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, the investigation into Melia’s murder continues.

Episode 6.2 “Blood Ties: Part 2”

(Dir by Nick Gomez, originally aired on October 24th, 1997)

Detectives Munch and Kellerman investigate a murder at Camden Yards, where the Orioles are playing the A’s and also where someone beat a loudmouth New Yorker to death in the stairwell.  Munch and Kellerman’s investigation is hindered by the fact that there’s a baseball game going on and every single witness would rather watch the action on the field then discuss the murder.  In fact, most of them don’t even consider it a crime to kill a Yankees fan.  Eventually, even Kellerman decides that he’d rather just watch the game.

In the end, though, Kellerman and Munch do make an arrest.  The murderer turns out to be another Yankees fan who was upset because he thought the Yankees were going to be playing the Orioles.  He’s even willing to sign a confession as long as he’s allowed to watch the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Pembleton and Bayliss continue to investigate the murder of Felix Wilson’s maid, Melia.  While Ballard and Gharty think that Pembleton should be looking at the Wilsons (and Gharty specifically feels that Pembleton is biased because the Wilsons are black and rich), Pembleton theorizes that the maid was killed by her abusive ex-boyfriend.  However, when it turns out that the boyfriend is still in prison in Haiti, Pembleton finally calls in Felix Wilson.

In the Box, Pembleton tells Felix that Melia had sex before she was murdered and that he needs a blood and hair sample so that both Felix and his son Hal (Jeffrey Wright) can be  eliminated as suspects.  “I had sex with her,” Felix says.  Felix goes on to say that he didn’t kill her.  Later, Felix’s attorney shows up at the station and announces that Felix has not only exercised his right to legal counsel but he will also not be submitting either his blood or his hair without a court order.  Both Pembleton and Giardello are left shaken.  Could Felix Wilson, a man admired by both of them, be a murderer?

This episode was an improvement on last week’s episode.  Munch and Kellerman got a decent, non-Luther Mahoney storyline.  The Wilson storyline is bringing out the best in both Yaphet Kotto and Andre Braugher and the great James Earl Jones is perfectly cast as Felix Wilson.  Ballard and Gharty held their own against Pembleton and Bayliss and, as opposed to last week, both of them seemed like they actually belonged in the Homicide Unit.  There was a great breakroom confrontation between the four detectives.  Even better, there was a genuinely funny scene in which Bayless called in his junior high French teacher to talk to the police in Haiti.

And yet, we still had to sit through a bunch of nonsense with Detective Falsone.  Falsone is still investigating the Luther Mahoney shooting, even though no one has asked him to do and all of the detectives involved were cleared of any wrongdoing.  Why, Falsone, why?  Why is Falsone so determined to prove that Lewis and Kellerman did something wrong in the shooting?  Why are we expected to sympathize with a character like Falsone?  This episode even features Falsone having a chance meeting with Dr. Cox and flirting with her.  Hey, Falsone — that’s Kellerman’s routine!  What the Hell!?

This would be a fine episode if not for Falsone and his vendetta against his fellow cops.  The show is really determined to try to make me like Falsone but …. I don’t think it’s going to happen.