Episode #41 "Payback"


Ferrariman

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Payback is undoubtedly one of the best episodes of Miami Vice and in my opinion, probably the best episode of the whole series, certainly the strongest episode of Season 2. Everything about this episode is fantastic. Starting with the music - what a score by Jan Hammer, the payback theme is awesome and in my opinion gives Crocketts theme a good run for its money in terms of best tracks that Hammer produced. The intro sequence is pure brilliance, awesome music, crockett looking moody as he walks through the prison, very well executed. The story is good in this episode, slightely complex for a Season 2 storyline. I love all the Scarab action in this one, nice to see as there isn't a significant amount in Season 2. Acting wise all on top form, action wise has a nice blend, style is on top form, music is on top form, and the finale to the episode is fantastic. I do wonder why they didn't continue this story on though, only annoying thing is there is a pretty big cliffhanger at the end of this episode and it isn't followed up on.Anyway overall, top episode, perfect in every way. 10/10

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Now this is how it's done! Payback is a fantastic episode. Another example of the explosive results when season 2 had a story to match the style. This is a superbly written episode. Michael Mann obviously figured after the recent spate of poor stories that the show needed a really strong episode story-wise. Too bad there could've been more storylines in season 2, a season where style predominantly went over substance. Everything about this episode screams quality. Great performance by DJ, Jan Hammer excelled himself. All the great elements of Vice are here.Fabulous intro. Crockett introducing himself is one of the defining images of the character. Excellent Jan tune. The whole sequence was understated yet powerful. Great intro.Terrific speedboat action. Great scenery, especially Hedaya's house and Frankie & Johnny's Bar. This ep is chockful of memorable scenes; the scene with Crockett and Tubbs on the St. Vitus, the scenes of a pissed off Crockett at OCB, the nighttime scene at Hedaya's house. Excellent ending too with great shots of the Scarab on the high seas and a very good fight scene. The undoubted highlight of this ep for this Frank Zappa's guest appearance. I'm a massive fan of Frank. He's one of my favourite musicans of all time and I think his scene on the yacht is one of the greatest scenes in all of Vice. Frank as Mario Fuente is my favourite guest appearance in all of Vice too. While it was a brief appearance he did an exellent job. It was interesting seeing him playing a drug baron as he was actually anti drugs. Now I think 'weasel dust' is the best term for coke after 'yeyo'. Overall, the scene on Fuente's yacht was fantastic. They should've continued the loose strand of Fuente wanting Crockett in S3. It would've been great to have more Zappa on the show.Easily one of the best episodes of S2 and a top 10 favourite of mine. 10/10

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I would have liked to see a stronger ending though and one that concludes the whole Fuente story and not just the IA issue like Vercetti argues. Perhaps a second part would have been more appropriate? Kind of leaves you with a 'Newton Blade' feeling. Nice chick in bikini on the yacht too. 9/10

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One thing that always confused me about this episode was why Crockett never heard anything else from IAD. He just got up and left with no repercussions! Now when I think about it, the whole thing was probably a bogus setup and the other guy sitting there was just one of the bad guys keeping an eye on Sonny.The ending was fine, they just should've followed up with another episode tieing up the loose ends. Cates told Crockett that they'd be coming after him but they never did.Great score by Jan Hammer (actually first heard in "Little Prince") I give it a 10!

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10/10!!!Fantastic! my second favorite episode of MV (behind Def. Miami). Really good, gripping story start to finish - great acting - difficult to find weaknesses.

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I liked this episode. I copied Sonny's ID, when Rick posted it on his website & carry it in my wallet. Cool, when he put it up to the window & said, James Sonny Crockett, Vice, Miami! I thought it was kind of a high price Moroto paid to get a cop in trouble. He was better off killing Crockett right there! Notice how easy it was for Fuente to see the similarity between Crock ett & Burn ett. Castillo never liked DEA or Internal Affairs people. He stuck up for Crockett again, with the IA man. This episode gives me good feelings. I do miss Gina in this one. I rate it a 7. I like the scene in the restaurant when Sonny says to the waitress, "Nice table Toots, maybe next time you could put us closer to the bathrooms" I really like his outfit in this one. Light, pastel green jacket, light pink shirt, white pants & shoes. Back at the OCB, Gina has a green blouse, white vest & pants. This episode grew on me & I give it 8.5! For the Poll, I've increased my rating to a 9 !

