Recap: Nick and his new girlfriend (Peggy Burke) are making out on the beach, reminiscing about how they hooked up: he kept showing up at the travel agency she works at, but didn't seem to ever want to book a trip. Eventually she caved to his flirtitude and agreed to have dinner with him...and - voilà! - here they are, enjoying romantic time together while lying on the sand. A few seconds later, a powerful tide comes in, and they hastily gather their belongings and amble back towards town. A bus pulls into King Harbor to drop off passengers...and some random guy decked out in a military uniform exits the bus, then has the misfortune of getting stuck by a car after he stupidly failed to look both ways before crossing the street. The driver who hit him rushes over in a panic and wails about how he came out of nowhere...and Peggy and Nick race over to see if there's anything they can do to help the injured man. Peggy suddenly gets a flashback of trying to help a gravely wounded Vietnam soldier before his bloodied hand goes limp, which also happens to the present day soldier she's hovering over. She spacily pronounces him dead when the ambulance pulls up, then gets up and runs off. Nick chases after her and is all, "Whaddup with you suddenly running away?" ... and she climbs into his Corvette, snaps at him to leave her the hell alone [which is weirdly hostile, given that she's sitting in the driver's seat of his fancy convertible], and squeals off. Cody and Murray are playing beach volleyball against two skilled players, mostly for the purpose of showcasing Cody's ripped bod in all of its spectacular shirtlessness. After a hapless Murray crashes into the net, they decide to call it a game. Murray tells Cody he prolly shouldn't attempt volleyball anymore and thinks maybe golf is more his speed...then reminds Cody that he only agreed to step in for Nick so he can spend all of his leisure time with Peggy. Cody tells him not to be so hard on himself, and says that all he really needs in order to improve his athleticism is a better pair of sneakers. Nick returns to Pier 56 by taxi and explains to Cody and Murray that Peggy took his car and drove off. He shakes his head confusedly and says that one minute they were enjoying a romantic day on the beach, the next she was tending to a man who got hit by a car...and then got all weirdly spacey as she fled the scene. That evening, Nick continues to have zero luck getting a hold of Peggy. He recalls that it seemed almost as if she slipped into a trance after the soldier died in her arms...and Cody breezily suggests she drove off in his car simply 'cause she needed to clear her head. A few seconds later, Lieutenant Quinlan calls Nick to report that his Corvette was located in a seedy part of town (where the hookers turn their tricks), and that all four tires are flat. When Nick asks him if he knows where Peggy is, Quinlan snaps, "Beats me", and then emphasizes how tiny a shit he gives about locating her 'cause his shift just ended. When the Riptide trio arrives in Hookerville, Nick says he can't fathom how his car ended up in the underbelly of King's Harbor, then suggests they split up as they look around for Peggy. A pimp associate (Blademan) climbs into a waiting limo and hands his boss - Tyrone Diamond, aka Pimp Overlord - a pile of cash. Tyrone snarlingly tells him it's far less cash than he was expecting and accuses Blademan of trying to stiff him...so Blademan explains that two of their 'hos defected to the stable of a rival pimp (known as The Reverend), and adds that it looks as though he additionally acquired "one classy act". A few seconds later, The Reverend sashays over to the limo, waves a huge wad of cash in Tyrone's face, and smugly wishes him and Blademan a good evening...and an irked Tyrone orders his driver to take him to wherever he can take a gander at The Reverend's classy new 'ho. Elsewhere in Hookerville, Murray gets over-excited when he sees a guy with piercings in strange places...and Cody urges him to stay cool as he steers him into a strip club to further their quest to find Peggy. When that turns out to be more gratuitous for viewers than it is fruitful for their search, Cody and Murray exit the club and reconnect with Nick, who glances across the street and spots Peggy talking to Blademan. He's aghast when he witnesses Blademan forcing her inside Tyrone's limo...and the Riptide trio races over to the Jimmy so they can engage in a car-on-car pursuit. Tyrone asks Peggy if she's hooking for The Reverend, but she just spacily mutters, "He's dead..", leaving Tyrone to wonder aloud if she's just another strung out skank. He then notices the limo is being followed...and a few seconds later, the Jimmy cuts them off. Nick, Cody, and Murray swiftly launch an attack against Tyrone and Blademan (both of whom are armed with knives) while a still-spaced-out Peggy slips out of the limo and scampers off, prompting Nick to race after her. Lieutenant Quinlan makes an appearance at the hospital and chides Cody and Murray for getting into a scrap with a known pimp, so Cody explains to grumpy-pants that they were looking for a friend who had been manhandled by Blademan before being forced into a limo. Quinlan says he well knows that Blademan is Tyrone Diamond's top henchman, then bitchily asks what their friend was doing palling around with that kind of sleaze. When Murray insists that Peggy is an innocent travel agent, Quinlan growls, "That's bull" and says he can only assume she's a streetwalker...then grumbles about how he knows he's not going to get any information from Tyrone, who's in the adjacent exam room with a broken arm and refuses to talk. When Nick enters the room, Quinlan mockingly guffaws, "Enter Mr. Cool himself. And where were you during all this? Blowdrying your hair?" Nick ignores his idiotic questions and asks Cody and Murray if they're OK, and they assure him they weren't seriously injured during the knife fight. Quinlan tells them they're all being charged with disorderly conduct, and that they should give him a call whenever they're ready to spill the beans. Nick asks him if he knows about anyone by the name of Peggy Burke working as an undercover vice cop in Hookerville, and Quinlan barks back that there's no one by that name employed by his police department before storming out. When Nick chides himself for losing track of Peggy after she fled the limo, Cody cautions him to leave it alone...and says he may have misjudged his girlfriend, who may not be who he thinks she is. Nick says he can't/won't just give up on her, and quietly exits the room. In the hospital corridor, Nick runs into Tyrone Diamond, who tauntingly warns him that no one