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Stone's War

Season	3
Episode	2 (46th Overall)
Airdate	October 3, 1986
Repeat Airdates	December 26, 1986 September 11, 1987
TV Rating	TV-14 V
Writer(s)	David Jackson
Director	David Jackson
Guest Stars	Bob Balaban G. Gordon Liddy and Lonette McKee
Previous Episode	"When Irish Eyes Are Crying"
Next Episode	"Killshot"

"Stone's War" is the second episode of Miami Vice's third season. The episode premiered on October 3, 1986, repeated on December 26, 1986 and September 11, 1987 (last repeat of the third season), and features the debut of the Ferrari Testarossa.

SummaryEdit

An indy film journalist and an acquaintance of Crockett's, Ira Stone, flees to Miami with proof that an adversary Col. Maynard is running a covert CIA paramilitary operation in wartorn Nicaragua.

PlotEdit

In the village of Ascension in Nicaragua, independent television journalist Ira Stone (Bob Balaban) (from "Back in the World") is filming a firefight. Apparently it's a confrontation between the US backed Contras and rebel Sandinistan freedom fighters. Suddenly Stone overhears a "Sandinista" soldier calling out in unaccented English, "Get the Priest!" He realizes he's witnessing an attack by CIA operatives posing as Sandinistas. They gun down the American missionary outside the church as he attempts to herd the villagers inside. The soldiers spot Stone and start firing, missing him but fatally wounding his cameraman.

Stone manages to flee with the camera and tapes as evidence and escapes to Miami, where Crockett is waiting at MIA (after Stone made a collect call from Nicaragua to his old war buddy to meet him there). Stone retrieves his confiscated bag of tapes from Customs agents, and as he exits the same two men are seen following. Crockett takes Stone to his replacement "wheels," a Chevy truck, where Stone holds up the tape of the CIA murdering the American priest. They go to the St. Vitus Dance and Stone

shows him the footage through his camera. Crockett doesn't believe the footage is legit, and that it was a set up. Stone insists it's real and wants to sell it to a local Miami station, asking Crockett to protect him from the two Quantico thugs who don't want the footage to see the light of day. Crockett agrees to let him stay on the boat overnight.

Stone is calling around for a prospective buyer while Crockett goes to see Castillo about a new cover car. Castillo tells him "it's out back" and Crockett finds, to his delight, a Ferrari Testarossa. Stone gets a call from a Rolondo Lujan at a local station wanting to buy his tape, but it's a trap laid by the two CIA men. When Stone arrives at the station they start shooting, but he escapes on the back of a news truck. He makes it back to Crockett's boat, and after he tells Crockett what happened Crockett orders him off the boat, wanting nothing to do with Stone's problems. At OCB, Trudy reads off a teletype that Stone has an arrest warrant for murder in his cameraman's death, and that Crockett and Stone are charged with running a drug smuggling operation. Crockett goes back to his boat and finds one of the two CIA men coming out of the cabin. Crockett catches him off guard and holds him at gunpoint until the man's partner comes up behind Crockett and knocks him out with the butt of his handgun.

Crockett comes to with his phone ringing - Stone says he has a buyer for his tape. A phone tap on Crockett's phone led him to hide out at the airport, but this time there are a different pair of CIA agents watching him, and he is afraid to leave the safety of the airline agent's counter. Crockett pulls up at the airport and flashes his lights; Stone jumps into the Ferrari with the CIA in hot pursuit. They start shooting while Crockett leads them under a tractor-trailer; the Testarossa clears the small space, while the Chrysler's top shears off. Crockett demands the truth from Stone,

and lets him know about the arrest warrant for him; Stone denies he was involved in any murder or drug trafficking. Crockett takes him to Metro lockup, then goes to meet the interested reporter, Alicia Mena (Lonette McKee). He turns the tape over to her, but she won't air it until she checks its authenticity. Meanwhile, a meeting of heads of various companies (and Federal Judge Ed Zarvo) is underway, led by Crockett's old enemy Maynard (G. Gordon Liddy), who are financing a private army to join the Contras in the Nicaraguan Civil War against the Sandinstas. Eaton Salvador, one of the investors, seeks proof of their million-dollar investment in the army as to its' effectiveness. Maynard shows him a collection of Sandinsta ears, and says there will be more to come.

Crockett storms into OCB upon learning that Stone has been removed from Metro lockup because Switek OK'd his transfer, due to the presentation of a federal warrant by an Officer O'Hara (Raymond Forchion). Switek calls and finds there is no Officer O'Hara working for the Feds. Crockett gets a call from Maynard, who has Stone and wants to exchange him for the tape. Crockett and Tubbs go to see Alicia, who has checked Washington and found no covert operations in Nicaragua going on, but Crockett recognizes one of the soldiers on the tape as O'Hara, who was on his boat. Alicia is hesitant about airing the story without confirmation; Crockett wants her to make a copy and give him the original. Alicia adamantly refuses and Crockett storms out, so Tubbs convinces her to make a copy. Crockett meets Maynard in a parking building; seeing Stone is OK, Crockett gives Maynard the tape, but Maynard has a tape analyzer indicating it's a copy, and demands the original or Stone dies. That night, Alicia is watching the tape when O'Hara breaks into her office, kills her, and uses an electromagnet to erase the tape and another copy.

Crockett and Tubbs visit the scene, where they find a transmittal from Managua showing the priest killed was Father Joseph Mattingly from Ohio, allegedly an American missionary. Crockett calls Switek, who tells him Judge Zarvo signed Stone's warrant. Crockett and Tubbs go see Zarvo, who tells him the warrant was false, and that Stone was kidnapped. Crockett threatens a Homicide investigation if Stone is killed by Maynard, and Zarvo's name will be dragged into it. Zarvo doesn't know where they are holding Stone, but has a number Maynard gave him for emergencies. They track the number to Hialeah, but the house at the address is empty, except for an answering machine - where Maynard can check his messages from anywhere - and fresh blood on the floor.