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My old review below - I'm not voting on the poll yet as I want to re-watch tonight to see if I will change any scoring/comments - let you know later - but this is an awesome ep however you play it... ------------------------------ Well I think the ep ratings work I did has paid off for at least one person… me! Late last night noticed MV was due to show in a few minutes at midnight on Men & Motors channel – and when I read it was ‘Payback’ I remembered instantly that a lot of high scores were given to it. I was a bit tired and felt like crashing (or at least helping put baby to sleep which isn’t quite the same thing, but there you go!) Anyway I decided to watch for a bit because of all the high scores – and boy was I not disappointed. As Nancy pointed out, one of those eps that demands your attention from the word go and just doesn’t let go. Superb – so much great MV stuff going on… I quickly forgot how sleepy I was feeling… now just need to re-watch with the wife – more MV? Darn, what a shame! J Pre-credits teaser was excellent – for all the reasons mentioned by others. As this was a first viewing for me (I think?) it made me recall the trip Sonny makes to go see Hackman on Death Row – similar checks, depositing his firearms etc. – I guess a lot of you were reminded of Payback when you saw Forgive Us Our Debts ? This ep was just so cool – attention to detail was incredible – I mean did you even see how Sonny’s cyan pastel jacket in the restaurant matched part of the colouring on the restaurant seats? And I particularly like that shade as I have a YSL t-shirt in that colour that has to be my favourite top at the moment – in fact I was even wearing it last night as this ep came on! Anyhow back to the review…! Another thing I don’t think others have picked-up on yet is the fact that (perhaps unusually?) several scenes are shot in this ep in one of the best colours for evoking ‘mellow’ emotions in the viewer – ie reddish times of the day – either just after dawn or approaching dusk. The scene where Sonny takes a seat early on next to the bikini-clad girls takes place at this time, as is the scene with Sonny & Rico on Sonny’s boat. This last scene is beautiful I think – the shot of the Miami high-risers behind Rico in the reddish light is mesmerising. Great ep for keeping you thinking ‘what the heck is going on?’ – eg the phonecall ‘Share the money Crockett’, Guys blowing their brains out, Internal investigations etc. Castillo asleep in his office scene another superb one – but I think you all know I pretty much don’t have a bad word to say about Castillo! The scene where Sonny is waiting for the Internal interview is classic – I was getting so paranoid by this stage that I was even beginning to wonder if the black guy waiting with Sonny (and who suggests that perhaps Sonny is feeling the heat as he has something to hide) was actually planted there to observe Sonny’s behaviour rather than waiting for an interview himself! The dialogue between Cates and Sonny is a superb piece of writing from the scripters, and yes the parallels between this situation and Sonny’s eventual demise at the end of S4 are too clear to ignore. Boat shots were superb – plenty of spray out the back of the boat from head-on is a really great angle to choose to shoot from – and even when C&T arrived at Zappa’s boat to deal, the camera pans to take-in the whole of the boat as it arrives in an arc – great detail, great eyes… Great dive from the scarab comedy – great scene in Castillo’s office when the DEA et al revelations are made – great acting from Sonny there and completely believable thump he delivers when outside Castillo’s office straight afterwards – and how about Castillo’s glare when he opens his office door – man Ell.a you had to have a pic of that in your review !!! In fact I can’t think of one scene that wasn’t strong or very strong in the entire ep and a great story. Haven’t voted yet for other eps in S2 – I know Bushido will score highly from me, and Prodigal Son probably poorly – but I am rapidly changing my mind (expressed elsewhere) that I can’t believe fans think S3 is marginally weaker than S2 – perhaps Season 2 is strong after all… Considering 9.5 is probably as high as I’d rate my best MV eps ever, this is way up there. Got to be 9 out of 10 at least for me.
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Episode #41 Payback

