Homicide Episode guide: Every Mother's Son

Written by Eugene Lee; story by James Yoshimura and Tom Fontana

Directed by Kenneth Fink

                           Some episodes of television are impossible to enjoy. That is because the subject and writing are so serious and tragic that to take any pleasure in it seems wrong. This is the kind of TV that leaves you emotionally raw and drained.  This, in my mind, is what ‘Must-See TV’ should really be.

Many dramas  go their entire run without any such episodes.  Others like ‘ER’, ‘NYPD Blue, and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ manage maybe one a season. Homicide  averaged two or three a year.  This season, we have already seen   the detectives go through a wrenching journey in ‘Crosetti’, now in ‘Every Mothers Son,’  we get one that is less personal but no less powerful.

                           As we saw in the Adena Watson investigation, the death of a child is an experience where the tragedy seems to overcome even the detectives investigating the crime.   More of the agony came because of the brutality of the death. This one is affecting because of the coldness of the killer.  A fourteen year old named Darryl Nawls is shot point blank in the head when another kid walks up to  him in a bowling alley, takes out a gun and shoots him three times in the head. A gang hit, one would assume, except Darryl wasn’t in a gang.

                           Part of the power of the Watson case was that we never knew who did it. In this shooting we know who did it before the guest star credits have rolled. Ronnie Sayers, also fourteen. Does he run with a gang? We never find out. When Bayliss and Pembleton track him down, he doesn’t seem one. He does however have the coldness of someone who has been on the street for a while. When the detectives finally pin him down, he reveals that he thought the victim was another kid--- the shooting was a mistake. But even more chilling is his reaction to this. He believes that because he shot the wrong person, he’s going to walk away from this. When his mother tries to help him, he cops to the charge in order to get her out of the  room.  Even when he is taken to processing, he still doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of what he has put himself in for. Sean Nelson (who a few months later would explode on to the screen in  ‘Fresh’) plays Ronnie as someone who is more or less totally indifferent to the concept of death or responsibility How much of this is a front is hard to tell, but his calmness to everything that is happening to him is frightening.

                           Now all of this is powerful in its own right, but its only half the story. The power of this episode comes from the reactions of the two mothers who are caught up in this tragedy, Mary Nawls and Patrice Sayers.

As the writers make very clear, both have lost a child to this crime--- Darryl is dead, Ronnie is probably going away for life. But what makes this painful is how much these women have in common. Both are single parents with no husbands to be found. Both have another child at home. And both of them are absolutely appalled at what is happening to the children of Baltimore.  Mary Nawls says that  she’s been to three funerals of Darryl’s friends--- something which a lot of mothers in the ghetto must go through. There seems to be no release from any of this. All of this is made clear in one of the most stunning  scenes that the show would ever  do--- where both women, not knowing who the other, share their grief in a witness room in the Baltimore police station. It should seem heavy handed but it comes off naturally and unforced. The episode also has an incredibly poignant coda  when Patrice comes to Mary’s place of business and tries to offer her sympathy. The two younger children play together, and there seems the tiniest glimmer of light--- which is immediately shot down when Mary asks what will happen if those two get older and learn that one’s brother killed the other. There is no real hope and this makes everything even more poignant.

                           Now given the grimness and senselessness of the tragedy one would have to be made of stone not to feel something. But Pembleton does a good job of seeming  relatively calm and impartial as always---- until he goes into the coffee room before taking the boy to processing. Howard asks his counsel on a case,  whereupon Pembleton delivers one of the most memorable monologues in the shows history:

                           “Every day I get out of bed and drag myself to the next cup of coffee. I take a sip and the caffeine kicks in…. I’m ready to rock. The time is coming when I wake up and decide I’m not getting out of bed. I’m not getting up for coffee or food or sex. If it comes to me, fine; if it won’t, fine. No more expectations. The longer I live the less I know. You’re suspicious of your suspicions? I’m jealous, Kay. You still have the heart to have doubts. I’m going to lock up a fourteen year old kid for what could be the rest of his natural life.  I gotta do this; this is my job. This is the deal, this is the law, this is my day. I have no doubts or suspicions anymore. Heart has nothing to do with it anymore. Its all in the caffeine.”

                           This distress is not the only sign that Pembleton is disturbed by this. The day  Ronnie Sayers is held for bail, Pembleton influenced by a sleepless night, gives him his card and tells him to “keep his ass to the wall. Don’t ask for anything.” He knows what prisoners will do to this boy. He knows that his life is over.

                           Frank’s reflection and anguish is probably due to the fact that he and Mary are considering having a baby.  And the thought of bringing a child into a world where these horrible, pointless tragedies take place frightens him. Frank, like all the  detectives is cynical, but he needs to believe even in the darkness  there is a possibility for something. But he knows there is a little chance. As he says after Sayers goes to jail, “One  time, I’d like t hear about a murder that makes sense.” Not gonna happen.

                           There are some light moments in this episode. Most  of it coming from Munch and Lewis’ problems with The Waterfront, combined with the unlikely role that George Washington played in the buildings history.  But for the most part, ‘Every Mothers Son’ is one of the most wrenching hours the show produced. You come away from it feeling drained and overwhelmed--- like you do with the best television

Fans Rating 9^th

^{My score: 5 stars.}