NYPD Blue, Season 2, Episode 19, "Boxer Rebellion" Story by Walon Green & Bill Clark Teleplay by Walon Green & Ted Mann & Gardner Stern Directed by Jorge Montesi PLOT ONE: DON'T DO ME ANY FAVORS Lt. Fancy's old informant, Vinnie Greco is back, this time with information on an arson job that resulted in the death of a fireman. Vinnie had been drinking at the pub where an acquaintance of his named Curtis Cangelosi tends bar when a friend of Curtis came in with burned hands, and it turns out that the guy's uncle owned the building that was burned down. Working in concert with the fire marshall, Fancy decides to send in an undercover cop to squeeze Curtis on a narcotics charge (Vinnie thinks he has connections) so that Curtis will help them get the arsonist. OCBS sends over an attractive undercover officer named Diane Russell, who, with a little help from a very lecherous Vinnie, sweettalks Curtis into scoring her some coke, which he does for cost. After Bobby and Diane bust Curtis, both of them begin to feel guilty - Curtis has a clean record and seems like a straight guy who was just doing someone a favor by getting Diane the coke. When Curtis refuses to wear a wire or in any way try to implicate his friend, Bobby lets him go, though he suggests that Curtis talk to his friend again and search his conscience. With Curtis a seeming dead end, the fire marshal finds other means to bring in the suspected arsonist, who walks out once it's clear that he won't be arrested. However, he thinks Curtis set him up and tells him to get out of town. Curtis' feelings are hurt - he keeps trying to do right by people and keeps getting jammed up for it - so he drops by the 15 to give Bobby enough info to implicate his friend, then heads out of town. PLOT TWO: THE AWFUL TOOTH Andy is prepping for the trial of a burglary case he investigated a few months ago, but his key witness, Mrs. Delgado, is afraid to testify at a pre-trial hearing thanks to threats by the burglars - who, perhaps borrowing from "The Godfather", killed her dog and left the head on her front porch. Andy talks Mrs. Delgado into testifying, but after the hearing, she's abducted by the two burglars and Andy finds her body burned and tortured. The two burglars, a dimwit named Burke and a somewhat sharper character named Gallagher, are brought in for questioning. Gallagher's too smart to fall for Andy's mindgames, but Andy pulls the good old-fashioned "your buddy gave you up" scam on Burke, who folds up and reveals that Gallagher pulled out the gold teeth of the women and left them in his apartment. The gold teeth are enough evidence to charge both of them, and Andy makes sure that Gallagher waits for his lawyer - there will be no deals cut here. PLOT THREE: BOXING MARTINEZ Fancy and James are sparring at a PBA gymnasium in preparation for James' entry in the department boxing tournament, but Fancy gets a lot rougher than James expected, leaving him with a pretty nice shiner. Fancy seems embarrassed by the incident and tells James that they probably shouldn't spar anymore, but offers to be his manager instead. A few days later, as Fancy helps James with his combinations, the two get into an argument about whether James needs to be angry in the ring - Fancy thinks he has to or else he'll get pounded, but James says he only signed up for the tournament to have fun. PLOT FOUR: BOBBY GETS LUCKY (OR MAYBE NOT) Bobby finds himself attracted to Diane, who shows some moxie when she tells Capt. Bass that she won't testify against Curtis if they try to charge him with anything. The feeling would appear to be mutual - the next day, Diane shows up at the 15, telling Bobby she gave her supervisor a BS excuse so she could hang with him. After they close the arson case, Bobby takes her to dinner, and then to bed. However, not everything is perfect about Diane: she drinks on duty from time to time, seems somewhat strung out about working undercover for so long (she's repeatedly asked for a transer), and after she and Bobby make love for the first time, she stops to ask him if he's married, which offends Bobby - though not enough to keep him from making love to her a second time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In general, when NYPD Blue comes back from a lengthy sequence of repeats, the first episode back is an especially strong one - like the episode last year when Andy fell off the wagon. "Boxer Rebellion," while quite good, didn't quite have that special feel to it - especially since the episode before it, "Innuendo", was one of the season's best. My one real problem with the episode was that Andy's story didn't get nearly the amount of time it deserved. In