Headhunter begins with a stewardess (Lynn Herring) complaining to a coworker about having stomach pains before boarding a flight. The next day she is found dead in her apartment with her body mutilated and Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy determining that she was strangled and her stomach was cut open after the fact. The police believe she was transporting drugs on her flights and these were extracted from her body which casts suspicion on a married narcotics officer, Joe Masalla (Eddie Fontaine), who was having an affair with her. A tough Internal Affairs investigator, Sal Drasso (Joseph Sirola), comes in on the case and pursues Masala as a drug dealer and murderer which draws the ire of Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) and other officers. Do they have the right guy or is the officer being framed?
This is a pretty decent Season 6 episode which does feature a murder mystery plot and the culprit is not revealed right in the beginning which is nice to see. My only criticism is that I thought the scenes between the cop and his scorned wife were pretty bad. Here the man was found to be cheating on her and now is suspected of drug smuggling and murder, and after a little tantrum she is standing right by her man again. I know that this does happen in reality, but it just seemed so ridiculous watching it. That aside, the guest star performances were reasonably good as well with Eddie Fontaine as the increasingly desperate cop who stands accused and the Joseph Sirola as the relentless and very unpopular investigator.
Overall this is an entertaining and enjoyable plot which does feature both a crime and an investigation that should appeal to all of the Quincy fans who favor these types of episodes.