Anything has to be a step up after last week’s abysmal Missing Hours, and Like A Hurricane is a little bit more on track, but is a very Crockett (Don Johnson)-centric story. Written by Robert Palm, this episode first aired on 20 November, 1987.

Vice detective Sonny Crockett is given babysitting duty. He’s supposed to watch over a witness to a case the team are working on. He’s very unhappy about the assignment, until he meets the her, singer Caitlin Davies (Sheena Easton!).

The pair quickly fall in love, even as things start to get really tense around them, culminating in a wedding (at which musician Jan Hammer makes an appearance in the wedding band).

Music for this episode includes Domination by MCs of Rap, Rubber Love by Moon and the Blowguns, Conferring with the Moon by William Ackerman, and Easton contributes two songs, I Got You Babe, and When He Shines.

The episode features Xander Berkley, who is always fun when he shows up. He plays Tommy Lowe, and he’s a bit of a shady character in the record industry, and the one Davies is serving as a witness against.

I love that Tony Hendra shows up as a record executive as well, considering his turn in This is Spinal Tap.

Not everything is resolved by episode’s end, setting up for a continuing storyline, and one can’t help but feel sad for Gina (Saundra Santiago), and while the romantic relationship between she and Crockett has been over for sometime but perhaps they had both held out hope for one another for awhile.

The Rising Sun of Death was written by Peter Lance, and first aired on 4 December, 1987. The story sees Crockett, Tubbs (Philip Micheal Thomas) and Castillo (Edward James Olmos) dealing with the Yakuza when the Japanese mafia attempt to establish a foothold in Miami.

The episode features the always brilliant James Hong as Tanaka, the head of the Yakuza, as well as R. Lee Emery, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Sheena Easton’s continued appearance as Crockett’s new wife, Caitlin – the pair go house hunting near the beginning of the episode before the case wraps up everyone.

Things are complicated by a corrupt detective, Emery’s Haskell and a Japanese detective, Fujitsu (Tagawa) seeking revenge against Tanaka.

The music features Billy Idol’s Flesh for Fantasy, Si Senor the Hairy Grill as well as Moon On Ice by Yello, and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me by The Smiths.

And just like that we’re back to strong episodes that tell solid stories, look great, and have a gritty edge to them. The show demonstrates that despite the fact that it just jumped the shark, it still has solid episodes to tell.

The cases continue next week as the year changes to 1988, and Crockett and Tubbs work hard to clean up the streets of Miami Vice.