Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001): Season 6, Episode 23 - Circle of Life - full transcript

When Joe Lopez, a convict, whose the father of one of Walker's students, whose on parole shows up, stirs up things for the boy. At the same time Walker is looking for a crew of armed robbers. He hopes that by elevating the value of the items stolen will get someone in the crew to come forward because he feels he's being cheated. At the same Lopez who has been staying in a half way house is approached by the crew to help them with a job. He tells Walker and offers to help him get them.

Bienvenidos.

We will seat you as soon
as there is a table ready,

and I promise you, it
will be worth the wait.

And thank you all for coming.

So many people,

and it's just the
first day of business.

It's a miracle.

It's no miracle, Mom.

People in this neighborhood
have always loved you.

This is their way of showing it.

They're putting their
money where their mouth is.

And this is just the lunch run.

You know, C.D., you might think
about getting some live music.

Not a bad idea, Alex.

A steel guitar to bring 'em in

and keep 'em eating.

You need a menu first, man.

Jimmy, I'll put my menu up

against anybody's.

No offense, ma'am.

No offense taken, C.D.

Uh, you better be careful
with those chilies, señor.

Those are habaneros from Sonora,

and, uh, super hot, man.

Oh, man, hot is my middle name.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Wait,
don't drink that.

It'll make it worse.

Makes it worse. Oh, my God.

Get the leche.

You can't tell him

a damn thing, I'll tell you.

Oh, God.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

You were warned.

Suffer. Oh, my God.

Everyone hit the deck!

Facedown!

Ain't no one's resisting.
We'll do whatever you say.

Anything to help, man.

Mmm, boy.

Hot sauce, Trivette?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Keep your faces down!

Keep 'em down!

Don't even look at me.

I'll turn you guys
into dog food.

A minute, 30 seconds.

Right! You read that, Control?

I read you, Mr. H.

One minute, 30 elapsed.

Police summoned by
silent alarm and en route.

Police estimated
time of arrival:

one minute.

You have 30 seconds
to finish up in there.

All right, come on, come on.

All right!

Let's go, let's go!

Whoo-hoo!

Come on, let's get outta here!

Go, go, go!

Yeah, baby, we aced that place!

Took 'em for a pile!

Shut up!

Guilty.

Ten to 15 years.

Marta.

Tommy.

Tommy.

Do you remember me?

You were 8 when I went away.

I'm your father, Joe Lopez.

I remember.

I remember Mom crying
when you were sent to prison.

I remember my
friends teasing me,

calling you a thief and
me the son of a thief.

I remember Ernesto's death

and you not being there!

I understand.

Believe me, I know how you feel.

I'm out now on parole.

I just want to
make things right.

No! Far as I'm concerned,
my father's dead.

Tommy.

Tommy, wait.

Yeah, Jimmy.

They hit again.
The Diamond Mart.

Let's go.

♪ In the eyes of a Ranger ♪

♪ The unsuspecting stranger ♪

♪ Had better know the truth ♪

♪ Of wrong from right ♪

♪ 'Cause the eyes
Of the Ranger ♪

♪ Are upon you ♪

♪ Any wrong you
do He's gonna see ♪

♪ When you're in
Texas Look behind you ♪

♪ 'Cause that's where
The Ranger's gonna be ♪

Looks like the same crew.

Yeah, it does.

Hey, how about
that Joe Lopez guy

over at Marta's place?

You know him?

No, but I remember
when he was arrested.

Something unusual about it?

Well, Joe was a
safecracker. A good one.

He was captured when he
drove his getaway car into a tree,

trying to avoid some
kids playing in the street.

Well, at least we know
he's got some good in him.

Yeah.

Why did you stop writing?

Please.

When they sentenced me,

I begged you to make
the separation legal.

No.

If you need a job, I
need a dishwasher.

Just don't mistake

my feeling sorry
for you for love.

And as for why I
never got a divorce,

let's just say that... um...

