"Definitely Miami"

Definitely Miami
Season	2
Episode	12 (34th Overall)
Airdate	January 10, 1986
Repeat Airdates	July 4, 1986 August 14, 1987
TV Rating	TV-14 D-V
Writer(s)	Michael Ahnemann & Daniel Pyne
Director	Rob Cohen
Guest Stars	Arielle Dombasle Albert Hall Kamala Lopez Enrique Sandino and Ted Nugent
Previous Episode	"Phil the Shill"
Next Episode	"Yankee Dollar"

"Definitely Miami" is the twelfth episode of Miami Vice's second season. It premiered on January 10, 1986, and was rerun on July 4, 1986 and August 14, 1987.

Summary

Crockett deals with a serial killer preying on drug dealers and his seductive wife, while Castillo tries to keep a protected witness from being exposed by an overzealous government agent.

Plot

A black Porsche drives to a remote quarry west of Miami, and a man gets out looking for a woman named "Callie." Instead finds a man named Charlie Basset, who proceeds to shoot him dead, then takes a bag of money from the dead man's car and dumps enough sand in it to completely bury the car and the body.

Crockett and Tubbs, complaining about the sweltering heat, are at a resort waiting to hear from Sergio Clemente, an organized crime figure willing to testify in a trial in exchange for immunity. While waiting, Crockett admires a beautiful blonde in a bikini lying by the pool, who walks up to them and introduces herself as Callie. She tempts Crockett by rubbing an ice cube from his tea on her arm, but leaves when he apparently ignores her. Unnoticed, Charlie observes. Clemente's "messenger boy" Gravas shows up and says Clemente wants to see someone named Maria Rojas when he comes out of hiding. Tubbs, who had walked away to contact Castillo, returns and causes Gravas to freak out and pull a gun. Crockett disarms him but he manages to escape to a waiting car.

Trudy runs a computer check and finds that Maria Rojas has a rap sheet for accessory to tax fraud and bribery, but entered into the Witness Protection Program after testifying. Castillo informs them that someone from the Organized Crime Task Force in Washington is coming down to assist with Clemente. Tubbs questions the bartender at the resort but gets nothing. Crockett approaches Callie on the beach, but she wants nothing to do with him. She tells him of her bad husband and marriage, which she nevertheless cannot walk away from. Crockett offers to help and takes her to the Safe House, where Callie seduces him by playing on his loneliness.

Joe Dalva from the FOCTF arrives to take over the Clemente situation. Castillo is reluctant to jeopardize a protected witness, but the arrogant and condescending Dalva, who is intent on realizing the damage Clemente's testimony will do to organized crime (besides the praise it will net him), reveals that Maria Rojas is Clemente's little sister. Crockett and Tubbs meet on the beach to discuss their respective cases (Crockett's suspicion about Callie and Tubbs' concern over Dalva's overzealousness). Rojas' lawyer meets with Dalva in a parking garage and informs him Rojas will not meet with Clemente, in no uncertain terms. When Dalva tries to force his way into Maria's car, he opens the door and a German Shepard lunges toward him. Crockett finds Callie's apartment and he tries to talk her into leaving her abusive husband, but Callie wants Crockett between the sheets. Just as things start to heat up, Charlie (Callie's husband) returns and beats up Crockett, pulls a gun on him, and throws him out of the apartment.

Crockett's suspicions are confirmed that Callie and Charlie are setting him up and he decides to work it out himself. Meanwhile, a battery of police are set up for Clemente's arrival to meet Rojas, but Castillo has a decoy set up (since they couldn't get the real Maria). Dalva insists this ruse won't work, and it doesn't, as Clemente leaves as soon as the door opens up to reveal the fake Maria. Clemente calls OCB and gives them one last chance for him to meet Maria, despite the witness protection program. Castillo is still reluctant to expose Maria to Clemente, but Dalva goes over his head to the Chief of Police. To continue the setup of Crockett, Callie lets Charlie beat her up (while Crockett is calling her). Dalva and Switek track down Maria and Dalva assures her she will be safe when meeting Clemente, but Maria is adamant that Clemente will kill her if he sees her, since he killed Maria's husband. Dalva resorts to threatening her with revoking her protective status, to the obvious concern of Switek, though he stays silent. Crockett finds the beaten up Callie, who says she told Charlie that she was working Crockett to arrange a cocaine buy of $60,000, explaining why he was in Callie's room. Crockett, seeing through this, agrees to the deal anyway.

