Whatever Works (4 Oct. 1985)

The murder of two beat cops outside their jurisdiction immerses the team in the Santeria religion, while Crockett tries to recover his repossessed Ferrari.

Director:

John Nicolella

Writers:

Anthony Yerkovich (creator), Maurice Hurley

Stars:

Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, Saundra Santiago

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Don Johnson	...	Detective James Crockett
Philip Michael Thomas	...	Detective Ricardo Tubbs
Saundra Santiago	...	Detective Gina Calabrese
Michael Talbott	...	Detective Stan Switek
John Diehl	...	Det. Larry Zito
Olivia Brown	...	Detective Trudy Joplin
Edward James Olmos	...	Lieutenant Martin Castillo
Eartha Kitt	...	Priestess Chata
Héctor Mercado	...	Victor Davila (as Hector Jaime Mercado)
Bruce MacVittie	...	Officer David Blakeney
José Angel Santana	...	Ramon Morandez (as José Santana)
Robert Trebor	...	Maxwell Dierks
Martin Ferrero	...	Izzy Moreno
Antoni Corone	...	Officer Tommy Solen (as Antoni Carone)
Sonia Zomina	...	Old Woman

Storyline

The murder of two beat cops outside their jurisdiction immerses the team in the Santeria religion, while Crockett tries to recover his repossessed Ferrari.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 1985 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Michael Mann Productions, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the beginning of the episode as Lt.Castillo is looking into the police cruiser at the dead cop, he blows out the candle on the dash. About a minute or so later after the two dirty hotheaded cops show up to vow revenge, the camera pans left to right from behind the cruiser to reveal the candle is lit.

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Quotes

Detective James Crockett: [being shot at] First I lose my Ferrari, now I get stuck with Roberto Duran!

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Soundtracks

"Dark Night"
(uncredited)
Written by Dave Alvin
Performed by The Blasters

User Reviews

Lots Of Material & Characters In Here, But 'Izzy' Stands Out As The Most Entertaining

Two cops are found murdered in their car in South Beach, away from their jurisdiction. It looks like a ritual killing with voodoo-type stuff left on the dashboard as a message. One dumb cop acts immature as vows quick revenge and Castillo has to tell him to calm down.

Meanwhile, in a funny scene aboard Sonny's boat, some "dork" comes with papers to confiscate his beloved Ferrari. Crockett's pet alligator "Elvis" scares the man away. Izzy comes by and hears what's going on and has a funny take on the situation. Izzy's dialog was always good stuff.

Eartha Kitt guest stars as a "santeria priestess." Why does Kitt always play some voodoo witch? I've seen her in this kind of role at least three times. Well, her character in this role lived well; her house was fabulous. Castillo (Edward James Olmos), of course, pays her great respect. He has total disdain for "organized religion," he says early on, yet takes voodoo seriously. What an idiot. If Hollywood promotes voodoo as something serious and real and the Bible as nonsense, what does that tell you?

Anyway, it turns out there is a possibility the good guys might be dealing with a case of crooked cops, too. Is that what this murder was all about? What's the voodoo connection? What's the story with these two young gung-ho cops that are pictured a few times bullying people? Will Sonny have to get a new car?

All these questions, and a few more, are answered in this pretty entertaining episode. I still think Martin Ferrerro as "Izzy" was easily the best character in this show, as he demonstrated in this week's episode.

This episode has some nice, stylish shots and good music, but that's par for the course. The action scenes looked hokey, though. I guess you can't have everything especially with this program which was a real mixed bag: great and stupid stuff, but usually entertaining, which is the name of the game.