The shift starts with Reed being taken hostage by a woman out of her mind. Malloy and Reed are faced with multiple reports of burglaries and the thieves appear to be young boys. After a couple interviews, Malloy picks up on the fact that the victims are all supposed to be playing bridge and it points to one family.

Malloy and reed hunt down a suspect who has been bombing downtown storefronts. Then they report to a scuffle between two native americans at a bar that the bartender thinks may be a prelude to something a lot more serious.

It's Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and Malloy and Reed track down a suspect who beat and mugged a rescue mission Santa, who later gets arrested himself. They also respond to an alcohol-related traffic accident that resulted in a fatality, help a penniless widow who has been detained for shoplifting and take part in the search for a young Native American child who wandered off into a mountainous area while her parents were asleep.

Reed and Malloy have a gun pulled on them after stopping a car that turns out to be stolen, but the contents of the trunk link the two suspects to an even more sinister crime. Afterward, a recently widowed father and his teenage daughter report that their home has just been toilet papered, which ends up being a prelude for a much more serious incident.

The radical Robin Saydo on the loose, tied into a number of bombings. Reed spots him and Saydo is arrested by D.A. Paul Ryan. Other calls include an abandoned police cruiser which turned out to be a lone policeman on a foot pursuit capturing a drug suspect, and retired security officer Fred Tibbles assists the officers in breaking up a truck theft ring which took the trucks but not the merchandise within them.

Note: This episode begins a crossover with The D.A. that concludes on "The People vs. Robin Saydo".