The BEST episodes of Miami Vice season 5
Every episode of Miami Vice season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Miami Vice season 5!
Miami Vice centers around the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), two undercover detectives from the Miami Police Department’s vice squad battling against drug trafficking and prostitution in the city’s seamy underworld. Its use of New Wave music and colorful Italian men’s fashion was groundbreaking and the series had a defining influence on the popular culture of the 1980s.
#1 - The Lost Madonna
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/17/1989
Crockett & Tubbs help an NYPD detective retrieve a stolen 15th century Madonna statue in the possession of a mob family.
#2 - Over the Line
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/28/1989
In the midst of working an undercover assignment, Crockett and Tubbs come across a clandestine vigilante group of frustrated law enforcement officers working within the department. Aware of Sonny and Rico's own frustration with how easily the bad guys seem to circumvent the law, the vigilante organization offers them an opportunity to join in. Lieutenant Castillo encourages them to accept the offer and work undercover in ferreting out the identities of everyone involved and to make sure that no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, that is too tall an order for his detectives to accomplish successfully.
#3 - Victims of Circumstance
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/5/1989
Holocaust survivors are being murdered in Miami. Crockett and Switek infiltrate a White-supremacist group that might be responsible.
#4 - Line of Fire
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/16/1988
Crockett & Tubbs reluctantly comply with an FBI request to guard their key witness in a drug overlord's trial.
#5 - Freefall
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/21/1989
Crockett & Tubbs embark on what they see as a suicide mission. They are recruited by a Special Drug Taskforce to escort the corrupt dictator of Costa Morada, a fictional Revolution ravaged Latin American country. Gen. Manuel Borbon has promised to reveal the members of the most powerful South American drug cartel. Crockett & Tubbs are faced with what might be their final showdown.
#6 - Redemption in Blood
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/11/1988
As now drug-lord Crockett's memory returns, Tubbs feels his partner has gone bad and must be destroyed.
#7 - Bad Timing
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/2/1988
Ordered to take time off, Crockett's vacation is cut short when he is kidnapped by 3 homicidal prison escapees.
#8 - To Have and to Hold (a.k.a. Second Chance)
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/10/1989
While undercover, Tubbs falls for the widow of a slain drug kingpin. Crockett must leave to help his son deal with the pregnancy of his remarried mother.
#9 - Miami Squeeze
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/17/1989
The irresponsible son of a fierce, anti-drug-minded Congresswoman jeopardizes his mother's political career when he incurs the wrath of a British drug lord by stealing his shipment of drugs.
#10 - Hard Knocks
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/20/1989
Switek sinks into drinking and gambling when thugs convince him to talk a friend's son, a major college quarterback, into throwing a game.
#11 - Hostile Takeover
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/4/1988
Still thinking he is really Sonny Burnett, Crockett starts a war between the crime family he has joined and a rival clan.
#12 - Heart of Night
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/18/1988
Castillo grapples with emotions while protecting his ex-wife from a drug kingpin trying to kill her current husband.
#13 - Asian Cut
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/13/1989
Crockett & Tubbs use Trudy as a decoy to lure a sadistic serial killer who preys on call girls.
#14 - The Cell Within
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/10/1989
A dark, chilling episode in which Tubbs is held prisoner - along with a drug dealer, a young prostitute and a prison psychologist - in the personal dungeon (complete with electric chair) of a supposedly reformed, freed killer who he once put behind bars. One of the highlights of Season 5.
#15 - Borrasca
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/1988
Tubbs & Castillo attempt to intervene in a drug deal in which government agents want no police interference.
#16 - World of Trouble
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 6/14/1989
Former mob boss Al Lombard, who was believed to be dead, returns with a different perspective on his life, to try to convince his beloved son to stay out of the mafia family business.
#17 - Jack of All Trades
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/3/1989
Crockett's cousin Jack, the black sheep of the family, gets him mixed up in a scheme. Jack must repay a $50,000 debt.
#18 - Too Much, Too Late
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 1/25/1990
Tubbs' old flame Valerie returns to Miami to assist an old friend and her goddaughter. Tubbs wants to renew his relationship with Valerie, but she is intent on rescuing her friend from the threats of a drug dealer.
#19 - Fruit of the Poison Tree
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/3/1989
Crockett & Tubbs investigate an attorney who defends drug dealers, then steals and resells their drugs.
#20 - Leap of Faith
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 6/28/1989
Agent Joey Harden returns to assist Crockett as part of a new division, Youth Crime Unit, that was formed by a previous partner. The YCU investigates a college professor that has created a new designer drug, Bliss.
#21 - Miracle Man
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 6/21/1989
A vigilante believes he is a superhero, Miracle Man. His efforts to rid Miami of "drug dealing slim" intefers with Tubbs & Switek's operations.