Do You See What I See

**Do You See What I See** is the fourth episode of season one of the series featured on the ABC channel, *The Commish*. The episode aired on October 5, 1991. However, the episode was shown as the second episode during the airtime, while the real second episode called ***A Matter of Life or Death 2*** was shown as the sixth episode.

### Synopsis

The commissioner sets out to trap a serial rapist in a Santa Claus mask who's been terrorizing the city.

### Plot

##### Cold Open

A socialite named Mrs. Morton is demanding to see Commissioner Tony Scali to his secretary Helen Stags because one of the officers gave her a parking ticket, so she wants Tony to handle it and she expects a special treatment.

Before letting her into his office, Tony removes the chairs and hides them outside his office via another door.

As Mrs. Morton walks in, she has to stand facing Tony and speak about her trouble. She is offended that she can't even sit down to talk about her problem but gives the ticket anyway to Tony, and she manages to call him stupid and deaf. Tony then calls Sergeant John Randazzo to arrest Mrs. Morton for soliciting a felony because she asked him to fix ticket to a commissioner. The socialite is shocked and immediately back-tracks her statement, saying that she wants to pay the fee. Tony pretends to laugh at the misunderstanding but sends her away.

##### Story

A man who is wearing a Santa Claus mask is breaking into a house and is going to rob some jewelry and rape the homeowner Sheila Lane who was sleeping. The Santa Claus man threatens the woman and even hit her, but she manages to press the alarm button. The burglar runs away hearing the alarm, and during the escape, he steps on a puddle of paint and his shoe made an imprint. Officers John Hibbs and Mike Rose are sleeping in their cruiser but immediately wake up when they heard the dispatch, and they check out the house to see the woman is hurt but okay nonetheless while the Santa Claus burglar is gone.

Irv Wallerstein discusses the case with Tony because the man has been burglarizing and raping women for a while wearing a Santa Claus mask, and he calls it The Santa Claus Rapist. Tony objects that the rapist is being called that because it ruins the image of Santa Claus, and asks his Chief of Detectives to search the ViCAP (the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) database whether the rapist exists in other states. He also asks Irv to check out any burglars' shoe imprints and compare them to the imprint they have.

Tony explains that there are two kinds of rapists according to Psychologists: *Outside Rapists* and *Inside Rapists*. Outside Rapist targets an area, like a particular place in a park. Inside Rapist is doing something else; he is a rapist of opportunity. He is doing something else, like burglary, but then sees a woman who is alone and jumps them, basically rape of opportunity.

Helen reminds Tony that he has a physical examination at the doctor, which he hates. At Dr. Warton's office, Tony is doing many checkups, and the doctor explains that the commissioner is in a bad shape; his cholesterol is high, his blood pressure is high, his heart is racing, and concludes that his general condition is poor, and if he keeps this up, he will die soon to many diseases. Tony makes jokes about his health, but his doctor won't have it and prescribed a heart medicine.

At the Eastbridge Police Department parking lot, Mike asks Tony what's he doing and the commish replies that he's doing MBWA (Management By Walking Around) as he inspects his precinct. Mike tells Tony that the car patrol is losing its suspension, so he calls Joey Sanderson to fix it. As they check the trunk of the car, he finds pillows and blankets and realizes that both John and Mike are usually sleeping during their midnight tour. He confronts his employees and chides them for sleeping on duty and failing to capture the Santa Claus Rapist, but they defend themselves that they are so tired during tours because during the day they have to attend courts.

John manages to take a jab at Tony by saying that the commissioner doesn't remember how it feels to do midnight tours and how tiring it is, and calls his boss very old. Tony accepts the challenge and will be patrolling with different officers for a week for midnight tours wearing the blue uniform and even still work in the morning which horrified John and Mike.

Sergeant Randazzo introduces Officer Scali aka the commissioner who is now a patrolman to the bullpen and signs him to partnered up with Officer Ricky Caruso. It's an awkward situation especially knowing Ricky is such a hot-head, and when they answers a call for a domestic disturbance, Tony has to be delicate about it.

A burly man named Walter is trying to throw his wife out of a window of an apartment, but Tony calmly persuade him to surrender, until Ricky barges in and tries to subdue and arrest Walter. The man beat Ricky and Tony up, and they have to call other officers for help. Tony scolds Ricky for being a reckless officer and tells him that they need to be peace officers and arrest any suspect in a non-violent way instead being a gung-ho.

At home, Tony accuse Arnie Metzger for snooping at his medicine cabinet but he denies it and Rachel Scali defends her brother. Tony tells his brother in-law to stay away from his medicine cabinet, and Rachel asks his brother to go visit their other sister, Nancy Metzger. Meanwhile, to prove that Arnie was snooping, Tony calls his secretary Helen to buy some marbles so he can put it inside his medicine cabinet discreetly. Helen then informs him that Dr. Warton called and asked for Tony to call him tomorrow at his office, and Tony is worried whether there would be bad news.

