The seventh and final season of Hill Street Blues began on 2 October, 1986 with the episode Suitcase. It was written by David Milch and John Romano from a story by Milch, Romano and Darrell Vienna.

A small cub plane comes down near the precinct and someone gets away from it on foot with a suitcase of…? Lucy (Betty Thomas) covers and protects the crash site, even as it ends up on the news, and a couple of kids were threatened by whoever walked away with it.

Goldblume (Joe Spano) finds himself investigating a report of aspirin tampering, something that I remember from when I saw it on the nightly news and wondered who would do such a thing.

Belker (Bruce Weitz), married and a father, finds himself undercover trying to uncover what’s going on with a lodging chit scam being played on the homeless. Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Michael Warren) get involved with a rough domestic call and find themselves troubled by the way it plays out.

Buntz (Dennis Franz) is working on a bust with some guidance from his informer, Sid (Peter Jurasik), but how much of it is above board when he doesn’t want to bring in any other officers or divisions? Which crosses paths with the missing suitcase, and the man who owns it. It puts Sid and Buntz in some serious danger, but Buntz may be able to get both of them out alive.

The episode makes time to check in with all the regulars and features some recognizable guest stars including Pepe Serna, Jack Kehler and a young Cuba Gooding Jr.

Season seven is off to a great start, let’s see how it plays out.

A Case of Klapp was written by Terry Curtis Fox, and was first broadcast on 9 October, 1986. Hunter (James Sikking) finds himself in a bit of a PR nightmare when he’s involved in an off-duty shooting that sees the death of a young black man who had a gun that didn’t work.

Hunter finds himself investigated by IAD to make sure it was a clean shoot, but there are questions about the weapon he used and the ammunition it was loaded with. Hunter is troubled by all of this though, as he believes he was just doing his job, but he’s not ready for the human quotient of what he’s done. Buntz is in charge of the investigation, and he’s working to keep Hunter clean and safe.

All of this and more is being held up by a work slowdown by the public defenders when they call for a strike against the city when a number of them are fired. Davenport (Veronica Hamel) is doing what she can, but she’s causing all manner of problems, which involves pulling Belker off an undercover outing where he was working to protect a number of geriatric citizens who are having their welfare checks stolen.

Things don’t play out so well for Davenport though.

J.D. (Kiel Martin) and Washington (Taurean Blacque) are having problems with a case they are working on. J.D. is distracted by the subject, Tina Russo (Megan Gallagher) – but they may bot be ready for the truth of the situation. She’s a cop, working her own case!

Jablonski (Robert Prosky) is avoiding a doctor’s appointment and Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) takes him to task over it and demands he keeps it, which may force his retirement!

The goofy melodrama seems to be shoved a little too the side, and there’s some really solid character work taking place here, and some good storylines. Let’s hope the series ends on a great note.

Trek fans will be happy to see Martha Hackett make a brief appearance, and Lawrence Tierney returns as Sgt. Jenkins.