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"The Tin Man" is the fifteenth episode of RoboCop: The Series.

Plot[]

A Boffo the Clown ice cream truck attracts business, the ice cream being a front for betting. A Lunchtime Louie food truck pulls up and a firefight breaks out between the two businesses, a battle in the Braga-Molotov war for control of illegal gambling. RoboCop soon arrives and puts a stop to the shootout, though a Boffo the Clown worker erases the memory on the truck's computer. Meanwhile, Executive Vice President of OCP Criminal Think Tank J. Michael Trenton has a conference call with the Chairman, concerned that this conflict effects OCP's lottery ticket sales. He suggests reprogramming RoboCop to be ruthless, but the Chairman disagrees. After the call ends, Trenton calls Warden Larry Delvecchio, telling him to activate "Tin Man" despite Delvecchio's warnings about glitches.

Sergeant Parks brings memos from Trenton to Detective Madigan. RoboCop prepares to follow a lead on Reggie Braga, but Parks asks for arrest reports for the shootout first. RoboCop uploads the reports and prepares to leave, but Madigan comes across one of the memos, which asks for RoboCop's circuits to be "adjusted accordingly" after his number of arrests has declined two percent. RoboCop asks her to pass the memo to Charlie.

Parks nearly catches Gadget buying a Commander Cash scratch-and-win lottery ticket after a machine in installed in the precinct, due to simply initialing a memo for the installation without reading it. Gadget plans to keep playing the lottery until she wins enough to buy Parks a boat.

During an illegal fight at his warehouse, Braga pays Elliot "Pukey" Feldman of in sweets for throwing a match at the National Scholastic Decathlon. As Feldman leaves, he lets Vlad Molotov and his men into the building. Paid off by Molotov, he hurriedly leaves. Molotov and his men hold Braga at gunpoint and prepare to kill him, but a vigilante interrupts, exchanging fire with the criminals before RoboCop arrives, causing everyone to flee. RoboCop approaches the vigilante, recognizing him as Alex Murphy's former partner Timothy Malloy. Hearing his name, Malloy just twitches, then sets a bomb before walking away. RoboCop fires a tagger onto him before the building explodes.

As Gadget continues buying scratcher tickets with Ronnies she has pickpocketed, Madigan, Parks, and Charlie notice that RoboCop is behaving oddly, so they check on him. He simply says he will file a report and walks away to do a search on Malloy, who had been convicted of brutality after beating robbery suspect Robert Prince. His conviction came after Murphy regretfully testified against him in court, saying he tried to stop Malloy from harming Prince.

Trenton praises Malloy's skill, looking forward to promotions from the Tin Man project's success. However, Delvecchio points out that Malloy made hesitations, a considerable glitch for the project. Trenton, however, is unconcerned. After they leave him alone, Malloy suffers another glitch.

Gadget steals a Ronnie from Madigan's desk, promising her the motorcycle she has been wanting. Having watched RoboCop's research into Malloy, Madigan looks him up, learning about his and Murphy's history as well as the fact that he has been denied parole three times despite his perfect prison record. Curious of why RoboCop would suddenly be looking into Malloy, Parks asks Madigan to keep an eye on him.

RoboCop asks Diana to perform a citywide search for Malloy's signal. He also asks if she can access the parole records for Buchanan Maximum Security Prison, but she cannot, as they are not part of her system.

Trenton shows the Chairman the vigilante's progress, including the fact that illegal gambling has dropped by forty percent since the Tin Man project was activated. Because the vigilante has no official connection to OCP, Trenton suggests they look the other way and leave the vigilante alone. The Chairman shows Trenton an episode of What's On Your Mind? where Braga and Molotov claim innocence and that the police are unwilling to protect them against the vigilante, so decide to merge their operations, thus making the vigilante responsible for the formation of the city's largest crime syndicate in history. The Chairman estimates that this will cause a rise in illegal gambling, further threatening the OCP lotto. Returning to his office, Trenton contacts Delvecchio, having him assign Malloy to kill everyone in the new syndicate.

Diana tells RoboCop of Malloy's location, where he watches a meeting where Molotov and Braga discuss business plans, with Molotov insisting they continue using the Boffo the Clown branding and that nobody refers to him as Stitch. Malloy bursts through the window, engaging the others in a shootout. RoboCop arrives, distracting Malloy, which Molotov and Braga use to escape. RoboCop lowers his gun and calls Malloy by name again, causing the vigilante to painfully begin to recover his memories and personality.

Delvecchio becomes concerned over his and Trenton's fates if Malloy glitches and reveals their involvement. Trenton promises to take care of Malloy, who is taken back to the precinct and reminded of Murphy. Charlie and Madigan examine the vigilante's gear, which is on par with RoboCop, right down to being bullet-resistant. Believing Malloy could not escape prison and get such equipment without help, Madigan sets out to investigate.

Delvecchio prepares to leave, but is stopped by Madigan so she can question him about Malloy's escape, which went unreported.

Parks catches Gadget scratching tickets and she tearfully confesses to stealing Ronnies for the tickets. Parks uses this to teach her that there is no such thing as easy money and tells her to apologize and promise to pay back everyone she stole money from. As a lotto machine technician comes into empty the money, Parks takes the technician's hammer to smash the machine and tells him to get it out of the precinct.

Delvecchio admits that Malloy was used as part of a weapons testing program and that the escape was not reported because he felt the prison could handle it on their own and wished to avoid embarrassment. When questioned why they would put a mentally unstable person into such a program, Delvecchio says he is not at liberty to give that information.

Trenton calls Molotov and Braga, telling them that the vigilante will soon be coming for them. Delvecchio warns Trenton that Madigan will be coming for him, but he is unconcerned, as there is no paper trail leading to him. That is, until he learns that Delvecchio is wired and Madigan waits just outside with three police officers to arrest the pair. Meanwhile, Malloy escapes prison again and Diana cannot find him.

Trenton tells Madigan where Malloy is headed and she passes this info on to RoboCop. Molotov and Braga's men ambush Malloy, but their weapons are largely ineffective. RoboCop arrives and blocks the criminals' sights on Malloy so he can remind him of Malloy's rules he told Murphy when they were partners. Malloy recovers his memory just as the criminals unleash their heavy artillery. The shootout continues until backup arrives. Malloy is supposedly killed when an explosion blows him through a wall and into a nearby river. Madigan calls for search-and-rescue as RoboCop recalls one of Malloy's rules: "Always look out for your partner."

Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • The incident for which Malloy is imprisoned is a thinly-veiled reference to the widely-publicized 1991 beating of Rodney King by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.
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