There’s trouble at the precinct and in Vegas with Fuched Again. Written by Jeffrey Lewis, David Milch, Mark Frost and Jacob Epstein from a story by Milch, Lewis and Steven Bochco this episode first aired on 22 November, 1984.

While Belker (Brice Weitz) and a number of the guys are in Vegas, Furillo (Danel J. Travanti) finds himself investigating an assassination attempt on Mayor Cleveland (J.A. Preston) and the assassin confides in Joyce (Veronica Hamel) some of the details which allow Furillo to dig deeper, even as the assassin is killed during transport to prison. Is there a connection to Biff Lowe (Paul Gleason!)?

Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Michael Warren) make a tough call that sees a recent immigrant, Armand Bittar (Saul Rubinek!) screwed over in collecting some lottery winnings, and how it affects his entire family for the worst. Rubinek is fantastic!

In Vegas, Belker wins a huge chunk of change and shares it with some of his fellow officers while waiting to pick up his prisoner transport. Unfortunately, the man passes away while in Belker’s custody, which means he’s going to have to hang around a little longer. Throw in Coffey’s (Ed Marinaro) losing streak, and a hooker looking to make some money off Belker, and you’ve got a trip that none of them are really going to want to remember.

And Jablonski (Robert Prosky) seems to be getting a lot of mail, and some obscene phone calls from a woman who has designs on him. As Furillo says, it takes all types.

The Vegas stuff plays a nice counterpoint to the tragic story playing out for Bittar.

Low Blow was also written by Lewis, Frost, Milch and Epstein from a story by Bochco, Lewis and Milch. It was first broadcast on 29 November, 1984.

Belker and the rest of the guys in Vegas have a tough time leaving town because the check that J.D. (Kiel Martin) gave the travel agent bounced, Coffey and Belker have a bit of a clash, and the plane on the way home has an unorthodox landing. Belker gets through all of that, only to have Robin (Lisa Sutton) break up with him. Sorry Mick.

Furillo is less than thrilled when they are back in town and takes them to task. He’s had a lot on the go as evidence ties Lowe to a pair of criminally leaning construction brothers who planned the assassination attempt on the mayor.

Lucy (Betty Thomas) runs into Fabian’s (Zero Hubbard) mother (Beverly Hope Atkinson). She’s in no shape to look after herself or Fabian and understands why Lucy has become involved and signed on as Fabian’s foster parent, something the pair are trying to work at.

Renko and Hill run into the slightly off-kilter actor, Alan Bradford (Martin Ferrero) again, this time he’s in Native American dress and is working on disrupting everyone’s Thanksgiving. Oh, and Jablonski’s narrative thread with the harassing calls ties off, violently.

This one was more melodrama than police story, but that’s ok. We’ve still got more to come.