Baywatch

- Season 8

(1997)

A flood of new recruits arrive at Baywatch to try out for rookie school, who include Hobie, Manny, and newcomers; Lani McKensie, a part-Hawaiian, part-Caucasian wanting to be a professional dancer, April Giminski, a naive, design major college student unfamiliar with swimming in the ocean, and Skylar Bergman, April's roommate who wants to become a paramedic. Newman is also assigned to teach the new recruits the ropes of the beach along with Donna and Jordan to assist. Manny becomes angry at Mitch after he fails an eye test due to a technicality and is disqualified ...

During the second week of rookie school, April is injured by a bump on the head caused by a mysterious wave runner rider which harasses her, Lani and Skylar and nearly causes her to be thrown out of rookie school. After visiting his home neighborhood, Manny becomes more determined to become a lifeguard than anything else. Meanwhile, after Mitch looks into his past while he himself was at rookie school with the first love of his life, a lifeguard named Beth, he reconsiders the offer by Chief Johnson to become Captain.

Veteran lifeguard John "J.D." Darius arrives at Bayside and competes with Taylor Walsh, an attractive newcomer, for Mitch's old job as lieutenant and Mitch must make his own decision as to which one will be the most eligible one for his former job. Although J.D. has more experience as a lifeguard than Taylor, he is plagued by haunting memory of failing in a rescue at Daytona Beach where he worked some years ago.

On Memorial Day weekend, Mitch, April, and Skylar find a lot of problems on their hands after discovering the dead body of an elderly Navy veteran whose two elderly Navy buddies of his want to give him a proper burial in the ocean. Meanwhile, Lani considers leaving Baywatch for a career as a professional dancer, until she sprains her ankle during a rescue and Cody professes his love for her. On Hobie's first day as a professional lifeguard, he has difficultly escaping his past when his former surfing friends, J.B. and Conner, give him a hard time over his new job.

April's mother and her 12-year-old younger brother, Charlie, arrive for a visit where Mitch and Hobie try to make the best of the weekend with Charlie who is revealed to be dying from a rare form of cancer that April refuses to accept. Meanwhile, Hobie and a friend of his want to compete with Mitch and Newman, as well as Cody and J.D., in the annual lifeguard row-boat race to prove themselves.

A sleazy TV reporter, called Roger Riptide who flies around the beach in a helicopter, starts dishing dirt on the private lives of the Baywatch lifeguards for his TV show much to the irritation of Mitch and Taylor, who suspect someone is leaking information to Riptide. Meanwhile, Caroline Holden arrives back in town after a failed acting career in New York and moves back into her apartment with Cody who is letting J.D. stay with him until he can find a place for himself, and the two of them hit it off. Cody also discovers Lani moonlighting as a dancer at a local ...

While strange earth tremors plague the area, Mitch tries to get Jordan to meet her real biological mother on a fishing outing, who turns out to be a white woman named Rene (a shock since Jordan happens to be black), who's dying from a brain disorder and thinks the problem is hereditary. But things take a turn after a massive rouge wave, triggered by an underwater tremor, capsizes the fishing boat and traps Rene below decks in a room with toxic fumes. Meanwhile, Caroline worries that her romance with J.D. will come apart after she receives another acting job in New ...

The hot Santa Ana desert winds stir up more troubles for the Baywatch lifeguards when a typical day begins with a large hole appearing on the beach, as well as an uncharted sand bar, the lifeguard trucks disappearing and then reappearing buried in the sand. Also, mysterious deaths of sea lions point to a giant electric eel living in the Zuma Beach caves. Meanwhile, Hobie tries to impress April who is torn over being with him and Manny. But both April and Hobie end up stranded in a cave with the giant eel, Manny and Lani getting attacked, and Mitch the only one who can...

Mitch is reunited with his old Baywatch lifeguard friend, Craig Pomeroy, now a full-time lawyer who's in town trying to honor a Native American's dying wish to die peacefully on sacred Indian grounds at the beach. Meanwhile, Neely Capshaw returns to Baywatch after being incapacitated for months in a skiing accident, with a hidden addiction to painkillers. When Donna figures out Neely's secret, she unsuccessfully tries to persuade Neely to get help because Donna's sister too had an addiction to painkillers. Also, Hobie uses a phony ID to get into a nightclub with his ...

Cody becomes consumed with guilt when his actions of leaving his post before the end of his shift to go on a date with Lani result in the disappearance of a young Latina woman swimming in the ocean, and the incident results in a hyped media circus that comes to the beach to cover the story. While the entire Baywatch force, including Manny, Newman, Lani and Caroline deal with looking for the missing girl, Mitch is also faced with the hostile press as well as the pressure from his superiors demanding Cody's resignation.

Caroline Holden returns to Baywatch during a break for her soap opera role in New York, which takes an unexpected turn when she is taken hostage by an armed robber which fills her with paranoia and fear for days after. Meanwhile, Neely, having quit her job at Baywatch, takes another job at a private beach club next door. After watching Neely's sloppy performance during a rescue of a crewman from a barge fire, Mitch finally learns from Donna about Neely's addiction to painkillers, but that doesn't prepare both of them after learning the shocking truth about Neely's "...

