Original Airdate: January 7, 1977
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Meta Rosenberg
Jim pays a hospital visit to Edward J. Marks (Howard Duff), an old acquaintance from his prison days. He notices from paperwork lying around that Marks requires dialysis to live, but that his claim has been denied. The next day, Marks’s daughter Christina (Joan Van Ark) pleads with him to find a high-stakes poker game where he can clean up in order to help her with her father’s medical bills.
Jim reaches out to his friend Sharkey (Michael DeLano) and gets a seat at a poker game held by mobster Blast Gillette (George Memmoli). Before the players can get started, though, a gang of masked men burst in and steal the pot at gunpoint. Jim returns to what he had thought was Ed Marks’s hospital room to find a note reading “You should have seen it coming.”
Using the money they got from the robbery, the Markses pose as an heiress and executive in an attempt to sell high roller Victor Sherman (John Mahon) a ship that they don’t actually own.
Jim, for his part, now has a price on his head because Blast blames him for the robbery. Looking both to get even and get out from under the contract, he plans to scam the scammers. Angel helps him put a team together, but it’s not exactly elite: neurotic Kenny Hollywood (Steve Landesberg), cranky brothers Judge (John Dehner) and Adrian (Jack Riley) Lyman, and Ray “The Rat” Fahasateur, a part-time carnival barker who’s late in showing.
Rockford’s plan is to pretend to be George Greenleaf, the owner of the ship and the line it comes from, diverting Sherman’s bid away from the Markses. But things get complicated when the real George Greenleaf (Byron Morrow) returns to Southern California.
There’s one in every trope:
- Confronting Your Impostor: Subverted. Jim’s plan appears to be upended by the real George Greenleaf coming back, but this turns out to be Ray the Rat, one of the conmen that Angel recruited.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Ray Fahasateur doesn’t like being called “The Rat.” Kenny Hollywood agrees with him, feeling about rats the way you’d pretty much expect him to.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: Christina Marks catches on to what Jim and his confederates are up to, but doesn’t tell her father because she doesn’t like what their latest scheme did to Jim.
- Impersonating an Officer: The Lyman brothers and Kenny Hollywood pretend to be FBI agents running a sting on Victor Sherman.
- Misplaced Retribution: Blast Gillette assumes Jim to be the contact for the ski mask gang and orders him rubbed out, exhibiting no curiosity about Edward Marks actually getting away with his money.
- Neat Freak: Kenny Hollywood has a Monkish fear of germs and filth. His use of sanitary wipes almost tips off Edward Marks to the con, but Judge Lyman covers for him by saying that his FBI agent character has a serious rash.
- Punk in the Trunk: The Gillette thugs who go after Jim also lock Angel in the trunk of their car. Jim is just on his way to get him out at the end of the episode.
- Sibling Rivalry: By Jim’s account the Lyman brothers are always bickering. From what we see Judge is domineering and Adrian is passive-aggressive.
- Smug Snake: Victor Sherman is so self-satisfied about being a “taker” that it’s fun to see him get taken as well.
- Spotting the Thread: Marks finally realizes he’s been had when he spills champagne on the allegedly valuable stocks he wound up with and the ink runs.