I've always tried to be
a very good Catholic.

You can stay in the room
in the back if you like.

No, I have to stay
at the halfway house.

As part of my parole,
they keep track of me

with this electronic monitor.

But as far as the
job, I'll take that.

I'm glad you
didn't get a divorce.

Whatever your
reasons, I thank you.

Well... thank me later,

after you've washed
pots and pans

for the next eight hours.

Go get an apron.

How about Joe Lopez?

Checked in yesterday.

Should be no problem.

That's good, Wade.
Now, get him on board.

Everyone hit the deck!

Facedown!

Ain't no one's resisting.

We'll do whatever you
say. Anything to help.

Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Great.

These guys have
some sense of humor.

Yeah.

A minute, 30 seconds.

Right-o! You read that, Control?

Control.

Someone's monitoring
the time outside.

Boss? Probably.

Finish up. The cops will
be here in one minute.

Listening to a police
scanner, no doubt.

Keep 'em down!

Five months these guys
have been operating.

Two armored
cars, a trio of banks,

Marcell Furriers, and
now the Diamond Mart.

Two civilians and
three security men killed.

Maybe your idea of inflating
the amounts taken will work.

One of these punks will think

he's getting shortchanged
and make a mistake.

Come on! Come!

Hang on, hang on.
You can't do that.

I gotcha, I gotcha. Ha!

Well,

here's your cuts from
the Diamond Mart.

Ten thousand each.

Now, hold on a minute.

Paper says we got
400,000 from that job.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong,

but that would
make my cut 20,000.

That's what it says
right here, 400,000.

Well, it's not true.
We only got 2.

Why the hell
would the paper lie?

How the hell would I know?

If you got a problem, Hopkins,

why don't you just
talk to the boss?

Talk to the boss.

Yeah, right.

Let's go, Mulkey.

What do you say we spend
some of this hard-earned cash?

Sounds good to me.

Tommy was hurt.

He was hurt bad.

It's only natural that
he would be angry.

The pain he felt
is still very real.

How about you, Marta?

I hated Joe for what he did.

But I still love him.

You know, my mother used to say,

"Love and hate are horns
on the same bull's head."

I never believed her
until I saw Joe again.

I hate him for what he did.

But I still love him.

Heh. Is that crazy?

Nah, it's not crazy.

But don't let your
emotions block out the truth.

I... I won't.

But I'm trying to let myself

believe in Joe again,

and not just for my
sake, but for Tommy too.

I hope it works out, Marta.

Thanks.

For everything.

Time to open up.

Hiya, Joe.

Hey, Ranger Walker.

Marta thinks a lot of you,

and I know what you've
done for my family,

so if it means anything,

you have my thanks.

It does, Joe.

What happens to them means more.

I understand.

I hope you do because

I don't want 'em hurt.

Ranger Walker, I promise you,

like I've promised myself,

I'll never willingly
cause them any pain.

Okay. Take care, Joe.

Thank you, Ranger.

Hello.

Mrs. Lopez.

Hey.

How are you doing?

Mr. Coburn.

My wife, Marta.

A pleasure.

Just came by to do the
usual follow-up work.

Check on parolee's
place of employment,

check with employer
on parolee's work record.

How's he doing, ma'am?

Fine. Heh.

Just fine.

Great.

Yeah, I hope I'm not
embarrassing you, Joe.

This is all just standard
operating procedure.

And if you got any
problems, any problems at all,

you just let old
Buck know, okay?

Sure.

And you too, ma'am.

Okay.

I'll see you at
the halfway house

on Friday, okay, Joe?

Sure.

My parole officer.

Thank you.

♪ For the tortured soul ♪

♪ Desert time Now
lights grow cold... ♪

Heh, heh, what?

Welcome home, Joe.

Hard day at the old
lady's grease trap?

Yeah.

Hey, Joe. Hey.

I just wanted to, uh,

apologize for the
crack about your...

