West and Gordon are in San Francisco to meet an old friend, Lt. Dave Bartlett of the U.S. Navy, who has discovered something he doesn't feel he can reveal to his superior, Admiral Charles Hammond (Ford Rainey). Unfortunately, Bartlett is killed by what appears to be a gigantic sea monster before he can reveal his secret. Hammond tells the agents that the monster, which he calls a kraken, is real. Not only that, it's been killing local fishermen (most of whom are Portuguese immigrants), so he's banned all fishing until the creature is caught. Jose Aguila (Anthony Caruso), spokesman of the fishing community, barges in and announces that his family is starving because of the embargo, so he's going out despite the risks. Ignoring Daniel (Ted Knight), a local preacher who rambles about the "coming of Leviathan", Aguila and West go out to sea. There, West manages to cut off a piece of one of the kraken's tentacles—which turns out to be made of rubber—but the creature claims Aguila as its latest victim. Meanwhile, Gordon uncovers a new type of diving apparatus which Bartlett invented and then concealed. The agents decide to reveal their findings to Hammond, but a bomb silences him just as he decides to trust them; however, the explosion reveals something in his office—a hidden model of an underwater fortress. Together the agents must make their way to the bottom of the sea and expose the truth behind the myth of the kraken.
Disguises used by Artie: Portuguese Sailor
(2:10);Swedish Repairman(39:10); Portuguese Mechanic(43:20)
Tropes present in this episode:
- Boisterous Bruiser: Jose is pretty upset about Hammond's fishing embargo, but otherwise he's an enthusiastic, outgoing and rather large guy who gleefully helps Jim dispatch a gang of thugs.
- Combat Tentacles: The sea monster uses gigantic tentacles to attack Bartlett, Jim and any fishermen who happen to be out in the bay.
- Crazy Homeless People: Daniel, the "seagoing preacher" who raves about Leviathan to anyone who will listen.
- Historical Domain Character: For the second time in the series, Admiral David Farragut is the target of as assassination attempt on the San Francisco bay. Once again, he's mentioned several times, but never actually appears in the episode. Daniel and Dolores try to kill him at the climax, but Jim and Artie put a stop to that.
- Kraken and Leviathan: There is one supposedly terrorizing the San Francisco waterfront, but it turns out to be just a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: The scientists at the underwater base wear them.
- Mugged for Disguise: Artie takes out the bad guys' mechanic and then disguises himself in the mechanic's clothes.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Daniel. His insane ramblings about the coming of Leviathan are only a cover; he's actually helping to run the whole "fake sea monster" operation.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted Trope. One of Daniel's mooks is named James.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Admiral Hammond believes that the kraken is real and does his best to destroy it. While the local fishermen resent his embargo, he imposes it to protect them, as he explains to Jose: "Better your children cry for food than for a dead father."
- Sacrificial Lion: Jose makes it halfway through the episode, even sharing a fight scene with Jim, so the audience has gotten to know and like him by the time the kraken kills him. Admiral Hammond also qualifies.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: There's no kraken. It's a fake created to scare people off and keep them from finding out what's really going on at the bottom of the bay.
- Sea Mine: Daniel and Dolores launch one in an attempt to destroy Admiral Farragut's ship.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jim sends it back to their base instead, so the villains are ultimately destroyed by their own bomb.
- Shirtless Scene: Jim when he infiltrates the underwater base.
- Tuckerization: In the tag scene, Jim and Artie talk about a friend of theirs, a soon-to-be-married playboy millionaire called Irving Moore - named after the show's most frequent director (though not of this episode).
- Underwater Base: The whole point of the "kraken" is to conceal the construction and operation of one of these off the coast of San Francisco.
- Unwitting Pawn: Admiral Hammond is being manipulated by his wife Dolores (Marj Dusay), who's helping Daniel co-opt the underwater fortress for her own purposes.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Poor Bartlett doesn't survive The Teaser.