takes him on and lives to tell about it. Nick looks unfazed and threatens to break his other arm - just as Blademan steps between them, says, "Not here", and urges his boss to leave without further incident. Later, Tyrone and Blademan run into The Reverend, who insists that the classy blonde is not one of his 'hos. He boasts that he already has plenty of women hooking for him, and also makes it clear that he had nothing at all to do with the attack instigated by Nick and Cody. After he swaggers off, Tyrone orders Blademan to find Nick, Cody, and Peggy, and bring them to him. Elsewhere in King Harbor, a spaced out Peggy is aimlessly wandering the streets. Nick drops by Peggy's place, collects her mail, and lets himself in (using the spare key under a flowerpot). As he ambles around for clues that might explain her odd behavior, he comes across a box that contains cassette tapes, newspaper clippings from the Vietnam war, dog tags belonging to a Randall Wright, and a military uniform with Burke imprinted on it. He stares thoughtfully into space about his discovery. Cody and Murray arrive at Peggy's place and find a sad looking Nick listening to an audio letter (on cassette) that Peggy had recorded for her mom, detailing how dead inside she feels after working as a medic in a war zone. Nick tells Cody and Murray he had no idea she had served as a nurse in Vietnam, 'cause she only ever told him she was a travel agent. The Riptide trio brings the cassette to their friend Nurse Irene Wilcox, who works at the local VA Hospital. Nick theorizes that Peggy must be suffering from some kind of delayed stress she never shared with him, even though he too is a Vietnam veteran. Irene shakes her head and says she has no idea how the nurses (who came to the war zone after her) coped with all the death, and agrees with Nick that no one could possibly repress that kind of grief and trauma before something inevitably triggers it...and in Peggy's case, it was the soldier who died in her arms soon after being struck by a car. She says it took awhile for PTSD to be formally recognized by anyone as the root cause of some of the nurses' weird behavior after they returned home, and admits that she too needs her "boosts" every now and then by sitting in on therapy sessions that are specifically tailored for nurses who worked in war zones. She said it was particularly healing when soldiers expressed their gratitude for everything she and her colleagues did to save their lives...and tears up at the realization that she waited many long years to get any appreciation for her sacrifice. Nick announces that he plans to head back to Hookerville to continue the search for Peggy. Cody argues that he's too emotionally involved for that, and Nick pretends to agree as they all head back to the Riptide. Blademan and another henchman burst into Straightaway's, shove the owner's face in a plate of seafood, and demand to know where they can find Nick and Cody. The terrorized owner immediately cracks and spills that the two are PIs who, along with a computer nerd and his robot, live together in a tiny boat on Pier 56. Late that evening, Roboz detects movement outside the Riptide...and when Murray gets up to investigate, he sees that Nick's bed is empty. Peggy is spacily wandering around Hookerville when she spots the back of a man wearing a military uniform. She visibly perks up and asks him if he's feeling lonely...and when the man slowly turns around, she sees that - ack! - it's Nick, and his familiar face seems to jolt her back into some semblance of coherence (sort of). Tyrone is enjoying a massage in his luxury pad when Cody and Murray burst in, their guns pointed at Blademan and his henchman friend. Cody says he's looking for Nick and suspects he was forcibly taken from the Riptide and is being held here...but a few seconds later, Tyrone gets a call from The Reverend, informing him that Nick was just seen in Hookerville, along with his blonde squeeze. Tyrone relays this news to Cody and Murray, then says it's time they all put their guns down...and by all, they really just mean Cody and Murray. Inside a seedy hotel room in Hookerville, Nick implores Peggy to explain why it looks as though she's suddenly become a spaced-out prostitute. He says he now knows she was a nurse in Vietnam and waves around the dog tags he found while rifling through her personal stuff. Peggy starts sobbing, sinks to the floor, and elaborates on a particularly traumatic memory of the war: on a day when there was supposed to be a ceasefire, they had more wounded and dead men than they could accommodate. Corporal Randall Wright was in such grave condition when he was brought to her that she knew he only had minutes to live. He had grabbed her by the hand and begged, "Please don't let me die" ... and she's never gotten over the helplessness of not being able to do anything to save his life. The Reverend directs Tyrone's limo driver to the seedy hotel Nick and Peggy were spotted entering...and Cody and Murray have also been dragged along under the threat of gunpoint. Tyrone yells at Nick to come outside for a little chat, then nonsensically starts shooting...and Nick returns fire before he quickly runs out of bullets. He urges Peggy to stay put in the room, then runs downstairs, finds a firehose that just happens to be lying around, and blasts water at Tyrone et. al. Cody and Murray take advantage of all the wet chaos to throw The Reverend into a dumpster, then regain control of the situation by pointing guns at all the bad guys. Peggy emerges from the hotel looking slightly less spacey...and when she smiles at Nick, he rushes over to give her a comforting hug. Over at the VA hospital, Peggy tells Cody and Murray that she's spoken to Nurse Irene Wilcox about getting some much-needed therapy, and that she's also planning a trip home so she can reconnect with her family. She admits that the superfluous pimp subplot could easily have been avoided had she had opened up to Nick about her grim experience in Vietnam...and Cody and Murray point over to where Nick and an older gentleman are standing. When Peggy ambles over, Nick introduces her to Charles Wright, aka the father of Randall Wright. He adds that he told Charles all about her time as a nurse in Vietnam, specifically that she was with his son when he died. Charles tells Peggy that he and his wife always wondered what the moment of their son's passing was like, and that they both appreciate everything she did to offer him comfort...and Peggy looks deeply touched by the thanks and gives the old man a grateful hug. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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