This article is about the Miami Vice episode. For the character, see Martillo Borrasca.

Borrasca
Season	5
Episode	5 (95th Overall)
Airdate	December 9, 1988
TV Rating	TV-14 L-V
Writer(s)	Vladislavo Stepankutza & Elvis Cole
Director	Vern Gillum
Guest Stars	Juan Fernandez Gabriela Roel as Lucia Meron Carlos Cesteros and Brion James
Previous Episode	"Bad Timing"
Next Episode	"Line Of Fire"

"Borrasca" is the fifth episode of Miami Vice's fifth season. The episode premiered on December 9, 1988.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Plot 3 Cast 4 Guest Stars 5 Co-Starring 6 Production Notes 7 Filming Locations 8 Notes 9 Goofs 10 Music 11 Tim Truman Music 12 Quotes

SummaryEdit

Tubbs & Castillo investigate a drug ring where police involvement has been forbidden.

PlotEdit

A drug deal goes down in the back of a limo. De La Carte, the buyer, delivers only half the agreed-upon payment, contemptuously calling the sellers "peasants". The sellers start to leave, but then unleash a hail of gunfire on the limo, killing De La Cart and his woman. The seller drops a dead chicken on the body before blowing the limo up.

The Vice team finds that De La Cart's custom limo was hit with armor-piercing bullets, and Trudy gets hold of a videotape from a tourist. Castillo wants Tubbs and Switek (Crockett is up in Pompano testifying) to find out who the seller is. They go to a bar where a man who used to work for De La Carte hangs out. After he flees, Switek corners him and the man reveals the hitter was Martillo Borrasca (Juan Fernandez). Castillo finds Borrasca is a counter-revolutionary group, small in number but not afraid to die. DEA photos show their leader as El Martillo (aka Borrasca), who wants to fund a war against anti-Communists, and a Colombian freighter was stolen 10 days previously with a street value of $100 million, which Borrasca likely was involved in.

Castillo wants someone on the inside to find out about the boat, and since the Vice squad can't make inroads in Little Caribe, he turns to an old friend, Arturo Uribe (Carlos Cesteros), a retired detective, to get inside. Uribe finds out from his friend Jorge at a bar where the ship is, at Hostas Dock. Uribe makes it to the boat, where Borrasca and a woman, Lucia Meron (Gabriela Roel) are working on a deal, but he makes a noise and has to jump ship, while the other guy in the bar says he knows who the person was. Switek stops into a restaurant to make two calls, first to OCB and the second to a bookie (using his name "the Bug"). They head over to see Uribe, but Borrasca's men arrive first, and they hack Uribe and his young apprentice Joey up with machetes. Tubbs and Switek arrive to see the grisly aftermath.

Castillo refers Tubbs and Switek to see Lucia Meron, who owns a Little Caribe bar named Paris Modern. They find Borrasca and Ramos (the bodyguard) walking in with Lucia; when she returns Tubbs (as Cooper) talks to her about setting up a meeting with Borrasca, which she refuses to do. Ramos steps outside, where Tubbs and Switek are waiting; when Ramos disses Tubbs he pulls a knife and forces a meeting between them the next day. As they leave a man named Edward Reese (Brion James) confronts them; after fighting with his thugs and being restrained at gunpoint, he tells them to give Castillo a message: drop the Borrasca case. Castillo knows Reese is a freelance intelligence operative, who may or may not be government sanctioned, but gives them the go-ahead for their meet. They go to see Ramos, but find him shot to death in a beach chair.

Lucia stops by the beach and tells Tubbs and Switek she has set a meet with Borrasca at her place. When they arrive Borrasca is ready to kill them in revenge for Ramos, but Tubbs improvises and tells him the buyer was Cuban, and due to his politics they feared he wouldn't want to deal. Castillo accesses confidential files on Borrasca, Reese & Lucia. Castillo plays the Cuban and meets with Borrasca, offering $17 million for the boat and $2 million in good-faith money; Borrasca agrees. Castillo gets a visit at home from Reese, who admits to killing Ramos, and offers to give him the boat and the maniacs, but Borrasca is unquestionably off-limits. Castillo insists on all or nothing.

The bugs and wires are set up and Gina brings in $2 million in buy money--which must be paid back if the team loses it. Castillo is waiting to hear from his government contact on Reese's sanctioning, but the operative stops by himself, again trying to get Castillo off of Borrasca; when Castillo refuses, Reese offers to "try not to hurt any of his people." Tubbs brings the money, and they take him to the ship, where he approves the drugs' quality. The team moves in for the bust when Reese arrives via helicopter and forces them to stand down with a show of firepower. As Borrasca runs to the helicopter, Reese tells the team to "give Marty his love". Just then, a laser sight targets Borrasca's chest and a shot rings out. Later, Tubbs brings Castillo up to speed. Castillo said he knew it would happen this way, and that he has a code that he lives by, no matter what.

