Mon, Jan 13, 1997
After rescuing a group of fishermen and tourists from a huge pier fire, Samantha and L.A. fire chief Captain Huntingdon form a rescue firefighting team of six life guards and firefighters, called the Search and Rescue Unit, for such conditions and Cody, Neely, Jordan, and Newman try out for the unit and meet their firefighting counterparts. Their skills are put to the real test when the new group of Cody, Neely, Catalina lifeguard Rick Jenner, and firemen Jessica, Clay, and Terry are sent on their first mission to rescue two men in a partially submerged basement of a fire-ravaged building. Meanwhile, Cody is asked by C.J. to paint his portrait after seeing some of her other paintings. Elsewhere, Mitch has a hard time explaining (and believing himself) to the rest of the Baywatch team of his increasingly strange PI work at night while he has his hands full in trying to catch a vampire from 'Baywatch Nights'.
Mon, Jan 27, 1997
While Cody lets C.J. paint an abstract portrait of him, Donna and Caroline co-operate with a local environmental agent after a recent rainstorm washes inland pollutants into the waters off Santa Monica, forcing the beaches to close down. While Donna quarrels with an arrogant photographer who refuses to leave the beach to cancel a photo shoot, an associate convinces her to pose for the magazine 'Inside Sports' as a new politically correct model. Meanwhile, Mitch falls ill after he unknowing swims over drums of toxic chemicals which were dumped illegally off Catalina, forcing C.J., Neely, Cody and Caroline to race against the clock to find the source of the chemical or Mitch will die.
Mon, Feb 3, 1997
Mitch is approached by Molly McCoy, the young editor from 'Flash' magazine, who asks to nominate himself as Bachelor of the Month for her magazine, complete with a photo and video shoot. But Mitch has other things on his hands in helping Newman and Donna try to catch a large Portuguese Man-O-War jellyfish that is infesting the area after having stung a swimmer. Meanwhile, Caroline offers to help Stephanie with her wedding plans to Tom by planing a big wedding whereas Stephanie wants to keep things small, where it's revealed that Caroline is trying to channel her frustrations of her life after recently breaking up with Logan.
Mon, Feb 10, 1997
Stephanie and Tom go on their honeymoon on a two-sail schooner with a group of six troubled teenagers. Mitch and Neely also tag along to help keep an eye on the kids and lend a hand on the ship. But hardly when the ship is out of port the radio breaks, leaving them with no warning when a massive hurricane strikes. When the ship begins sinking, Stephanie ends up losing her life after she is struck by a 20-foot section of the sail trying to save one of the kids.
Mon, Feb 17, 1997
Mitch rescues Cassie Cole, a popular TV talk show hostess who invites him as a guest on her show. While on the show, Mitch saves the other guest, Jay Leno, from choking and he becomes an instant overnight celebrity, while the conniving Neely and devious Donna team up in a plot use Mitch's sudden fame to seek a profit on by pretending to be his agent and manager hoping to get a share of his newfound celebrity wealth. Meanwhile, a few months after Stephanie's death, Caroline and C.J. adopt a stray dog swimming in the ocean that leads them to the dead body of it's drowned owner. Naming it "Annie," the dog is surprisingly neat, responds to commands, likes to swim in the ocean, is drawn to Mitch, and won't sleep anywhere except in Stephanie's old bed. C.J. then correctly suspects that Annie is not a dog at all but the reincarnated soul of Stephanie.
Mon, Feb 24, 1997
After Caroline, Neely and Manny rescue three orphan teenage boys from drowning near a rock jetty, Caroline seeks out a mysterious youth who helped her rescue one of the boys, named Derek, who is connected with a street gang that means harm. It turns out that the youth is actually the ghost of Derek's long-dead brother who's looking out for him, since no one can see him except Caroline. Meanwhile, Neely's ex-husband, Peter, arrives and she becomes confused again ever since she walked out on him two years ago.
Mon, Mar 3, 1997
Manny is haunted by his past when two juvenile delinquents from his home borough in East L.A., named Hector and Pulga, arrive at Baywatch for community service and Hector is bitterly resentful of Manny after he moved out of the neighborhood to escape the life of the street gang he was in, while Pulga plans revenge against Manny and his mother. Meanwhile, Neely tells Cody that she thinks Mitch and Samantha are becoming more close to each other, and she happens to be unknowingly correct, while they are planning to give Hobie a car for his 16th birthday.
Mon, Apr 7, 1997
Kristy and Todd are two of Manny's friends at his high school and who are madly in love with each other. When their romance is threatened by Todd's wealthy and snobbish parents, who employ Manny's mother as their maid, and Kristy's single working-class mother, both Kristy and Todd make a suicide pact rather than end their romance. Meanwhile, Cody meets a mermaid while scuba diving who mistakes him for the lost love of her life. But no one will believe Cody's story, except C.J, who together they attempt to track her down.
