Starsky & Hutch vs the World
I’ve been thinking about the events of Starsky vs Hutch lately, because I’m a masochist, I guess. On the one hand, I wish the episode had never been filmed, because it’s just so painful to watch. But on the other hand, the takeaway just might be worth it.
Let me explain. Most fans hate this episode with the passion of a thousand red-hot suns (or maybe that’s just me), but the ending is extraordinary. In an episode where we’re supposed to believe that both guys have fallen in love with a beautiful blonde policewoman (or have they only convinced themselves they’re in love with her because they’re actually in love with each other?), and the animosity between Starsky & Hutch keeps growing until it reaches a crescendo when Starsky arrives at Kira’s house to find Hutch sauntering out of her bedroom, casually tucking in his shirt, the episode ends with the guys rejecting Kira out of hand, turning their backs on her, and walking out of The Pits with their arms tightly wrapped around each other’s shoulders, while wearing matching black leather jackets, black turtlenecks, and jeans (the symbolism being that they’re two halves of a whole).
What’s your point, Daisy? you’re probably thinking. My point is, this is a case where the end justifies the means. That David and Paul set out to make an episode which shows that no one can come between Starsky & Hutch’s friendship, and so it required that the friendship be tested like it never had before.
Even Starsky and Hutch acting strangely out-of-character was intentional. As their animosity towards each other intensifies while they compete for Kira’s affections, they become more and more unprofessional, off their game, and incompetent. Case in point: when Hutch is waiting inside Kira’s house for her to return from the dance hall and he sees a man harassing her outside, he rushes to her defense, holding his gun still inside its holster, and points it at the offender, who (twice) looks confusedly at the holstered gun in Hutch’s hand as if he’s thinking What the hell is this guy doing?
And then when Hutch and Kira are inside the house, Hutch leaves his holstered gun on the living room windowsill as he follows Kira into her bedroom, and a camera close-up ensures that we notice. He’s supposed to be there to guard Kira from the serial killer who’s been targeting the blonde dancers, but how can he do that when he’s in flagrante delicto with Kira in the other room?
It’s only when Starsky and Hutch work together (for the first time in the episode) to dispose of the grenade, that the natural order of things is restored.
In the tag, they’ve decided to accept without argument whichever one of them Kira chooses, but then Hutch adds, “But who wants to?”
Who wants to, indeed? Not our boys. It’s implied that they offer themselves as a package deal (i.e. a threesome), or there is no deal. And they’re not disappointed when she refuses their offer.
In the end, they made their decision, and they chose each other.
Someone said that Hutch was unlikeable in this episode, and I do think that’s the key. Us members of Team Hutch are used to him being a bit of a jerk sometimes, but here he really doesn’t have any redeeming features! Big things – “What’s a Starsky?” to little things- like wiping out the mug and spitting out the coffee. If Starsky was a woman friend telling me about this, I’d be saying “When someone tells you who they are-believe them. Don’t you dare go back to him!” And it’s not Kira’s fault. Hutch is a sexually experienced man in his 30’s. He has agency. I think I’m going to stick with the “It was all a dream” explanation. Because I want them together too. And if Hutch can behave like this once, he’ll do it again, and there’s heartache down the line.
My random thought on Kira:
Maybe she’s a narcisist who wanted to mess with people through lovebombing and lying in order to feel anything at all.
She seems to ‘not be aware’ that flirting and sleeping with Hutch needs to be communicated to Starsky if they have the prior-relationship. No one is that dense and becomes an undercover cop. She knows, she wants it that way. So that makes her schemer/mechinator. She gets off on it.
Fuck budies isn’t the same a dating, and everyone involved should be on the same page.
It was very clear from Starsky towards Hutch and Kira that he was dating Kira. Free love and all that works as long as everyone involved know that it’s free and unattached. If one person thinks it’s a attachment, communication needs to happen.
So the problem in this episode is purposefully not communicating and that’s starting with Kira. She never says anything clearly to either one of them. Starsky and Hutch are trying to communicate, but Starsky seems to be stuck in a caveman non-verbal state and Hutch in a sex-crazed testosterone state.
I swear I love S&H! I’m not trash-talking them. Well, only a bit, where they deserve it.
Yeah, Kira was totally self-absorbed and didn’t care about Starsky’s feelings, and she manipulated Hutch until he didn’t know what to think.
SvH is one of those eps that I just can’t explain. Everything is so off-kilter. I don’t mind being thrown in the middle of the action–I mean I love when a fic starts that way. But this one just doesn’t make sense. I’ve often wondered if Starsky was with Kira before the assignment stars? Or have they been on the case that long? If they have been, they aren’t being very observant. Are they bored with the assignment and that’s why they act so out of character? You can’t even explain their out of character behavior (especially Hutch’s) as something done for the benefit of the people who work there–like the way he and Starsky act towards each other in that fight scene in The Committee.
