Authors: Barney Rosenzweig
Subplot
: Samuels’ son, David, is arrested for stealing a car, and Samuels refuses to get him out of jail. He wants David to understand the consequences of his actions, but, spurred on by Cagney’s shared regret over her lack of communication with Brian, her brother in California, the Lieutenant rushes off to his son’s arraignment and Cagney, taking a deep breath, makes a long—overdue phone call to her brother.
THE BOUNTY HUNTER
Note: features Tony Award and Golden Globe award-winning actor, Brian Dennehy, in the episode’s title role
Director: Bill Duke
Written by: Steve Brown
On the trail of an armed robber, Cagney and Lacey encounter a bounty hunter named MacGruder. He’s rude, crude, macho, and charming in his own way. Always one step ahead of Cagney and Lacey, he especially gets under Cagney’s skin. MacGruder gets to the perp just as he’s about to board a bus to Atlantic City. Cagney chases them both through a bus terminal. As they’re about to get away, Lacey accosts them. MacGruder tries to bribe her with a percentage of his bounty money, but she refuses. The perp is arrested, and MacGruder heads home, to Cagney’s delight and regret.
Subplot
: Michael Lacey has reached the fourth grade without knowing how to read. Lacey and Harvey decide to teach him themselves.
VICTIMLESS CRIME
Director: James Frawley
Written by: Peter Lefcourt
Lacey discovers there are actually many victims involved in the making of a pornographic movie, as she and Cagney try to bring some of the perpetrators to justice.
Subplot
: A visiting French detective makes Lacey a romantic offer which she must refuse.
CHOICES
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Terry Louise Fisher
A false pregnancy forces Cagney to face her biological clock and to realize that her options in life, as to when to marry and when to have a family, have diminished.
Subplot
: The detectives try to bring a reluctant witness in to testify against a slum landlord.
SEASON 4 (1984-5)
CHILD WITNESS
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Deborah Arakelian
Cagney and Lacey are called by a school principal who has reason to believe that a six-year-old girl has been sexually abused. The child accuses her twenty—two—year old babysitter, who denies the allegation. Later, the girl tells Cagney and Lacey (after coaching from her father) that she lied; they don’t believe her. When Cagney and Lacey confront the father, a noted defense attorney, and ask why he encouraged his daughter to lie, he declares he doesn’t want his daughter to go through the trauma of testifying. Cagney and Lacey convince him that if the molester remains free, other children will become victims just like his daughter. He allows his daughter to decide for herself. She will testify.
Subplot
: Petrie, dressed for undercover work, is mistaken for a car thief by two uniformed officers and rousted.
HEAT
Note:
Emmy
Winner in several categories, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing, and Outstanding Film Sound Mixing
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Leo A. Arthur
While Cagney and Lacey investigate vandalism at a railroad yard, Lacey is abducted by a young armed thug who keeps her locked in a railroad car in order to get away from the authorities. Heat from the summer sun broils the pair in the boxcar. They move to a shack and eventually, with the help of helicopters, most of the 14th, and the Swat teams for cover, Cagney leads the assault on the shack that saves her partner.
INSUBORDINATION
Director: John Patterson
Written by: Peter Lefcourt
When Cagney and Lacey are assigned to a cocaine dealing case they discover that their commanding officer is Dory McKenna, once Cagney’s boyfriend and a one-time cocaine addict. Cagney must deal with her ambivalent feelings toward Dory’s re—entry into her life.
Subplot
: Samuels must deal with his feelings toward being ordered about by an officer that he once caught taking bribes.
OLD DEBTS
Director: John Patterson
Written by: Judy Merl & Paul Eric Myers
Cagney and Lacey are assigned to guard a cop killer on parole, at a hotel until he can get new identity and be moved out of the area. Not for long, Cagney & Lacey’s charge is killed by a bomb concealed in a telephone that explodes while they have him under guard. Although they are besieged with congratulations from the entire department (except for Internal Affairs) Cagney and Lacey are determined to find the killer.
Subplot
: Cagney and Dory rekindle their relationship.
FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Steve Brown
Cagney and Lacey investigate an apparent suicide. While questioning the victim’s wife, she confesses to murder, without a motive. The daughter, Jane, also confesses to the murder, without motive. Cagney and Lacey confront Jane in the hopes that she will retract her confession. Instead, they find out she has been sexually abused by her father and that he was going to leave his wife. Now they have two confessions and two motives. Finally, Cagney and Lacey track down the family maid, who had disappeared the night of the murder. With her statement, we finally learn the truth: Jane had confronted her father about the years of abuse and its effect on her life; Her mother had overheard and, after Jane left, had killed her husband. Jane had confessed only to protect her mother and expurgate her feelings of guilt.
Subplot
: Charlie Cagney meets Dory McKenna unexpectedly in Cagney’s loft on a Sunday morning,and confronts his feelings about his daughter’s sexuality.
TAXI CAB MURDERS
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Ronnie Wenker-Konner
Cagney and Lacey, undercover driving cabs, are in search of a murderer who has been killing taxi cab drivers with a mountain-climbing pick. They locate a prime suspect, and during the interrogation an undercover cop finds the murderer in the act.
