Brad reviews BREACH OF FAITH: FAMILY OF COPS II (1997), starring Charles Bronson!


Legendary actor Charles Bronson ended his five-decade career by starring in a series of made-for-TV movies, FAMILY OF COPS (1995), BREACH OF FAITH: A FAMILY OF COPS II (1997), and FAMILY OF COPS III: UNDER SUSPICION (1999). I was in my mid-twenties as this series played out, and I enjoyed each of the installments. Today, I’m going to take a look at the second film in the series.

BREACH OF FAITH: A FAMILY OF COPS II picks back up with the Fein family a couple of years after the first installment. The main storyline follows Police inspector and family patriarch Paul Fein (Charles Bronson) as he supervises the investigation into the murder of a popular local Catholic priest. Of course, the investigation is a family affair, as his eldest son Ben (Joe Penny) is the lead detective on the case. Paul and Ben follow the clues that lead directly to the Russian mafia. As the investigation closes in, members of the Fein family find themselves targeted for beatdowns by Russian henchmen in order to get Paul to drop the case. Other storylines include the widower Paul’s blossoming relationship with detective Anna Meyer. Her “moves” on Paul, which began in the first installment, seem to finally be paying off. Paul’s eldest daughter Kate, the public defender, has her own set of problems when she successfully advocates for the parole of a 12-year-old criminal. On the little psychopath’s first night out, he robs a store, shoots and kills Eddie Fein’s partner, and then gets killed himself when Eddie fires back. Meanwhile, Paul’s youngest daughter Jackie (Angela Featherstone), who seems to be getting her life back on track after the events of the first film, decides she’s going to join the police academy against her dad’s wishes. Finally, Paul’s sister Shelly (Diane Ladd) visits the family, tells stories about her brother, shares a lot of wisdom, and even finds herself caught up in the crossfire of the Fein family / Russian mafia feud!

Charles Bronson was 75 years old when BREACH OF FAITH: FAMILY OF COPS II premiered on CBS on the night of February 2nd, 1997. He still handles the emotional scenes with his family well, gets to throw a couple of punches, and even gets to shoot some people, but the younger men (Joe Penny and Sebastian Spence) handle more of the action this time around. Charles Bronson is still the main reason to watch, but after all of these years, you can finally tell that he is slowing down. There is only one departure from the original cast, and that’s Joe Penny replacing Daniel Baldwin as the eldest son, Detective Ben Fein. I don’t think it hurts the film in any way, and to be completely honest, I prefer Joe Penny in the role. Sebastian Spence and Barbara Williams get to do a little more heavy lifting as Eddie Fein and Kate Fein deal with the aftermath of the young criminal, that Kate helped get released, shooting and killing Eddie’s partner. There is one exchange between Paul and his daughter Kate, who’s dealing with extreme guilt over the situation, that I always found unintentionally funny. It goes something like this:

Paul: “It’s not your fault.”

Kate: “Of course, it is.”

Paul: “Okay! So it is!”

Thanks a lot, Dad! Angela Featherstone, whose Jackie was the most interesting character in the first film, doesn’t have as much to do in this installment. She and Bronson have a great scene together when he tries to talk her out of becoming a cop, but once she heads to the academy, she pretty much disappears from the last half of the film. And finally, I like Diane Ladd as Bronson’s sister in the film. Her character brings another layer of warmth to the family dynamics and helps us get to know her brother Paul a little better.       

As was the case with the original film, the central police investigation into the death of the priest at the hands of the Russian mafia isn’t all that interesting. The bad guys come right out of central casting for TV movies of the era, and the subdued violence and reduced action due to its TV roots can’t help but be compared negatively to the explosive action films that Charles Bronson once headlined. I never felt like the family was really in danger. And this is a completely personal preference, but I don’t care for the romantic relationship that develops between the characters played by Bronson and Kim Weeks. Bronson was dating Weeks in real life at the time of this movie, and they would be married the following year. Although I do hope that they were happy together in real life, I’m just not a fan of Weeks as an actress, and it’s hard for me to accept anyone but Jill Ireland as his on and off-screen love interest.

