Photo Gallery 1 (scroll to find correct episode once you get there)

Friends, Family & Guests: John Pyper-Ferguson (Joshua), Alison Quinn (Rachel), Don McKay (Kyle Morgan), Morgan Brayton (Mary), David Mott (Mark), Ahnee Boyce (Kelly), Craig Campbell (Clark), Chuck Perry (James), Steve Amazzal (Young Man)

Opening Scene: We see the fake hand on Doug's desk holding up his nameplate, and then we see a boot. The camera pans up a blue-jeaned leg to a flannel shirt and finally to long, scruffy-looking blond hair - a guy is asleep, his hands behind his head, stretched out in Doug's chair. Mac and Hoffs ask each other who he is and shake him awake. He says hi, and Mac says he doesn't mean to be rude, but what is he doing? Sleeping, the guy says pleasantly, and when Mac says he can't, he asks why not, saying that it seems as good a place as any. Hoffs says there's a shelter down the street with clean beds, and he says, "I don't belong in a shelter." Mac says this place is for cops and criminals, and he says "The former." Mac says, "What?" and he replies "The first one. I'm a cop." He grins and flashes his badge, saying, "I just got assigned to this... church." They apologize and introduce themselves, and he tells them his name: Joey Penhall. They are surprised. Hoffs says they have a Penhall there, and Joey says, "I know, he's my brother." Hoffs smiles and asks if he's joking, and he says he doesn't think so, unless his dad lied. Hoffs says, "come to think of it, he does look like Doug." Fuller arrives, and Hoffs asks if he knew Penhall had a brother. Fuller says yes, but not that he was a cop until he received the file yesterday, adding, "Great to have you with us, Joe." Doug arrives, looking extra clean-cut with his hair combed and a plain mauve shirt on, and asks what everybody's looking at. Joey, who is the shorter of the two, turns around to face him and says, "Hey big brother. Long time no..." and before anyone can say anything else, Doug punches him ferociously, knocking him back into Fuller's arms. Fuller, Mac and Hoffs are stunned.

At Doug's apartment (we finally see the exterior of the building, which seems to be a long flat white building with a lot of windows next to a cable car track). Clavo sits at a table, coloring something with markers, while Doug pounds meat with a tenderizer. A knock comes on the door, in the "shave & a hair cut" rhythm. Clavo knocks on the table the "two-bits" part and runs to the door, followed by Doug. Joey is at the door and grins up at Doug when he opens it. Doug is not pleased at all to see him, but Joey says "Okay, so I had a knuckle tattoo coming to me," with a soft laugh. "What could you possibly want?" Doug replies coldly. Joey says that they have a lot of catching up to do and calls him "big brother." Doug stares, and Clavo asks Doug who he is. Joey asks what his name is and jokingly asks if Doug has a wife or two in the other room. "Not anymore," Doug almost growls. Joey gets down on his knees to be on Clavo's level and talks to him, asking him what "Clavo" means. Clavo thinks for a second and says it means "nail." Joey looks up at Doug and asks "you named your kid 'nail'?" Doug says Clavo is his nephew, and Joey asks, "who named him 'nail'?" Doug asks what he wants, and Joey points to Clavo and says that he's Doug's nephew, so what does that make him? Doug says it makes him nothing, and Joey quickly says it makes him Clavo's uncle-in-law. It makes you nothing, Doug repeats, louder. Joey grins cockily up at Doug, and Doug sends Clavo off to wash up. He leaves, and Joey asks if he's going to invite him in or what? Doug lets him into the apartment and shuts the door, saying he's got five minutes. "Five minutes to fill you in on five years?" Joey asks, and then he leans in closer and says "Been through a lot, man." Doug tells him to start with yesterday and work backward, asking why he became a cop. Joey, turning on some attitude, says he wanted to do some good, next? Doug asks if it's a coincidence that he ended up in his unit, and Joey says no, he requested it because he's the only family he's got left, and is there something wrong with trying to get his brother back into his life? Doug says sarcastically that now that all the bad stuff is over, all of a sudden he wants to be brothers again. Joey says he IS sorry, and Doug disgustedly says, "you left me holding the bag." Joey listens, his face pale as Doug continues, saying "Pop was dying, and you just left." Joey says he was fifteen, just a kid. Doug argues that he was only 17 himself, but watching their pop drink himself to death made him grow up real fast. Joey tries to defend himself, saying he made a mistake, he blew it, he didn't know how to handle it. Doug says he didn't know how to handle it either, but he didn't run away. Joey says,"you're right, you were always the righteous one and I was always in trouble," but he's changed all that. Doug is sarcastic with him, reacting to Joey's reminder that he's a cop with the fact that there are a lot of cops who aren't great at being people. Joey, starting to realize this isn't going well, speaks seriously, telling Doug that he wants his brother back. Doug says that he's been waiting for his knock a long time (knocks the same knock Joey did) and hardly left the house because he didn't want to miss it. He used to think about what Joey would have to do or say to get him to let him back in, and then after a while he realized he didn't need it so bad. There wasn't anything that would make him forgive Joey, and it got to the point where he didn't want to hear that knock at all. Joey, near tears, cracks, "You shoulda put in a doorbell." Doug tells him to get out. Joey laughs shakily, unable to believe it, and says Doug has to give him a chance, and Doug grabs hold of him, opens the door and throws him out into the hallway. When Doug tries to slam the door, Joey holds it open and begs, "Please. I got no life except for you. I got no one." Doug replies "You got no brother" and shuts the door in his face.

