‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Repo Man’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

If there’s one thing that I’ve always found fascinating when it comes to police stories on television, it is how the villains on these shows are constructed. Because as the years have rolled on, I’ve come to notice that most crime related tales work hard to add depth and meaning to the bad guy or bad gal, and that has its merits since people, both good and evil, are complex in nature and this has made for some fascinating explorations of why people do bad things, and it’s something that CHiPs has been working with heavily in season two since the Creeps of the Week have depth and purpose in year two. But sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with going ‘old school’ and injecting bad people who are just rotten to the core without any explanation into a story, and it just so happens that the next episode of this series, ‘Repo Man’, took the time bring back the force of nature bad guy we saw regularly in season one.
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For this particular tale introduced us to a disturbing scumbag/Repo Man named Doyle Ware, and what made this guy so awful is that he was about as unethical as they come. In fact, his first encounter with Ponch and Jon involved him illegally seizing a trailer and despite a firm warning about handling such matters within the framework of the law, it wasn’t long before we saw him breaking the law once again and being an outright nuisance. Because he lied to a mother to get his hands on a car and even after accomplishing his repo related mission, he still caused as much trouble as humanly possible. Because snagging that car, led to a high-speed chase, one that resulted in an accident when the repossessed car snapped loose and after being cited and scolded once again, Ware decided it was time to teach Ponch and Jon a lesson, by messing with their credit rating.

Yup, that’s right. This dude straight up took the time to put fictional liens and red flags on both of their credit reports and well, that was definitely the wrong thing to do. Because it prompted Ponch and Jon to keep a close eye on this hoser in their spare time and what they discovered was pretty concerning. Because it turns out that not only was Doyle unethical in his practices, he was running a little fraud on the side. In essence, he would swipe a car and remove the license plate, and then take said plate and put it on a totaled car that was the exact same make and model and take pictures of it, and send those photos to the owner and let them know their car was totaled, and then he would offer to buy it off them for cheap, then turnaround and sell the original for a massive profit. Which is quite the complex and twisted scheme and thankfully, Ponch and Jon were able to prove what he was up to and put an end to his scuzzy ways.

If anything, it was refreshing to see this kind of villain reappear on the show because sometimes, you just want to see a little bit of justice in the world and see guys like Doyle go down and go down hard, so the story definitely delivered when it comes to that. But, while it was satisfying to see this doofus get his just desserts, the show found a way to take heroism to a whole new level since the lighthearted plotline in this one involved Jon jumping on a runaway school bus shortly after its driver had a heart attack, and quickly became the toast of the town for his decision. Because he saved a lot of lives, and had his exploits all over the five o’clock news and that meant that everywhere he went, even on the highway, he was getting mobbed by fans who wanted to shake his hand and get an autograph from a true hero, and this just made for pure fun since we all know that Jon isn’t about that kind of attention, but he definitely did his best to make people happy.

Plus, the plotlines involving the watchmaker and his sassy ways, and Grossie’s work as a writer also made for some lighthearted fun and really, that’s what this episode stood for, just some good old fashioned fun and an epic takedown of a miserable human being and you really cannot go wrong with that. Because that’s what this series was founded upon, and it was kind of nice to break away from the more complex tales and well, I suppose I will enjoy it while I can, since I just took a look at the episode insert in the DVD case for season two. And I couldn’t help but notice that the next episode up, was one of the boldest that this season has to offer, and its one that I remember kept my attention from beginning to end thanks to its subject matter. So, it’s best I dive right in and watch this tough one now, so we can chat about as soon as possible. Until next time. 

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