Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, drug lord Luther Mahoney returns.

Episode 5.4 “Bad Medicine”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on October 25th, 1996)

Someone is selling bad heroin in Baltimore.  This episode opens with a montage of dead junkies being discovered.  Detective Munch explains to a uniformed cop why he has to stick around until it’s firmly established that the latest dead junkie died of an overdose and not something like a hit to the back of the head.  Munch says that everything he knows, he learned from his ex-partner.  Hey, Munch, Bolander’s not coming back!  You have to accept it.

Things are looking grim for Giardello’s detectives.  Megan Russert has run off to Europe.  Bolander is retired.  Felton is missing.  Frank is recovering from his stroke and still needs to pass his firearms exam.  And now, Kellerman has been accused of taking bribes while working as an arson investigator.  Kellerman is given desk duty, which means that he can’t help Lewis pursue drug kingpin Luther Mahoney (Erik Todd Dellums).

Mahoney returns in this episode, dragged into the box and accused of murdering a rival dealer.  Mahoney is his usual smug snake self but Lewis and his temporary partner, Narcotics Detective Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis), are convinced that they’ve finally got him where they want him.  First off, there’s a junkie who has been bullied into informing on Luther.  Plus, Luther slips up and reveals that he knew some facts about the murder that were not released to the press.  Is Luther Mahoney going down!?

Well, don’t get too excited.  Ed Danvers informs them that their evidence isn’t enough to get a conviction.  Juries don’t trust junkies.  Luther could have heard the details of the murder on the street.  Everyone knows that Luther is guilty but no one can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.  Luther goes free and the informant ends up dead.

Meanwhile, Frank Pambleton stops taking his medicine so that he can concentrate on passing his firearms exam.  He still fails.  Even though he was able to hit the target, he took too long reloading his gun.  Pembleton starts to take his medicine again.

Finally, Brodie still doesn’t have anywhere to live.  He stayed with Munch for one night and then voluntarily left.  (The reasons why are left ambiguous but it’s suggested that Brodie came across Munch’s private drug stash and freaked out.)  Brodie moves in with Bayliss and quickly makes things awkward by overanalyzing the Mighty Mouse cartoon that Bayliss is watching.  Brodie explains that Mighty Mouse is an agent of chaos and Bayliss looks like he’s already realized this living arrangement is not going to work.

This was a properly cynical episode, one where the main theme seemed to be that our heroes are fighting a losing war.  Giardello is running low on detectives.  Kellerman is put on desk duty because of one weak accusation.  Pembleton has to pass a firearms exam, despite rarely having to draw his gun.  In the end, men like Luther Mahoney walk free while the addicts caught in-between end up dead in the street.

That’s life in Charm City.