Homicide Episode Guide: The Last of the Watermen

Written by Henry Bromell and Tom Fontana

Directed by Richard Pearce

                           As Homicide  went into its third season, the show would begin to make some experiments with the format. Sometimes they would show the episode from the point of view of the less important characters, sometimes we would see things from another characters point of view. One of the latter experiments occurs in ‘Last Of The Watermen’ which explores the personal life of Kay Howard--- unfortunately, not very well.

                           It is not difficult to believe that Howard--- or any of the detectives--- would become overwhelmed with some of the grimmer aspects of the job. The murder of Audrey Resnick--- a sweet old woman who was killed and had her tongue cut out and stuffed back into her mouth--- finally pushes her too far and she goes on vacation to her family’s home on the eastern shore of Baltimore  in order to find some peace. But, as Thomas Wolfe said, you can’t go home again. The town has changed immensely--- her father has retired from his job, the oyster business in which he and so many of his colleagues worked is in decline due to economics and ecological changes, and a former flame of hers has gotten married and divorced. Now this could all be dramatically interesting or effective if it weren’t for the fact  that about halfway through the episode, one of the men in charge of conservation is murdered and Howard is asked to help with the investigation (since this is the fist murder in several years).

                           The overall effect is to turn this episode into a retread of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ particularly since all the suspects are friends of hers. About the only thing that saves this  from falling into cliché is the fact that the trademark realism that we see on ‘Homicide’ in present here. There are no plot twists, no grand motives no trick to capture the killer. The person that we first suspect is the murderer and the reasons are no more arcane than what were plainly obvious.  There is nothing sinister underneath it all, just a man who got upset at how his life was falling apart.

                           While all of this exploration is different, unfortunately it is not very interesting--- particularly because the episode keeps cutting back to the murder of Audrey Resnick which Felton is investigating. And adding to the fun is the fact that Gee has enlisted the reluctant Pembleton to help him investigate this murder. The two have always shown sparks before, but there is more energy to their sparring. The two of them have a brilliant dialogue when Felton explains his standards for whether a death is a ‘killing’ or a ‘murder’--- something which insults Frank because he believes that every life has meaning and therefore every death does to. The two of them put some of their testosterone to work when  while looking for the victims grandson who they suspect is the killer they take opposing sides in a basketball game and end up going one on one.  They eventually do catch the killer and find out his motives are about as straightforward as we usually get on Homicide ; he killed his grandmother because he was sick of hearing her degrade him.

                           Given what happened to Kay in this episode it is kind of hard to believe that she would return to her job feeling reenergized as she seems to be. However, maybe her feeling is one of relief of realizing that for all the ugliness that Charm City can muster up at times it’s more comfortable dealing with murder there than in a place that you once called sacred.

            ‘Last of the Waterman’ ironically only works as an episode whenever it goes away from its main story. Maybe it’s because Baldwin and Braugher have a much more energetic interaction than Leo’s interactions with her family or maybe it’s because of the differences with the story. Whatever the case, this kind of exploration into the detectives lives would be tried again but never quite like this. The creators would learn their lessons well
My score: 2.5 stars