The Hatchet

**The Hatchet** is the eighth episode of season one of the series featured on the ABC channel, *The Commish*. The episode aired on November 16, 1991.

### Synopsis

Tony butts head with a tough cop who is overzealous in his handling of criminals, and a hard-nosed management consultant hired by the city in a cost-cutting effort.

### Plot

##### Cold Open

A bunch of police officers is chasing after a criminal by cars, and when they manage to corner him, he gets out of his car and runs to the park. Officer Stan Kelly runs after him and tackles him to the ground. When the man reaches inside his jacket, Officer Pete Cody shoots him.

Stan reveals that he was reaching for his wallet, and Commissioner Tony Scali who is observing the whole scene scolds Pete for being reckless.

They are doing a police training session, not really chasing after a criminal. The man is Willy, an undercover cop, and Tony lectures Pete that he shouldn't shoot first and ask questions later. Pete sneers at the young commissioner while being lectured. He even insults Stan for being slow and mocks Willy for putting the wallet in the wrong pocket. In the end, he winks disrespectfully at Tony behind his back, which makes other cops laugh.

##### Story

At the Scali Residence, Arnie Metzger and David Scali are playing chess, and the young boy beats his uncle. But he doesn't look happy, and when Arnie asks him what's going on, he refuses to answer. Arnie then invites David to help him with another of his business scheme, but Tony sarcastically tells everyone that Arnie just wants to use his nephew's computer. David doesn't mind, and the two of them are working together. Rachel Scali chides her husband on why he's always hard on Arnie, and Tony answers that he's a muncher and never once says thank you.

Tony then tells Rachel about Peter Cody, the son of a respectful cop in New York City named Walter Cody, who passed away - that he is concerned about him. Pete is an experienced cop and other cops seem to look up to him, but he has an attitude. Rachel asks whether Pete is a good cop, but Tony doesn't know.

At the Eastbridge Police Department, Tony's new secretary Lucille Carter informs her boss that auditor William T. Rathbone alias The Hatchet is coming to the precinct. Lucille tells Tony that when she was working at the Fire Department, the auditor cuts back on almost everything and fired many firemen, so she warns him to be careful. At first, Tony isn't worried but he sees Lucille's expression that this person might give some trouble to the police department.

Tony asks two cops at the locker room about Pete's latest arrest but deliberately said the wrong name, which the two cops corrects him, not knowing that their boss was baiting them to tell the truth, knowing that they would lie for Pete. A criminal named Sonny Blake was arrested with bruises on his face, and Tony suspects that Pete had something to do with it.

Tony asks Stan regarding a case in Morgan Heights where there are criminals who takes over houses and turns them into crack houses, and the officer explains that many of the houses belonged to old ladies who were kicked out by the drug dealers and drug pushers. Stan thinks it's a good idea to check some records about the housing in the neighborhood and track them down.

Tony then asks Irv Wallerstein whether he knows Sonny Blake, but before he can answer, the auditor has arrives. The Hatchet introduce himself and he doesn't give Tony a chance to some pleasantries, and immediately goes to work. Tony asks Irv to keep an eye on The Hatchet.

Tony sees Sonny Blake in the jail cell who looks beat up and full of bruises like someone roughed him up. The commissioner asks Sonny whether the officer who arrested him had done a violence towards him, but the man doesn't answer. Before Sonny can confess, Pete shows up and asks whether he can help with the interrogation, which Tony refuse. But Pete showing up at the lockup makes Sonny afraid and he immediately closes up.

Tony blasts Pete in his office about being rough to suspects, and say that as a peace officer, Pete shouldn't be a judge and vigilante in the street. But Pete defends himself and say that it's tough out there being a cop, and even accuse Tony for being soft especially now he's no longer patrolling. Tony tries a different tactic and say that Pete's father was a respectable cop who wouldn't like that his son is a violent cop, but Pete once again deflects and say that his father was a tough cop and wouldn't like it if he is being too soft. Tony then say that he will be his patrolling partner and will touring together with Pete, which surprises him.

At home, Tony and Rachel discusses David and the reason why he has been down lately. Rachel guesses that David hates to see his father fights with his uncle all the time, so to offer some peace, Tony goes to his son's room bringing some cakes where Arnie is working together with David to build a smartphone calendar called 'Elephant Phone'. The smartphone will call the user and reminds them about their event. At first, Tony seems interested, but immediately call it as bullshit when Arnie claims it will cost $300 per user.

The next day, Tony and Pete are patrolling the Morgan Heights area and the officer claims that he will solve the crack house case in no time because he has the best informant in the precinct. Tony doubts that Pete has an informant who knows the area, especially since he'd never been near Morgan Heights. Pete assures the commissioner that he has his methods, which makes Tony skeptical. While they are driving, a woman screams and they see a purse snatcher running away, so they chase after him.

Similar to the police training, the criminal escapes, and both the commissioner and the officer pursuit him on foot. Tony corners him in an alley, and orders the criminal to surrender when he is surrounded by a gang of criminals. Tony gets beat up by the gang but Pete rescues him by beating the gang members with his baton. While arresting them, Pete smugly tells the commissioner that sometimes violence solves problems.

At the precinct, Tony orders his cops to patrol around Morgan Heights and orders Stan to take the first shift. Pete interject and say he should take the first shift so he could solve the case faster than Stan. Tony instead orders both Stan and Pete to work together and share information. However, Pete doesn't want to work together and insults Stan's way of planning while he'd prefer to work alone and on the street. Pete then manages to harass some kids who are playing basketball for some information about drugs, and when one of the kids refuses, he destroys their boombox.