And Kira–I don’t exactly hate her. I mean, heaven knows the guys go after any woman they want including ones they work with so why isn’t it okay for her to do the same? But then again, Starsky doesn’t really act like he is a man in love. Okay okay he is in love with Hutch but he’s either suppressing it or just hasn’t realized it yet. But he and Kira have no chemistry. It feels forced. Like he’s saying he’s in love but isn’t acting that way. I mean, is he really that blind to what is going on between Hutch and Kira. Why didn’t he say something earlier? And Hutch–I love him dearly but quite frankly in this he’s more than a bit annoying. He’s downright unlikable in this. Is he acting out to make Starsky notice him? Is he, like Starsky, suppressing his feelings for his partner? Sometimes I get the feeling in this that Hutch is acting out of self-hatred–like he wants to destroy everything that matters in his life because he hates his life at the moment so much. Don’t love me because i’m not lovable. Push Starsky away because Starsky means everything to me and I’ll leave first so it won’t hurt so badly. He seems wounded in this.
Then again it could all just be a hallucination one of them is having! LOL.
I think the simple answer is that they act out of character because they’re too busy being infatuated by the beautiful woman. It’s happened in other eps, so it seems that the producers were trying to make a point.
For ex: in Body Worth Guarding, Hutch walks into the glass balcony door in Anna’s hotel room, accidentally points his gun at the bellboy when he brings the morning newspaper, and deliberately (as a joke) points his gun at Starsky when he comes to the hotel room the next morning. And Starsky (as a joke) puts his hands up.
In Gillian, Hutch freezes in the alley and almost gets Starsky killed because he’s pre-occupied with thoughts of her.
In BWG, their incompetence is played as a joke, but it’s played as serious in Gillian.
To me, it really seems like the producers were trying to justify why Starsky & Hutch should be together (as a romantic couple), because look how OOC and incompetent they are when they’re dating women.
There’s another episode where they dress alike – plaid shirts and black jackets in the squad room-and look each other up and down then move on without comment. It’s a great moment, I think.
My problem with this episode is that the conflict is largely unrealistic-I just don’t believe H would have ignored the plan so blatantly. And I don’t think he would have tackled the man with the dog so incompetently. He’s a decorated, experienced officer in his 30s-not a “rookie on the roust”! I’m all for some conflict, and I can see them falling out over a woman, but it has to be proper angst, not a petty squabble. And it’s a shame Kira is so wet and annoying. If she’d been a strong independent person treating them the way they treat women I think it would have been great!
It’s the Heroes where they dress alike. See my comment above as to why I think they act incompetent.
The whole episode is off – all three of them act less like experienced police and more like sophomores in an ’80s high school movie.
Even PMG and DS seem to flounder for an understanding of their own characters.
I do think this is a good example of how slash-vision can help an episode. Having unresolved sexual/romantic feelings or having a (temporary) break up and still trying to work together can give SvH the back story it needs to make some sense.
Still doesn’t explain the shocking lack of professionalism, though. Even taking into consideration the Fan-fic implications about how much blood flow is lost from their brains due to erections. ; )
I think that’s the point — that S&H shouldn’t date women, because look what happens when they do — they become unprofessional, bumbling idiots.
I love your analyses, because you put things together that I haven’t considered. I saw their jackets, but didn’t realise their whole outfit matched. Is that the only time Starsky wears a black leather jacket?
I agree with most of what you say, though I don’t hate the episode with such passion. I find it fascinating. Like a train wreck in slow motion. I know it’s bad, I know what’s going to happen, but I just want to see every single collision moment roll from one inevitability in another.
The ending of this episode is one of the slashiest – on par with Death in a Different Place.
I interpret it as S&H offering Kira the deal she covertly put on the table with them, overtly in front of her. Confronting her with what she was really doing, above board, and showing her that they knew what she was doing, scared her. She wanted the deal on her terms, not on everyone’s terms. That makes her a predator, and none of the relationships between her and the guys could survive on those terms.
I know there’s at least one fic where she accepts their deal, and then they have sex and I believe she realises that S&H are way too comfortable with each other. There are a few other fics that have threesomes and things roll on from there. But I thought the idea of rewriting the ending where she says yes was an interesting mental excercise. I want S&H together, though, at the end, no matter what. So I prefer the ending as it stands in the episode.
According to Mortmere’s blog, Starsky wears that black leather jacket a total of 17 times in seasons 2,3,4, including during the porch walk scene in Class in Crime, although I was looking at something else during that scene, LOL.
Although I don’t remember it in any of the other eps, either. I only remember his brown ones for some reason.
https://shinventory.wordpress.com/1977/03/12/starskys-black-leather-jacket/
He has something on other than jeans in that scene in Class in Crime?
What Babs said! I know it wasn’t colourful what he wore on top, but I’m busy during that scene!