Vincent D’Onofrio comes back for a second go-round with The Equalizer in Suspicion of Innocence. Written by Robert Eisele it first debuted on 30 September, 1987.

Davey (D’Onofrio) is a mentally challenged young man who is happy with his job, he interacts well with his co-workers and likes his friend, Will (William Converse-Roberts). Things turn badly for Davey when he is found in an alley over the body of a murdered female co-worker.

Davey turns to Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) for help, hinting that they have had a friendship for a while now. Robert advises him to go to the police after he fled the scene, but things go badly at the arraignment and Davey flees again, running for his life in a state of fear.

Robert, with some help from Jimmy (Mark Margolis), is determined to prove Davey’s innocence and to do that, they are going to find the person truly responsible for the murder and bring them to justice.

Some of D’Onofrio’s performance is a little off, almost a little hyper-realized, but he works to ground the character as much as he can, and he makes Davey very empathetic as the episode races to its climax.

It’s not quite a tone-deaf episode, but it would be told differently today. The camera work and the narrative do their best to highlight the fear Davey feels, and that’s solidly done, but some of the acting doesn’t feel as solid as it could be.

Still, D’Onofrio is awesome and so far the season is off to a good start, despite what we know is coming with Woodward’s heart attack.

In the Money features some more solid guest stars. This time in the form of Kevin Heard, Oliver Platt and Patricia Richardson.

Written by Ed Waters this episode was first broadcast on 7 October, 1987.

Samantha (Ashley Crow) washes up on the shoreline where she is found by Robert and Mickey (Keith Szarabajka). She tells a story of being attacked by a pair of thugs who believed they had killed her, and may also have been responsible for the apparent suicide of her Wall Street boyfriend.

As Robert and Mickey dig deeper, they discover the seedy underbelly of Wall Street, the cash flow, the greed, the betrayals, and the murder.

It leads them to a junk bond trader, Heaton (Dennis Boutsikaris), his biggest client, Ron (Heard), and his thug, Norm (Platt). McCall is less than impressed with the people he encounters, and he’s determined to bring them to justice.

I enjoy his clashes with Ron because Heard has always been a favourite character actor of mine, and he just embodies his role, and this time out, he’s just so scummy.

The temporary changes for the show are on the horizon, but so far, season three is off to a great start, and I’m loving what the series is dishing out.