At the Chapel, a man angrily demands help rescuing his daughter, Stephanie, out of a cult called Heaven's Family. Mac says he's already told Mr. Morgan that they can't get his daughter out of a cult. Fuller says that's true - cults are protected by law as religious organizations. Mr. Morgan says he's aware of that, but what if they're involved in illegal activity, such as drug trafficking? Mac and Fuller share a glance. Later, the four officers are sitting at a table, Doug & Mac on one side, and Hoffs & Joey on the other. Hoffs asks since when does Fuller ask for volunteers, and Fuller says that it's a 24-hour-a-day gig. Mac likes that idea because of overtime. Fuller says they'll have to give up their personal lives, with no contact with friends or relatives, the entire time. Joey looks around and says "sounds like I'm your man, seeing as I got no pending engagements with relatives or friends." Fuller looks at Doug, who doesn't look at any of them, and he asks if Joey is sure, and Joey says yeah. Fuller okays it, telling the rest of them to do the usual routine - priors, ongoings, histories on the Heaven's Family organization and its leaders. Hoffs and Mac get up, and Doug looks over at Joey, who stares back at him challengingly. Doug gets up quickly, and Joey swallows hard, looking away. At a huge yellow house, with a "Heaven's Family" wooden signpost out in the yard, a bunch of people are milling around, and Joey enters. A girl welcomes him in and offers him some punch, and he accepts. She says she's Rachel. He tells her he's been sleeping in a doorway and his family wants nothing to do with him. Rachel says she bets they have a lot in common. Joey drinks his punch. Rachel asks if he'd like to have dinner with her, and he asks if she's asking him on a date? She smiles and says just call it dinner. Later, at dinner, everyone is sitting around in groups. Joey eats what looks like fried chicken while Rachel and Mary tell him what the group stands for - making the world a better place and replacing all the hate in the world with love - no greed, no loneliness and no hate. Rachel says "We give our love freely." Joey meets her eyes, cocking an eyebrow and she smiles. Later, at a phone booth, Joey calls and tells Fuller that he's going up to their camp for a weekend retreat. Fuller doesn't think that's a wise move and asks where it is. Joey says they won't tell him, and says "Look, Captain, I'm not a sucker for this hocus-pocus, lovey-dovey crap. There's no way they'll suck me in." Fuller says you don't have to be a sucker, anyone can get hooked. Joey points out logically that how else can he follow up the narcotics lead? Fuller, with Doug behind him, says flatly that he doesn't like it - they'll be out of contact, but then Rachel comes up and tells Joey the bus is leaving. Joey, so he won't blow his cover, says "Don't worry, Auntie Em, I'll call you when I get back. Don't cry on the phone - it makes me ill," and he slams the phone down. Fuller looks back at Doug and looks around, worried.

