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.

Luther Mahoney returns.

Episode 5.13 “Have A Conscience”

(Dir by Uli Edel, originally aired on January 17th, 1997)

Mike Kellerman is back on the job but he’s still angry.  He’s angry that the U.S. Attorney didn’t officially announce that he had been cleared.  He’s angry because he feels that his fellow detectives failed to support him when he was at his lowest.  He’s angry because people like Roger Gaffney continue to assume that he’s guilty.

Given how angry Kellerman is, the last thing he needs to get stuck with another case involving the arrogant and apparently untouchable Luther Mahoney.  However, that is exactly what Kellerman gets when an Asian shopkeeper is gunned down after trying to chase one of Mahoney’s crews off the corner.  Everyone knows that Mahoney is behind the murder but, as always, there’s not enough evidence to take him down.  Witnesses won’t talk.  No one can connect Mahoney directly to the murder.  While the smug Mahoney heads off to a fund raiser, a bitter Kellerman goes to his boat and considers suicide.

Fortunately, Lewis barges onto the boat and keeps Kellerman from shooting himself.  This episode reveals a lot about Homicide’s less heralded pair of detectives.  Kellerman is desperate for his father’s approval and he has a huge chip on his shoulder.  Just the fact that anyone would even consider the idea that Kellerman would ever take a bribe is enough to set Kellerman off and Kellerman does not easily forgivce.  Lewis, meanwhile, is still haunted by the death Crosetti.

The majority of this episode is just Lewis talking to Kellerman and Kellerman talking to Lewis.  It’s not the most exciting episode of Homicide but it is wonderfully acted by both Clark Johnson and Reed Diamond.  While Pembleton and Bayliss appear to be growing apart (with Bayliss spending most of this episode politely ignoring Pembleton while Pembleton solved one of his cold cases), Lewis and Kellerman are now even closer than they were before.

That’s a good thing.  Luther Mahoney is still out there and, for whatever reason, Lewis and Kellerman seem to be the two detectives who always end up investigating Mahoney’s crimes.  That’s a little hard to believe.  With the number of people that Mahoney kills and the size of the Homicide division, you would think at least one Mahoney-directed murder would be investigated by either Munch or Pembleton.  Regardless, Luther Mahoney is a great villain and I look forward to seeing where Kellerman’s obsession with taking him down is heading.

Finally, I hope this Pembleton/Bayliss estrangement won’t go on for too long.  We just got Pembleton back and Pembleton was finally starting to accept that he could actually handle working with a partner.  I get that Bayliss is upset but breaking up Pembleton and Bayliss just doesn’t feel right.  They’re just meant to work together.