Your wife.

What can I do for you, Wade?

No, I think it's what

I can do for you, Joe.

Thought maybe, uh,

you'd like to take a shower.

I can remove the
monitor for you.

You know, Joe, if you, uh...

If you ever need to
be someplace else,

I can just take that
thing and leave it here.

It's no problem.

What do you get for
doing me this favor?

Oh, I scratch your
back, you scratch mine.

It's no big deal.

You know, the city
pays me very well

for running this place, but, uh,

an extra buck or two never hurt.

Talk plain to me, Wade.
What do you want?

Later, Joe.

We'll... We'll talk later.

Hey, how are you doing?

Hey, what's up?

Four hundred thousand,
that's what we really got.

Four hundred thousand
was the real take, not 2.

What you're trying to say is
we got stabbed in the back.

Right in the back. How
about another drink, guys?

Sweetheart, could you do
me a favor and shut your face?!

Hey, bartender,
hit us again, huh?

You want a hit? I'll give
you a hit, sweetheart.

Sweetie, I'm just
teasing. Come on.

Four hundred
thousand in diamonds.

That's what we really got,
you know what I mean?

I don't think the paper's lying.

I don't think it
was lying either.

But there's nothing
we can do about it now.

So why don't we just have fun?

Think about it.

Come on, J.T. Let's
go enjoy ourselves.

Come here.

That's it, baby,
entertain the troops.

There you go! Ha-ha-ha!

♪ Your sweet lies ♪
Yeah!

That'll earn ya, baby.

There you go! Careful,
you're gonna put out an eye!

♪ They pour like honey ♪

♪ Over me ♪

Walker.

Yeah, Walker, Trivette.

What have you got?

Your idea to boost the
amounts taken is paying off, man.

Why is that? The Velvet Elvis

down on McKinney,

we got a civic-minded bartender,

says he's got a
couple of customers

who are bragging about
taking out the Diamond Mart

and complaining because
they got shortchanged.

I'll meet you there.

Come on, move it, baby!

Come on!

Texas Rangers.

Keep your hands on the table.

Watch it!

No!

Remember the party
in your dad's backyard

the day we were married?

We open in ten minutes.

We'll be ready.

Do you remember?

I remember.

The gas grill that Don
Hildago lent to Papa

to make the food blew up.

It didn't blow up.

It exploded.

Yeah.

And Teresa Martinez fainted.

Oh, that's right.

Three hundred pounds of
woman. Nobody could lift her.

Your dad made a
speech that night.

Mm. About the circle of life

and how we all come
back to where we begin.

And he said on that day,

his beautiful daughter,

Marta, and her husband, José,

had joined their
circles forever.

I still feel the same way
I did that day, querida.

Mom!

What are you doing?

I can't believe you
could be so stupid.

That's no way to
talk to your mother.

What are you gonna do about it?

Spank me after ten years, huh?

What's the big, bad
thief gonna do about it?

Oye, come here.

You want to know
how I can be so stupid?

Because of him.

The old Joe Lopez would've
never had the courage

to hold his temper
and walk away.

That takes a real man.

You think about
that, little tough guy.

Trouble, Mrs. Lopez? Ho.

No, uh, we'll take
care of it, Mr. Coburn.

Are you sure?

Everything's fine.

Everything's okay?

It is.

Good.

Joe's in the kitchen.

Great. Thank you, ma'am.

That was gruesome.

Yeah, it's going to be hard

to identify those bodies.

That's for sure.

Looks like we're gonna have
that talk now, huh, Wade?

You're a smart guy, Joe.

And we need a smart guy.

Yeah, someone good with safes.

Yeah, that's the
word on you, Joe.

You're a class-A box man.

Yeah, when our boss heard
you were getting out, he, uh...

He pulled a few strings

to have you assigned
to this halfway house.

I see.

Hey, it's a great setup, man.

When we hit that
Diamond Mart last week,

that, uh... That scanner or
whatever they got downtown,

it said we was here. Huh?