The bus pulls up, everyone singing "20 bottles of beer on the wall." They are met by a group of kids clapping hands and singing "Everybody's beautiful, in their own way..." Joey gets off the bus and is pulled into a hug by Rachel and then by a guy, who walks off with him and Rachel toward a group of cabins. The whole group sings and walks behind them. Later in a large dining hall, all the kids are sitting at tables and eating. Joey says the food is great and asks when the protein's coming out, as in meat, fish, poultry. Rachel pleasantly says "we don't eat meat here, everything we eat is grown organically on the farm." He looks around and thoughtfully says that the whole place is great. Then he asks who pays for everything, and she says they're self-sufficient and sell clothing and arts & crafts. "Sell anything you grow?" he asks, and she says yeah, flowers. "Flowers," he repeats. "That's nice too. The whole thing's nice." Joshua introduces himself as the group leader and welcomes everyone to Heaven's Family. Everyone claps except Joey, who looks skeptical. He talks about how hard it is to be a young person and asks how many of them can say they have real, pure love in their lives, just raise their hands. No one does. "That's what I thought," he says. He says they have to change that for any of them, and this planet, to survive, and that they have to learn to accept love and reject hate. Back at the Chapel, Fuller says Doug might want to hear this too, and Mac says the computer came up clean for Heaven's Family, except for a closed investigation. Doug already knows he's not going to like this. Mac says about a week ago, Kyle Morgan got another unit started on a prostitution investigation and the commanding officer didn't buy it, so they dropped it after a day. Fuller orders Mac to get Morgan in there to talk to them again. Mac and Fuller leave, and Doug lowers his head to his hand, beginning to realize that Joey's in trouble. At the camp's dining hall, everyone is standing linked and singing "Everybody's Beautiful," swaying back and forth. Joey leans his head back and breaks free of them, fanning himself with his shirt. He sits down and Rachel comes over and tries to pull him back up, but he pulls her closer, saying it's 3 AM and asking if they ever sleep. "You're so cute," she says, and kisses him quickly. He allows himself to be pulled back then, and they all stand and sway.

Later, day breaks, and in one of the cabins, Joey is asleep on a top bunk. Joshua enters the cabin and chants "Morning brings a new day...and a new day brings MORE LOVE!!" a couple of times, joined by some of the boys as they wake up. He comes to Joey and tells him to get up. Joey looks at his watch and protests loudly, "It's FIVE AM!" Joshua is insistent, throwing Joey's covers back and pulling him out of bed and onto his feet. Stumbling out into the sunshine, Joey reluctantly joins the other kids, who are doing jumping jacks. "All My Life" plays, and as it does, we see Joey doing jumping jacks - he does some and quits. Rachel comes to him and moves his arms up and down, smiling at him, and he starts doing them again. We see him eating and then standing and singing with the other kids. We see the next day, when Joshua comes in and Joey pulls the blanket over his head. We see group exercises where Joey tries to run through the border of a circle of kids and is held in and hugged, and he collapses into their arms, smiling and happy. He sits outside with Rachel and works on a wreath. Another new day comes, and this time he gets out of bed without being forced. The song stops, and we see the kids grouped in circles, talking about their lives. Rachel says that her father only loved his work and talks about her best friend OD'ing on crack and dying and her father not having time to comfort her. The kids share horrible stories of their home lives. Joshua asks Joey to share his pain with them, and he's not sure he wants to, but he is persuaded by Rachel. "My old lady died when I was four. Actually she killed herself." Joshua says don't stop, share. Joey regards him thoughtfully at him a second and then continues. "Starting when I was about six, my pop - he was a minister - he started drinking, boozing. A lot. And by the time I was 15, he was really sick. The doctor said he - he - it was too late. His liver was almost gone. Me and my brother - we didn't know what to do. I just couldn't sit there and watch my father die. I couldn't do it, so I took off." Joshua asks if that was when he came to them (Joey, who is twenty, DOES look about fifteen). He says no and continues. "I was living in hotels and on the streets for about five years, jumping from job to job, city to city. Then I decided to come home, and I got a job as a..." He lets this trail off, unwilling to tell them he's a cop. "I got a job, I cleaned myself up, then I tried to get back into my brother's life. I figured we were the only family each of us had left. We had to be together, right? But he," he continues, laughing to cover his pain, "he didn't see it that way. He didn't want anything to do with me. He shut me out." Joey asks how it made him feel. "Pretty dumb. Somehow I convinced myself that my brother would welcome me with open arms instead of a - a clenched fist," he says, laughing sarcastically again. "When I was a kid. I thought the only thing family was for was to share pain. That was the only thing I knew when I was growing up. Five years on the street changed my mind about that. Five minutes with my brother changed it back." Rachel tells him he has a new family now and kisses his neck.

