Starring:
Anne Bobby as Off. Vicki Quinn
Barbara Bosson as Mayor Louise Plank
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Det. Warren Osborne
Ronny Cox as Chief Roger Kendrick
David Gianopoulos as Off. Andy Campo
Paul McCrane as Det. Bob McIntire
Larry Joshua as Capt. John Hollander
James McDaniel as Off. Franklin Rose
Ron McLarty as Ralph Ruskin
Mick Murray as Det. Joseph Gaines
Peter Onorati as Det. Vincent LaRusso
Jeffrey Alan Chandler as Ray Rodbart
Teri Austin as Trish Vaughn
Dennis Lipscomb as Sidney Weitz
Written by: William M. Finkelstein and Toni Graphia and John Romano
Directed by: Fred Gerber
Well here it is at last: the final episode of “Cop Rock”. I’m going to have a separate article detailing my overall impressions of the show and summarizing all my thoughts now that I have waded through all eleven episodes, so this will be business as usual as we take a look at episode eleven specifically.
In a minor note, this is the first episode that has started off with a recap of what’s already happened in the series. It’s kind of pointless, because it basically recaps the entire series in around two minutes, so if you hadn’t seen an episode up to this point, you still wouldn’t understand a whole lot of what’s going on.
From here, we get a new storyline, which is rather bizarre for a show to do in its final episode; a serial rapist is on the loose. The episode opens to a victim describing her ordeal with her attacker: he grabbed her, forced her into some brush, threatened her with a straight razor, and then cut off her clothes with said sharp object before sexually assaulting her. This is just one of a string of such attacks, which have targeted many sorority-type college girls over the span of the last two weeks (it is kind of bizarre, then, that the victim reciting the details doesn’t really seem to be college-age, nor a sorority type, but I suppose that’s just a minor quibble; after all, a crime is a crime).
Now we’re treated to our pre-credits song, which is sung by a bunch of female officers and focuses on how they want to catch the rapist. It’s a kind of bizarre little number, featuring such lines as “Hey, I got something for you/Come on, come and get it”, which is obviously a reference to them luring the subject to them, presumably using their bodies. I think that’s the gist of the song; unless I feel like a song is well-placed and “necessary”, I generally use the musical interludes as time to get caught up on my social media. In the grand scheme of things, though, this song wasn’t atrocious, nor was it anything even remotely resembling “good”; we’ll just say it’s slightly below-average and leave it at that.
In an as-of-now unrelated plotline, Detective Bob McIntire, who I believe has top billing in every episode despite only appearing in a small handful and being one of the main focuses in only one, leads a team comprised of Vicki Quinn and her new partner, Officer Stillman, to shut down an alleged “chop shop” operating within the city. Remember, Stillman is a sexist who doesn’t feel like women should be allowed to be cops; ironically, this aspect of his character isn’t even touched upon in this episode, which merely focuses on how he’s an idiot.
As it’s explained to all participating officers beforehand, the chop shop is run by a guy known as Bruckner, who operates it out of an extension of his own home. Thus, his house, and the alleged chop shop, have two separate addresses. This little bit of vital information seems to be lost on Stillman who, desperate to find some kind of evidence to pin on Bruckner after nothing illegal is found in an initial search, heads into the house to see if he can find anything there. Out in the open, in a little case, is a white-handled straight razor, just like the one the rape victim mentioned seeing on her attacker! He presents this to the other officers, who get pissed because it’s inadmissible evidence; remember the whole different address thing? Well they only have a search warrant for the alleged chop shop and not the house. Uh oh, Stillman!
Meanwhile, Captain Hollander doesn’t want to let Bruckner get away, so he consults with some guy from some kind of legal counsel, who keeps shooting down Hollander’s suggestions for allowing the evidence to stick. Basically, since the razor was found during an illegal search, it’s inadmissible in court, and can’t even be used to apprehend him. According to the smart legal guy, the only way they can grab him is if one of his victims happens to identify him without the use of any of the evidence found illegally. It’s a tough order, but the Captain feels like Officers Frank Rose and Joseph Gaines are the perfect guys for the job.
