‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Kidnap’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​I think it is safe to say that kids make some supremely poor decisions from time to time. Which isn’t a knock upon kids in the slightest, after all, they are our future. But their lack of knowledge and experience and their desire to be free of the shackles of their parents, prompts them to do some dumb stuff here and there, and I can think of several personal examples where if I was a little older, I sure as heck would not have done that silly thing in the first place. But while usually parents can course correct and teach the kid who made the mistake, the necessary knowledge to never let that happen again, sometimes in the moment, a goof gets a child in quite a bit of trouble. Something that the next episode of CHiPs, ‘Kidnap’, took the time to explore.
 
Now, in this particular tale, Ponch and Jon were assigned to babysitter duty, wherein they were getting face time on the news with a pair of kids named Pete and Raymond, who won an essay contest about the highways and were about to learn a great deal about how the public servant system works as part of their prize, starting with a tour of the Los Angeles County Courthouse. But being kids, these two didn’t take this honor seriously in the slightest and took every opportunity to goof around and do their own thing, even going so far as to play on Ponch and Jon’s bikes and hide in the backseat of a fancy Rolls Royce in order to enjoy a little freedom from the adults telling them what to do and therein, lies the big mistake in question.
 
For while they were goofing around, a pair of sleazy criminals named Dale and Lloyd knocked out the officer who was supposed to bring them to their arraignment and quickly high tailed it out of there, in the Rolls Royce containing Pete and Ray and just like that, these scummy dudes were now kidnappers and car thieves and that instantly transformed this episode into the quite the tense affair. Because the entire CHP Central Division was dedicated to catching these guys and laid just about every trap and roadblock that you could think of, in order to bring these kids to safety. But despite their best efforts to make this happen in smooth and simple fashion, all kinds of complications came about.
 
Because traffic blocked Ponch and Jon’s view at one point, allowing for the Creeps of the Week to pull off the highway in order to get some gas, and it took some creative thinking at the gas station in question to find out where the kids were going and to put together a new plan to save them. But even then, their efforts were quickly in vain. For our baddies were able to listen to police band radio and hear what the CHP was up to. Which of course led to panic and more mayhem when these guys beat up an old man and stuffed him in the trunk of the Rolls, so they could steal his car instead, and even some good Samaritans slowed down the pursuit as well. And in the end, it took Ponch, and a beat-up muscle car that blasted ‘La Cucaracha’ from its horn, to run these guys off the road and save these kids from any further strife.
 
In the end, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. And I know I sound like a broken record praising episode after episode this season, but man, the show just keeps on delivering one unique story after another and this is no exception to that unspoken rule. But what I loved about this one the most, was the tension that I made mention of. Because you really never quite knew how far our COTW’s were going to take their crimes and that really added a genuine sense of danger to the story and some authentic relief when Ponch finally stopped these guys. If anything, this one helps to remind us of how versatile this series can be since this back half of season three keeps providing us with new and exciting situations for our dynamic duo to deal with and dang it, I really do want more. So, if you’ll excuse me, my DVD player and the California highways are calling me. Until next time. 

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