Mickey (Keith Szarabajka) finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he’s in a bar for last call and trouble walks in the door in the form of Lewis (Joe Maruzzo) and his brother Frank (Michael Ceveris).

Written by Robert Crais this episode first debuted on 23 March, 1988.

Frank and Lewis are out late in the dark and dirty city of New York when they find themselves being shot at. Specifically Lewis. It seems he is the target of a mercenary named Gant (James Rebhorn). Lewis is a bit of a violent loose cannon, and his past is catching up with him, but he’ll fight every step of the way to avoid confronting it.

He and Lewis arrive at Mickey’s local watering hole and hold the place hostage to keep Gant from coming in and killing Lewis.

Happily enough, Mickey has a way of getting in touch with McCall (Edward Woodward) and is able to get the Equalizer on the job of figuring out why Gant has targeted Lewis. McCall is determined to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation, but with violence on all sides will he be able to pull that off?

It’s fun to see Ceveris in this episode, he has hair! Mickey has a bit more screen time, but he doesn’t seem as clever as we know he should be. Lewis gets the better of him too quickly. Mickey is a smarter character than he’s written here, we’ve seen him be smarter, but I guess for this episode he didn’t have to be. Unfortunate, but not a terrible episode.

Regrets Only is a solid McCall episode that was written by Robert Crais and first aired on 30 March, 1988.

Susan’s (J. Smith-Cameron) ex-husband, Gary (Philip Kraus) is violent, stalking her, gaslighting her, and won’t leave her and their children alone. The police have told her that they can’t help her unless Gary actually does something, at which point it may be too late.

She turns to McCall for help. He brings Mickey in to help him, but for the first time in awhile, McCall is doing almost everything himself (glad to see Woodward recovered) and that includes romancing the divorcee.

Which will also be the key in getting Gary to incriminate himself. For the most part, he’s aloof, using others to do his dirty work for him. He’s even able to frame McCall for an attack, but the blossoming romance may be just the thing to draw him out.

And while McCall’s feelings for Susan may be the real thing, he’s not willing to follow up on them and drag her into his darkness as he continues to work on paying for his sins.

Solidly written, directed and acted this one is a definite high point of the third season. Next week we finish off season three and begin the fourth and final season of The Equalizer.