Independant Fem! Verse: Rico Tubbs & his aliases Cooper/Cobbera/ Teddy Prentice/ Richenza and more From Miami Vice. "I couldn't let you handle all of that bad karma on your own." Tubbs's main partner is Sonny Crockett and Cooper's is Burnett. Along side Lar, Stan, Crockett, Lt. Castillo, Gina, and Trudy, Tubbs lays down the law. This blog may contain some NSFW materials including but not limited to: violence, gore, and rare smut. Mun is 21+ and will not smut with miniors under any circumstances.
Castillo learns his wife is still alive-- and in Miami.
Let me just start by saying: really getting the sense no one who worked on this show knew that there are multiple countries and cultures in Asia. I'll give them credit for it not being a standard 80's "the East frightens us in a capitalist way" TV show plot, but Castillo is like. A samurai? Who learned how to Samurai in... Thailand. His Thai wife and her new husband and the drug lord who brought them here all seem to have Chinese names, and I feel like somehow this is all supposed to be related to the Vietnam war. Also I'm pretty sure none of the actors in this episode are Thai. I... okay, Miami Vice. Not your best look.
The episode opens on what is apparently supposed to be a flashback to Thailand (but is definitely just Miami) set to Catch the Wind, but not the Donovan version. Castillo is in a speedo and Joan Chen is wet. It's extremely unclear that it's a flashback.
Crockett and Tubbs show up at Castillo's house and Tubbs examines his statue. Castillo explains what's going on and. And. And I'm gonna get into some Old Skool Fandom(TM) heresy here, but: I do not understand Castillo/Crockett when Castillo/Tubbs is right there. Sonny asks about how they can help transactionally ("you've done stuff for us before, we should do stuff for you"): Rico switches to Spanish and asks for Martin to let them in. Tubbs spends the whole episode with his eyes glued to Castillo, and is the one who notices when something is wrong first every time. Sonny barks at Castillo's enemies; Rico waits beside him, gently and persistently trying to get him to open up. Rico drives this whole episode, with Castillo sitting shotgun-- poor Sonny is relegated to the back. Tubbs is 100% ready for this to be Scary Boss Gets Tender With His One Employee Who Gives Him Space to Be Vulnerable and Sonny is still stuck on "the US government is corrupt sometimes."
Castillo tells Sonny and Rico to "call next time" before they show up at his house; they laugh as if he is making a joke. I do not think he is making a joke.
John Santucci is here as a corrupt official and he talks openly about how basically he's in charge of the flow of opium into poor urban communities in the US, and Sonny gets his 10-mile predator stare on. After Dale (Santucci) leaves, Crockett and Tubbs directly confirm with Castillo: so he's an American federal agent who is doing drug crime for profit? Also Miami Vice was just about speedboats and shoulderpads, right
Following up on that, when Castillo meets with Lao Li, the Thai drug lord who Dale is working with, Lao Li basically smiles and says he's not a criminal, just a capitalist, and that he's here to retire in Miami. But it's not political or anything
Of course they undercut this with Castillo saying something like "no it's not, it's Southeast Asia" when C&T say the whole drug thing is "nuts," and it's like. Really, Castillo? You think the problem is the region where economic circumstances created by the US necessitate the sale of drugs to the US? And not the US?
Peter Kwong is here as the shitty teen(?) grandson of the drug lord and there's a scene where he and another grandson literally snicker about how they're going to do SO much crime when Lao Li is like "no one do crime plz"
Castillo is positioned as having an unshakeable sense of duty and loyalty and honor, but when it comes down to it, his code of honor is not the code of honor he claims to be bound to. His sense of duty and the rules he follows are, in fact, rules he follows to the letter-- but they're personal, not societal. He tells Sonny he is a police officer and that he would not do vigilante justice, and then has an entire family and all their associates, including children, put under 24 hour police surveillance because he thinks maybe one of them might do crime eventually. He has nothing to actually get Lao Li arrested for, so he carefully manufactures a situation where Lao Li's hand is forced into killing. What Castillo says (and he doesn't generally say a lot) and does often don't match up, but he's incredibly forceful and convincing. Lao Li recognizes this-- he points out that they're much the same and that he shares great respect for him-- but it's very easy as an audience to be convinced that Castillo is significantly less morally grey than he is. He is absolutely loyal and bound to a code of honor-- but it's the code of honor of a gangster, not the law.
Lao Li definitely tries to play the "maybe this could be an enemies to lovers story wink wink" at the end there and Castillo is like "enemies is good"
My stunning wife Joan Chen is the most beautiful woman on earth and Castillo should've just been like "do you want two husbands." I think Ma Sek would've been into it. And maybe then he wouldn't have gotten involved in crime and Heart of the Night (in which both his actor and Joan Chen are replaced anyway-- Ma Sek's actor is literally replaced with James Saito who plays a different character in this fucking episode) wouldn't have happened
Did we all know John Santucci was a jewel thief before he became an actor? And that he became a thief again when apparently no one other than Michael Mann wanted to hire him? Because I did not
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