Now this is how it's done! Payback is a fantastic episode. Another example of the explosive results when season 2 had a story to match the style. This is a superbly written episode. Michael Mann obviously figured after the recent spate of poor stories that the show needed a really strong episode story-wise. Too bad there could've been more storylines in season 2' date=' a season where style predominantly went over substance. Everything about this episode screams quality. Great performance by DJ, Jan Hammer excelled himself. All the great elements of Vice are here.Fabulous intro. Crockett introducing himself is one of the defining images of the character. Excellent Jan tune. The whole sequence was understated yet powerful. Great intro.Terrific speedboat action. Great scenery, especially Hedaya's house and Frankie & Johnny's Bar. This ep is chockful of memorable scenes; the scene with Crockett and Tubbs on the St. Vitus, the scenes of a pissed off Crockett at OCB, the nighttime scene at Hedaya's house. Excellent ending too with great shots of the Scarab on the high seas and a very good fight scene. The undoubted highlight of this ep for this Frank Zappa's guest appearance. I'm a massive fan of Frank. He's one of my favourite musicans of all time and I think his scene on the yacht is one of the greatest scenes in all of Vice. Frank as Mario Fuente is my favourite guest appearance in all of Vice too. While it was a brief appearance he did an exellent job. It was interesting seeing him playing a drug baron as he was actually anti drugs. Now I think 'weasel dust' is the best term for coke after 'yeyo'. Overall, the scene on Fuente's yacht was fantastic. They should've continued the loose strand of Fuente wanting Crockett in S3. It would've been great to have more Zappa on the show.Easily one of the best episodes of S2 and a top 10 favourite of mine. 10/10[/quote']I agree. 10/10. One of the best episodes EVER!!! They really dropped the ball by not following up on this storyline!Great review, Tommy!MJ
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I had to give this one a ten and I know why...It has everything...Great intro, yet seemed kinds weird that an inmate would pinch himself instead of Sonny to 'find out how tough he was'. Elvis once again, great scenery, one liners, lotsa nice lookin' ladies and both boats....Martin was awesome by the way!!!... Not much I can add here, just GREAT Vice...A nice, refreshing taste since a few of the previous ep's left a bit to be desired....My 2¢....Mike

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Definately a good episode. The intro scenes before the opening credits kick in are classic and compelling. I must admit I thought the confrontation with Moroto demonstrated a major goof though. Firstly, how did Moroto manage to smuggle the gun into the interview room? Was he not searched, or was he poorly searched? Secondly, why was there no guard in the interview with them?, and thirdly why was there nobody outside the room ready to burst in when Moroto pointed the gun?I thought that EJO's "less is more" acting was very good during the scene where Crockett and Tubbs first meet Cates and Hodges in Castillo's office. Even though he hardly says a word, you can see that Castillo is visably uncomfortable with having to enter into a deception behind Crockett's back, and thus having to potentially damage the trust between them. The fact that Castillo forces the issue upon Crockett and Tubbs and then refuses to shake Hodges' hand shows that he is not happy at having to tow the line on this one.Frankie and Johnny's takes me back to the mirrors and neon lights of 80's nightclubs, which I remember still seeing in nightclub's in the early 90's before they all got refurbished.I like Jan Hammer's "Payback" theme, but I reckon he should have titled it "Paranoia". The tune is quite sinister and starts off small and then builds up, relecting the growing paranoia that takes root in Crockett's mind during the course of the episode. In Crockett's mind, this paranoia extends to Castillo. However of course later in the episode the two of them clear the air.I too wondered what the scene in the IAD waiting room was all about? I remember we discussed this once back on .Org. Did Crockett really have an appointment with IAD? It appeared as though this was just a set up, and there really was no appointment. But in that case, who was it who gave Castillo the message? The sinister guy in the waiting room I believe was one of Fuente's people, not that Crockett stuck around long enough to find out. I think this was an attempt by Fuente to mess around with Crockett psychologically, but the whole scene just reinforced the feeling of the walls closing in on Crockett from all angles. It made me laugh how Crockett complains of being red hot, yet never takes off his jacket. Maybe that's why he was sweating and the other guy wasn't?I think the best scene of the whole episode has to be Fuente's speech. Zappa did a great acting job here. I read that apparantly he was asked to guest star but initially wasn't going to do it, that was until his son (who was a big Miami Vice fan) talked him into it.I loved the music in this episode, e.g the Herbie Hancock tune, "Dancin" and the tune at the "my lifestyle, I could blow a million in a weekend" scene (bizarrely I recently found out this tune is apparantly an INXS tune even though it sounds nothing like them).Notice how Crockett and Tubbs are so protective of each other. Tubbs has major reservations about Crockett walking into such a dangerous situation.I agree that it was bizarre that the storyline was never carried on further, considering Crockett was supposed to be now in such a vulnerable position. At the very least, his cover was compromised, and all it would have taken would have been Fuente to spread the word amongst his business associates to get Crockett killed. Let's not forget as well that by the end of the episode, Crockett had convinced Reydolfo and therefore Fuente as well that he had stolen the money. Now Reydolfo was dead, and Crockett would have been number one suspect of his murder in Fuente's eyes. If Fuente was in two minds about wanting to kill him before, then he would have assigned a dozen hitmen to take him out within a day after this. Cates screwed things up for Crockett even more by killing Reydolfo. At the very least, Crockett should have been reassigned to another department and put into a Safe house until the security breach would have been repaired (that's if it ever could be considering that in Fuente's own words "you've got nothing on me"). If Zappa had been willing to do another episode, then this loose end should have been tied up.I'll give this one 8.5 out of 10.

