In the Heat of the Night

A copycat recreates a shocking unsolved murder from the past.Gillespie feels threatened after Ted Marcus suggests that Virgil should become the Chief.The situation becomes more tense after Virgil criticizes Parker and Bubba's actions.

Tibbs,Gillespie and Bubba pursue different leads in a bizarre murder case and the Chief realizes that the killer has plans for him.

The murder of well respected man turns up a shocking secret about his family.

Virgil is delighted when Matthew his former partner from Philidelphia comes to visit.But he soon learns his friend has another purpose for coming to Sparta.Althea is uncomfortable because she and Matthew were romantically involved before she met Virgil and she realizes that he is unwilling to accept the fact that she chose Virgil over him.Meanwhile the F.B.I. enlist Sparta P.D.'s aid in hiding a witness.

Sweet risks his life to prove that the Sheriff of a neighboring county is guilty of the racially motivated murder of a young man that Sweet was friends with in high school.

Bubba is seduced by an alluring writer who has more on her mind than romance.Bill and Virgil worry that he is in over his head.Bubba tries to protect her from her estranged husband, but things get complicated after she shoots someone.

Virgil is forced to shoot a suspect in an armed robbery.He has trouble dealing with the consequences of his actions, after he realizes the person he shot was a teenaged girl - and no one can locate the gun he believed she was pointing at him.

Virgil's visiting niece and Bubba's nephew team up in an effort to escape the boredom of small town life.But they get more excitement than they bargained for when they cross paths with a dangerous parolee.

Gillespie suspects that JoAnn's new cook is connected to the murder of a young prostitute.But Virgil suspects the culprit maybe a local pimp who has been intimidating the women.

A minister who was integrating his church(by inviting Virgil and Althea to attend services)is poisoned.

In this thought provoking episode.Gillespie is surprised when a man he arrested asks to see him on the eve of his execution.He must confront his feelings about the death penalty when the prisoner asks him to witness his death.

The past comes back to haunt JoAnn in the form of an escaped convict.

The police search for a burglar who preys on elderly women.And the prime suspect is the son of a city councilwoman.

The investigation of a possible assault brings back nightmarish and confusing childhood memories for Virgil.

A vivacious socialites return to Sparta delights her ailing father and childhood friend Virgil, but her sister is less than thrilled at her homecoming.After their father is poisoned the jealous siblings become suspects in his murder.

A bitter strike leads to a murder investigation on a snowy day in Sparta.

Bubba tries to rescue a woman from a rapist, but she mistakes him for her attacker.Gillespie tangles with an ambitious district attorney who plans to use the case to further his career.

Sparta grieves after a drunk driver causes a fatal crash with high school cheerleaders on their way home from a game.While the officers try to find other driver, Althea tries to help the victim's families deal with their loss. The accident brings back painful memories for retired officer Tom Dugan.Meanwhile, district attorney Dutton accuses the department of being inadequate.

With the Chief in Quantico Bubba and Virgil try to catch a serial arsonist.Things get complicated after a man dies in one of the fires.And Councilwoman White stirs things up by appointing Tom Dugan acting chief of police in Gillespie's absence.

It seems that a serial killer has been burying his victims in a wooded area owned by a wealthy hermit that Virgil refers to as ""Sparta's Howard Hughes"". Suspicion immediately falls on an eccentric woman who lives in the woods with her pigs and chases away trespassers with a shotgun.The officers ask the landowner's disturbed son for help and Bubba is surprised to find that a woman he attended high school with is working as the man's ""nurse"".Also Parker and Sweet compete with one another to solve the case.