Back at the station, Mitchell is going through a file cabinet with fellow detective Tyzack. Suddenly, the Chief walks in and rips a piece of paper out of Tyzack's hand, and tells Tyzack to get lost so he can chew out Mitchell some more.

The Chief asks Mitchell what he was doing, and Mitchell stupidly admits he was going after Deaney. Geez, at least make up some kind of lie or something.

The Chief finally lets Mitchell know that Deaney is wanted by the FBI for "every federal law violation in the book", and that the Bureau has been trying to nail him for over two years. Of course, this is the first we've heard of it. You'd think that info like this would have come in handy earlier. Anyway, Chief says Deaney is FBI property, Mitchell gets chewed out, Mitchell leaves.

At his bachelor pad, Mitchell chugs a can of beer while looking over some paperwork. Also, for no clear reason, he's got about a dozen copies of a black and white headshot of Cummings [?]. Let's just say this film doesn't exactly rival Adam-12 for its realistic portrayal of cops.

The doorbell rings, so Mitchell tosses all his paperwork under the couch [?] and grabs his revolver. He opens the door (which has an "Absolutely no solicitors" sign on it, hardy har har) and comes face to face with Linda Evans as the prostitute Greta. She simply tells him, "I'm your new friend." Mitchell's somewhat surprised, but stuffs his gun into his jeans and lets her in anyway. Hey, you never turn down a free hooker!

Some light romantic music starts as the camera slowly pans up her body. Now, Linda Evans isn't a total dog, but she also isn't what I'd call that attractive, so this just seems bizarre.

Mitchell offers her a drink, with her choices being "Beer and... vodka." Huh, I would have pegged Mitchell as a pure beer guy. And I'm really sorry to keep harping on this, but did anyone making this movie really think we could get behind a hero like this? I mean, this was the time when William Conrad's overweight, greedy detective Cannon was popular, but this really seems to be taking things too far.

As Mitchell goes into the kitchen, Greta helps herself to an issue of Playboy lying on the couch (he didn't think to hide this when he hid the paperwork?). Mitchell offers her a can of beer, but she says he's "got me wrong" and that she wants it in a glass instead. Mitchell then gets an amused look, like only filthy rich people use glasses, and pours beer into one until it overflows onto Greta's knee [!].

He offers to get her a towel, but she asks him if he wants to lick it off [!!]. The scariest part is that this is almost word-for-word identical to lines exchanged between William Hurt and Kathleen Turner a few years later in Body Heat. So, if you ever wanted to know what that film would have been like with two unappealing leads that had zero chemistry between them, look no further.

Anyway, he gives her a towel, and as she wipes the beer off, a large bulge starts moving down the front of Mitchell's jeans. Just as I'm saying "Dear God!" his gun falls out of his pants leg [!]. He picks up the gun, then finds Greta staring at the lower part of his body, where presumably another bulge is forming. He asks, "You want me to take my clothes off?" Oh no. Please God, no. He asks who sent her here, and she says, "What's the matter, don't you like presents at Christmas? Unless, that is, you're um..." Mitchell laughingly replies, "No-o-o-o, ma'am!" And the two start making out.

Then we cut to the two of them lying in bed. They've just finished doing whatever it is they did, I don't really wanna think about it. Mitchell is nuzzling her foot [!], and Greta is lying on her stomach while looking at the centerfold in another issue of Playboy.

She asks Mitchell the brain-splittingly bizarre question, "You really think she's an anarchist?" Mitchell doesn't reply and just keeps macking on her foot. "Maybe I need a gimmick or something," Greta says. "They've got her here with a bomb in her hand." I have no idea what any of this is about, and I'm definitely not re-watching this scene to figure it all out.

He then sits up, smacks her on the behind, and again asks who sent her. She just stares at him for about ten minutes. Finally, Mitchell gets up (thankfully, wearing a sheet around him) and goes over and dumps her purse out on the counter. He finds a bag of pot in there, but just tosses it aside and looks at the ID in her wallet, which is where he finally finds out her name. As he's doing this, Greta comes up behind him and starts holding his man boobs! Yuck!

Greta walks away, giving us a brief glimpse of Linda Evans' rear décolletage as she puts her dress back on. She says, "If the client calls, tell him I gave you a good time!" Mitchell then blandly says, "Oh, sure, one hundred percent." Something tells me Mitchell has a lot of experience in this kind of situation. Of course, she never even said who "the client" is, but it would seem Mitchell has already guessed who it is.