They arrest Bruckner without just cause, making up a variety of “offenses” that are actually humorous (having right-hand tread on a left-side tire, floormats that aren’t “attached” to the floor, and an open box of tissues) and haul him into the station. There, Captain Hollander immediately requests that they let him go, to which Bruckner is thankful. Only, the rape victim is there, going over more details of the crime, and oblivious to their ultimate plan. Rose and Gaines lead Bruckner toward an exit through the offices, and once the victim sees Bruckner, she immediately breaks down and identifies him as the attacker. Way to go, guys!
Next, Campo talks to Quinn, who reveals to him that she and Ralph are getting divorced. Campo offers to be there for her, but she’s too upset to care what he has to say, and walks off. And oddly, just like that, that is Campo’s send-off from the show; he doesn’t appear again (well, until the finale, but we’ll have more on that later). The next time we see Vicki, she’s at home packing up; Ralph seems depressed about the whole situation that he has created by asking for a divorce, and keeps offering to help Vicki carry her bags out. Vicki keeps asking him to reconsider, but Ralph has no interest in that. It’s kind of a weird scene, made all the more weird by the ensuing song that Vicki sings about her feelings (“How do you make your feelings lay down and die/how do you say goodbye?”), which has an ‘80s pop feel. With that, Ralph is done.
In the obligatory Mayor Louise Plank storyline, she is looking to get elected into the Senate, and even though the election is more than a year away, her close advisers feel that it’s never too early to get a head start. So they set about making some commercials for her, which end up angering the elderly actors, who start to revolt because the shooting schedule is affecting the time of their meals. It’s kind of a stupid, unnecessary development here, and it doesn’t come off as very funny, but oh well.
In one of the few songs that do make sense within the context of the show, they do produce a singing campaign advertisement for her, which feature locals singing and dancing to show their support for Mayor Plank (“She knows just what to do, so vote for her in 1992”). As we see this dance routine, it’s also being played for Louise, her assistant Ray, Eliot and Michael Weinstein (close advisers and the directors that pissed off the elderly people earlier), and Barney Rhoades, a distinguished man who has some kind of political connection to Louise, though I’m not sure what it is. He feels that she is ready for the Senate and will win a seat, which is the curious spot where this story ends.
Lastly, Chief Kendrick and his assistant Ozzie hold a meeting with Captain Hollander informing him that Detective LaRusso will essentially have his old job back. Hollander doesn’t want to be in charge of a man he views as a loose cannon, but he’s not given any kind of option. Everyone involved is against it, but the politics of the case (if they fire him, he will sue and have a good chance of winning, while also making the department look like they are out to get him) require this solution. Hollander eventually agrees, under the stipulation that he will treat LaRusso the way he sees fit, and the Chief, and the rest of the upper brass, have to back him up. Everyone agrees.
Hollander is also given the unenviable task of having to tell Potts that his former partner, who he was urged to testify against, will be coming back to the force. Potts handles this about as well as you would expect him to, going off on the Captain for encouraging him to testify and putting him in this predicament in the first place. Hollander and Ozzie offer to relocate him, or even put his name in for a promotion, but he’s not interested in any of that stuff; his concern is that, no matter where he goes or what he does, the cops will hate him for what he did. That’s probably a good point.
And in the final story arc, LaRusso is given some potential money-making options by his attorney, Sidney Weitz (paid speeches, optioning his story for movies, etc.), but all he wants to do is go back to being a cop. Oddly, Weitz temporarily becomes a bad guy, reminding him that if he had charged him what he would have charged anyone else for accepting his case, LaRusso would owe him $250,000. LaRusso just tells him to bill him and he’ll pay it off as he gets the money. Weitz retorts that neither of them have that much time remaining; LaRusso eventually storms out. Oddly, Trish (the attorney he had a fling with, and even tried to get pregnant in the previous episode) is also in the room, but says nothing the entire time, which is a weird way to send her off. Did she ever get pregnant? Is there any kind of a future at all between the two? We’ll never know; it’s also frustrating since the two were kind of set up in earlier episodes as a potential “odd couple”, so I’m surprised that whole thing was completely abandoned the way it was.
