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In the Heat of the Night Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 1988 - 1989
Episode 1
Don't Look Back: Part 1
Sun, Dec 4, 198895 mins
It is 1968. A young woman, Billie Jo Bradley, is murdered and her heart cut out. Her husband, Bo Bradley, is later executed for the crime. Now it is 1988, and Sparta is preparing to celebrate its 150th centennial. Curiously, another young woman, Michelle Carpenter, is murdered and her heart removed. Newspaper editor Reed Nicholson, who was suspected in the earlier murder, comes under suspicion again. Chief Bill Gillespie is anonymously threatened, and Virgil Tibbs is attacked during the investigation. The case may connected to Marie Babineaux, the local voodoo queen.
Episode 2
Don't Look Back: Part 2
Sun, Dec 4, 1988
Continuation of "Don't Look Back Part 1" (#2.1). Chief Gillespie receives a human heart in a gift box. Voodoo queen Marie Babineaux is brought in for questioning, but released for lack of evidence. Newspaper editor Reed Nicholson is murdered. The chief and Virgil Tibbs work at detente in conducting the investigation.
Episode 3
The Family Secret
Tue, Dec 6, 198847 mins
A magnificent statue of a Confederate officer is unveiled in the Sparta town square, the gift of the well respected Merrill family, Stuart and Bernice, who are in attendance with their granddaughter Mary Lynn. Bill Gillespie and his inamorata, Joanne St. John, are there along with Bubba Skinner. Embarrassingly, Claudia Merrill, Stuart and Bernice's daughter and Mary Lynn's mother, is not at the ceremony because she is "indisposed" (drunk) at home. That evening Stuart is murdered in his art glass studio, which is a shambles of broken art objects. Gillespie and Virgil Tibbs question Bernice, who blames Claudia. At the police station, Claudia confesses to the murder, but refuses to reveal her motive. Against Gillespie's advice, Virgil probes the case, which proves more sordid than anyone imagines.
Episode 4
The Hammer and the Glove
Tue, Dec 13, 198860 mins
Matthew Pogue, Virgil Tibbs' former partner in Philadelphia, arrives in Sparta. Now a private investigator, Matt tries to entice Virgil to work with him in their old mode of "hammer and glove." At the station, FBI agent McGraw asks Chief Gillespie for cooperation in protecting an important witness. At the Tibbs' dinner party, Althea tells Joanne that she had a history with Matt before Virgil came along. During the night, Matt slips out, steals a car and kills two FBI agents and their witness. When the crime is discovered, Matt offers to help Virgil with forensics, which gives him the opportunity to doctor the evidence. Later Matt invades McGraw's motel room and murders him in revenge. The solution to the case is devastating.
Episode 5
Prisoners
Tue, Dec 20, 198847 mins
Officer Wilson Sweet apprehends a holdup man, Eric Gray, running away from a store. Eric, a school friend of Sweet, confesses that he broke out of Butler County jail, where he had been beaten by the brutal Sheriff Ed Thompson, a close friend of Chief Bill Gillespie. Thompson and two deputies transfer Eric from the Sparta jail, with the prisoner frantically declaring that he will be killed in Butler County. The next day Bubba Skinner gets word that Eric died during the night. The coroner's x-rays show the cause of death as blunt force trauma. Bill and Sweet feel individually responsible. Eric's sister Jenny blames Sweet, although Mrs. Gray absolves him of any blame. Bill and Virgil Tibbs resolve to avenge the offense, but Sweet rashly takes matters into his own hands, placing himself in great danger.
Episode 6
Hot Nights
Tue, Dec 27, 198847 mins
Writer Jacqueline Holt is ticketed by Bubba Skinner for running a red light and is immediately attracted to him. Jackie stays in Sparta to work on a book, renting a cabin outside town. The first evening, she calls Bubba to report a prowler, saying that her dangerous ex-husband, Frank Van Dorn, is after her with a gun. When Bubba responds to the call, the romance begins. Frank calls Jackie, threatening to harm her, so Bubba teaches her to fire a revolver. Bubba spends so much time with Jackie he gets behind in his duties. One night Bubba is awakened by gunshots, runs downstairs and finds Jackie standing over a dead man who is not Frank. Instead, the victim is Tom Anderson, a private investigator/bounty hunter who is after Frank. In despair, Bubba turns in his badge.
