Homicide Episode Guide: The Gas Man

Teleplay by Henry Bromell; story by Tom Fontana and Henry Bromell

Directed by Barry Levenson

For several years ‘The Gas Man’ was my least favorite episode of Homicide. I disliked it for the same reasons that I initially didn’t like ‘Night of the Dead Living’ or  ‘Three Men and Adena’--- it didn’t seem like anything was happening, it was mainly centered on one character rather than the squad but mainly because we stayed away from the squad almost completely. However, there were other circumstances  in this episode that I didn’t know about until years later and didn’t appreciate until later still.

When Season 3  of Homicide  was nearing its end, the creators of the show didn’t think they were coming back the next year--- the ratings for season 3 were middling at best. So Barry Levenson and Henry Bromell  decided if they were going to leave, they might as well exit with style and in a way that was about as non-traditional as you could get. They created an episode of Homicide where the central characters are not even involved in the story and where the murder is the least important part of the episode.

Instead the episode centers on a recently paroled convict named Victor Helms and his friend Danny. As the episode begins Victor has just been released after serving six years for negligence when he installed a defective gas heater that would kill an entire family. Victor clearly has not taken responsibility for his complicity in the crime and has instead focused all of his rage on the detective who put him away--- Frank Pembleton.

Victor says very clearly in the episode that he’s going to kill Frank—but he wants to humiliate him first. So he and Danny follow Pembleton around for two days--- and we see the detective from the point of view of an outsider. The ironic thing is the Victor and Danny spend the entire episode doing what the Homicide detectives do--- talking endlessly about personal issues and bizarre quirks of the world. (There is a hysterical scene where Danny discussing with Victor how they  ‘decaffeinate’ coffee which sounds a lot like Munch or Lewis).  This discussion has a very musical background as well--- the oldies  station that Danny like. Blondie, Earth Wind and Fire, The bee Gees and Gloria Gaynor can all be heard as Victor and Danny ‘tail’  Frank.

Victor’s method of ‘humiliation’ is trying to hurt Frank professionally. So he follows him to a crime scene, where he removes the murder weapon and the head of the victim, places them in his house and sends photos to the Sun  and the police. This might have more  success if Frank didn’t crack the case about as easily as they come—the suspect tries to kill himself and confesses to the crime. Far more alarming are his methods of stalking Frank and Mary. First he breaks in to their house and leaves a gas burner on. Then he impersonates a cop and has a conversation with Mary, in which he drops hints that he ‘knows’ thing about their relationship. Then he breaks in the house again, turning all the burners on—very dangerous, especially with a smoker in the house. Then he leaves Frank a message on his answering machine arranging a meeting for the, alone.

The ultimate irony of this episode is Victor’s insistence that he is not the killer that Frank made him out to be, and that’s why he fails in his attempts. He backs out of buying a gun, and he has several chances to kill Frank but keeps avoiding it. And when he finally has Frank with a knife to his throat, Victor is incapable of cold-blooded murder. The late Bruno Kirby was a very underrated actor and he does an excellent job of making Victor both weaselly amusing, and a little sympathetic. We know he’s trying to kill Frank, but he plays him in such a way that we ignore the scarier parts of his nature.

There are serious issues being brought up but there’s quite a bit of comedy as well. Most of comes from the character of Danny, well-played  by Richard Edson.  His behavior and attitude are very amusing, even when the subject is dark. One wonders how much of humor is due to nervousness that a man he clearly cares for is going to kill someone. He doesn’t try to talk Victor out of his plan, but he keeps making little remarks on how crazy it is. Danny is basically a good-hearted person and when the time comes, he refuses to help his friend kill Frank, saying that he has to take responsibility. But he is Victor’s friend, and when the ex-con is taken into custody again, he’s there for him.

There are some serious bits being discussed about Frank in this episode. We see Bayliss and Pembleton  sniping at each other, because of the events of ‘Colors’ are still fresh in his mind. But by the end of the episode they bury the hatchet. We also see that Frank and Mary are trying to have a child, something that leads to Frank learning he has a low sperm count. As becomes clear in Season 4, the Pembletons get around this obstacle.

And what does Frank think about the attempt on his life? He knows he lucky but there is more to it. As he puts it ‘God reached down, and graced a fool with wisdom’ Victor Helms had vengeance in the heart but eventually he could not do what he had set himself on doing.

This is an interesting and amusing episode, and yet I can not rank it as one of the high points of the series—not in the way that other deviations from the norm such as ‘Bop Gun’ and ‘Every Mother’s Son’ were. The reasons for this are complicated but mostly its because I think the episode I’m not sure whether we are suppose to empathize with Victor or not. Seeing the detectives from the point of view of a suspect is interesting but because we see so little of him in the episode, we don’t get a clear view of him.

‘The Gas Man’ is a pretty good episode of Homicide, and if the series had ended, it would have made sense to end with an episode that broke all the rules. Still I’m sure that I (and probably everyone else) was glad that this was not the final episode of the show. The show would change a great deal over the next four years, not always for the better, but it had a lot of great moments to come.

My score: 4.5 stars.