Homicide Rewatch: Nearer By God To Thee

 

Written by Jorge Zamacona; story by Tom Fontana & Jorge Zamacona

Directed by Tim Hunter

 

Aside from having arguably one of the most prescient teasers in the history of television (see Detective Munch) one can see Fontana poking fun at some of the changes that NBC has been forcing on Homicide after it has been renewed. This is something of a running joke with Fontana who did it with great humor and eland in his previous series St. Elsewhere and would manage to find ways to do it in his next series OZ.

Here are Bolander, Lewis and Munch watching the sexy scenes of a soap (NBC’s Another World) and Bolander grouses about why there’s so much sex on TV. Lewis, Munch and Stan engage in a conversation about whether television puts in gratuitous sex and or gratuitous nudity, a jab not only at the executives demands from them but the popularity of NYPD Blue for said gratuitous nudity. Then the episodes spends the entire show winking at that idea with its murder: Katherine Goodrich is found naked behind a church with only white, cotton gloves on, so naturally the first assumption is that this is a sex crime. Bayliss tries to raise the question with Goodrich’s former boss – who happens to be a nun – stumbles around the idea of Katherine’s sex life and is shocked when the sister says: “I think her life would have been better with more sex.” Then comes the big reveal at the end of the episode: Goodrich was not raped or violated in any form, reversing all the thinking they’ve had about the murder so far.

Then there’s the fact that Felton’s marriage, which has been a mess ever since we were introduced to him, has essentially fallen apart. We learn that Beau and Beth tried to recreate their first date, which included going to a motel room. (“She couldn’t resist me,” Beau points out. ) Felton then says that at the moment of truth, Howard beeped him, which apparently was the most recent spark that led to it falling apart. We finally meet Beth (played brilliantly by Mary B. Ward) in the final act and what happens involves the definition of her sending her husband mixed signals. We also know Felton is in the middle of having an affair – “My dad always said don’t jump ship without a life raft” – and who should it be but the brand new lead character, introduced based on the network’s demand for more women.

Nor is the only way the series is poking fun at itself. When Pembleton and Bolander are called in on the red ball, they comment on having to deal with the new shift and trying to deal with the fact that there’s someone else where they used to be. Perhaps this is a jab at the multiple times Homicide has had to switch time slots.

But all of this is lightness meant to cover a very dark subject as is Homicide’s stock in trade. Perhaps this was how Fontana decided to tweak the network heads demands for more sex, more life-affirming stories. He and Zamacona decide to take what will be the first multi-part story Homicide has ever done and deal with some very bleak and divisive subjects. The most significant turns out to be religion which network television went out of its way to avoid in 1994 and even now TV has a very mixed track record with. And rather than back away Fontana chooses to put it at the center of one of his leads, part of the process that officially makes Frank Pembleton the star of Homicide and Andre Braugher the great actor he is.

Goodrich is prominent because the previous week she was named Samaritan of the Year, for doing good work. It’s telling that Giardello views this initially with cynicism (“I read about it in my diary,” he tells Granger) and that she’s now become more important to the city now that she’s been killed. One wonders if Fontana and Zamacona are making a bigger comment on that old statement: “Where they have respect for the dead but none for the living.” It’s certainly true of the police department and indeed much of the city officials: they care far more about Goodrich now that she’s been horribly murdered then at any point when she was alive – and even that’s from what it will look like if they don’t solve the murder.

There’s nothing groundbreaking about this; it’s a message that Homicide’s made clear countless times before even at this point in its run. It’s the only way the detectives can function. And much of the three-parter is about trying to find the killer. But Homicide has always been less the kind of show that is about the puzzle as to how it reflects on the detectives. Which is why the key interactions very quickly become those between Pembleton and Sister Magdalena Weber, played by Pamela Payton-Wright.

There’s only a brief exchange between the two of them in this episode, at the morgue. Magdalena has come to identify the body but she tells Bayliss that it’s not Katherine. Bayliss thinks that it involves mistaken identity. Pembleton knows what it means: “The light is gone.” Magdalena says: “You were raised by the Jesuits.” Not long after that comes the exchange about Katherine’s promiscuity – and more importantly, that she never wore white cotton gloves. It’s clear that this is a mark of the killer.

Weber leaves to watch last rites be performed. Bayliss, usually the more sensitive is cynical about the presence of God. “Where was he for Katherine Goodrich…or Adena Watson?” Pembleton says that God exists because the murder is an example of evil. Bayliss argues about death. “Death is but a waystation towards heaven,” Pembleton says. “Something not to be feared.” Bayliss responds: “Well, that’s an answer. Do you believe it?”  “I wear a bulletproof vest, don’t I?” Pembleton acknowledges.

Pembleton is convinced this is a crime of perversion and the fact that she was dumped behind a church is clearly some kind of religious symbol. During the conversation Bayliss asks Pembleton was kind of Catholic he is. Pembleton says there are two kinds of Catholic “Devout and fallen. I fell.” He doesn’t elaborate, not yet, but it’s clear more is coming.

It’s not yet clear in the season premiere if the writers are willing to go all-in on Pembleton as star. This episode has a bigger job to do and that’s to introduce it’s new character: Megan Russert. Russert is the new shift commander, here to replace Jim Scinta who retired back in Season 1. She’s been on the job a week and the bosses send Gee to check up on her because she’s ‘inexperienced’. Gee knows better. Fontana makes it very blunt that everyone thinks the only way a woman could have made it to a position like this is because she slept her way to the top. This is stated directly by some of her own detectives, and the fact that they are more than willing to do it in front of Howard shows that they are immune to their own sexism. Howard sticks up for Russert, boasting her accomplishments, and its clear she admires Russert for what she’s done.  That respect, we will quickly see, is not reciprocated.