In Fuller's office, they are interrogating Morgan. He confesses, finally. Doug says accusingly that he lied about it to get them involved. Fuller says he can sympathize with Morgan, but there's nothing they can do, according to the law. Morgan says it was all his own fault, that he was giving her only material things, not love, and that nobody was giving her any love. Doug asks, ominously quiet, how that makes it his fault? Mr. Morgan says, "that's the way these cults work! They find some kid who isn't getting any love from her own family, and then they take the place of the family!" Doug exhales, looking angry at himself, and Fuller tells Hoffs to pull Joey out, agreeing to let Doug go with her. At the camp, everyone is standing in a large circle as Joshua faces five recruits and tells them to repeat after him: "I now symbolize, my acceptance of love, and my rejection of hate, by accepting my new name, and rejecting my old one." He welcomes Joey, and Rachel kisses him, a bit more deeply than she did the other times, and his eyes register his reaction. "Welcome to Heaven's Family... Abel," she says, and he continues looking into her eyes. Later, Doug and Hoffs drive up in Doug's truck. Hoffs says she found the place through land deed records. Joshua and a few larger guys come to greet them. Doug says they are looking for Joey Penhall, and Joshua says that no one here goes by that name. Doug asks if he's going to have to tear apart the whole twenty acres until he finds him, and Joshua asks if he has a warrant. Doug begins to stride toward him, saying he's got his warrant right here, but Hoffs stops him. Doug says that if they let them have Joey, they'll close the investigation they're doing. Joshua says that what they do is perfectly legal and apologizes that they wasted their time. Doug says "I'm only gonna say this once" and grabs Joshua. Joshua waves off the other kids, and Doug says they're not leaving without his brother. Joey comes out and says "What if I don't wanna leave?" and tells him that his name isn't Joey anymore, it's Abel. Doug says he can drop the act, that Mr. Morgan was lying about the drugs, and Joey nods, grinning and saying that he knew that the first day he came up here. Hoffs asks why he didn't report it, and he says "These are good, honest people. And I'm loved here." Doug thinks he's just doing it to get back at him and tells him that they can patch things up and still be brothers. Joey says "I live here, this is my home." Doug says, "this is NOT your home" and grabs him, and when Joshua tries to stop him, Doug decks him. The guys pull Joey away, and Joshua tells Doug that he's attempting felony kidnapping, and Hoffs tells Doug that Joshua is right. Hoffs pushes him toward the truck, and he gets in, mumbling, as Joey watches his every move, his face stony and near tears.

