Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

After a two-week hiatus, the retro television reviews are back!  Let’s start with Miami Vice.

Episode 4.6 “God’s Work”

(Dir by Jan Eliasberg, originally aired on November 6th, 1987)

Father Ernesto Lupe (Daniel Lugo), an old friend of Castillo’s, runs an AIDS hospice in Miami.  When Father Ernesto is shot and murdered, Castillo takes a particular interest in the case.

Was Father Ernesto shot by one of the neighborhood homophobes, the same punks who spend their free time spray-painting obscene graffiti on the front doors of the hospice?

Was Father Ernesto’s death connected to his brother-in-law, notorious drug lord Jorge Cruz (Alfonso Arau)?  The Vice Squad has been investigating the Cruz family.  Francesco (Franceso Quinn) is the brutish son, the one who enjoys throwing his weight around and who goes out of his way to bully everyone that he meets.  Felipe (Esai Morales) is the young son, who has just returned from Miami after making a fortune as a stockbroker in New York.  Is Felipe looking to take over the family business?

Actually, Felipe wants nothing to do with the family business.  He’s returned to Miami because an ex-boyfriend is a patient at the AIDS hospice and Felipe wanted to spend time with him before he died.  And Father Ernesto’s death had nothing to do with drugs.  Instead, Jorge shot him because Jorge blamed Ernesto’s sermons, which stressed God’s love above all else, for being responsible for Felipe “becoming” gay.  Even after Felipe explains that the sermons had nothing to do with it and that he’s always been gay, Jorge still thinks that he can “cure” his son by making him a part of the family business.

Yikes!

There was a lot going on in this episode.  In fact, there was almost too much going on.  Between Castillo investigating Ernesto’s death and Tubbs (working undercover) trying to arrest Franceso, this episode sometimes felt a bit overstuffed.  It was still an effective episode, though, featuring good performances from Arau, Quinn, Morales, and Edward James Olmos.  Castillo actually got to laugh at one point in this episode.  I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

This episode did remind me — as I think almost every episode does — that Crockett and Tubbs undercover work has never made much sense.  Tubbs spends the majority of the first half of the episode pretending to be a criminal looking to make a deal with Francisco.  That’s fine.  It even allows Tubbs to use his fake Caribbean accent.  It’s been a while since we’ve heard that.  But then, after Father Ernesto is shot, Tubbs shows up at the crime scene with his badge.  Now, seriously, Father Ernesto is Francesco’s uncle.  Francesco is a suspect in the murder.  Why would Tubbs run the risk of blowing his cover like that?  For that matter, why was Vice investigating a homicide?

Even when Vice is good, it often doesn’t make sense.