Homicide Episode Guide: Sins of the Father

Written by Darryl Lemont Wharton; story by James Yoshimura and Julie Martin

Directed by Mary Harron

Baltimore is a violent city, no question about it. And, at the core of it, race plays a substantial role in that violence. But the history of that discord goes back much further  then this century.  In the nineteenth century, when the sectional divide over slavery was growing, Maryland was a border state. It had a huge population of free blacks and had many key stops on the Underground Railroad. But there was also a substantial slave market and it was on the Mason-Dixon Line.  Much of the greatest violence in the Civil War occurred Maryland--- in fact, the bloodiest single day of the fighting occurred  near Sharpsburg---  or, as it is known by historians, Antietam.

The violence and anger of that time period is revisited in ‘Sins of the Father’ and shows that not even a hundred and thirty years has  diminished its ugliness. A wealthy  white executive named Martin Ridenour is found dead in a vacant row house in West Baltimore ---- a section of the city that is predominantly black. Furthermore, the victim is found beaten and hung in what is basically a lynching.

Falsone and Lewis are called into investigate. Gradually, they learn that the motive for this murder is not drugs or sex or money--- it is about history. The Ridenour family goes back nearly three hundred years  and, as we see when we visit his home, they were on the Confederate side of the conflict.  Martin is the great-great-great grandson of Patricia Ridenour, a female bounty hunter who dragged both escaped slaves and free blacks back in the bondage. Seeing mementos of that time, Meldrick is very discomforted. Then the detectives return to the crime scene and find that Ridenour’s body was discovered less than a block away from the Orchard Street Church, once a stop on the Underground Railroad, now a prominent Baltimore museum.

All of this seems irrelevant until Pembleton recognizes Patty Ridenour as one of his grandmothers boogeymen. This allows Meldrick to make a leap of his own and link the murder to Dennis Rigby, a lower-class black student who has an obsession with black history.  In a memorable confrontation between Meldrick and the suspect, Rigby reveals that his  great-great-great grandfather was a free black land owner who Patricia Ridenour captured and sold back into slavery. This reveals not only the huge racial divide that exists but the economic which spins out of it. For generations blacks families spent their lives devoted to expanding the wealth and position of white ones. Now, even though slavery is long gone, those white families (like the Ridenour’s) continue to benefit from those gains: Martin Ridenour is a multi-millionaire executive with an unlimited future; Dennis Rigby works for a small music company and struggles to make a living. With all this in consideration, one can almost sympathize with Rigby desire for revenge. But all the bloodshed has done is extend the circle of violence that has linked both families, except Rigby is now the villain.

This episode is one of the best showcases for Clark Johnson in a  long time as he devotes his zeal and righteousness into pursuing Rigby. Yet he is a complicated enough individual to feel very depressed about the great divide that separates this country, over the ugliest issue in our nation’s history. Slavery is not an anachronism, but a living history that we as a nation have not yet gotten past.

This story is paralleled by a subplot in which Frank and Tim investigate an elderly woman who accidentally ran over a man, and ultimately decide not to charge her. The message is subtle, but its there--- some violent acts are decreed to be crimes deserving of punishment, and some are not. And in these issues, race is often a factor. Rigby’s actions were wrong, but were they any worse that Patty Ridenour’s who committed far worse acts, and never was called upon to answer for them. As is often the case, the white person goes free, while the black person is punished.

As if this isn’t enough divisiveness, we still have Bayliss’ and his reputation.  We never get a clear idea about how his date with Chris Rawls went, but just a few days later Frank sees him  actively flirting with Laura Ballard. Rumors of Tim’s supposed homosexuality are spreading through the squad, as we see when the narrow-minded Gharty openly taunts Frank about it. Even though he has his own qualms about Tim’s sexual activities, he does not even hesitate to defend his partner by pointing out his possible relationship with Ballard, which causes Stu to behave like an aggrieved spouse. There will be ugliness about Tim’s love life in the squad in the months to come, but as long as Frank’s around, people will be quiet about it.

That’s not to say Frank isn’t worried about his partner. When he questions Tim about it in the episode, Tim responds by bringing up the Frandina case, now nearly five years old. He reminds Frank of their memorable conversation (flashbacked to in the episode) in which Frank told him that he must embrace the darker, uglier side of himself. This is advice that Tim has never forgotten (though ironically Frank has trouble remembering it) and that he has now decided to embrace. Tim will explore his ‘bi-curious impulses’ throughout the shows last two seasons, but it isn’t fleshed out a great deal more in the next few episodes.

‘Sins of the Father’ like many of the best Homicide’s, asks some very ugly questions and does not provide us with a pat answer. In the episode’s denouement Falsone tries to bring Meldrick out of his blue mood about this case, but Meldrick can’t let it go. There are some scars that don’t heal no matter how much we try to understand why. Homicide tells us this frequently--- and, in the episodes to come, will show the squad how ugly they can really be.
My score: 4.5 stars.