Homicide Episode Guide: Sideshow, Part 2

Written by David Simon

Directed by Ed Sherin

The writers of Homicide and Law and Order  have, by now, created an annual tradition of doing a crossover every year. So many of the episode used Richard Belzer to the full extent of his abilities that it's small wonder Wolf recruited him for Special Victims Unit later this year. And frankly, on that series, he was so rarely used to his full extent (and so much of his character bio on Homicide ending up getting trashed) that it was a general waste of his talent. It's a great pity, because in Sideshow, by far the best crossover between the two series, one could really see just how great the potential of that character was.

This episode finally realizes what is Munch's (and probably Belzer's) heart's desire; after six and a half seasons of railing about government conspiracies, Munch finally gets to an investigate one. When a Baltimore government official named Janine McBride is found dead in New York, Munch and Sheppard are called in to investigate. As Briscoe and Curtis get called in, they find out that McBride was a lesbian and may have been removed from her job because of some kind of government power play. This leads to some funny moments, when its revealed that Sheppard has good gay-dar and tells Curtis how he's part of it, and Munch and Briscoe have solid back and forth about just how bad things will be for men given the success rate of lesbians. Briscoe dismisses Munch's complaints about government maneuvering, but for once, his paranoia turns out to be accurate. When Jack McCoy and Danvers get called into the case, and then finally learn that one of the witnesses, a former lover of McBride, can identify the killer, they find themselves on the radar of William Dell, the independent council. George Hearn, a veteran Broadway and character actor, does a magnificent job playing a man who is more than willing to step over anyone he wants to get the outcome he desires. Modeled after Kenneth Starr, Hearn plays him as the second coming of Roy Cohn, and McCoy, who as any viewer of Law and Order knows is a ruthless prosecutor, finds himself on the other end, and he doesn't like it. (Full credit must go to the writers for doing the rare amount of character back-story that Law and Order usually isn't known for, as we find several of Jack's far more ethically questionable decisions coming back to haunt him.) Waterston demonstrates again why he was one of the finest actors working in any medium.)

The story seems to get wrapped at the end of Law & Order, when the suspect is murdered  by McBride's utterly love-struck former boyfriend - until they find Purcell had a number for the White House on her. Then the action shifts back to Baltimore, and, as is the case in these crossovers, things get more intense.

For starters, the hostility that has been brewing in the Giardello family comes to a boil, when Al reams out Mike for leaking information about the murder to a supervisor - who gave it directly to Dell. Mike is floored by this, and is on the outside looking in for most of the episode; as a consequence, his work in the squad will never truly recover from this betrayal, even after he tries to redeem himself.

Sheppard, in the meantime, finds her relationships in the squad deteriorating. Lewis is still chilly with her, and now Ballard and Stivers, who have reason to find themselves in situation closer to the one that sidelined her, are talking behind her back. When Stivers tries to talk about with her, Renee has nothing but disdain. (Credit to Simon for not trying to automatically assume female detectives would automatically form a sisterhood). For the first time, though, we get a little hint of just where Meldrick is coming from when he has a conversation with Falsone, about just how much getting shot at has rattled him. When Falsone points out that he and Lewis were victims of shooting too, and they're still copacetic, Lewis tries to point out that there might be something deeper here.

But the center of the episode revolves around the unfolding investigation. As is the case in the last crossover, Zeljko Ivanek manages to get some put much-deserved screen-time as he reveals that, in his own way, he is as ruthless a prosecutor as McCoy can be. They go after Dell directly early on, and he becomes more engaged the longer the investigation becomes. Even when they find themselves in the White House for a murder investigation - something that seems to rattle the ever belligerent McCoy - he remains calm. And it costs him. As we learn in the episode, he's just been nominated by the governor for a judgeship. He's still willing to try and put himself on the line - when Sheppard and Munch tell him that, in order to try and pursue the case, he's going to have to confront a federal magistrate on what could be a quid prop quo, he does so. But after he indicts the man behind the murder, the independent counsel comes after him, and it torpedoes him. As a juvenile Danvers was part of a street gang that was involved in a racially motivated assault. When the record comes into play, he confesses to Al about this, and Gee rallies the troops (including Bonfather, of all people), to stand by him. This, however, costs him any chance of him being confirmed by the Maryland legislature.

But for all the efforts of their investigations, the police and legal work come to nothing. Just as they arrest the man behind the murder, Dell's representatives move in, and take him into custody. When Danvers and McCoy furiously confront Dell, he makes it very clear that he considers their murder meaningless compared to his investigation into the White House. He's never been interested in justice, and he makes it clear to them. There are no winners here. The woman McBride was having an affair with becomes a subject for a mockery. The man who negotiated the murder will see death row, while the man who carried out gets immunity. (the fact that the dealer is black and the fixer white isn't even brought up.) The woman who started the dominoes falling resigns. Dell is the only winner.

Everybody reacts differently. Danvers and McCoy can only reflect on how they were used by Dell as his figureheads. The detectives, except for Briscoe, get drunk at the Waterfront. Sheppard starts ranting about the investigation, which turns halfway through, to one against Meldrick. And when the detectives leave the bar, Munch salutes a present flag, says: "I'm too damn sober," and they all go back in.

There are a lot of other great moments in this crossover. Particularly wonderful is when Munch, who requested his FBI file a couple of weeks, gets it during the course of the investigation, and Briscoe has to break it to him, that he was never consider a serious threat to the government. And when Munch tries to thrill his fellow detectives to the details of the investigation, there are some nice in-jokes including a reference to L.P. Everett, and the fact that Homicide was now in syndication at Court TV. But there are also great performances from just about everybody involved, and Waterston and Orbach finally get used to their full potential. (Wouldn't it have been great to see a spin-off show with Briscoe and Munch as PI's?). It's really a shame that this was, by design, the last crossover between the two series. Though Wolf has engaged in countless ones since in his Chicago PD and other Law & Order franchises, none have sung anywhere near as much as these episodes.

My score: 4.5 stars.