The Set-Up Part Two

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Set-Up Part Two)

Why use the opening credits and music that would be used for Season 3 in not only a Season 2 episode, but the second half of a two-parter? A very strange decision, and one that makes me wonder if this was the way it was on original transmission (it shows clips from episodes still to come), or some kind of bizarre mix up on the DVDs. It's about the only thing I was wondering about in the early part of the episode as, far from the shocking opening to Part I, this has nothing to grab you, being a continuation of S&H's quest for evidence about Terry Nash's story, to prove what they already suspect. It's another point in my favour when I suggested in Part I that this would have made a better TV film rather than two individual episodes. They're going over the same ground, when they've already given us a recap of what happened previously. The only reason to show them going through pictures at the bank (fascinating that they could only capture one picture every few seconds rather than rolling film, which shows how far we've come in technology today), was for the drama of them having to get out when they realise film has been cut. It was a passable stab at generating tension, but the worst that happens is a pointed remark from Thistleman the Bank Manager, and Nash finding it hard to keep a straight face.

What's missing from the story now is the mystery and Nash's uncertainty over himself, his past and whether anyone will believe him, but this is made up for with spectacle, Part Two proving to be much more the action half of the story, since they'd already had the, yes, set-up. We're treated to a massive explosion outside the Medical Arts Centre when Debra, the assassin prepared at the end of Part One, tries to take out all three in one go by blowing up her car as they're trying to help her with it. It was creepy, knowing she was a threat against them, yet acting the part of a friendly young lady in need of assistance, a honey trap if you will, but I thought she was more a part of the story than this one scene - I was expecting her to show up as one of the 'patients' at the remote castle base in the desert, perhaps make another attempt, but her role was introduced purely for a cliffhanger ending, proving to have no further impact on the story whatsoever! She was one of the many loose ends that were left unresolved in an episode that, again, ran a full forty-eight minutes, and yet had time for S&H and Nash to wander around to various places.

One thing she did achieve, which a few have tried before, but none succeeded, was in blowing up Starsky's prized motor: the Torino was the best of the three explosions in the episode (I almost felt I was watching an episode of 'BUGS'!), and was quite horrifying to see the iconic vehicle caught in the blast radius and erupting in a ball of fire, then kindling like a struck match and roaring with angry flames, or it should have felt that way - in reality you're not even that sure it was meant to be a big thing as Starsky's more surprised than shocked about it, and no one mentions it again, except when he's talking to Dobey on the phone. I wondered if there was a scene cut out or not filmed because he seems to have burnt hands as if he'd charged in and tried to put out his car or gone too close, in the episode as it stands there being no indication of when he might have been burnt.

Again, there's another stab at heightening the paranoia when Hutch starts to realise there's something wrong with the girl. It's one of the more effective moments in the episode, but after that S&H step out of their characters' remit, becoming wanted for Federal arrest (continuing to hang out with Durniak's killer wouldn't have helped their case), which Dobey warns them about, and going even further by kidnapping a Bank Manager in his own car park! I know security may not have been as strong in those days, but you'd think somebody would have noticed two men getting into his car just as he drove up, and leaving immediately! I will say that Thistleman had a conk ripe for grabbing (a curiously fitting form of violence for Starsky), and (as any nose-related grabbery does), made me think of 'The Karate Kid Part II.' I liked that Dobey helped them, though it would have been his own career on the line if the FBI found out - that's another missing piece of the episode, the FBI man called Wilson who looked to be introduced for a reason in Part One, but doesn't even appear in this one. He wasn't essential, but why have him in Part One at all if he's not going to be a thorn in S&H's side? S&H are shown to be working outside the law when they have to avoid police, specifically at the bowling, Starsky using a bowling ball as cover when the cops walk past!

What were they even doing at a bowling complex? Starsky just suggests it out of the blue, and, while I can imagine it was one of the few places open at night, it seems more likely that they had the option to shoot in it and so decided to set another scene there and make it worthwhile, regardless of making sense in the context of the story. I suppose it was more comfortable than the dockside shack or wherever it was supposed to be that they meet up with Dobey in. I enjoyed the Captain's usual dismissive orders to Huggy (the first time we've seen him since he was partnering the Turkey, yet no mention is made of the venture!), this time to watch his car while he meets with his men! There were a couple of lines, one by him and one by Hug in the episode that sounded odd. One was when he responds to S&H mistaking him for Huggy in the gloom of the shack by saying that 'of course we all look alike, I know' ironically, though he and the Bear look about as different as could be! The other is when Hug says a word S&H look askance at him for and he replies that 'the English language is not the exclusive property of the white man.' So there was definitely some social commentary going on, I think it was just situated oddly and out of the blue.

If Part One, and much of the first half of this episode was 'Mission: Impossible,' the second half turns into classic James Bond with a remote castle hideout to infiltrate using rickety technology and a crazy pilot (though if it had been Bond the Baron would probably have been female!), to get them there. The Baron, whom I was so sure was called The Black Baron (as opposed to The Red Baron), though this never happened, was the only wacky character in the episode, unless you count Thistleman's cowardly ways, or Terry's poor acting at being embarrassed, and was great fun to boot, with his leather jacket and old-fashioned flying gear, unstable old plane, formal way of talking (in-between bouts of uncontrolled laughter), and motto to always be prepared! I can't imagine an episode like this where Starsky bursts out into a corridor toting a sub-machine gun in each hand, or blowing a hole in a wall with grenades to escape from a room, everyone dashing around firing, escape helicopter being shot down in a blaze of destruction, in Season 1! It's very much in the chaotic, large canvas style of this season, that chaos humour seen again when S&H show discomfort in the plane's construction and the pilot's ability while The Baron is wildly enjoying himself.

