Homicide Episode Guide: Double Blind

Written by Lee Blessing and Jeanna Blake; story by Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura

Directed by Uli Edel

It is rare that any television revisits any story that happened more than a few weeks ago, yet Homicide would do it more than once. What is even rarer, however, is for the event to involve a character who is not even a regular on the show.  And rounding it out, to have the major character involved with the story gone is all-but nonexistent. Yet that is what the writers of ‘Double Blind’ do as they look back at Chris Thormann, the patrolmen who was blinded in a shooting four years ago, when in the act of arresting a known felon named Charlie Flavin, he got into a struggle and was shot in the head with his own gun.

Four years have passed and things have changed for everyone. A few months ago, there was a riot in the facility where Flavin was imprisoned. During that riot, he rescued a guard, got him to an infirmary and than went back to negotiate the release of the other guards. For his heroism, he has earned a very early shot for parole (four years after shooting a  cop seems very slim, even by today’s standards) Understandably Chris is upset about this--- almost to the point of wanting to leave Baltimore when he first heard the news. He knows instinctually that this is irrational but it still bothers him.

The recipient of Thormann’s troubles is Meldrick Lewis, who has been remained part of Chris’s life because of his link to his old partner Steve Crosetti.  He is not just pissed for personal reasons – as the detective who arrested Flavin in the first place and as someone who doesn’t like it when a cop shooter goes free, he is angry. However, there is little that he can do but offer support to Chris when the parole board is called into session. It is up to Chris to plead his case--- and he does so very eloquently and as compassionately as he can.

Lee Tergesen gives a very memorable performance as the shattered former patrolman. We not only see his fear and anger throughout the episode but also his longing. As his wife points out (and he admits near the episodes ends) despite everything that’s happened to him he still misses being a police. Even a bullet in the brain can’t get rid of it.

While Meldrick is back in the past, so are Bayliss and Pembleton—after a fashion. The two detectives decide to re-partner after when they are called in on a messy murder. A chef who brutalized and beat his wife for years has been killed by his own daughter. What is more, it is apparent that at one point she shut her father when he was on his knees, presumably begging for his life. When the detectives visit his wife in the hospital, she tells them all this – as well as that she will testify against her daughter.

In another of those big surprises Tim and Frank have completely reversed their roles. Pembleton wants to look the other way and offer the daughter manslaughter for what she has done, while Bayliss (who we would think would be on the other side considering everything that we know about him) is showing a ruthless dedication to duty. He demonstrates a lot of compassion to the wife but not to the murderer. This becomes crystal clear when, after the detectives bring the killer in to talk with Danvers, Frank tries to lead her down a path where she can plead to a lesser charge while Tim insists that the third bullet --- the one that was fired when the victim was on his knees--- means they have to go the distance. It should be noted that nobody else on the case--- not Howard, not Gee, not even Danvers—really wants to offer the full punishment but considering the daughters attitude (she keeps repeating over and over that she had to kill him) they are bound by the law.

This case, with its intimations to subjects that are very clear to Tim’s heart, rattles him. So much so that in the episode’s final scene he goes to visit his uncle George, the man who molested him when he was a boy. He finds a decrepit, wasted, almost senile old man which leads him to ask himself another very difficult question--- “Where do I put my hate?” He will spend the rest of the season figuring that out.

There are no easy solutions for anything in this episode. Charlie Flavin’s parole is denied, but even as Thormann celebrates this, he knows in his guts someday Flavin will go free and what will happen then no one knows. The victim's wife recants her statement in order to protect her daughter, so what happens to that case is also up for grabs. ‘Double Blind’ much like last seasons ‘Requiem for Adena’ revisits old stories that have never been resolved and asks hard questions that still have no good answers even after a long time has passed. The ‘jazz’ (Eva  Thormann’s reference to the power of being a cop) doesn’t offer  answers and questions remain undiminished by the passage of time.

My score: 4.5 stars.