C.J.'s college friend Connie Ling is curator and director of acquisitions for the Far East section of a Los Angeles museum. Connie gets entangled with heroin smugglers who force her to hide smack in her imports of museum pieces from Hong Kong and is killed when a shipment goes missing but not before she calls C.J. for help.
A DEA agent named Harry Carter (Christopher Connelly) on the case meets with C.J. and Houston, presents evidence that Connie was on the take and reasonably demands Houston stay out of it to avoid compromising his investigation of the smuggling ring.
Lieutenant Hoyt (Lincoln Kilpatrick) the curmudgeonly, intense veteran cop who, when first introduced at the beginning of the show's second season, thought the idea of affluent private detective Matt Houston working on cases was counterproductive interference by a pretentious dilettante has by this time grudgingly come to think Houston is useful. But, unlike Lieutenant Novelli, Hoyt still has boundaries he wants Houston to respect.
He and Hoyt have developed a good working relationship but Hoyt would prefer Houston wait to be asked by law enforcement to help rather than going off on his own. Hoyt sides with Agent Carter over Houston, the way most good cops would in keeping with interdepartmental co-operation, and suggests Houston stay out of it.
Hoyt also is not prepared to give Houston or C.J.'s friends the benefit of the doubt when they might be guilty of something which is a good thing since a number of them turn out be guilty.
In this case it turns out that C.J.'s friend Connie technically was guilty because her junkie brother has been threatened by the smugglers unless she co-operates and for another reason.
Spoiler Alert!
Agent Carter turns out to be in on the whole thing having pulled rank to keep the local cops out of his face during his operation and striking a deal with the smuggling ring as well as having conned Connie into working undercover for him co-operating with the smugglers and bringing in the smuggled smack.
In this episode Houston again is not pretending he has an incredible wealth of experience as an investigator when he tells C.J. "Let's start at the scene of the crime. I read it in a book somewhere" which is a realistic hint as to how a billionaire amateur investigates crime. They even make his detective work seem necessary here by making the DEA guy in charge the baddie.
We also see Houston running down a list of phone numbers on Connie's phone bill doing a kind of tedious, detailed investigative work he is seldom seen doing in other episodes of the series. The standard investigative procedure he is employing is very necessary but we don't usually see our boy Houston sweating these kinds of details.
It is a little unclear by the end why Houston and not Hoyt has to be the one to take down the baddie since the police are already there backing him up. But we have to have that extra scene of Houston taking down the baddie even if his presence is redundant.
C.J. gets shot in this episode and hospitalized. After she has recovered somewhat Houston visits her and tells her things are going just fine at the office without her. This would be a very subtle way to tell a series star that her character could easily be killed off if the producers wanted to do that.
Christopher Connelly who portrayed Ryan O'Neal's little brother on Peyton Place was a pretty decent guest villain in this episode.
A DEA agent named Harry Carter (Christopher Connelly) on the case meets with C.J. and Houston, presents evidence that Connie was on the take and reasonably demands Houston stay out of it to avoid compromising his investigation of the smuggling ring.
Lieutenant Hoyt (Lincoln Kilpatrick) the curmudgeonly, intense veteran cop who, when first introduced at the beginning of the show's second season, thought the idea of affluent private detective Matt Houston working on cases was counterproductive interference by a pretentious dilettante has by this time grudgingly come to think Houston is useful. But, unlike Lieutenant Novelli, Hoyt still has boundaries he wants Houston to respect.
He and Hoyt have developed a good working relationship but Hoyt would prefer Houston wait to be asked by law enforcement to help rather than going off on his own. Hoyt sides with Agent Carter over Houston, the way most good cops would in keeping with interdepartmental co-operation, and suggests Houston stay out of it.
Hoyt also is not prepared to give Houston or C.J.'s friends the benefit of the doubt when they might be guilty of something which is a good thing since a number of them turn out be guilty.
In this case it turns out that C.J.'s friend Connie technically was guilty because her junkie brother has been threatened by the smugglers unless she co-operates and for another reason.
Spoiler Alert!
Agent Carter turns out to be in on the whole thing having pulled rank to keep the local cops out of his face during his operation and striking a deal with the smuggling ring as well as having conned Connie into working undercover for him co-operating with the smugglers and bringing in the smuggled smack.
In this episode Houston again is not pretending he has an incredible wealth of experience as an investigator when he tells C.J. "Let's start at the scene of the crime. I read it in a book somewhere" which is a realistic hint as to how a billionaire amateur investigates crime. They even make his detective work seem necessary here by making the DEA guy in charge the baddie.
We also see Houston running down a list of phone numbers on Connie's phone bill doing a kind of tedious, detailed investigative work he is seldom seen doing in other episodes of the series. The standard investigative procedure he is employing is very necessary but we don't usually see our boy Houston sweating these kinds of details.
It is a little unclear by the end why Houston and not Hoyt has to be the one to take down the baddie since the police are already there backing him up. But we have to have that extra scene of Houston taking down the baddie even if his presence is redundant.
C.J. gets shot in this episode and hospitalized. After she has recovered somewhat Houston visits her and tells her things are going just fine at the office without her. This would be a very subtle way to tell a series star that her character could easily be killed off if the producers wanted to do that.
Christopher Connelly who portrayed Ryan O'Neal's little brother on Peyton Place was a pretty decent guest villain in this episode.