Back at the Chapel, Doug asks Mac, Hoffs & Fuller if they have any idea how to get Joey out of there. Hoffs asks about deprogrammers. Fuller says they take them and lock them in a room for as long as it takes. Doug likes the idea, but Fuller reminds him that it's a felony. Doug asks if he has an alternative, and Mac asks Fuller what if it were HIS son? Fuller is silent a second and then says that whatever Doug does, he doesn't want to know about it. Doug says quietly that he's going to need the interrogation room this weekend to interrogate a suspect. Fuller says it's his and leaves. Hoffs says she already canceled her plans, and Mac says he never had any. Downtown, the kids are trying to sell flowers to strangers. Rachel reminds Joey that she loves him, and he says he loves her too, pulling her close to tell her that he thinks she's special and she means a lot to him, if she knows what he means. She says she does and kisses him deeply again. As she walks away, he starts trying to sell flowers, approaching person after person. A brown van pulls around in a circle, and Doug jumps out of the passenger door. Joey sees him and throws the flowers in his face. Mac gets out of the back, and Doug & Mac chase Joey. Joey yells for Rachel and runs, but Doug pushes him onto the back of a car and punches him. As they struggle, Joey punches Doug, and Doug punches him right back, and they finally get Joey turned over onto his stomach so Mac can handcuff him. Joey yells for Rachel and struggles violently, trying to get away, but he can't. Rachel hears his cries and runs over to try to help him, but Doug slams him down onto the car and holds Rachel back. Rachel yells for someone to call the police. Mac opens the door, and Doug picks Joey up by his butt and forcibly throws him into the van, and then they drive off. Rachel is distraught. Downstairs, in the interrogation room, which is bare except for a table and chairs, the door opens, and Hoffs comes in, followed by Doug, who is carrying Joey, who is still struggling and yelling for them to let him go. Doug puts him down on the floor, and Mac tells him to be careful and watch Joey's head. They handcuff him to a pipe and then all three jump back to avoid his reaction. A stony "Let me go," is all he says. Doug asks Mac and Hoffs to get Joey a hamburger, telling them they'd better make it a cheeseburger because cheese has protein. They leave. Joey is slumped against the wall, and Doug sits in a chair, facing him. Joey stares up at him challengingly. Doug asks if he's okay, saying,"we didn't hurt you, did we?" Joey merely says that Joshua warned him that Doug would try to do this and make Joey reject David's teachings. Doug says, "He's right. Joey, you're my brother." Joey holds his gaze, sitting still except for one jiggling leg. "You're Joey's brother, and I'm not Joey. My name is Abel," he says finally. Doug points at him and says "You're Joey." Joey looks away and suddenly stops moving, freezing himself in one position and ignoring Doug. Doug gets mad again, saying that Joey IS going to listen to him. He gets up and throws the chair against the wall, smashing it into pieces. Joey doesn't even blink. Doug comes over and crouches in front of him, saying "You ARE going to talk to me!", and then he hits him. Joey doesn't react. Doug pulls his fist back to hit him again, but Mac, who has returned with the burger, stops him, asking what he's doing? Doug, completely frustrated, asks how he's supposed to talk to him? Mac says he doesn't know, okay? and tells him to see if Joey's hungry. Doug takes the bag and says "fat chance." Mac asks if he wants him to stay in there, and Doug says no, and then he stops him and thanks him. Mac leaves.