Another night, and Tony is partnered up with Officer Carmela Pagan, who is not happy that she has to take a midnight tour patrol with her boss. He asks whether he did something wrong, but she only answers that out of 6 patrolwomen, they chose her to ride with the commish so he could check on the troops. Carmela is angry that it seems she needs to prove to everyone else how hard she works even though she is the hardest working cop around because she's a woman. She wants to be a commissioner someday, but she questions whether she has a chance to be one, again, because she's a woman.

Tony then tells a story about how as a short guy, he couldn't be a cop because he was under the height expectant. So his father and brother used to pull and stretch him before going to bed, and they carried him to the recruitment office and he became a cop as he was tall enough. The point is, never give up of your dreams. Carmela thinks the story is bullshit, which makes her boss laugh. Their interaction is cut by the dispatcher that there's burglary in progress, so they proceed to go to the area.

Unfortunately when they arrived, the burglar has long gone, and the homeowner, named Marcy Cole, was raped. Tony and Carmela takes her to the hospital, where they are treated rudely by a doctor named Dr. Lowry, who at first refused to treat the woman. He blames the victim, even mouthed off to Tony and insults him as a low life cop, but Tony reveal himself as the commissioner and orders him to examine the woman. The Chief of Staff overheard the whole thing and apologize to Tony and Carmela, and the commish only reprimand him and asks him to be respectful to the victim.

Carmela watches the whole thing and say that she might learned something from Tony, and he replies that maybe they can learn from each other. At Mrs. Cole's house, Tony says that they need to have the woman confide and trust them to tell what happened, even when it's hard. Tony then politely having a discussion with her, not forcing her anything, and even respectfully asking her questions that won't intimidate or triggers her. Tony says that they are all in this together, and he will do everything in his power to catch the man who hurt her, in every step of the way.

Mrs. Cole mentions that the rapist already knew where the alarm is and where her rings are, so he was already targeted the place. She says the only people who had been in her house were a plumber and a termite inspector, but too afraid to say their names, so Tony tells her just to give the companies' names, and they will get a list of their employees and investigate the suspects without involving her. She is so grateful and thankful that both Tony and Carmela treating her with respect, she isn't afraid anymore.

Tony is having a hard time waking up in the morning because the lack of sleep, but he still manages to set a boobie-trap using marbles for his medicine cabinet so Arnie will get busted red-handed for snooping around. At his office, officer Stan Kelly and Sergeant Bill Frawley reports that they arrested a man named Samuel Hanes who was walking around during 2 AM while carrying a pillowcase full of cash. They printed his shoes and got a match, but Bill released the suspect because he thought the idea of printing someone's shoes were ridiculous. Tony is upset, but doesn't suspend the sergeant, only lectures him if next time the rapist rape another woman, Bill has take the victim to the hospital and explain to the victim's family that it was his sloppy police work that made someone got raped.

Stan tells Tony that the suspect is long gone after being released, but they manages to track down his workplace; a jewelry store. The manager there tells the commissioner that Samuel Hanes worked there as an appraisal and knew most of the places where they stored the precious jewelries, and the next house that he might be there, so the police decides to set a trap. When Samuel aka The Santa Claus Rapist takes the bait, Tony and the rest of the police squad arrests him.

Another trap is working perfectly at Tony's house when Arnie opens the medicine cabinet discreetly, only to have marbles noisy crumbling down and he's busted red-handed for snooping around.

During the last day of patrolling, Mike and John discovers Tony is sleeping in his car. Both officers decides not to tell anyone about it but smiles triumphally that they were right about how tiring midnight tours are even the commissioner can't handle it.

### Trivia

According to actor Michael Chiklis, the story about a man trying to throw his wife out of the window, is a true story. The story was based on Commissioner of New York City's Department of Correction, Anthony Schembri's real-life experience.

### 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
* Gina Belafonte as Carmela Pagan
* Alex Bruhanski as Irv Wallerstein
* Jo De Winter as Mrs. Morton
* John H. Brennan as John Randazzo
* Babs Chula as Helen Stags
* Phil Peters as Bill Frawley
* Nicholas Lea as Ricky Caruso
* David Paymer as Arnie Metzger

#### Guest Starring

* Ian Tracey as John Hibbs
* Pat Bermel as Mike Rose
* Hilary Strang as Marcy Cole
* French Tickner as Joe Halloran
* Don MacKay as Dr. Warton
* Andrew McIlroy as The Santa Claus Rapist / Samuel Hains
* Ann Warn Pegg as Clarissa
* Smithy Smith as Walter