Dalva's "Castillo Staredown"

Crockett gets wired up for his meet with Charlie while Tubbs prepares for the Clemente/Rojas meet. Zito gives Crockett a special-made briefcase made of bulletproof steel to help him with Charlie. Tubbs and Gina track down Gravas and he, being nothing but a cheap gofer, can only tell them that Clemente wants to "see Maria dance again". At the meeting Maria and Clemente embrace, but Maria pulls a knife and stabs Clemente to death, screaming over and over "I had to do it, I told you he was going to kill me!" before a sniper shoots and kills her. Crockett meets Charlie at the same secluded quarry. Charlie shoots Crockett but hits the case, and Zito (who followed Crockett) begins firing from atop the rock pile, distracting Charlie long enough for Crockett to shoot him. Dalva sits in shock over the turn of events (and gets an icy stare from Castillo). The police comb the rock and sand piles and find numerous cars Charlie buried after killing the people in them. Callie waits at the beach for Charlie, and thinks she sees him approaching, only to realize that it's Crockett. She promises to take him "to places you've never dreamed of," but stops upon seeing an approaching police helicopter and realizing the truth. Callie tries to flirt with the officers as they read her her rights. Crockett starts to walk away but stops and looks out over the ocean as the helicopter flies off.

Cast

• Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett
• Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs
• Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese
• Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek
• John Diehl as Metro-Dade Detective Larry Zito
• Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin
• Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo

Guest Stars

• Arielle Dombasle as Callie Basset
• Albert Hall as Joe Dalva
• Kamala Lopez as Maria Rojas
• Enrique Sandino as Gravas
• Ted Nugent as Charlie Basset

Co-Starring

• Roger Pretto as Sergio Clemente
• Robert Monica as Bartender
• Richard Brams as Policeman #1
• Parris Buckner as Alfred Clark
• Jim Fitzpatrick as Teddy Lake
• Robert Hoelscher as SWAT Commander
• John Gregory Kasper as Policeman #2

Notes

• Castillo gives his famous staredown to Dalva for putting his ambition ahead of a witness' safety and getting her killed.
• The episode was first repeated on July 4, the only time Vice aired on Independence Day.
• Once again, this episode features one of the leading duo becoming involved in a romantic relationship with a woman linked to the case that inevitably ends in heartbreak by the end of the episode, a recurring plot point in the series. In this case, it is Crockett falling for Callie, who is revealed to be in league with the murderous Charlie.
• The episode also continues the theme of power-hungry federal agents doing anything, often unsuccessfully, to achieve their objective -- see also episodes such as "Evan", "No Exit" or "Golden Triangle (Part II)".
• As they sit under the beach umbrella, Crockett muses to Tubbs that having to wait reminds him of the plight of characters in a "Becket" play. Tubbs is surprised to discover that his partner (a man he joked would not know a Bauhaus from an outhouse) is aware of Becket and asks when he read his plays. Crockett tells him he is referring to Charlie Becket, a local shoeshine and playwright. The joke sets up the viewer to initially believe that Crockett might be reading Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot (a play about existential anxiety). This is also an example of the way in which Crockett plays his "good ol' boy" persona to disguise his actual intelligence (since the exchange only makes sense if Crockett is actually aware that Waiting for Godot involves endless waiting).
• Crockett's line to Callie "We all get into freefall" can be seen as a forerunner of the series' final episode "Freefall".
• We see the splitting up of Crockett and Tubbs in this episode. Tubbs tackles the Clemente case, while Crockett deals with Callie and Charlie. This separation later became more frequent during season 5, an aspect criticized as taking away one of the show's primary appeals -- the rapport between the leads.
• Crockett's "police intuition" is seen again in his instant distrust of Callie, despite his attraction to her.
• The last six minutes of this episode, set to Godley and Creme's "Cry," is considered by many fans to be one of the defining scenes of Vice as a show and among the best endings of the second season. This is also one of several episodes that does not end on a freeze frame.
• Maria's murder of her brother in this episode marks the fifth time to this point in the series (only 34 episodes) that a distraught or fearful family member takes matters into their own hands to protect themselves or avenge a loved one's death by committing murder (the characters Jerry Carrow, Rita Amato, Valerie Gordon and Rosella Maestres also did this).
• This episode is one of the very few in which something slipped past the censors. As we see Callie handing Crockett his drink her baggy shirt sleeve falls open revealing her nipple for a split second before the scene cuts back to Crockett.
• Among the fine details of the "Cry" ending is the cut from the mountains of sand under which the bodies are buried to Callie building mounds of sand -- suggesting her complicity in the killings.