Talk about the perfect alibi.

Yeah, a-and now our
boss wants your assistance

on a very special job.

He wants you to
open a safe for us.

What's in it for me?

A full share, 5 percent
of whatever we get.

Looks like you got
yourself a box man.

Good.

All right.

That's good.

Do you remember me?

You were 8 when I went away.

I'm your father, Joe Lopez.

I remember Mom crying
when you were sent to prison.

And I remember Ernesto's
death and you not being there!

I just want to
make things right.

As far as I'm concerned,
my father's dead!

Dead! Dead! My father's dead!

Dead! Dead!

My father's dead!

Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead!

I guess it was a shock
to see your father

after all these years, huh?

He's not my father!

He is your father, Tommy.

Good, bad, or indifferent.

And from what I saw when
he came into the restaurant,

he looked like he was
trying to make amends.

She thinks he's changed,

that all of a sudden,
he's a different guy.

How do you know he isn't?

You know, in the
Bible, Matthew says,

Straight is the gate,
and narrow the way,

which leadeth into life,

and few there be that find it.

What that means, Tommy,

is your father made a mistake,

and now maybe he's
trying to find the right way.

Tommy... if you don't
forgive your father,

you're never gonna heal the hurt

that you're feeling right now.

Ranger Walker,

those guys killed in
that crash with the semi,

their names are,
uh, J.T. Hopkins

and Little John Mulkey.

They were parolees at
the Sentinel Halfway House.

Sit down, Joe.

They're part of a crew
headed up by Wade.

Best I can tell,

they've been involved
in a few robberies,

including that one
at the Diamond Mart.

You have any proof?

They're planning another job.

They asked me to be in on it.

What'd you tell 'em?

I told 'em I'd do it.

They won't take
no for an answer.

Maybe we should have
a talk with Mr. Wade.

Uh, sir, I have a better idea.

Mr. Wade's second in command.

You want his boss. I
can help you get him.

Why you doing this, Joe?

I want my family
back, Ranger Walker.

You're doing just great, Joe.

And good on ya.

Heck, if all my people
were as motivated as you,

I wouldn't have anything to do.

Like that washing-machine guy

on the TV commercials, you know?

I understand, Mr. Coburn.

Hey... And drop all
that "mister" stuff.

I'm just plain old B-U-C-K.

Buck.

Listen, are there any problems?

Anything you want to talk about?

Our employer needs
your assistance

on a very special job.

He wants you to
open a safe for us, Joe.

Well, there is one thing.

Nah, never mind.

Come on, Joe.

What's on your mind?

Get it off.

My son, Tomas.

My son and I
aren't getting along.

Is that all?

Means a lot to me.

My wife's really upset.

Right.

I understand.

And I'm sorry.

Well, thank you, Mr. B-U-C-K.

Hey, no sweat, Joe-boy.

Please,

let me know how it
all works out, okay?

Okay.

Whoo, that is
some parole officer

you got there, Joe-boy.

Yeah, Mr. Personality, huh?

When's this job we
talked about going down?

Why, you getting antsy?

No. Some stuff I gotta know.

Not all boxes are the same.

I might need some special tools.

Well, I'll tell you what,
why don't you relax?

We're meeting in Wade's room

at 8:00 tomorrow morning.

You'll get all the
dope then, okay?

All right.

Boy, he's an eager beaver, huh?

Hiya, Tommy. How you doing?

I'm all right. I thought
about what you said,

and, uh, I'm
gonna give it a try.

Good. All right.

Hey, Joe.

Hey, Ranger Walker.

What have you got?

We meet with Mr. Wade

tomorrow morning
at 8:00 to plan the job.

Okay. Call me right
after the meeting.

I will. Be careful.

I will.

Oh, my God.

Why the hell don't you
watch where you're going?

I'm very sorry, sir.

Sorry is not good enough.

God!

