Log 36: Jimmy Eisley's Dealing Smack (Episode 15, Season 1)

Episode 15

Reed and Malloy help a mother and daughter who are down on their luck and arrest a drug dealer while Reed struggles to find suitable entertainment for the division party.

Before the start of their shift, the officers are gathered in the locker room. Several of them are "helping" Reed with his task of finding entertainment for the division party.

The other officers suggest an entertainer for the party.

The guy they want is not available. Reed shares his list of possible entertainers with Walters and the others. They are not enthused with Jim's choices.

Reed wishes he would have signed up for the refreshment committee instead.

"They just shot down my whole list," an exasperated Reed tells Malloy as Pete pins his newly shined badge to his uniform.

At the start of their shift, Reed is regretting his decision to volunteer as the entertainment chairman.

"Entertainment. Why'd I ever volunteer for this thing?"
"I told ya not to do it."

"Malloy, you don't understand. If nobody volunteers for things like this than nothing would ever get done."

"I don't know. Maybe you make sense to you."

Pete may have a solution to Jim's problem. They have a subpoena to serve to Randy Tait, a popular folk singer. Malloy thinks that Reed could serve him the subpoena and use this as an opportunity to ask Mr. Tait if he would perform at the party. 

"You give it to him, you can ask him."
Reed thinks Randy Tait will turn him down and he will "wind up looking like a fool".

As they are driving, Reed notices a woman and young girl. He thinks they look lost, but Pete states that they are waiting for a bus.

Not an actual street.

Next, they see Tee Jay. Pete stops the car to talk to him.

Tee Jay has just gotten back from visiting his brother on Ork. He has also quit his job. It was too much work and, besides, he has to "look ahead, think of the future". Reed asks him what he is going to do now.

"I dunno, something."

Pete is sick of all this small talk and cuts to what he really wants to know.

"Where are they dealing smack in town?"

At first Tee Jay acts like he doesn't know where the drug dealing is taking place. He then reveals that Jimmy Eisley is dealing heroin at his pad on 23rd and Victoria. In order to gain admittance to Jimmy's place, one has to knock once on the door, then wait, then knock again.
Before they leave, Tee Jay asks Pete and Jim to let him know if they here of any job openings.

But not just any job, Tee Jay needs a career, he needs to think of the future.

Pete and Jim head back to the station to tell their commanding officer about the information they just received from Tee Jay.

Lt. Moore thinks the information sounds vague, but says it's OK for them to investigate when they can find the time.

Pete wants to "prowl through the area" as soon as it gets dark. Lt. Moore gives the go ahead and tells them to contact Mac if they find anything.

Back in the car, Reed is feeling apprehensive about asking Randy Tait to perform. He wants to ask the other fellows if they like Randy before approaching Mr. Tait, he thinks some of them may not like Randy Tait. Pete advises against this and wonders if Reed is looking for an excuse not to ask him. Reed assures him that he is not and that Mr. Tait's celebrity does not intimidate him.

Malloy spots the same woman and little girl they saw earlier and stops to ask her if she needs assistance. 

Reed asks if they are lost and the woman gets up and starts running away. Must have been that Duke's chili with extra onions he had for lunch.

She calms down and they find out that her name is Ellen Harris, she and her daughter Elizabeth are from New Mexico and have been in Los Angeles since yesterday. They are looking for Mr. Harris, he is in L.A. staying with his uncle while he looks for work. She does not have the uncle's address. Ellen thought she could find her husband's uncle by looking in the L.A. phonebook, but that proved impossible since there are so many Harrises.

Mrs. Harris has no money and her daughter hasn't eaten since the morning, she hasn't eaten since yesterday. I don't think her plan to come to L.A. and find her husband was very well thought out.

She then reveals that she stole some cookies to eat from a nearby market. But, her conscience would not let her open them.

Ew, you were going to feed these to your daughter? They're full of gluten and high fructose corn syrup. Gross.

Neither Pete nor Jim know what to do with Mrs. Harris and Elizabeth. Pete goes to make some calls while the gold Mustang drives past. The gold Mustang drives through the background of this scene and the scene with Tee Jay several times. Me thinks the drivers of the background cars were told to loop around the set.
It's funny that Pete, who knows exactly what to do in a life or death situation, has no idea of what to do with a lost woman and her little girl.

While Pete is gone, Ellen tells Jim that her husband came to Los Angeles 2 weeks ago to find sheet metal work with an aircraft company.

When Pete returns he tells Mrs. Harris to get in the car because they are taking her and Elizabeth to the Salvation Army. Mrs. Harris starts crying, tears of joy this time, she thought they were taking her to jail for stealing the cookies.

Pete assures her that they will return the cookies and explain what happened to the manager.

Later, while in the car, Pete says the Salvation Army will keep the Harris woman and child until they "get squared away" and call unions to locate her husband.

They arrive at 23rd Street and start their search for Jimmy Eisley in the alley.(Alleys make me miss my hometown; Allentown, PA. We had an alley when we lived in Allentown, we don't have an alley here in South Carolina. But, I digress.)

