Richard Pilcher | Through the Shattered Lens

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, it’s another night in Baltimore.

Episode 4.21 “Scene of the Crime”

(Dir by Kathy Bates, originally aired on April 12th, 1996)

This week, three murders are committed in the projects of Baltimore.

The first murder occurs when a drug dealer is tossed off the roof of an apartment complex, “the towers.” Making the Lewis and Kellerman’s investigation difficult is the fact that the city has given a security contract to the Black Muslims. The Muslims have been patrolling the Towers for a year and, in that time, they’ve chased out most of the drug dealers that once terrorized the building’s residents. Kellerman feels that the Muslims are racists. Giardello says that the Muslims just caused the dealers to go to another block. Lewis, however, is a bit more conflicted. As he explains it to Kellerman, why should white neighborhoods by the only ones allowed to have their own private security force?

The second and third murders occur at another set of towers. This time, two teenage drug dealers ended up shooting each other. When Munch and Russert arrive at the scene, they are met by patrolman Stu Gharty (Peter Gerety). Gharty walks them through the scene, shows how the two dealers ended up killing each other, and then excuses himself to wait for the medical examiner. Munch is impressed with Gharty but Russert can’t help but note the thirty-minute time gap between when Gharty got the call about the shooting and when he called for homicide. Gharty confesses that, when he first arrived, he didn’t immediately enter the building, despite hearing the gunshots. Gharty was concerned for his safety. Munch understands and, even more importantly, he doesn’t believe in getting other cops in trouble. Russert, however, is angered, especially after it turns out that one of the teenagers bled to death while Gharty was waiting outside.

This was an excellent episode of Homicide, one that was smart enough to paint anyone as being all good or all bad. Ishmael Al-Hadj (Victor Williams), the head of the Muslim security force, is an anti-white fanatic but Lewis has a point when he says that Ishmael and his men have largely kept peace in the Towers in a way that the police have not been able to do so. In the end, Ishmael turns over the name of the murderer but only after he knows that the man is no longer in Baltimore.

As for Stu Gharty, Russert is absolutely correct when she says that he failed to do his duty but, largely due to Peter Gerety’s empathetic performance, it’s hard not to sympathize with Gharty. As Russert herself admits, Gharty has been a good cop for years but, that one night, he allowed his fear to get the better of him. Russert, who is still thinking like a captain despite being demoted, feels that one moment of weakness cannot be overlooked. Just about everyone else disagrees. Whereas Russert and Kay Howard sees someone who failed to do his job, a detective like Munch looks at Gharty and sees a 54 year-old cop who is just a few years away from getting reassigned a desk job on account of his age and who made one mistake because he didn’t want his family to get a call telling them that he was dead. At one point, Gharty says he’s thinking of just taking retirement. Of course, he didn’t. Instead, he returned a few seasons later as a regular.

This episode also featured Munch preparing for the return of Bolander. After calling Bolander multiple times, Munch finally got him to agree to drop by the Waterfront Bar. Of course, Bolander never showed up. And it makes sense, really. After getting shot and nearly dying during the previous season, Bolander was obviously done with being a cop. (And, of course, Ned Beatty was no longer on the show.) Still, there was something rather poignant about Munch’s growing realization that his partner and his hero was no longer going to be around.

Next week, the season comes to an end!

This week, the second season begins with a special guest star.

Episode 2.1 “Bop Gun”

(Dir by Stephen Gyllenhaal, originally aired on January 6th, 1994)

The 2nd season of Homicide opens with a murder. That’s not surprising, considering the name of the show and the fact that it’s taking place in Baltimore, which had (and has) one of the highest murder rates in the country. However, this time, the victim is an innocent tourist from Iowa, gunned down because she and her family took a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood that was far from the wharf. With the press in a feeding frenzy over how unsafe Baltimore is, the bosses want the shooter to be caught and sentenced quickly.

Detective Beau Felton, the primary on the case, is overjoyed. Sitting in the squad room and joking about how the victim’s husband didn’t even know what type of gun was used in the robbery-turned-murder, Felton brags that he is going to be making so much overtime off of this case.

Unfortunately, the victim’s husband happens to be in the squad room and he overhears Felton. Angry, tired, and still wearing a shirt stained with his wife’s blood, Robert Ellison (played by special guest star Robin Williams) demands that Felton be taken off the case.

Giardello takes Ellison into his office and explains that Felton is the primary and he can’t be replaced. Giardello also lists all of the other murders that Felton has recently worked. Felton deals with violent death every day. Giardello says that Felton is going to solve the case but he’s not going to “feel” Mrs. Ellison’s death the same way that her family does.

It’s an interesting scene and undoubtedly, a realistic one. From the very first episode, Homicide has emphasized the gallows humor that goes along with being a homicide detective in a big city. This episode, though, marks the first time that we get to see how an outsider would react to that attitude. Significantly, Felton never apologizes and, even after the shooter is arrested, Ellison never forgives Felton for his comments. Whenever the two interact, it’s obvious that they don’t like each other. But they’re forever linked by one act of violence.

Felton ends up arresting three men. Two of them are accused of robbing the Ellison family and being accessories to the murder. They end up with 30 years in prison. The accused shooter is Vaughn Perkins (Lloyd Goodman), a teenager who has never had any trouble with the police and who not only tries to write Ellison a note of apology but who also pleads guilty and accepts a life sentence. (Ellison, in another example of this show choosing realism over sentimentality, refuses to read the note.)

Kay Howard is convinced that Vaughn is covering for the other two men, saying that Vaughn just seems too quiet and meek to be a cold-blooded murderer. At the end of the episode, she goes down to the prison and meets with Vaughn, who now goes by the name Abu Aziz. Though he initially tries to act hard, the former Vaughn Perkins finally admits that he was holding the gun during the robbery because he thought he could “control” the situation and keep anyone from getting hurt. But when Mrs. Ellison refused to give up a locket, he panicked and shot her. He lost control and, in a split second, he changed the lives of everyone involved. Feeling defeated by the sad reality of Baltimore, Kay leaves the prison and heads back to work.

When Homicide returned for a second season, it was only given a four-episode order. With the show on the cusp of cancellation, Homicide only had four hours in which to prove itself. Originally, Bop Gun was scheduled to be the second season finale. NBC, wanting to take advantage of having Robin Williams as a guest star, instead decided to move the episode to the start of the season. That was probably a good idea. Bop Gun is a good episode that reintroduces us to squad room and also features an excellent performance from Robin Williams. Williams could, to be honest, be a bit hit-and-miss when it came to dramatic roles but he does wonderful work here, perfectly capturing Ellison’s anger, sadness, and desperation. He starts the episode as a stunned innocent but, by the end of it, he’s become a much more hardened individual, one who has no interest in Vaughn’s heartfelt but too little and too late apology. Just Vaughn now has to act hard to survive in a physical prison, Ellison has had to shut off his feelings so that he can survive in his emotional prison.

(As a sidenote, Ellison’s son is played by a very young Jake Gyllenhaal, whose real-life father directed this episode.)

If the first season occasionally felt a bit too much like an insider’s view of the Homicide Department, this episode gives us the point of view of an outsider. Through Ellison’s eyes, we are reintroduced to the detectives. Felton may not be a great cop or even a likable human being but he gets the job done in this episode. And while Felton will now move on to the next case, Robert Ellison will spend the rest of his life thinking about that one day in Baltimore.

Because of the holidays, this is my final Homicide review of 2024! These reviews will return on January 5th!