Episode #16 "Rites of Passage"


Ferrariman

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  • 9 months later...

"Rites of Passage," for me has all the elements that made me love Miami Vice. The music is classic "Vice," with "Come to Poppa" & my favorite from the episode," I Want to Know What Love Is." The opening scene on the beach is lighthearted & makes me want to be part of the Miami scene. Diane happily shopping for clothes is another feel good moment, as is the party at Traynor's home. I like the flying hors d'oeuvre scene where Sonny plopped it in the girl's cocktail! Stan & Larry give some good comic relief, with the bug van & the spraying of the party goers. Hey Noogy, Nice glass block wall in Traynor's house as Tubbs is dragging Diane out. Pathos, as Rico & Valerie celebrate their love and get the sad news that Diane is dead. Again PMT is the lead in this one & DJ plays a supporting role. Little Miss, I have to rewatch to see the cup change color. I missed that one! Valerie was wrong in hunting down Traynor & provoking a situation, but each time she fired her gun it was in self defense. I was surprised to hear her say "Read me my rights." My rating is a 10.

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This is a pretty good episode. Good intro. Very beautiful shots of Miami Beach and the scene at Turturro's house was good and had a nice party atmosphere. Pam Grier was a very good guest star and played her part well. Turturro was also fine and made a strong villain. The actress who played Diane wasn't so good however. Her constantly screaming "I don't wanna go home!" grated on the nerves. This episode tends to be a bit low key and it takes a while for the good parts to kick in. It's a great looking episode but for the most part the story about Val's sister isn't that involving and nor is it executed that well. The episode really picks up with Turturro ordering hit on Diane. The highlight of the ep was the sequence with Foreigner's ' I Wanna Know What Love Is'. Excellent incorporation of a great song. Great work by Jan Hammer too, especially in the scene where Tubbs and Valerie rekindle their love. Turturro's interogation was a very good scene. His arrogance almost incited Tubbs to physical violence. Castillo's intolerance came to the fore here. The Lieutenant in most cop shows would yell at this moment but all Castillo has to do is give a stern look and say "I don't ever want to see you do anything like this again". Point taken. Good climax with Crockett and Tubbs rushing to get there and a nice shootout at the apartment. Val's unethical tendancy was first exposed here, as it would be later in Too Much Too Late. This episode is good but not great. I actually prefer Too Much Too Late to this. 8/10

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Rites of Passage introduces the recurring character of Valarie, Tubbs old flame. This is a good episode with some decent scenes. One I definitely have to mention; love it when tubs + crockett argue over lunch with Castillo and valarie sat in silence, fantastic scene. Also, Crockett very smooth at the party, putting the food in someone’s drink and using his classic ‘ive got a trick knee’ excuse to the lady. Another good Crockett quote ‘mind the threads tutts’ when they barge into that guy with the beards office. Episode also has a few powerful scenes including the scene to ‘I wanna know what love is’ with crockett having to break the bad news down the phone. The style of Miami really comes into its stride with this episode also, despite the fact that apparently it was very cold in Miami on a few days whilst shooting this episode.I agree with Tvercetti however on the fact the story takes a while to kick in. And for that reason i give this episode a 7.5/10, still a very decent episode however.

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Notice "Paul" from "No Exit" in the party scene right at the beginning of the episode.You can tell right from the first hug between Tubbs and Valerie that Valerie isn't comfortable with the hug, whereas Tubbs is obviously in love, and gives it readily. Like the saying "First impressions last", this first meeting sets the whole stage for the entire Tubbs and Valerie relationship i.e he loves her, whereas she just likes him. Throughout the three Valerie episodes, Valerie always makes excuses for her distance towards Tubbs, but you can't help but feel that she still likes the attention she gets from him. It provides a comfort for her.I've just noticed from rewatching the episode that the place where Tubbs and Valerie take their little walk after first meeting up with each other is Jose Marti park, also featured in "No Exit", "French Twist" and "Badge of dishonour". During this conversation, Valerie mentions that she and Tubbs didn't part on good terms the last time they were in New York. It would be interesting to find out what happened as you never get to find out.Whilst back at Valerie's hotel room, notice how when Tubbs and Valerie talk about their relationship, Valerie talks about it in the past tense, whereas Tubbs is the one talking about how things could be rekindled between them right now. We see Valerie initiate the love making with Tubbs, at the point where she is most vulnerable i.e when she's lost hope of finding Diane. If you notice, in future episodes, Valerie also seeks comfort from Tubbs in this way whenever she's feeling vulnerable!My favourite scene of the whole episode is Traynor's party which Crockett and Tubbs attend. I love the music, and the whole style of the scene. It also makes me laugh how Geeky and tactless Zito acts during the scene when Crockett makes the remark about "more loins than a meat locker". Zito laughs and says "That's true too you know", knowing that Valerie is right next to him in the van wondering what Diane's getting up to inside.Just as things seem to be looking up between Tubbs and Valerie and she starts letting her guard down, things go pear shaped again when Diane gets killed. The whole "I wanna know what love is" scene is a powerful one. I never normally watched this scene all the way through as I heard the song about a million times in the 80's, so by the time I first saw the episode in the 90's i used to fast forward it. But I had to admit I got quite choked up watching that scene all the way through the other day. I'd not appreciated what a powerful scene it was until now.I'll give this one 6.5 out of 10. Good, but still not one of the best.

