Jim’s got a few ex-girlfriends floating around who show up to ask him for help. By now, you’d think he’d be smart enough to say no. It’s only going to get worse as time goes by. This one clearly wants to set him up for reasons of her own, and he should know it by the time the opening credits roll. The way she’s treating him is as a woman who wants something. Jim is probably led astray by thinking it has to do with his admitted good looks and charming personality, but that’s never what anyone wants from him on this show.
Jim has been asked out by an ex-girlfriend, Karen Stiles (Susan Strasberg). She asks him to do her a favour and drop off a briefcase. He believes it contains escrow papers. It turns out to contain a hundred grand. In counterfeit bills. Jim quickly realizes he then gets used by the feds to trace who’s printing and passing this money. It’s an open case, which he’s not supposed to be involved in, but Karen involved him in it.
One of the things this series touches on pretty regularly is the limited options available for ex-cons. Now, Karen’s been “on the con since she was fourteen years old,” and maybe she enjoys it and maybe she doesn’t, but the fact remains that Jim is constantly dealing with people who get out of prison and don’t know what to do from there. It’s most notable with Gandy Fitch, who no one bothers to make sure is ready for an outside world that’s moved on in the twenty years he spent in prison, but it’d definitely a recurring theme.
If you learn nothing else from this show—and honestly there’s a lot you can learn—learn that it hurts to punch people in the face. Skulls are durable. Your body is designed to protect your brain; there are important bits in there that you can’t live without. Yes, you’ll eventually get through the bone if you try hard enough; goodness knows there have been enough victims on this show of just that. But Jim actually breaks his hand on an earlier episode when he punches someone in the face.
Southern California for Tourists: The Valley of the title is the San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles is referred to fairly regualrly as “the LA Basin.” It’s surrounded by mountains. Some of these are even east-west running, which is anomalous in North America. Stretching off from the basin proper are a series of valleys tucked into the assorted mountain ranges. I myself grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, in the last town before you got into the San Gabriel mountains (a lot of California is named for saints), but even I use the term “the Valley” to refer to the San Fernando Valley. The fact that they mention Pasadena—in the San Gabriel Valley, just south of my hometown—quite a lot doesn’t change which one I automatically think of in the title.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Whacked on the back of the head. Fight with another PI. Car chase. (Squealing tires on what looks like a dirt road?) Held at gunpoint.