Goofs

• Larry Zito's beard is suddenly gone in this episode, yet it reappears two episodes later. This continuity error is because the network changed the running order of the episodes when they broadcast them, which happened several times during season 2.
• The car is buried in the opening scene without the sight or sound of a piece of equipment capable of moving that volume of sand.
• When the sand hits the car, you can clearly see a doll on the driver’s seat.
• Callie wets her T-shirt at the pool, but when she approaches Tubbs and Crockett the shirt is suddenly completely dry.
• In the scene where he flees from Crockett and Tubbs at the hotel, Gravas is suddenly soaking wet, presumably from falling into the pool, although we never saw this happen.
• While Crockett is staring out of the window at his "friend's" beach house, a hand can be seen on the left of frame reaching in to pull the ceiling fan chain. A cut to Callie coming out of the shower makes it clear the hand could not have belonged to her.
• In the scene in Callie's apartment when she attempts to seduce Crockett, she reaches to the wall switch to turn out the light. The lights go out although she doesn't actually move the light switch.
• At the attempted exchange on the bridge with the double posing as Maria Rojas, Clemente's limo pulls up facing towards the assembled police officers and their vehicles, but when Clemente realises the double-cross and his car pulls sharply away, it is suddenly facing back towards the opposite end of the bridge, without it ever having turned around.
• In the same scene, limo's front grill changes its colour from black to chrome.
• When Tubbs and Gina go to see Gravas, Tubbs cocks his shotgun after he jumps out of his car, but there is no sound of him racking the weapon.
• When Crockett drives to the final showdown with Charlie, one of the long shots of him driving across the causeway is clearly of the Porsche seen in the opening scene and not his Daytona, most easily identifiable by the Porsche's obvious round headlights as the scene crossfades to the next shot of Crockett driving directly towards camera.

Production Notes

• Filmed: November 14, 1985 - November 26, 1985 (filming likely delayed by Hurricane Kate, which passed by South Florida on November 18, 1985)
• Production Code: 60012
• Production Order: 35

Film Locations

• Tarmac America Cement, NW 114 Street/Turnpike, Medley (GPS 25.876846, -80.396159) near Florida Turnpike (street in teaser)
• Sand dunes between NW 114th Street and NW 106th Street GPS 25.874343, -80.379766 (sand dunes in the teaser and at the end)
• Barcelona Hotel, 4343 Collins Ave, Miami Beach (pool scenes, beach walk Crockett/Callie in Act II, final beach scene with Godley&Creme song)
• Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge construction site (exchange attempt with Clemente´s sister)
• 7747 Atlantic Way, Miami Beach (safe house with Callie, Crockett/Tubbs beach walk, Crockett/Callie beach walk)
• Key Biscayne Hotel & Villas #70, 701 Ocean Drive, Key Biscayne (Maria Rojas´ apartment)
• interior of Callie's hotel room is a studio set
• Alexander Hotel, 5225 Collins Ave, Miami Beach (Charlie Bassett on balcony)
• Tarmac America (building S-15), 11000 NW 114th Street, Medley GPS 25.879845, -80.372066 (office of Clemente's messenger)
• US Precast Corp 8351 NW 93rd Street, Miami (meet Clemente/Maria Rojas)

Music

• "Angry Young Man" by Ted Nugent (during opening)
• "Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile)" by Gato Barbieri (at pool)
• "Cry" by Godley and Creme (during showdown with Charlie and Crockett)

Jan Hammer Music

• "Free Verse" (Crockett's dealings with Callie, Crockett/Tubbs at bar, other scenes)
• "Causeway" (First meeting setup between Clemente and his sister on a highway construction site)

Cars

• Porsche 911 Targa (driven by the man looking for Callie)
• 1984 Chevrolet Corvette (driven by Charlie Basset)
• 1984 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (driven by Gravas and his driver)
• 1980 Maserati Quattroporte III (driven by Maria Rojas' lawyer)
• Plymouth Gran Fury (driven by Lt. Castillo)
• Mercedes-Benz W123 stretch limo (Sergio Clemente's car)

Quotes

• "You just gotta learn to go with the heat, Rico. It's just like life - you just gotta keep telling yourself, no matter how hot it gets, sooner or later there's a cool breeze coming in." -- Crockett
• "The better you get at this job, the more dangerous it becomes. If you lose your edge, you're a dead cop!" -- Crockett
• "I hate all this waiting. I feel like a character in a Beckett play.""You know Beckett?" "No, Charlie Beckett, the shoeshine. He writes plays down on the corner." -- Crockett to Tubbs, Tubbs to Crockett, Crockett back
• "Definitely Miami!" -- Charlie in his hotel room looking at the ocean
• "This is one of the things I really like about you, Crockett. You're like a magnet. You attract some of the weirdest women in the Western hemisphere." -- Tubbs to Crockett
• "Don't worry. I'm immune. I wish I wasn't." -- Crockett to Tubbs, sucking on the ice cube Callie just wiped all over her arm and chest.
• "The head and the heart, Rico. Wish I could get them together just once."--Crockett to Tubbs
• "Of course if this is just a sad lady with a bad husband and a big heart who falls in love with a cop's cover, you could be making things worse for her." --Tubbs to Crockett