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Decent but a bit too much a vehicle for Pam Grier. John Turturro is fine as the villain and Foreigner's song "I Want to Know What Love Is" is decently used. Not an episode I return to that often.

Original Score: 6/10

Reflective Score: Still a 6/10

Edited by agent 47
Update my thoughts.
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the beginning could be out of another show: a colorful mixture of different types and parts of bikinis, a pair of desparaging but greedy male eyes, a young and attractive woman, the bad but handsome pimp looking for his newest toy ... i could have imagined the intro of baywatch just the same ... [OPINION] -> sexy - simple - silly [/OPINION]. action, tension, speed ... nearly everything that's "vice" to me is missing ...Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bildto cut the corner: little diane seems to be an innocent girl but the way she coquettes with money, men and danger is very frightening. i'm asking myself all the time: is she just naive or is she that kind of hard-bitten?Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bildit's a comprehensible fact that valerie searches her sister because she's worrying about her. but it's NOT comprehensible at all that she stays in town for more than a week without searching ricos or the vice departements backup. her proud must be much bigger than her worry ... a really weird mixture.

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by the way: there are some facts in this episode that seem to be of the same weird mixture:

[*]the manner tubbs and crockett treat diane at traynors house: they kidnap the girl ... literally! they act like the "bad guys" use to act ... Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild

[*]rico looses his temper in a really "crockett like" way. usually tubbs is the cool-headed part of the vice duo ... castillo is not "amused" ... Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild

[*]valerie has a strange relationship to "the rules" ... she bends, beats and breaks them. she instructs rico to work "by the book", she murders the bad guy, in the end she asks crockett to read her rights ...Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild

though i like the story of the "prodigal sister" ... the implementation is weak and shaky in my book. my rate would be only a sad 3. BUT when there's much shade there's light too

[*]rico has some some kind of private life and a private past

[*]pastel styling everywhere Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild

[*]larry and stan as "bug busters" Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild Eingefügtes Bild

[*]great music and many cool quotes ... not only from "mister miami vice"

all in all i'd rate 6.Sorry for the double-posting, but due to the *helpful* limitation of pics in a post I have to divide up my post (and presumably future posts as well). :thumbsdown:
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I have to agree with that 6.This was a little weak ep. in my opinion.Valerie's attempt at finding her sister is noble but, the kidnapping of Diane at the party was way over the top from a legal stand point in my opinion.Diane is an adult and doing what she wanted to do. Even if the MV team felt that she may have been coerced into doing that, they did not have the legal right to kidnap her at gun point from the party. That would not look too good from a "states attorneys" point of view. Valerie's end game of going to Traynor's house and then shooting him and the body guard would get her 20 to life in prison if she was was not convicted of murder one charges and sent to the chair!Not the most believable ep. here. I give it a 6 also.

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I have to agree with that 6.Diane is an adult and doing what she wanted to do. Even if the MV team felt that she may have been coerced into doing that' date=' they did not have the legal right to kidnap her at gun point from the party. That would not look too good from a "states attorneys" point of view. Valerie's end game of going to Traynor's house and then shooting him and the body guard would get her 20 to life in prison if she was was not convicted of murder one charges and sent to the chair![/quote']What about Trudy shooting that guy who was sent to kill Gina in "Give a little, take a little"? Not only did none of the Vice squad identify themselves as cops to him, but he was running away when she shot him, so no real self defence argument there!Yet, later, in "Dutch Oven", the bad guy knows that she and Crockett are cops, and then starts shooting at them. Trudy shoots and kills him, and then gets dragged over the coals by IAD for it! I realise that the "Give a little, take a little" hitman didn't die but after being shot in the back and dropping from that height he easily could have done.Anyway I digress.....
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What about Trudy shooting that guy who was sent to kill Gina in "Give a little' date=' take a little"? Not only did none of the Vice squad identify themselves as cops to him, but he was running away when she shot him, so no real self defence argument there!Yet, later, in "Dutch Oven", the bad guy knows that she and Crockett are cops, and then starts shooting at them. Trudy shoots and kills him, and then gets dragged over the coals by IAD for it! I realise that the "Give a little, take a little" hitman didn't die but after being shot in the back and dropping from that height he easily could have done.Anyway I digress.....[/quote']There is a ton of times that I've got the feeling that they're just beeing trigger happy.Not that the pimp played by John Tutorro didn't deserve it.
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There is a ton of times that I've got the feeling that they're just beeing trigger happy.Not that the pimp played by John Tutorro didn't deserve it.

