Homicide Rewatch: Justice, Part 1

 

Written by David Rupel; story by Tom Fontana & Henry Bromell

Directed by Michael Radford

 

Perhaps the biggest sign that Homicide is moving away from so much of the theatrics that dominated the first half of Season 4 is its third and last two-part episode of Season 4.  Fire and Sniper were two hyper-focused, sensationalized red ball cases; Justice by contrast is a slower paced, less urgent story that tells a simple, narrative from beginning to end.

And more to the point the writers choose to basically leave Bayliss and Pembleton on the sidelines for the entire two-parter after having put them front and center for the overwhelmingly majority of Season 4. Bayliss  and Pembleton only has a few lines in this episode and the bulk of both episodes leave them almost entirely out of the investigations that followed.  It's a nice change for a series that even by now is becoming known best for 'The Frank Pembleton Show'  to make its final two parter focus so much on the underutilized supporting cast.

We see the show trying something different for the second time in the season. Earlier this year we saw Lewis get partnered up with Kellerman and the result has paid dividends for both actors. Now the show tries to do the same thing for Munch by partnering him was Russert.  Not only does this give a chance to highlight Richard Belzer by having him as a primary for a case rather than snark but it brings up another recurring gag that will also work well. It was established that Bolander barely tolerated Munch's approval and that Stan was constantly admonishing his partner for being a sloppy detective. This episode confirms just how much of a burden Munch can be on his partners and Russert is far less tolerant of Munch foibles that Bolander was, practically from day one.

In Russert's defense as she points out a month ago she was captain and now she's a detective. In Munch's defense – and its rare he has the high ground – in the case they're investigated he is the primary and if the name stays in red, it's on him. The bigger problem is the nature of the victim: Edgar Rodzinski  a former member of the Baltimore Police Department.

Edgar is found at the cemetery where his wife was buried and went there that to pay an early morning visit. On that fateful day he is found having been strangled by what looks to be a wire. Worse the victim is the father of Jake Rodzinski, a friend of Lewis's from the academy.

Much of what follows in both this episode and the second part had already been seen countless times before in so many other police films and I have little doubt even then Law & Order had done more than its share of versions of it. A veteran cop, beloved by the force is killed; his son also a cop is first devastated by the news and then swears vengeance; the detective runs an investigation independent of the investigators leading to his suspension, the killer is eventually caught but escapes penalty. And indeed you could argue Justice could have been done just as efficiently in a one hour episode considering what the second part involves in. But Homicide never does things the easy way and when it follows a familiar standard, the devil is always in the details.

For one thing none of the homicide detectives are particularly respectful of the murder of one of their own: Pembleton dismisses the idea that there is a cop heaven, Bayliss talks about the idea of cops moving to somewhere safe and Pembleton, usually respectful when it comes to the dead, makes a joke about how he prefers the idea of dying in Baltimore to living in peace in Idaho. Considering the solemnity they all went through when it came to the death of Crosetti and their dedication to bringing to justice the shooter of Chris Thormann, the dismissive nature of the death of a retired cop almost seems a little out of character. And indeed Giardello takes the rare step of admonishing them for their behavior. He makes it clear that while he never knew Rodzinski, the mere fact that he was a member of the Baltimore PD for thirty years should be enough for them to treat it with respect.

There's also the fact that of Lewis's friendship with Jake. He makes it clear that while they were friends once, that friendship has cooled over the years. He feels a loyalty to Jake out of friendship and the badge but he is not willing to bend the rules for him. He will make excuses for Jake's behavior, he will put ask questions of the investigating detectives, but his own history with the unit (of which the viewer is well aware of) has made him unwilling to stick his oar in. Indeed much of Lewis's job in this episode is acting as a buffer between Jake and Homicide as he tries to keep his friend from interfering and more importantly, keeping his job.

