‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Cry Wolf’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

If there’s one thing we as a society hold near and dear to our hearts when we are interacting with others, it’s honesty. We simply expect others to offer up the truth, and when they do, they engender our trust and our interactions are smooth and free of consequence. But alas, that’s a rule that has sadly been violated more often than we care to admit and that means we’ve had to question and challenge and express distrust and disdain with those in our lives who have chosen to be dishonest with us and well, the nature of truth and what it means to us is on my mind today simply because it turned out to be the unexpected focal point of a particularly bleak episode of CHiPs.

For ‘Cry Wolf’ introduced us to a psychologically damaged man named Walt who had quite the twisted hobby; he loved to call in false alarms to the Highway Patrol. Yes, you read that right. Walt would drive up to an emergency call box, let the dispatcher know that some kind of horrific accident had occurred at a different call box and sit back and watch emergency responders rush to the scene of his fictional concoction and what made this so bleak and so fascinating, is the sheer fact that this episode took the time to explore exactly why Walt gained pleasure from this particular act. As it turns out, he lost his firefighter father when he was young, and more or less found himself obsessed with emergency situations and even did a little time for pulling fire alarms before we meet him here and doing this somehow soothed his trauma and the thrill of it kept him coming back for more, and well, I was quite surprised to see this series offer up such a complex and dynamic character since you feel for Walt and genuinely hope he gets caught so that he can get the medical help he needs.

But bringing him in was no easy task. Because he was quick and crafty when it came to his calls, prompting the CHP to set up tracing gear and a task force to try and bring him in and unfortunately, his lies slowed down response times as well. After all, due diligence had to be paid to make sure there was an actual emergency when a call came in involving a downed Flight for Life chopper, meaning that Ponch and Jon got there a little later than they might have liked, to the point where valuable blood aboard the crashed craft almost didn’t get delivered. But thankfully they saved the day and eventually, the right set of circumstances came together and Ponch and Jon were able to confront Walt face to face, and even then, he pushed things to the limit, threatening to take his own life over going back to jail and thanks to their quick thinking, they were finally able to bring him in.
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However, I’m sure the question on your mind at this point, is whether or not the patented levity we normally find in this series was present here at all since this was some heavy, heavy stuff to present to an audience, and the good news is, there was some. After all, there was a plot line involving Jon’s reluctance to date a cute nurse that he ran into on the road, something Ponch wouldn’t stand for. So he offered up an assist to get Jon out on a double date with Frank and his gal and that led to a quirky sequence at a fancy restaurant that served French cuisine since our dynamic duo were able to try escargot and quail for the first time ever with comical results, yet, even this had a dark cloud hanging over it. Because before they could even try such fancy foods, Ponch had to deal with a little taste of racism from the host of the restaurant since he wasn’t keen on Frank’s fashion choices or brown skin and it took an assist from Jon to be seated.

If anything, I think this one wins out as the darkest episode to date of this magnificent and dynamic series and well, this one blew me away when all is said and done. Because I was quite impressed with the fact that there was incredible depth present when it comes to Walt, since we really did get some solid insight as to why he did what he did, and it was equally as fascinating to see how his actions and his illness also caused harm at home since his sister constantly challenged him to tell the truth and it’s really a shame that more police serials don’t take the time to explore the trauma that motivates some of the ‘villains’ they feature. In the end though, this episode just goes to show what kind of wonders this series can accomplish when given the opportunity, and it’s another fascinating entry in a strong opening season for this series, and once again, I’m ready to see what other surprises this show has in store for me, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to hit the highways with Ponch and Jon, once more. Until next time. 

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