Log 143: Cave (Episode 10, Season 2)

Episode 36

Just like the previous episode, the log number on this one ends in 3 and the descriptive title is one-word beginning with "C".

Synopsis:

A 415 at a grocery store leads to the discovery of a series of thefts in a neighborhood.

The Story:

Reed and Malloy are cruising the streets of L.A. when they receive a 415 call at 1690 Woodstock. They race to the address, which is a neighborhood grocery store owned by Mr. and Mrs. Brady.

This must be an awful neighborhood in L.A., they are called here at least once an episode.

Mrs. Brady is out on the street with several bystanders, she looks disheveled and her dress is torn. She tells the officers that her husband is inside with someone that will kill him.

Is that lady in the background a lost Star Trek extra?

Malloy enters the store from the front door and Reed goes in through the back.
The empty store is in disarray, displays are knocked over and the floor is littered with product that has been knocked off the shelves.

A man holding a terrified Mr. Brady at knifepoint emerges from a backroom.

The knife-wielding maniac, Johnson, is played by "Bing" Russell a.k.a. Kurt Russell's father.

Johnson says he's going to cut Brady and Brady knows that this is not an idle threat. Johnson is a former employee and tenant who attacked him four months ago over $10. Johnson used to rent a back room from Brady, he paid $10 rent and worked in the store in exchange for the room. He felt the rent was too high, so he cut Brady. He came back to the store today to get some belongings that he left behind in the room. Brady had locked up his stuff since he didn't pay the rent. When Johnson discovered this he decided to resolve the landlord tenant dispute with his old friend, Mr. Knife.

I'm not sure what Malloy's plan is here, but he holsters his gun and tells Reed to do the same.

After his gun is put away, Malloy tells Johnson, "OK, Johnson, now all you gotta do is get by us". He starts to move towards the door with his hostage. The frightened Brady faints and falls to the floor. Malloy and Reed see their chance and capture Johnson. He's not too upset about being captured, he figures he'll only do six months. Malloy thinks his math is off.

"Add it up, Johnson, you beat up two people, wrecked their place of business and threatened a man with a knife."
"Six months easy time."
"You didn't let me finish, you forced Brady to come out of that room at knifepoint. Ever hear of kidnapping?"

After the ambulance has taken Mr. Brady away, Malloy finishes taking statements from the witnesses. A woman tells him that she spotted Johnson driving up to the store in his car and points out the vehicle.

Malloy asks Johnson about the car, he says he's never seen the car before.

Malloy doesn't see the plate number, Lincoln X-ray Ida-483, on the hot sheet. When he radios for wants and warrants on the vehicle Johnson admits that he "found" the car. He complains again about the $10 rent that Brady charged him and Reed asks how much he thinks the room was worth. Johnson estimates $1.50 or $2.00, at the most.

"I guess you're a victim, just like the rest of us," comments Reed.
"Victim of what?" asks Johnson

"Inflation," quips Reed.

[Well, look at that, junior made a funny.]

Pete and Jim have worked up an appetite, so they head to Duke's for seven. Nothing really happens in this scene that adds to the plot of the story. Here's what we do learn, though:

Pete and Jim look fantastic standing at Duke's counter.

Duke likes to bet on the horses.

Angie, Duke's waitress and girlfriend, wants to settle down.

Pete thinks Angie should give up, Duke will never commit.

Jim thinks Duke sounds like somebody else he knows.

After Duke's they are going to visit the owner of the car that Johnson "found". Since there are no wants or warrants out for the vehicle, the owner, Jay Finlay, probably doesn't even know that the car is gone. As they get out of the car, an elderly lady calls to Reed. Malloy continues to the Finlay house where he is greeted by a harried Mrs. Finlay.

Her son, Artie, runs in and out of the door twice while Malloy is talking to her.

When Mr. Finlay comes to the door he admits that he was not aware his car was missing. He realizes that he made the thief's job easy by leaving the keys in the ignition.

After Malloy is done at the Finlay's, Reed introduces him to Miss Grimes. She tells the officers that they have a problem, the neighbor has suffered a series of thefts and has become a "sinkhole of crime". She threatens to form a vigilante if the police don't do something about it.

If she lays eyes on the thieves, she will "blast them to kingdom come".

Sensing that she might be serious, Reed and Malloy join Miss Grimes on her porch to talk about the thefts. She's now much calmer and is a pleasant and charming hostess to the officers. 

Her gun is only a pellet gun, but it fooled Pete.

A rug, bookshelves, a folding ping-pong table top, and Miss Grimes' rocking chair are among the stolen items. No two items were stolen from the same home. Although the neighborhood is crawling with kids, Miss Grimes doesn't think (or doesn't want to admit) that the neighborhood children could be behind the thefts. 

Pete ponders the possibility of prepubescent plunderers.

She brings them some iced tea but, much to her disappointment, Reed and Malloy have to leave without taking a sip. Mr. Finlay has come over to report that his TV has been stolen.

His brand new, color, portable TV was stolen from his rec room last night while he was at work.  

Finlay's kind of a jerk and there is obvious tension between him and his wife. After they take his report, Pete and Jim hit the streets again.

As they drive through a nearby neighborhood, they pass a house that is locked-up tight with drawn shades and newspapers in the front lawn. Soon after this, the ever-observant Reed spots what he thinks is a laundry bag on the curb.

Pete then drives up this on-ramp of interstate 5 that is still under construction.

They stop behind a parked construction vehicle and watch the bag. Jim wants to know they are staking out someone's laundry. Pete explains that it is probably a pillowcase filled with stolen loot from the locked-up house. A thief most likely loaded up the pillowcase with small items from the house, then saw 1-A-12 as he was making his getaway. He dropped the bag and will retrieve it when he thinks they're out of the area.

