"French Twist"

French Twist
Season	2
Episode	17 (39th overall)
Airdate	February 16, 1986
Repeat Airdate	July 25, 1986
TV Rating	TV-14 S-V
Writer(s)	Michael Hoggan & Jaron Summers Teleplay: Jaron Summers
Director	David Jackson
Guest Stars	Lisa Eichhorn Shari Headley Cameron Arnett Xavier Coronel and Leonard Cohen
Previous Episode	"Florence Italy"
Next Episode	"The Fix"

"French Twist" is the seventeenth episode of Miami Vice's second season. It premiered on February 21, 1986, and was rerun on July 25, 1986.

Summary

A French INTERPOL agent is called in to assist in the search for a rogue freelancer.

Plot

At Miami Medical Center, Cindy is visiting her boyfriend David, who is in a cast due to a skateboarding accident. A photographer, Cindy gets a blurry photo of what appears to be a doctor stabbing a delivery driver to death and taking his package, which contains pharmaceutical morphine.

In Paris, money is exchanged for a file on the "doctor", Sirat Bandi. Francois Zolan speaks to someone over the phone, saying "she" has found Bandi in the United States, where he has stolen the morphine with plans to sell it, and orders him killed. Crockett and Tubbs find that the driver knew nothing about what he was delivering, only that it was "medical supplies". They also find Cindy's picture all over the front pages, and fear for her life. Castillo hears from INTERPOL that Canada is after Bandi for a capital crime, and they are sending Inspector Danielle Hier to help them locate him. Crockett meets Danielle and they head to the Safe House, where Tubbs has Cindy tucked away until they can find Bandi. Danielle asks Cindy to describe what she saw. Meanwhile Bandi, disguised as a maintenance man, taps into David's hospital phone and listens to his and Cindy's conversations, knowing Cindy will try to see him. Cindy's friend Carol sneaks her over to the hospital to see David, but Tubbs wakes up shortly thereafter and follows her over with Switek as backup. Tubbs forces her out of the room; on her way to the van David calls out to Cindy.  Suddenly, Bandi fires at Cindy, hitting her in the arm, and escapes by rappelling down the hospital wall.

Cindy is put under police protection until Bandi is caught. Danielle gets a call from Zolan, saying she hasn't yet taken care of the wetwork but won't let him down. While Crockett waits for Elvis to eat dinner, Tubbs stops by the boat and fills him in on Danielle -- she's been with INTERPOL five years, specializing in narcotics. He admits to tapping her phone, as he has a bad feeling about her. At OCB, Danielle tells the Vice cops that Bandi will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Castillo says they have units at the Blue Waters Hotel to monitor Bandi, who's hiding there. Danielle suspects it is a trap, but the cops go to check it out. When Switek and Crockett take the front door, they hear water running in the bathroom. Switek hits a trip wire which blows the apartment up; they barely make it out in time.

Crockett finds Danielle to confront her about the trap, which she had argued was possible -- not strongly enough, in Crockett's opinion. He interrupts a conversation with two morphine dealers who have worked with Bandi before and might be able to get a line on him. Crockett and Danielle finally give in to the building sexual tension between them, and spend the night together. Tubbs calls the next morning and fills Crockett in about Danielle's calls to Zolan, who is an INTERPOL big shot, and he asks Trudy to run Danielle through the computer as a criminal. Danielle has arranged for the morphine dealers from the hotel (Sullivan and Lipton) to meet with Bandi. Castillo is concerned that she neglected to inform him of this lead. Sullivan and Lipton make contact with Bandi, but are interrupted by a knock on Bandi's hotel door. The bellman, Chuck, gives away the fact that Tubbs is in the hotel looking for him; Tubbs bursts into the room and pulls back the bed covers to find Chuck's dead body, while Bandi leaves, wearing Chuck's bellman uniform. Tubbs tells Crockett that Zolan told Danielle where to find Bandi, both hotel and room number, but she neglected to tell anyone. Crockett is angry Danielle didn't mention her tip and asks her to leave his boat. Tubbs stops by Danielle's room and warns her that he knows who she is and will put the media on her case if she doesn't leave fast.

Sullivan and Lipton arrange a face-to-face meet with Bandi; Castillo tells Crockett to make sure to protect the two dealers. Tubbs gets Trudy's inquiry and finds Danielle is an international terrorist using INTERPOL as her cover; she was involved in the sinking of a Greenpeace boat the previous year, and the French intelligence agency wants Bandi dead because he's turned. Bandi shows up for the deal, which is a rip off, but Crockett saves Sullivan from being shot by pushing him into the water. Bandi escapes over a rising drawbridge, with Tubbs in pursuit and Crockett some distance behind them. Danielle heads Bandi off and shoots him, saying he did some work for them before, but had a big mouth and would have talked. Danielle then plans to kill Tubbs and plant the gun on Bandi, but Crockett reaches the top of the drawbridge and shoots Danielle.

