The Checklist: Pacific Blue (S4 Ep5) “Overkill”
One of the great things about movies and television is it can transport a person to another place, another time, or another world. For example, you look outside your window and see nothing but gray skies… but you can pop your TV on and escape to sunny Santa Monica, California and relive the action and adventure of Pacific Blue.
That’s exactly what I did and not only did I mentally transport myself out of the Midwestern United States in December, I also put Episode 5 from Pacific Blue‘s fourth season to The Checklist test…
- Synopsis: A series of murders pulls Chris Kelly away from the Pac Blue team and a mysterious martial artist is the top suspect.
#1. Was this a Mario Lopez episode?
Mario Lopez was brought in during the fourth season of Pacific Blue to add some star power and give the show some new blood. In “Overkill” Lopez’s Bobby Cruz finds himself providing security to a famous French actress, Vanessa St. Germaine, who has reported having a stalker problem. Cruz pairs up with Officer Russ Granger (Jeff Stearns), another Season 4 newcomer, and it isn’t long before Vanessa comes between the two cops. 1/1
#2. Were there any notable guest stars?
Vanessa St. Germaine was played by Lydie Denier, who was no stranger to action adventure television having starred in both Tarzán and Acapulco H.E.A.T.
Denier’s Acapulco H.E.A.T. co-star Michael Worth (Fists of Iron and To Be the Best) played Mike Thacker, one of two mysterious martial artists that Officer Jamie Strickland encounters in “Overkill”. Thacker is a guest at Strickland’s martial arts class and shows her up… afterwards when she hopes to get some pointers from him, he blows her off. The next time we see Thacker is when he is gawking with a bunch of other people at a crime scene… which becomes a trend as the episode goes on.
But being blown off by Thacker is the least of Strickland’s problems, after her class she catches a thief in the act and falls right into a trap where she is assaulted by multiple assailants until the mysterious Kyle shows up and kicks all their asses. Kyle was played by former champion surfer and current luxury real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, Matty Liu.
And was that Kane Hodder in an uncredited role!? I think so! 2/2
#3. Was there any martial arts action?
With two martial artists on the show, certainly we have to get some martial arts action. Right? I am happy to report Kyle steps up where Thacker refused and we get a martial arts training sequence with Kyle and Jamie Strickland.
There’s a little more martial arts action peppered in, but unfortunately we don’t get a prolonged martial arts sequence between Kyle and Thacker. 3/3
#4. Was there a high speed bike chase?
It’s a good thing there was some martial arts action, because there sure as hell wasn’t much in the way of bike action in this episode… I guess by Season 4 they were running out of cool bike stunts to do and figured seeing the attractive cops in the bike shorts was more important than actual bike action. 3/4
#5. Was a portion of the show devoted to the T.C./Chris relationship?
The last time I put an episode of Pacific Blue to The Checklist test, it was an episode from Season 1 of the show and a time when the seeds were just being planted where the T.C. Callaway (Jim Davidson) / Chris Kelly (Darlene Vogel) relationship was concerned. Now in Season 4, the two are married and the honeymoon is officially over with the two butting heads through out the episode and Chris accepting an invite to work temporarily with robbery/homicide. 4/5
It is while working with Detective Eric Thomas of robbery/homicide that Chris utters the phrase OVERKILL, as in the name of the episode… which is worth a bonus point in my book! 5/5
- Final Score = 5/5 (100%) It almost feels wrong to give this episode a perfect score with so little bike action, but Bulletproof Action favorite Michael Worth is always a quality guest star and I am a sucker for a good title drop. It does make me curious if the bike action did noticeably decrease over time or if “Overkill” was an anomaly. Only one way to find out, watch more Pac Blue!!