Joey is still sitting in the same position, and Doug holds the cheeseburger up to his face. Joey averts his head just slightly. Doug says they have to get protein into him and tells him that's how the cult weakened his mind. He unwraps it and puts it on the floor next to him. Upstairs, Mac and Hoffs are playing Go Fish. Fuller comes in and tells them that an APB just came over the wire. Heaven's Family had reported a boy missing whose description matches Joey. Mac glances at Hoffs and says "I haven't seen anyone named Joey in about a week." Hoffs says "Me neither." Fuller looks around and says, "Um. yeah. Neither have I. I guess." He leaves. Downstairs, Doug tells Joey that he's running away again, just like he did from his mom's suicide and his pop's drinking. He calls him a coward. Joey takes the bait, saying angrily that he didn't run away from anything, he ran TO something, a better way of life and people who were capable of loving him. Doug fills him in on the greed behind the cult's "love" - 5000 kids selling 5 bouquets of flowers at $5 each - $125,000 a day tax free. Joey says he doesn't have to listen to this. Doug sighs. Upstairs, Hoffs and Mac are asleep - they've been there all night. Downstairs, Joey wakes up and looks at the cheeseburger, and then he hears Doug coming and sits up to pretend like he's been sitting there all night in the same position. Doug knows better - he says now that he's gotten some sleep, does he feel like eating something? and tells him that he nuked the cheeseburger for him (so, obviously, he put it there while Joey was sleeping). He picks it up and pleads with him gently to eat just a little, but Joey just sits there. Then he laughs softly and says he can't believe he's doing this, that their mom used to do the same thing when Joey was little because he would refuse to eat. Doug tries to force it into his mouth, yelling "eat it!" - and Joey spits it out at him silently. Doug says he doesn't know why he's bothering, he doesn't give a damn what Joey does, but then he sits next to him and starts talking about their father, and he tells him a story. "One morning just before Pop died, he calls me over to the bed. Tells me he loves me. Scared the hell out of me - Pop using the L word. Then he calls me over closer. He says, 'Where's Joey?' 'I don't know, Pop.' There's a long silence. Just sitting there, just him and me. 'You tell Joey, no matter where he is, I love him.' Those were his last words." Joey loosens up a bit, listening as Doug admits that deep down he kind of feels the same way, that he lost his brother once and doesn't want to lose him again - he needs his brother. Joey swallows and says, "What was Ma like?" Doug looks at him as he stares off into the distance and says, "She was the best." Joey says he can barely remember her, and Doug says that's okay, he was only four when she died. Joey asks if they can go see the graves sometime, and Doug says whenever he wants. Joey meets his eyes and slowly starts eating the cheeseburger.

Closing scene: Some kids are leaving the house to get on the bus to go up to the camp. Rachel is with them. Joey is standing across the street, watching her. She comes over to talk to him, Joshua watching from a distance. She asks if he is okay, and he says he's fine. She says she misses him and asks if he wants to come up to the cabin with her, and wouldn't it be nice to be together again? He says it would and asks her to stay here with him. She looks back and says that she can't. "Yes, you can," he says strongly, and she kisses him again a few times, finally stepping back to walk away from him and saying good-bye. His eyes clouded, he watches her leave and watches the bus pull off.

Cyndi Glass: Amazing episode, the first in which we see Doug and Joey Penhall together. So much happens that it's incredible that it all fits in 42 minutes of air time. The story is complex and a lot goes on between the lines, expressed not only by what the characters do and say, but the reasons behind them and the timing of them. They run some high risks here - Doug comes close to seeming totally out of line and a total jerk, but we viewers have been there with Doug through a lot of highs and lows over the previous 86 episodes. We know that if Doug is this upset, hurt and angry, he must have a reason, and it must be a big one. When we hear how Joey left Doug to handle everything, we can remember Doug from Season 2, and how much pain his family history has caused him (remember when he angrily told Hanson about his mother's suicide in #33 "The Best Years Of Your Life"?). Unlike Joey, we know Doug. We've seen him in situation after situation, and we know he's got compassion and a warm heart. The contrast here is telling - making it clear that this was the trauma of Doug's life. Not only that, but the way they have written makes us realize that no matter how well we or the other characters know Doug (even Hoffs and departed characters Ioki, Booker and especially Hanson), Doug hasn't told anyone about Joey. That in itself says a lot.

