Homicide Life On The Street Rewatch: Stakeout

 

Written by Noel Behn; story by Tom Fontana & Noel Behn

Directed by John McNaughton

 

From the moment I saw this episode nearly thirty years ago (boy does that make me feel old) Stakeout has been one of my favorite episodes of Homicide. It never makes the list of all-time greats or fan favorites but that's part of its charm. And now that I'm watching it having become a quasi-expert on TV I love it for reasons beyond its caliber for television.

In the years since Homicide debuted TV has become laser-focused on procedurals about hunting serial killers. It began during the fall of 1996 (not long after this episode aired) with programs such as Millennium and Profiler and began to increase in popularity with series' like Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Minds as well as the increased popularity of true crime. By the mid-2000s Dexter had made us root for serial killers and by the next decade we were getting limited series were Ryan Murphy made serial killers the center of his shows, first with the Assassination of Gianni Versace and then with his Monster series on Netflix. As I speak Dexter has just sparked its most recent sequel on Showtime, Criminal Minds is in the second or third season of its streaming reboot and Peacock just did a series on John Wayne Gacy.

Now consider the killer at the center of this episode Robert Pacassik. By sheer body count he is the greatest killer the detectives on Homicide will ever track down: they find ten bodies in a burial ground and its possible there are more. We are told he molested and killing teenagers and has done so for years under the nose of the Baltimore Police. In  a future series teams would be called into track him down and the hunt would have taken weeks if not months of effort.

At the start of the episode the unit has arrested a man for possession and robbery and this individual chooses to confess to being an accomplice in disposing of these bodies and collecting trophies from them. He gives us Pacassik's name without a thought as well as his home address. The killer isn't at home so Giardello sets up surveillance on that same home from next door. The detectives take turns waiting for him to return and when he does, he's grabbed without any resistance and not even a second thought. During this period we spend the entire time with the detectives and the nature of the killer and what he's done is barely even discussed during the stakeout. When this case comes to trial it will no doubt be a media sensation with books being written about it, trying to get inside the mind of the killer. Fontana and Behn choose instead choose to spend the entire episode talking about the detectives themselves and not even really talking about the case.

'Stakeout' goes against all the rules of how future dramas will deal with serial killers going forward but is very much in keeping with how Homicide has dealt with it to this point and will in the future. To the public and the media it's important to understand every detail of why these killers do what they do. To Bayliss the answer is simple: "Crime makes you stupid." It's not like this case doesn't disgust some of the detectives – Gee himself is bothered immensely by it- but at the end of the day, it's just another group of names they're trying to change from red to black. Despite the fact that I like many of the shows based on serial killers there's a part of me that really wishes television had just taken the approach to them that Homicide did. (As if keeping with how unimportant this man is to the detectives, the actor who plays Pacassik  has no dialogue and isn't even given an on screen credit.)

The entire episode basically is a variation on a play format, something that Homicide did a couple of times in previous seasons and will do so again later on. In this case the primary setting is the household of George & Cathy Buxton, the home next to the killer. George has been fired from his company (a victim of the recession) and his wife Cathy is the primary breadwinner. (And yes both of them are played by actors who will become intimately familiar to viewers in the next decade. See Hey Isn't That…) We are reminded of the passage of time in a way we rarely are on Homicide. The show begins with a cut to an analog clock and we cut back to it at three hour intervals. The episode takes place over a 24 hour period.

But to be clear the comparison we see is nowhere near the world we will see Jack Bauer deal with in a few years. The majority of the tension of the episode is domestic and its with two characters we'll never see again. Indeed David Kalat's description of what happens pretty much explains what's going on better than I could:

During the course of the twenty-four hour stakeout, the Buxton's quarrel, break up, get together again, make love, and go back to normal. As they go about their lives, they find that each time one of them ventures into the living room there is a change in the detective watching  the home, presenting them with a new person they haven't met. Thus, the Buxton's try to bridge the gap by reciting the highlights of recent events to the newly arrived detectives to fill them in on what they've missed.

