The hunt for the police killer continues as Goldblume (Joe Spano) continues to fill in at roll call (Micheal Conrad;s Esterhaus is said to be in the hospital), the rat problem continues, and an abused boy and his mother fear for the safety.

Written by Dennis Cooper from a story by Steven Bochco, Jeffrey Lewis, and David Milch, Nichols from Heaven first aired on 18 January, 1984.

Watch for an appearance by James Avery! Joe Pantoliano continues his arc as a character being run by J.D. (Kiel Martin) and Washington (Taurean Blacque) to run down some corrupt cops, and Gowron, I mean Robert O’Reilly, guests as one of the police killers.

Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) deals with the fact that he’s killed someone, Joyce (Veronica Hamel) makes arguments against the release of an abusive father while still dealing with her inability to have children.

Belker (Bruce Weitz) and Robin (Lisa Sutton) admit the depth of their feelings for one another after Robin comes across the next victim of the police killer, Nichols (Lynne Moody) which sets off Hill (Michael Warren) and Renko (Charles Haid) and Furillo need to keep him in check until charges can be made on Nolan (O’Reilly) who reveals he’s just a copycat.

There are some light moments, but a lot of the soapy/cheesy melodrama that seems to have filled a lot of the series has been pushed aside a bit to give us some stronger stories. Sure, there’s still some light, goofy and silly stuff going on, but it’s not as overt and goofy as it was. At least not for this episode.

Fuchs Me? Fuchs You! has Linda Hamilton as a guest star! Written by Michael Wagner, Milch, Karen Hall and Mark Frost from a story by Bochco, Lewis and Milch. It first aired on 26 January, 1984.

J.D. and Washington are finally able to bust the corrupt cop, Marinaro (Vincent Baggetta), who is willing to make a deal to reveal the truth about his precinct, and it may tie in to Nichols!

Hey look, there’s some of the silly melodrama coming back. We get introduced to a trio of cops caught up in a romantic triangle. None of them are major characters so it’s hard to actually care about their storyline. Let’s just focus on the other stories, can’t we?

Hamilton plays Coffey’s (Ed Marinaro) new paramour, and she feels criminally underused in the episode.

What is solid, is the reveal of the cop killer (Dennis Lipscomb) and how Howard (James Sikking) faces him down alongside Renko and the rest in a busy diner.

How are they going to handle the Esterhaus thing? As Goldblume says he’ll be out of the hospital tomorrow… I guess we’ll find out next time. Until then, let’s be careful out there.