Original Airdate: January 14, 1977
Written by: David Chase
Directed by: Jerry London
Rocky picks up Jim from the airport as the latter is returning from vacation. When they return to the trailer they find fellow PI Billy Merrihew (Cleavon Little) putting security tape on the door. Billy has been trying to catch Jim in order to hire him. He’s gotten his license pulled on a B&E charge stemming from when a woman named Odette Sorrel hired him to look into a potential kidnapping of another woman, Janie Windolph. Billy staked out a family’s home on a tip and found the police waiting for him, and the couple denied any knowledge of Janie or the suspect, Hugh Wechsler.
Jim digs around after a few leads, and his investigation draws the attention of another man, Vern St. Cloud (Simon Oakland). Vern is another erstwhile PI who’s lost his license, in nearly identical circumstances to Billy. He was looking for Hugh Wechsler, and when he heard Jim was as well hoped to get a lead. Of course he did this by attacking Jim outside the trailer, but when this misunderstanding is settled the three men put their heads together and realize it was a scam. It turns out to have taken in yet another investigator, Marv Potemkin (Val Bisoglio), who wasn’t on the kidnapping case but was working for Odette Sorrel. Marv was arrested on a gun charge when he saw what he thought was a stalker.
Tracking her through outgoing calls to a kennel where she was keeping her cat, Jim finds out that Odette is really Susan Hanrahan (Katharine Charles), an agent of the gigantic Waterbury Security company. Under an alias he speaks to both Susan and her coworker Ted Clair (Anthony Costello). Clair knows that Jim Rockford on the case, and through a conversation with the firm’s president John LaPointe (James Karen), it’s revealed that the Waterbury people had intended to scam Jim out of his license as well, but were prevented by his being out of town on vacation.
The case becomes even more personal when men working for Waterbury break into Marv’s office and beat him to death. In order to avenge him and get back Billy and Vern’s licenses, Jim and Billy stage a burglary at the Waterbury building while Vern creates a distraction by acting drunk and depressed on the roof.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Accidental Murder: Marv wasn’t intended to be killed, but the thugs interrogating him got too enthusiastic.
- Always Murder: The case is only about the scam on the PIs until a little past the halfway point, when Marv Potemkin is killed.
- Ambiguous Situation: Jim overhears Susan Hanrahan telling Ted Clair about another investigator, Wendell Butterfield, whom they no longer have to worry about because he was killed in an auto accident. So did they have anything to do with the accident, and if so was this the exact result they wanted?
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The fact that the sinister detective agency is called “Waterbury” is only one of the similarities to the then-recent Watergate scandal. Among others:
- Waterbury is trying to reduce competition in the market by putting one-man PI operations out of business. This parallels the way Richard Nixon’s campaign illegally undermined George McGovern and the Democrats when, by most estimates, Nixon was already a lock for reelection.
- The rougher and more legally questionable actions are outsourced to a couple of Plumber-like bully boys.
- While conspiring with his underling Clair, LaPointe tapes the conversation in order to document what he is and isn’t willing to do.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: While his license is suspended Vern is working in his brother-in-law’s shoe store. He doesn’t seem to be very good at the job.
- Honey Trap: Susan/”Odette” flirted with both Billy and Vern, leading them to think of her as more than a client. Marv was a different situation, since he appears to have been a faithful husband, but even there Ted characterizes him as a crazy guy trying to pick Susan up.
- Inappropriately Close Comrades: Susan is living with another agent, who broke his leg on a skiing trip with her. LaPointe does not approve.
- Jerkass Façade: Vern doesn’t quite show himself to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he does have their back in the burglary, and it’s suggested that he’s just more comfortable in the pose of cutthroat competitor rather than being openly friendly.
- Police Are Useless: Becker won’t talk to Jim when he’s brought in on a traffic charge related to the case, and won’t make any moves against Waterbury until Jim and Billy steal their files.
- Tap on the Head: Vern first approaches Jim by hitting him on the back of the head with his gun. It’s not a knockout, and Jim still overpowers him.
- We Need a Distraction: Jim and Billy need Vern to create a distraction while they look for and steal the files Waterbury has on the local PIs. Vern does this by staging a fake suicide attempt.
