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 sniper shootings continue.

Episode 4.9 “Sniper, Part Two”

(Dir by Darnell Martin, originally aired on January 12th, 1996)

Despite the suicide of William Mariner, people in Baltimore are still falling victim to a sniper who attacks every eight hours.  All of the detectives, many of whom have just returned home from spending several sleepless days and nights investigating the first sniper, are called back in.  At first, Pembleton and Bayliss suspect that Mariner must have had an accomplice.  However, when a strange young man named Alex Robey (David Eigenberg) just happens to be at the scene of two separate shootings, it becomes clear that the second sniper is just a copycat who is looking for attention.

It’s quite a contrast between William Mariner, who lived in an upper class neighborhood and who died without revealing his motivations, and Alex Robey, who lives in a rowhouse and who reveals that he was obsessed with Mariner’s crimes.  It’s a reminder that some murderers are easier to figure out than others.  The detectives will never know what caused Mariner to snap.  But Robey?  Robey’s just desperate for attention.

Recently demoted Megan Russert works with the Squad, despite Barnfather ordering Giardello to keep her away from the case.  (Wisely, Giardello ignores Barnfather.)  By pretending to be sympathetic to his resentment over being treated as a “nobody,” Russert plays a key role in Robey eventually confessing to being the sniper.  The episode makes it clear that Russert is going to become the latest member of the Homicide squad.  That’s fine but I do sometimes wish that this show could introduce a new detective without having them miraculously solve the big case.  This season started with Kellerman displaying detective skills that he has not displayed in any episode since.  This week, it was Russert’s turn to suddenly be the greatest detective this side of Frank Pembleton.  It makes me miss the relative realism of the earlier seasons, where even the best detectives sometimes struggled.  Bayliss failing to close the case of Adena Watson was one of the defining events of Homicide’s first season.  If Adena had died during the fourth season, there’s no way the Arraber would have gotten away with it.

With Alex Robey confessing to being the second sniper, it looks like maybe the people of Baltimore are actually going to break from being shot at people on rooftops.  Good for them, they deserve a break.