User Reviews

I remember way back when I first watched this Miami Vice episode from season four that I noticed the excellent guest stars. Alfonso Arau, Rosanna De Soto, Esai Morales & Francesco Quinn as the Cruz family. I had seen Arau in the comedy film Three Amigos and he went on to direct the 1992 cult classic film, Like Water For Chocolate. Quinn who was the son of acting legend Anthony Quinn would also have a successful career of his own (sadly he died young at 48 in 2011) and its interesting to note that this was the second time for De Soto and Morales to play mother and son. They had previously worked together in the 1987 film La Bamba with Rosanna playing the mother of Esai Morales's Bob character who was the half brother of Richie Valens played by Lou Diamond Philips. Overall Morales plays Felipe Cruz the younger son of patriarch Jorge Cruz who is one of Miami's biggest bosses of organized crime. Lt. Castillo is curious to know if the son is back in town to try to take over his family's business or for some other reason. Crockett, Tubbs and Gina all have lots of involvement in the storyline to investigate the Cruz family and there's a touching subplot dealing with AIDS and how people react to others who are stricken with the illness. Pay attention to the priest who is Maria's brother as he figures heavily into the whole plot. Won't give away any more about this episode and its one of the best of season four!

As with many episodes this one begins with the team preparing to swoop as Rico makes an under cover buy from Francesco Cruz; it doesn't go quite according to plan Francesco's brother Felipe up leading to him delaying the sale. Felipe has been away for some time and has become a stock broker in New York; he has no obvious links to the family's illegal activities but the vice team decide to investigate him in case he is planning to use his business acumen to take over the running of the family business. Gina is given the task of getting to know him and follows him to an AIDS hospice that is being run by his uncle Ernesto who is a catholic priest. The team wonder if the Cruz family is somehow using the hospice as a cover for one of their illegal activities however Castillo is adamant that Fr. Ernesto is clean. It turns out that their have known each other since the days of civil rights demonstrations in the sixties. Soon the priest is murdered and it initially looks as though the killer might be somebody from the neighbourhood who objected to the presence of an AIDS hospice in the area... further investigation suggests that the killer might be much closer to home.

This was a bold episode of Miami Vice which took on the subject of AIDS at a time when it wasn't fashionable to do so and stressed that homosexuality isn't a lifestyle choice but as much part of who a person is as the colour of their skin or eyes. It wasn't just about the episode's 'message' there was a good story behind it; for much of the episode we did not know whether Filipe was a criminal or an innocent member of a criminal family. While the tone of the episode was serious there were one or two slightly comic moments; seeing one of Cruz's men fall out of a speedboat during a chase provided a chuckle. As usual the acting was pretty solid; it was particularly good to see a larger part for Edward James Olmos character, Lt, Castillo, as he is one of the most interesting people in the series. Guest star Esai Morales, does a fine job as Filipe Cruz, especially in the final scene where he must confront his family's prejudices. Over all this was a fine episode demonstrating that it is possible for a popular series to cover serious issues.