This set up (and the episode itself) are a metaphor for watching television. As Homicide grew from a cult show to its newest incarnation with a rapidly growing base, there were suddenly hoards of new viewers who missed out on past events…Just as the Buxton's take it upon themselves to fill in their guests on the highlights of their lives, the cast of Homicide take the opportunity to remind the viewers at home the important moments of their lives."

That may be a large part of the reason watching this episode for the first time it became a quick favorite as I was one of those viewers.  And in all the years since I started watching Peak TV its astonishing how so few shows have ever done nearly as good a job since. Network dramas in the 2000s would frequently do individual episodes each season to catch the audience up (Lost and Grey's Anatomy did a lot of that) and with the era of streaming and binge-watching those kinds of episodes may no longer be relevant to the era. But there's no point watching 'Stakeout' that even someone who had watched the entire series before (as I now have multiple times) feels like this is some kind of stopgap episode or filler.  And that's because Stakeout goes to great detail to make sure that for none of the character who are recounting their backstories does it ever seem like they are going through the motions.

I don't think this could have worked with a show that didn't have such a long institutional memory as Homicide did. Even now, it's something that some of the best shows on television don't do as much as they should.  It was hard to tell with HBO's later dramas how much the past affected the majority of the characters (with the exception of Six Feet Under) and it could be difficult to tell with Mad Men which was about reinvention as much as anything or for some of the characters on Breaking Bad. (Better Call Saul did a much better job with it both for its characters from the flagship series and the new ones.) Shows like Buffy and Lost managed to show the characters pain very well over the course of time and in This is Us we were always given a picture of how much the past mattered to every member of the Pearson clan.

But as procedurals became far more about the killers and less about the characters on network television these things became increasingly rare. Homicide was an outlier when it was on the air and it still is now in that regard. And that's because while this episode is very much about Bayliss and Pembleton, it also puts them more at the background than usual.

At the center of the episode is Bayliss's thinking about leaving the unit. He mentions it to Howard at the start of the episode and it passes each time they shift detectives though its not always mentioned directly and it effects some detectives more than others. And we get the reason what this is about almost from the start.

Once again Adena Watson comes up but this time it has a real bite. Risley Tucker, the Araber who Bayliss always suspected of killing her, has died in his bed. Bayliss must now face the reality that he will never be able to close the murder of Adena Watson, that her death will never be avenged. (As we shall see that Bayliss will spend a lot of time denying that.)

Talking to Howard about seeing Adena's face in the rain he gets to the core of why this bothers him and its here Secor registers as always.

"I try not to care," he whispers. "I can't not care, because if I actually do stop caring, then I just stop being who I am. No job's worth that." We actually see tears in his eyes.

And its clear that so much of this is about his frustration with his partnership with Frank. Returning from the stakeout Frank, in his usual curt manner, asks Tim to match dental records of missing teens with the John Does at the morgue. Tim balks and says that Frank never says please of thank you. With a mix of exasperation and comic timing Frank responds: "Please don't be an idiot. Thank you." Bayliss tells Frank that he doesn't have to do this job he has other options. Frank gets more exasperated and basically tells him to either go ahead or the morgue but stop wasting my time: "All you ever do is keep repeating yourself over and over again."

Immediately and deliberately we cut back to the Buxton home where George and Cathy are fighting: "You keep repeating yourself over and over again," George says just as he's about to storm out of the house. If you'd only started watching the show you get the feeling who Bayliss and Pembleton are: their partnership is a marriage and it’s a stormy one.

Each time the detectives switch we get a little more insight into each of them. Russert finds herself irked that people keep unburdening herself to her. (Cathy Buxton has just done so to her) and she's still reeling from her double demotion. Lewis is upset to hear Bayliss is thinking of leaving the unit and he's kind of upset that a man he's partners in a bar with hasn't confided in him.

