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, things get emotional on Homicide!

Episode 1.4 “Son of a Gun”

(Dir by Nick Gomez, originally aired on February 10th, 1993)

Officer Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen), a patrol officer who is friendly with the Homicide detectives and who is a bit of protegee to Steve Crosetti, has been shot.  While Thormann lies in surgery with a bullet in his brain, his wife (Edie Falco, in one of her first television appearances) waits for news from the doctors and tries to avoid the members of the callous press.  Crosetti demands to be put in charge of the investigation into Thormann’s shooting and when Giardello points out, quite correctly, that Crosetti is too close to the victim to be objective, Crosetti strips down to his boxers and shows Giardello the scars left behind by every time that he’s been shot.

It’s an odd scene, one that seems to come out of nowhere in an episode that, up until that moment, had been pretty serious.  Kotto does a great job of capturing Giardello’s horror as Crosetti drops his pants.  It’s obvious that this is not the first time that Crosetti has shown off his scars to get assigned to a certain case.  It’s a scene that shouldn’t work but it does work because not only is it well-acted by Yaphet Kotto and Jon Polito but it also captures the insanity of being a homicide detective.  Just four episodes in, Homicide has already shown that it can be a funny show but the humor is rooted in the darkest corners of the human experience.  To survive as a homicide detective, you have to harden yourself to the point of being callous and you have to be able to see the humor in just about everything.  Crosetti, with his constant analysis of the Lincoln assassination and his inventory of bullet scars, may seem crazy but actually, he’s doing what he has to do to survive.

The episode ends with Thormann alive but in a coma and possibly brain-damaged.  And it ends with the shooter still at large.  Crosetti has received an anonymous tip from someone saying that the killer was a man named Alfred Smith.  But who knows if that’s true.

The Adeena Watson case remains open, as well.  Bayliss and Pembleton are still struggling to figure out how to work together.  Bayliss is too obsessed with the case.  Pembleton is too determined to show up the new guy.  A raid on the apartment where it’s believed Adeena was murdered turns up nothing but more evidence of human misery.  That said, a cheerful guy (played by Paul Schulze) who claims to be an agent for hitmen does give up several of his clients, allowing Howard and Felton to close even more cases.  Even Calpurnia Church (Mary Jefferson), the “black widow” from the pilot, is finally arrested due to the agent’s testimony.

Finally, Stanley Bolander goes on his first date with Dr. Blythe.  Before going on his date, he meets his neighbor, Larry Molera (Luis Guzman).  Larry is a carpenter.  He’s built a coffin that is currently sitting in living room.  Bolander’s date goes well but the nervous Bolander turns down Blythe’s offer to go back to her place with her.  Bolander returns to his apartment, where he discovers that Larry is dead and lying in his coffin.  (Much, who was called when Larry’s body was discovered, is shocked to see Bolander.  Bolander is not happy that Much now knows where he lives.)  Larry’s death inspires Boland to return to Dr. Blythe’s apartment.

This was an emotional episode.  Thormann is clinging to his life while his wife and Crosetti wait for him to wake up.  The recently divorced Bolander finally found the courage to go out with Dr. Blythe.  Bayliss appears to be so obsessed with the Adeena Watson case that he’s struggling to think straight.  This episode takes a look at the mental strain that comes from dealing with crime and death on a daily basis.  It’s well-done, even if it’s not quite as memorable as Night of the Dead Living.  (The stuff with Larry and his coffin was a bit too self-consciously quirky to be as emotionally devastating as the show obviously meant for it to be.)  If I took anything away from this episode, it’s that fate is random.  Officer Thormann has been shot in the head but he survived hours of surgery.  Larry seemed to be healthy but he suddenly died while Bolander was on his date.  Adeena’s killer may never be caught while Calpurnia Church was caught because of an initially unrelated investigation.  Some of the detectives are skilled.  Some of them are not.  But, in the end, they’re all at the random mercy of fate.