EPISODE 18

Very explosive episode. No ... no explosives as in dynamite but explosive as in emotional kind, all courtesy of the usually cool calm Vincent.



Anyway, there is this funny case at the beginning. Remember that woman who ran away from her marriage? The husband thought the dating agency and his wife cheated him, when in actual fact the woman really loved him but that man was too in love with his wig! It was very funny as the woman described about her husband's shame of his baldness and how when sleeping he was wearing a wig, making love also wearing a wig! In the end of course their problems solved as the husband said he will never wear a wig and the wife loved him for he was. A very happy reconciliation.



Unfortunately for Ling and Vincent, that was not the case. Vincent made Ling promise to come to the cafe and reconcile with him, Ling went after much persuasion from Jessica and thanks to some good old memories of the good old days, until she saw Vincent in there (Vincent didn't see her) and the betrayal came back and Ling realised maybe, just maybe she never really loved him quite enough to forgive him. She actually didn't feel hate anymore, just the feeling wasn't there anymore. Ben and Jess hoped to see them back together again but well ...



At the meantime Vincent got a call that his dad was in hospital after fainting from high blood pressure induced by a complaint brought by a drug dealer that he was hoping to catch all these while (and did catched) and the complaint was Vincent's dad falsified evidence to nab this scum. Vincent naturally believed his father who looked rather troubled.



Meanwhile Ben had a case where this young man called Flying Chicken (Fei Kai) was nabbed for murder which he said he never committed though he did have an argument with the victim before because when the murder was taking place, he was at that very same drug dealer's house picking up a drug package for delivery. Ben said who will believe him and Flying Chicken remembered when he was running out a policeman tried to stop him, and he was running and out of desperation he threw that package somewhere, came back later and that that package was missing. Then that man fainted, taken to a hospital and he identified Cheuk Sir as the policeman.



Now Ben was in a dilemma and he confided in Vincent, hoping Vincent could shed some light in this dilemma. You see that very same missing drug was of the same type, weight and quantity as the one recovered from teh drug dealer's house by Cheuk Sir. Ben deduced Cheuk Sir took that package and put it in that house, thus pinning the blame on that drug dealer. Now that drug dealer was no saint, Cheuk Sir was an excellent policeman but one young man was accused of a murder he didn't commit and Cheuk Sir was his only alibi (witness). Vincent begged Ben to find other ways to save his client, to leave his dad out of it. Then Vincent went home, and his dad actually told him sometimes he had to bend the law to catch the ones who broke the law. Vincent then knew Cheuk Sir did do what Ben said he did.



Ben then met Flying Chicken and told him to be honest, that he didn't do this just to get himself out and who is the best alibi if not a police and more so this police got complained by that very same drug dealer. Flying Chicken swore he didn't know about that complaint.



Meanwhile, Ling told Ben he should do what he must to save his client, that firnedship should take a back seat to justice. I agree, but then Ling said friendship can always be mended later. Now now Ling you're so naive. The day Ben do what he plans to do, that will be the end of Vincent and Ben's friendship. Anyway Ben planned to put Cheuk Sir on the stand as an alibi, and that means Cheuk Sir will had to explain about the drug and could implicate him in the fabrication of evidence.



If you ask me, there must be another way. Even if not Cheuk Sir can always deny taking that package of drugs since anybody could have taken it. Flying Chicken didn't see Cheuk Sir take it!



But this is TVB, justice, however unjust must prevail.



You see Cheuk Sir is one good policeman, except for that one mistake done out of desperation. Vincent told Ben for friendship sake, please let your client fry. But not in that same sentence but he did say "I thought our friendship is more important than your client who is nothing but a worthless criminal". True but this worthless criminal didn't do what he was accused of. He may be a drug dealer, but he ain't no murderer.



Then Jess big mouth told Vincent a hawker can confirm Chicken's story as the policeman bumped into this hawker and that was why the policeman couldn't catch Chicken.



Vincent found the hawker first and before he could say anything Ben arrived and in one of the best scene of this series, Ben scolded Vincent for trying to talk the witness out of attending trial. Vincent accused Ben of being jealous iof his success and that he was trying to win Vincent. Many hurtful accusations were thrown by Vincent to Ben and then Vincent heard Cheuk Sir told him to stop. Cheuk Sir was there to give a bottle of medicine to that hawker and as a father to a son, this father told his son he must be punished and he did do wrong and that he didn't want his son to throw away his future for him. Then Cheuk Sir walked away, Vincent followed and more heart to heart talk. Liu Kai Chi was excellent in here and Sammul Chan was clearly the lesser of an actor here. Anyway son told father he can't just stand by and let his father go to jail whilst father said he felt guilty over what he did and that Chicken was innocent. So that was that. And father said son should listen to Ben who was a true friend for stopping him from going down the same road like father. Vincent then full of hatred said to himself; "FRIEND?!"



So what happens? Tomorrow looks mighty interesting as we see Vincent going down the path of anger.



I pity Vincent. I can understand all the hurtful things he said to Ben, I can understand Ben's predicament, I can't understand Ling's calmness and her rather bland role in today's episode. I am beginning to think Ling is nothing but a vase, because she has nothing to do, no purpose except to be the woman loved by 2 men. Jess had more things to do in fact.



I like to see Vincent in today's episode, because his reaction was very very real. I would have said what he said, did what he done and at the end of the day we see a selfish Vincent, an angry Vincent and a very guilty ridden Vincent, all the very human Vincent as the more he tried to help his father, going against Ben and Ling. He's so real. Unfortunately Sammul Chan was inexperienced in showing such conflicting emotions and guilt. That scene between Liu Kai Chi and Sammul Chan showed a master at his craft and a novice inexperienced in his craft.



Raymond Lam did well, as he displayed such conflicts, as to what Ben should do. What Ben did wasn't wrong. What Vincent did was wrong but not understandable. You can't quantify who was more or less wrong because we are human, we make mistakes sometimes. Vincent will make more of course because there must be an unreasonable person in here to push Ling to Ben and who better than the self assured, over confident Vincent now suffering from confidence crisis thanks to dad?



If you ask me, that Chicken guy is screwed for life even if he gets out. Imagine Cheuk Sir is a very respected senior police, and he framed a crook that everybody hated. So within the police force there must be some brotherhood and so this Chicken guy will probably get arrested more than others.



At the meantime if Cheuk Sir goes to jail, he too will have a hard time in there because he put criminals in there and now he is a prisoner, don't you think there might be some revenge in there as well?



What is wonderful about today's episode is the realness in the exchange between Ben and Vincent, the mean words and all. Very real, very emotional, fans of Vincent will not like hearing Vincent said what he said because all the words he uttered towards Ben were ugly to the core and yet again, real, very real. And the best is it has been a long long time a policeman in a series (apart from Vigilante Force) which showed a policeman involved in some shady deals or framing of others. Not positive things but I welcome this because it happens. What is not real is Ling's naiveness. Even Jess knew Vincent will be very much affected by this and some part of Ben realised his friendship with Vincent was all over. Ling of course was from another world today.



It's just not fair a good cop like Cheuk Sir had to pay for his one time sin but then Chicken was innocent. A good man and especially a good cop will never ever let an innocent man rot in jail for a crime he did not commit.



Anyway I may miss half of tomorrow's episode because my sis wants to watch the most unreal series on TV today, Alias. Sighhhhh .....