Episode #13 "Score"


Ferrariman

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Episode # 13 "Score"

I always liked this episode. First half shows the glitz in the hotel lobby where C & T subdue the guy high on drugs' date=' and around the hotel's pool. Amazing, how glasses, buttoned-up shirt & parted hair comb, turn Sonny into a convincing nerd! I really felt bad for the hooker, Candy, when she got beat up by the bad cops. She had a certain tough charm to me. Rico looked sharp in cream colored jacket, tourquoise shirt & white tie. Also blue jacket, melon shirt & white tie. Stan & Larry were colorful ( yellow & black) matching the security vault decor. Second half is darker toned, matching Castillo's demeanor. We get to know him a lot better in this & the next episode. Up to this episode he only gave an icy stare or tough phrase. Now we see him use the skills he learned in southeast Asia as a DEA agent. He is a formidable opponent for the Thai assassin using judo etc. Then we learn he has a wife. One of my favorites. I rate it 10.I forgot one of my favorite scenes. Sonny is filing Elvis' claws & Szarbo & his partner walk up to the boat to make a deal. Szarbo stops what he's saying, & asks: " Is that a real alligator?" Sonny looks over at Tubbs & shakes his head as if to say, Is this guy for real! Cracked me up![/quote']I believe the fighting style Castillo is using is called Muay Thai which is roughly translated as Thai Boxing. You can see some of this style in the films ONG BANK and THE PROTECTOR ( my personal favorite) starring the incomporable Tony Jaa who is amazing to watch. One of the best features of his films are the fact that there are no wires or special effects in the fight scenes unlike many current marital arts movies.
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  • 2 months later...

I just watched this episode again and I was really impressed with the way it had all different types of show going on. There was serious stuff, mystery, action, comedy, it seemed to be a well rounded episode. We get to see Crockett trying out a few different types of undercover. The Pimp, the shy nerdy type, the hotel security... Each with its own wardrobe style too. Jan hammer has a new tune for this one, and it's a strange musical pattern, not 4/4. Great stuff though. Candy was quite a character, and so was zarbo. The retired cop helping out the robbers by trying to bust Crockett, and that whole scene was a very attention grabbing scene. I found myself worried that their cover was blown. Candy played along well. IMO, she should have been a small recurring role on the show.Great story, Great characters, great music... this is a must see episode!9/10 (not much from the supporting characters was the only thing lacking for me)

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I just LOVE this episode. I've been playing "Candy" in the car for weeks now. It's probably my wife's fav. song from Vice. It always puts her in a good, cheerful mood, and that means so much to me at this time.If you put this show in the context with when it was originally aired, it was a real breath of fresh air for American tv. There was so much originality in this episode, and the tone was like nothing else on American tv at that time.Plus, the seen where Castillo is dining with Tubbs at the Thai restaurant...inspired me to go on my solo lunch at the Chinese joint several weeks back as I wrote about in the Miami Vice Fantasy Life thread. Cool, fresh and unorthodox episode that brings the '80s into sharp focus. I am always grateful for this episode when I watch it.

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  • 6 months later...

Stunning episode imo, we get to know more about Castillo's past and Crockett and Tubbs handle themselves pretty well with Szarbo, Ross, Garcia and even Candy. I noticed that the scene at the end where Crockett and Tubbs talk to Castillo is used as the opening for the Miami Vice music video.I dunno, if someone's already posted this or pointed it out, but when I saw it, i was like "sheeeeeeeeeit!" :)

9/10 for me, enjoy the video!
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  • 1 year later...

Golden Triangle Part 1: (1985)

Another episode that I have almost forgot over the past few years.
It begins rather comical with the Cookie monsters evil twin going berserk in a hotel, then Crockett decides to go undercover borrowing Lewis Skolnick (Revenge of the Nerds) clothes but it sure fools the hunter who becomes the hunted as the sarcastic but likeable Candy turns out to be a fine ally.
Sure after some high-tech stuff, Tubbs mean pimp slappin' and two bad guys who looked like they were taken out of a bad action movie it suddenly turns things up a notch right at the end and it was great watching Castillo doing some serious ass kicking.
Not a favorite, but it does features the great Jan Hammer tune Candy so I give it a
6/10

 

 
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Golden Triangle Part 1: (1985)

Another episode that I have almost forgot over the past few years.
It begins rather comical with the Cookie monsters evil twin going berserk in a hotel, then Crockett decides to go undercover borrowing Lewis Skolnick (Revenge of the Nerds) clothes but it sure fools the hunter who becomes the hunted as the sarcastic but likeable Candy turns out to be a fine ally.
Sure after some high-tech stuff, Tubbs mean pimp slappin' and two bad guys who looked like they were taken out of a bad action movie it suddenly turns things up a notch right at the end and it was great watching Castillo doing some serious ass kicking.
Not a favorite, but it does features the great Jan Hammer tune Candy so I give it a
6/10

 

 

 

I really enjoyed this episode and the two episode story arc - great music , locations in Turnberry Isle and guest stars - although Part 2 does move a little faster .

:D  :)  :thumbsup:

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  • 10 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Kiss me and make it a love story.

I love the character of Candy as well as Candy by Jan Hammer. Its fricking beautiful.

The opening is pretty funny. Crockett made a convincing nerd. Always good to see Elvis. Castillo really comes into his own in this episode. The bit where he fights the guy in the alley is pretty badass.

9/10

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  • 3 years later...