In the beginning of the episode, Joey seems like a cocky brat, but we see hints of his gentleness when he meets Clavo for the first time, daring to talk and joke with him even with Doug giving off a forbidding presence nearby. When we see that this cocky kid is willing to actually beg Doug to forgive him, we see that he needs Doug desperately, and as he tells his story to the other kids, his side is just as compelling. His story hints that he was a runaway living on the streets, at least in the beginning (and what 21JS viewer can forget the compassion that Doug, more than any of the others, seemed to feel for the runaway kids in #52 "Blinded By The Thousand Points of Light"?). We see that, behind his amused sarcasm and cocky laughter, twenty-year-old Joey is aching for someone to talk to who will listen and love him. This is precisely why, despite his street smarts and attitude, he is drawn in, and that only serves to illustrate the depth of his need for Doug's forgiveness and presence in his life: he cleaned up for one reason - one motivation - and when Doug rejected him, that motivation was gone. He even recognizes the techniques they are using, but it doesn't matter anymore - he's a sucker for the unconditional love he finds, not only from the cult leader and members but also from Rachel, a girl in the cult. I've always wondered if she slept with him - the more I watch it, the more I think so. I found it very creepy that the cult was called "Heaven's Family" - too similar to this "Heaven's Gate" cult that committed suicide, and the punch at the beginning gives me the creeps as well). Doug has expressed a lot of anger, which was necessary, though I did wonder the first time I saw this how Doug hitting him all the time was ever going to compete with the hugs and message of love that Joey was getting from the cult.

The episode has always been one of my favorites and still is, but with repeated watching, problems arise. So much is crammed in that to a casual viewer unfamiliar with Doug's back story, Joey's brainwashing might seem too fast and unrealistic. My major problem is with the writing of Doug Penhall in this episode. This Doug is so much more self-righteous and strict than he ever was before- as if he's always been so perfectly responsible and clean-living, when we know from watching the past 86 episodes is not true. Doug has always been written to be a very complex character - full of layers and dimensions, and in this episode, Doug seems to lack dimension - enough that the knowledge of his previous character becomes a necessary tool to understand Joey's motivations throughout the episode. The scene where Doug and Mac kidnap Joey off the street is extremely violent and hard to watch, as is the scene later where Doug tries to get Joey to talk and starts punching him in the face almost ritualistically, stopping only when Mac enters the room and tells him to. We see a flicker of shame in Doug, and he's grateful Mac stopped him, and so are we. It's not like Doug to be this closed off and impatient. He's usually wonderful with kids - but then again, this is no ordinary kid.

Joey, on the other hand, is marvelously well-written: so much like the earlier Doug Penhall of Seasons 1 and 2 - blustery and aggressive, yet joking and full of so many dark feelings. Michael DeLuise has a talent for saying lines that could come across as insolent or boorish and delivering them with a smile or a facial expression that gives them depth and substance. It's instantly apparent that he is Doug's younger brother, not just physically, but by their interaction as Doug, despite himself, falls back into the big brother role. For a good half of the show, Michael DeLuise alone, as Joey, carries the bulk of the action, and this is where Season 5 began to turn around. Throughout the episode, Joey is by turns pleading, defiant and manipulative, calling himself Abel mainly, in my opinion, to get a rise out of Doug and refusing to eat the cheeseburger or speak when they get him back to the chapel. Joey doesn't even flinch when Doug smashes the chair against the wall, showing the viewers that he is used to violence. None of it is written too over-dramatically or sweet. Doug finally stops being violent and controls his anger, and we get the message - violence doesn't work. Doug speaks gently about their parents, and how their father's last words were that he loved Joey, no matter where he was. The final breakthrough and their first halting words to each other show the audience that what worked was love - Doug's way, not the cult's way, and not the violence and anger that Doug has shown him up till then. It's a masterful performance by both actors.

It was also nice to see Captain Fuller's unofficial support of Doug's rescue of Joey, and Hoffs and Mac being right there to help him through it all. Mac's gentleness with Joey sets the tone for their future friendship - he is the one who constantly tells Doug to be careful with him, makes sure they watch Joey's head as they handcuff him to the radiator pipe, and goes out to get him a cheeseburger, not to mention stopping Doug from hitting him again when he comes back. Though TPTB totally revised Doug's family back story for this storyline, it's done well and makes sense - Doug's younger brother, Joey, skipped out on a terrible responsibility and left it all for Doug, and now he expects to just jump right back in with no penalty. In #1 "21 Jump Street," Doug said that his mother was Jewish and his father was a priest, and here, Joey calls him a "minister." But whatever liberties they had to take with Doug Penhall's previous storyline were handled extremely well, and if they allowed TPTB to bring Joey Penhall onto the show, then hooray!

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