Date of airing: January 31, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 10.46 million viewers, 6.9/12 in Households
And at the end of the episode, Detective Crumb and Gary walked towards the cloudy sunset of Chicago, which, in this episode, looked like winter weather fog, because this is Chicago we’re talking about and it snows during wintertime. It was a solid enough episode, and I liked the premise and idea of Gary and Crumb getting together to save each other’s lives and careers once more, and becoming best friends in the process, with Crumb possibly becoming a recurring character again by working as a bartender in McGinty's. For once, Crumb used Gary to get a case solved (knowing that Gary will come to "save the day"), and Gary finally had Crumb’s ear for a minute instead of being shushed away by the aging policeman, and both understood each other and where they were coming from. It truly was the beginning of a beautiful new friendship between two men, which could lead into a spin-off show about a retired police detective and a young guy who gets tomorrow’s newspaper today solving crimes and catching killers. After all, the world needs more cop dramas on television.
The corruption story wasn’t anything new, although maybe it would have been great to know where District Attorney Cedric Davidson was actually coming from. It looks like he wanted to bust the most ruthless and evil and corrupt cop in Chicago, so he has a cheap ticket to the Mayor’s office, but of course, no one realized that this would make Davidson the most corrupt "cop" in Chicago, let alone did the man not think about the fact that his inevitable run for Mayor would scrutinize his run as District Attorney and all the illegal crap he was doing in this episode. Not to mention that it was hypocrisy to see a corrupt DA hunting who he thought were corrupt cops, which might have been what the writers intended for the episode. But here I am, asking myself if it wouldn’t have been more intriguing if Davidson did have a good heart, yet executed his plans in all the wrong ways. Yes, Chicago has crooked cops, and maybe he could have been a little too paranoid about just one cop. But at the end of the day, Davidson was just a slimy and cheap broadcast network TV villain, one who never draws a gun, and one who doesn’t even use foul language on his opponent. The guy could have been a different and much better character who felt the need to create a surefire scandal, which would help him into higher office, because he wanted to do something good for Chicago.
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| Even Michael Shannon had to start somewhere. |
Meanwhile, Crumb became an average-type character as well. Sometimes
I believed the guy didn’t know at all what was happening in life and would end up in jail, completely clueless as to how he got there and how he could have been set up for a crime he didn't do, but it turns out that the man was smart enough to run the show from behind closed doors, to expect that his once troubled partner would jump at the opportunity to take some money from the suitcase. Crumb also had the
correct audacity to expect Gary to get involved in his case, and have the idea
to follow him and solve the case. Between oblivious and genius lies an entire city, and Crumb was on both borders, making his character arc a
little absurd at times, since I didn't know at times where he stood and what he was thinking about his situation. But it was nice the see that Davidson had bitten in
some granite, and that Crumb wasn’t just going down like the Titanic.
But oh well, the old man is about to retire in three weeks, and there is no
way the Gary/Crumb spin-off is going to be related to LETHAL WEAPON. Although that would be kind of fun. Gary could be the Roger Murtaugh character – always annoyed having to spring into the action.
I was happy to see though that Morales wasn’t the conflicted
character he was destined to be when the hour started. At first, it looked like he
really stole the $20k, it really looked like he was about to sell
out Crumb to the corrupt District Attorney, it really looked like he would lose the sense of being a good cop and fall for the traps of being a corrupt cop, just so he could send his son to college and make something better out of himself than his old man did. The reveal
that Crumb followed Gary, and that even Morales was undercover and
waiting for Crumb to bust this deal, was a good one, and it brought a
smile to my face, as it circumnavigated the tropes I was expecting, especially when Morales delivered the $20k, the return of the money being part of the sting operation. Damn, Crumb and Morales were planning this through and
through, and Gary almost ruined it multiple times because of his
Chicago Sun-Times crystal ball. By the way, the entire case hinged on Gary getting his butt out of his apartment to stop Crumb from murdering Morales. Imagine what would have happened if Gary didn't spring into action that morning: Morales would have been dead, and Crumb would not have been able to trust his instincts to trust Gary (not to forget the fact that Crumb would have been framed for Morales' murder).
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| Gary just wants to save Crumb's life again. |
And finally, sad faces all around for Robin having left McGinty’s,
and for Chuck having to be a bartender for a hot minute. I liked the
woman, and I liked that she brought some charm and silliness into some
of the – yes, idiotic – storylines set at McGinty's, but now that she disappeared, I’m sad
and a little bit mad, because she left and put Chuck in charge of drinks. And everybody knows that Chuck won't survive making cocktails all night long, and the bar would just go under with that man behind the counter. I am wondering however why Ellen Mills decided to leave the show after appearing in four episodes (her only four episodes of working in front of the camera as an actor) – maybe the producers hoped to make her a permanent recurring cast member, maybe she only had a contract for four episodes, maybe the series was trying out how it feels to have more than three characters appearing in every episode. Sometimes I just want to know the details no one else knows about.
