The script of Riptide's The Pirate and the Princess: New insight into Captain Scofield's character?

As much as I love and adore Captain Jack Scofield from the Riptide episode The Pirate and the Princess, one of my sources of frustration regarding the character is that the episode never really makes it clear whose side Jack is on. Did he move the mini-submarine so that it was on the eels' rock? Did he start the fire in the engine room? Was he really going to blow up the ship when Guido shot him?

I really believe he was not at fault for any of these things, especially since Guido was revealed as the snake in the grass. But that doesn't necessarily clear Scofield. After all, he could have been a bad guy working all on his own, independent of the smugglers.

I hoped perhaps the script would clear up some of these mysteries even though the episode did not. I finally procured a copy of said script and pored over it yesterday. Although it does not answer things as much as I hoped, there are some interesting differences between the script and the episode that may actually lead to the answers.

First, the character description. He is described as a hard-bitten sea salt along the lines of Robert Shaw from Jaws. Now, I'm probably one of the only people who has never seen Jaws, since horror pictures with psycho animals are really not my thing, but upon looking up pictures of the character I can kind of see the inspiration. He even wears a sweater and a baseball cap. And of course, he's British in origin. The script makes note that Scofield has an English accent. I wonder if Christopher Cary was an immediate choice for the part or if they also considered other actors.

Next, the differences between the script and the episode.

The script, overall, is extremely similar to the finished product. Probably the biggest change made is that when they dive to get Captain Tyson's treasure, the old sunken ship starts collapsing and Cody is almost killed! Nick and Tony Guirilini come to rescue him just in time. When they surface, Angelo Guirilini is horrified by the tale of what happened. I suppose this was cut either for time or budget constraints, but it would have been an intense and exciting scene.

(Another, smaller change is that the flashback dates are moved up an entire century. Whereas in the script it's the 1500s, it's the 1600s in the episode. And yet even with that change, they didn't change the time discrepancy in the script of Emilio Rodriguez being made captain of his own ship several years before Captain Tyson ever met Princess Carlotta!)

Captain Scofield's original scene, where he speaks with the customs agent who spies for him, is virtually the same as the episode, save for the very beginning. One slight change made in the script has the Riptide detectives and Giovanna Guirilini talking about the problems on the expedition outside the airport instead of in the taxi cab. Scofield and the customs agent watch the whole thing. When Murray says he wants to look the inexplicable squarely in the eye until it blinks, the camera angle goes to a close-up of Scofield's eye and a blink. Ha! Cheesy, yes, but an interesting approach. It would have been amusing if they had kept it like that in the episode.

When Scofield is spying on the Arrivederci, Baby, the script notes that he is wearing a damp wetsuit. This is as in the episode; we are to assume he has been diving. However, while in the episode it really may be a red herring and his diving was innocent, in the script it almost seems that there definitely is something sinister about whatever he was doing down there. Instead of Tony, it's Guido who gets bitten by the eel. Unless Guido was trying to throw suspicion off of himself, or unless the eel just went for him before he could do anything about it, it seems that he was completely surprised by the location of the mini-submarine and perhaps did not move it there himself. Also, when they come up, the script notes that one of them is clearly hurt, whereas it doesn't seem to be as clear in the episode, particularly from that distance.

Perhaps the eeriest change in this scene is that originally Scofield is supposed to be singing to himself as he watches the goings-on and sees them surface with someone definitely hurt. Such a reaction seems to indicate either that he is responsible for moving the mini-submarine and is pleased that someone got hurt or that he just doesn't care, even if he had nothing to do with it. It also rather indicates he may not be altogether sane. Singing while watching injured people is not a normal reaction. As nice as it would have been to have heard Christopher Cary sing, I am glad that the episode opted to have him watch in silence and not look particularly pleased at anything that's happening. I wonder whether that was Christopher's suggestion or that of someone in the crew. The only point where he looks like he may be enjoying it could also be interpreted as him simply squinting and not quite sure what he's seeing. I wasn't sure what he was seeing either, even with the binoculars. But it's also possible that he couldn't tell that anyone was hurt, yet was pleased that they were surfacing without having found anything yet because he wanted to approach them about that partnership.