It's the better part of the episode, but I'm not sure that flying low over this remote stronghold in the middle of nowhere with a noisy, sputtering plane, was the best idea (not to mention wheeling off and landing not too far away!), as that should have alerted the guards. But, just as they resemble Bonds frequent adversaries of besuited, gun-wielding goons, they also show the same level of intelligence as his armies of enemy cannon fodder, getting themselves knocked out (the guy whom Starsky whacks with his gun had been a heavy in at least one previous episode, so he may have been a stunt guy), shot, or blown up (in the case of 'George' in the helicopter). It raises the issue, though, of good guys killing. It's not often that S&H are forced to shoot someone to the death, and only in a defensive situation, they can usually wing the villain and then put the cuffs on, but in this it's much more cartoony and Bondian, with people being shot and dropping all around. Because they're all in suits, though, they don't feel like real people, and I suppose one reason to kill off the main baddie, the instigator, was so that some mystery was left as he couldn't be interrogated for the good guys to find out about the organisation.

It's one thing for S&H to shoot people, but then Hutch lets Terry Nash have a gun after holding him down and slapping him out of a reversion to his psychotic programming, after he's seen a picture of his 'wife' which had set him off. Feeling better? Okay, now here's a gun. And then, when Nash wants to pay them back, rather than Hutch saying no, we can't have you going for revenge, he just says not with suicide, as if it's okay, as long as he takes care of himself, which then leads to Nash taking out the 'copter! I know they were fighting for their lives against well-equipped syndicate heavies who were on their own turf, but it's not their normal MO. You could say that they're not operating as police officers because officially they're suspended after the arrest warrant, but even so…

In one of the weakest endings we've seen, prompted by them wasting time earlier in the episode, they have the briefest and most contrived of concluding scenes, a quick wrap-up with a semi-jokey ending in which neither the explanation or humour works! They have Dobey take on this aloof attitude to what had happened so they can spell the main points out, in the midst of which the Captain flumps down as if giving in, and says the future is Nash's, to which he replies that it's the past he's interested in. Wah, wah, wah, waaaaaah… At the same time they're laying groundwork for a sequel by saying that more brainwashed people could be out there, but the worst thing is, it was never dealt with again. I wasn't bothered either way about whether Nash returned because I didn't dislike, or particularly like him - he was merely a tool, a kind of neutral character, very level without being completely unemotional. I also thought he was going to be revealed as a former soldier (like Jason Bourne), because of that meeting with the guy in the street in Part One, and that they mention how he knows how to handle a gun, but this was just another loose end that remained unexplained. I also thought it would turn out he didn't actually kill Durniak (perhaps confusing the story with 'The Dark Knight' and its false attention to an upper window during Gordon's assassination), but he did. So he was a murderer, even if he was acting under someone else's influence!

The biggest irritation is how many of these plot points remain in the dark: the cashier in the bank appeared to be under duress when she said Nash hadn't been there, so were she or her family threatened, or was it a payoff, or was she working with Thistleman? We don't know. Where did Debra the assassin go and was she ever tracked down? We never find out. The same for Part One's phoney FBI agent, Oliver - no details. Nash's real identity and past, and whether he'll remember pre-brainwashing? Nope. The biggest might be the set-up for a Mr. Big behind it all, whoever George was talking to on the phone and recommending the West Coast operation be shut down (at least we know where in America Bay City is), and something that could have been dealt with again. We can take from that, that they never troubled S&H's area again, but it could easily have been a bigger thing they have to confront again, the series' equivalent of a secret, recurring enemy, something they didn't tend to do. And why is Nash not immediately arrested for manslaughter if nothing else? I can't say it was infuriating because the stories weren't so good that leaving things hanging meant much to me, and it was an okay two-parter, though the weakest of the three they had done by this time.

There are no references, except for when The Baron calls the dozy guy on the bed at the castle, Sleeping Beauty, but it was fun for me to recognise Jerry Hardin playing the role of the psychiatrist, Hank - he would famously play Samuel Clemens in the two-part 'TNG' story 'Time's Arrow,' and a couple of other roles on that and 'Voyager.' This was one of the rare episodes to feature the title on screen, something they didn't bother to do for Part One, with a narrator announcing it as the exciting conclusion. Another out of place moment was the freeze frame over Debra's face when they meet her, with George's words about killing them spoken over it, because we'd just seen in the recap who she was and we didn't need another reminder! After the good horror music recently, they went back to the discordant percussion, which was disappointing, as well as letting someone loose on one of those Jamaican steel drums for no apparent reason. And I wonder if they paid that squirrel to get it to run across the Catholic school car park on cue - the wrangler wasn't getting it back, that's for sure! A bit scary for three strange men to walk through a girls school unannounced, though!

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