is his real connection and that he wants the cop not involved anymore and this is how he wants to take him out of the equation but you know he doesn't actually know anything uh about you know the actual details and says that the last that he's heard they were still cutting up the dope at cassagian's office at the track before putting it on the street jim gets back behind the wheel of Marty's car and says, and he gives Marty his name and where he lives and says to call him and he'll give him the car later.

Again, power move. Fun scene. It's the last we see of Marty, but good, good stuff. Full of rock-furtishness, I would say. So there was a line in there. I kept meaning to look up. Yeah, he keeps saying that I really Schneidered him. Yeah, to prevent an opponent from scoring a point in the entire game or match.

So now it makes, yes, it's a, is it cribbage? From the context, it sounds like he was saying that he just, he really, he tore the house down. I think in cribbage, it's like a perfect score. Your opponent can't score anything because you've scored it all. So I think that that's what that's a reference to. There's a bunch of card games where it's called a Schneider. There must have been a card player named Schneider who just went around obliterating their opponents.

If anyone knows about this master card player Schneider, let us know. Let's see. So we're getting to our inevitable finale here. Jim calls Becker, tells him about Kasajians. He has the dope, and he's the one who set him up. And he tells Becker to call Narco and have them go to the track he specifically tells Becker to stay

put we don't want him getting into any more trouble of course and done done done I'll call Dolan he's a good buddy and he'll get some cops out there in my notes I'm like uh oh yep and we're not our boys aren't on to him yet so right

we go to Jim sneaking around the track and then one of the goons surprises him, grabs his gun, uh, forces him inside and Kasajan's in there with a couple other guys. They do indeed appear to be parceling out some material into, into smaller portions. material into into smaller portions so kasajan uh is played by jack kelly who was a maverick co-star yes that he's the other maverick he's the other maverick yeah oh that's lovely i why i didn't notice that i don't know i mean his presentation is pretty mob mobby yeah he does appear in another rock for files episode that we haven't done yet and uh most of the recaps and whatnot mentioning this episode say you know hey jack kelly's in this episode he has a scene with james garner it's great yeah yeah wow i totally missed that yeah because uh brett and bart so he he'd been Bart Maverick. Um, so we have a, a good exchange. Name's Rockford.

He's a PI. Dumb PI. I don't have any time for this. We got to get the stuff out of here. You take care of him, Joey. You'll be making a mistake, Mr.

Kasajan. I don't make mistakes. Jim says that, uh, he's, he, he's called the cops. He's not dumb enough to walk into a situation

like this without backup and then suddenly dolan and his partner bust in with good jim what took you so long dolan then his partner moves in front dolan hits him in the back of the head with his pistol and chaos ensues jim throws dolan at the goons and gets out the door because agent yells for someone to turn on the track lights i i really like this little detail where the jim is somehow he's he is now underneath the the track and this is the shot that seemed like he was under a pier right yeah there's two times where he's underneath this yeah yeah yeah um because agent and his goons run up like a ramp or something and then he goes we're not gonna outrun them circle around to cut them off yeah that's i don't know that's very good like that is good yeah good thinking there's a guitar lick as the lights turn on and the action heats up jim finds a little crevice to crawl down

back under the stairs uh and underneath the track and or underneath the bleachers rather and then we see a car rolling up with becker becker to the rescue dolan finds jim holds him at gunpoint and yells at him you screwed it up and then becker is coming up behind him sees andy has his own gun says andy don't do it cut Cut to Jim's perspective. He's on the ground and Andy's up like on the top of the risers. Yeah. Um, so from Jim's perspective, we see Dolan level his gun.

Then we hear a gunshot. Then we see Dolan fall from the bleachers and it's a, it's a good fall. It's a good fall. And it's, it's classically the indication that someone has died. Right. Like that's in every Western, every action television show from the Rockford Files backwards.

If somebody gets shot with something and then tumbles over a precipice, that's it. And so I was worried. I was worried that Dennis had shot his buddy and killed him, even though this is clearly the guy who set Dennis up. I thought for a moment that someone else shot him like one of the gangsters shot him or something oh yeah possibly but as it turns out andy is not dead he's groaning on the ground as as uh dennis runs up to him dennis did shoot him and he tells dennis that he should have finished him off and then that's when the the black and whites arrive with sirens blazing.

All the goons are taken down. Dennis says to Jim, I know you told me not to get involved. And Jim says, thanks for ignoring me. He says that he called Dolan who said he'd get the department on it, but then he called the station to check and there was no record of it. And so he knew that something was wrong.

And then we get a very, I don't know what the right word would be the the sequence ends with becker reading dolan his rights yeah dolan's on the ground and becker's got his his hand on his cheek on on dolan's cheek i think holding his head up so that he can remain conscious while he's reading of the rights it's a great moment you have the right to remain silent if you give up the right to remain silent get an ambulance will you anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law he's doing the thing he has to do he's grief stricken but you know he's gonna he's gonna do his job and uh it's a good it's a good moment we do have chapman loom in the background of the shot as we freeze frame on this tableau and then we have a slow fade to emphasize the gravity of our climax here.

Maybe a little false ending? Maybe? A little bit. I felt like it could have just ended. That was my fear. My note was like, whoa! But fortunately, we do have a final scene here. So we're back at the Becker home.