Pete and Jim know they are at the right place because the "Jack Webb Official Generic Psychedelic Rock Loop" music can be heard in the distance. Only drug dealers and negligent babysitters listen to that type of music.
Pete spies a trashcan in the alley and searches through it for incriminating evidence of drug activity.
To all future drug dealers, do not throw evidence of drug activity in your household trash! When it is put out on the street, it is abandoned property and can be searched by the police without a warrant. 

Careful! Don't make any noise!

Jackpot! An empty can of milk sugar or powdered lactose, which is used to dilute heroin. Here's what Wikipiedia says about it's pharmaceutical applications:
"Another major use of lactose is in the pharmaceutical industry. Lactose is added to pills as a filler because of its physical properties, i.e., compressibility, and low price. For similar reasons it can be used to dilute heroin." 

Jackpot again! Balloons that once held heroin.

Reed carefully replaces the lid of the trash can. Pete tells him to get rid of the car and "put them code 6". 

Woo hoo! Jim gets to drive! Even if it is only a few feet.

Then, this guy comes out to put a paper bag in the trash can.

Caught ya, red jacketed.

You get a free set of matching bracelets for coming out tonight.

 Pete and Jim take their suspect to the car and search the bag. They find more evidence of drug use.

Mac is on his way with backup.

When Mac arrives, they approach the door and Pete performs the secret knock pattern Tee Jay told them about.

Jimmy, you shouldn't have opened that door!

While the other officers remain in the front room, Pete chases this guy into the bathroom.  I would think he was running in there to flush the drugs down the toilet, except I don't see a toilet in this bathroom. One would fit quite nicely where that hamper is placed.

This guy agrees to talk to Pete, but isn't much help. He claims he did not buy any drugs from Jimmy Eisley nor does he know where Jimmy keeps his stash.
Drug addict is a different sort of role for Mark VII regular Stacy Harris, but he does a good job. I also like that this drug-addict character is an older man, not the stereotypical young, hippie-type.

Next, Pete questions the main man, Jimmy Eisley, who has waived his right to remain silent. They make small talk about Jimmy's upcoming trip to Palm Springs for a few seconds.
(Dig that groovy lamp behind Pete!)

Then, wham, Pete asks, "How long you been dealing out of this pad?"
Jimmy denies knowing anything about drug activity in his pad.

Mac comes in the bedroom to ask Jimmy about a box of balloons of drug-cutting equipment they found in the back of the TV set. He lets Jimmy know that they are searching the place.

Reed searches the bedroom.

While Malloy searches the bathroom.
(I wonder if this medicine cabinet has one of those slots to put used razor blades in? Did those things ever get full? But, again, I digress.)

After their search proves fruitless, Pete confers with Mac. Mac tells Pete that Jimmy has not looked toward the bedroom once while they have been searching the place. Pete decides to take another look.

Hmmm, where is that toilet? I drank a lot of coffee tonight.

Something impels Pete to take a closer look at the bathtub drain. He uses a toothbrush to pry off the drain cover.

That's quite a clog, better call the plumber.

"I got it!"

After solving the mystery of where Jimmy keeps his stash, Pete feels that it is time to serve Randy Tait with his subpoena. Jim would rather write him a letter than ask him face to face. Reed seems to have lost some confidence since the first episode when he single-handedly apprehended armed suspects in the park, now he can't even ask a singer if he would perform at a party!

"A letter takes too long. Just go ask him, he won't bite you."

"I guess not."

"And if he does, you can always book him for battery."

Here we are at Randy Tait's palatial estate. 

Reed wants to go by himself, but Malloy will not let him off that easy. Malloy will serve the subpoena and Reed will go along to ask about the party. Malloy will also be the "heavy" if Randy refuses Reed.

Reed admits that he was thinking about going alone, not asking Randy, and telling Malloy that he was turned down.

This scene ends with both of them approaching the gate.

When Reed and Malloy return to the locker room at the end of the shift, we find out what happened at Randy Tait's house.

Reed is smiling because Randy Tait said "yes"! All of the other officers are excited by the news! This story will end on a high note for Reed!

Except, Walters doesn't look very excited.

Walters thinks it's too bad that Reed waited until the last minute to book Randy. If they had known sooner, they could have raised the price of the tickets.

Seriously?

"You just can't win, partner."

You got that right.

The End

I definitely like this episode better than the last one. I like any episode where I learn new things and I learned a lot by watching this one.
I learned about Pete's interrogation style. We haven't seen Pete question too many suspects before this, but we can definitely see his style after witnessing him talking to Tee Jay and Jimmy Eisley. He likes to start out with a few small talk questions and then unexpectedly switches gears to the real matter at hand.
I learned what milk sugar is and how it is used in the manufacturing of heroin for sale. I didn't really learn all of that in the episode, but seeing that milk sugar can on the screen prompted me to do some research.
I learned that cops don't know everything and sometimes get scared by situations that are not life-threatening. Malloy knew where a drug dealer would hide his stash, but didn't know what to do with a couple of lost females. Reed can capture armed suspects, but can't ask an unarmed singer to entertain at a party. I would think that once you face a man with a gun you know how to handle any situation, but I guess that is not true. 
Since I liked so much about this episode and disliked very little about it, I give it a rating of:

Do you agree? See you next time! KMA-367.