Homicide Episode Guide: Betrayal

Written by Gay Welch; story by Tom Fontana

Directed by Clark Johnson

                This episode finds two detectives in the show at a crossroad in their lives. For one of them, it is a professional problem; for the other, it starts out seeming professional but ends up being far more personal.

                After three months of buildup, the time has come for Mike Kellerman to testify before the grand jury regarding the allegation that he took bribes from the Rolands while he was in arson. We have known this was an ordeal for Kellerman but it is only now that we understand the magnitude of the problem. If Mike testifies that he didn’t know about the bribery going on in his unit, he will be charged with perjury. If he testifies that he did know, he will be brought up on charges of failing to report graft. More importantly, if he survives that he will be ruined in the eyes of the other cops in the department. He is therefore faced with one option: taking the Fifth Amendment, an act which will have its own repercussions.

                After all the work that the writers have done at setting up this dilemma, they then sort of take an easy way out when he learns that one of the other detectives under indictment names Kellerman. Realizing that he has no other options, he tells the FBI investigator that he is will give her all the evidence that she needs for an indictment. The investigator is so impressed by Kellerman zeal and fire that when the time comes to question Mike, she stops short of asking him the hard ones. Afterwards, when a stunned Kellerman asks why she let him go she tells him that she was impressed by his loyalty and dedication, and anyway she has enough evidence for indictments.

                Not only is this difficult to believe as real it seems kind of disappointing that after everything that happens all we get is this. But as we see at a celebration at the Waterfront, Mike is now convinced that no matter what the grand jury says or what his colleagues say, they still think he’s dirty. He has gone through the system at one end and came out the other, and he is harder, bitter and more cynical for it. This will have immediate ramifications in the next few episodes. The more lasting consequences will not become clear until the season is almost over and Kellerman faces another, far worse ordeal.

                We’re not as upset about how the Kellerman storyline is playing out because a far more agonizing crime is happening in the main story. Bayliss and Pembleton are called out on the murder of another young black girl--- this one, dead from what blunt trauma on top of what may have been years of abuse.

                From the beginning of this episode to the end Tim is pissed off at just about everybody--- from the social worker who was called in to investigate claims of abuse at her home and did nothing to the assistant D.A. who ends up giving the killer a light sentence. He is shouting at the dead girl’s mother, her boyfriend and at Frank. This is the same kind of anger we saw involving Adena Watson and the murder of Janelle Parsons last year. But it is clear that this case has struck a far deeper nerve then usual.

                Then again, this case is more disturbing. The mother of the dead girl reported the girl missing and claims complete ignorance of how she got the bruising and welts on her body. In an unusual reversal, Frank takes the role of sympathetic voice as a fellow parent and manages to get the truth out of the mother—that her boyfriend struck her hard enough to kill her. But the more chilling part comes when she explains to Frank why she helped dispose of the body, lied to the police and protect her boyfriend from prosecution. He’s all the family she has left, and she has to protect him even if he did murder her daughter. The ultimate shock comes when we learn why--- she is pregnant with his child. Perhaps the most unnerving sequence in this episode occurs when the mother tells Frank that this baby will be safe because it’s his. LaTanya Richardson gives one of the most unsettling performances in Homicide’s history.

                Kyle Secor gives an astonishing performance in a season where he has already done some of his finest work. That he wasn’t even nominated for an Emmy was one of the biggest robberies in the history of the awards. Yet all of his anger does not prepare us for one of the more stunning revelations in the show. He reveals to Frank that he was sexually abused by his uncle from the age of five, and that we he revealed this to his father, the man never believed him or did anything to help him. It is stunning when we learned that Secor came up with the idea recently because it explains so much about Tim Bayliss--- why he wanted to be a cop, why he goes after child murderers with such furor, why he had such a terrible relationship with his father. (In an odd synchronicity, on NYPD Blue, the equally troubled and tortured Detective Russell, played by Kim Delaney, would reveal a similar pattern of abuse in her past.)

                Even more stunning then this is Tim’s telling Frank he doesn’t want to partner with him anymore. There has been a gulf building between the two detectives since Frank returned to duty and there’s clearly more going on then just this revelation. He will stand firm to this, not partnering with Frank till the season is almost over.

                ‘Betrayal’ is a stunning episode dealing with who is telling on whom, and who protects whom. It features brilliant acting and writing as well as brilliant camera work (one of the most breathtaking shots in Homicide’s history occurs when the camera follows Giardello as he circles a beleaguered Pembleton) It holds for a long time in the memory of the characters and the viewers and the images are not happy ones.

My score: 4.5 stars.