Homicide Episode Guide: Mercy

Written by Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Alan Taylor

Way back in Season 2, ‘See No Evil’ explored the idea of euthanasia as Beau Felton and Meldrick Lewis decided to let what was essentially a mercy killing get written up as a suicide.  In ‘Mercy’, four years later, we find an inverse of the situation, where the sister of a man suffering from terminal colon cancer accuses the assisting physician of delivering an overdose of morphine to her brother, thus prematurely terminating his life.

The division about whether or not this is mercy or murder divides almost everybody involved.  Perhaps not surprisingly, that includes the investigating detectives, Bayliss and Pembleton. Pembleton is his typical ruthless self, sticking firm to his belief that every live ended prematurely is murder. Bayliss, perhaps surprisingly, is far more restrained and far more willing to look the other way. Perhaps it has to do with the treating physician, Dr. Roxanne Turner, played by that most underrated of actresses, Alfre Woodard. If the name sounds familiar, its because this is the same character that Woodard portrayed on  St. Elsewhere,  the show that Tom Fontana created before Homicide. In that show Turner was an OB-GYN; she now  works in a hospice. As she herself puts in, she has come full circle from welcoming patients into the world to helping them leave it.  She makes it very clear that she does not believe in prolonging life at all costs and that she sees what she is doing as easing their deaths, not assisting them.

This is a very grey area and Frank, who has a habit of seeing things in terms of black and white, does not hold with it. The show tries to present an even-handed argument, and for the more part, it does. All of Dr. Turner’s patients are in the end-stages of terminal illnesses, most strikingly in the case of a thirty-four year old woman in the end stages of MS. It is clear that most of them were ready to die. On the other hand, considering the level of pain that they were all feeling, were they in any condition to make those kinds of judgments? Most of them had families to act as their guardian, but in some case the victim died alone, indicating that Dr. Turner was the sole arbiter.

All of this leads to a memorable ‘discussion’ between Pembleton and Turner in the box. (Bayliss begs off, clearly impressed by her reputation) Frank discusses her patients using the argument of the sanctity of life under any conditions. Turner argues just as passionately of the pain and anguish her patients go through in the end stages of their illnesses. How dare he judge her? Frank counters by asking how dare she make decisions for people in their most vulnerable stages. There is no right answer; there is not even an answer, only the futility of the end of a person’s life. Frank swears that he will pursue Dr. Turner until she stops her work but this is never followed up on, probably because Frank is not with the department much longer.

Despite the anguish and pain going on her, there’s more going on in this episode than this. Stivers and Falsone, relative newcomers to the department, catch their first murdered child case --- a sixth grader who catches a stray bullet from a robbery that took place across the street. They seem enthusiastic initially, but as Giardello cautions them, there is little fun in the death of a child--- something that Bayliss and Pembleton could easily attest to. By a stroke of luck, they find the killer but closing the case does not exercise ghosts. As the episode concludes, they go to a memorial where the photographs of murdered children are displayed on walls. The walls are covered with hundreds, if not thousands, of photos---  doubtless the pictures of Janelle Parsons and  Darryl Nawls and Patrick Garrabrek and Adena Watson are up there somewhere. They will run out of room long before they run out of pictures.

We also see Gharty and Ballard chasing down the two ‘city goats’ they like for the last month or so. Though difficult to find, they are easy to apprehend and easier still to indict--- turns out the white trash criminals aren’t any smarter than the black ones. Such are the ways of Baltimore.

But the most critical event occurs when Mike Kellerman, after some work, tracks down Judge Gibbons. Kellerman confronts Gibbons as to being on the Mahoney payroll in regard to Georgia Rae’s unlikely civil suit.  The two of them speak in the ambiguous phrases of people who don’t want to be talking about what they’re talking about, thus the conversation is open to very wide interpretation. Mike surreptitiously tapes it and  plays it for Meldrick (how he tracked down Lewis is never explained) but it can be interpreted in two ways, either Gibbons asked for a bribe, or Kellerman was threatening Gibbons.  Mike, hearing what he wants to hear, thinks it’s the former, and also seems to think that this means their problems with the judge are over. They aren’t even close.

‘Mercy’ is a very complicated and dark episode, mainly because the issues discussed are very ambiguous and have no easy answers. It features some truly fine acting, particularly in the last scene between Braugher and Woodard (who earned an Emmy nod for her performance)  and some strong, even-handed writing for both sides. This is true because of the contradictions we see in the characters. Frank Pembleton  is a Catholic thinks capital punishment is wrong, but as a cop thinks that its necessary. Roxanne Turner is a doctor who believes in the sanctity of life but also believes there should be some dignity in death. There are no easy answers to the issues raised, but the writers know that the questions must be asked.

My score: 4.5 stars