Homicide Episode Guide: Abduction

Written by Julie Martin and Anya Epstein

Directed by Kenneth Fink

As we learned in passing in the previous episode, in addition to working murders the Homicide unit of Baltimore also investigates extortion, bribery and kidnapping. We have never seen them working one of these cases but ‘Abduction’ shows how the detectives work in kidnapping, when a four-year named Paul Marshall disappears in front of his mother at a merry-go-round near the inner harbor. This episode takes place before  these kinds of cases were supervised by the FBI (pre Amber Alert) so the case is run like a red ball. And at the forefront of this episode, like so many in season 6 Detective Falsone is at the forefront.

The entire squad is called in to work the crime, and we see the same kind of pressure that the detectives go through even when there is no body. If anything, the stress is greater because there is a chance that the victim is alive, and the odds get lower every additional hour the child is missing. It is also interesting to see how the unit behaves in regard to the media. Every time there is a homicide involving a child, the detectives think that the media’s presence hinders the chances of a successful result. When the child is abducted, they rely on the mass media to help them in their efforts to search for the victim.

Indeed, this episode adds a second level by having the detectives use the host of a weekly realty show, ‘This Week’s Wanted’ help them look for Paul Marshall. The host of the show even suggests bringing in a hypnotist to work with a witness (a seven-year old who was also on the merry-go-round) in order to get a lead and are physically in the room when the child is rescued. Obviously, the show is based on America’s Most Wanted, complete with the host modeled after John Walsh (both figures suffered the loss of a child several years ago) and we know that these shows are helpful in aiding  the capture of felons and recovering missing children. Yet despite this, it seems to go against the realism we have come to expect of Homicide that the detectives and the brass are willing to go along with this, and it adds a certain disconnect.

Because the episode  is so focused on the hunt for Paul Marshall, a lot of the character related  stories that we have come to expect from the show also get lost in the shuffle. It is true that we see the focus on Falsone’s character and his own stress when a child around the same age as his son has been taken. In that way, he has a mixture of concern and anger involved in capturing the perpetrator and making sure that his son is safe. He also shares a certain amount of empathy with the abductee’s father, considering the custody arrangements that they both have. Yet this is all too familiar territory that we have been exploring over the past several episodes, and it seems a tad repetitive. We also don’t get a great deal of focus on any of the other detectives and their opinions. The episode shows Ballard and Bayliss both have desires to have children, yet gives no attention to Pembleton and Gharty, who actually have kids and might have this nightmare.

Much in the same way that many of the murders on Homicide  are actually committed by the most likely person, the  investigation kidnapping unfolds the same way. There are false leads as the detectives root out the answers, and the kidnapping turns out to have been committed by the person the evidence leads to---- in this case, to a deluded woman who believed Paul Marshall would be better off in her care than in his parents. This sounds real, yet it also has a very stagy quality to it.  It just seems very false.

There are some intriguing elements to the story that seem to resonate with the passage of two decades. For one thing, it's interesting to see that the host of 'This Week's Wanted' is played by Robert John Burke, a man who would spent much of the next two decades playing hardasses, playing a sympathetic character. And Mrs. Marshall is an early role for Elizabeth Marvel, who would play iron-jawed women in House of Cards and Homeland over twenty years later.

Perhaps the best summary about ‘Abduction’ comes when the case is closed and the people at ‘This Weeks Wanted’ decide to air the Marshall story because of its positive resolution . Falsone jokes that the reason they show life-affirming stories some times  for better ratings. One cannot help but wonder if ‘Abduction’ was written and produced for those exact same reasons--- to give Homicide  a more ‘life-affirming’ story. Well, it doesn’t quite work and after four straight episodes which have not centered on murders, we’re all but looking forward to a stone whodunit. Fortunately, this being Baltimore we’re finally going to get some.

My score:3.25 stars.