...and let's not forget the "dramatic effect" a shout out has on a cop show.Can you name me one ep. that no shots were fired in? I can't. What else is there to dramatize a cop show?
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There is a ton of times that I've got the feeling that they're just beeing trigger happy.Not that the pimp played by John Tutorro didn't deserve it.

...and let's not forget the "dramatic effect" a shout out has on a cop show.Can you name me one ep. that no shots were fired in? I can't. What else is there to dramatize a cop show?

Monk is a cop show with not many guns drawn. Law & order used to be non -violent too.

OK, let me clarify my statement. This is referring to MV. Not today's cop shows.
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...and let's not forget the "dramatic effect" a shout out has on a cop show.Can you name me one ep. that no shots were fired in? I can't. What else is there to dramatize a cop show?

Let me clerify,I merly pointed this out,not condemn it.without the shootouts,and this is going to sound mean,the show would kinda just been another propaganda show where everything is black and white,I like shoot em ups,I just replied that I got the same feeling every once in a while,most of the perps that get shot really deserve it!Calderone,he had it coming,they couldn,t have prosecuted him,although thinking about it now,it really isn't that violent until season three where it got really dark.I DON'T CONDEMN THEIR ACTIONS!THAT SCENE WHERE TRUDY SHOOTS THE GUY IN THE ALLEY,HE SHOULD HAVE PUT HIS GUN DOWN,PAM'S CHARACTER DID DIFFERENTLY.And yet she was yapping about doing it right!By the way,Monk started good for two seasons,now it sucks,I hope it gets cancelled,Law & Order is still great though.
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  • 4 months later...

This is an episode that I just don't watch that often. Here is Tubbs chasing another woman who is really wrong for him. I don't care if they had a past. I think he is just wasting his time with Valerie. This episode just doesn't do much for me. Maybe I'll watch it again to see if I get a different opinion. I give this episode a 6.

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  • 11 months later...

This episode was okay. This is the first time we get to see Valerie Gordon (Pam Grier), Tubbs' old girlfriend from New York. So, the past relationship thing was interesting.The plot of Valerie looking for her sister who's taken off was pretty good too. Music in this episode was nice as well. However, I didn't really care for the end and what happened to Val's sister Diane--it was too sad and tragic. I know some episodes are like that (and it's more realistic) but I like better or happy endings. :)I gave it a 7.

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  • 1 month later...

My only issue with this episode was the actress who played Diane.Geez did she ever grate my nerves, especially during the scene in the van when Val had to smack her. They should've tossed her out of the moving van as well.

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I like this episode because it´s one where we find out a bit more about Tubbs´ past. He seemed to be very happy when meeting Valerie in the office, but it´s true that, from the beginning, one could see that she wasn´t really happy to meet Rico.Bad was that Rico and Sonny kidnapped Diane. She was an adult woman. She was a drug user, but nevertheless she was old enough to decide where she wanted to stay.I also give this episode a 6.

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This is an episode that I just don't watch that often. Here is Tubbs chasing another woman who is really wrong for him. I don't care if they had a past. I think he is just wasting his time with Valerie. This episode just doesn't do much for me. Maybe I'll watch it again to see if I get a different opinion. I give this episode a 6.

Just curious, why do you think Valerie wasn't the right woman for Tubbs?
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Just curious' date=' why do you think Valerie wasn't the right woman for Tubbs?[/quote'] I also think that Valerie was wrong for Rico. He deserved a woman who loved him, but Valerie only used him.
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I also think that Valerie was wrong for Rico. He deserved a woman who loved him' date=' but Valerie only used him.[/quote'] I think she loved Rico, but not as much as he loved her.
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  • 2 months later...

True ViceThis was a true Vice episode. Crockett and Tubbs would exchange leads from time to time and this was Tubbs moment. I love the ending with Crockett sitting in the car calling Tubbs with "I wanna know what love is" in the background. GREAT episode.

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  • 1 month later...

This was a true Vice episode. Crockett and Tubbs would exchange leads from time to time and this was Tubbs moment. I love the ending with Crockett sitting in the car calling Tubbs with "I wanna know what love is" in the background. GREAT episode.

That wasn't the final scene, Valerie getting revenge by killing Lyle and Traynor was how this episode ended.
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