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10 of 10!!!One of the best! really , maybe the best alone episode of the 2nd Season of Vice. Everybody plays a game with Crockett, even Castillo. This is hard.Then the scene DJ feels so warm and the other boy is cool, this is Vice.Further i had not thought that Ketz has stolen the money.the music is already perfect and Frank Zappa plays this role very good.I like it and when i watched it i said to me at the end, THIS IS VICE

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I know it's been said a gazillion times on sites like this, but eps like this one make you remember what a great show this was. Just watch this ep, all the quality - just little bits of detail like the scenes shot in the early and late parts of the day, and the overhead angle of the boat in the ocean seconds before the end, through to the immensity of the intro - and just pinch yourself when you remember that this was 1986 folks... over 23 years ago and there was truly nothing like this on our TV's back then.

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I'm really not a big fan of the episode, it has some rather rediculous moments such as the phone call and Crockett waiting at IAD and getting angry at a creepy guy reading a magazine, Dan Hedaya gave a bit of a rediculously weak performance, I think they should have brought back Schroeder instead of putting him in as a guy with an accent, I still like the scene where Crockett gets angry and punches a detective and the strange opening, just what's the point of all this strange stuff if your not going to have a follow up episode that clears everything up?I give this one an 8.

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My reveiw from 2006This is another one of my favorite episodes. It has everything I like about Miami Vice, Pastels, boat action, wonderful Jan Hammer score (have Payback music as the background music to my answering machine message), Cool night scenes, Sonny on the St. Vitus, the only thing it’s missing is a cool car chase but we do get some good speed boat running, so I guess that’s a good substitute. This is another episode which grabs my attention from the beginning and never let’s go. I also love being able to read Sonny’s badge as we get a really nice close-up of it. Also it’s interesting to see him give up his weapons and discharge them before he’s admitted to the visiting area to see Moroto. When I first saw this one, I thought that Moroto was going to blow Sonny away with the homemade gun so I was almost as shocked as Sonny was when he killed himself. This is another one of those episodes I can empathize with Sonny. I felt freaky when Sonny mentioned to Rico about combing his hair out with somebody’s brains. This is another instance where Rico’s habit of checking out the people he’s working with pays off. He never gets to let Sonny know about it, but Sonny has found out in another way (the missing money being on Rudolpho’s speed boat, and Rico does let Castillo know it so that he can notify IAD. Good choice of music playing for Sonny to discover his place has been tossed, and a message written on his chart. It was some of that frantic new wave punk stuff which makes me always think of disorganization and chaos. Doesn’t Sonny have a bed? I know when we see him wrestling around with Theresa in another episdoe there’s a bed in the St. Vitus, or maybe he was so spooked he slept on the coutch with his gun underneath his pillow for easy access to the hatch. We see how fast Sonny can get his gun and have a good aim at Rico when Rico starts down (probably like he always does.) It’s fitting that Sonny points out to Rico that he’s known as Burnett around there and they used his real name, then in the next instant the phone rings and Sonny answers it in capital letter BURNETT. like he wants to emphasize the name to the caller and Rico. ). I hated that woman who was trying to find Crockett. She seemed so snobbish, like a drug dealer is better than a dirty cop? What was up with the restaurant scene? We know that Sonny and Rico were waiting for Cates to give them the high sign to join him and Rudolpho at the table, so while Rudolpho is laying out the deal to Rico Sonny is sitting there calmly eating off a plate loaded with food and drinking a shot of Black Jack. Was he eating off the Snobbish woman’s plate? Was this supposed to signify something or was it just Sonny Burnett being arrogant or blaze? I guess Sonny knows how to handle a Mac-10. After his cover is blown he seems to react in an instant and gets someone’s Mac-10 and starts spraying bullets all over the place as Rico reacts in tandem and gets Fuentes and they mange to leave the boat with Fuentes and their original weapons! I love how Fuentes holds his nose like he’s going to jump into the water like a little kid, but then executes a pretty good dive from the boat. Weren't there any sharks out there?Someone mentioned Castillo not shaking the supposed DEA guy’s hand. But we find out later that the supposed DEA guy is an IAD mole, and Sonny points out to Castillo later that he knows that Castillo let them come in on Sonny; Then in the same instance Sonny said “you had a job to do to protect the unit†so he understood. Castillo knew from the beginning that it was IAD investigating Sonny and that explains to me why he refused to shake the guy’s hand. He knew that Sonny was clean as he told Sonny “It’s not what I think. It’s what I know. You’re a good cop.