Homicide Rewatch: Sniper, Part 1

 

Written by Jean Ginnis & Phyllis Murphy ; story by Henry Bromell & Tom Fontana

Directed by Jean De Segonzac

 

I can't tell you why on January 5^th 1996 I chose to change the channel from The X-Files which I'd been watching on Friday nights for the last few months and look at Homicide. It might very well have been due to the fact that Picket Fences, which I'd been religiously watching for the last two years at that spot wasn't on Channel 2 that night and I ended up on Channel 4 by chance.

I also no longer can recall if I'd watched Homicide even by accident before this point. I have vague memories of seeing 'Crosetti' and other parts of the show before this point; I may even have seen parts of the pilot. What I know for certain is that this is the first episode I watched pretty much from beginning to end.

In the official guide to the series writer David P. Kalat tells the story as part of 'the predictable crisis series. A serial killer is murdering innocent people, the victims having no connection to each other or the killer, and the killer follows a regular pattern of striking again and again'. Anyone who's familiar with basically any procedural on network television during the 21^st century and quite a few cable and streaming dramas now know that these kinds of shows are not only the biggest kinds of draws but often critically acclaimed as well. Kalat's attitude strikes a bit of pretentiousness which, given the nature of how Homicide was before this season, is at least somewhat understandable.

In the conclusion he actually calls the plot where eventually fourteen people are murdered by a sniper  over forty-eight hours as 'unrealistic'. Considering that mass shootings are so much of the daily grind of American life (they were becoming more frequently even while Homicide was ended its run in 1999) you almost find yourself yearning for the days we thought these kinds of mass shootings as 'unrealistic'.  I won't get into commentary but I almost yearn for the days when one of these kinds of events only killed nine people. These days the only part that doesn't seem realistic, sadly, is that the killer chose to spread his murders out in such a timely fashion.

What I find the most interesting thing about 'Sniper' in hindsight (there are many which I'll get into) is that not once in this episode or the next one do any of the writers have anything to say about guns as a factor. Any procedural worth its salt would not only have the detectives mentioned in but getting into a lively debate on the subject of it, possibly even coming to blows.  But that's the difference between Homicide and every other show on television then or now. Homicide could be a political show when it wanted to be but it never lectured about it. The only political aspect, really, is Meldrick's discussion about race after the second set of shootings and even then he doesn't dwell on it for more than a few seconds.  This is fitting with Homicide's general approach to solving murders which they constantly restate. They want the who, what and how: why is irrelevant. And in this particular case it may not even make sense to the shooter himself.

Politics are in play in this episode but as is always the case with Homicide the bosses are there. Looking at this from the perspective of the first time viewer as I was I would have known of the details of the dynamics of Bonfather, why Russert was captain and the whole issue between the unit and the brass. But I remember my first impression of Clayton LeBouf as Bonfather in this episode: I thought he was evil incarnate.

Even with the passage of time and multiple rewatches of the series I really don't think I've ever loathed Bonfather more than any other time then watching this episode. We've known that he cares for more about his own ambitions and how the city looks rather than the pressure on the detectives (by which how it reflects on him); we know even on his best day he is a millstone around Giardello's neck and that he has done everything to keep his men protected from him. But it's hard to see him being any more despicable or tone deaf then he is in the first part of this episode.

What's all the more amazing is that none of his behavior is that different from his attitude in any other of his appearance, and even when it comes to red balls. The bodies that fall aren't even photos or names on the board; their numbers that will affect the units clearance rate and his standing politically. But in the context of so many media circuses that have unfolded on what is sadly becoming a near daily occurrence Bonfather's behavior is incredibly cruel. We see it at the press conference that Russert calls and where he cares less about the family of the victim then the fact he made the Baltimore PD look uncaring and cold. (Where would they get that idea?) We see it when he doesn't seem to care about posting units at a school where the next shooter might show up. We see it when he berates Megan Russert for spending time talking to the families of the victims when she should be supervising the case. That there's nothing she can do until evidence shows up is irrelevant to Bonfather. And of course there's that final scene in his office when he seems to have absolutely no problem throwing Russert under the bus for what he views is incompetence. It's more than obvious she's just a sacrificial lamb for what he considers a screw-up and just as likely that he doesn't want to deal with someone who has made it clear she has the units interest at heart instead of his own. (I'll get to the rest of it later.)

