Reviews & Ratings for
"Night Heat" Jumper (1988)

Andrea Roth Takes A Flying Leap, 23 April 2013

Author: Jason Daniel Baker from Toronto, Canada

Top Toronto model Hope Morrison (Andrea Roth - still with her baby fat) tearfully jumps to her death off of the roof of the Hard Rock Cafe (near what is now Dundas Square). Toronto police Detective Kevin O'Brien (Scott Hylands) goes to the roof and is in time to try to talk her down but not to save her as she literally slips through his fingers.

O'Brien, already carrying with him the baggage of a quarter century on the job, takes it pretty hard. This is a Canadian cop show. Police in our shows don't get themselves in to trouble by bending the rules to make a massive collar. They get themselves in to trouble by caring so much about victims that it becomes stressful and impairs their judgment.

Attending the dead girl's wake O'Brien meets her mother (Diane Polley) and she can make no sense of the tragedy. Hope's sister Terry (Lori Hallier) however appears to know more than she is telling and she is keeping company with a sinister American pimp.

The editing of the acting characterizations was something I found to be a little wonky here but this episode featured a chilling nightmare sequence which was very effective.

We see a variation of the rooftop suicide at the beginning but with the Hope character gleefully mocking O'Brien as she jumps. The crowd below laughs and taunts him as O'Brien's partner Detective Frank Giambone (Jeff Wincott) looks at him with disgust.

Fans of Andrea Roth who may have been disappointed to see her exit the episode (her second ever screen role) so soon at the beginning got to see her again in the non-diagetic cameo of the dream sequence. It was one of the most intense moments of the entire series.

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