Jim spots this man coming towards the bag. Pete then exits the unfinished portion of highway and catches up with the suspect. Jim bails out of the car and gives chase.

The suspect drops the evidence during the pursuit.

Pete runs out of the car and picks it up. 

[You're my new partner now, pillowcase, let's get out of here.]

Jim always catches his man.
 Pete decides that Jim makes a better partner than a pillowcase would, even if he talks more. He picks them up, and takes them back to the station.

In the coffee room Pete and Jim finish their report, which includes an inventory of the pillowcase. 

Correction, Jim finishes the report. Pete drinks coffee.
Anyway, the pillowcase contained silver, a radio, a ladies wristwatch, and three rings. It did not contain a portable TV and the suspect did not know anything about Finlay's TV or the other thefts reported by Miss Grimes.

Once the report is complete, Pete wants to clear and go for seven again. He must have worked up an appetite driving and sprinting out to get the pillowcase. Before they can get out of the coffee room, the phone rings with a call for him. Mrs. Finlay is on the other end of the call.

"Something else is missing, her son."

[So, we're not eating now? 'Cause I was getting kind of hungry, don't forget I did all that running today. And writing, I did all that writing, too.]

At the Finlay house Mrs. Finlay explains that she had to call the officers, her husband didn't want to be bothered. She then tells them that Jay is her son's stepfather and he is jealous of the boy. Jay Finlay's room was supposed to be Artie's, but he wouldn't let him have it. Artie was so upset he threatened to run away.

The scene in the Finlay living room. Notice how Pete and Jim are in the chairs and Mrs. Finlay is on the couch. Also, what is that picture behind the couch? It's kinda scary looking.

Pete leaves to go to talk to Artie's close friend, Jimmy White, who lives two doors away. Jimmy claims he doesn't know anything about the recent thefts in the neighborhood or Artie's whereabouts.

Pete tells him that Artie's mother is "pretty worried". Jimmy replies ,"I'll bet Mr. Finlay isn't, though." He then asks if he can go look for Artie and quickly runs off without waiting for his father's reply. Mr. White is stunned, Jimmy has never defied him before.

Pete returns to the Finlay house to relay what happened at the White residence.

Now Jim is sitting next to Mrs. Finlay on the couch. While Pete was gone, she probably did what I would have done and it probably went something like this:
"Oh, Officer Reed, I'm so scared about Artie. I would feel much better if someone would hold me."

"Why don't you call Mr. Finlay to come home?"

"He's so cold and distant, he would never come home. Even if he were here he would never wrap his arms around me. I can tell you're a sensitive man, one who would do something like that."

"I don't think my wife would approve if I did that, ma'am."

"But your wife wants you to be good at your job, right? This would be a very good thing for you to do officer. I would even let your commanding officer know what a fine, young, muscular policeman you are."

"I guess it couldn't hurt, ma'am."
(I know this deleted scene must exist. Don't come at me with some logical explanation about continuity or camera angles, I won't listen.)

I mean, just look how she was looking at him before.

While Pete is talking to Mrs. Finlay, someone starts banging on the door. 

It's a dirt-covered and desperate Jimmy. He wants Pete and Jim to come with him, but not Mrs. Finlay.
"Not her, please!"

Jimmy brings the officers to the highway construction site. He and Artie have dug a cave in the side of a hill under the on-ramp. Artie was going to spend the night inside the cave, but the entrance has collapsed and trapped Artie inside. 

Pete removes debris from the cave opening while Jim radios for an ambulance.

Jimmy blames Mr. Finlay for what has happened.
"It's his old man's fault..."
 "All he wanted was a room of his own."

The ambulance arrives and medics pull Artie out of the cave. At first he is unconscious, then they give him some oxygen.

He starts breathing on his own. Artie is going to be okay!

Pete and Jim are allowed to enter the cave. Inside they find all of the stolen property that belonged to Miss Grimes and the neighbors.  They also find out how much danger the boys could have been in.

Jim observes that the chamber has "all the comforts". Pete points out that if one heavy truck used the on-ramp above, the entire cave would have collapsed. Even Duke wouldn't take those odds.

As the credits roll, they take begin to take the evidence out of the cave.

The End

My Evaluation:

I felt kind of unfulfilled after I watched this episode. I wished there had been some sort of resolution between Artie and his stepfather at the end. I know real life doesn't work like that, but TV shows usually do. When it didn't happen in this TV show, I was left feeling unsatisfied and empty.

This episode itself felt kind of empty, too. Adam-12 usually packs a lot of action into 24 minutes, but there were spaces big enough to drive a Plymouth Belvedere through in this one.The scene at Duke's cafe was cute, but all it really did was set up two jokes later in the show about odds and betting. There was also too much driving in this for my taste. The sequence on the interstate was too long and drawn-out and came right after even more driving. I usually don't mind a long driving scene, if they are chasing someone or chatting in the car. But when they were cruising through the area and onto the interstate, there was no chase or conversation. Just that weird bongo music.

Although the writers seemed to go out of their way to connect the Duke scene with the rest of the story, the only connection they made between the Johnson/ Brady story and the Finlay story was the car. I felt there was a deeper connection between the two. The two stories were mirror images of each other. Johnson had a place of his own and didn't want it, in contrast Artie desperately wanted a place of his own. Too bad I wasn't around in 1969 to help the writers.

Overall, I liked all of the parts of this episode. I just wish they would have come together in a better way. I give "Log 143: Cave" a rating of:

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