Brutal maverick detective Sal Benedetto (superbly played with swaggering aplomb by Dennis Franz) wants to take down loan shark Rollie Simone (a terrific Michael Lerner) using unorthodox means. Leo (a fine Robert Hirschfeld) helps junkie Ricco (powerful work by Marco Rodriguez) go clean. Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti, splendid as usual) and Goldblume (a sturdy Joe Spano) interrogate Reggie (a bravura portrayal by Jonathan Banks), a homeless man murder suspect who suffers from a multiple personality disorder. A robot is loaned to Hill Street Station.
Ricco's struggle to go cold turkey culminates in a poignant moment between Leo and Ricco at the end while the robot subplot delivers a few solid laughs. Hunter (a nicely quirky James B. Sikking) has a couple of touching scenes in which he talks about his service in Vietnam and comes to terms with his inability to connect with others on an emotional level. Dennis Burkley pops up one last time as hulking brute Sonny Crockett. Moreover, there's a positively electrifying moment in which Sal tweaks the nose of hapless low level loan shark Mo 'Mouse' Feldstein (a wonderfully antsy performance by Leonard Stone) as well as a startling ending where Sal blows poor Mo away. And the fact that Hill (solid Michael Warren) asked Mo for four hundred bucks gives his character some sympathetically flawed extra shading.
Ricco's struggle to go cold turkey culminates in a poignant moment between Leo and Ricco at the end while the robot subplot delivers a few solid laughs. Hunter (a nicely quirky James B. Sikking) has a couple of touching scenes in which he talks about his service in Vietnam and comes to terms with his inability to connect with others on an emotional level. Dennis Burkley pops up one last time as hulking brute Sonny Crockett. Moreover, there's a positively electrifying moment in which Sal tweaks the nose of hapless low level loan shark Mo 'Mouse' Feldstein (a wonderfully antsy performance by Leonard Stone) as well as a startling ending where Sal blows poor Mo away. And the fact that Hill (solid Michael Warren) asked Mo for four hundred bucks gives his character some sympathetically flawed extra shading.