Watching this episode again as I have countless times since I saw it, I found myself wondering what in particular made me want to come back next week. (Besides, you know the cliffhanger.) I think that what drew me in was the power of the work of Kyle Secor and Isabella Hoffman, who are front and center in this episode more than any other characters.

To be sure Andre Braugher does make a hell of an impression, even though he's secondary in this episode. He knows that this has to do with hangman, he's the one who's trying to figure out what the correlation is between the game and why the sniper is killing the way he is. But for once Pembleton's gifts of trying to get inside the killer's mind are almost meaningless to the killer himself. There's no correlation between any of the victims and the guesses, nothing between the hangman and the victim, nothing between the letters involved. The only thing that connects is that the sniper is killing at eight hour intervals exactly, something that only comes clear after the third killing.

Indeed there's no single bit of police work any of the detectives do that allows them to figure out who Mariner is. They find out the letters were drawn by a brand of chalk that is specialty made; they get receipts of every one who bought it in the last year and ask their handwriting expert to compare the letters in the game to the signature of the receipt. (Also a good joke the two men's exchange:

Bayliss: "I don't mean to scare you Andy, but you're are only hope.

Expert: "That scares me."

But the expert manages to figure out that the sniper is William Mariner and I suspect it is that scene in the Mariner home that made me a fan of the series. Elizabeth Mariner is knocking on her husband's door, who doesn't answer. She goes to make breakfast for her children and the phone rings. It's Bayliss who tells her to come to the door and let the police in. The wife is stunned. (This was the first time I ever saw Carolyn McCormick in anything; those of you who only know her for her work in Law & Order would be stunned by it.)

When the police haul her out she doesn't believe her husband's guilty. She tells him he doesn't sleep, he doesn't eat, he doesn't even drink. "Drinking I could live with," she says. "All he says is that he needs to finish the game." Bayliss goes into the Mariner home with QRT, though he's trying to get him out alive.

The scene with Mariner will give any sane person nightmares. The entire room is covered with games of hangman everywhere and Mariner's holding a piece of chalk. He tells Bayliss he needs to finish the game and then he can stop. He says he just needs one more letter. Bayliss guesses 'M'. Mariner says he has one. He says he won't come out until Bayliss guesses 'the right letter'. Bayliss just says 'B' at random 'B'.

Very delicately Mariner writes it in. "I did it. I finished the game. Now I can stop." We hear the clocks start to ring, we see him put the chalk down, pick up the rifle at the table. Bayliss says: "Mr. Mariner!" BANG!

And what word has he written? "EROMITLAB". It's not even a real word. Frank says: "He finished the game." And they all puzzle over it. The director shows us – but critically the detectives never learn it – that EROMITLAB is BALTIMORE backwards.

Bayliss has spent the entire episode dealing with his back struggles that he's had all season, dosing himself on muscle relaxants, decided whether to have surgery or physical therapy. At the end of the episode he gives his pills to Munch (who has been asking for them) and says he will just suffer in silence.

I didn't know anything about Bayliss's backstory going into this episode but I think the scene where he talks to Frank really tells you who he is. An ordinary man with a wife and three kids gets obsessed with a game of hangman, kills 9 people and blows his brains out while he's talking to Tim. "He finished the game. I don't even know what that means." And then he goes home with Frank to sleep.

There's a lesson here if we the viewer had chosen to look at it. We spend so much time and energy trying to figure why these kinds of shootings take place, trying to get in the heads of serial killers. Mariner's not the typical one, considering he uses a gun instead of the kinds of methods we've seen on the show before and will again, but it no doubt doesn't matter to people like Keisha Farrell's father. Looking at Mariner's study in the aftermath I'm reminding of a punchline by Chris Rock about this: "Whatever happened to crazy?"