Russert will be considered by the devoted fans of Homicide as an ‘ill-conceived character’. Reading one of the more prominent books on the subject at the time, it’s clear to be how sexist that writing was. How could a woman rise to the top of her profession in Baltimore and not be a day over thirty five? That the writer is engaged in the same kind of sexism of the characters on the show very much shows their own blindness. Those are not the only ‘flaws’ they find in Russert, and some of them I’ll get to in just a few episodes.

The bigger problem with Russert is one the show would have repeatedly: how do you put a regular who isn’t a member of the squad in the action all the time? These flaws would become far more obvious by the time the third season is little more than half over. But neither is apparent in this episode. Indeed, throughout Hoffman’s steady, layered portrayal shows the kind of leader the Baltimore PD has in Giardello and indeed could use more often. We also see that there’s a distinct style.

Throughout the episode Roger Gaffney (Walt McPherson) and Pembleton are sniping at each other. Pembleton thinks Roger is dumb and Gaffney has been chafing at Frank’s second-guessing him all the time. All of this is par for the course but it takes on a separate context when Gaffney snaps: “Are you trying to tell me to how to do my job, boy?”

The scene that follows is one of the classics in the series. Without a word Frank begins to take off his coat and Gaffney starts to egg him on. Russert steps in to defuse the situation, and Pembleton demands an apology. Gaffney says: “Eat it” and Frank explodes. The two of them are tussling when Russert grabs Pembleton’s gun and offers it to Frank, then Roger. She tells them that if that’s what it’ll take go ahead and then the rest of us will get back to work. Silently Pembleton looks at Russert, takes his gun and puts it back in his holster. It’s not the kind of thing Gee would do but it’s just as effective.

And as this is unfolding the personal parts of Homicide begin to unfold: one of them in a storyline that will effectively take over much of Season 3; the other one that becomes an integral part of Homicide from now until the end of the series. The first is the apparent dissolution of Felton’s marriage. He was thrown out of the house a week ago, and Howard is only finding this out now. Beth Felton has been calling Kay non-stop demanding to know where her husband is. Beau seems to have realized his marriage is over – he left the house because he didn’t want his three kids see them fighting. Beth has been refusing to let him see them.

It's here we get our first glimpse of Beth when Beau comes back home to get his suit. Beth has had it dry-cleaned, apparently so she could cut it to ribbons when he shows up. Then after doing so, she begins to strip saying: “The shrink says I’ve begun to hate you.” Just as Beau comes near her she tells him to leave: “I’m going to take a nap.” Not long after that she continues to harass Howard and we hear Kay try to convince Beth that maybe should say she’s sorry for what she’s done. And Beth makes it very clear she’s not sorry. At this point it seems clear that Beth is at the very least erratic and possibly disturbed. Beau will spend much of the season worried about his kids and given Beth’s behavior, its hard to blame him.

The other story is that Munch and Lewis are in discussion to buy a bar: the Waterfront. They’re trying to get the previous owner to go down on prize because if she doesn’t they’ll need to get another partner and they don’t want that. Munch goes to see Bolander about it (naturally) and Bolander allows himself to be wooed for a free breakfast before he drops the hammer on John. “You ever see me go to Pimlico? You ever see me drop $2 in the World Series pool? So what makes you think I’d risk my pension on a bar with you?” Apart from everything else, Bolander probably doesn’t want to spent any more time with his partner off work then he does at work.

Bayliss ends up becoming the third man almost by accident. He hears the two of them talking and shut up, assumes they’re talking about him, even after they tell the truth and then decides to become a ‘silent partner’. This is done more for comedy then anything else; Bayliss is going to be anything but silent going forward.

In a sense it might seem like Nearer is ending by giving into pressure as the final moment shows Felton showing up at Russert’s doorstep and the two of them sinking into a passionate kiss. But in reality there’s not much difference between the opening of Season 3 and the Adena Watson murder. We’ve spent a lot of time investigating but no progress has been made, the press is starting to close in, the bosses are angry, and the episode ends with the detectives back at square one. Some of the pieces have changed but Homicide is still the same show.

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

Detective Munch: Munch tells Bolander and Lewis that someday soon “there’ll be 500 channels. Not just sports and the weather channel, but the ballet channel, the dog food channel. We won’t leave the house any more. We’ll communicate through email and QVC and virtual reality. All without having to leave your Sealy posture-pedic.”  He didn’t mention streaming but that’s a pretty good picture of entertainment today. And Bolander says: “I wish they’d bring back Hawaii Five-O.” Which they did twenty years later. He was also accurate about high definition television and the decline of books and newspapers.

First Appearance: Walt McPherson as Roger Gaffney. Technically McPherson appeared a couple of times in Season 1 as a uniform but Fontana made it very clear later on that the two characters were not the same. Is a coincidence that the man who will become the major antagonist for all the detectives has a name very similar to ‘gadfly’? Hmmm…

Hey, Isn’t That… Tony Todd had already appeared in his most famous role as Candyman when he guest starred as the very different and dapper Matt Rhodes on Homicide. Prior to that, he was best known for smaller roles in films such as Bird, Lean On Me and The Crow. Not long after this episode aired he would appear as Augustus Cole on The X-Files. He would also play the title character in Black Fox, a series of cowboy movies on TV and in every version of Star Trek. His most famous work was in horror, mostly in the Candyman and Final Destination franchises. His biggest role on television would be playing Juma, the leader of an African rebel faction on Day 7 of 24 and the voice of Zoon on The Flash. He died on November 6^th 2024.