†I love it when Sonny pretends to be bad (crumpling up the money scene that was cool.) I also love the expression he uses ‘Let’s Dance’ knowing when Sonny uses that term, he means let’s deal (he never means dance like getting out on the dance floor As I stated in the beginning I loved the bar scenes at Frankie & Johnny’s the glass and neon was so cool looking. Also it’s obvious that Sonny is taken in by Cates in the beginning because he doesn’t really hesitate to shake hands with him when he’s under orders to work with him. Cates was an interesting character in that he was what Sonny might be looking at a few year down the road. 4 busted marriages, lots of acomendations good arrest record always on the job. It’s no wonder Cates wanted to rest. At the end after Sonny has shot him in the struggle for the gun, he looks a wreck, but Cates looks just as bad as Sonny did. “It was a set up from the beginningâ€â€¦..â€Do you know what you did to me?†Cates: “Do you know what this job did to me?†Sonny: “Yeah, I do.†OK Fuentes knows Crockett is Burnett. Sonny admitted (while trying to set Fuentes up) that he had the money and wanted to trade it for marching dust. He also told Fuentes at first that he didn’t have his money. So does Fuentes think Crockett still has his money, or will that DEA report come into play somehow? Fuentes will find out Cates was his good friend Carlin, and he will know that Carlin was on the Fuentes boat when Moroto walked off with the money, That and a little well placed words in the right ear might convince Fuentes that Crockett doesn’t have his money, but even if Fuentes was willing to do that, how Can Crockett operate as Burnett in the Drug world, when Fuentes knows he’s a cop? Not counting EJ’s fan fiction, this was never addressed.I give Pay back a 9 because over all I love the story, scenes and boats, and Rico, Sonny, Castillo, are in character. We even get to see Elvis, and we do get to see part of the OCB gang in this one though not as prominent as other stories. I’d like to give it a 10 but the Fuentes knowing Crockett’s cover bothers me too much. 8/6/2009 - I pretty much still think the way I did when I wrote this review. This is still one of my favorite episodes of the whole show. As for Crockett waiting for his IAD appointment. I have and have always had the feeling that the guy he was talking to was IAD. (Wasn't that the same IAD agent that testified in "Bad Timing" in 5th season, and said Sonny Crocket had no business and always had no business being a cop or something to those words.) Anyway, I think the whole IAD appointment was a setup to observe Sonny and how he would react, under the circumstances, and to see how angry and impatient he got.

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I give this story an 8. It had a strong theme of entrapment for Sonny put together by Fuente, but actually put in motion by Cates and Moroto. The last place any policeman would want to be is under investigation and sought after by a major drug dealer at the same time.

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I think Frank Zappa appeared on Vice because he was buds with DJ and Don asked him to do it. Plus his son Dweezil was a fan of the show and wanted him to do it.

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  • 3 months later...

Here's a music vid by Frank Zappa's kids Dweezil & Moon. There's someone familar at the starthttp://www.zappa.com/stufftoget/video/letstalkaboutit.html

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  • 10 months later...

Pretty good episode, had to take points off for Roberto Duran's LOL bad cameo in the opening.And Dan Hedaya's annoying accent and creepy chest hair.7/10

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Pretty good episode' date=' had to take points off for Roberto Duran's LOL bad cameo in the opening.And Dan Hedaya's annoying accent and creepy chest hair.7/10[/quote'] No Mas Ms. Freed...No Mas!10 all the way for me. Each scene had such a distinctive feel to it. I love the intro the whole thing plays out in concert to the music and I love the continuous cameos of Hands of Stone. I also love the music when the go to see Fuente. That whole part from Frank's shakedown of Sonny to holding his nose jumping off the boat is fabulous. Of course, I wish they continued the theme somewhere down the line but I believe you have to judge the merits of this episode squarely on the episode itself not that they didn't revisit the theme later on. Consequently, its a top 10 episode...possibly top 5.
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Watched it today for the umpteenth time.This episode is perfect from the beginning to the very last second.One of my favorites.10 for sure.

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