Episode #99 "Fruit Of The Poison Tree"


Ferrariman

Recommended Posts

  • 2 years later...
Guest neworder

Fruit of the Poison Tree is probably my most watched Miami Vice episode ever. I think this episode is terrific, my favourite from Season 5 and one of the best of the whole series. This episode has a good story, and a very strong supporting cast. Sam Boyle is played terrifically by McHattie. I really like his character, i always like bad guys who to some people are good people and as such are playing other people along with it. Always interests me and Boyle also dives a nice Jag E Type! Enriquez is also played very well, one of the best drug dealers for in Vice for a long time. Lisa Madsen is alright, she can be annoying in places...and Tony Sirico plays a small but brilliant part in this episode. I did enjoy the toilet and bridge scenes with him in! This episode also involves all the vice crew pretty much. The intro scene has them all working together nicely, crockett and tubbs working together once again, great to see them in action in some of the ace action scenes in this episode. Gina acts fantastically...ok im being sarcastic but she does look hot in that hot tub. I just got annoyed with her saying babe on the end of every line to Enriquez. Switek and Trudy play small roles but crucially they are there. What the hell is with that shirt Switek wears in the garage scene? horrible lol. Crockett's clothes were brill, and Tubbs' wardrobe one of his more normal of Season 5! The music is ace in this ep, with U2 and Robert Plant featured, both great songs. The scene with walking towards paradise playing was proper Vice and reminded me of the good old parties that were featured a lot in Season 1, but slowly disapeared over the years. I think Trumans music is awesome in this episode, probably his best score of season 5. Every que is perfect and it fits perfect with the episode. There is plenty of action in this episode, although the scene before the last shootout is a little slow. The shootout at the end is brilliant with Tubbs doing an ace run and subsequent shotgun shooting of the Uzi shooter. Fantastic. The story is fairly dark with the boy being killed and everything and crockett really sums up the darkness of the episode with that very harsh line at the end to Lisa 'how did you think it was gonna look, pretty'! Brilliantly said by Johnson, and sums up the episode well. Truman ends his score in the episode terrifically too. Overall, ive always loved a bit of Fruit of the Poison tree and i dare say i always will. Despite seeing it probably more than 40 times i still enjoy it. The action, the characters and the music all fantastic. Perfect Vice, the best episode of season 5 in my opinion. This episode deserves a 10/10 from me! Since writing the review above 2 years ago on .org, I can confirm that I still love this episode. Top class ep. After many weeks of Season 5 being excellent, it all starts to fall apart with the next episode, so FOTPT is for me the peak of S5's quality

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted: April 16 2008 at 11:51am All in all, a good episode. I really thought the beginning and ending were very strong. What I liked : The clothes Gina wore & didn't wear(in the hot tub). All of Enriquez's white suits, and his landing in the filthy cement mix. The Miami night train at the beginning. I liked the music throughout the episode, especially at the nightclub. The blue lighting behind the vase in Lisa'a house. I liked the airport shootout. I didn't like : Gina's empty-headed giggling all the time with Enriquez, although she wanted to throw him off that she was listening to everything. I could never accept the fact that the bad guys spraying C & T with machine guns can't hit them but one shot from them always finds it's mark. I didn't like the kid getting killed, but it added to the story. 7.5 / 10 I'm raising my score to an 8, for this poll

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like this episode enough to grant an 8. It really showed how a guilty conscience is not worth all the money in the world. As Sam Boyle would find out. And Lisa Madsen had watched as it all caught up with her mentor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Another good episode from Season 5. Enjoyable. Would rewatch it. Some good acting in it and good soundtrack. 7/10

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

I have to admit back in the '80's I didn't watch most of season 5. Over the years I've only seen the first 2 or 3 episodes and the finale from season 5. I've recently started watching all the Miami Vice episodes on DVD. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. It is a 'Miami Vice' episode as opposed to a number of the other season 5 episodes. I rate this one a 10/10. It's now one of my favorites of the whole series.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I loved this episode with a lot of Don Johnson. Really good clothes and locations. Felt more like a Season 4 episode - not as violent as some of the previous episodes such as "Borrasca" and "Heart of Night " 8.5/10:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

This too was a good, solid, enjoyable Season 5 episode! The plot was something realistic and in-depth, the acting was superb by all :glossy: , the action was pretty cool :cool: , and the colors & lighting used were pretty awesome! The beginning was captivating and I love how Enriquez fell in the oil and was rolling around! :) The character of Lisa Madsen was perfectly played by Amanda Plummer! She has always kind of creeped me out and she looks kind of bizarre, :eek: , but she is a very good actress! I love how she finally "came-around" and realized what a sleaze Sam Boyle was.I could hardly stand Gina's air-head giggling and "Babys" with Enriquez :evil: --however, I know that was part of her cover. But, she totally made up for that with her superb, heart-wrenching performance when the boy was blown up with the bomb meant for her! :clap: That scene was so sad and tragic :cry: , but it was also one of the best carried out in the whole episode.I thought Don did an outstanding job as well...and I love the scenes between him and Lisa, as he finally got her to wake up and realize what was going on! The end was "fitting" and appropriate...over all I really like this episode and look forward to it every time I watch Season 5! :thumbsup: I gave it an 8!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