Episode 7
Gunshot
Tue, Jan 3, 198947 mins
Detective Virgil Tibbs responds to an armed robbery in which he is confronted with shooting a suspect. Afterwards, Virgil has problems coming to grips with results of his actions because the person he shot happened to be a teenage girl and to make things worse, the gun Virgil believed that was aimed at him cannot be found.
Episode 8
Country Mouse, City Mouse
Tue, Jan 10, 198960 mins
Detective Virgil Tibbs' niece from Philadelphia comes to Sparta to visit but soon becomes bored with the happenings of small town life until she meets Bubba's nephew. They both get a little more adventure than they hoped for when they come across a dangerous ex-con who is out on parole.
Episode 9
Stranger in Town
Tue, Jan 17, 198960 mins
In the red light district of the Bottoms, Topaz/Roberta Strutt finds her friend Charmaine Rogers murdered. The Sparta police are called to investigate. Virgil Tibbs rousts a high profile pimp, Atticus Paul, for trying to take over Sparta's prostitution trade. Overhearing a discussion of the case in the Magnolia Cafe, attorney Royce Johnson is appalled. The owner of the Magnolia and Bill Gillespie's lady friend, Joanne St. John, hires drifter Clay Caulder as the new short order cook, which is not to Bill's liking. In a sweep of the Bottoms, Bill and Virgil find Clay with a sixteen-year-old hooker. Bill, of course, considers Clay the likely suspect in Charmaine's murder, but Virgil naturally likes Atticus for the deed.
Episode 10
Tear Down the Walls
Tue, Jan 31, 198947 mins
Detective Virgil Tibbs and Althea get invited to attend services by a minister who is trying to integrate his all white church, but soon afterward Gillespie and Tibbs must investigate what's behind the mysterious poisoning of the minister.
Episode 11
A Trip Upstate
Tue, Feb 7, 198960 mins
Two parallel plots. (1) George Brownlow sends word to Bill Gillespie that he wants to see the Chief at Parchman prison on the day of his execution. George was the driver in a bank holdup. Two bank robbers killed a guard and a customer before Bill killed them in return. As an accomplice, George was sentenced to die. (2) Bubba Skinner and a girl are fishing on the lake when Bubba spots two murder suspects, Melvin Nally and Lenny Cowes, near a camper trailer in the park. Virgil investigates, and the two men fire on him before being captured and arrested. At Parchman, Bill sees George, who persuades Gillespie to stay until he is gone. The execution is devastating to the Chief. Back in Sparta, District Attorney Hutton wants to "snuff" the two murder suspects.
Episode 12
A.K.A. Kelly Kay
Tue, Feb 14, 198947 mins
Joanne must reveal a painful part of her past to Gillespie after a long lost acquaintance escapes from prison.
Episode 13
These Things Take Time
Tue, Feb 21, 198960 mins
A pregnant teenage girl, Shawna Hughes, is caught shoplifting a jacket for her younger brother. Virgil Tibbs interrogates her and Bill Gillespie releases her. She goes to the freight company to confront the father of her child, Dan Mackey, who is unconcerned. Later that night she has premature contractions, sneaks out of the house, and has her baby in the woods. Unknown to Shawna, someone witnesses the birth. The dead infant is discovered at the city dump, and Althea Tibbs guesses who the mother is. Martin Campbell, Shawna's step-father, and her mother, Louise Hughes, are thoroughly supportive. When Virgil questions Shawna, she admits killing the baby, but Virgil thinks she is covering for someone.
Episode 14
Intruders
Tue, Mar 7, 198960 mins
The son of a city councilwoman is accused of a string of robbery/murders.