With BREACH OF FAITH: FAMILY OF COPS II being the penultimate film in Charles Bronson’s career, I definitely recommend it to his fans and to anyone else who enjoys TV movies of the era. While Bronson may be slowing down due to his age, Paul Fein is a perfect character for the icon that allows him to be tough and tender in equal measure. The final sequence of the film always brings a tear to my eye. The entire family is sitting down together to celebrate the weekly “Shabbat” meal when a misty-eyed Paul Fein raises a glass and says, “I’m proud of every one of you… my family.” I know just how much Bronson’s family meant to him, and I can’t help but see that come through in his performance.   

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.19 “Turner’s Tale”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, things get trippy as Mr. T tells a story about a magical forest.

Episode 3.19 “Turner’s Tale”

(Dir by Patrick Loubert, originally aired on May 12th, 1990)

T.S. and Decker discover a little kid named Daniel (Amos Crawley), who is hiding out underneath the boxing ring at Decker’s gym.  Figuring that Daniel ran away from home after getting in trouble for something, T.S. tells Daniel a story while Decker tries to track down Daniel’s parents.

As you can guess from the episode of this title, the majority of the episode is a dramatization of the story that Turner tells.  (The story is also told in rhyme, just so you know what you’re getting yourself into.)  In Turner’s story, Daniel (Sean Roberge) and his sister Terri (Kistina Nicoll) move into a happy forest that is populated by people dressed up as mice, rabbits, and owls.  When Daniel enters a forbidden part of the forest and picks a flower, the police show up and Terri is taken away.  So, Daniel has to go to the police captain’s castle and admit what he did so that Terri can be set free and the forest can be happy again….

What?  No, I’m not kidding.  That’s the plot of this episode.

Okay, this is a weird one.  For 24 minutes, T and T goes from being a show about Mr. T solving crimes to a show about a teenager walking through a magic forest and trying to return a forbidden flower to the cops.  I can’t imagine that anyone really watched T and T for the action but if they did, this episode probably really pissed them off.

But I don’t know.  Maybe I’m getting sentimental as I mature but this episode was actually really sweet and kind of cute.  Mr. T really got into telling the story and there was a funny moment where Turner suddenly realized that he had no idea how the story was supposed to end.  One thing that has always remained consistent about T and T is that Mr. T was always at his most likable when acting opposite kids and trying to teach life lessons.  He and David Nerman made for a good team in this episode and watching them play off each other, it was easy to understand why Decker was the only one of the show’s supporting characters to appear in all three seasons of T and T.  There’s not really much else to say about this episode.  It was clearly made for kids and the lesson is that you should never be scared to tell your parents the truth, even if it means getting punished.  It’s pretty simple but the episode had a few funny moments and everyone seemed to be having fun.

Sometimes, that’s enough.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.18 “Suspect”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, we have yet another surprisingly serious episode of T and T.

Episode 3.18 “Suspect”

(Dir by Ken Girotti, originally aired on May 5th, 1990)

On trial for having physically abused his girlfriend, Giles (Tom Melissis) can only smirk when his girlfriend, Ally (Isabelle Mejias), takes the stand and says that she doesn’t remember who beat her.  Far less amused is Ally’s lawyer, Terri (Kristina Nicoll).

After telling Ally that she needs to recant her testimony and testify against Giles, Terri starts to receive threatening letters.  While Turner immediately suspects that Giles is the one behind the threats, it turns out that it’s actually Ally!  Ally explains that she’s actually an ex-convict named Deborah, a former client of Terri’s who got sent to prison.  This, of course, leads to a huge question — why didn’t Terri recognize Ally when she agreed to serve as her attorney?  And how did Ally manage to fool everyone into thinking she was Ally when she’s actually Deborah?  Ally doesn’t say anything about getting plastic surgery or anything like that.  She also implies that her last encounter with Terri was only a year or two ago.  (Seeing as how Terri wasn’t even on the show until the start of this season, it couldn’t have been that long ago.)  Terri immediately recognizes the name Deborah but she didn’t recognize Deborah when she was standing right in front of her.  Wow, Terry …. and I thought I was self-centered!

No worries, though!  Despite all of the threats, Terri agrees to not turn Ally into the police as long as Ally testifies against Giles.  I don’t know if I could so easily overlook a harassment campaign but whatever.  The important thing is that Giles goes to jail and Ally is free to continue leading a double life.