Subplot
: Michael Lacey upset that his mother does not tell him the truth about her job assignments nor keep her promises to “do nothing dangerous,” runs away from home.
AN UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Georgia Jeffries
Returning from a meeting in Spanish Harlem, Cagney and Lacey stop at a grocery. While Cagney waits for her partner in the car, she hears glass breaking. In the alley, she finds a young, wild-eyed Puerto Rican boy swinging a baseball bat. He ignores her commands to stop and keeps coming at her. She shoots, critically wounding him. Auturo Perez, a Geraldo Rivera—type reporter, takes up the cause ... an innocent young Latin, brutally shot by an over—zealous, bigoted, female cop. Because of the structure of the law, Perez is free to attack Cagney, but the people of the 14th are unable to get the records and test results needed to clear her. Even the boy’s death is just more news for Perez, but now Cagney can get the info she needs to clear herself. Lacey informs Perez, demanding he clear Cagney on TV, but for him, it’s no longer news. Case closed. Cagney, trying to come to terms with her feelings about the killing, goes to face the boy’s mother.
Subplot
: When Cagney needs Dory most, he’s unavailable to her...on his own case. On his return he offers to fix up her predicament. She tells him, she doesn’t need any “white knight.”
THANK GOD IT’S MONDAY
Director: Victor Lobl
Written by: Peter Lefcourt
The detectives are looking forward to the weekend, when Samuels informs them that they will have to work to get their files organized by Monday. When two pieces of paperwork are compared it is learned that the Statute of Limitations on a particularly heinous felony ends at midnight. The closer they get to the perp, the farther away they get from their weekend plans. Despite all the obstacles, they eventually get their man within minutes of the midnight deadline.
Subplot
: Harvey and Dory come to an accommodation about their friendship (or, more precisely, their lack of friendship) while waiting for Cagney and Lacey to finish paperwork /investigation.
Subplot
: We meet Isbecki’s girlfriend, Bon Bon, for the first time.
HOOKED
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Patricia Green
When the man who sponsored Dory McKenna through the drug rehab program is arrested for cocaine possession sale, Dory tells Cagney it’s a case of mistaken identity. But later, when it is learned that the evidence in the case has been tampered with, Cagney struggles with the possibility that Dory may have been responsible.
Subplot
: Harvey Lacey is bed-ridden, with a bad back, and Lacey tries to juggle nursing him, taking care of her family and doing her job.
LADY LUCK
Director: Gabrielle Beaumont
Teleplay by: Lisa Seidman
Story by: Daniel S. Preniszni
Lacey thwarts a woman’s suicide attempt, but then feels a sense of responsibility for her life. When the woman, a compulsive gambler, is threatened by loan sharks, Lacey again tries to save her life, and when the woman is found murdered, Cagney and Lacey go after the loan sharks with a vengeance.
Subplot
: Isbecki falls hard for Jennifer, a victim of an attempted rape. But after she is attacked again Jennifer leaves town, and Isbecki’s heart is broken.
OUT OF CONTROL
Director: Karen Arthur
Written by: Judy Merl and Paul Eric Myers
A man is shot to death during an attempted cat burglary. Upon further investigation Cagney and Lacey learn he was accidentally shot with the gun which he and his wife had purchased illegally in order to protect themselves from intruders.
Subplot
: Lacey catches Harvey Jr. playing with her service revolver. When she realizes that he doesn’t understand the serious consequences of his action, she is distraught and finally arranges for him to witness the autopsy of a young boy who died of a gunshot wound.
Subplot
: Cagney has an inauspicious first meeting with Dory’s children. When one of them becomes ill, Cagney meets his ex-wife at the hospital and realizes that she is a good mother and decent woman.
AMERICAN DREAM
Director: Sharron Miller
Teleplay by: Harvey Brenner
Story by: Steve Brown and Harvey Brenner
The owner of a trucking company is trying to take over the delivery business for the whole garment industry. Cagney and Lacey suspect him of arson after a series of garment businesses are destroyed. They put him under surveillance and, with the aid of his latest victim, catch his accomplice in the act of fire-bombing yet another warehouse.
Subplot
: Harvey takes a white collar job selling tax shelters. When his income soars, the Laceys begin thinking about buying their own home. They find their “dream house,” but before the close of escrow Harvey realizes how unhappy he is. He wants to go back to building something with his hands ... “You can’t carve your initials in a tax shelter.” It means they can’t afford the house but, although Mary Beth is broken hearted, she insists they couldn’t really afford the house in the first place. Harvey gives her the engagement ring she always wanted and they could never afford.
Subplot
: Coleman makes book on who will pass the Sergeant’s exam.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Terry Louise Fisher
A stray bullet leads Cagney and Lacey to the solution of 32,000 petty thefts committed by a computer whiz, an accountant for a department store, who has pilfered pennies from thousands of customer accounts in order to afford expensive gifts for his rich girlfriend.
Subplot
: Dory proposes to Cagney, but she decides she likes her life the way it is and feels that marriage would turn her into a different kind of person ... not because of pressure from Dory but from pressure from herself and... her unrealistic ideas of what a “wife” should be. Cagney decides she does not want to be married.