The penultimate episode of Hill Street Blues aired on 5 May, 1987. It was written by Christian Williams and it begins tying things up for the end of the series.

Hunter (James Sikking) has been found, he was trapped, buried alive for eleven days, and it comes out that to survive, he ate part of the man who was with him, and died. No one knows how to deal with it, and it causes Hunter some problems when he starts to think about it as others would.

Martinez (Trinidad Silva) is stirring things up at the precinct as he’s looking for his sister, who he thinks has been kidnapped by a rival gang. As the threat of gang warfare escalates no one should be surprised to find out that this sister has fallen in love with a rival gang member. So what will Martinez do about it?

Buntz (Dennis Franz) could be a dirty cop. There’s some shading around a number of things that he’s doing, and there is stuff found in his apartment that is suggestive of malfeasance. So much so that he finds himself suspended.

Goldblume (Joe Spano) becomes a published writer, but not everyone in the precinct likes the way they think they are portrayed. Grace (Barbara Babcock) shows up as a condom salesperson, but my favourite arc for this episode was J.D.’s (Kiel Martin).

J.D. stares down a gun, which has its trigger pulled three times, and nothing happens, and he spends the rest of the episode trying to deal with what happened, from delighted ecstasy to realizing he’s all alone, it’s probably some of Martin’s best moments in the series, and he knocked it out of the park.

(Oh and look for an appearance by Bryan Cranston!)

So how does it end?

It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over is the series finale, and how are we going to close the precinct or at least the series? Well we learn in the first few minutes of the episode that not only is Internal Affairs investigating Buntz, and there’s a serial killer on the loose, the precinct has been gutted by a fire – arson?

Written by Jeffrey Lewis, David Milch, and John Romano, the episode closed the doors on the Hill on 12 May, 1987.

Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) wants to make sure Buntz gets a fair shake, despite Daniels (Jon Cypher) pushing for charges right away, and Buntz pushing him to open his own investigation, which would look suspicious. But he may have been framed. Maybe.

They find a lead, and Furillo leads the interrogation as they follow the case to its conclusion. But if Buntz interferes will it screw everything up?! Daniels wants Buntz gone, and pretty much says so on television, which causes Buntz to deck him.

The killer is captured, and ends get tied up…

There’s a riff on Geraldo Rivera opening Capone’s vault, as a tv reporter is working on something similar, and J.D. wants to show him up. And Belker (Bruce Weitz), my favourite character of the entire series, deals with the death of his mother. Hill (Micheal Warren) makes a connection with a young woman who he made a big impression on when she was in school.

It’s a nice way to end the series, the characters all get a moment, and it closes everything out nicely. This was a really enjoyable watch, and it is a prime example of a cop series in the 80s, the other was Miami Vice, and I think it earned most of the Emmys it won, even if it was a little too melodramatic at times.

Now, what to watch…