Of course, if we go with the idea that Guido put the mini-submarine on the eels' rock, the question becomes how did he do that when he was in town? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the mini-submarine is remote-controlled. Maybe before Guido left for town, he guided it to the spot he wanted and then damaged the relay circuit and sent it down. He certainly could have noted the rock on a prior dive and decided it would be perfect for his purposes.

It's also a point of curiosity why Scofield didn't approach Angelo about the partnership. One could decide that his story really was a lie, but on the other hand, perhaps he was simply planning to go about "approaching" in a very unusual way. There is nothing to say that maybe his intentions all along were that someone would notice the spying customs agent and find out about him after cornering that guy. Perhaps he thought it better if they ended up coming to him instead of the other way around. Of course, that didn't help Cody and Nick with their suspicions any, but maybe Scofield thought that since there wasn't anything illegal about him watching the ship and he admitted to it, his honesty wouldn't be questioned.

When the customs agent is caught spying at the hospital, in the script he ends up leading Cody and Nick on a chase all the way down to the docks, where he hides on Scofield's ship. Wow. I wonder whether that was changed because of time or budget or simply because it sounded too laughable that he would be that much of a coward. The script also says that Scofield then comes out glaring at Cody and Nick with the agent hiding behind him. Now, maybe that made sense when Terry D. Nelson was picturing Robert Shaw, but when small-framed Christopher Cary was cast in the role, somehow the thought of anyone hiding behind him just doesn't quite work. So that may have also had some bearing on why the scene was changed.

In the episode, instead of glaring, Scofield is friendly and amiable from the start. Even though the episode is still vague on Scofield's ultimate allegiance, this and these other changes from the script seem to point to the idea that perhaps Scofield is exactly as he presents himself to be and they wanted him to be more likable to the audience.

Things proceed much the same as the episode for a while, with the only changes seeming to be that, first, when Murray and Tony find the location of the ship, in the script Scofield laughs in delight instead of taking a wide-eyed sip from his rum bottle. Second, an interesting and possibly plot relevant change is that when Cody and Nick are questioning Scofield about the fire, the episode makes it more clear that they really do think he did it and are making no bones about the circumstantial evidence they found. Cody mentions how interesting he finds it that Scofield's rum bottle was left at the scene of the crime, whereas he doesn't say that in the script.

The other major difference between script and episode is that when a wounded Scofield struggles up with the knife and stabs Guido before he can plant the newly armed bomb, the scene lingers in the script. Instead of immediately cutting away at Guido's shock, it shows Scofield stabbing him in the heart and Guido suspended for a moment before collapsing to the floor. Perhaps it was deemed too violent for television at that time.

There is still no real indication of what Scofield is doing staggering into the main salon with the knife, so I will still assume he was trying to get the knife to the main characters to help them. I  will also assume that he was not planning to blow anybody up and that the bomb was probably brought to the ship by Mr. Hawkins and given to Guido to plant. Scofield could have easily been in the engine room trying to find clues as to who framed him for starting the fire and have stumbled across Guido getting ready to plant the bomb. Guido then shot Scofield and tried to blame him for the bomb, but had to abandon that plan and reveal his own duplicity when Scofield was still alive and Murray was going to call for an ambulance. Guido likely wasn't expecting Scofield to have survived the bullet.

That seems the most likely scenario to me. Supposing Scofield wanted to blow up the ship, why? Was his argument about the Arrivederci having the best equipment to find the treasure a lie? Was it the truth but he then abandoned that idea when it looked like maybe the treasure was either buried onshore or in a shallow underwater cave? The possible arguments for Scofield having the bomb really seem weak and ludicrous, especially since in the episode there is no indication of him having treasure lust elevated to a dangerous and deadly level. He comes across as mature and patient, willing to wait after all these years, even though he is excited, as is everybody else, at the thought of being so close to finding the treasure.

Another thought to consider is that the bomb was some pretty high-tech equipment and Scofield only had a small fishing boat and probably very little money. Not to mention he wasn't all that keen on technology all the time and liked more traditional methods of getting things done, as seen when he tells Murray that the old maps they found are better than any computer. Hawkins, meanwhile, had money and power and could probably very easily have obtained a bomb like that amid all his other crooked dealings. Plus, we know he definitely wanted Guido to kill everybody by that point due to the pressure put on him by Klaus Gunther. So he is the more likely candidate for the bomb's origins.

