Sid and Buntz wrestle with 80 lbs. of cocaine found in a suitcase at the site of a small plane crash; Goldblume looks into a suspected case of aspirin tampering; Belker goes under to look into a hotel owner scamming city housing chits from vagrants; Hill and Renko handle a domestic call concerning a woman abusing her invalid grandparents.
On his way to work, Hunter shoots a boy robbing a convenience store; Jablonski refuses to follow his doctor's orders about heart surgery ; the P.D.'s go on strike over job cuts by the city council; Belker struggles to protect senior citizens victimized by a violent mugger; and LaRue and Washington stake out a luscious young woman suspected of being a fence.
Chaos reigns as the P.D.'s job action continues; Hunter faces his demotion and takes over as roll call sergeant for the ailing Jablonski; the detective LaRue tried to bust as a fence transfers to the Hill; Flaherty and Bates try to defuse a man who promises to blow himself up for money; and Joyce walks a tightrope as she tries to end the job action and cut a deal for her client that would put away the violent mugger.
Goldblume is visited by an old friend, who is mugged and rejected by a publisher; Bernstein saves Joyce from an escaped prisoner and confesses he has a tremendous crush on her; Daniels warns Furillo that Calletano's station house is on the edge of a racial meltdown; and Russo loses an arrest in her undercover assignment because she slept with the subject.
Goldblume's friend freaks out and shoots a mugger and a cop; Calletano loses his command and threatens to take his story to the press; Sid moves in with Buntz for protection; and a premature vice cop spoils a massage parlor sweep.
Buntz is in charge of efforts to protect a convicted mobster on his way to jail from a killer hired by his nephew; Russo's undercover places her in another sexually fraught position; LaRue and Washington bust a guy who confesses to several unsolved murders; Jablonski helps Belker bust a bus bandit; and Calletano resigns from the force.
Councilman Wade spends the day exposing and exploiting the crack problem on the Hill; Grace Gardiner returns as Sister Charity and recruits Flaherty; Belker goes under in a seafood joint serving soul food to locate drug traffickers; Goldblume receives an offer to publish Steve Merkur's book; and the manpower shortage delays Buntz' loan shark arrest and costs him part of his finger.
Daniels pushes Furillo to drop the Wade investigation; a literary agent offers Goldblume a chance to write his memoirs; Sister Charity works her old magic on Flaherty; and Buntz ties up his loan sharking sting by busting the shylock that cut off his finger.
Furillo faces a moral and emotional dilemma when his father is shot. LaRue sets the health department on a restaurant owner. Belker has nightmares about nuclear destruction and helps a father find his child. A cemetery plot salesman solicits business at the station.
Racial tensions rise again when a white undercover officer shoots his black partner; a temporarily blind Buntz goes undercover with Belker as a beggar; Hill and Renko find several skinned bodies; and Joyce tries to defend a shopkeeper who has adapted Nazi paraphernalia as a deterrent against robbers.
Belker wrecks a car belonging to LaRue's brother-in-law; a new public defender asks Washington for a date; and a dissatisfied client takes Davenport as a hostage.
Buntz reassures Officer McBride about her shooting of an armed robber; Goldblume is kidnapped while trying to start a short vacation; and Hill, Renko, and Jablonski take a disaster-prone hunting trip.
Hill almost starts a riot at a drug kingpin's funeral; Russo and Flaherty try to deal with an angry old deaf man; LaRue and Washington pass Sid off a chemist to keep a cocaine case from being dismissed; and Hunter gets back into action when Ballantine takes a hostage
Buntz worries over the state of Furillo's marriage; LaRue and Washington get lots of help in their quest for a prize winning cockroach; Belker chases down a purse snatching dog; and Goldblume continues to buck the system when he releases a felon in direct contradiction of city council guidelines.
During his day in station command, Buntz mounts a campaign to confiscate $130,000 worth of illegal drugs; Belker busts a tough kid who bites and runs drugs; Scapizzi pushes Buntz to make time for his interior decorator girl friend; Russo and Flaherty bust a disowned snitch.
Goldblume and Furillo clash over using a former gang member to obtain evidence against a gang leader in a murder case; Renko's mounting family problems affect his work; Bates, Flaherty and Joyce try to reconcile a Latin gigolo with his lady friend.
Renko erupts in jealousy over Daryl Ann's business partner; Flaherty allows his feelings for Russo to interfere in a bust; Calletano returns to Hill Street when a Spanish speaking citizen is shot by a cop unable to understand him; and Kate McBride relives her father's death at an awards ceremony.
Buntz tracks down Belker's snitch as the whole station house works to find out who shot Mick; Renko is forced to be honest with Daryl Ann by a blackmailing hooker; and Russo and Flaherty stalk a reported lion.
A radio promotion spawns trouble for everyone; Hill and Renko are assigned to a computerized patrol car; Buntz helps Sid get out of an arm-breaking assignment for a shylock; Hunter's return to action as the EATer commander fizzles; and LaRue, Washington and Joyce work on opposite sides to protect the rights of a mentally disturbed young man and his frightened mother and sister.
A football star gets caught in a Hill Street hooker sweep; Prunella returns to look for the missing Hunter; Furillo's brother asks for a loan; Belker has a rocky return to duty; and LaRue sets up a syndicate to bet on the departmental firearms competition.
The Hill faces renewed gang violence when Jesus' sister is apparently kidnapped on the eve of her wedding to a Gypsy Boy; LaRue experiences emotional highs and lows when a perp's gun misfires three times in his face; Hunter is found, but his survival came at a high cost; IAD Shipman pursues a case against Buntz concerning a missing kilo of cocaine.
Sid and Furillo work to find out who is setting up Buntz while Daniels publicly vilifies him; LaRue decides to beat a TV crew doing a live broadcast from a gangster's cellar to the punch; Bates agrees to go out with Sal the plumber; rumors are flying about what will happen to the station house after a three-alarm fire guts it.