Mon, Apr 14, 1997
While out in the ocean testing new diving equipment, Samantha, Neely, and Caroline witness a Air Force jet crash and are forced to rescue the pilot, who tells them that his plane has a canister filled with a deadly Chorea virus 400 feet on the ocean floor and is set to self-destruct if not recovered within the hour. But the pilot is a renegade who hijacks their boat and speeds away with the intention to use the device on the city's water supply. Meanwhile, Cody, C.J., Newman, and Manny are called in to shut down an illegal nude beach up the coast, while Mitch takes Hobie and his girlfriend out water skiing to spend more quality time with him.
Mon, Apr 21, 1997
Caroline finds herself being sued for negligence in a civil court by the angry and bitter mother of the man known as "Cowboy," one of the victims of a fiery boating accident that happened nearly a year ago (from the episode 'The Incident'), and she's forced to recall the terrible events that led to the boating accident. Meanwhile, C.J. takes the time to babysit for a neighbor's newborn baby, which brings up the subject that she wants to become a mother herself. But Cody apparently isn't ready to settle down for he is in training for a cross-country mountain bicycle race.
Mon, Apr 28, 1997
After rescuing two people trapped on a rock with an injured sea lion, C.J. and Cody transport the injured mammal to the animal recovery facility at Sea World in nearby San Diego where C.J. develops a bond with the mammal she names "Leo". Also, Samantha gets the idea to promote life guarding material by planning a Baywatch-theme stunt show at Sea World. Meanwhile, Mitch and Jordan attempt to track down the fisherman and his cronies responsible for the sea lion shootings whom are also illegally fishing with dynamite.
Mon, May 5, 1997
Neely and Cody break up a disturbance on the Venice boardwalk started by a crazed young woman, named Jamie Duncan, who's in town for the Malibu Female Bodyboard Tournament whom Neely discovers her to be a manic-depressive and it causes her alarm for Neely's late sister too suffered from the same problems Jamie has. Meanwhile, Mitch and Samantha's romance is put to a real test when Samantha's former fiancé Adam, a sports promoter, arrives to promote the body board tournament. Elsewhere, Newman meets a beautiful blond woman of his dreams. But when Newman finally musters the nerve to ask her on a date, she turns out to be a Mexican tourist who doesn't speak any English. So, Newman has to have Manny come along with them as a translator.
Mon, May 12, 1997
In this take on 'Darkman' meets 'Phantom of the Opera', a mysterious, disfigured man, whom the public dubs "the phantom lifeguard," is lurking under the Malibu pier and the dunes of Baywatch and who is sending C.J. mysterious gifts wrapped in Edgar Allan Poe poems. After C.J. has an accident when a pier support falls on her, the "monster" a horribly disfigured man named Adran who lives in an abandoned power plant, rescues her and keeps her at his domain, while Mitch, Cody, and Samantha mount a rescue to find C.J., as do two men, named Brett and Bobby, who determined to capture the disfigured man.
Mon, Sep 22, 1997
A flood of new recruits arrive at Baywatch to try out for rookie school, who include Hobie, Manny, and newcomers; Lani McKensie, a part-Hawaiian, part-Caucasian wanting to be a professional dancer, April Giminski, a naive, design major college student unfamiliar with swimming in the ocean, and Skylar Bergman, April's roommate who wants to become a paramedic. Newman is also assigned to teach the new recruits the ropes of the beach along with Donna and Jordan to assist. Manny becomes angry at Mitch after he fails an eye test due to a technicality and is disqualified from rookie school. After Samantha quits her position as Baywatch Captain, Mitch is offered her job and the promotion to Captain by Chief Johnson. But Mitch turns her down for he feels needed more at the beach than away from it. Meanwhile, Lani is followed by her insanely jealous ex-boyfriend, Darren, from Hawaii where Cody met her after breaking up with C.J. and who inspired Lani to try out for rookie school.
Mon, Sep 29, 1997
During the second week of rookie school, April is injured by a bump on the head caused by a mysterious wave runner rider which harasses her, Lani and Skylar and nearly causes her to be thrown out of rookie school. After visiting his home neighborhood, Manny becomes more determined to become a lifeguard than anything else. Meanwhile, after Mitch looks into his past while he himself was at rookie school with the first love of his life, a lifeguard named Beth, he reconsiders the offer by Chief Johnson to become Captain.
Mon, Oct 6, 1997
Veteran lifeguard John "J.D." Darius arrives at Bayside and competes with Taylor Walsh, an attractive newcomer, for Mitch's old job as lieutenant and Mitch must make his own decision as to which one will be the most eligible one for his former job. Although J.D. has more experience as a lifeguard than Taylor, he is plagued by haunting memory of failing in a rescue at Daytona Beach where he worked some years ago.
