Behind The Storm Door

**Behind The Storm Door** is the seventh episode of season one of the series featured on the ABC channel, *The Commish*. The episode aired on November 9, 1991.

### Synopsis

Tony Scali is pursued by a woman he suspects is filing false complaints.

### Plot

##### Cold Open

Hector Hurley confesses to the commissioner and officer Ricky Caruso that he's the Riverside Killer, and he wants to be arrested. Skeptically, Tony asks him the details about the murder which Hector answers wrongly every time.

Hector cries and begs for forgiveness and claims that he killed the victim and then ran via the backdoor. Tony says that the victim lived in an apartment, so there was no backdoor. The commissioner asks whether Hector still has possession of the murder weapon which is a gun, and he answers that he buried it in the backyard, but Tony claims that the victim was stabbed. When Hector, again, changes his story that he stabbed the victim repeatedly, Tony impatiently tells him that the victim was shot.

   The mad man then tells the commissioner that he robbed a bank, snatched a purse, has unpaid parking tickets, and he begs to be arrested. Tony then tells him that he is guilty of obstructing justice by confessing a crime he didn't commit. Hector is very happy when he's being arrested, smiles when he gets his mugshot taken, and says, *"This is the happiest day of my life!"*

##### Story

Tony is making breakfast for his family but Rachel Scali is not in the mood especially when Arnie Metzger complains about the way he cooks. Rachel tells her husband that she get her period this morning and is upset about it because she thought that she was pregnant when she was late for three days. Tony says that they should try again to get pregnant, but Rachel is fed up and leaves in a huff. Tony calls his regular florist in the car and tells him to send apology flowers to his wife, which is the usual.

He sees a bunch of car patrols in front of a house and inspects it, a bit confused to see many police officers huddling inside. Officer Stan Kelly reports that there was a call from an intruder so they answered the call, but when they asked about the incident, the resident refused to answer any questions. Tony asks why there are so many of them answering a call when a pretty woman wearing a black satin negligee walks out of her room. She thought that Tony was a salesman, but Stan explains that the short bald man is the commissioner.

Stan introduces the resident as Michelle Carver and she immediately grabs Tony's hand and tells the other officers to leave while dragging the commissioner into her room to show her what's missing. She shows him her underwear and lingerie while telling him that her diamond was taken, and at the same time flirting with him. Tony tries to be professional and gives her his phone numbers if she needs some help, and she gives him her phone numbers as well while letting him know that she's a hairstylist. Michelle corners Tony and even tries to touch him several times while describing the intruder. Tony says that he will put an officer to guard the house, but she keeps touching him while he tries to avoid her.

Tony orders his Chief of Detectives Irv Wallerstein to ask the Westbridge Police Department whether there are similar cases of intruders in their city. He is stopped by officer Ronnie Lopez who complains that his tour partner, officer Jeff Hartley, is now stopped taking a shower. Ronnie complains that Jeff smells bad, and he asks Tony for help. The commissioner approach Jeff in the locker room and finds out that he stops taking baths altogether because he's now involved in a New Age religion introduced by his girlfriend. Tony realizes that he needs to do something especially after he smelled Jeff.

Meanwhile, Stan meets a pretty college girl named Shelly in his apartment who complains about another parking ticket she received. Stan asks her for a dinner to no avail until he says that he can fix the ticket, and in return, she asks him for a date.

At Tony's office, Michelle calls him on his private line and breathlessly flirts with him even when he already said that he has a wife. Irv happens to walk into the office and overheard the conversation while Tony only says that she called for saying thank you.

They caught a man in Westbridge and asks Michelle to come and identify him. She balks seeing the line of men and starts to change her statement; she mentions that she was attacked and it was dark so she couldn't recognize the man, while Tony reminds her that she didn't say anything about being attacked or it was dark. Michelle seems panicked and leaves the police station immediately before telling Tony that she will call him. Irv observes that Michelle seems to have a crush on Tony, and asks whether something is going on between the two, which he denies.

Tony caught a whiff of Jeff and ordered him to take a shower or he'd get fired. Jeff seems annoyed but obeyed his commissioner. *"You're the boss."*

During the pizza date, Shelly commends Stan for finally asking her out while at the same time hinting that she needs another ticket to be resolved. She mentions that her brother got a parking ticket and Stan willingly takes care of it - he pays for the tickets from his pocket.

At home, Rachel finds Michelle's card in Tony's pocket and ponders about her husband, while at the office, he receives a phone call from Michelle who says in a panic that an intruder is trying to get into her house, and the phone is disconnected. Tony immediately goes to her home and meets officer Mike Rose who says that there is nobody around, but officer Carmela Pagan is checking out the parameter. Inside the house, Tony sees Michelle hiding in the dark but when he asks her whether the intruder is in the house, Michelle offers him a cup of Irish cream coffee instead, as nothing happens.

Tony gets angry and yells at her for pulling a fire alarm when there is no fire, metaphorically. Michelle cries, not expecting Tony to be angry, saying that she needs him to like her. Tony accuses her of making things up, that there was no intruder the other day and tonight, but Michelle says that there was an intruder who did hurt her, and it was her ex-husband Richard Carver. Tony asks Michelle to press charges against her ex-husband, but she refuses, and Tony thinks that she is lying so he leaves with his police officers and slams the door.

The next day Tony and Arnie are picking up a new storm door at a Hardware Store when Michelle shows up there claiming that she's looking for a new lock for her door and happily chats with the commissioner, even flirts with him again. She corners Tony and breathlessly apologizes for last night while Arnie sees them together.