Another good episode, mostly because it really flushes out Castillo's character, who I felt had been underused to this point. I wasn't initially sure why the boys were on hotel security detail, but it made sense once Crockett's hilarious undercover nerd scene took place. I didn't like Szarbo's character much, but he was effective as a sleazy con involved in many areas of crime. Candy was ok, but a little too abrasive in some scenes for C and T to take a liking to her. I thought the episode really got rolling when Castillo figures out the Thai bank robber had a connection to his DEA assignment. His background makes him even more charismatic and interesting, and his fight in the alley with the assassin is actually the main scene I remember from the first time I saw Miami Vice as a kid. The reveal of his wife (vintage Joan Chen!) actually being alive is a great cliff hanger.

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  • 1 month later...

I feel pretty much the same about "Score"/"Golden Triangle" as I do about "The Hit List"/"Calderone's Demise" in that they feel like just two successive episodes of a serialized story rather than an outright two-parter; however, I feel oppositely in the way that I feel, this time, that the second episode is the better of the two. That being said, I'm more in favor of the revised title of "Golden Triangle I/II" mainly because "Score" is kind of a lazy episode name.

Also unlike "Calderone's Demise", I do still like "Score". I think Crockett is on absolute top form here. People like to rag on Robin Johnson a lot as a performer, but anyone who says that, if she were to come up to them in 1984 and ask if they could rub oil on her back, that they would say no, is a bald faced liar. I like that Candy gets away from the episode without functioning as a sort of "sacrificial lamb" that we had gotten used to here.

My biggest issues are really just an uneven tone and the way that the episode moves along kinda just feeling like the writers' room kept adding twists and turns as they went along, without having had a gameplan and outline. I mean the entire Thai angle comes almost out of nowhere (the only breadcrumb being that the tech guy for the vault job happens to be Thai) and is clearly just setup for "Golden Triangle". Still, 7/10 for me.

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  • 5 months later...

"Score" - the run-up to "Golden Triangle."  I very much like the hotel setting here; kind of reminds me of a Magnum P.I. episode in which Magnum works as a hotel detective.  What a crazy freak-out in that teaser; that shirtless guy really "takes the cake." :rolleyes:

Robin Johnson as Candy is one of my favorite guest stars.  You end up really caring for this hustler.  Don Johnson's homage to Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot (not the dressing in drag aspect, but the glasses-wearing nerd bit) is hilarious. 

I love the design of the "Safety Deposit Vault" as it's labeled in big letters on the wall with that gate of cut-out circles.  It looks more like they're entering Cathedral in Logan's Run.  MV always takes care with its distinctive look.  Note the scene in the white-walled interrogation room - Tubbs, Crockett, Castillo in blacks, whites, creams, but Candy really "pops" with her blue dress and dyed-blonde hair.  

A good confrontation scene with Sonny, Rico, Candy, Szarbo and Ross.  The breezes of the night lend atmosphere as everyone has to remember their deceptions.

The mysterious, black-clad mutilator/killer of Szarbo and the Thai ushers in a sinister international angle, one that will let us know more about Castillo's colorful past.  Terrific scene in the restaurant.  Tubbs finds out Castillo worked three years for the DEA in Burma/Thailand. "Three years.  That's a long time." Castillo sharply retorts, "It's a lifetime." Then the hardcore fight between Marty and Boon. Tubbs walks up to see Castillo lay the guy out and probably thinking, "Just who the hell are we working for?"

Edited by Jack Gretsky
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  • 8 months later...

I noticed a couple of things that were new to me the other night. 

In the OCB scene right after the boxes have been discovered to be punched and everyone is baffled, Castillo says “then who the hell killed these guys?”

1. I believe this is the only time Castillo swears in the entire series. Can anyone else think of another?

2. When Switek says “the way they did that Thai” his lips do not say “Thai”, and Castillo’s alarmed response contains “Thai” twice, but it’s pretty clear his lips are saying “Asian” both times. I wonder why they decided to go to all the trouble to voice-over that entire exchange for one word, and I wonder if the script says “Thai” or “Asian”. Check it out sometime for yourself. 

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18 hours ago, Dadrian said:

1. I believe this is the only time Castillo swears in the entire series. Can anyone else think of another?

yeah, that struck me too. Rather intemperate for a restrained guy like Castillo. I think also this phrase may have been edited in later.

 

18 hours ago, Dadrian said:

2. When Switek says “the way they did that Thai” his lips do not say “Thai”, and Castillo’s alarmed response contains “Thai” twice, but it’s pretty clear his lips are saying “Asian” both times. I wonder why they decided to go to all the trouble to voice-over that entire exchange for one word, and I wonder if the script says “Thai” or “Asian”. Check it out sometime for yourself.

That's interesting. Cool that you spotted this, I never noticed. Also Castillo's question "how did you know he was Thai" and Zito's reply regarding the tattoo are both spoken off-camera. Maybe they concluded that "Asian" was simply too unspecific to immediately trigger Castillo's intense reaction. After all, 'Asians' are technically the most common race in the world, so there would have been no reason why a dead person of that ethnicity should have alarmed him so much.

On another note, I love the remark by Switek: "Yeah, 'cause they just didn't wanna kill him. They wanted to kill him."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Watching this one again on my Blu-ray set. The 2-part “Score” & “Golden Triangle” (later retitled “Golden Triangle” Pts. 1 & 2 for syndicated reruns) are awesome editions to the 1st season. I really enjoyed guest star Robin Johnson as Candy James...she was interesting, like-able, and even intriguing enough that I wish her character would have returned in other episodes. But, I believe she stopped acting around 1988. 

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