When LaRusso finally returns, he’s given a hero’s welcome (via a bad song) by a large group of the guys; Potts and Hollander are not amused. LaRusso then visits Hollander, which is merely to report for duty. The whole meeting here is cold, but that’s mainly because of Hollander…you can feel the tension in the room. For his part, LaRusso actually handles it pretty well, so maybe the whole situation he has gone through has matured him a bit after all, and opened his eyes to the fact that his actions can have dire consequences. But Hollander and LaRusso agree to just put the past behind them and move on as best that they can.
LaRusso then meets with Potts, who’s packing up his stuff. He tries getting Potts to be his partner again, but Potts doesn’t seem even remotely open to that possibility; the conversation reaches a head when LaRusso has the nerve to tell Potts he forgives him (for testifying against him), to which Potts responds by punching him in the face and storming off. LaRusso is absolutely pissed after that…that would have been a storyline to watch had the series continued, but that’s the way it ends. We can only assume Potts went through with his plan to quit the force after all.
Then that takes us to a scene where Kendrick and Ozzie are having a conversation in his office. Kendrick starts, “I can’t believe they canceled us,” to which Ozzie replies, “I know, I only got to sing one song.” It’s a smart, somewhat audacious breaking of the fourth wall, from a show that, by this point, literally had nothing else to lose. After arguing about who got to sing how many songs for a bit, Kendrick continues with: “I loved my character. I’m going to miss the people.” Then out comes every single one of the main characters, to sing a final song entitled “We’ll Rise Again.” It’s a very fun, laid-back musical number in which all of them are singing as their real-life counterparts, rather than their characters; but it’s also smart in that it’s brimming with an honesty and self-awareness (David Gianapolous, who played Andy Campo, sings “Lately we’ve been nervous, when the telephone rings,” an obvious reference to the cast and crew fearing the inevitable news of cancellation) that was missing from a lot of the stereotype-y lyrics (there‘s also a reference made to “ABC“, by Chief Kendrick‘s Ronny Cox, but I can‘t make out the line before it to see if it‘s playful or an attack).
Honestly, this is probably the best way the show could have ended, with everyone looking relieved and appearing to have an honest-to-God good time. The show might not have always known if it wanted to play it straight or go tongue-in-cheek, to often abysmal results that I have noted in several reviews, but it at least went out on its own terms, and hit all the right notes in the process. Overall, this was a good episode on its own, but the ending number really sealed the deal, making this far and away the best one of the entire series. It’s great that the series managed to get better as the season went on, and I’m happy that the series was able to end the way it did.
EPISODE RATING: 8/10
Well here it is at last: the final episode of “Cop Rock”. I’m going to have a separate article detailing my overall impressions of the show and summarizing all my thoughts now that I have waded through all eleven episodes, so this will be business as usual as we take a look at episode eleven specifically.
In a minor note, this is the first episode that has started off with a recap of what’s already happened in the series. It’s kind of pointless, because it basically recaps the entire series in around two minutes, so if you hadn’t seen an episode up to this point, you still wouldn’t understand a whole lot of what’s going on.
From here, we get a new storyline, which is rather bizarre for a show to do in its final episode; a serial rapist is on the loose. The episode opens to a victim describing her ordeal with her attacker: he grabbed her, forced her into some brush, threatened her with a straight razor, and then cut off her clothes with said sharp object before sexually assaulting her. This is just one of a string of such attacks, which have targeted many sorority-type college girls over the span of the last two weeks (it is kind of bizarre, then, that the victim reciting the details doesn’t really seem to be college-age, nor a sorority type, but I suppose that’s just a minor quibble; after all, a crime is a crime).
Now we’re treated to our pre-credits song, which is sung by a bunch of female officers and focuses on how they want to catch the rapist. It’s a kind of bizarre little number, featuring such lines as “Hey, I got something for you/Come on, come and get it”, which is obviously a reference to them luring the subject to them, presumably using their bodies. I think that’s the gist of the song; unless I feel like a song is well-placed and “necessary”, I generally use the musical interludes as time to get caught up on my social media. In the grand scheme of things, though, this song wasn’t atrocious, nor was it anything even remotely resembling “good”; we’ll just say it’s slightly below-average and leave it at that.