This episode featured good performances from Isabelle Mejias and Tom Melissis and I appreciate any show or film that ends with an abuser getting sent to either prison or the graveyard.  But the story itself felt really rushed.  This is one of those episodes that would have benefitted from a longer running time because there was a lot to unpack in just 30 minutes.  As well, it’s hard not to feel that Ally’s backstory would have had more impact if Amy was still on the show.  Season 3 (and the show itself) are nearly over and I still don’t feel like I really know how Terri Taler is supposed to be.  Amy was established, over the course of two seasons, as a whip-smart attorney who had a long history as a crusader.  Terri, on the other hand, still feels like someone who just showed up nowhere.

Like last week, this was a surprisingly serious episode of T and T.  The episode didn’t quite work but the show still deserves credit for trying.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.16 “TV Turner”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, a documentary crew proclaims T.S. Turner to be the West’s greatest crime fighter.

Episode 3.16 “TV Turner”

(Dir by Patrick Loubert, originally aired on April 21st, 1990)

A Japanese television crew shows up at the Canadian police station and tells Detective Hargrove that they asked a computer for the name of the greatest crime fighter in North America.  The computer replied with “T.S. Turner,” so they have traveled to Canada to interview Turner.  The only catch is that they have no idea where Turner is and they don’t know anything about him.

Meanwhile, Turner is preparing to leave for his interview with the Japanese documentary team when …. wait a minute, I thought they didn’t know where to find Turner.  I thought they hadn’t even called Turner before arriving in Canada.  So, why is Turner getting ready to leave for his interview?  This is a confusing episode.

Anyway, an old friend of Turner’s asks him to help her track down her missing husband, who lost his job after he was framed for a theft at work.  Turner blows off the interview to search for him.  This means that the film crew instead interviews Hargrove and then Terri about Turner.  The film crew is disappointed to learn that Turner does not drink and he’s not a womanizer.  A random criminal (Phillip Jarrett) gives an interview about the time he was arrested by Turner but it turns out that he’s thinking of a different Turner.

Finally, Turner shows up at the station.  However, before he can do the interview, Terri’s latest client (Angelo RIzacos) grabs a gun and threatens to shoot his way to freedom.  By an amazing coincidence, it turns out that the client is also the missing husband!  Turner convinces the man to put down the gun by explaining that everyone now knows that he was framed for the theft.

(That said, the guy is still looking at serious jail time.  He threatened to shoot up a police station!)

The film crew decides not to interview Turner because he’s not exciting enough.  The end.

Weird episode.  I was expecting it to be a clip show but instead, it was just people talking about how Turner didn’t drink, have sex, or fight any supervillains.  I guess the idea was to show that Turner was a good man and that’s what made him a hero.  That’s a nice message but it also leads to Turner losing his chance to be the subject of a documentary.  Turner’s just too good for the world, I guess.

Let’s give some credit where credit is due.  After sleepwalking through most of season 3, Mr. T actually seemed to be invested in this episode and the scene where he talked the guy into putting down his gun was very nicely done and acted.  As an actor, Mr. T had zero range but he could be likably earnest and that’s certainly the case here.

Anyway, this was an odd episode, even by T and T standards.  There’s only five more to go!

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.13 “The Curse”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

So, after two months, I guess it’s time to finish up reviewing T and T.

I have to admit that I had to remind myself just what exactly this show was about before I watched the 13th episode of the third season.  It’s not a show that really sticks in your mind when you’re not watching it.  In case you need a refresher, the third season of T and T finds T.S. Turner (Mr. T) working for lawyer Terri Taler (Kristina Nicoll), who is apparently the sister of Amy Taler, the crusading lawyer that Turner worked with for the previous two seasons.

Episode 3.13 “The Curse”

(Dir by Patrick Loubert, originally aired on March 31st, 1990)

When T.S. demands that Alfredo (Sam Malkin) pay an outstanding bill for Terri’s legal services, Alfredo reacts by putting a gypsy curse on T.S.  T.S. does what anyone would do.  He fakes his death and has his friends hold a fake funeral in order to guilt Alfredo into paying the bill.

What?

