Rites of Passage

Season 1, Episode 16

Original Air Date: 2/8/1985

Songs Featured: Bob Segar "Come to Poppa", The Reds "Waiting for You", "Beat Away", "Till the End",  Rockwell "Change Your Ways", Foreigner "I Want to Know What Love Is".

Notable Guest Stars: Pam Grier, John Turturro

Essential Viewing: Yes

The appearance of a woman from Tubbs' past makes Rites of Passage an essential episode.

Crockett and Tubbs investigate the death of a call girl while Valerie (Pam Grier), a woman from Tubbs' past, arrives in Miami to search for her missing sister, Diane. Before long it is discovered that Diane is working as a high priced prostitute and is addicted to the lifestyle that comes with it.

Crockett and Tubbs hold an "intervention" where Diane is removed from a party that generates clients and she soon realizes that she needs to leave prostitution behind. Unfortunately her pimp David (John Turtoro) feels differently and assumes her leaving him is related to a deal that she cut with the police to avoid prosecution. He arranges her murder and during an excellent sequence set to Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" the episode cuts back and forth between Tubbs and Valerie in bed and Diane's killer carrying out the deed.  The sequence culminates with Crockett delivering the news of Diane's death to Tubbs who then has to relay it Valerie. The moment that Tubbs tells her is not shown, just the aftermath, and it is incredibly effective.

After being questioned about Diane's murder David is eventually released. Frustrated with the system in place Valerie takes the law into her own hands and kills David just as Crockett and Tubbs arrive at the scene. She immediately turns over her gun and asks to be read her rights before the end credits roll.