Homicide Episode Guide: End Game

Written By Rogers Turrentine; story by James Yoshimura and Henry Bromell

Directed by Lee Bonner

            ‘Homicide’ hasn’t been playing by the rules in the entire ‘detectives shot’ storyline and they don’t stop in ‘End Game’ either.

 Tradition suggests that the killer be found and arrested by the end of the episode. But in the great tradition of ‘Homicide’ we don’t even know if the detectives found the real shooter. Gordon Pratt SEEMS like  the shooter ,his behavior corresponds with that of the killer and he behaves like a guilty man but we never get a straight answer one way or the other. Certainly, we get absolutely no indication from Pratt himself---- though considering his appearance and his attitude we think he did it.

Portraying Gordon Pratt is noted character Steve Buscemi. By now he has built up a reputation for being the quintessential eccentric criminal. Which makes sense because, well, he looks like

a weasel.. But Gordon Pratt is a very meaty role. He appears to be an academic, philosophic racist---- the kind of people who form militias out in Montana or West Virginia. He has a lot of intellectual books (Homer, Sophocles and Marx), in his rundown apartment a predilection for guns, and a real sense of being a wannabe For most of the episode, he talks a good game trying to sound like an intellectual gentlemen.    But it becomes pretty clear that it’s a façade and that he is little better than a thug.

            The interrogation scene between Pembleton and Pratt is an exceptional scene. Pembleton seems like the same cold ruthless interrogator that he always does--- until we get a clearer picture of Pratt. He never graduated from high school, he doesn’t understand Plato and he certainly can’t read it in the original Greek. He makes a feeble attempt to translate a passage and then gets one-upped when Pembleton (who had a classical education) interprets the page with no trouble. Then Frank falters. Heaving exposed Pratt’s ignorance he rubs it in the mans face----a move which angers Pratt into finally calling in a lawyer. With only circumstantial evidence, he can not be held. And he walks out of the station.

            We then get another scene in which Pratt walks out  by a parade of police looking at him coldly.  Then comes the wrap-up in which temperatures come to a head. Munch is pissed at Pembleton for blowing the interrogation and letting his emotions compromise him. This is ironic considering Frank’s behavior up to now. Most of the detectives leave angry---- which given the nature of Pratt’s crime, leads to something that has probably been  inevitable

            Though the search and interrogation of Pratt take up much of the episode, we do see some more of the detectives recovering. Felton is feeling well enough so that he can be released. Bolander seems alright but slips into a coma while talking to Munch, requiring him to have an operation to relieve the pressure on the brain--- something that may have given him amnesia. Howard, though she’s still in pretty bad shape, is finally awake and it seems like she’ll get through. The detective parts of them haven’t changed though. Beau goes to Kay and tells her that he thinks it was his fault for the shooting because he didn’t come in the building first. And since he was a better shot, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten the shooter. But Kay is standing firm. She was the primary she goes in first. A cop is  a  cop.

            We also get some insight into their colleagues. Reporter Rhonda Overby talks to the detectives while they walk in and out of the squadroom. Bayliss, as you might expect seems the most optimistic, Pembleton the most cool and firm. But there are some surprising reactions .Lewis is incredibly pissed off and delivers a very foul diatribe, while Munch is still reeling from the shooting (Though he does come up with a bit of Munchian wit when Overby asks him who cops talk to relieve their stress. ‘Reporters’)

            It is clear that there is a lot of anger still around and eventually, perhaps someone finds an outlet for it. Two hours after leaving police custody Pratt is found shot in the lobby of his hotel. 911 never comes and  Bayliss is the only cop who appears on the scene. No one will miss him but there are implications that when confronted by it, must face--- that someone he knows might have done it. He faces it more in the next episode but he may never be able to get right with it.

            Not much of a release, huh. ‘end Game’ doesn’t feature any of the  usual behavior or investigation from a police shooting. The guilty man may have gotten away with a murder--- or a cop might have killed an innocent (if unsavory) man. There’s no closure here, not for the police or for the audience. And that’s how real life works too. Fontana and friends may not have liked using violence in this case but dramatically it paid off. In spades