In the end, I remain determined to believe that Captain Scofield really is a good person and had nothing to do with any of the trouble, as he adamantly claimed. It would be nice to know for sure what the intention was behind the character, but I doubt if it will ever be known now, after all these years. It seems unlikely that anyone would still remember what the full story was behind a guest-starring character who only appeared in one episode.

One thing that's sure. While the character is very interesting in the pages of the script, he seems much more dark and mysterious than in the episode, especially when we can't see what he looks like or what his expressions are. When he's actually seen onscreen and played so brilliantly by Christopher Cary, he comes to life as a lighter and friendlier person. But the script description of him as hard-bitten is so fitting in either version. I will always be impressed by how he struggled up after being shot, stabbed Guido, and staggered across the ship to take the knife to the bound characters. Truly, he is far tougher than he looks.

Episode Comparison: Meet the Guirilinis (Riptide)

(I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures in this post. I own season 3, but not season 2, and the copy I was looking at was sub-par, to say the least. The edges all fell off the screen.)

I’ve been trying to think of a post for another series, but my mind is still stuck in Riptide mode and thinks I should do a comparison post of the two episodes featuring the Guirilini family: Arrivederci, Baby and The Pirate and the Princess.

First of all, I come from a slightly unusual background in that I saw the second episode first, due to chasing down Christopher Cary’s wonderful guest-spot. It was my introduction to that adorableness that is Riptide. I watched several other episodes from season 3 and then decided that I’d really like to see the first episode with the Guirilinis. I have a great love for recurring characters, just as I do for oneshot characters.

The family consists of three: father Angelo and his two children, Tony and Giovanna. It’s unknown what happened to his wife, but since she’s never around or mentioned, she’s likely either divorced from Angelo or dead.

I’m not sure where I came up with some of the odd perceptions I had before seeing Arrivederci, Baby. The strangest was probably thinking that in the first episode, the Riptide detectives helped the Guirilinis get started on their career and even named the boat. Arrivederci, Baby sounded like a name Nick might give a boat, rather than Cesar Romero’s Angelo Guirilini.

But that first episode establishes that the Guirilinis are already highly successful oceanographers and already have their signature boat. It also establishes Cody’s crush on Giovanna Guirilini, something only briefly touched on in the second episode.

The first episode shows us Cody and Nick’s first meeting with the family. It’s Murray who knows them from the past, something that also surprised me. I assumed the groups had only ever met together, rather than only one of the detectives being previously familiar with the Guirilinis.

Both episodes are filled with adventure and excitement and mysterious sabotage aboard the Arrivederci. The second episode, however, mostly focuses entirely on the mystery aspects, while the first episode has a rather prominent subplot concerning Cody’s crush on Giovanna and his desperate quest to speak Italian. Nick’s ability to speak it at least semi-well is a running joke throughout. He and Giovanna even have a couple of playful conversations in Italian around Cody, exasperating him to no end.

The first episode also has an amusing running joke involving Murray’s sister Melba, who is absent due to being on a safari in Africa. The crewmembers ask about Melba and are disappointed to learn she won’t be there. Later, when Tony Guirilini wakes up from being injured, Angelo reports that his first conscious word is “Melba.”

There are a couple of oddities about Tony that remain consistent for both episodes. Whether or not it was intentional is unknown.

Tony has very little screentime in both episodes, and when he is onscreen, he doesn’t often talk. In Arrivederci, Baby, Tony is shot with a spear gun while diving right at the beginning of the episode. There’s an alarming and sickening shot of blood beginning to spread through the water. Later, he stumbles to where Angelo and Giovanna are having a party and collapses on the floor.

Tony’s condition remains a background plot point through the rest of the episode, with Angelo furious to not be allowed in to see his son at the hospital and later wondering whether to cancel their expedition altogether because of what happened. Giovanna convinces him that Tony would not want that and they should go ahead.

Tony only actually speaks in the epilogue, where he’s released from the hospital and reunites with everyone. His left arm is in a sling to immobilize his wounded shoulder. He seems like a nice, good-natured person, in spite of what happened to him.