We have Jim, Rocky, and Peggy in the shot. Peggy is in a great outfit of vertical purple and white stripes and a wide belt, narrow skirt. Looks great. Big lapels. You'll love to see it. You know, Dennis is also there. Jim's asking him what happened, if he ever got an apology from the department. He says that he got reinstated, and

that's what's important. Rocky, in classic Rocky fashion, says that he just doesn't understand. I don't understand any of this. People can't be bad. So Andy Dolan was on the take, and he was going to frame this

situation on whoever the new guy in Narco was was and it happened to be dennis so it wasn't personal but it was a frame so dennis and then dennis specifically says i don't know how we got involved with kasaj in the first place like we don't need to know more like that's just that's fine jim keeps asking for more information i think and he and dennis takes jim's chips away jim has like a bowl of chips in his hand and dennis just pulls them out of his hand get the feeling jim that he doesn't want to talk about it according to dennis there's no such thing as a dirty cop i didn't say

that they're few and far between uh and then guess what surprise we're we're bringing back the birthday party since the first one didn't go so well. A bunch of people invade the house. We see, I have a note angels lurking in the background. They bring Dennis a birthday cake with a cop car on top of it. And then we go to angel telling a wrapped crowd, including Billings in his street clothes. Again,

some of, some of his best prison material. Yes. Tell the one about the prisoner who's going to the chair. You know that one, the prisoner? He's going to the electric chair, and his attorney comes in. He says, give me some last-minute advice. And the attorney says, don't sit down.

It's good. It's a good moment. Then we finish with Jim and Dennis. Jim asks Dennis how he's doing and dennis says that well everybody's talking to me and it's kind of nice having friends but you know something i still hate surprise parties and that's where we get our freeze frame end of episode yeah it was a it was a fun one it definitely had enough for both of us food and money wise uh i really did like the trajectory of the money where it started off

with these big ticket items and then by the end rockford is like counting his two dollar bills trying to see if he has change for the phone yeah that's good that was very good i like how it's kind of neatly wrapped up by angel fobbing off the bill yeah jim doesn't have to at the very end uh yeah it's good stuff it's a uh it's a solid episode i really i really enjoyed it we've had a string of of uh you know out of the norm episodes so this felt this felt like a very like having a a good solid square meal of a of a rockford files a return to a return to pace yeah definitely return to form um yeah i i i'm trying to think of like any other cherry on top i could i could any any button made by dennis's dad that we could put at the end here i think the one one thing that i did notice going back through it

is that it has that like uh kind of tiktok of uh tone change like it really it has a pretty serious like serious moment comedy moment serious moment comedy moment cadence that in in the moment i wasn't noticing it which i think is good because it seemed natural um everything's very well balanced it's a it's a well-balanced cocktail of an episode if you want another simile. Yeah. Um, lots of, again,

lots of good angel moments, lots of wonderful. I don't think we mentioned it, but there's just this moment when Becker is in the cab talking to Rockford and he, they find out that this guy, this informant might be involved. And,

uh, Becker was like, you know, he's a cockroach. And then he pulls out this knit cap. Oh yeah. And it's just like a little beanie. Yeah.

Yeah. It's very good. Good stuff. Um, yeah, we never get that resolution on what, if anything, his like money,

if there's anything more to his money issues. Yeah. It's probably the underwater on the house and and uh i mean we don't we don't talk about um scott right we don't talk about scott i don't know if scott's in the picture at this point oh you mean like as a character right yeah because he definitely he's definitely would be alive definitely this time. Yeah, he's definitely referenced in season four. So, yeah, I don't know when canonically Scott first

appears. But yeah, it is a little odd that he's not around for any of the birthday party things. He's staying with family. Staying with family out of state. And great Peggy stuff. There's a thing about her, this reminded me again this is

going back to another juanita bartlett but it reminded me of um the uh paper palace where she's hosting and yeah it is there and like like they have the bad neighbors yeah it's really uncomfortable and then once the bad neighbors leave peggy's like yeah okay we can just be normal now yeah there's a thing i mean i've said i've kind of said this before but like you need this thing where you kind of have to show for instance if peggy and dennis if their marriage works then we got to see why right um especially in rough moments like this. And Dennis does not seem like an easy guy to, to be married. Yeah.

And so we get that, like she's, she doesn't take anything from him. And, but it's also like ready to, you know, understand the stresses of the situation and whatnot. Like,

I don't want to paint her as just Dennis's wife, but that is literally her character in this right right yeah we never get the peggy spinoff or we get to see her like i don't know campaigning for i don't know increased hours at the library or something right i'm just i feel like there would be some like hyper local social cause that she was really dedicated to. She's just a good, uh, I, I just really believe the relationship that they've set up.

She feels real. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it would be real easy to go the lazy route and not have, uh, her feel real. Yeah.

Uh, but then again, uh, that's what Juanita Bartlett can do. Yeah. She writes some very real characters. Yeah, we even get it. This is a really, really good, like, all the side characters have some personality.

We get a sense of what their deal is without having to spend a lot of dialogue on it. The internal affairs guy, Dolan, like, it's, yeah, it's all good stuff. Yeah. I don't know if this is particularly high on the list or whatever. I'm not really thinking about that at the moment. But in terms of I'd like to watch a Rockford Files episode and I don't really have one in mind and I don't really remember what this one is about. This is a one that's worth being like. Yeah. Just watch this one.

It'll be good. It'll give you what you came to the show for. Yeah, exactly. A solid meal. Solid meal. Plenty of pastrami and they don't they don't overcharge you on the provolone. Nope.

Sure don't. What more can an angel ask for? Thank you as always for joining us. Hope you enjoyed our conversation here and we will be back next time to talk about another episode of the Rock for Files. Bye. back next time to talk about another episode of The Rock Profiles. We should record an entire album.