Again, it’s been nearly two months since I last watched this show.  When I was taking care of my Dad, the last thing that I was thinking about was an obscure Canadian comedy/action show from the late 80s.  So, I guess I had forgotten just how silly T and T actually was.  And really, I can’t fault the show for being silly.  I mean, it’s a show that stars Mr. T.  Of course it’s going to be silly!  That said, you know that a show is running out of ideas when they trot out a gypsy curse.  The idea of T.S. Turner faking his own death had potential but the episode itself just kind of fell flat.  By the third season of T and T, it was obvious that Mr. T was so bored with the show that there really wasn’t much difference between Turner pretending to be dead and Turner being alive.

The majority of the episode is taken up with Turner’s “funeral,” which is held at Decker’s gym.  It’s a bit of a missed opportunity, especially when you consider that T and T was in its final season.  Joe Casper returns and so do three of the show’s recurring crooks.  But not present are Turner’s Aunt or his niece, both of whom were key characters during the show’s first season.  And, needless to say, Amy Taler does not attend the funeral of the man she got out of prison and worked with for two full seasons.  It really does leave the viewer wondering, once again, just what happened to Amy’s character and why the show’s third season insists on acting as if Terri has always been Turner’s partner.

Anyway, the scheme works.  Alfredo pays his bill.  Turner reveals that he’s not dead.  The funeral turns into a party.  That’s kind of nice.

I’m nearly done with this show.  That’s nice, too.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.12 “Thief of Hearts”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, Terri’s ex-boyfriend is in town and T.S. is largely indifferent.

Episode 3.12 “Thief of Hearts”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on March 24th, 1990)

Terri’s ex-boyfriend from college, Zack (Patrick McKenna), is in town.  He tells her that he’s in town testifying as an expert witness in a trial but soon, he also reveals that he’s involved in another get-rich-quick-scheme.  He’s looking for investors to fund a search for a treasure that was lost at sea.  While Turner reacts with his usual indifference, Terri worries that Zack is conning all of her friends.

This was a bizarrely inconsequential episode of a show that, by its third season, had pretty much lost whatever reason it once had for existing.  It’s an episode about Terri dealing with her past and her future but since we really don’t know much about Terri — beyond the fact that she suddenly showed up at the start of the third season and everyone on the show has been acting like she’s always been around — there’s not really much emotional resonance to be found in an episode about her having to deal with a former boyfriend who might be a conman.  Watching this episode, I again reflected on how weird it is that no one ever mentions Amy or why she’s no longer on the show.  I’ve always assumed that, since they share the same last name, Terri is meant to be Amy’s sister but it seems odd that her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t even ask how Amy or any other member of Terri’s family is doing.

This episode wasn’t a total loss.  Patrick McKenna gave a pretty good performance as Zack.  And I’ll admit that I did laugh when Detective Hargrove went from trying to arrest Zack to agreeing to invest in his scheme.  For the most part, though, this was an episode that didn’t add up to much.  Mr. T looked even more bored than usual.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.11 “A Place In History”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

Are you ready to get back into T and T?

Yeah, me neither.

But I made a commitment to review the show so here we go!

Episode 3.11 “A Place In History”

(Dir by Alan Simmonds, originally aired on March 17th, 1990)

Phil (Sean McCann), the new cut man at Decker’s gym, impresses everyone when he throws one solid punch that breaks the nose of a cocky boxer.  Phil tells them that he learned how to take care of himself back when he was better known as Lucky O’Mara.

OH MY GOD, everyone says, LUCKY O’MARA!

Apparently, in the 50s, Lucky O’Mara was a gangster who was famous for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.  His picture was never taken and his mysterious disappearance led to a legend growing all over Canada about what happened to Lucky O’Mara.  (He was the Toronto version of D.B. Cooper, I suppose.)  After the local media gets wind of Phil’s story, he becomes a celebrity.  Everyone wants to interview Lucky O’Mara.  And at least one person — a veteran mafia hitman — wants to kill Lucky O’Mara.

Only Turner, Terri, and Detective Hargrove are skeptical of Phil’s story.  When Hargrove summons Phil to the police station and announces that he’s going to be arrested for a murder that Hargrove says Lucky committed, Phil comes clean and admits that he’s not Lucky.  And it all turns out that Phil wasn’t going to be arrested anyway.  It was just a clever ruse on the part of Hargrove and Terri.

