Recap: Terrified geologist J.J. Hafner is fleeing down a darkened alley while his business partner (Michael Harris) chases after him and opens fire. While that's happening, J.J.'s oblivious daughter (Juliet) is making dinner for the two of them. When she hears scuffling noises outside her front door, she rushes to open it and is horrified to find her father collapsed on the doorstep. The next morning, Nick and Cody amble over to the post office to fetch their mail, and Nick is all swaggerish about getting a letter from a hot ex-flame. A skeptical Cody grabs the letter out of Nick's pocket, sees that it's actually a chain letter, and laughingly tells Nick he's forced to comply, warning, "Break the chain, feel the pain" - just as Nick nearly trips on the sidewalk. The two return to the Riptide, where Murray is huddled on the couch with a despondent, faraway look in his eyes. Cody informs him he has a registered package at the post office, then asks him whassup with the long face. Murray explains that he just got a call from Juliet Hafner, the daughter of his dear friend and geologist J.J. Hafner, to report that he was shot and killed last night. Murray adds that Juliet asked him to deliver the eulogy at tomorrow's funeral - but he's having a lot of trouble collecting his thoughts. Nick's advice is to pick one memorable story that stands out in his mind and just share that with the other mourners. After the funeral, Juliet thanks Murray for his touching tribute to her father - just as Michael Harris - ack! - wanders over to tell Juliet that she should feel free to let him know if she ever needs anything. She coldly retorts that she can take care of her needs herself...and as he ambles off dejectedly, Nick and Cody walk over and offer their condolences. Juliet thanks them, then shares the police's latest update on her pa's killing: they have zero idea who killed him and think J.J. might have gotten caught in the crossfire of gang-related violence. She says she doesn't believe that...and when Murray offers to do some investigating on her behalf, she happily takes him up on that and says she really really needs to find out who killed her dad and why. Aboard a gambling boat named Royal Flush, Michael Harris is being ripped a new one by a humorless looking hustler named Rick Osborne. Rick asks Michael why he'd be so stupid as to kill his partner before getting the tapes that he and his boss - a Caribbean Cartel Kingpin named Segura - are desperate to get their hands on. Michael sheepishly says he had no idea that J.J. was going to move the tapes from where they were usually stored, prompting Rick to grab him by the collar and remind him about the sizeable debt he's racked up whilst gambling aboard the Royal Flush, which he'd be more than happy to cancel after he hands over the tapes. He adds that he's not a patient man and really really wants to be able to do Segura's bidding by passing along the tapes to him...and after Michael nervously scurries off, Rick orders his henchmen to follow him and put his lights out if it becomes 100% clear that he never going to be able to deliver the tapes. Over at Juliet's house, Juliet tells the Riptide trio she has no idea who would want to hurt her father. Nick asks her whassup with her being so cold to Michael Harris at the funeral, so she explains that her father thought Michael initially showed promise as a geologist...but that she, on the other hand, found him to be an insincere asshat. She says her father eventually saw through the creep, and so she could easily sense the palpable tension that developed between the two men. She then pauses and suddenly gets up from the couch to study the shelves, noticing that her things have been moved around. She says it's clear that someone's been rifling through her stuff...and a few seconds later, they all hear scuffling noises by her back door. The trio races through the living room and sees the back of Michael Harris fleeing to his car and squealing off. The trio then tells Juliet they're going to head over to Michael's place and cross their fingers that something useful comes of that.
A few minutes later, the trio finds Michael's car parked in his driveway...and his body still in the driver's seat. They quickly deduce that the gunshot someone just fired through the windshield was most certainly the cause of death. After the commercial break, Lieutenant Quinlan and his flunkies show up at Casa Harris to process the crime scene. He glowers at the Riptide trio in his usual glowery manner and snarls, "You just out window shopping?" Murray takes offence to the remark and and reminds the curmudgeon that he, Nick, and Cody are licensed professional detectives, and as such deserve to be treated with respect...then turns to stomp off, but makes a buffoon of himself when he trips over a set of garbage cans. Lieutenant Quinlan somehow refrains from laughing aloud at Murray's clumsiness and instead applauds his chutzpah in standing up to him, then switches his attention back to the task at hand and asks Nick and Cody what they know about the deceased. They tell him that Michael Harris was seen snooping through their client's house shortly before being shot to death, and that their client's father is the recently deceased J.J. Hafner. Lieutenant Quinlan chews on that for a few seconds and says that J.J. kept company with some terrible people, namely Rick Osborne. He adds that Rick only allows high rollers aboard his gambling boat, and that he does not take kindly to people not paying their debts. Back at the Riptide, Murray looks up Rick Osborne on his computer and quickly learns that he's