‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘High Explosive’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

It has often been said, that the children, are our future and there’s a lot of merit to that statement. After all, they will in fact inherit the Earth and all of its bounties and spoils long after we are all gone. But while that statement, or sentiment if you prefer, has some truth to it, and some genuine beauty behind it, since it speaks to the power of family and the immortality that comes with sons and daughters, it is a fluffy set of words when all is said and done. Because it doesn’t speak to the difficulties of child rearing in the slightest, nor does it cover the fact that in order for a child to properly take their place in our world, they require guidance and teaching to understand right and wrong and why they shouldn’t do some of the dumb things that all kids do, because a lack of direction, can end in disaster for a kid, and all of this is on my mind today, simply because it just so happened to be the focus of the next episode of CHiPs.
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Because ‘High Explosive’ introduced us to two interesting people for Ponch and Jon to interact with; a young man named Barry, who was without any fatherly guidance in his life since his pops was out of the picture, and a grown man named Brad who clearly needed someone in his life to course correct him when he was growing up, but we will get to him a little later on. Because it’s best we talk about Barry’s journey in this tale, first, since he was in quite the pickle when we catch up with him. For Barry felt the need to screw around with shooting his air rifle at a highway sign, and when a moment of chance came into play, his rifle accidentally shattered a car window and caused an accident, prompting the young man to panic and believe that he was headed to prison, and he was so filled with fear, that he felt it best to run away from his life in L.A. and return home to his native land of Utah. But it didn’t take long for him to have a run in with Ponch and Jon who quickly came to realize, this kid needed some direction in life.

Which meant that Jon saw it best to take this young man under his wing, and that allowed for this dynamic duo to take on the role of father figures, and they helped Barry find a little focus, but there was still trouble looming for the young man. Because the ladies involved in the accident, wanted to press charges as soon as possible, but our favorite patrolmen had other ideas in mind. Because they fully understood, it was a mistake, from a kid who really didn’t have a clue what the heck he was doing, so they quietly worked to have one of the victims, a woman named Mary Barnes, spend a little time with Barry so that she could see that he had no malice in his heart and that it truly was an accident and well, their kindness and understanding paid off in spades since no charges came to the table, Mary and her sister recovered from their injuries and Barry, got back on track.

Which brings us to Brad, and how it’s clear a lack of guidance when he was younger resulted in a rough run for him as an adult, because Brad, turned out to be quite the Creep of the Week. Because this guy had zero respect for anyone or anything, it was all about how everyone should respect and adore him, and his arrogant attitude and desire to just, get things over with, put him in a lot of hot water, since he was an ambulance driver who struggled with keeping the injured, safe, on their way to the hospital. And thanks to a dangerous run in and high speed chase involving Ponch and Jon, Brad lost his job and went back to a seedy crime boss to earn a little pay by smuggling stuff and this decision almost got people killed since he was transporting old dynamite, and little kids got their hands on it briefly. Thankfully, the boys in tan saved everyone in this instance but wow, it was just incredible to see how Brad held himself and his life in low regard all because someone never took the time to show him what he is worth, and well, he fits in with this season’s mold of ‘villains’ nicely since he is about as tragic as they come.

But, while it seems as though this episode and so many others as of late are darker than expected, that’s my bad for not mentioning the fun, and that thankfully was present here since we got to learn more about Jon’s cowboy-esque past since he went into full rodeo mode in this tale, and it was equally as fun to see Grossie take a few bets on Baker’s abilities to rope a cow. But, outside of that, I made mention in my last recap of the show, of how I genuinely hoped that the writing was going to go to bold and experimental places in the weeks to come and already, the series isn’t disappointing me in the slightest. Because the depth present in the script here was just delightful and I really the loved the duality featured here between Barry and Brad and everything that went into their respective journeys and well, you know what that means, it’s time to get back to my Blu-Ray player, in order to see how season two of this magnificent series continues to grow. Until next time.     

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