At the end of the episode, Phil is back to working as a cut man and no one at the gym seems to be all that upset about him lying to them.  Phil tells Turner that he actually is Lucky O’Mara.  Turner shrugs.

Wow, what a nothing episode.  The idea was intriguing but the episode did little with it.  You kind of have to wonder how it is that a busy policeman like Hargrove and a busy attorney like Terri have time to fake arrest someone.  I mean, aren’t there real arrests that need to be made?  Worst of all, T.S. Turner spent most of this episode sitting in his office.  He didn’t growl at anyone.  He didn’t threaten anyone.  He didn’t get mad at anyone.  What’s the point of T and T if you’re not going to use the T that most people are probably watching for?

This episode was typical of the third season of T and T.  It didn’t add up too much and Mr. T really didn’t seem like he wanted to be there anymore.  I know how he feels but there’s only a few more episodes to go and I’m going to review everyone of them.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.5 “Decker’s Ex”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, Decker takes the ring.

Episode 3.5 “Decker’s Ex”

(Dir by Ken Girotti, originally aired on February 3rd, 1990)

One night, Beth Knightley (Wendy Lyon, who horror fans will immediately recognize from Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou) comes home to discover two masked men tearing up her house.  They tell her that they are searching for a computer disk that was taken by her deceased husband.  They give her 24 hours to find the disk.  If she doesn’t comply, she dies.  If she goes to the police, she dies.  If she tries to leave town …. “you get the idea,” as the main bad guy says.

Having been ordered not to go to the police, Beth instead goes to her ex, who just happens to turn out to be gym owner Decker (David Nerman).  Decker asks T.S. to help them out but, when the men show up at the gym, it turns out that Decker doesn’t need any help.  Because Turner made the mistake of going to the police and ended up being interrogated by the FBI, it falls to Decker to beat up the bad guys.  Decker does just that and he does it rather easily.  The Canadian Mob is not sending their best.

(Actually, since this show obviously takes place in Canada, you have to wonder what the FBI was doing north of the border.)

The majority of this episode was taken up with Beth and Decker talking about why their marriage failed.  Beth had plans while Decker just had dreams.  It really wasn’t anything that I hadn’t heard in a hundred other shows and movies but David Nerman and Wendy Lyon had a likable chemistry and they were convincing as two people who would have once taken a chance on each other.  David Nerman was the only member of T and T‘s supporting cast to stick with the series through all three seasons and it’s nice that he was given an episode where he got to be the hero.

(Still, it’s interesting that T.S. apparently didn’t know that Decker was once married, considering that the show previously established them as being lifelong friends.)

Speaking of the show’s supporting cast, this was the second episode of T and T to feature just one T.  Again, Kristina Nicoll is featured in the opening credits but the character that she plays, Terri Taler, is neither seen nor mentioned during the show.  Just as with last week’s episode, I have to wonder if this was shot before Nicoll was actually hired for the show.

This episode also features no mention of why exactly Amy is no longer working with T.S.  The obvious reason for Amy’s absence is that Alex Amini didn’t return for the third season.  But, in-universe, it just seems strange that T.S. never mentions her.  I mean, T.S. would still be in prison if not for her.  Show some appreciation, Turner!

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.4 “Cry Wolf”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, someone from the past shows up but it’s not Amy.

Episode 3.4 “Cry Wolf”

(Dir by Alan Simmonds, originally aired on January 26th, 1990)

While filming footage for what is sure to be a riveting cinematic essay on urban decay, high school student Martina (Joanne Vannicola) films a drug deal going to down in an abandoned warehouse.  (The world of T and T was full of abandoned warehouses where people were either selling drugs or hiding stolen money.)  Unfortunately, Martina runs out of film before actually capturing the drugs being exchanged.  Everyone who sees the footage says that it doesn’t prove anything.

Martina decides to take justice into her own hands.  I’m not really sure why.  Martina’s obsession with tracking down the drug dealers and getting them arrested feels somewhat unhinged and it’s a bit disturbing to see coming from a teenager.  I mean, Martina doesn’t know the drug dealers.  She is apparently not a user of cocaine.  She’s just decided that these people deserve to be taken down by her.  One gets the feeling that Martina is going to grow up to be a member of the secret police.