What I'm getting is that either Cummings or Deaney sent Greta over so that Mitchell would stop pestering one or both of them. Although you have to wonder why no one explicitly told him this. Of course, Mitchell has no intention of leaving either one of them alone, but he slept with Greta anyway. It's official, Mitchell is now the most unlikable cop ever. Move over, Mark Fuhrman!

We waste time watching Greta put her boots back on, then Mitchell turns and asks, "Hey, what about me? How'd I rate?" Can she use negative numbers? Greta replies, "I never thought about you that way!" [?] and kisses him and walks out.

The next day, Mitchell's back on the stakeout as he tails Cummings to a public park. Benton the henchman lets Cummings out and he walks over to a bench to talk to the eminent Gallano.

Gallano's car is parked right in front of Cummings' car, and Benton and Gallano's driver give each other "What's up" looks while leaning on their cars. We notice that they're both wearing goofy Andy Capp-style hats. Boy, talk about a faux pas. You know Gallano's henchman must be all like, hey, if I'd known you were wearing that, I wouldn't have worn it myself!

Gallano talks with Cummings, and being a big mob boss and everything, he naturally has an Italian accent. And we're talking about a really thick, broad Italian accent where he's about this far from saying, "That's a spicy-a meatball-a!"

Gallano says he had a visit from Mistretta, who was very unhappy about Cummings' refusal to help out with the big heroin shipment. Cummings takes some offense to the fact that the shipment was hijacked, saying, "If you want drugs, you can grow 'em, you can buy 'em, [dramatic pause] but stealing's greedy." Okay, I give up trying to follow everyone's motivations.

Gallano reminds Cummings that he owes his high position around town to the Gallano crime family, but Cummings still refuses to touch the heroin. Hey, I think I saw this in a Francis Ford Coppola movie once.

Cummings goes back to his car and drives off, and Mitchell dutifully follows him. Naturally, Cummings is well aware of Mitchell following him. He tells Benton to pull over on the side of the road so he can get out and ask Mitchell to knock it off, saying he's "getting too heavy to carry!" I'll say. He tells Mitchell to "get lost" but Mitchell refuses. Cummings says, "I just thought I'd give you the chance." Then he gets back in his car. Man, that was a useless scene.

Cummings asks Benton if his "friend" is ready, and Benton assures him that he is. (Benton has a friend?) He keeps driving, deciding to make Mitchell's life easier by going really slow and even using his turn signals as he merges onto the freeway. And here we get the movie's big chase sequence. The pure excitement is mitigated somewhat by the fact that both cars are literally reaching top speeds of maybe 30 miles per hour.

Not helping either is the score. The music starts out with a percussionist pounding on tympani drums with a "duh, duh... duh, duh, duh..." beat, and I swear it sounds exactly like the opening theme to The People's Court. Then we go into the main Mitchell theme, and until now I didn't think disco-esque 70's action music could be placid, but this little piece of music proves me wrong. Clearly, it belongs in a promotional film.

As the two cars head for the hills, Benton's "friend" shows up in a red Mustang. As we watch Friend of Benton downshift and block Mitchell off, Cummings continues to show no reaction at all, hinting that Martin Balsam decided not to waste his talents. Also, as the scene continues it becomes increasingly obvious that Mitchell should easily be able to pass the Mustang and catch up to Cummings.

Friend of Benton downshifts again [?] and suddenly Mitchell is right next to him, so Mitchell rams the Mustang and smashes its headlight. Then, in a nifty little continuity flub, the headlight is fixed in the next shot. Mitchell rams the car again, smashing the headlight again. Then in the next shot the headlight is fixed again [!!]. I can understand a misplaced shot resulting in one of these continuity errors, but two?

They uselessly go around a bulldozer, then Friend of Benton finally succeeds in forcing Mitchell off the road. Mitchell's car slides right down a hill, coming this close to flipping over, but sadly does not. Mitchell pulls himself out of the driver's side window, unharmed. He then hunkers down on the roof of his car looking crestfallen.

Okay, so what was Cummings trying to accomplish here? Obviously, since Mitchell wasn't killed off, he's just going to keep following Cummings. And what's more, Mitchell is now going to be more certain than ever that Cummings is up to something.