"CHOOSE ME, BABY"
In an as-of-now unrelated plotline, Detective Bob McIntire, who I believe has top billing in every episode despite only appearing in a small handful and being one of the main focuses in only one, leads a team comprised of Vicki Quinn and her new partner, Officer Stillman, to shut down an alleged “chop shop” operating within the city. Remember, Stillman is a sexist who doesn’t feel like women should be allowed to be cops; ironically, this aspect of his character isn’t even touched upon in this episode, which merely focuses on how he’s an idiot.
As it’s explained to all participating officers beforehand, the chop shop is run by a guy known as Bruckner, who operates it out of an extension of his own home. Thus, his house, and the alleged chop shop, have two separate addresses. This little bit of vital information seems to be lost on Stillman who, desperate to find some kind of evidence to pin on Bruckner after nothing illegal is found in an initial search, heads into the house to see if he can find anything there. Out in the open, in a little case, is a white-handled straight razor, just like the one the rape victim mentioned seeing on her attacker! He presents this to the other officers, who get pissed because it’s inadmissible evidence; remember the whole different address thing? Well they only have a search warrant for the alleged chop shop and not the house. Uh oh, Stillman!
Meanwhile, Captain Hollander doesn’t want to let Bruckner get away, so he consults with some guy from some kind of legal counsel, who keeps shooting down Hollander’s suggestions for allowing the evidence to stick. Basically, since the razor was found during an illegal search, it’s inadmissible in court, and can’t even be used to apprehend him. According to the smart legal guy, the only way they can grab him is if one of his victims happens to identify him without the use of any of the evidence found illegally. It’s a tough order, but the Captain feels like Officers Frank Rose and Joseph Gaines are the perfect guys for the job.
They arrest Bruckner without just cause, making up a variety of “offenses” that are actually humorous (having right-hand tread on a left-side tire, floormats that aren’t “attached” to the floor, and an open box of tissues) and haul him into the station. There, Captain Hollander immediately requests that they let him go, to which Bruckner is thankful. Only, the rape victim is there, going over more details of the crime, and oblivious to their ultimate plan. Rose and Gaines lead Bruckner toward an exit through the offices, and once the victim sees Bruckner, she immediately breaks down and identifies him as the attacker. Way to go, guys!
Next, Campo talks to Quinn, who reveals to him that she and Ralph are getting divorced. Campo offers to be there for her, but she’s too upset to care what he has to say, and walks off. And oddly, just like that, that is Campo’s send-off from the show; he doesn’t appear again (well, until the finale, but we’ll have more on that later). The next time we see Vicki, she’s at home packing up; Ralph seems depressed about the whole situation that he has created by asking for a divorce, and keeps offering to help Vicki carry her bags out. Vicki keeps asking him to reconsider, but Ralph has no interest in that. It’s kind of a weird scene, made all the more weird by the ensuing song that Vicki sings about her feelings (“How do you make your feelings lay down and die/how do you say goodbye?”), which has an ‘80s pop feel. With that, Ralph is done.
"HOW DO YOU SAY GOODBYE?"
In the obligatory Mayor Louise Plank storyline, she is looking to get elected into the Senate, and even though the election is more than a year away, her close advisers feel that it’s never too early to get a head start. So they set about making some commercials for her, which end up angering the elderly actors, who start to revolt because the shooting schedule is affecting the time of their meals. It’s kind of a stupid, unnecessary development here, and it doesn’t come off as very funny, but oh well.
In one of the few songs that do make sense within the context of the show, they do produce a singing campaign advertisement for her, which feature locals singing and dancing to show their support for Mayor Plank (“She knows just what to do, so vote for her in 1992”). As we see this dance routine, it’s also being played for Louise, her assistant Ray, Eliot and Michael Weinstein (close advisers and the directors that pissed off the elderly people earlier), and Barney Rhoades, a distinguished man who has some kind of political connection to Louise, though I’m not sure what it is. He feels that she is ready for the Senate and will win a seat, which is the curious spot where this story ends.
