Title: The Spy
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Tony Sheehan
Air Date: January 18, 1979
Previous: Voice Analyzer
Next: Wojo's Girl
Guest Starring: Philip Sterling, Stanley Brock, Estelle Omens, Philip Reade
"The Spy" is the 14th episode of the fifth season of Barney Miller.
Bruno Bender, local store owner and pest who occasionally annoys the 12th Precinct, is back in the squad room again. It seems that a mime, one Mr. Leslie Phillips, started doing his act outside of Mr. Bender's store. Bruno, being the kind of guy who prefers The Three Stooges to weird French performance art, assaulted Mr. Phillips.
The second wacky case involves one Felice Douglas, in the 12th to report a case of indecent exposure. But this week, the 12th departs from formula by having three wacky cases! Wojo brings in a Mitchell Warner for creating a public disturbance at an unemployment office. As a chortling Wojo reports, Mr. Warner is an unemployed spy! Mr. Warner, laid off from the CIA after budget cuts, has apparently discovered that toppling South American governments is not a highly sought-after skill in 1979 New York.
No one will return Mr. Warner's calls, so he can't make bail, and Levitt arrives to take him to Manhattan Central Booking ("the Tombs"). However, on the way out the back corridor, Mr. Warner assaults Levitt and takes his gun. Mr. Warner then takes the entire squad room hostage. He is convinced that they are not real cops, but in fact part of an elaborate CIA op directed at him.
Tropes:
- Bad to the Last Drop: Jack Soo died, but the Barney Miller bad coffee jokes lived on. After Dietrich goes on one of his usual spiels, Barney takes a sip of the coffee, frowns, and says "You seem to know everything about everything...except how to make coffee."Dietrich: Keeps me humble.
- Continuity Nod: The long arc about Barney's troubled marriage continues. Three episodes ago in "Toys" Barney and Liz kissed and agreed to take their regular Christmas vacation cabin, but it seems they are still separated. Barney's admission that he is living in the Greenwich Hotel (Mr. Warner called his home to test his story) causes an emotional breakthrough. Mr. Warner talks about how his wife left him because she couldn't handle the CIA lifestyle, and then he gives up the gun.
- Death Glare: Harris is typing up the arrest report when Mr. Phillips irritates him by doing a mime performance of eating a banana. Harris shoots him a death glare and says "No eating in the squad room!".
- Dramatic Gun Cock: Mr. Warner, pressing a gun to Levitt's neck, cocks the hammer of the gun to demonstrate that he is serious when demanding the other cops throw their guns in the trash can.
- Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting: Mr. Warner assumes this position when he settles down after taking all the cops hostage with Levitt's gun.
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Bruno Bender assaults a mime. The mime then irritates everyone in the squad room.
- 555: Barney's home number is 555-3112.
- Handshake Refusal: Harris offers his hand to Mr. Warner, who rejects it. Harris, still cheerful, says "Oh, feeling a little disaffected, huh?". Harris is trying to interest Mr. Warner in writing a memoir.
- Hostage Situation: The third episode of Barney Miller in which a perp takes the squad room hostage. In this case it's Mr. Warner, who grabs Levitt's gun as they're leaving.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Barney asks what's the deal with the mime, and Harris says "Just some clown we picked up." Then he grins from ear to ear and says, gleefully, "I've always wanted to say that, Barn!".
- Ripped from the Headlines: Harris's suggestion that Mr. Warner write a memoir causes Warner to mention "Agee and Snepp", that being Philip Agee and Frank Snepp, two CIA operatives who wrote famous memoirs.note
- Unreveal Angle: Mr. Warner tells the detectives that spy work is not at all glamorous like in James Bond. To prove it he shows Wojo a photo of Inez, some "South American revolutionary" that Mr. Warner lived with for two months. We don't see the photo, but Wojo grimaces.Mr. Warner: She spent a lot of time in the hills, and it showed.
