The Hit Car (episode)



THE HIT CAR

Episode 1 Air Date: March 25, 1981 Written By: Stephen J. Cannell

Directed By: Rod Holcomb

Summary:A strange car pulls out of a warehouse and drives down the road. Nearby a man and woman are driving along. The first car pulls up to theirs and a gun fires from it forcing the second car off the road. The man and woman get out. As the woman runs off the man shoots at the car but it does not have any effect because it is armored. The man is hit and the car drives off.

The next day Ralph and Pam are talking about a production of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew that Ralph is having his students put on. When they arrived in the auditorium the class is making a ruckus. Ralph settles them down and is about to begin when Bill arrives and has a talk with him and Pam privately. He tells them that Scarlet Wild; showgirl and girlfriend to Johnny “ The Dancer” Damanti, a gangster who Bill has been after for years, has agreed to testify against him. The man who was shot was a federal agent who was escorting her. She requested that Bill be the one to take her in. Ralph reluctantly agrees to go with Bill to pick her up and leaves Pam in charge of the play.

Bill and Ralph fly to San Francisco where they meet Scarlet in a motel. Two hit men shoot at them through a window. Bill is wounded and Ralph goes in to the bathroom and through the window to fly after them. He misses them and clashes through a window of another motel. He goes down to the lobby but loses the hit men in the crowd.

Ralph, Bill, and Scarlet drive to LA because Scarlet won’t fly due to superstition. Scarlet comes on to Ralph. They head over to the home Pam’s boss. She’s waiting for them and there is tension between her and Scarlet.

The next morning Ralph sees the hit man in a holographic vision. Scarlet comes on to him again but he darts away. Ralph tells Bill about the hit men. Bill and Ralph go outside and captures them. As the police approach Ralph flies off only to land in the ocean.

Johnny and Mike; one of his underlings, discuss the hit and how the hit men; who told the police about Ralph’s powers, have been committed. Johnny decides to go down to LA to finish the hit himself.

Ralph, Pam, Bill, and Scarlet arrive at LA. On the steps of the courthouse shots are fired at Bill and Scarlet and he is hit. Assistant District Attorney Arnold Turner takes Scarlet to testify before the grand jury but she takes the fifth. Ralph surmises because of all of Bill’s wounds that the whole thing was a trap to try to kill Bill.

Bill and Ralph go to a restaurant where Johnny, Mike, and Scarlet are eating. Bill antagonizes Johnny to get him to come after him.

Bill and Ralph go to the school where Bill is surprised to find the students and their parents working to set up the stage. Shots are fired through a window. Ralph and Bill run out as the armored car comes around. Bill is pinned down by gun fire as Ralph changes in to the suit. Ralph lifts the car and forces Johnny and Mike to come out. Ralph flies away as Bill makes the arrest.

That night the play is about to begin. Ralph joins Bill in the audience and finds that he is listening to baseball on a radio.