Homicide Episode Guide: Truth Will Out

Teleplay by Anya Epstein, Story by Noel Behn & Tom Fontana

Directed by Keith Samples

As Homicide continued to wind its way towards its end, the series seemed to be in the act of resolving the weaker storylines of the final season. Keeping with the nature of the series, however, even doing this would cause its own level of anguish. In Truth Will Out, they mirror it with a cold case that shows just how torturous the past can be..

Falsone and Stivers are called by Josephine Pitt, a twenty-ish woman who saw Falsone get commended for the Slone case (Finnegan's Wake) and wants him to investigate an old murder - the 1972 death of her toddler brother. The twist being, she was accused of the crime when she was three years old. Brooke Smith, a talented character actress given a rather sympathetic role to play, plays Josephine as a woman who has spent her entire live in torment over an act she can barely remember. And now that she is pregnant, she feels that she can't endure raising a child. The detectives agree to look into the file, and find that the investigating detective from 1972 was none other than Al Giardello.

Gee remembers the case - "No one forgets their first murdered child" - and reluctantly gives them the ok to go forward. They talk to the mother, who tells a convincing story, but seems like someone who just wants to move on. When they get to the medical examiner, it becomes very clear that this guy wasn't of the level of some of the better ones we've seen on this series, and Gee admits that the man, in true Homicide fashion, only kept his job due to politics. He orders Jeffrey Pitt to be dug up, and the new examination reveals that while the cause of death could match falling from a tub, there were also signs of abuse.

The interrogation session is one of the best of the season, and certainly the longest - it takes more than ten minutes to get through. There is a level that is unrealistic when Josephine walks in, and confronts her mother about what happened that hot August day. It's hard to imagine that Gee would've allowed this, but he's been so invested in this case, it's almost forgivable, mainly because it works. Mrs. Pitt, played excellently by the late Elizabeth Ashley, acts increasingly defensively until she eventually become accusatory, blaming her daughter for the murder of her son. We also get to see Al in the interrogation room. Again, this is unlikely, but considering he is in charge of the unit, and was the investigating officer, it's not as impossible as some of the other things that have happened this season. Yaphet Kotto is excellent, as we get a rare glimpse of just how good a detective Giardello must have been in his prime. When he finally confronts the mother on what's she done, it's chilling - and all the more so, because we never hear her confess.

There's also an all too rare scene of Al and Mike discussing old family business.  Throughout the episode, Al tries to remember when an illness that befell his beloved Charisse (flashbacked to way back from Season 3) that made him feel powerless, and tries to find out from Mike as if that might have served as a distraction from the death of Jeffrey Pitt. But as we eventually find out, the dates never matched, and Al can't excuse himself for erring in his judgment. He sees the consequences of his actions - Josephine Pitt has spent her life tormenting herself over this, she'll never speak to her mother again, and she can't reconcile with her father. It's rare to see Al this reflexive, and its more than welcome.

The past is also reaching out to bite Bayliss in the ass.  Investigating a suspicious death with Ballard, he meets a patrolman who later turns out to be gay. They have an intimate conversation, and it seems it might move on to something more. Then we learn that Gaffney is pissed because he and his wife (that prick got someone to marry him?) found Bayliss' website (which we saw a few episodes ago), and demands he take it down. Suddenly the squad, which has been more or less neutral to Tim's sexuality, is under fire. The other detectives (the male ones) are angry about Tim talking about his sexuality. Talking. When Bayliss and Ballard go into get info from a narcotics detective, he doesn't even look at Tim when telling them about their deceased. And after Bayliss goes to see a patrolman who stood him up, he barely escaped being assaulted. Tim has never wanted to be a crusade - he makes this very clear - but faced with the overwhelming pressure, he shuts his website down. And thus begins the process that will lead to Bayliss' burning out of the department.

I should mention, by the way, that Ballard and Sheppard are completely supportive of Tim. The homophobia in the Baltimore PD only seems to go one way. It's interesting to consider this in Simon's The Wire, no one will have a problem with the out black lesbian detective, but the white male captain will hide his homosexuality from everyone, except on one occasion, the viewer.

Ballard is inclined to be more sympathetic because the other sour storyline from Season 7 is drawing to a close. Ballard and Falsone have been carrying on their affair in secret ever since Gee discovered them, but Stivers found out about it, and now she is concerned. Falsone and Ballard try to go into hiding, but by the episode's end, it becomes clear that Stivers is going to force the issue, saying that if Gee asks about it, she's not going to lie. Thank the lord the writers are finally getting rid of this particular piece of detritus.

Truth Will Out is a solid episode of the series, which seems to have more levels than the usual Homicide title. The truth should be revealed, not because it's the easy thing, but because it's the right thing. Josephine Pitt may never be all right because of what happened, but at least she can now be a better mother than hers ever was. But for the detectives working these murders, the truth about their personal lives just makes their already difficult professional lives even harder.

My score: 4.25 stars.