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 bar finally opens!

Episode 3.12 “Partners”

(Dir by John McNaughton, Originally aired January 20th, 1995)

As you can tell by the title, this episode was all about partners.

For instance, Megan Russert realized that her former partner from narcotics, Douglas Jones (Robert Clohessy, with his Bronx accent), has been beating up his wife, Natalie (Lily Knight).  He regularly puts her in the hospital, though Natalie always insists that she either fell down the stairs or walked into a door.  Jones, who is now working homicide during the night shift and under Russert’s command, insists that he would never hurt his wife.  When Russert asks Jones’s former boss if Jones had been having any trouble while working narcotics, he refuses to give her specifics.  It’s a boys club and the boys protect each other.  Eventually, Natalie ends up shooting Jones with his own gun, probably killing him.  (We’re told that he’s barely holding on.)  This storyline was well-acted and well-written but watching it, I was reminded of just how awkwardly this show tends to use Russert.  Because she commands a different shift, she doesn’t really get much interaction with the other main characters.  Her affair with Beau Felton has never really made sense.  From what I understand, Russert was created by NBC demanded more personal drama and some glamour.  Isabella Hofman does about as good a job as anyone could with her often underwritten character but there’s really just not much for her to do.

Meanwhile, with Pembleton under suspension and threatening to quit, Bayliss doesn’t have a regular partner.  His attempt to partner up with Lewis ends in disaster when Lewis’s bad (albeit hilarious) driving leads to Bayliss getting a minor concussion.  Fortunately, Pembleton does return to the Homicide Department, though not before nearly burning down his kitchen while trying to make dinner.  Unfortunately, before Pembleton can return to his job, he has to take the fall for offering to drop the investigation into Congressman Wade’s false kidnapping report.  Andre Braugher perfectly plays the scene in which Pambleton testifies in court.  It’s easy to see the emotional and mental pain that Pembleton feels as he essentially commits perjury, taking the blame and letting Commissioner Harris of the hook.  Pembleton is forced to compromise and it eats away at his soul.  At the same time, he also gets to return to doing what he does best.  Early on in the episode, Giardello acknowledges that he and Pembleton are not friends.  “I’ve never been to your house, I’ve never met you’re wife …. I am not your friend ….” but Giardello explains that Pembleton is a good detective.  He turns “red names black” and that’s why he wants and needs Pembleton to return.

Bayliss, Lewis, and Munch finally open their bar and, at the end of the episode, it looks like the entire city of Baltimore has turned out.  Bolander even looks like he’s having a good time!  Munch raises a glass in a toast to the best partners that anyone could hope for and I got tears in mismatched eyes.  Seriously, I was so happy to finally see that bar open!  It was also nice to see everyone else happy for once.  That doesn’t often happen on Homicide.