CastEdit

• Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett
• Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs
• Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese
• Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek
• Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin
• Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo

Guest StarsEdit

• Juan Fernandez as Martillo Borrasca
• Gabriela Roel as Lucia Meron
• Carlos Cesteros as Arturo Uribe
• Brion James as Edward Reese

Co-StarringEdit

• Tony Bolano as Davilla
• Robert D'Avanzo as Man
• Mario Ernesto Sanchez as Jorge
• Rocky Mandara as Apprentice Joey
• Robert Marrero as De La Cart
• Ray Nieman as Deck Hand
• Ruben Rabasa as Vic
• Victor Rivers as Luis
• Rene Rokk as Ramos

Production NotesEdit

• Filmed: October 17, 1988 - October 25, 1988
• Production Code: 63901
• Production Order: 94

Filming LocationsEdit

• Espanola Way/Clay Hotel, 1423 Washington Ave, Miami Beach (De La Carte shootout)
• 3351 Poinciana Avenue, Coconut Grove (Castillo's house)
• Woody's on the Beach, 455 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach (Paris Modern)

NotesEdit

• Don Johnson does not appear in this episode, his absence explained by Crockett being up in Pompano testifying. This would be the only episode where Johnson has no screen time in the entire series run (although a handful of others have only a brief appearance).
• This episode starts the story arc about Switek's gambling problems, which continued to the end of the season.
• Uribe's being hacked to death with machetes, although mostly offscreen, is an example of how dark and violent the fifth season would be.
• This episode used several zoom shots, including the final one of the laser-sighted rifle that kills Borrasca.
• Castillo's fleeting grin when Uribe says, "Lieutenant?" at their reunion is only the second time he smiles in the entire series.
• Borrasca's killer is never definitively identified, although it is heavily implied to be Castillo, based on his statements in the final scene of the episode.
• This is the fifth episode in a row where Crockett's Testarossa is not seen.
• Director Vern Gillum works hard to make this rather pedestrian story more interesting, using some extraordinary abstract shots such as the shadow of the plant in Castillo's house as well as many jump cuts synchronized to the music.
• Castillo's actions seem out of character here.  He has often chosen to let felons and even murderers go free in order to stay within the bounds of the law.  Yet he goes out of his way to (presumably) covertly execute Borrasca, who is no worse than many other murderers-of-the-week and less of a threat than many.  It almost seems as if his actions are revenge for Uribe's death and in response to Reese's challenge rather than to the legality of the situation, particularly as he carries out the execution anonymously, presumably to avoid legal consequences. In this way, he parallels Crockett's actions in "Deliver Us From Evil".

GoofsEdit

• Tubbs' beard, which was gone in the previous episode, reappears at the start of this episode and disappears for good when he & Switek visit the bar. (Switek even mentions that Tubbs looks better now that he's shaved.) This continuity error is because the studio changed the running order of the episodes when they were broadcast. This would also explain why Crockett is away testifying in this episode - presumably trying to clear his name after the Burnett story arc - despite being exonerated in the previous episode.
• When Castillo accesses confidential files on Borrasca, Lucia and Reese, he types in the first two starting with their last name, but starts with Reese's first name, as shown:

- Borrasca, Martillo, - Meron, Lucia - Edward Reese When he executes the search, the computer only gives him results for Reese.

MusicEdit

• "The Dogs of War" by Pink Floyd (opening with De La Cart shooting)
• "I Want Your (Hands On Me)" by Sinead O'Connor (at Paris Modern club)

Tim Truman MusicEdit

• "Borrasca" (scenes with Borrasca/Reese)

QuotesEdit

• "You look better without a beard!" -- Switek to Tubbs
• "I try to do what's right. That's the code I live by."--Castillo to Tubbs

Season 5 Episodes: "Hostile Takeover" • "Redemption In Blood" • "Heart Of Night" • "Bad Timing" • "Borrasca" • "Line Of Fire" • "Asian Cut" • "Hard Knocks" • "Fruit Of The Poison Tree" • "To Have And To Hold" • "Miami Squeeze" • "Jack Of All Trades" • "The Cell Within" • "The Lost Madonna" • "Over The Line" • "Victims Of Circumstance" • "Freefall" (Series Finale) The "Lost" Episodes: "World Of Trouble" • "Miracle Man" • "Leap Of Faith" • "Too Much, Too Late"