In The Pirate and the Princess, Tony has a bit more screentime but still doesn’t often talk. He translates Captain Scofield’s Maritime Association records into English from the Italian printout on their computer. Later, he rushes in excitedly with Murray and speaks in Italian to Angelo and Giovanna, telling them that they’ve found the location of the sunken pirate ship.

Several times Tony is in a scene but is silent. The last we know of him, he’s staying behind in the main cabin tending to the badly wounded Scofield while everyone else works on sending the bomb to their enemies before it blows up.

Tony is also rather unlucky in that he’s hurt in both episodes. The first time is definitely the most serious. In the second episode, he’s bit by an eel that swims out to attack when they try to retrieve their miniature submarine. He has to go to the hospital to have it treated, but then he’s released and is on the ship for the rest of the episode, complete with a bandaged arm.

You know, I just thought of another, rather strange thing. It seems that on Riptide, injuries to the left shoulder are highly favored. Both Tony and Scofield are wounded there, and Cody is shot there in the episode Echoes.

Tony’s sister Giovanna is an interesting person. She is a determined and practical Italian woman, the voice of reason in both episodes when Angelo doesn’t want to go ahead with something. In some ways, it may seem unfeeling for her to say that they should go on the expedition while Tony is in the hospital. But her reasoning makes sense and she is thinking of Tony, knowing how he would hate to be responsible for bringing such an expensive expedition to a halt.

She worries about Angelo’s tendency to like everyone, knowing it can get him into trouble. But she was unsuspicious of both Harry the Oilman and Guido, who were highly crooked, while being suspicious of Captain Scofield. Both Harry and Guido were, she thought, above suspicion and genuinely cared about them.

She is a kind and somewhat playful person, very friendly with the Riptide detectives and amused by Cody’s crush and Murray’s boundless enthusiasm (and terrible attempts at Italian). She is loving towards Guido and tries to help him into his diving gear. Later, they’re relaxing together on a couch in the main cabin.

She is fully involved in the oceanography operations. The first episode shows us that she is a diver just like her brother. For some reason, she doesn’t dive in the second episode, leaving that up to her beau Guido instead.

She is proud of her Italian heritage and very close to her family. In the first episode, she is fully into the celebration being thrown and dances with her father.

She is instantly aware that Cody has a crush on her, and his awkwardness about it seems to gently amuse her. At the end of the episode, she accepts a dinner date with Murray. While Cody kept thinking he needed to ask her in Italian if he wanted to impress her, Murray just came out with asking her in English and she was happy to accept.

She’s dating filmmaker Guido in the second episode, but that goes sour upon the revelation that he, and not Captain Scofield, is the traitor in the group. He is promptly killed by the wounded Scofield to prevent him from planting a bomb in the engine room.

In the fantasy sequences in the same episode, she plays the Spanish princess Carlotta while Cody plays pirate captain William Tyson. This is the only time where they’re shown to actually be together. In reality, it’s unknown what would become of Cody’s interest in her. He expressed happiness for her with Guido, but by the end of the episode she’s been betrayed and is sorrowing over her loss. Perhaps if the show had been renewed for a fourth season, we would have seen her again and there might have been a renewal of Cody’s attempts to date her.

Angelo is a cheerful and happy man, proud of his family and in love with his work and the ocean. He can become understandably furious when calamities ensue, such as not being allowed to see Tony in the hospital, or when people he trusts turn against him. But in spite of setbacks, he seems to continue believing in the goodness of people and doesn’t become cynical and distrusting.

It’s Angelo’s longtime friend Harry the Oilman, played by Dana Elcar, who is the Big Bad of Arrivederci, Baby. In The Pirate and the Princess, Angelo’s trust in Captain Scofield is shown to be justified, while the traitor is Guido. Angelo berates himself for trusting the man.

It’s good that Captain Scofield wasn’t at fault, for more reasons than one. It would be exasperating if everyone Angelo put his trust in, aside from the main characters, ended up being an enemy.

Angelo has an amusing and endearing habit of giving many of his close friends strange nicknames. Murray Bozinsky is “Bozin the Doctor”, while Nick and Cody are “Nick the Pilot” and “Cody the Mustache.” Cody expresses dismay to Nick at one point in the first episode, saying he feels like shaving. But they appear to get used to the pet names. I have to curiously wonder what Angelo might call Scofield, if they continue to associate and become friends!