That's the thing about Homicide. The detectives only care about the why if it helps them catch it. The bosses only care depending on how it makes the department look. The families of the victims just want justice for the dead. And the victims don't care at all. The only people who it matters to is the media (we'll see the larger effects of that in the next episode) and honestly I doubt any of this mattered to them. That Mariner just went insane over a game of Hangman is not really that interesting to them. They're no doubt glad he's dead; living he'd disappoint them.

Now I have to say I am of two minds of Isabella Hoffman's work in this episode. I think it is one of her best performances in the two seasons she was on the show: you get to see every side of her, the efficient boss, the caring mother, the career woman who doesn't know why she took this job. (The scene where she and Bayliss discuss why the sniper is doing what he's doing is a highpoint for both actors in Season 4.) And the scene between her and Bonfather where he hands her out to dry and she tells him what she thinks of is satisfying. But that's from the perspective of the first time observer. That she is demoted from Captain to Detective in less than five minutes time really does seem like an act of desperation on the part of Fontana. In a sense the writers are acknowledging something that will essentially take them until the end of the series to learn: if the leads aren't detectives, the writers don't know how to acclimate them into the show. (This is just as true with Brodie, who's only purpose in this episode really seems to be to annoy the detectives. Sadly the writers will never really get past this.)

And few moments are more exceptional then the final scene, which to be clear you need the DVD to appreciate. Streaming omits the music involved and you really need  to hear Joan Osborn's 'One of Us' to get the effect. We see Bayliss and Russert going home after a long and endless shift the killer caught. But in the middle of this are scenes of  another sniper getting into position in a clock tower with a rifle. We see Russert collapsing on her bed, turning on the news – and the first thing she hears is that the sniper has struck again.

Which brings me to my theory as to why the writers had William Mariner lose his mine trying to 'finish the game'.  What word did he spend all his time trying to figure out? Baltimore. And as we've just seen in this episode and really all of Homicide Baltimore drives everybody crazy.

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

First Appearance of: This is the first official appearance of Granville Adams and Jay Spadaro as the beat cops who will be at so many crime scenes in the future. Adams in particular would be a favorite of Fontana's; in OZ he would take the role of Arif, one of the black Muslims and Kareem Said's most devoted follower.

Bayliss tells Munch that the doctor who looks after his back is Dr. Erlich. This is a clear reference to Victor Erlich who was one of the regulars on St. Elsewhere Fontana's previous show. He was played for six seasons by Ed Begley Jr and his official link to Homicide will be made clear after the series is over.

 

Bartender Munch: In what will be one of the last pure teasers of Homicide Munch is tending bar at the Waterfront when Jay Leno comes in. Munch instantly recognizes him and tells Bayliss. When Bayliss shows up Munch tells him that we should ignore him because celebrities don't like to be recognized. Neither detective even makes eye contact. The always gregarious Leno talks to them and tries to engage but neither detective mentions it. As he leaves he says: "I can't understand why this place is empty.

The incident, according to Fontana, was actually an in-joke as to how Baltimore treats local celebrities from the cast. Fontana said Baltimore goes out of its way to ignore them and other cast members reported that the locals make a point of refusing to be starstruck. Circumstances would change when HBO both The Corner and The Wire were adapted and Baltimore cops and even drug dealers would be thrilled to be part of the scene.

Yet again Kellerman says to Lewis that he and Howard are in love and they should start picking out China patterns. Lewis doesn't react to this, perhaps because he knows something he's not sharing with Kellerman – and that the audience won't find out until the end of the season.

Hey, Isn't That…Carlolyn McCormick is best known to audiences for her recurring role as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, the court psychiatrist who had a recurring role on Law & Order officially between Season 2 and Season 7 and then made recurring appearance from Season 10 onward.  Prior to that she'd appeared as ADA Rita Fiore on the TV Series Spenser: For Hire and would later play Judith Fitzgerald on the American adaptation of Cracker. In addition to having appeared in every Law and Order franchise, she has had small roles in The Post, Nights in Rodanthe, Whatever Works and most recently Nyad.

This episode begins in January of 1996 when the board is completely empty the first time in the show's history we've seen it that way. Homicide will also show us the board at the very end of 1996, the only time it will do so in the entire run.