Tubbs, going through the trash, tracks Maynard to an airstrip in the Everglades, where his private army is boarding a plane for Managua. Crockett and Tubbs stop Maynard and force him to drive them to a shack where O'Hara is torturing Stone. Along the way Maynard opens his mike, which alerts a soldier. Crockett and Tubbs take Maynard inside the shack and catch O'Hara off guard, but the other soldier busts in. In the ensuing gunfight the soldier and O'Hara are killed, but Stone is mortally wounded and Maynard escapes. Stone dies with Crockett's assurance that his story will be on the evening news. Crockett and Tubbs reach the airstrip in time to see Maynard's plane take off.

While fishing on his boat, Crockett hears on the news that Father Joseph Mattingly's death is attributed to the Sandinistas, not Maynard's private force.

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
John Diehl as Metro-Dade Detective Larry Zito
Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin
Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo

Guest StarsEdit

Co-StarringEdit

Raymond Forchion as O'Hara
Eduardo Corbe as Federal Judge Ed Zarvo
Dave Corey as Bittenhaus
Jody Wilson as Customs Agent
Vince Casademont as Father Joseph Mattingly

"Ripped From The Headlines"Edit

In this episode, the ongoing Contra rebellion against the Sandinistas was paralleled here, as a private group of "freedom fighters" are sent to help the rebels because Congress forbade direct aid to the Contras in 1985 (the congressional action leading to the Iran-Contra scandal).

NotesEdit

The final shot of the opening, where the woman is carrying her dead or wounded child, is reminiscent of similar photographs from the Vietnam War where children were being carried from napalm strikes.
Maynard's character never appears again, making him the only recurring villain in the series to not only survive but escape prosecution altogether.
Crockett gets his new cover car, a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa, in this episode. It would remain his car for the rest of the series, though his Daytona reappears in "El Viejo" as the result of a continuity goof.
Although never implicitly stated in the show, it is possible that the Testarossa is in fact Bunny Berrigan's from "When Irish Eyes Are Crying", confiscated (posthumously) and resprayed white, as Crockett comments that it has "new paint" when he takes possession.
Some of the footage of the firefights at the beginning of the episode would be reused in the series finale "Freefall", which features a similar plot dealing with Central America.
The "ear necklace" Maynard presented to Salvador was frequently used during the Vietnam War by soldiers on both sides.
When Stone wants to hook up his camera to Crockett's TV, Crockett tells him he doesn't have a TV. Sometime between this episode and "Forgive Us Our Debts" he buys one, as in that episode he hears about Frank Hackman on a small TV in his bedroom.
Raymond Forchion (O'Hara) also appeared in three episodes of Season 1 as Don, one of the many officers at OCB.

Production NotesEdit

Filmed: August 4, 1986 - August 12, 1986
Production Code: 62012
Production Order: 48

Filming LocationsEdit

Miami Beach Marina, Alton Road & Watson Island on MacArthur Causeway (St. Vitus Dance)
Love 94 194 SW 187th St., Miami (WLVE Scenes)
Euclid Ave south, east Lincoln Lane to Pennsylvania Ave (Testarossa escapes O'Hara under truck)
Greenburg Traurig Building, 1221 Brickell Avenue, Miami (Crockett meets Alicia Mena)
1300 Brickell Bay Drive, Miami (Garage where Crockett meets Maynard)

MusicEdit

"Mercy" by Steve Jones (Opening sequence with gun battle and at airstrip where Maynard's troops board the plane to Nicaragua)
"When The Rain Comes Down" by Andy Taylor (Crockett and Stone being chased)
"Red Rain" by Peter Gabriel (Alicia encounters O'Hara)
"Lives In The Balance" by Jackson Browne (End sequence where Maynard escapes and Stone dies)

Jan Hammer MusicEdit

"Stone's War" (Stone meets Crockett at MIA, in Alicia's office, Crockett confronts O'Hara/Agent on the St. Vitus Dance, Crockett/Tubbs search Alicia's office after her murder)
"Crockett's Theme" (Crockett gets the Testarossa, Crockett wakes up after being knocked out by the agent)

QuotesEdit

"Elvis eats fish, feet, if he's hungry enough!" -- Crockett to Stone
"Lieutenant, I know that there are certain procedures that have to be followed, and that what we're dealing with here is an entrenched bureaucracy, but it has been one month, one month since the Daytona bit the dust...what I'm trying to do is maintain a departmentally-approved cover here, and if I continue to show up for six-figure drug deals looking like Lil' Abner, it ain't gonna cut it!" -- Crockett to Castillo before Castillo gets him the Testarossa
"340 horsepower, 180 miles per hour, new paint, new rubber...<revs engine> YEAH!!! -- Crockett after he gets the Testarossa
"Ears, Sandinista ears!" -- Maynard to Salvador when Salvador questioned the army's effectiveness

Season 3 Episodes:

"When Irish Eyes Are Crying" • "Stone's War" • "Killshot" • "Walk-Alone" • "The Good Collar" • "Shadow In The Dark" • "El Viejo" • "Better Living Through Chemistry" • "Baby Blues" • "Streetwise" • "Forgive Us Our Debts" • "Down For The Count (Part I)" • "Down For The Count (Part II)" • "Cuba Libre" • "Duty and Honor/The Savage" • "Theresa" • "The Afternoon Plane" • "Lend Me An Ear" • "Red Tape" • "By Hooker By Crook" • "Knock, Knock... Who's There?" • "Viking Bikers From Hell" • "Everybody's In Showbiz" • "Heroes Of The Revolution"