Now I need to mention who plays Jake because it’s a familiar face. Bruce Campbell. Even as this relatively early date his career Campbell was already well known for his over the top performances in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and he was already playing Autolycus in Hercules, a role he would carry over in Xena just a few months after this episode aired. His work is almost unheard of in his entire body of work during this period and indeed much of what was to follow. At no point does he do anything that could distract from his performance with his trademark antics. This is a completely and totally straight performance and it might surprise some who are used to the man who chants about his boom-stick.

But maybe it shouldn't be. Consider how much of his work for Sam Raimi before was of incredibly dark territory and how so much of his work no matter what genre he was in was that of something of the everyman who keeps getting involved in bizarre and improbable situations. It's not much of a stretch to go from there to a man who's father has been murdered, who knows very much how procedure works and how quickly a case can cold, who feels a need to act and do something and it leads him to do stupidly impulsively things. The difference is that Axe was always fighting the forces of evil and Jake chooses to abuse his badge, mislead the investigators and assault a man he thinks is guilty to the point of putting him in the hospital.  We completely relate to his actions even though instinctively we know he's digging himself a hole that keeps getting deeper.

To be fair, the case doesn't go well for a while. None has to do with the ineptitude of Munch or Russert as to the fact that this case starts out cold and there don't seem to be any real leads. The one lead that does seem promising is an interesting one as the detectives find themselves investigating someone who stabbed Edgar thirty years ago and who turns out to be the son of a woman Edgar was having an extramarital affair with. The man has been in and out of jail for years and he does run when they find him – but its because he thinks they're about to arrest him for another crime he is guilty of.  By that point they've been misled by Jake who has been chasing down another suspect.

As is typical with most cases it breaks because of dumb luck and police work. The dumb luck comes when the groundskeeper having been interviewed three times and didn't tell the detectives anything mentions that the day before his daughter's boyfriend an upstanding citizen named Kenny Damon tried to strangle him. When asked why he came back now, well, there's a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.  Not long after that they find the remains of the car in a Baltimore chop shop and find the murder weapon in the back seat. Lewis is there and he finds it.

The DNA evidence is found under Edgar's fingernails as well as prints on the car. All the evidence points to Damon. Damon's lawyer (Michael Willis's character shows up proving he represents all the scum in Baltimore) does everything he does in courtroom to make it clear what a great lawyer he is. (How did Damon afford his fees? Maybe he's Baltimore's Saul Goodman.)

The reason this episode is titled Justice is very much because of how it plays out. At this juncture in TV history the courtroom drama was playing a different way than it usually did on Law and Order. We rarely see Homicide in the courtroom and there are two reasons. The first is that was the detectives arrest the killer; their job is done. Rodzinski's name has gone up in black, We rarely see the detectives in court: the main reason Russert and Munch are here after the trial goes to verdict is that Rodzinski was a cop. The other reason is because of two rules that are in Simon's book that are about to play out:

The better the case the worse the jury.

A good man is hard to find, but twelve of them, gathered together in one place, is a miracle.

And when you put this together with the rule we've already seen play out a few episodes earlier: "To a jury, any doubt is reasonable,' the detectives have every reason to fear how this will come.

We see the cops with Jake and his wife in the halls of the jury. Three hours in, they ask for the difference between first and second degree murder. That is almost always a case that the jury had decided the defendant is guilty and they need to pass sentence. The defense knows this and asks for a plea to second degree murder of 25 years, up for parole in 10. Jake rejects the idea saying it's not enough.

Two hours later the journey comes in and their verdict is shocking: Not Guilty. Everyone is stunned by this and Jake and Lewis actually confront one of the jurors in the hall and ask what happened. And we get a sense that we never due in any procedural of how the justice system really works.

One man had made up his mind about Damon's innocence from the start. Only two other jurors were convinced of the guilt: the other nine didn't really care one way or the other. They voted eleven separate times and finally the juror was exhausted and reveals the sad, bitter truth: the case that every detective and the family cared so much about was an inconvenience for the jurors. At the end of the day, they all just wanted to go home for the weekend and this was the easiest way to do it.