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

• Lisa Eichhorn as INTERPOL Inspector Danielle Hier
• Shari Headley as Cindy
• Cameron Arnett as David
• Xavier Coronel as Sirat Bandi
• Leonard Cohen as Francois Zolan

Co-Starring

• Elliott Easton as Sullivan
• Bill Simpkins as Lipton
• Manuel Espinosa as Harry (Delivery Man)
• Gina Shuman as Carol
• Joe Morgan as Chuck (Bellhop)

Notes

• 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 Danielle, who is revealed to be a murderer and international terrorist.
• Crockett uses his famous line, "I will clear my desk of all my other cases and make your life one living hell," for a second time in this episode. He would use the line a total of four times over the course of the series -- the other three occasions being in "One Eyed Jack", "By Hooker by Crook" and "Miami Squeeze".
• The Blue Waters Hotel is where the events of season 1's "The Maze" occurred.
• Crockett mentions to Danielle that she may need to go to charm school. The idea of charm comes up quite often in Miami Vice. When Crockett is introduced to a taciturn Castillo in "One Eyed Jack" he sarcastically mentions that his new boss is "charming". Also, in "World of Trouble", Al Lombard asks a difficult postal employee if she ever tried charm school.
• This is one of several episodes that does not end on a freeze frame.
• Leonard Cohen agreed to make a guest appearance because his children were fans of the show and he wanted to surprise them by being on it.
• Leonard Cohen said in a 2009 interview with The Globe and Mail: “After the first scene I shot, I was called by an agent in New York. She said, 'You were really marvelous, really marvelous today.' I said, 'You mean I'm fired.' She said, 'Yes, they've rewritten the rest of the scenes for other actors.'"

Goofs

• When Switek shoots at Bandi at the hospital, the slide of his gun locks back (indicating it is empty) after only two shots. He is then heard firing a third shot off-screen immediately afterwards, which would be impossible without reloading.
• When Crockett is tossing fish to Elvis on the St. Vitus Dance, there is blood on the deck where Elvis has been eating. Later, when Crockett throws a second fish, this blood is gone even though no one has wiped the deck. Then, when Elvis asks for more fish, the blood is back.
• When Tubbs removes the comforter from Chuck the dead bellhop, he is lying on his side. When the camera cuts back to Tubbs, Chucks' feet are pointed upward, indicating he's lying on his back.
• Tubbs mentions that Danielle probably works for the Deuxième Bureau, but that organisation was in fact dissolved in 1940 after the occupation of France by Germany. Danielle most likely works for the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, or DGSE, France's agency for external intelligence.
• When Tubbs is chasing Bandi onto the bridge, a safety mat is visible to the left of screen in the first shot of the bridge beginning to lift. The mat is visible again, moving into shot when Bandi and Tubbs land after jumping the gap.
• Danielle shoots Bandi with a suppressed weapon, yet when she pulls the gun again on Tubbs, it is clearly an unsuppressed revolver.
• Similar to the earlier goof with Switek, when Crockett shoots Danielle, the slide of his gun locks back after only one shot.

Production Notes

• Working Title: French Leave
• Filmed: January 16, 1986 - January 30, 1986
• Production Code: 60049
• Production Order: 39

Filming Locations

• FIU Biscayne Bay Campus, Wolfe University Center loading dock, 3000 NE 151st Street, North Miami Beach ("Miami Medical Center" opening scene)
• Renaissance room of Villa Vizcaya, 3252 S.Miami Ave, Coconut Grove (France scenes)
• Mayfair House Hotel, 3000 Florida Ave, Coconut Grove (Danielle's hotel, party in Hammock at the Mayfair atrium, Bandi's room, Bandi makes phone call from the roof)
• 3629 Bayview Road, Coconut Grove (Safe house)
• FIU Biscayne Bay Campus, south side of Academic Center 1, 3000 NE 151st Street, North Miami Beach (exterior Cindy visits David at "Miami Medical Center")
• Villa Regina Marina, 1581 Brickell Ave Miami (Crockett's boat, Bandi's hotel valet)
• Blue Waters Hotel, 74th Street & Ocean Terrace, Miami Beach (Bomb in hotel)
• Jose Marti Park, 351 SW 4th Avenue on Miami River (meet with Bandi at the end)
• SW 1st Street Bridge over Miami River (Drawbridge scene)

Music

• "Who's Zoomin' Who" by Aretha Franklin (Danielle in bathtub)

Jan Hammer Music

• "Candy" (Cindy talking to Carol on phone)

Quotes

• "He killed him, and I've got the proof!" -- Cindy just after the delivery driver killing
• "There are plenty of cold cuts in the refrigerator, and don't forget to wake her up for her 3:00 feeding!" -- Crockett to Tubbs while Cindy is in the Safe House
• "That was the hospital, Cindys going to be ok."-Crockett to Danielle   "Not if your partner continues to guard her" Danielles response
• "If you've got something to say about my partner... Don't!" --Crocketts response to Danielle 
• "If you don't work with us, I will clear my desk of all my other cases and make your life one living hell! -- Crockett to Lipton and Sullivan
• "If she (Danielle) is bad, we'd better find out real fast or our lives are in maximum danger!" -- Tubbs
• Alligator! AL-LI-GATOR!!! -- Sonny correcting Rico when the last one says he is allergic to crocodiles.