I'm really sorry, sir.

Oh, man, we'll be glad to pay

for the dry-cleaning or
get you some new clothes.

And as far as the lunch goes,

it's on the house.

Well, most of it's on the house.

Yeah, the rest is on me.

Yes, sir, and I have to say,

you... You wear it well.

Okay, okay.

All right, all right.

Sorry I got upset.

No hard feelings? No.

Okay, great.

I'll get... I'll get
you a new bowl.

The Hillman building.

Constructed in the late '80s.

There's no central alarm system.

Each company renting
space provides its own.

The building will be closed,

so there's only three
security guards to worry about.

That, of course,
is Horner and Daly.

Well, that's no problem.

That's right.
Rent-a-cops ain't diddly.

What's in the safe?

Only a million in cash and, uh,

probably double
that in bearer bonds.

When do we do this job?

Right now, Joe-boy.

Heh. Hoo-wee!

Oh, you should see
the look on your face.

It's worth all the risks
I've been taking to get rich.

Just a little surprised.

Well, you should be.
I play my part well.

More than a little bit ignorant.

Motor mouth. Busybody.

Geek, even.

But the brains behind
a major crime crew?

Not!

You got a sweet deal here.

Oh, you betcha, Joe-boy.

Come on, now.

You think you can open this?

Yeah, but now?

No way.

I need a day to...

Look at... Look at
these plans and...

get some tools.

Well, you can study
it on the way there,

and I got all the
tools you'll need

outside in the van.

Come on.

Let's do it.

There's no better time
than a Sunday morning,

when everyone's either
sleeping or in church.

This is Ranger Walker.

Joe Lopez's monitor,
what does it read?

Okay. Thanks.

Joe's monitor indicates

that he's still at
the halfway house.

I can feel that
Cherokee kicking in.

He should've called by now.

Okay, fine.

So where your
hunches are concerned,

I've had way too much
experience eating crow.

Let's go check it out.

Oh, there's everything in here

you'll need to punch
out this box, Joe.

You're crazy for
doing this, Coburn.

Hey, Joe, insurance.

See, I know better

than to give a basically
decent guy like you

a chance to change his mind.

All right. Take
out the two guards.

We'll be right behind you.

Don't hurt my kid.

Go do it.

Got three monitors, Wade,

without parolees
attached to 'em.

I don't think any of
'em are in church.

I don't know what
you're talking about,

I don't know how this happened.

Wade, you're the
middleman in six felonies

resulting in five homicides.

We got hard evidence.

You know the penalty
for murder, don't you?

Time you're eligible for parole,

they're gonna have
halfway houses on Mars.

Where are they? You
can go down by yourself.

That's one.

Come on, let's go.

Number two.

Horner's taking out the alarm.

Safe's in there.

Three down, none to go.

Like I said,
rent-a-pigs ain't diddly.

Welcome, Joe-boy.

Now, you got 37 minutes
to punch this baby,

or young Tomas over there

is not gonna reach
his next birthday.

Man, oh, man!
Look at all that green!

My favorite color.

Come to Papa.

Yo, Lopez, that was quick.

You are as good as
they said you were.

Freeze!

Let him go, Coburn!

Let my kid go, Coburn!

Let him go!

Get out of the way, Joe!

No!

Dad!

Dad.

Don't move, Joe, don't move.

I'll get an ambulance.

Walker explained everything.

I'm so proud of you, Dad.

So proud.

Dad... Please.

You can't die, Dad.

Please.

Hey there. Hey.

"Family Lopez."

Says it all, doesn't it?

It sure does, Walker.

Oh, by the way, Joe,

I have something here for ya

from the governor.

It's a pardon.

♪ 'Cause the eyes
Of the Ranger ♪

♪ Are upon you ♪

♪ Any wrong you
do He's gonna see ♪

♪ When you're in
Texas Look behind you ♪

♪ 'Cause that's where
The Ranger's gonna be ♪