Both episodes are so much fun and highly remind me of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew book series, as well as the television classic Sea Hunt. While I’ve loved every episode of Riptide that I’ve seen so far, and find it to be one of the most charming and innocent series of the 1980s, the Guirilini episodes, especially The Pirate and the Princess, will always hold an extra-special place in my heart.

 

Character Musing - Jack's Back: Captain Jack Scofield (Riptide)

For my first character musing here, I decided I wanted to do it on this cutie, Captain Jack Scofield, from the Riptide episode The Pirate and the Princess. Throughout the episode, the writers do a great job of throwing both real and fake evidence at us concerning Scofield’s true nature. It’s up to us to figure out the truth, something not always so easy when there are so many red herrings being strung around the place.

The basic plot of the episode has the three Riptide detectives down in the Caribbean on vacation, visiting their friends the Guirilinis. They become involved in a search the Guirilinis are on for a pirate treasure rumored to be in the area. Meanwhile, a mysterious saboteur tries everything possible to ruin the expedition. The crew of Guirilini’s ship the Arrivederci has skipped out, certain that the entire expedition is cursed by the evil eye. Riptide offers to fill in.

Right away, things go wrong when they search for the missing remote-controlled mini-submarine and find it next to an eels’ nest. Tony Guirilini ends up bitten by a huge eel that swims out to attack the intruders.

Captain Scofield is meant to seem suspicious from the get-go, paying off a local official to spy on the Riptide crew and also engaging in a bit of that himself. It doesn’t help that while he sits on his boat and watches the crew on the Arrivederci, he’s wearing what must be diving gear. Could he have moved the mini-submarine so that it’s resting on the eels’ home? Or could he at least have seen it there and not bothered to move it?

That was one last question that persisted in my mind even after I established Scofield’s innocence in the main sabotaging adventures. The saboteurs were never after the treasure at all, but were only trying to protect their smuggled goods hidden in the nearby area, and by all indications, Scofield was not mixed up with them and really was trying to find the treasure. I believe, however, that I have also vindicated Scofield of that one last infraction. The real traitor in their midst, the boyfriend of the Riptide crew’s friend Giovanna Guirilini, seemed to be the only traitor aboard the Arrivederci. He was also a diver, so it was most likely he who moved the mini-sub. Scofield, I’m guessing, was diving either for fun or while looking for the treasure, but was not involved in any way with the moving of the mini-sub and probably didn’t even know it was there. Him showing up in the diving gear was a red herring, something else meant to keep the audience suspicious of him.

One frustrating thing about the episode is that it never clearly establishes Scofield’s real role in things. One is left to try to piece together who and what he is based on the final evidence.

The main characters are divided on what to think for most of the episode. Cody Allen and Nick Ryder do not like Scofield and are suspicious of how he was watching their ship and turned up right during the expedition, offering his knowledge of the waters for a share in the pirate’s treasure they’re all seeking. They remain suspicious and eventually insinuate Scofield’s involvement in a fire that happens on the ship after they find a rum bottle near the fire. Scofield always carries one and drinks from it throughout the day. Scofield is hurt and insulted by the accusations and accuses them of deliberately trying to frame him to cheat him out of his cut of the treasure.

Murray Bozinsky, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly alright with the man and believes in his innocence. He found Scofield’s records from the Maritime Association and learned that he was an upright freighter captain for many years and retired with a clean record. He thinks Cody and Nick should stop worrying. Scofield, apparently realizing that Murray likes him, and respecting Murray as well, later wants to work with him on sorting out the pirate’s charts. Most of the actual examining of the charts happens off-screen, but I imagine it was a very interesting conversation.

The climax starts when the Guirilinis and Murray are talking and fantasizing and suddenly hear a horrific gunshot and a thump. Running to the engine room, they find Captain Scofield shot and lying on the floor next to a bomb. Giovanna’s boyfriend Guido says that Scofield was trying to blow everyone up. But when Angelo Guirilini moves to radio for an ambulance, Guido realizes the gig is up. He can’t let an ambulance or the police come. Pointing his gun at Angelo, he reveals his duplicity.