a career criminal with an extensive police record. The news is then gently broken to Juliet that, at the time of Michael's death, it was discovered that he had been carrying a check for $1,500, and that it had been signed by her dad and made out to Rick Osborne. Juliet gets defensively prickly and insists that her dad wasn't a gambler, and that the allegation is "a bunch of garbage" that's only serving to destroy his memory. When she huffs off angrily, the trio runs after her and explains that it's normal protocol when trying to crack a case to consider every possibility. Nick warns that she may not like what she learns about her sainted father, so she concedes that while J.J. was a great pa, he may not have been a perfect man...and so is clinging to her determination to find out why he met an untimely end. Nick stares contemplatively into space for a few seconds and says he doesn't think that directly approaching Rick Osborne is a good idea, then asks Murray to please work his computer hackery magic to boost their credit rating - just for one night - so that it looks as though the three of them are wealthy high rollers. Later that night, Murray, Nick, and Cody are decked out in tuxedos. As Nick boasts about what a savvy gambler he is, Murray implants tiny transmitters inside their ears so that they can maintain three-way communication in case they get separated while aboard the Royal Flush. A few seconds later, Juliet drops by, admires their hotness in the tuxes, and announces that she managed to get a big wad o' cash from her dad's lawyer so they can look like the well-to-do gamblers they're trying to pass themselves off as. Royal Flush! We get a lot of superfluous footage of the gambling boat's slot machines, blackjack tables, and the shapely legs of the sexy women on board. The Riptide trio makes a grand entrance, looking as wealthily cool as possible...and then Nick and Cody saunter over to the blackjack table and order a couple of drinks. After playing a hand - Cody wins, while Nick loses (which Cody attributes to bad luck 'cause of ignoring the chain letter) - Cody decides it'd be better if he spoke to the attractive card dealer (Rhonda) while she takes her break at the bar, in order to gauge whether or not there's anything she's willing to share that can move this investigation forward. He wanders across the room, seats himself beside Rhonda, and tells her he heard about the Royal Flush from the likes of J.J. Hafner and Michael Harris. Rhonda makes a yeech face and dishes about what a degenerate gambler and overall slime ball Michael Harris is [was, RIP], and that she can't fathom why Rick Osborne would even allow him on his boat. Cody's like, "Speaking of Rick Osborne.." and says he'd loooove to talk to the man about some possible investment opportunities - but Rhonda warns that Rick doesn't deign to meet with anyone on the boat - except if they're caught cheating.
In the next scene, Nick and Cody are roughly hauled into Rick Osborne's office to face his wrath for their brazen efforts to cheat at poker. Rick's thugs report that the two were caught using hand signals...and while Nick and Cody deny all wrongdoing, Rick looks them up in his credit ratings file and sees that their faux annual income is listed at $1 million. Rick tells his thugs that since these two are so rich, they must have misinterpreted the hand signalling, and apologizes to Nick and Cody for the manhandling they just endured. He then gets a call from a second set of thugs, informing him that J.J.'s tapes haven't been found yet - but that their illicit snooping of his stuff did produce a post office receipt addressed to a Murray Bozinsky. When Rick's all, "Hmmm...Murray Bozinsky you say?" and remarks on how familiar that name sounds, and Nick and Cody exchange subtle expressions of 'oh shit' and promptly tap on their earpieces as a signal to Murray that they need to abort Operation Dig Up Intel On Rick Osborne, like pronto. Murray is winning big at poker when he gets the signal via his earpiece, so he causes a ruckus by loudly declaring that the cards he's been playing with are marked - just as it suddenly dawns on Rick that Murray Bozinsky is one of the guests aboard his boat. Nick and Cody react to their jig being up by launching an attack on Rick and his thugs before fleeing the office. They run into the casino part of the boat, grab Murray, and hop aboard a dinghy while Rick's men open fire on them...but in vain, 'cause every bullet misses. The trio returns to the Riptide to retrieve the post office receipt that's addressed to Murray. Nick and Cody suggest they head over to the post office post-haste, break in, and retrieve the package J.J. addressed to him - but Murray declares that move unethical. When Nick and Cody urgently point out that there are dangerous men with guns who are desperate to get their hands on the package, Murray gives in, albeit extremely reluctantly. Rick reports to his boss - the moustachioed Segura - that he's pretty sure a computer nerd named Murray Bozinsky is in possession of the tapes he's so desperate to obtain. Rick's thugs chime in and add that Murray lives aboard a boat with his two PI friends...and Rick chews on that for a second and correctly assumes that the PIs are the two guys who were just in his office after being accused of cheating. Segura chides Rick for lying to him about having the tapes in his possession, shrieking, "My entire operation is in peril!" He then orders Rick and his thugs to head over to the Riptide and find the tapes...and after that, he'll [needlessly] think of a way to permanently silence J.J.'s daughter. Eeeek!
