Hot Rocks
 (original air date  10/29/94)

Storyline:  Gordon hires Joey to go undercover at a health spa as an employee to investigate an international jewel theft ring.  Mick goes along to look after Joey, and after one of the clients is killed, Mick takes a personal interest in finding out what's going on.
Undercover name: Mick Bailey
Location: San Diego, CA

Guest Stars: Peter Rowley, Jay Laga'aia (Buck Walton)

According to US

This episode opens with Rick showing way too much forehead!  I mean, I can't even tell you what was happening in the dialogue because I kept looking at his hair.  Something about Joey taking on a case with Gordon, which is how all these episodes start...

So Mick & Joey are checking out the Seaside Beach Club in San Diego, CA. There's something suspicious going on, which again is how all the High Tide episodes come to be.  Skin, skin and more skin - this time it's not on the beach however, but at an exclusive health club to which Joey is masquerading as a Fitness Instructor, and Mick is Mick Bailey (boy, that was a stretch of a name change) who is there on a guest pass checking out the club for possible membership.  When Joey asks him what he is doing there, he replies "My fraternal duty, protecting your butt!"  Joey is very happy with pretending to be a FI, as on his first day supervising the volleyball game a woman loses her bikini top.  Joey then hits on a woman who is working out on a machine, who promptly tells him to get lost.  She goes over to the juice bar, where Mick then hits on her and then she is called away by a friend.  He sees there is friction between the two women, and when the friend leaves Mick asks her out to dinner.  When he goes to pick her up later for their date, he arrives to see a woman on a stretcher being put into an ambulance.  It's Suzy, the woman he was taking to dinner.

After the commercial, Mick tells Joey she accidentally drowned.  Which Mick finds strange that she would go swimming right before a date, usually women need loads of time to get ready-or at least dry their hair he points out- and wouldn't jump into the ocean for a quick dip.  Joey must report for "work" again.  When he gets there he is told the aerobics instructor has called in sick and he must fill in.  After the aerobics session in which the women just took over the class and left Joey panting for air, Mick tells Joey to talk to Suzy's friend who is coming out of the same class.  Joey hints to her that the word in the club is that Suzy couldn't swim and maybe she was murdered.  The woman then tells Joey to mind his own business and goes into Joey's boss and tells him that Joey is snooping around asking questions about Suzy's demise.  Joey then gets locked in the sauna by the boss.  Mick realizes after a while that he hasn't seen Joey around.  He asks a girl working out if she has seen him, to which she says, "Not since the aerobics class."  She then asks Mick if he would like the join the next one and smacks him on the butt and tells him, "It'll give you buns of steel."  The dimple smile Rick gives her was enough to rewind this scene a couple of times...

Rick finally finds Joey after noticing that the sauna room door has been blocked by a bench.  He pulls Joey out, and when Joey comes to, he says "I'll never eat steamed clams again."  Mick and Joey then go jogging on the beach, so apparently Joey had a speedy recovery. 

Finally, a scene where I could stop looking at the hair (it was like a train wreck I tell ya, I didn't want to look but I couldn't help it) Mick is wearing a tank top & running shorts.  WooHoo muscle city!  Mick then goes into the shower room of the club...WOOHOO, he's shirtless (I think it was supposed to take on the appearance of nakedness, but the khaki shorts seen when he bent over kinda blew that) and steps into the shower stall and notices Joey's boss coming in.  He watches him through a crack in the door and sees him take a bag out of a locker and replace it with another.  When the guy leaves, Mick picks open the locker and sees that the bag is empty.  He tells Joey what happened and that he will investigate further when less people are around.

Later, there is a party going on at the club.  Joey diverts the crowd's attention by dancing with a woman. (why everyone was watching them is the true mystery here) Rick goes into the women's locker room, finds the bag and opens it.  It is filled with jewelry (which closely resembles the jewelry my grandmother owns, it was that gaudy).  He then takes the bag and hides it in another place.  Mick comes back out to the party and then Joey's boss asks if he could have a word with him.  He insists they go somewhere private.  When they walk down a path that is obscured with greenery, Mick tells him, "I should warn you I don't kiss on the first date."  The guy points a gun at Mick and asks him for the bag.  Mick kicks the gun out of the guy's hand and tells him to not point it at him again or he will make him eat it, and then throws a piece of paper at him and tells him to call the number in an hour for the bag.

He calls Gordon and tells him what has happened.  While talking to Gordon the other guy calls (I'm sorry, but they never said his name throughout this episode, so I have it written in my notes as "guy") and Gordon tells him to meet at the pier at 2pm tomorrow with his boss.  Mick & Joey are waiting at the pier when the guy shows up.  Mick tells him he couldn't even follow instructions, the boss is not there and they go to leave.  The guy points out his boss in the boat that just drifted up to the dock.  It's the owner of the health club.  Mick figures it out, that the owner was in over his head in debt and wanted to have the club keep up the appearance that wealthy people were still in membership there, so he hired flight attendants to smuggle jewelry.  Thin, I know...but hey I didn't write it.  So the owner scoots off in his boat, Mick and Joey hop on Jet Skis (which would have looked a whole lot better if Mick wasn't wearing jeans and a polo shirt) and chase after the boat.  They of course, catch up to the boat, a fistfight ensues and then it is over.  Mick & Joey Barrett have saved the day again.

