Title: Eviction: Part 2
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Tom Reeder and Reinhold Weege
Air Date: February 9, 1978
Previous: Eviction: Part 1
Next: Wojo's Problem
Guest Starring: Rosanna DeSoto, Dave Madden, Donna Baccala, Bruce Kirby, John Clavin
"Eviction: Part 2" is the 17th episode of the fourth season of Barney Miller.
Events follow immediately after the end of the previous episode of the two-parter, "Eviction: Part 1". Barney has been relieved of duty, following his refusal to enforce the court's eviction order and forcibly remove the tenants from the hotel. Yemana's spell as commander of the 12th Precinct was extremely brief, however, as a Lt. Vogel has been sent to take charge. Lt. Vogel seems to want nothing more than to avoid getting in trouble, and regards Barney as an idiot for sticking his neck out and getting suspended.
Meanwhile, events have reached a crisis point at the hotel. A SWAT team stands ready to storm the building, and someone from the inside fired a shot that winged a cop. Barney is still on suspension, but he's retrieving his mail from the squad room when word comes that Manhattan South wants him to negotiate with the besieged tenants, in hopes of avoiding bloodshed.
The other wacky case from last week also continues. Dietrich has stashed his good-looking but confused Easy Amnesia woman in a hotel, while he tries to determine who she is. Finally he discovers her name, Jennifer DiLucca, along with some other, more disappointing information about her background.
Tropes:
- Drowning My Sorrows: Mr. Walsh, who's racked with guilt over a job that requires him to kick poor people out of their homes, comes back to the squad room drunk. This actually makes him more helpful, as he manages to get his evil corporate overlords to agree to relocate the tenants of the hotel.
- Easy Amnesia: Dietrich discovers that his beautiful amnesiac is named Jennifer DiLucca...and she's a nun.
- Last-Name Basis: Captain Miller and Dietrich's experiment of calling each other by their first names ends as they go back to "Dietrich" and "Captain".Dietrich: Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get too familiar.
- Multi-Part Episode: Second part of a two-parter in which a crisis regarding tenants being evicted from a hotel winds up getting Barney temporarily relieved of duty.
- Oddball in the Series: In one scene Barney goes to the hotel and desperately tries to talk the tenants into leaving peaceably. This episode is one of only thirteen over the entire eight-season run of Barney Miller to feature a scene outside of the squad room.
- Previously on…: The entire cold open is taken up by clips from the previous episode sketching out the plot.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: A Lt. Rossmore (Bruce Kirby) briefly shows up to warn Lt. Vogel that if he screws this eviction situation up, Rossmore will reassign him to "way out in Staten Island."
- Ripped from the Headlines: Second episode in a two-parter directly inspired by the infamous eviction of low-income tenants from San Francisco's International Hotel in 1977.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Yemana wasn't in command very long, but it was long enough for him to change from his rumpled leather jacket into a sport coat and put on a new tie. At the end of the episode an admiring Barney notices the sport coat, and Yemana shows off the new tie.
- Tension-Cutting Laughter: Barney, absolutely frantic to get the tenants out of the hotel, goes on a long, desperate monologue about how they have to leave before they're hurt or even killed. He even struggles into Spanish, telling the tenants that "Es importante que usted...ustedes...comprenden, la, uh, el...que pasa aqui!!" He winds up looking straight at an old lady, who holds up a plate of cookies and says "Cookie?".
- That's an Order!: Barney is at Wojo's desk going through his mail when Wojo shows up. Barney gets up, Wojo says he can have the desk, Barney says he'll use the desk in the corner, and Wojo insists. Finally Barney snaps and says "You sit at your desk! THAT'S AN ORDER!". Then he realizes he can't give orders, deflates, and calls it "a request."
- Villainous Gentrification: The second part of a two-parter in which an evil corporation is trying to evict a bunch of poor people. They get a Happy Ending when Mr. Walsh manages to talk his bosses into relocating the tenants, although Mr. Walsh admits it probably won't be much more than "a couple of months" until the corporation decides to tear down that building too.
- Vow of Celibacy: Dietrich's budding romance with the beautiful mystery amnesiac is brought to a screeching halt when he discovers she's a nun.Dietrich: When I lose, I lose to the biggest.