While putting on the storm door, Arnie gives Tony a look and even asks him loudly during the family dinner about Michelle in front of Rachel because he wants to stir the pot. Rachel walks out in jealousy while Tony chases her and explains that Michelle is a robbery victim but also a desperately lonely woman who is abused by her ex-husband, and he was trying to help her.

He adds that Rachel is the only woman in his life since high school, but she asks whether it bothers him that she is the only woman he ever had sex with which he doesn't deny. Rachel asks whether their marriage is in trouble, and Tony answers no; it means that they are honest with each other which is a good thing.

Tony and Rachel are sleeping in the middle of the night when they are awakened by a phone call from Michelle. She whispers on the phone that there is someone, possibly her ex-husband, inside her house and begs Tony to come over. Tony suggests calling 911 instead because they will get there faster, but Michelle ignores his suggestion and keeps asking him to come. When Tony refuses, she disconnected the call and Rachel asks whether he wants to go, to which he answers no.

In the morning, Tony sees a burly man looking for Stan because apparently, he fixes tickets for dates with his girlfriend. Surprised, Tony directs the man that officer Stan Kelly is at a different police department in Yonkers. Before he can yell at Stan, Irv informs him that Michelle is hospitalized because someone broke into her house last night and beat her up.

At the Eastbridge County Hospital, Tony visits Michelle who is black and blue. The commissioner apologizes to her and asks whether her ex-husband beat her, but she doesn't answer. He tells her to file some charges against her ex-husband, but she refuses because she loves him. Michelle says that she doesn't know how to make friends so she always seems to come up too strong to everyone, and wants her ex-husband to love her. Tony advises her to defend her life whenever her ex-husband beats her up; maybe kick him or scratch him or at least get a restraining order against him.

At the Eastbridge Police Department, Jeff confronts Tony that he has no right to order him to take a shower because it is against his religion. Tony says that he doesn't care about his religion, but only basic hygiene and the welfare of others. Jeff informs his boss that he's filing a grievance with the union, and Tony encounters that he will file a suit against him for being smelly.

Tony visits Michelle at home when he sees a man walking inside the house, and deduces that it's his ex-husband, Richard. The commissioner serves him a restraining order but the man smirks and walks into his house while she says that her ex-husband sent her flowers to apologize for what he did to her, and promised that he would never hit her again. Michelle says that she revokes her complaint and report, and then Richard closes the door in Tony's face.

At the police department, Tony baits Stan to admit his mistake by telling him that he has an Internal Affairs assignment for him: the commish got a tip that one of the cops in the department is fixing tickets, and it is against the law. Stan is nervous hearing it because it was him who fixed some tickets especially after hearing his boss explain that the cop might be corrupt. He immediately confesses about the ticket-fixing because he wanted to impress girls as he isn't a smooth guy, so he apologizes. Stan decides his punishment by assigning himself to traffic duty for a week.

Meanwhile, Rachel visits the beauty salon where Michelle works and was about to confront her when she sees one of her eyes is bruised, so she pretends to be a client who wants to get her hair done. She doesn't say that she is Tony's wife and uses Metzger as her last name. Michelle claims that she had an accident and hit her eye but Rachel knows the truth.

In the office, Tony turns the heater up and tied the guest's chairs together for the meeting with Mr. Manwaring the union representative, and officer Jeff Hartley. The commissioner asks whether there's a problem against him, and as Mr. Manwaring explains that Tony shouldn't interfere with a man's right to practice his religion, he tries to get away from Jeff because he smells so bad, but can't because their chairs are tied together. The man coughs and gasps for air as he smells Jeff, and tells him that he won't be representing the smelly cop anymore. Jeff tries to explain the concept of smell, but Mr. Manwaring bolts out from the office, and Tony wins the argument so his officer has no choice but to take a shower from now on.

Rachel admits that she went to see Michelle at her beauty salon and tells her husband that the woman had a black eye. It prompts Tony to go to see her at her workplace and advice her to stand up to herself. He also advises her to make Richard a breakfast and tell him to stop hurting her or she will leave him, and if he gets violent, she needs to defend herself.

In the morning, as she makes him breakfast and tries to talk to him, he gets defensive and immediately hit her. Before he can hurt her any further, she kicks and scratch him, and screams. Tony is sitting outside in his car when he heard the scream and immediately help her. He goes inside and sees Richard lying on the floor in pain, so Tony arrests him. Michelle thanked Tony for giving her the courage to stand up for herself.

At home, Tony informs Rachel that Michelle is pressing charges against Richard and he sent some flowers from The Scali to let her know that she has friends who support her. When they go inside, the storm door falls and breaks.

### Notes

Actress Teryl Rothery played a salon worker in this episode. She is also played different characters in many different episodes.

### 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
* Kimberly Beck as Michelle Carver
* Peter Outerbridge as Jeff Hartley
* James Stazkiel as Hector Hurley
* Jason Schombing as Ronnie Lopez
* Nicholas Lea as Ricky Caruso
* Alex Bruhanski as Irv Wallerstein
* Babs Chula as Helen Stags
* Pat Bermel as Mike Rose
* David Paymer as Arnie Metzger

#### Guest Starring

* Debbie Podowski as Shelly
* Andrew Wheeler as Richard Carver
* Alvin Sanders as Mr. Manwaring
* Peter Kelamis as Ticket Clerk
* Teryl Rothery as Salon Worker
* Thomas Mitchell as Jock