The best scene, I swear was the last 3 minutes that had nothing to do with the rest of the story line.  We come back from commercial, and there's Rick in a squat pose next to a surfboard on the beach with the sun behind him and the wind blowing his hair.  I could have just watched that moment for the whole hour...

Fritz brings Mick the first class plane tickets to Australia which was Gordon's payment for solving the case.  Case?  What case?  Oh, anyway - just the way Mick was looking at Fritz like he wanted to take a bite out of her, made my heart aflutter. Joey walks up with a cell phone and says Gordon wants to talk to him.  Rick hangs up on Gordon and throws the phone (left handed, what was up with that?) into the ocean.  End credits. - Michelle P.
When Mick was trying to ask Suzy out on a date, he said something about his wife leaving him, and she says "your wife left YOU". Totally understand that sentiment.

Joey says "Fritz is just the hostess at Gordon's" and Mick says "You don't believe that do you"

Also, as previously mentioned, very cute when the girl asks Mick if he wants to try that exercise to give him buns of steel and then she grabs his ass. I was kind of waiting for him to say "hey, don't touch my butt", but instead he gives her this killer smile and squeezes her shoulder.

The shower scene. Ahhh, the shower scene. I must admit, I didn't see the Khakis. I even went back and looked for them, and I just don't see them. It did seem a little odd not to see the tattoo. And I must admit I must have rewound the tape at least 20 times when he was bending over in the shower to pick up the towel to try to figure out just what he was or wasn't wearing.

I loved the scene between Mick and the Club manager where he was pointed the gun at Mick, ending with the line "you point that thing at me again, and you'll eat it".

And I agree, the final scene was absolutely breathtaking. From the opening moment with Mick kneeling by his surfboard, to the way he was looking at Fritz. Definitely left you wanting more. - rlh

I liked this episode, but I'm not really sure why. So I'm watching it again to see if I can figure it out! I think it was due to the great Mick Barrett scenes, the scenes with Fritz and Mick, and a few funny ones with Joey. As bad as it may sound…. it could be because of the scenes where Mick is running around the locker room in nothing but a towel. The story was lacking a little bit, but the `scenery' was nice, to say the least. 

Gordon asks Joey to go undercover at an oceanside fitness club, as the new fitness instructor. A friend of Gordon's needs help. Gordon's 'friend' was undercover in Paris as a jewel thief, but he's been arrested and the Paris police won't listen when he tells them he's an undercover cop. I personally didn't think that free airfare for Mick & Joey (which Gordon offered to him out of his frequent flyer miles) was a very good payday for putting themselves at risk. I guess the surfing bug and the free trip there would get the best of them. Surfers are always chasing the `best' wave. So Mick goes in under a fake name as a new member of the club, that way he can watch Joey's back. Joey's face is comical when he first arrives at the club and sees all the women working out in the outside fitness area. He is smiling like a kid in a candy shop and says, "I've died and went to heaven." LOL Mick snags a dinner date with a woman after chatting with her for only a few minutes. (but of course!) When he goes to meet up with her later….she's being wheeled out in a stretcher. She's DEAD. Her death is being called an accidental drowning. Of course, the brothers know better. 

I love the scene where Mick and Joey are floating on their surf boards and discussing the situation. Any scene where Mick is wet in his wet suit is a great moment to exercise the pause button! LOL 

The scene where Joey goes in to teach the aerobics class is quite funny. He is clueless! The women in the class dance circles around Joey. He looks hilarious trying to keep up with them, panting and breaking a sweat. 

Another nice scene…Fritz and Mick are strolling the beach reading over some information she brought to Mick. Poor Fritz. She has the biggest crush on Mick, but he avoids getting involved with her. I guess he hates to mix business with pleasure. She invites him to a `private' lunch and he tells her he's got to get back and "take a cold shower." Mick is wearing tan kaki pants and a beige shirt with some red and black tropical designs on it. This outfit looks quite nice on him! 

Another outfit that looks great on Mick is when he's in the equipment area wearing the black shorts and blue shirt. He hooks up with the `owner' of the club and they walk around talking. Well, the owner (Jerry) is doing all the talking (quite annoying he is with his constant, "you know what I mean?"), and Mick is scoping out the members for clues…pretending he's engaged in what Jerry is saying. Meanwhile, Joey has been locked in the steam room. Someone means to get rid of him. Mick of course begins to worry about Joey's disappearance. He goes searching the club and finds him locked in the steam room…just in the nick of time. 

