The WORST episodes of Wiseguy
Every episode of Wiseguy ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Wiseguy!
Vinnie Terranova does time in a New Jersey penitentiary to set up his undercover role as an agent for the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau) of the United States. His roots in a traditional Italian city neighborhood form the underlying dramatic base throughout the series, bringing him into conflict with his conservative mother and other family members while acting undercover as syndicate enforcer.
#1 - Changing Houses
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1990
Santana goes after a group of high school drug dealers who shot his niece after she witnessed the murder of her high school principal.
#2 - Dead Right
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/8/1990
Hillary asks Frank and Santana for help in a lawsuit involving defective aircraft parts.
#3 - Point of No Return
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/8/1990
When his brother-in-law disappears, Santana is drawn into a web of police corruption.
#4 - Witness Protection for the Archangel Lucifer
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/8/1990
Arnado Guzman, hiding out in El Salvador, contacts his trusted "son," Michael Santana, to bring him funds, and Santana concocts a plan to bring him back to justice.
#5 - La Mina
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/1/1990
Santana learns the details of Guzman's money laundering operation and comes face to face with the drug lord who cost him his job as a Federal prosecutor.
#6 - The Gift
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/24/1990
Santana impresses Guzman with his trustworthiness and finds himself getting deeper into Guzman's operations, a move that endangers his father and Dahlia.
#7 - Black Gold
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/17/1990
The arrival of a shipload of Haitian "boat people" in Miami inadvertently interferes in Santana and McPike's plans to catch Guzman in an illegal act, and opens up a new case.
#8 - Dirty Little Wars
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/14/1988
With Mel and Susan out of the picture, Frank considers the case closed. However, Vinnie wants to find out where Roger fits into it all and goes to Vancouver to find him, but instead, he witnesses Preet's murder and links it to Herb. Frank and Vinnie go to Stockton, where Roger is training mercenaries for the coup. Roger kidnaps Frank and tells Vinnie he'll be released after the operation, then Vinnie tells Roger that Herb is using him. Roger overhears Lelond assuring a major corporation that they can get all the cheap labor they need once he takes over Isle Pavot and realizes the coup is just an excuse for Herb to regain acceptance in Washington. Roger works with Frank and Vinnie to set up Herb and sabotage the coup.
#9 - Squeeze
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/8/1988
After his munitions operation starts falling apart, Mel orders Vinnie to set up a meet with the mob to use his immense cocaine trade to regain financial power. Still suspicious of Vinnie, Roger has Herb check him out and learns that Vinnie is working for the OCB. Vinnie takes Mel to Don Aiuppo, who arranges for the drug trafficking to be overseen by two "third generation" gangsters who will stop at nothing, including threatening Carlotta, to insure the deal doesn't fall through.
#10 - To Die in Bettendorf
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/17/1990
Steelgrave's former accountant, Sid Royce, is suffering in the Witness Protection life Frank assigned him. When his wife leaves, he snaps and decides to get revenge against Frank for destroying his life. Jenny agrees to have dinner with Frank, then invites him back home. Their romantic evening is destroyed when Sid pulls a gun on them. Jenny talks Sid into letting Frank go by convincing him she's his missing wife. Frank kills Sid in front of Jenny, ending whatever chance they might have had at reconciling.
#11 - Pilot (1)
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1987
Vinnie (Ken Wahl) is released from prison where he has been for two years to establish his cover. He meets his boss, Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks) and gets to see his coach and mentor, Jerry Greco (Robert Miranda). Greco is killed and Vinnie demands to be put in to finish the investigation. He uses his ingenuity to get a foothold in the Steelgrave crime family, but it will take a while to finish this job.
#12 - The Reunion
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1989
Vinnie attends his 15-year high school reunion and bumps into two old friends, one a mob lawyer and one a detective. Vinnie is torn between telling Denise he's a cop and protecting his cover. Frank tells Vinnie that Denise has bugged his house, making Vinnie furious and determined to teach Denise a lesson. Denise and Mooch get married.
#13 - The Birthday Surprise
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1987
Vinnie nearly blows his cover when he becomes obsessed with finding out who killed his cousin, causing Frank to threaten him with dismissal. Frank desperately wants Vinnie to concentrate on nailing the Zaratzos, who are trying to arrange a drug smuggling deal with Sonny, because they killed one of Frank's agents.
#14 - One on One
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/1987
After several deals go sour, Sonny starts suspecting Vinnie may be a plant. Frank orders Vinnie to drop the case when he finds out the local police have an informer in Sonny's operations. Sid has Frank picked up and tortured, but Vinnie and undercover cop Karen Malloy rescue him. Karen's disappearance points the finger at Sid as the leak.
