Garibaldi (Ken Olin) is less than thrilled to discover that Gina (Jennifer Tilly) is now interested in Goldblume (Joe Spano) after he saved her life, Hunter’s (James Sikking) stolen RV (Belker (Bruce Weitz) has moved in with Robin(Lisa Sutton)) causes a problem when it’s used in a hostage situation, and with Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) away at a captain’s retreat Calletano (Rene Enriquez) is running the precinct.

El Capitan was written by Jeffrey Lewis, David Milch, Roger Director, and Elia Katz from a story by Steven Bochco, Lewis and Milch. It first debuted on 21 February, 1985.

Jablonski (Robert Prosky) is still giving Belker and Robin a hard time (which is finally resolved after a confrontation between Belker and Jablonski), Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Michael Warren) seemed to have mistakenly imbibed an illegal substance in their morning tea. Lucy (Betty Thomas) and Buzhardt (Cecile Callan) get involved in the hostage situation when they come across McKeever (Michael MacRae) at a traffic stop.

I was delighted to see a couple of familiar faces amongst the police captains’ retreat including Lane Smith, and Steve Kahan (who made a career out of playing police officers and captains). The conversations they have are tough and force them to examine themselves and their careers, and a lot of them realize how profoundly they are unhappy in their lives and jobs.

The stuff around the precinct is pretty much in line with the melodrama we’ve come to expect, but the stuff with Furillo in the retreat is worthy of deeper examination and discussion.

The Life and Time of Dominic Florio Jr. was written by Lewis, Milch, Mark Frost, and Jacob Epstein from a story by Bochco, Lewis and Milch. It was first broadcast on 21 March, 1985.

Hey look everyone it’s Brent Spiner!! Spiner plays Larry Stein a director working on a home security video. LaRue (Kiel Martin) and Washington (Taurean Blacque) are assigned to him as actors, and more, because he may be up to a little more than just making security videos in the studio.

Brent is absolutely scuzzy as a porn director, and honestly, I thought it was great seeing him doing something else. Course this was a few years before Data came along. And he’s almost got LaRue convinced to star in the film.

There’s a pro-life demonstration taking place at an abortion clinic and one of the protesters sends a pregnant woman into premature labour, and that may cost the child its life.

Jablonski clashes with the bowling league when his 300 game is sanctioned because the lane he was on was over-lubricated.

Fay (Barbara Bosson) is less than thrilled to discover Goldblume’s new relationship, and no one seems to care that he’s really happy.

Renko and Hill get involved in a number of disputes around some projects where there seem to be some racial tensions rising, and some gang activity getting underway. Furillo warns the gangs that the area is off-limits and to back off. The whole thing throws a little racial tension into Hill and Renko’s friendship especially when Hill has to discharge his weapon when he’s assaulted, and consequently takes a life.

Frances McDormand returns as public defender Connie Chapman.

The abortion stuff isn’t explored as much as it could have been, but it’s treated better than it would be with today’s political environment in the States. This is one of the episodes where there could have been a lot of stuff to talk about but none of them are really touched on as much as they should be.