At the precinct, The Hatchet cut out so many budgets for the police department and he argues with Tony about it. Tony angrily tells the auditor that police lives aren't the same as other companies and businesses. Tony then asks The Hatchet to drive around with him during patrol so he can live out how the policemen work. At first, he refuses, but the commissioner cajoles him to do it so he can sell more books by writing about it.

At home, David tells Arnie what has been bothering him for days; apparently, there was an article about how police brutality and corruption changed the public opinion about cops in general. They are no longer heroes and more like menaces of the society, and David is confused about the whole thing. He asks his uncle whether everyone hates his father, and surprisingly Arnie defends Tony. Arnie says that Tony is a good cop who only catches the bad guys and cares a lot about fairness, and he admits that he admires his brother-in-law. Tony overheard the conversation and smiles, thankful that Arnie praised him.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ronnie Lopez are staking out a house in Morgan Heights because, after a bit of investigation, they find out that the house belonged to an old lady who was kicked out by some drug pushers and drug dealers, but they don't have any proof, so they keep an eye on the house. Stan wants to solve the case first before Pete swooped into a victory and brags about it. After a few hours, they see a movement and chase someone outside the house on foot. However, the suspect steals their car and runs away. Ronnie exclaims that this would make Pete happy that Stan fails.

Stan apologizes to Tony for having the car stolen, but he reports that he and Ronnie stayed all night asking questions and found Mrs. Ortiz, the real owner of the house who is willing to testify and press charges for having her house hijacked, and they will get a warrant to arrest the drug pushers. However, they hear some commotion, and Pete just arrested the drug pushers in the morning, and he brags about it to other cops, especially to Officer Mike Rose. Mike seems impressed that Pete manages to arrest the criminals and asks how he did it, and he answers that he has an informant named Sonny Blake.

Tony realizes that Pete lies and uses Sonny as his fake informant, so he takes Sonny around Morgan Heights to show him the crack house. Sonny can't even point to the house because he has never been in the area and he admits that Pete orders him to lie and be an informant because he's scared of the cop. Tony orders him to tell the truth because he doesn't like the idea of his cops lying and disappointed when Sonny finally confessed, so he calls Pete to his office to confront him.

At the office, Tony starts to interview Pete to get the truth from him, and even accuses him of breaking into the crack house to survey the inside and making it like Sonny knew the location. Pete denies the charges and smugly shrugs off the accusations, but when Tony asks where the undercover car he stole, he laughs and admits that it was he who stole the car. He was at the area that night and saw Stan and Ronnie staking the place, and took the car, knowing that Stan left the key in the ignition. He laughs and says that he will return the car in front of Stan's house.

Tony has enough and asks where the car is, adding that only cops are authorized to drive the car. Pete asks what it means, and Tony coldly fires him. Pete explodes and angrily threatens the commissioner for unfairly treating him, but Tony fires back and says that the man is a crook with a blue uniform - a cop is supposed to protect and serve, not do it for glory, and he will not back out from Pete's threat because he's not a child who is afraid of him. Pete storms out from Tony's office and throws some stuff, while the commissioner just watches him in silence.

During a routine patrol, The Hatchet is riding with the commissioner to observe their everyday tour. He asks why Tony doesn't use the radio to communicate and finds out that the radio is broken but they don't have a budget to repair it, so they are using mirrors to signal other patrol cars and also using Navy flare guns instead.

The Hatchet is flabbergasted especially when he sees a flare goes up, indicating someone is in trouble. When they arrives at the scene, Ronnie is shooting at some unseen criminals in an abandoned warehouse, and Tony joins the shooting which makes The Hatchet panic. He runs to a phone nearby but it's broken, and when asks to shoot the criminals with fake bullets because they can't afford real bullets, The Hatchet screams to screw the budget.

    Tony and the rest of the squad stops the charade and pointing out that hacking the budgets for the police department is a bad idea especially when it involves life and death situation. The Hatchet learn the lesson, and he and Tony negotiates an appropriate budget cutting instead. Tony asks him for help regarding Arnie's situation, and he gladly helps by pretending to be an interested buyer.

The drug pushers are being released from jail and they gloat to Tony that they will sue the police department for wrongful arrest, but Stan is ready for a legal warrant and they get arrested again. While they are protesting, Pete walks by them and greets by Mike who offers him to buy a drink. Both Pete and Mike stares at Tony and Stan with a challenging look and they leaves the precinct.

At home, Arnie is happy and showing off a $500 check because his project was bought by The Hatchet. He gloats that someone bought his idea and willing to share it with David. In the end, he thanked Tony for the money, knowing it was him who gave the money.

### Trivia

The news magazine that David read about police brutality was similar with Time Magazine's design, and the article was also similar with many magazine stories that appeared in 1991 about corrupt cops in light of that year's Rodney King videotape.

### Cast and Characters

#### Starring

* Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali
* Theresa Saldana as Rachel Scali
* Kaj-Erik Eriksen as David Scali
* Geoffrey Nauffts as Stan Kelly
* Nestor Serrano as Pete Cody
* Alex Bruhanski as Irv Wallerstein
* Jason Schombing as Ronnie Lopez
* Paul Batten as William T. Rathbone / The Hatchet
* David Paymer as Arnie Metzger

#### Guest Starring

* Frank Walton as Sonny Blake
* Kimberly Scott as Lucille Carter
* Dave 'Squatch' Ward as Freddie
* Pat Bermel as Mike Rose
* Troy Mallory as The Drug Pusher
* Gabe Khouth as Byron / Basketball Player
* J.B Bivens as Cop #1
* Richard Leacock as Cop #2