After learning of Manny's ethnic prejudices originating from the Latino street gang that he used to hang out with, as well as from his mother who also may be prejudice at her son dating a Caucasian girl, an irate April joins Craig on a diving expedition that takes a turn for the worse when they are attacked by a shark and then sucked into a water filter pipe where they find themselves trapped in a power plant's underwater cooling chamber at the mercy of both the propeller blades, and the shark swimming outside.

After Mitch saves a young girl on the beach from a live grenade, he and Cody investigate a sunken ship containing a cache of smuggled weapons where Cody is trapped in the hull of the ship 75 feet on the ocean floor after he and Mitch are taken hostage by a pair of arms smugglers looking to retrieve their arms shipment. Meanwhile, Neely and her baby daughter, Ashley, are staying with Mitch at his house while she attempts to get back on her feet financially, and her living arrangements quickly drive Mitch crazy.

After breaking up with Manny, April sees romance on her mind with Craig, who is experiencing a mid-life crisis over leaving his wife. April asks a reluctant Craig to attend a formal dinner party with her prompting him to seek out advice from Mitch over the situation he is in. But Craig has other things on his hands in trying to help April catch a trio of wild men on wave runners that are harassing swimmers and as well as learning to ride one himself. Meanwhile, Lani and Cody get a lesson in tandem surfing from a couple of professionals surfers.

Mitch meets Jenny Wade, a horseback riding instructor who rides on the Malibu beach everyday on her prized race horse, Max. Struck with love, Mitch engineers a picnic date with Jenny using a variety of circumstances, including encouraging Hobie to take one of Jenny's riding classes. Meanwhile, J.D. suggests to Cody and Lani to dive for sea urchins for a major profit, and Cody is the most willing since he needs to pay for a new engine for his lemon car. But things take a turn when Lani has to dive to rescue a trapped diver on the ocean floor, and she loses her hearing,...

Mitch's old policeman friend, Garner Ellerbee, returns where he recruits Mitch's help him bust a drug smuggling ring after a lifeless dolphin washes up on shore, and they end up putting Neely in danger when she willing agrees to place a tracer on a yacht of a shady man from the beach club she is life guarding at. Meanwhile, Cody tries to help the now-deaf Lani adjust to life without sound, who finds it increasingly difficult and frustrating.

After a grudge motorboat race between April and Jordan, against Cody and Newman, Cody gets trouble when he uses Mitch's boat as the ante in a bet with a pair of local rich snobs in a more powerful motorboat race. When Cody becomes incapacitated after spraining his knee, Mitch steps in and soon discovers the true nature of the game with the men he and Newman are playing with. Meanwhile, Neely and her baby are continuing to live with Mitch until she can buy a place of her own, and Mitch begins to see the responsibilities of babysitting for Neely's baby interfering with ...

A long bad day begins when after Mitch rescues a struggling swimmer, the local Disease Control Center places the entire Baywatch Headquarters under quarantine after the swimmer shows symptoms of a deadly virus. As a result, a nervous Mitch, J.D., Donna, Jordan, April, and a obnoxious medical supplies salesman named Ed Symes, are confined to the building for the whole day and night, which destroys Donna's plans to go out to a rock concert, J.D.'s plans to oversee a photo shoot with a group of attractive models, and April's plans to meet with a shoe company ...

Mitch rescues a troubled young woman, named Sara, from her boat after it catches afire after which she charms Mitch and gets his mother, Irene, to hire her as a nanny for Neely's baby, Ashley. But Mitch gets concerned when Sara quickly develops a dangerous obsession with him and tries to win his affections at any cost. When Mitch lets Sara down, she immediately shows her true colors and plots to make Mitch's life a nightmare. Meanwhile, April and Manny join a charity kite-flying charity contest arranged by Newman for his nephew Todd, a bitter, diabetic young boy who ...

In this three-part season final, Neely, Donna and Lani are chosen by the sports magazine 'Inside Sports' for a week-long trip to Alaska on the cruise ship Dawn Princess, where Neely tells Mitch she is thinking about visiting her ex-husband who lives in Juneau to reconcile with him. But things change when Hobie wins a contest for the same Alaskan cruise for him, Mitch and Cody to travel to Alaska as well. Meanwhile, a beautiful jewel thief and con artist, named Leslie Stryker, meets and cons Hobie into taking her on the cruise ship in order to escape with $5 million ...

On the Dawn Princess, Mitch and Cody surprise Neely and Lani by showing up where Cody tries to stay close to Lani during her photo shoot aboard the ship. Meanwhile, Gavin the hit man briefly mistakes Donna for Leslie who becomes intrigued with him. During a fishing stop in Ketchican, Mitch and Cody rescue Neely from a bear in the woods which seems to bring her and Mitch even closer together. But during the stop in Juneau, Gavin finally recognizes Leslie who takes a clueless Hobie with her in the beginning a harrowing chase...

Gavin chases Leslie and Hobie up a mountain and through the skies in para-gliders right to a glacier where a standoff takes place with Leslie and Hobie trapped in a glacier gorge with Gavin above them, while Mitch and Cody (who have finally figured out Leslie's true identity) follow close behind. After rescuing Hobie and capturing Leslie and Gavin, Mitch returns to the ship where he finally reveals his true feelings for Neely after she tells him about the reconciliation of her ex-husband falling though and they decide marry in a ceremony aboard the ship and continue ...