Crockett and Tubbs are assigned to hotel security in order to investigate a pair of dirty cops that are suspected of extorting the call girls who work there. After disrupting a domestic violence issue between a man high on PCP and his girlfriend, Crockett pretends to be a Hollywood Nerd to force a prostitute named Candy James into being their snitch. Candy agrees with the offer of clearing her record.
The crooked cops, Ross and Garcia, are even worse than Crockett and Tubbs suspected when they beat Candy up for not paying for the right to work "their" hotel. Furthermore, they come to Crockett and Tubbs and, believing them to be fellow criminals, offer to let them in on a heist of the hotel's safety deposit boxes. They will work with a professional criminal named Albert Szarbo to do it. Deciding to let them rob the place to catch them in the act, it ends up going disastrously wrong.
Who hired them to rob the hotel safety deposit boxes and why? What does it have to do with Castillo's past?
This episode contains the following tropes:
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Despite being Thailand in origin, Phratek knows ninjitsu.
- Dirty Cop: Ross and Garcia are not only willing to shake down and beat prostitutes but engage in armed robbery.
- Duel to the Death: Castillo and Phratek have one of these with Castillo emerging triumphant.
- Driven to Suicide: Phratek attempts to swallow his own tongue in order to avoid being captured.
- Genre Shift: A fairly typical crooked cop story changes when a Ninja shows up.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Candy wants to help the cops but feels underappreciated after getting slapped around by Ross and Garcia. Still, she helps sell Crockett and Tubbs' cover.
- He Knows Too Much: Phratek kills Szarbo and his accomplice involved in the heist to cover up what they were up to.
- Hidden Badass: Castillo turns out to be a master martial artist capable of killing a man with his bare hands.
- Hollywood Nerd: Crockett dresses up as one to bust a prostitute as an in to the crooked cops.
- The Man Behind the Man: General Lao Li is behind the robbery of the hotel and the murders of its perpetrators in hopes of disguising his entry into the country.
- Lost Lenore: Castillo's wife, May Ying, is in a picture found on the dead assassin.
- Ninja: Phratek dresses like one of these and is an assassin for General Lao Li.
- The Reveal: When the audience (and the Vice cops) discover that Castillo has Hidden Depths, after he chases Li's lieutenant into an alleyway and takes him on in single hand-to-hand combat, gaining the upper hand just as backup arrives.
- Underage Casting: Ashley Johnson, who played Candy, was 20 at the time when her character is listed as being 28.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Candy is not happy that Crockett and Tubbs let her get slapped around to make the charges against Garcia and Ross worse.