While the trio is breaking into the post office, Rick Osborne's thugs are aboard the Riptide, looking for the package. Their fruitless search prompts one of them to remark on how much he's not looking forward to telling Seguara and Rick that they failed to find what they came for. Back at the post office, Murray finds the package that J.J. had addressed to him, remarking that there's blood on it...which he interprets to mean that putting the thing in the mail was the last thing J.J. did before he died. A few seconds later, a security guard enters the post office, roams around looking suspicious as he yells, "Who's back there?" ... and the trio subdues him by putting a mail bag over his head so that they can flee unseen with the package. While en route inside the Jimmy, Murray opens the package and finds a series of tapes documenting the Wanderlust geological survey that J.J. had been working on. He says he's going to need more complex computer equipment than what he owns in order to properly analyze the tapes, adding that he has a friend at Caltech he's sure wouldn't mind letting him into the building so that he can access the computer lab. Cody suddenly twigs onto the fact that since the bad guys are insanely desperate to obtain J.J.'s tapes, Juliet might be in grave danger...and Nick agrees and promptly drops him off at her house, then continues on to Caltech with Murray. Cody urges Juliet to pack an overnight bag 'cause he thinks she'd be safer at the Riptide - which is highly questionable, given that the bad guys know where they all live and were just there to conduct a fruitless search for J.J.'s package. Over at Caltech, Murray studies the tapes and tells Nick it looks as though J.J.'s geological survey had discovered a massive oil reserve within the U.S. ... which he can only assume means that these tapes are worth a fortune. Nick looks both intrigued and alarmed, then picks up the phone and dial's Juliet's number, but gets a message from the operator that the line is dead. Assuming that something is amiss, Nick and Murray eject the tapes and rush out...and while that's happening, Cody realizes that Juliet's phone is dead when he tries to call them a cab, and a few seconds later the lights abruptly go out. The camera then pans over to the feet of one of the bad guys who's just broken into the house...and he fires his gun just as Juliet screams and slams into his arm so that he can't get a clean shot at Cody. The next morning, Lieutenant Quinlan is summoned to pretend to have an interest in investigating the gunshot that was heard inside Juliet's house last night, along with her/Cody's sudden disappearance. Nick and Murray put their heads together to hash out a plan to use the transmitter that's still implanted in Cody's ear to 1) locate him and Juliet, and 2) relay a message to him during the rescue attempt. Cody and Juliet are being held captive aboard the Royal Flush, which by this time has been brought out to sea. Cody covertly tells Juliet he's almost certain that Nick and Murray will try to locate them via his ear transmitter and will no doubt rescue them before the end credits roll. Aboard The Screaming Mimi, Nick tells Murray he's going to criss-cross the ocean and keep his fingers crossed that they'll stumble across the signal of the transmitter implanted inside Cody's ear. Rick demands that Cody give him his Riptide phone number...and when Cody needlessly blurts out a sassy retort, the thugs punch him. Segura calmly explains that he's open to the idea of arranging a trade (the two of them in exchange for J.J.'s tapes) - but in order to do that, they're going to need his phone number. The Riptide phone rings - but since Nick and Murray are busy criss-crossing the ocean in search of Cody and Juliet, no one's there to answer it. An irritated Segura hangs up, chides Rick for playing him for a fool, and says he's leaping to the wild conclusion that Nick and Murray aren't at home 'cause they're out making another deal for the tapes. He orders his henchman to bring Cody and Juliet to him. Aboard Mimi, Murray finally detects the signal emanating from Cody's ear transmitter. Hurray! Segura informs Cody and Juliet that, based on absolutely no proof, their so-called friends are sacrificing them to make their own deal for J.J.'s tapes. When they ask him what in blazes is on those tapes, he's only too happy to reveal that they contain geo-coordinates for one of the largest crude oil deposits in geological history, which he's estimating is worth trillions of dollars. He further explains that he definitely doesn't want this information to be released to the world 'cause the criminal enterprise that he represents, the Caribbean Oil Cartel [which I'll translate to mean mostly Venezuela], would be in direct competition with this monster crude oil deposit. Cody ponders Segura's logic for a few seconds before deducing that if the U.S. no longer needed the cartel's oil, they'd quickly go bankrupt. It's unfortunate they don't yet know how stupidly shortsighted this plan is, given that in just a couple of decades Canada will, by far, become the largest exporter of petroleum to the U.S. and leave the "Caribbean Oil Cartel" in the dust - but then I'm a recapper, not an expert in the supply of crude oil to the U.S. by non-OPEC fictional oil cartels.
Nick hovers Mimi over the Royal Flush and tells Murray to open fire when he gives him the green light. A few seconds later, bullets start flying, giving Cody all the distraction he needs to punch Rick and his two thugs into submission, then jump aboard the dinghy to prevent Segura from fleeing. Cody knocks him out with one punch, then glares down at him in disgust as he mutters, "Looks like you crapped out." Pun intended. When all is safe once again, Juliet is aboard the Riptide, serving the trio some freshly baked apple pie. They agree on what a fun time they had while gambling this episode - but then Nick solemnly points out that their most important accomplishment was solving J.J.'s murder. Cody gets up to make them some coffee and just happens to come across a bunch of outgoing letters from Nick, aka proof that he opted to avoid the 'break the chain, feel the pain' threat after all. Nick vehemently denies buying into that nonsense and proceeds to rip up the chain letters...but when he lowers himself to sit down, the chair breaks beneath him. Womp womp! Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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