Homicide Episode Guide: Something Sacred, Part 1

Written by Anya Epstein

Directed by Uli Edel

Two weeks after the announcement that Homicide would be back for a seventh season, the producer tried something that they hadn’t done before (and as it turned out, that they would never do again). They aired both hours of a two-part episode together in order to make a ‘Homicide  movie’ centered around a single investigation. The episode was titled ‘Something Sacred’, a satire of Nothing Sacred  a critically acclaimed but little watched ABC drama that dealt with the life and service of a priest. The pastiche was fitting considering the center of the episode--- the murder of a priest.

 Ballard and Gharty get called out to a Baltimore parish where they find a middle-aged priest tied up, beating with a blunt object, and finally stabbed to death. It appears that the rectory was the victim of some kind of robbery, and the initial suspects are two Guatemalan refugees---- both teenagers----  who the priest took in and watched. Initially, the refugees are nowhere to be found.

What we mainly find in this part of the storyline is a lot of false leads that go nowhere. A poem in Spanish about ‘a god of love, forgive, forgive’ is found written on a blackboard near the priest’s body. It isn’t a message from the killer; the priest wrote out when he tried to give a lesson in Spanish. A few hours later, the news receives a tape from a ‘swami’ claiming that the good father was responsible for the sexual molestation of a dozen young boys, including the two refugees. Turns out not only are the charges false, but the ‘swami’ isn’t even a real religious leader  who has apparently chosen to smudge the good name of a colleague from the seminary they both studied in. The tip line set up in an effort to find the killers results in a tip involving a suspicious robbery attempt leads to the  pick-up of a young black kid named Roc Roc  who in the end can’t be identified. (As it turns out, even the dead ends are not dead ends) Finally, the refugees seems almost certainly to be the killers--- and this seems more than likely a day later when another priest is found dead outside his rectory---- and the refugees have jumped bail.

The similarities between this investigation and the Annabella  Wilgus murders in Season 3 are easy to see. There are two distinct differences. First, this is clearly not the action of a serial killer, second religion is not at the center of the murders; robbery is. More importantly is the issue of faith. This time, however, the Catholic at the center of the murders is not Pembleton but Stu Gharty. From the start it is clear that he has some real problems with what has happened to the victim and the charges that he molested young boys. (Considering the number of charges that have come in the years since the episode aired, its astounding that Epstein didn’t make the charges legitimate) It is clear that this hurts him immensely for, unlike Pembleton, he is a loyal Catholic, one who still believes in the church.  This is the first time since Gharty first appeared on the show that we get a look at his psyche and Gerety plays it up well.

Though the focus is mostly on the case at hand, there’s a lot of other business going on during this episode. For starters, Stivers has been rotated into the homicide unit. She will remain in the cast for the rest of the season, though Toni Lewis will not become a regular until the next season.  Then there’s the fact that no one has seen Meldrick since his suspension, something that has Kellerman very concerned. He has called his wife, his mother and checked  everywhere but he can’t find him, which causes Mike to fear Georgia Rae has taken some kind of action.  His concern that Stivers has come to ‘replace’ Lewis, combined with his fear that she is the weak link in Luther’s shooting, probably accounts for his open hostility towards her. Add  the fact that Falsone is on his case and Mike is running out of friends in the unit.  Finally Falsone’s custody hearing has begun, and even at this early stage, it’s not going to go that well.

Aside from the continued absence of Clark Johnson and  Kyle Secor (Bayliss is on vacation), the first part of ‘Something Sacred’ is a pretty good mix of the old and new Homicide. In addition to Gerety, Callie Thorne continues to show good form, particularly in two scenes--- one with Gharty, one with Pembleton---- where she discusses faith and her lack of it. The priests are murdered has a more realistic feel then some elements of the Wilgus murders, and the exploration of the Central American refugees is an interesting one (especially looking back from the post 9-11 views against immigration). Yet the character development is not quite as good as it has been in some of the episodes and it seems a little underdone. Perhaps it’s because there is so much unresolved, but since we don’t have to wait long for resolution, we can let that go for this one.

My score: 4.25 stars.