‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Vigilante’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Sometimes, when a great idea is introduced to the writers’ room of a television series, it opens up all kinds of possibilities storytelling wise. Because now, the writers can explore this notion over several episodes and dive into all kinds of fascinating elements that will keep the viewer’s attention, and it just so happens that CHiPs ran into this positive problem. Because ‘New Guy in Town’ introduced the notion of revenge to Ponch and Jon’s already unique world and that in turn motivated the series to put together another episode that revolved around this idea, one that took this concept to new heights in its next episode.
 
For ‘Vigilante’ dug deep into the concept of revenge, by looking at how it is something that bad folks with no hope are eager to embrace and how it can corrupt the soul of a good man and it accomplished this particular feat by giving us two very unique Creeps of the Week. One, was a man named Millard, and he is the guy that had little to live for in his mind. For Getraer busted him ages ago and now that he was out of a job and without any prospects for a future, he felt it was high time to make the cop that put him away, pay, and he began to harass both Joe and his family from afar with phone calls and ominous messages and it was quite stunning to see a guy with nothing to lose, be this bold about causing harm to a police officer.
 
Yet while Central worked to figure out Millard’s identity, they had another problem to deal with, a Community Watch ‘officer’ named Gisbon, and this man well, he was the one that explored how revenge can consume a man’s soul. Because he lost his son to a drunk driver a few months prior to this tale and the devastation in his heart and the fact that there was little he could about his son’s death, drove him to become a volunteer officer and it also drove him to fits of rage. Because he could not reconcile the pain in his heart, nor could he deal with the flippant nature of motorists and that often times prompted him to vandalize the cars of people he stopped, or straight up let his anger take over. To the point where he actually assaulted a drunk driver in order to teach him a lesson.
 
But what was impressive about these two plot threads, is how they came together in beautiful fashion. Because eventually, the ugly deeds of both men caught up with them. Because Millard got cocky in his quest to engender fear and that led to his license plate being revealed to Ponch and Jon and Joe. And Gibson, well his incident with the drunk driver put him on the Highway Patrol’s radar and it just so happens, that an attempt to bring in Millard, brought these two ‘gentlemen’ together. Because Millard went all-out to escape capture, including using grenades to throw the CHP off. But he didn’t count on running into Gibson, who smashed his windshield up to get him to stop, and the fallout of that, finally allowed for both men to be put into handcuffs.
 
If anything, this was simply a great episode when all is said and done. Because it offered up everything that we love about this series. For you had the camaraderie we adore by way of how everyone rallied behind Joe and his problem. And you had incredible depth in regard to the COTW’s, since they weren’t just wild maniacs who wanted to sow chaos. They were broken men in need of serious help, and of course there was action and adventure to be found and truly, all of these elements make it clear that the final two episodes of season four are going to be filled to the brim with thoughtful and powerful moments and that’s going to make this rush to the finish line, a worthy one indeed. Until next time.   

---