"Requiem for an Informer" is a very unique episode of "Police Story", though I do think the show was poorly named. The show begins with an armed robbery that results in a dead security guard. Naturally, the police are anxious to find the guys responsible but they have few leads. So, they report to squeezing their informants--trying to get them to dig for information. One of the is a junkie named Stan (Marjoe Gortner). He's been arrested but instead of prosecuting, Detectives Calabrese (Tony Lo Bianco) and Jameson (Don Meredith) realize Stan is a 'small fry'--a relatively harmless small-time drug addict. So, they convince Stan to work for them and contact them with any information he learns about on the streets. Oddly, and this is what makes the show interesting is that Detective Calabrese grows fond of Stan and actually cares about him. Eventually, this relationship results is a great lead on the armed robbers. However, and this gets to the poor title of the show, you KNOW Stan must die by the end of the show since the show uses the word 'requiem' in the title--and a requiem is a mass performed in the memory of the dead! Still, a nice episode--and the first really good on in the series.