Mon, Oct 13, 1997
On Memorial Day weekend, Mitch, April, and Skylar find a lot of problems on their hands after discovering the dead body of an elderly Navy veteran whose two elderly Navy buddies of his want to give him a proper burial in the ocean. Meanwhile, Lani considers leaving Baywatch for a career as a professional dancer, until she sprains her ankle during a rescue and Cody professes his love for her. On Hobie's first day as a professional lifeguard, he has difficultly escaping his past when his former surfing friends, J.B. and Conner, give him a hard time over his new job.
Mon, Oct 20, 1997
April's mother and her 12-year-old younger brother, Charlie, arrive for a visit where Mitch and Hobie try to make the best of the weekend with Charlie who is revealed to be dying from a rare form of cancer that April refuses to accept. Meanwhile, Hobie and a friend of his want to compete with Mitch and Newman, as well as Cody and J.D., in the annual lifeguard row-boat race to prove themselves.
Mon, Oct 27, 1997
A sleazy TV reporter, called Roger Riptide who flies around the beach in a helicopter, starts dishing dirt on the private lives of the Baywatch lifeguards for his TV show much to the irritation of Mitch and Taylor, who suspect someone is leaking information to Riptide. Meanwhile, Caroline Holden arrives back in town after a failed acting career in New York and moves back into her apartment with Cody who is letting J.D. stay with him until he can find a place for himself, and the two of them hit it off. Cody also discovers Lani moonlighting as a dancer at a local nightclub, and Newman hits it off with a shady new blond woman called Larana, whom is unknowingly an informant for Riptide.
Mon, Nov 3, 1997
While strange earth tremors plague the area, Mitch tries to get Jordan to meet her real biological mother on a fishing outing, who turns out to be a white woman named Rene (a shock since Jordan happens to be black), who's dying from a brain disorder and thinks the problem is hereditary. But things take a turn after a massive rouge wave, triggered by an underwater tremor, capsizes the fishing boat and traps Rene below decks in a room with toxic fumes. Meanwhile, Caroline worries that her romance with J.D. will come apart after she receives another acting job in New York and cannot refuse the chance to go back. Also, Manny and April seem to come together while they are in training with Taylor for a Coast Guard airlift emergency plan.
Mon, Nov 10, 1997
The hot Santa Ana desert winds stir up more troubles for the Baywatch lifeguards when a typical day begins with a large hole appearing on the beach, as well as an uncharted sand bar, the lifeguard trucks disappearing and then reappearing buried in the sand. Also, mysterious deaths of sea lions point to a giant electric eel living in the Zuma Beach caves. Meanwhile, Hobie tries to impress April who is torn over being with him and Manny. But both April and Hobie end up stranded in a cave with the giant eel, Manny and Lani getting attacked, and Mitch the only one who can save anyone from the beast.
Mon, Nov 17, 1997
Mitch is reunited with his old Baywatch lifeguard friend, Craig Pomeroy, now a full-time lawyer who's in town trying to honor a Native American's dying wish to die peacefully on sacred Indian grounds at the beach. Meanwhile, Neely Capshaw returns to Baywatch after being incapacitated for months in a skiing accident, with a hidden addiction to painkillers. When Donna figures out Neely's secret, she unsuccessfully tries to persuade Neely to get help because Donna's sister too had an addiction to painkillers. Also, Hobie uses a phony ID to get into a nightclub with his friends and suddenly wins a $1,200 prize dance contest with Lani moonlighting as the dancer "Kyra."
Mon, Nov 24, 1997
Cody becomes consumed with guilt when his actions of leaving his post before the end of his shift to go on a date with Lani result in the disappearance of a young Latina woman swimming in the ocean, and the incident results in a hyped media circus that comes to the beach to cover the story. While the entire Baywatch force, including Manny, Newman, Lani and Caroline deal with looking for the missing girl, Mitch is also faced with the hostile press as well as the pressure from his superiors demanding Cody's resignation.
Mon, Dec 1, 1997
Caroline Holden returns to Baywatch during a break for her soap opera role in New York, which takes an unexpected turn when she is taken hostage by an armed robber which fills her with paranoia and fear for days after. Meanwhile, Neely, having quit her job at Baywatch, takes another job at a private beach club next door. After watching Neely's sloppy performance during a rescue of a crewman from a barge fire, Mitch finally learns from Donna about Neely's addiction to painkillers, but that doesn't prepare both of them after learning the shocking truth about Neely's "skiing accident" when she confides in them the real reason why she was away from Baywatch not for an accident, but of an unexpected pregnancy.