Ironside: Season 4
Season 4 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Ironside Season 3.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 4 Progress Shield
A Killing Will Occur
Sep 17, 1970
The Chief begins to receive strange phone calls, warning him of a murder to be committed somewhere in San Francisco, apparently in the interests of justice. With very little to go
No Game for Amateurs
Sep 24, 1970
A sniper working for the criminal underworld seeks refuge in the anti-Vietnam protest movement, and with a number of draft-dodgers relying on his silence, the only man who can help
The Happy Dreams of Hollow Men
Oct 1, 1970
The Chief travels into the mountains to spend the weekend with an old friend, only to be snowed in following a bad blizzard. Trapped in a small cabin, Ironside discovers that his f
The People Against Judge McIntire
Oct 8, 1970
A judge decides to begin a series of lectures about a case that he tried eight years previously, the result of which was that a man was executed. Immediately he starts to receive d
Noel's Gonna Fly
Oct 15, 1970
An ageing accountant, weighed down by the responsibilities of his life, decides to break free from the grindstone and try for something different. On the way he comes close to goin
The Lonely Way to Go
Oct 22, 1970
The accountant for the Police Pension Fund confesses to the murder of his secretary, but all of the evidence suggests that he could not possibly be guilty, instead pointing to anot
Check, Mate: and Murder (1)
Oct 29, 1970
In Canada for a conference, Ironside and the team get caught up in a spate of bombings, courtesy of Quebec separatists; one of them the son of an old girlfriend of the Chief's. Whe
Check, Mate: and Murder (2)
Nov 5, 1970
Ed goes undercover at the docks to try to identify and capture the murderer, whilst the rest of the team continue investigating the case. Finally, with a terrorist plot to defuse,
Too Many Victims
Nov 12, 1970
A policeman's daughter crashes her car after taking cannabis, and her father sets out to catch the man who sold her the stuff. When it becomes apparent that he has framed the man r
The Man on the Inside
Nov 19, 1970
When a drug pusher is arrested following a spate of botched drug raids he fingers Ironside as a gang informer. Ed is press-ganged onto a team set up to investigate the Chief, which
Backfire
Dec 3, 1970
Mark investigates an old case as part of his coursework research, and uncovers an apparent miscarriage of justice which implicates Ed in a fit up. The pair investigate the case to
The Laying on of Hands
Dec 10, 1970
Pablo Esteban, a young Mexican boy, is brought to San Francisco by some businessmen who claim that he can heal people just by touching them. Placed on the case to find out whether
This Could Blow Your Mind
Dec 17, 1970
Ironside attends a hospital for psychological evaluation, and whilst he is tying knots in his psychiatrist's theories, it transpires that a crook is trying to use the situation to
Blackout
Dec 31, 1970
The power station for a four mile square area of town is destroyed in an explosion, and when a similar attack takes out the auxiliary generator at Police Headquarters, Ironside rea
The Quincunx
Jan 7, 1971
A successful folk trio comprising two brothers and a sister tour San Francisco, and Eve's suspicions are roused when the girl, an old school friend, disappears without a word. When
From Hrûska, with Love
Jan 21, 1971
The Chief and his team are detailed to escort a spy to Mexico, in order to make an exchange with the Russians for an American scientist. When Ironside and the spy are kidnapped by
The Target
Jan 28, 1971
An ex-con determined to go straight is roped into a scam to steal dynamite, after his son is kidnapped. The Chief manages to get the boy back, but by then a bomb has already been p
A Killing at the Track
Feb 4, 1971
Outside odds horses are starting to win at the local track, and Ironside is soon on the case. He discovers that somebody is trying to fix the races, but his prime suspect is Eve's
Escape
Feb 11, 1971
Ed and Eve travel to Mexico to assist in the interrogation of a former suspect in a murder case, who has been arrested for a similar offence across the border. The local police are
Love, Peace, Brotherhood, and Murder
Feb 18, 1971
The team is at a theatre to watch the rehearsals of a play Ironside has some money invested in, when one of the actors is found dead. Two attempted murders soon follow, and the Chi
The Riddle in Room Six
Feb 25, 1971
A court case is put in jeopardy when it seems that the jury is irrevocably hung over its verdict; until the Chief realises that one member must surely be on the take. He has a race
The Summer Soldier
Mar 4, 1971
An old Armenian, the uncle of a friend of Eve's, appears to be hiding some secret that has his niece deeply worried. It soon transpires that his two nephews are involved in the man
Accident
Mar 11, 1971
Driving to the garage whilst tired, Mark knocks down an old lady, with whom he develops a close relationship. It soon seems, however, that his guilt over the affair is going to lea
Lesson in Terror
Mar 18, 1971
A gang of violent anarchists springs a protestor from prison and, when he is recaptured, try to force the police into releasing him again by kidnapping the son of a prominent lawye
Grandmother's House
Apr 1, 1971
An old woman whose handbag has been snatched asks Ironside to take her case. Moved by his friendship with her late husband, he agrees, and finds a lonely old woman reaching out for
Walls Are Waiting
Apr 15, 1971
A parole officer famed for his hard line against drug pushers begins to fear for his life after a shooting. The line of suspects, however, as well as including one of his current c