Ok, now the next good scene….we have Mick and Joey jogging down the beach. Mick is wearing a blue `tank' top and black shorts. NIIIICE! Let's just say that he's showing a LOT of skin in this scene. The shorts go clear up to his hips. It's a wonder the beach babes didn't break their necks when he passed by! An even better Mick scene comes next. Mick has `undressed' and is stepping into the shower in the locker room. Now…I will admit, I used the pause button once again because I just had to see if Mick was really "naked" here or if he had on some type of shorts (like skin tone-colored shorts that kind of give the appearance of having nothing on). Yes, I know….he HAD to have on something, right? I doubt that Rick got down to his birthday suit for the camera crew. LOL The frosted glass of the shower pretty much blocks the view anyway, so it doesn`t really matter!!! While in the shower, Mick reaches out for a towel and spots a guy prowling through one of the lockers. The guy is up to no good. He's exchanging some gym bags. Mick wraps up in a towel (and you see him from the waist up, in all his hairy-chested glory! ) and goes to the door to spy on the man. Once the man is out of sight, Mick is scurrying around in his towel, trying to pick the lock on the locker he saw the man go into. Jerry pops in and nearly catches Mick in the act. Mick removes his towel, feigning innocence, and begins patting his chest as if he's sweaty from a work out! (tell me WHY couldn't that camera have panned down just a little bit? ) Mick is nervous as a cat, but plays it off well, fooling the guy. I thought it was funny when Jerry tells Mick not to forget about the party tonight. They will show Mick how they `do it' at their club and how to `get down and boogey.' Mick raises an eyebrow and with a fake smile says, "right ON. Groovy." LOL I love how he says that. Once the coast is clear again, Mick manages to pick the lock and finds the gym bag. 
Joey cracks me up at the dance later that day. Everyone there seems to be in their nice party clothes, while Joey is in those God-awful striped shorts of his and a blue sleeveless T-shirt. He's dancing amongst the crowd and he's getting DOWN with it. Mick watches from the bar. It's quite comical watching Joey "dance!" 

Mick calls Gordon and tells him he has a bag full of stolen jewels and he thinks it's worth about 4 million. He says he can't turn it in because he needs it for bait. Fritz is seriously wanting to go in and help the guys, but Mick tells Gordon "no, this is no place for a woman," that one woman has died already. I think Fritz just looks for reasons to work with Mick! 

As it turns out, Jerry the owner of the club, is the one who's behind the operation. Jerry takes off in a boat after Mick confronts him. The brothers find a couple of jet skis. They take off after Jerry. They catch up to his boat and jump onboard. Of course a scuffle begins as Joey takes on Jerry's female `partner,` wrestling her down to the deck. Mick takes on Jerry, kicking his butt and taking over the boat. Maybe it's me…but it always appears that the criminals in the High Tide shows seem to give up rather easily. Well hey…you don't want to mess with the Barrett brothers! They appear to be trained in martial arts. 

The ending scene is GREAT!!! Maybe one of the most gorgeous shots I've seen of Mick in High Tide. He's in his black wet suit, squatting on the beach with his surfboard long ways beside him, with the ocean breeze blowing his hair around. I could seriously use an 8 X 10 of that pose!!! 

Even more than the `locker room/towel scene,` I'd have to say I really liked this part best of all. The dialogue was sweet here, as Fritz is obviously taken with Mick. Fritz approaches him on the beach. Mick says to her, "I thought you didn't like surfers." She tells him, "no…it's surfing I don't care for." Fritz has arrived with Mick and Joey's plane tickets to Australia. She asks Mick something about `has it always been a dream of yours?' (meaning the trip to Oz) Mick tells her `yeah' (with that SWEET smile he gets, eyes twinkling). Fritz and Mick are definitely having a `moment' right here, talking closely, making eye contact. There is some chemistry going on, although it's pretty clear that Fritz is the one pushing the hardest for `something' with Mick. She says, "everybody has their fantasies," and looks right at Mick. Whooo hooo! At this point I was nearly screaming at the TV "kiss her Mick! Go for it!" Instead, Rick gives her an almost knowing look, then his eyes appear kind but serious and he says, "maybe dreams are better left that way." (DIMPLES!!) Fritz tells him, "personally I believe in wish fulfillment." Mick finds himself caught in the moment and he does lean towards Fritz to possibly kiss her, but LO AND BEHOLD…..who do we hear screaming and so "rudely" interrupting??? …Joey! I swear these two never have any luck. I'm curious to know if they ever acted on their feelings for each other. It's almost like it's not meant to be for them. I think Mick resists Fritz for that reason, and because they're kind of liking working partners. Mick and Fritz continue to `gaze' at one another as they talk to Joey. Gordon calls (WHILE he's golfing off a green on the water, shooting balls into the ocean…HA!), and wishes Mick well on his surfing trip in Oz. But of course there's more! He needs a favor from Mick while their down there. Pretty funny scene: Mick says, "Gordon, you listening? I think I hear the ocean," and he hurls the phone into the ocean. LOL Mick asks Fritz to hold the tickets for him (as he is planning to surf). Joey worries and wants to know if they're still heading south. Mick gives Fritz the sweetest smile right here and says, "yeah yeah…we will, someday." Joey: "Someday?" Mick: "yeah, right now I'm busy," and he heads for the surf. 

That was definitely a nice little ending to this episode! The romances of Mick are definitely a plus in any show. This one especially needed extra perks because I didn't feel the overall story was that good. Rick's acting was awesome as always. He has a knack for taking even the worst of scripts and bringing some life to them. 

I give this one 5 waves, mainly for the scenes I mentioned above.  - Kelley Pearson