Homicide Episode Guide: Have A Conscience

Usually on Homicide, a certain amount of time would pass between each episode. Occasionally in the first season, and of course in the multi-part stories that the show would do every so often, episodes would take place a few hours apart. But for the most part, there was a passage of about a week between episodes. This is why it is highly unusual that ‘Have a Conscience’ takes place the day after ‘Betrayal’.  In one sense it works because a lot of the pain and anger that hung over most of the detectives is still very fresh.

                The most obvious case is between Bayliss and Pembleton. After revealing an agonizing secret Tim no longer feels comfortable partnering with Frank or even talking with him. Frank is clearly unsettled by this because he is constantly trying to get his partner to work with him again on an old case. Bayliss, however, rebuffs these attempts and by the end of the episode Frank is just plain pissed at Tim. For the next few episodes, Pembleton will be working cases completely on his own. This is symbolic of his return to normality—or at least as close as he get to it these days. Unfortunately, this isolation will begin to have ripples effects in his personal life very soon.

                However, it quickly becomes clear that even though Kellerman has been cleared by the grand jury and is back in the rotation again, his life can not return back to normal. We see this pretty clearly when Captain Gaffney comes up to Mike and asks him point blank how much money he took from the Rolands.  This question (and his subsequent smile after Kellerman knocks over a file cabinet in frustration) represents Gaffney at his most contemptible (though it turns out he is capable of sinking lower). This, however, is only the first example of how  people have begun to view him differently.

He also takes very personally his first case—the death of a Korean grocery store owner who has apparently been executed by one of Luther Mahoney’s drug pushers. The grocer is repeatedly referred to as ‘an honorable man’—and the more Mike looks at his death, the more  angry he gets. When Mike finally gets a chance to interrogate Mahoney--- the first crack he’s has at him in six months--- he flies off the handle at the cool contempt that Mahoney seems to hold him and the victim. This may be the incident that crystallizes Kellerman’s hatred of Luther--- and possibly helps set in motion the events that will follow in a few months when Mike and Mahoney have their final confrontation.

All of this is very well done and written. Unfortunately, the episode then takes a decided down turn when Kellerman gets off duty and goes back to his boat. Meldrick, who has witnessed most of Mike’s behavior and is understandably concerned, comes on his boat to find Mike cleaning his refrigerator—with his gun not more than a foot away from him. Mike seems very fixated --- and then falls into a rage. All of his frustrations over the past few months come bubbling out, and he starts sounding more and more frantic—suicidal, almost. Lewis, who is understandably freaked by what he thinks is happening to his partner, tries to talk him down from his anger and sadness.

This is very intense stuff--- for the first five minutes. But the longer and longer the dialogue progressed, the more detached from it the viewer becomes. We remember that this is just a television show and that the writers aren’t going to kill off Reed Diamond’s character (not until the season is over, anyway). The entire set piece on Mike’s boat takes more than eighteen minutes and by the end of it you think that the writers just ran out of things to say a few minutes before.

Clearly the scene is supposed to be reminiscent of the classic ‘Three Men and Adena’ which, like this, was basically a long sequence of people talking about something very painful. Unfortunately, the scene is nowhere near as sure-footed or dramatic. It is even more upsetting because this episode comes from the pen of James Yoshimura, who is usually so brilliant at expressing pure anguish. Here it just becomes excruciating and repetitive. One can’t help but think Yoshimura was saying ‘This will crack the Emmy nominations’ when he wrote this script. (Didn’t work)

The episode have some good ramification--- Meldrick and Mike emerge from the incident closer together unlike Frank and Tim who have a wedge between them now. Unfortunately by the time the season ends, other events--- indirectly related to what has happened in this episode--- will end up driving the two detectives almost completely apart.

The ultimate effect of ‘Have a Conscience’ is somewhat schizophrenic. There is some very good work done by Reed Diamond and Clark Johnson but they are hampered by the script in the end. Erik Todd Dellums does a fine job at making Mahoney seems loathsome as usual and Jade Wu is memorable as the Korean grocery store owners wife but the rest of the guest cast is not particularly memorable. There is potential for greatness in this episode but it ultimately ends up falling pretty far from it.

My score: 3.25 stars.