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’s episode was written by none other than Yaphet Kotto!

Episode 5.20 “Narcissus”

(Dir by Jean de Segonzac, originally aired on May 2nd, 1997)

A shooting at four in the morning leads to a group of white patrolmen chasing a black suspect across West Baltimore until he ducks into a building that they’ve been told not to enter.  The building is the headquarters of the African Revival Moment, a militant group that is led by a former cop who goes by the name of Burundi Robinson (Roger Robinson).  Robinson is one of the most powerful men in West Baltimore, a hero to the community and also someone who has connections to Baltimore’s police commissioner, James Harris.

As Robinson explains to Lt. Giardello, he and Harris were once partners.  When he and Harris busted a heroin dealer, Harris sold the drugs back to the dealer for $10,000.  When it was discovered that the drugs were missing from the evidence lock-up, Harris and Robinson flipped a coin with the understanding that the loser would resign from the force and take the fall.  Robinson lost the coin toss.  Robinson went on to start ARM and Harris became the police commissioner.

At first, Harris (who doesn’t appear in this episode but instead is simply a background figure of menace) protects Robinson and sends Col. Barnfather to the scene to order Detectives Pembleton and Munch to back off.  However, when a member of ARM comes forward to say that Robinson ordered the shooting because the victim was going to expose Robinson’s history of taking sexual improprieties with his followers, Harris suddenly starts ordering the police to get more aggressive with Robinson and ARM.  Harris does this with the full knowledge that the police raiding ARM headquarters and attempting to arrest Robinson will lead to a violent confrontation.  When the police eventually do bust into the headquarters, they discover that Robinson and all of his followers have committed suicide.  Giardello understands that was Harris’s hope all along.  He was willing to risk a riot just to silence the one man who could prove his corruption.

This episode was written by Yaphet Kotto and, not surprisingly, Giardello is at the center of the action.  The lengthy scene where he meets with Robinson is the highlight of the episode as both Giardello and Robinson have a unique understanding of how things work in Baltimore.  Giardello has had first-hand experience with Harris’s corruption and he’s not in the least bit surprised by either Robinson’s story or Harris’s heavy-handed attempts to control the investigation.  In a bit of wonderful irony, when Harris initially tries to protect the African Revival Moment, he uses the racist Captain Gaffney to interfere with Munch and Pembleton’s investigation.  Gaffney, one of the most loathsome characters on the show, is suddenly the one who is telling a suspect to demand a lawyer and leaking the name of the informant to Robinson.

This episode was a strong one all the way around, with Kotto, Andre Braugher, and Roger Robinson all playing proud men who each had their own unique view on how to best deal with the issue of race in Baltimore.  (One thing that sets Homicide apart from so many other shows is not just the diversity of the cast but also the diversity of personalities and opinions.)  The ending carries a punch.  When Giardello says that there will be Hell to pay, you believe him.