Stingray season 1 episode 2: Ancient Eyes

episode number: season 1, episode 2 (1986)
viewing setting: home DVD, 6/27/11

episode synopsis: Ray goes undercover on behalf of a grieving mother to find out what happened to her son, and ends up infiltrating a drug operation.

impressions: Another good one. Ray takes on a bunch of hicks growing illegal plants by using illegal workers who they abuse (and plan to kill.) He alternates between meek Mexican worker and ruthlessly efficient fighter as necessary, and at one point must give an all-out effort to prevent something terrible from happening. He also allows himself to get arrested (in fact engineering it) so that he can't be killed by the bad guys. This episode also features one of my favorite songs from the 1980s, Silent Running by Mike and the Mechanics.

notable guest stars: Rachel Ticotin is Elena, a college professor who poses as Ray's wife to get him into the work camp. J.E. Freeman is the head bad guy.

cool actions and tactics: Ray works out while searching his computer database, uses a Spanish accent, recognizes the finer points of a pistol pointed at him, sneaks around at night without any guards catching him, sprints really fast, thinks ahead by concealing some wire before being arrested, tricks the police so he can escape a jail cell, and leads a two-man attack on a camp full of armed bad guys. Also, his fingerprints come back from the Pentagon registered to a Vietnam war hero...whose picture proves that he isn't Ray or vice versa.

quotable:
Elena: "You're not Ray Sheffield, are you?"
Ray: "It's a tiresome game, but I gotta play."

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