Then he gets to the core of the issue: "And Crosetti. I had no idea that Crosetti was going to kill himself. My own partner and I had no idea he's in that kind of pain. Why didn't he come to me?" We're reminded of why Lewis has so much trouble opening up to Kellerman.

A couple of sequences later Kellerman begins to bare his soul mainly after Munch treats him harshly. "You don't have a high opinion of me?" "I have no opinion of you whatsoever," Munch says. "You have yet to appear on my radar." They are interrupted when a very drunk George stumbles in and they wait until he goes upstairs. Kellerman gets back to it. "I try not to form attachments," Munch says. "When I do they tend to get suspended or throw China at me." Kellerman says its not easy being the new guy and that no one goes out of his way to make him feel welcome. Munch says he only has to take it until the next new guy comes along. (That will be a while.) Then he tells him Bayliss was just starting to get a hang of it before Kellerman came along. "And now he's leaving," Mike says matter of factly. Munch tries to shrug it off and there's the distraction of the Buxton's noisily 'apologizing'

Then Giardello comes to spell him (I'll get to that) and Munch reveals his human side. He asks Giardello directly if Bayliss is thinking of quitting and Al reveals this is the first he heard of it.  Munch tells us that detectives have been dropping like flies and mentions Crosetti, Bolander and Felton. Gee tries to assure Munch that Bolander and Felton will be back from suspension. (Not knowing TV well enough at the time I wasn't sure I bought this.)

Here Munch gets to the heart of the issue. The Waterfront seems to be doing well but he's worried that if Bayliss transfers or quits the department it will hurt the bar. And then he finally tells us just how much Bolander's departure has hurt him as he tells Gee not only has he not talked Stan since he was suspended Bolander hasn't reached out to him. "I call. All I get his voice on the answering machine. I feel like Mrs. Buxton." For the first time since Stan's suspension we see just much the Big Man's departure has hurt Munch emotionally and it’s a rare moment of openness for Belzer.

Pembleton has spent the day dealing with the recovery of the bodies, trying to track down Pacassik and dealing with new information. Finally he shows up at the Buxton household. Al is annoyed as Frank's smoking. (This gives Frank a chance to remind us that Bayliss and Howard have quit the habit.) And its here we get to a larger point.

Al was about to fly to San Francisco for his daughter Charisse's wedding (we heard about it in Thrill of the Kill). It's a chance for him to be with his three children for the first time since their mother died as well as countless friends and family. But when he hears of the possibility of the case he cancels his first flight and plans to take one at noon. Yet for all his talking about it, he shows up at the stakeout at six AM when he doesn't have to. Frank tells Al that he's being testy and he thinks its about him missing his daughter's wedding. It's not. Al is actually angry with Charisse for marrying someone without asking permission or his blessing. Charisse is clearly his favorite daughter and he's clearly dealing with the fact that because of the job they've grown so far apart. However he chooses to take it out on her. "Parenting is a pain in the ass. It is a pain in the heart!"

For once Frank actually is open and talks about what he thinks parenting is and what his choices are. He tries to give permission to his boss to let himself off the hook and just leave. Al doesn't do so directly – he mumbles about Bayliss being here soon – but when he leaves he actually hugs Frank.

But tellingly by the time he gets there his flight to California has been delayed and he has to make alternate plans. He's about to call but he goes to a pay phone and then puts the phone down. We see him walking around the airport and there's no indication whether he ever goes to the wedding. Is It a metaphor as some of written as to how while California offers hope these characters prefer Baltimore? Or is a sign of Gee's inability to change. We never find out.

Finally the episode gets back to Bayliss and Pembleton where it should. Bayliss talks about Baltimore having a banner year and Frank turns it on him by saying he's practically taking a security job in LA. The two go back and forth on the two cities before Bayliss gets to the core of it. He doesn't feel like he belongs here. He doesn't feel the unit is accepting, because Frank never invited him to dinner at his house. Frank's reaction is very telling: "I spend all day with you and some nights. Is it really too much to think I might want to spend it with my wife?" Bayliss says that this is an elite unit but it is not a family.