We’re left to wonder, more or less, exactly what happened. Was Scofield involved and he and Guido were arguing, maybe with Scofield furious about being framed? More likely, considering the weight of the collective evidence and Murray’s belief in Scofield and Scofield’s insistence on his innocence, the truth is much more positive in Scofield’s favor. He was probably trying to figure out who really had framed him and had gone to the engine room looking for clues. It was his bad luck to have surprised Guido in the act of planting the bomb. Realizing Guido was the real enemy, Scofield tried to stop him and was shot for his efforts. Guido then decided to lie and put the blame for the bomb on Scofield, hoping that his one last frame would buy him enough time to set the bomb for real.

That isn’t the last we see of Scofield. He plays a very important part in things and through his efforts, manages to rescue the others.

After Guido’s smuggler employer boards the ship and has Guido tie everyone up, he orders Guido to plant the bomb for real this time. Guido goes to do so and is immediately greeted by a wounded Scofield, who regained consciousness and struggled up with a knife. He will not let Guido plant that bomb. We later see Guido on the floor, apparently dead from a stab wound.

Scofield is barely conscious and probably doesn’t realize the bomb has already been armed. If he does realize, he knows that he can’t figure out how to stop it. He staggers down the hall, up the steps, and finds his way to the main cabin where everyone is tied up. He brings the knife, apparently to try to cut their bonds, but passes out again from the wound before he can do this. Still, they are able to get the weapon from him and cut the ropes. Thanks to Scofield and his knife, they are able to temporarily stop the bomb and then send it to the smugglers’ underwater cave via the remote-controlled mini-submarine.

We don’t see Scofield again, unfortunately, but the epilogue tells us that he will live. He’ll be up and around in a couple of weeks.

Seriously, that guy is tough. He has such a small frame compared to pretty much everyone else in the cast, and he can’t stay conscious for long after being shot, but not everyone could struggle up with a bullet in them, stab somebody, and walk around a large ship and up steps while being barely conscious in immense pain. You could see he was fighting for consciousness by the time he entered the main cabin, and although he couldn’t stay awake, he accomplished his mission by bringing the knife so everyone could get untied. If he hadn’t been able to do that, Guido would have set the bomb and everyone would have died. Rather interesting that they were all saved by a man very few of them even trusted!

The characters repeatedly tell us that Scofield is alive after the shooting. The writer clearly wanted the audience to know that information, perhaps because Scofield is a decent person and is someone the audience cares about. By all accounts, he is exactly what he presented himself to be, a retired sea captain just looking for a treasure, and not trying to harm anyone along the way except when he kills Guido in the defense of others.

Scofield is brilliantly played by Christopher Cary. There is no lie in his face or his voice; he is adamant that he is innocent and it is very difficult to disbelieve him. He freely admits to spying on the ship, but only to see what they were up to, and he believes in a firm and honest deal between him and Guirilini based on the trust of men and sealed with a handshake and looking each other in the eyes.

It’s interesting how non-objective Cody and Nick are. They don’t consider any other suspects, only Scofield. And some of the evidence itself actually points to another solution. When the mini-submarine malfunctions and Murray finds the source of the damage on the Arrivederci, presumably on the remote-control, it’s before Scofield is staying on the ship. Unless they think he sneaked onboard at some point, the more logical thing to think is that someone already on the ship did it. But they never discuss that.

Naturally they wouldn’t think the Guirilinis would be involved. By extension, they would trust Giovanna’s boyfriend too. But they could have considered other crew members, at least. And there really should have been some questioning of Guido, since they didn’t know him. Just zeroing in on Scofield as the only possible suspect they could come up with, not to mention not considering the possibility that the real saboteur was deliberately framing him, was not very good detective work!

I’m going to blame the writer for that more than the characters. The writer seemed to be trying to trick the viewer all the way along, presenting two sets of facts and leaving viewers to choose which was true and which was misleading. The writer clearly wanted it to be a surprise that the bad guy was Guido, so there was no suspicion cast on him beforehand.

I can’t be too annoyed at the writer, though, not when such a great character as Captain Scofield was first conceived in that script. I am absolutely thrilled with the character, his immense amount of screentime, and Christopher Cary’s interpretation of him. He quickly became one of my top three favorite Christopher characters.

As for the others, well, just keep reading. ;)