Homicide Episode Guide: Identity Crisis

Teleplay by Willie Reale; Story by Tom Fontana & Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Joe Berlinger

For all of the problems with scheduling (this episode was supposed to be the penultimate one, it ended up airing fourth from the last) Identity Crisis is one of the better episodes of the series, and continues to demonstrate that once again, Homicide was firing on all cylinders. There’s a perfect mix of three equally compelling stories, there’s a lot of humor that has been noticeably absent for the last two weeks, and there are some major plot points revealed.

The major story of the episode is Lewis and Falsone’s case. They’re called into investigate the murder of a barbecuing man who has two bullets in his head, and his nose has been bitten off, something that actually unnerves these hardened detectives. The case begins to pick up steam when while interviewing a neighbor of the deceased, Falsone begins to pick up a vibe about her that Meldrick doesn’t. It’s not until they interrogate her husband ‘Selwyn Weatherbee’ that it solidifies. Because of the way ‘Weatherbee’ gestures and the phrases he uses, Falsone suspects that he is Italian, trying to pass himself off as a WASP from New Hampshire. (The fact that the family is ostensibly from Grover’s Corners, the city at the center of Our Town, should also be a clue, but no one picks up on this) When Falsone relates these gestures to Gee, he naturally intends to agree, and Paul then goes on to postulate that the husband is involved in witness protection. Al asks him to see if Mike has any connections that might tell them if there is a mob informant in Baltimore, and Mike makes contact about a mob trial in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, things very quickly spiral from here. When Meldrick and Falsone return to the couples house, the FBI is preparing to whisk them away, and it is only because of the most brazen of bluffs that they are able to get Weatherbee into the squadroom. Mike immediately butts heads with the ASAC in charge, who tells him that Weatherbee needs to testify in the trial, but that he won’t skate for it. Then Mike goes to see Gail Ingram from the Bureau, and learns the truth – Weatherbee is going to thirty years, all but three suspended, and Mike has been compromised by the same ASAC.

The relationship between Mike and the rest of the squad has been shaky ever since the McBride case, but now he sees that he has been completely compromised, and resigns from the Bureau before he is transferred out. Mike is very bitter about what has happened, and has decided that the FBI, which he considered part of his identity, no longer belongs to him.

If it were just for this storyline, this would be a compelling episode. But the other two plots are nearly as good. The episode involves the ME’s going through what has been ‘a typical Saturday night in Baltimore’, and Grissom cheerfully orders them to clean the freezer out. They do a spectacular job doing so – and then Grissom learns that there is an extra body with no paperwork. (His initial reaction “No reservation, no service’ is one of the great lines in Homicide history.

He calls Bayliss and Munch in for help, and they initially offer almost none, telling him to call them back when Grissom has a crime scene. A few hours later, he does – it’s one of the freezers. (“If nothing else, you have to give credit for its efficiency.) The victim, a bullyboy named Mack came in last night to identify his uncle. In the course of their interview, they find that the late uncle was wearing an expensive Rolex which is now missing. Then they find out that another Mack cousin came in earlier to identify the body. Munch and Bayliss interview the cousin, who cheerfully gives every detail of how he tussled with him, and then stabbed him in a fight over the watch. The cousin is in fact befuddled to learn his relative is dead – “I cut that peckerwood a dozen times, and he never died on me before.” The case is closed (though for some reason it’s never written in black) even though Grissom admits they never answered the question “how in God’s name someone in the Mack family could afford a $1200 watch?”

Austin Pendleton gives one of the great performances in his time on Homicide. Of the many regrets about the show not going on is the fact that we never got any more work of this cheerful character. In a series that put the ME’s front and center, he was by far the most entertaining, and it would’ve been great to see him continue in whatever basis he could.

And we’re still not done. Ballard and Gharty get called into investigation a robbery-murder at a strip club, where they find a bloody footprint from a ‘do-me pump’ (we all know there’s no censor at NBC that would dare let them say the real phrase). The two detectives look into armed robberies and find a robber who, if anything, is even dumber than the Mack family. He stepped up to rob the bank teller with a note that was written on the back of a check. A personal check. Apparently, he asked for it before returning dressed in drag. He left fingerprints and a heel mark. Gharty: “The criminal mind.” Ballard: “If you can call it that.” When they bring the robber in, he confesses very quickly. He’s a junkie, and unlike most of the ones on this show, he’s a methhead, who killed the victim because he got nervous.

The episode also wraps up one last recurring storyline for the seventh season. Gharty seems to think that he was in the bar where the robbery took place, but can’t remember clearly. He clearly has a couple of drinks before he finishes his initial interviews. After a conversation with Ballard, and probably from seeing the robber here, he goes to the Waterfront… and tells Billie Lou he’s going to start drying out. Billie Lou’s forgiven him enough to invite him to the wedding, but he politely declines. The series, however, doesn’t forget the moment.

Identity Crisis really does make you question whether Fontana and company really knew whether or not they were coming back next year. It plays as one of the best Homicide’s in tone and in character. There’s even a wonderful in-joke, when Lewis asks Falsone if anyone knows someone in Witness Protection. Falsone says they just exist – “They’re like Nielsen families.” One last poke at the bête noire of the series. In an episode that’s about identity and its masking, one more jab at the think that says how TV defines them – and how this series has established one for lack of them.

My score: 4.5 stars