superb by all :glossy: , the action was pretty cool :cool: , and the colors & lighting used were pretty awesome! The beginning was captivating and I love how Enriquez fell in the oil and was rolling around! :) The character of Lisa Madsen was perfectly played by Amanda Plummer! She has always kind of creeped me out and she looks kind of bizarre, :eek: , but she is a very good actress! I love how she finally "came-around" and realized what a sleaze Sam Boyle was.I could hardly stand Gina's air-head giggling and "Babys" with Enriquez :evil: --however, I know that was part of her cover. But, she totally made up for that with her superb, heart-wrenching performance when the boy was blown up with the bomb meant for her! :clap: That scene was so sad and tragic :cry: , but it was also one of the best carried out in the whole episode.I thought Don did an outstanding job as well...and I love the scenes between him and Lisa, as he finally got her to wake up and realize what was going on! The end was "fitting" and appropriate...over all I really like this episode and look forward to it every time I watch Season 5! :thumbsup: I gave it an 8!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

A good episode that highlighted the legal maneuvers of the justice system.  I enjoyed the twists and turns of this episode as the audience thinks Lisa Madsen is genuine in providing the information to Crockett (which was probably likely), but after discovering more about Sam Boyle's journey in learning about her father's death, manipulated the situation to get Sam Boyle killed.

 

The episode drove home the point about how those who work in law enforcement, or in the legal prosecution of criminals, will have their integrity tested with a plethora of temptations, and maybe even to the point of death with Crockett stating how Lisa's father had the courage to stand for what he believed in, and died for what he believed in.  The scenic locations and the score were all great!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Pretty good episode.

Cool opening with U2 playing.

Amanda Plummer gets on my nerves. But shes supposed to so she does a good job.

Enriquez was one of the better S5 villains.

Good music and good action. Really like the shootout.

Gina was hot as usual.

Loved the ending. Not so pretty huh Lisa.

I've noticed something with the Blu-Ray. The shot of Castillo with the binoculars is extremely red. Weird.

8/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I think this episode is excellent. I just got done rewatching it and it's some of the latter seasons' best quality. Cool lighting and scenery most of the time which reminds me of Vice's glory days. Crockett's clothes are very chic and his hair looks pretty good too. Normally I don't like S3-5 styles so that's a yay for me. Lisa was cute too I thought. Enricquez of course was dressed terribly, what even were those super baggy white tuxedos? I loved the music, it suited the episode very well. One of the few episodes without Jan Hammer that I think matched up score-wise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
On 10/22/2018 at 12:45 AM, Dadrian said:

This is, all-around, among the strongest S5 episodes for me. 

I love this one! It was the first of two Season 5 episodes directed by Michelle Manning (also “Miami Squeeze”), she was a young high honcho at Universal Pictures who went on to become head of production for Paramount Pictures in 1991.

Edited by Matt5
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
48 minutes ago, mjcmmv said:

Amanda Plummer-excellent actress. She was very good in this. 

And cute, too. I don’t know, I have a thing for women that age.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

This is one of the highlights of the season. It's very well acted which is fortunate as the plots kind of forced. This one was all about the drama. Amanda Plummer didn't have much to work with and her written dialogue in places was pretty bad but she decided to put a ton of emotion into it and play it to the hilt. It really worked. The moment where she stares at Sam makes it. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/21/2018 at 9:45 PM, Dadrian said:

This is, all-around, among the strongest S5 episodes for me. 

Definitely.  Seasons 1 & 2-level of engagement and style, but still a integral part of S5 - Switeck probably would have cracked a joke at Enriquez' slipping and sliding during the teaser ("Gotcha, slick!" or something like that) in earlier times.  Here he's not so wacky. 

In fact, I'm in the midst of a good run of S5 episodes; I'm watching the Mill Creek DVD set in which there're usually 5 episodes per disc - the first five of this season (Hostile Takeover through Borrasca) had a hard time getting me involved, but the next five (Line of Fire through To Have and to Hold) have been much better.  

Edited by Jack Gretsky
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

The character of Lisa Madsen is one of the most conventional roles, at least in terms of demeanor, that I've ever seen Amanda Plummer play, but that's not necessarily a bad thing: I thought she was both forceful & vulnerable, but still with a touch of her unusual & unique way of being.  I thought Stephen McHattie's Sam Boyle & Madsen were a good team, and I like how one was principled and trying to do what was right for their client, while the other was just trying to do right by himself.

Gina's line to Enriquez "I just wanted to get a towel baby" was so Gina and so adorable, even if she was in cover.

The kid Nicky, what happened to him was one of the most powerful moments in the series for me (maybe because the kid as portrayed wasn't much older than me at that time), and Gina's reaction to the explosion also resonates in my mind.

I thought this was an excellent episode, super dark in terms of tone, but stayed on an even keel (Enriquez sliding in the mud got a grin from me though; I mean, he was a pretty dirty guy after all).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/18/2020 at 6:13 PM, Bren10 said:

Looks to be from around this time.

 

 

His character (Frank Romano) was secondary in this episode but they could have re-used it for another story...that instead of making that silly "miracle man". It could have been one of the best MV villains in the whole series in MHO.

Edited by sdiegolo78
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.