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 Luther Mahoney saga comes to an end.

Episode 5.19 “Deception”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on April 25th, 1997)

A Nigerian drug courier is found dead in a hotel room and, of course, that means that Kellerman, Lewis, and Stivers are going to get another chance to go after Luther Mahoney.  After covering up the death of the actual courier, the police send in an undercover officer who delivers a batch of “bad” drugs to Mahoney’s middleman, Antonio Brookdale (Christopher Mann).  When the drugs hit the street, it leads to a revolt amongst Mahoney’s customers.  No one is buying from Mahoney and that causes Mahoney to lose his temper.  Luther Mahoney can handle almost anything but he can’t handle losing money.

Mahoney demands that Antonio meet him at a public park.  What Mahoney doesn’t know is that the police — including Kellerman, Stivers, and Lewis — have got the park staked out.  When Mahoney, in a fit of rage, shoots both Brookdale and an innocent mother with her kids, the police rush to the scene.  A panicked Mahoney jumps in his vehicle and drives away, leaving his crew behind to get arrested.

Lewis tracks Mahoney down to his apartment, where Mahoney is desperately packing up his money.  The sight of Mahoney causes Lewis to lose control.  He starts hitting Mahoney, demanding to know why Mahoney had to kill so many people when he could have just been content to sell drugs.  Mahoney manages to grab Lewis’s gun.  Kellerman and Stivers burst into the apartment with their own guns drawn.  Seeing them, Mahoney lowers his gun and says, “What are you going to do?  Read me my rights?”

“You have the right to remain silent….” Kellerman says, before shooting and killing Mahoney.

OH MY GOD, KELLERMAN JUST EXECUTED LUTHER MAHONEY!

Technically, you could argue that, as Mahoney was still holding the gun, the shooting was justified.  Mahoney lowered the gun but he never dropped it.  Nor did Mahoney ever say that he was surrendering.  Instead, he laughed and mocked the cops.  If Mahoney had raised the gun quickly enough, he probably could have gotten at least one shot in before Stivers and Kellerman had time to take action.  Then again, Kellerman also never ordered Mahoney to drop the gun.  Instead, he just shot him.  After Mahoney falls, Kellerman asks Lewis and Stivers if either has a problem with what happened.  “Nope,” Lewis says.  Stivers, however, doesn’t look convinced that the shooting was justified.

It’s a shocking moment but it’s also a moment that feels somewhat inevitable.  Kellerman has spent this entire season with people accusing him of being crooked.  Even though he was never charged, even his fellow detectives assumed that he must have been doing something to get in trouble in the first place.  Meanwhile, Mahoney killed numerous people and smirked every time that he got away with it.  Kellerman snapped and probably committed a crime.

If that’s not bad enough, Munch is contacted by Punchy DeLeon (Lewis Black), a small-time mobster who has just spent ten years in prison on a murder charge.  Punchy tells Munch that he knows that a criminal associate of his, Jimmy Pugliese, was murdered and buried in section C of the parking lot at the Plimco race track.  With Munch and Brodie in attendance, the parking lot is dug up and …. nothing is found.  Munch does some further investigating and discovers that Pugliese had a girlfriend named Fallon (Deborah Hazlett).  When he drives out to see her, he discovers that Pugliese (Brian Hemmingsen) is still alive.  Pugliese orders to Much to get off his front porch.  Much leaves, not realizing that he’s been followed by Punchy.

Back at the office, Sgt. Howard tells Munch not to worry about it because there hasn’t been an actual homicide.  However, then Fallon shows up and says that Pugliese has disappeared.  Munch drives out to Plimco, where he finds Punch waiting for him in Lot C.  Punchy explains that he took the fall for a murder the Pugliese committed.  Because Pugliese didn’t keep his promise to take care of Punchy’s wife while Punchy was in prison, Punchy used Munch to track down Pugliese.  And now, Pugliese really is buried under the parking lot.  (It helped that the parking lot itself was already ripped up due to Munch searching for the body the first time.)  Munch tells Punchy that he’s going back to prison.  Punchy replies that he did ten years for a murder he didn’t commit and suggests that should allow him to commit one murder without punishment.  It doesn’t work that way, which is kind of sad because Punchy was a likable guy.

Finally, Bayliss and Pembleton decide to be partners again.  Good news!  But Bayliss is also buying groceries for the uncle who molested him.  What the Hell, Bayliss!?

Seriously, this episode got dark!

Well, dark or not, this was one of the better episodes of season 5.  This was Homicide at its most cynical.  Luther Mahoney is dead but someone else will inevitably take his place and now Kellerman really has committed a crime.  (For all the cheering the cops do as they listen to Mahoney incriminate himself on tape, it’s not going to be much comfort to children of the innocent woman that he shot in the park.)  For once, Munch actually does his job well and the end result is a man getting murdered and Punchy going back to prison.

One final note: I will miss the magnificently evil performance of Erik Dellums, who played Luther Mahoney with the right mix of arrogance, hubris, and ruthlessness.  A good villain is hard to find!