Episode 15
The Creek
Tue, Mar 14, 198960 mins
Virgil Tibbs spots young woman, Lauren Casey, on the bank of the creek half in, half out of the water. She has been beaten badly. Taken to the hospital, Lauren describes a black man as the attacker, who is similar to a local man, Jimmy Dawes. Brought in for questioning, Dawes is released for lack of evidence. Bill Gillespie does not believe Lauren. Throughout the investigation, Virgil suffers horrifying flashbacks to his childhood along the creek. Bill solves the case with the help of Althea.
Episode 16
Sister, Sister
Tue, Mar 21, 198960 mins
Sibling rivalry is at the core of this episode, when Detective Virgil Tibbs' childhood friend comes back home to Sparta to see about her ill father, although she doesn't exactly get a warm reception from her sister for her visit. The sisters then become murder suspects when their father is poisoned.
Episode 17
Walkout
Tue, Mar 28, 198947 mins
Sparta becomes a battleground in the midst of a violent union strike.
Episode 18
Accused
Tue, Apr 4, 198947 mins
Bubba is accused in the attempted rape of a Black woman in the parking lot of a local bar. This causes tension not only in the Black community, but in the police department as well. Things escalate as a white woman who Bubba knew from high school accuses him of rape as well. Eventually, Bubba asks Virgil for help and not only does Virgil believe him, but the two finally begin to bond and now the two former adversaries work together to not only clear Bubba, but to find the real rapist before he strikes again.
Episode 19
Fifteen Forever
Tue, Apr 25, 198960 mins
Sparta is in grief when a drunk driver causes a fatal car crash with high school cheerleaders on their way home after a game. Althea tries to counsel the victim's families to cope with their loss, while the Sparta P. D. begins a search for the other driver. With Chief Gillespie out of town, Tibbs and the department work with recently retired highway patrol officer Tom Dugan on this case. Dugan has to deal with bad memories that come back to him due to this tragedy. Additionally the police department is up against D.A. Dutton after he accuses them of not properly handling the investigation.
Episode 20
Ladybug, Ladybug
Tue, May 2, 198947 mins
Sgt. Bubba Skinner and Detective Virgil Tibbs must team up to stop a serial arsonist while Chief Gillispie is in Quantico. Meanwhile, retired Capt. Tom Dugan is officially appointed acting chief by Councilwoman Lorraine White, which doesn't go over too well in the police department.
Episode 21
The Pig Woman of Sparta
Tue, May 9, 198947 mins
When a young couple and their dog is enjoying a day out in the woods, they happen to come across Adah Boone better known as the 'Pig Woman', a local eccentric who lives with her beloved pigs and who seems to know information about everyone in Sparta. The couple and the dog runs off into the woods when she shoots a shotgun in the air to scare them off her land. When the young couple finds their dog again, it has found a human bone. The Sparta P.D. eventually finds dismembered skeletons on the land owned by a wealthy recluse named Simon Ware. Since Adah Boone also lives on the same property owned by him, Detective Virgil Tibbs and Acting Chief Tom Dugan must determine who is the one responsible for these bodies. Meanwhile, Officer Wilson Sweet and Officer Parker Williams compete with each other to see who can solve the case first.
Episode 22
Missing
Tue, May 16, 198947 mins
When Gillespie returns home from being away at a police convention, Virgil, Bubba and rest of the squad go to his house to give him a surprise welcome home party. When they arrive they find the house in shambles and Joanne unconscious with a bullet wound. However, the bigger shock is that the chief is missing. Even though it looks as if the chief was kidnapped by African-Americans, Virgil and Bubba soon suspect that acting chief Tom Duggan had something to do with it, but their investigation is thwarted by an FBI agent. She then reveals that Duggan is an FBI operative investigating the activities of a white supremacist organization called the Brotherhood of Aryan People (BOAP), who have recruited his Godson. Now, Duggan's life is in danger because the group think he is now a liability.