Martina’s investigation leads her to a suburban couple who capture her and make plans to eventually kill her.  Fortunately, Martina’s best friend is Joe Casper (Sean Roberge) and he is able to enlist his mentor, T.S. Turner, to save Martina’s life.

That’s right!  Joe’s back.  He was a semi-regular during the second season, appearing in the opening credits even though he rarely got to do anything on the show.  Still, the return of Joe would, in theory, be the perfect opportunity for the show to explain what happened to Amy.  Amy and Joe were close, after all. It seems like it would be natural for Joe and Turner to say something about missing Amy and perhaps provide us with a clue as to why Amy has been replaced by Terri.

However, that doesn’t happen.  In fact, Turner acts as if he barely knows Joe, despite the fact that he practically adopted him during the second season.  “Why are you kids always here?” he growls when he sees Joe and Martina in Decker’s gym.  And seriously, why is everyone always in Decker’s gym?  The place is a dump!  And is there no one at the gym who could tell T.S. that the hot pink bodysuit that he wears while boxing looks kind of silly?

Anyway, T.S. goes down to the suburbs and saves Martina.  As usual, it doesn’t take much effort because the drug dealers are all kind of wimpy whereas T.S. Turner is Mr. T.  It was only as things ended that I realized that Terri didn’t even appear in this episode.  With Amy gone and Terri not being all the important, T and T is feeling more and more like T.

This episode was pretty dumb but I did appreciate that the drug dealers were essentially just two suburbanites who had no idea what they were doing.  That was a nice twist.  But otherwise …. yeah, pretty dumb.

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.3 “Halfway to Nowhere”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, Terri and Turner take down the loathsome head of a halfway house.

Episode 3.3 “Halfway to Nowhere”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired January 20th, 1990)

Roman (Louis Ferreira) is an angry young man who is on parole and who has been living at a halfway house that is run by Eddy (Danny Pawlick).  When Roman discovers that Eddy has been harassing Roman’s girlfriend, Sissy (Krista Bridges), Roman attacks Eddy.  Eddy kicks Roman out of the halfway house and attempts to have him sent back to prison.

Terri just happens to be in the police station when Roman is brought in and, just like Amy used to do before her mysterious disappearance, Terri declares herself to be Roman’s attorney.  (One gets the feeling that the show’s producers just crossed out Amy’s name on a bunch of scripts and wrote in “Terri.”)  Roman turns out to be a terrible client who refuses to talk to anyone, including the attorney who is trying to keep him out of jail.  Terri finally calls up T.S. Turner and asks him for help.

Turner’s reaction is to growl about how late it is.

Seriously, what’s going on with Turner this season?  He’s in an even worse mood than usual.  Maybe he’s mad because Amy has mysteriously vanished without explanation.  After all, Turner owed Amy.  Amy was the one who got him out of prison.  It made sense that Turner would always be willing to drop everything to help out Amy.  Terri is just some random lawyer who has shown up out of nowhere.

Terri, it should be said, is not a very good lawyer.  At the parole hearing, she puts Eddy on the stand and asks him a bunch of questions, despite not having a clue as to how Eddy is going to respond.  She also dramatically announces that she will be calling Sissy as a witness before she knows whether or not Sissy has agreed to testify.  When Turner steps into the courtroom without Sissy and shakes his head because Sissy refuses to testify, Terri is forced to walk back her words.  I doubt that parole board appreciated that and they probably took their frustration out on Terri’s client.

In the end, Sissy does agree to wear a wire and Eddy stupidly talks about all the crimes that he’s committed as the head of a halfway house.  Eddy ends up getting arrested and Sissy and Roman are reunited briefly.  That said, it appears that Roman is still going to go back to jail because Terri is a terrible attorney.

On the plus side, this episode featured one of the most loathsome villains to ever show up on T&T and it was satisfying to watch Terri and Turner take him down.  On the other hand, it would have been even more satisfying if Terri wasn’t terrible at her job and if Turner didn’t seem to be annoyed by even having to be in her presence.  This episode was a mixed bag but at least it looked like Eddy was going away for a long time.