#15 - A Deal's a Deal
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/29/1987
When Sonny refuses to let Joey out of his contract, the singer goes to Mahoney to ask him to speak on his behalf. Mahoney tells Sonny he's losing his power, so Sonny has two crooked cops rough Joey up, unaware that one of them is a loose cannon who crushes the singer's voice box. After Frank interrogates them, the cops follow Frank and get pictures of him meeting with Vinnie, which they plan to sell to Sonny. Since Vinnie is now acting as Sonny's "right hand," Joey Bags insists that he be formally initiated into la famiglia. A confrontation between Joey, the cops and the mob bosses ends up with Joey and the cops dead, and Frank switching the photo of him and Vinnie with one showing him meeting with Patrice.
#16 - Fascination for the Flame
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/4/1988
Convinced an associate's bride-to-be is a Fed, Mel insists he postpone the wedding. Insulted, Paco brings up a death squad to hit Mel, then arranges to kidnap Susan to force Mel to give him all of their drug action. Vinnie and Roger rescue Susan. Frank finds out Paco's bride was an undercover CIA agent.
#17 - Smokey Mountain Requiem
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/11/1988
Vinnie has second thoughts about the case and tells Frank he wants out. When he goes to Mel to resign, Mel offers him a chance to take over his worldwide drug operation. The catch: Vinnie must go to Tennessee and take it back from the middle men who have seized control.
#18 - Player to Be Named Now
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/8/1988
Mel's desire to buy a baseball franchise is two-fold: he wants to play on it, and he wants to take it away from an old business associate who cheated him in a Mexican drug deal. Vinnie is fighting his growing feelings for Susan while trying to discourage Jacqueline from getting involved again with all the debauchery on the Hotei.
#19 - The Merchant of Death
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/25/1988
When some of his munitions contacts begin drying up, Mel decides to blackmail a French Deputy Minister of Defense into supplying him with the weapons he needs. After setting Vinnie up to be arrested for espionage, Susan makes it up to him by letting him go to bed with her. When Vinnie mysteriously comes up with the documents Mel needs, he arouses Roger's suspicions.
#20 - Blood Dance
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/15/1988
With Herb becoming more insistent about their agenda, Roger schemes to get Mel to fund the military coup of Isle Pavot. Unfortunately, Mel is convinced that Cabra, the man Herb wants to put into power, has put a voodoo curse on him and orders Vinnie to find a woman who can remove the curse. Realizing that Mel is a major stumbling block to the mission, Roger sends him over the edge by smashing the crystal that contains Mel's soul. Despondent, Mel asks Susan to kill him, and she does.
#21 - Phantom Pain
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/22/1988
Susan is arrested for Mel's murder and while she's in jail, she tells Vinnie she's pregnant with their baby. Roger sets Vinnie up for Mel's murder, then sets about driving Susan mad so he can gain control of her vast fortune to fund the Isle Pavot coup. Frank trails Roger to Herb. Vinnie finds out Susan isn't pregnant. Susan goes insane and has to be institutionalized.
#22 - School of Hard Knox
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/2/1988
Vinnie hesitantly goes back to work for the OCB under the promise they will help find Pete's killer, but Daryl is more interested in getting his star agent to work on a "real" assignment. Ritchie digs himself in deeper with the Pilgrims of Promise when he uses Vinnie's car to help rob an armored car. Depressed over Pete's death, Vinnie turns to Angie for consolation, but they both agree they don't want to risk their special friendship by becoming lovers. Vinnie talks Daryl into giving him weapons to sell to the Pilgrims, then he throws the bust when he sees they have Ritchie with them.
#23 - Revenge of the Mud People
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/9/1988
Unbeknownst to Vinnie, his car was used in the robbery where an off-duty cop was killed, leading to his arrest and brutalization at the hands of the NYPD. Frank bails him out, then reluctantly lets Vinnie continue his pursuit of Knox Pooley. Vinnie tells Ritchie he's a cop and asks him to help him gather evidence against the Pilgrims. Vinnie goes to a Pilgrim rally and stumbles across the truck that was used to kill Pete, then agrees to a meet with Stan in the hopes of tying Pooley to it, leading to Stan and Ritchie's arrests.
#24 - Last of the True Believers
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/16/1988
Knox Pooley realizes Calvin is insane and kicks him out, causing Calvin to go off the deep end and take a famous black leader hostage. Richie becomes disenchanted when he realizes Pooley was only in it for the money. Paul Beckstead takes over as director of OCB when Daryl cracks under the pressure and is dismissed for making obscene phone calls.
#25 - Next of Kin
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/21/1988
Eli impatiently awaits news from Sri Lanka, where a terrorist's bomb exploded at David's hotel. Vinnie is hit by a taxi, and Frank talks John Henry Raglin into taking over the case when he learns that Vinnie can't return to work for awhile. Eli speaks out against Pinzolo at a fund raising dinner. Pinzolo visits Vinnie in the hospital and Vinnie suggests his partner can take over for him, opening the door for Raglin.