Homicide Episode Guide: Hostage, Part 2

Written By Julie Martin; story by Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura

Directed by Jean de Segonzac

        ‘Hostage, Part Two’ opens mere hours after the previous episode ended. The situation at the school is still tense  but the tension does not reach its apogee until ten minutes in when the teacher of the class held hostage emerges with the outlaw’s demand: his pig. This turns out to be one of the rare occasions on Homicide when the viewer knows more than the police. The hostage taker--- and subsequent killer of four people at the school—is Jerry Uba, the suspect in the murder that Bayliss is investigating. Mere minutes later, Uba sets himself on fire as QRT and the Homicide detectives storm the school.

With the hostage taker in the hospital, the detectives can finally get to work. , This case would seem to be ‘easier’ to handle than some of the other red-balls--- the suspect is in custody, the murder weapon has been found--- its basically a matter of filing the paperwork. But for some reason Gee takes the murders of these people a lot harder than some of the other murders that have happened. He demands that Bayliss get a confession from Uba, that Kellerman and Lewis get the interviews done, that Ed Danvers speed up the process of charging Uba, and that he be present when Uba is charged. Yaphet Kotto does some of his best work when Giardello is angry, and here he is raging.  One of the highlights of the episode occurs after Uba is charged and Gee, with a look of extreme contempt on his face, scowls “Get well. Soon” at the bedridden Uba.

Equally good is Kyle Secor as Bayliss. For perhaps the first time since the show started four years ago, Tim gets to handle an interrogation completely on his own. He continues to demonstrate what a brilliant cop he is. Admittedly, though, Jerry Uba is not a complicated criminal. He went to the middle school to kill himself and murdered his mother so that she wouldn’t be left alone. The shots of Uba, covered with third-degree burns in the hospital, reveals him as more pathetic than anything else.

That’s all the police work that’s happening on ‘Homicide’ this week. The rest of the drama emerges, as is usually the case, from the characters. Particularly Frank Pembleton. Both at home and on the job, Frank seems almost feeble and pathetic.  He can’t remember his home phone number, keeps calling coffee a ‘bagel’ and is stumbling over words. Things are almost as bad at home, where we reveal another problem--- his medication has rendered him impotent. He also seems to be fumbling and frustrated around Mary and his daughter. Yet despite everything that has happened to him, in many ways he is the same adamant personality--- he won’t accept help or knuckle under to his condition, which is why he feels so incredibly useless at a place where he used to be a king. This leads him to do some very foolish things--- like pour his medication down the sink. More importantly, this will cause fractures in his relationships with both Tim and Mary. But that is for later.

Other subplots are unfolding for other minor characters. Brodie has been evicted from his apartment and is now sleeping in the squad room. For the next few months, he will be invited in, and consequently kicked out of, almost all of his coworker’s apartments. This week the detective in question is Munch. This almost doesn’t come off because Brodie is pissed at Munch’s hostile attitude towards Frank. But eventually Brodie does get invited in--- with strict instructions not to look in the medicine cabinet. (Perhaps Munch is still in the sixties.)

Ed Danvers in the meantime, reveals that he is getting engaged to a public defender named Meryl Hanson. Its clear this news causes pain for Sergeant Howard even though she tries to cover it up. The next few months will occasionally focus on preparation for Danvers’s wedding--- until it reaches a climax that nobody could have seen coming.

‘Hostage, Part Two’ is frustrating in some respects because so much is left unresolved. But this is what ‘Homicide’ does best, so it’s not necessarily a negative. It’s not quite as good as the first part but it does feature good performances from the leads as well as the side characters. There are very few big moments--- just a lot of little ones that register effectively.

My score: 4.25 stars