And then Frank brings it home. "Yes we are. But we're like a real family. Opinionated. Holding grudges. Challenging each other. Troubled relationship. We are the elite. We speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. There is no higher calling."

Two things happen. Tim mouths those last words. Then Pacassik shows up and they lock him up. At the end of the episode Frank asks Tim, "Still thinking about quitting." Bayliss looks at his board and the only open case. "Not until I solve the Lambert case." Then he walks off. Frank says nothing but a small smile appears.

Just another day at the office.

 

 

Notes From The Board

"Crime makes you stupid" was one of the first things Frank told Bayliss when they were partnering in Gone for Goode.

 

"Detective Munch" In one of his rare moments of wit in this episode when Kellerman asks how often do you hear of women murdering and torturing teenage girls, Munch says: "Not unless there's a gingerbread house involved." When Kellerman asks why men are so aggressive, Munch then tells the story of a study at John Hopkins where male mice compared to female lack a certain gene that causes them to be more aggressive to the point of murder. "And their sexual appetite increased…And they prefer Velveeta.

Incidentally in what is a preview of the future Munch tells Kellerman that he has no opinion of him yet. This is their first interaction as a unit and may well be a test case for what will lead to their eventual partnership in Season Six.

Foreshadowing?  When he stumbles home drunk George says that in New Orleans the bars stay open all night. When George asks what it's like being divorced Munch says: "It's a lot like…New Orleans." In 2010 David Simon would create Treme and among in its cast members would be Homicide veterans Melissa Leo and Jon Seda.

Its Baltimore: Bayliss mentions some of the great things that have happened including the Pope's visit and Cal Ripken. "That's last year." "The Browns!" "Bayliss says. "Baltimore's getting an NFL team." Frank: "The Browns belong in Cleveland. The Colts belong in Baltimore! Teams should stay in the city where they were founded. (Expect to hear more about the Ravens in the coming season.)

Hey, Isn't That... Credited as Jim True in this episode, Jim True-Frost was making one of his first TV appearances. After appearing in Affliction late in 1997, he would be cast in his break out role as Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski, the screwup detective who becomes a critical part of the first task force then a teacher on The Wire during its first four seasons. Appearing in all three Law and Order franchises, he would later be cast as the recurring role of James Woodrow on Treme, appear as Logan in the series Hostages, Ron Ballard on American Odyssey, Max Perkins in the Christina Ricci series on Zelda Fitzgerald Z, Pete Novick on the first season of American Rust and Rector Dave Hynes on Manifest.

Kate Walsh (and yes she was a blonde originally) is making her first television appearance here. She had small roles in one and done series such as Norm, the 2000 remake of The Fugitive, the character of Nikki on The Drew Carey show and Carol on The Mind of the Married Man. But of course she didn't break into the public consciousness until she walked onto the set of Seattle Grace and told Meredith Grey: "My name is Addison Shepherd and you are the bitch who's been screwing my husband." The rest was history.

After spending two seasons on Grey's Anatomy she became the star of the first ever spinoff Private Practice and stayed on it until the series ended. She didn't exactly slow down after it came to an end in 2013. She then played Gina Hess on Season 1 of Fargo and got cast in the failed comedy Bad Judge. Undaunted she took on the role of Olivia Baker in the controversial Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and stayed in it for three seasons. She played Madeline in the first two seasons of Emily In Paris, then returned to her flagship show in 2022.. She also played The Handler in all Four seasons of The Umbrella Academy.

By the way the Lambert case. Bayliss will still be trying to solve it by the end of the year. We're actually going to deal with it later on and I think there might be an in-joke or self-sabotage involved. (See White Lies.)