particular, I would've liked to see more of Andy's feelings of guilt over Mrs. Delgado's death. I know watching Sipowicz go crazy with anger over a heinous crime has become something of a cliche by now, but Dennis Franz is so good at it, that I don't really care. As it is, I thought the strongest part of the show was the nearly wordless sequence where Andy and James pick up a crying Mr. Delgado, then find Mrs. Delgado's charred remains. That may have been one of the most gut-wrenching sequences all year, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was silent - except for Mr. Delgado's pained scream as he saw the body. I was a bit disappointed with the return of Vinnie Greco, mainly because he and Fancy didn't have much screen time together. Joe Pantoliano and James McDaniel proved to be a great team the last time Vinnie appeared, and I was hoping for more of the same tonight. Vinnie's exchanges with John Irvin almost made up for it, though - especially when John threatened to have Vinnie kicked out of the building. In all, I'm glad to see him back - anytime Pantoliano has a free minute, the writers should be sure to write Vinnie into an episode. The introduction of Diane Russell was intriguing at first, because I happen to like Kim Delaney, the actress who played her. In addition, the character was interesting - if a bit reminiscent of Janice Licalsi (both in appearance and attitude) - so when Bass and Fancy talked about her possibly transferring in, I was pleased. I figured she would make a much more interesting regular than Lesniak, who the writers still don't know what the hell to do with. But as the show wore on, it became clear that Diane might have a few problems. For starters, we had her trying to hide the wine cooler bottle from Bobby at the pizzeria, followed by her casual invitation to get a beer in the middle of a shift the next day. In addition, there was one scene where she came out of the lockerroom, and Bobby asked her why she kept having to use the bathroom. Maybe I'm just a cynical TV viewer, but that's usually foreshadowing for someone to have a drug habit. And even if she isn't an addict or an alcoholic, she definitely has some interesting moral ideas, based on her post coital conversation with Bobby. Delaney signed on to do at least a few more episodes, so I'm wondering what they're going to do with her. Could be interesting. The first time I watched the sparring sequence in the teaser, I was a bit confused - it seemed like they cut away before anything really happened. But after watching the rest of the show, especially the second sparring scene at the end, I went back and watched the first one again. Suddenly, I noticed a lot of subtle things - the way James asked Fancy if he was okay every time he landed a good punch, while Fancy would just stand around after he knocked James down. And when Fancy says "Let's go" while showing off that funky "mouthguard smile", I got a bit of a chill. That second sparring scene is great, because it's totally in character for both men. James is always the eager-to-please nice guy who would never dream of getting angry at anything non-job related, while Fancy's icy demeanor hides a very nasty temper. The question is, who's right? Should James just be trying to have fun, or is Fancy right when he says he'll get clobbered if he doesn't get angry? I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure as hell looking forward to the tournament itself - that is, if the powers at be deign to show it and don't decide that Martinez has gotten his allotted screen time for the year... Shorter takes: -Whether or not the lab tests turned up anything, Andy's seizure of Burke's clothes was a great intimidation tactic. And the shot of the skinny Burke sitting in his skivvies, shivering after Andy walks out to interrogate Gallagher, was eerie as hell. -Bass seems to be spending a lot more time at the 15 than Haverill ever did. I guess that's what happens when you show more interest in the job than in playing politics with the bosses. -Andy said he had to lose a few pounds for his wedding. I wonder what kind of gown Sylvia picked out for him. :-) -Lines of the Week: "I'd ask him, but I'm afraid he'll hit me again." -James, discussing the shiner Fancy gave him "I'm gonna have such a migraine tonight because I didn't beat you." -Andy, just before he goes to get Gallagher a lawyer. -Alan Sepinwall -sepinwal@mail.sas.upenn.edu -http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/ RANDOM QUOTE: "I don't deserve this - to die like this! I was building a house!" "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it." -Gene Hackman & Clint Eastwood, "Unforgiven"