I'LL CLEAN IT UP
Hollander is also given the unenviable task of having to tell Potts that his former partner, who he was urged to testify against, will be coming back to the force. Potts handles this about as well as you would expect him to, going off on the Captain for encouraging him to testify and putting him in this predicament in the first place. Hollander and Ozzie offer to relocate him, or even put his name in for a promotion, but he’s not interested in any of that stuff; his concern is that, no matter where he goes or what he does, the cops will hate him for what he did. That’s probably a good point.
And in the final story arc, LaRusso is given some potential money-making options by his attorney, Sidney Weitz (paid speeches, optioning his story for movies, etc.), but all he wants to do is go back to being a cop. Oddly, Weitz temporarily becomes a bad guy, reminding him that if he had charged him what he would have charged anyone else for accepting his case, LaRusso would owe him $250,000. LaRusso just tells him to bill him and he’ll pay it off as he gets the money. Weitz retorts that neither of them have that much time remaining; LaRusso eventually storms out. Oddly, Trish (the attorney he had a fling with, and even tried to get pregnant in the previous episode) is also in the room, but says nothing the entire time, which is a weird way to send her off. Did she ever get pregnant? Is there any kind of a future at all between the two? We’ll never know; it’s also frustrating since the two were kind of set up in earlier episodes as a potential “odd couple”, so I’m surprised that whole thing was completely abandoned the way it was.
When LaRusso finally returns, he’s given a hero’s welcome (via a bad song) by a large group of the guys; Potts and Hollander are not amused. LaRusso then visits Hollander, which is merely to report for duty. The whole meeting here is cold, but that’s mainly because of Hollander…you can feel the tension in the room. For his part, LaRusso actually handles it pretty well, so maybe the whole situation he has gone through has matured him a bit after all, and opened his eyes to the fact that his actions can have dire consequences. But Hollander and LaRusso agree to just put the past behind them and move on as best that they can.
LaRusso then meets with Potts, who’s packing up his stuff. He tries getting Potts to be his partner again, but Potts doesn’t seem even remotely open to that possibility; the conversation reaches a head when LaRusso has the nerve to tell Potts he forgives him (for testifying against him), to which Potts responds by punching him in the face and storming off. LaRusso is absolutely pissed after that…that would have been a storyline to watch had the series continued, but that’s the way it ends. We can only assume Potts went through with his plan to quit the force after all.
Then that takes us to a scene where Kendrick and Ozzie are having a conversation in his office. Kendrick starts, “I can’t believe they canceled us,” to which Ozzie replies, “I know, I only got to sing one song.” It’s a smart, somewhat audacious breaking of the fourth wall, from a show that, by this point, literally had nothing else to lose. After arguing about who got to sing how many songs for a bit, Kendrick continues with: “I loved my character. I’m going to miss the people.” Then out comes every single one of the main characters, to sing a final song entitled “We’ll Rise Again.” It’s a very fun, laid-back musical number in which all of them are singing as their real-life counterparts, rather than their characters; but it’s also smart in that it’s brimming with an honesty and self-awareness (David Gianapolous, who played Andy Campo, sings “Lately we’ve been nervous, when the telephone rings,” an obvious reference to the cast and crew fearing the inevitable news of cancellation) that was missing from a lot of the stereotype-y lyrics (there‘s also a reference made to “ABC“, by Chief Kendrick‘s Ronny Cox, but I can‘t make out the line before it to see if it‘s playful or an attack).
Honestly, this is probably the best way the show could have ended, with everyone looking relieved and appearing to have an honest-to-God good time. The show might not have always known if it wanted to play it straight or go tongue-in-cheek, to often abysmal results that I have noted in several reviews, but it at least went out on its own terms, and hit all the right notes in the process. Overall, this was a good episode on its own, but the ending number really sealed the deal, making this far and away the best one of the entire series. It’s great that the series managed to get better as the season went on, and I’m happy that the series was able to end the way it did.
EPISODE RATING: 8/10
"WE'LL RIDE AGAIN" (FINAL SONG)
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