Campbell's performance is incredible throughout but looking at him as he hears this he is a state of pure shock. He is used to the idea of jurors acquitting on a technicality, he doesn't like it any more than Munch did a few weeks back, but he can accept it: there are rules and you have to play by them. Here they did everything right, everything right and no one cared. We are used to the idea of the justice system being biased to unjustly affect certain defendants, this episode actually argues the flip side of the coin. How many people are convicted or acquitted just out of sheer indifference? Perhaps the real problem with the justice system isn't so much that its blind but no one wants to come and pay attention to it at all, maybe the people who are supposed to try cases care even less about the outcome than the ones whose job it is to present cases. 

The story could just as easily end with the final scene of a cocky Damon walking out of lockup and Jake warning the man who has gotten away with murder to 'Sleep with one eye open.' In that sense the conclusion will in a sense seem anticlimactic because we seem to know from this what's going to happen next. But Homicide hasn't played by the rules in its more cinematic two-parters and its not going to do so now.

The episode works as much because of the performances of regulars who haven't gotten much to do. We see Hoffman as a fierce investigator who is determined to bring justice and has no patience for her partner antics. We see Belzer trying his hardest to be a good partner, his very real frustration at his new partner's willingness to engage and a determination to bring about the right outcome.  And at the core there's a sweet scene  at the end of the episode where Russert unburdens herself and mourns the loss of her husband again and Munch just listens. It's not the kind of scene that Munch would get with his old partner and its unfortunate that circumstances would not keep the two together beyond this season.

We also get a chance to see another side of Lewis, who as we saw in the last episode rarely reveals his past to those around him. It's fitting that his decision to do so comes when Kellerman is out of town on a family wedding: you think he feels freer to do so under these circumstances. Johnson gets a chance to show layers that he really doesn't outside of dealing with the death of Crosetti and its refreshing as well.

Justice Part One moves at a pace far too fast for real life and in an episodic turn, a little too slow. As we'll see in the conclusion, the overall effect is just right. (Though I wouldn't get too attached to that dog.)

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

By the Book: The events involving how the jurors deliberated and how they chose to reach a verdict are in fact taken from Simon's book. In this case Simon has used the story that involves the deliberation and process that involved the shooter of the man who blinded the character who became the inspiration for Chris Thormann (Season 1). That case had a happier result in part because they took a pea for 50 years, eligible in 20.  The writers here show the other side of the coin, where it obviously has better dramatic effect.

"Detective Munch" : His first conversation with Russert in which he tries to tell her how the old pattern worked and how he told stories. In this case he tells  a story of how he had sex in a cemetery in 1963 in the back seat of his father's car. He tells Russert its her turn to go. Obviously she wants to focus on the case.

Hey Isn't That… For the purposes of this site I will concentrate on Bruce Campbell's television work, which is honestly more impressive then his film work. Prior to this Campbell had starred in the title role on one of most beloved cult series of all time The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.  He'd already begun his work on Hercules and Xena and when both series came to an end he took the title role of Jack Stiles in Jack of All Trades the rare high quality syndicated series. While working in Tv Movies and doing voice work, he would enter the world of prestige TV as Sam Axe in the USA classic drama Burn Notice. He took the role of Ronald Reagan (yes really) in Season 2 of Fargo) before returning to his iconic role in the even more beloved Starz TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which ran three seasons before it was finally cancelled. He last played chief Ben Dandrige in the Peacock satire Hysteria!.

Of course Campbell's also done his share of voiceover work in animation in numerous TV and film series, including King Edmund in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, The Last Kids on Earth and no surprise Invincible.

There was also a celebrity in the directors chair. Michael Radford had directed the film version of 1984 and had just been nominated for an Oscar for directing Il Postino. The rest of his film list is mixed: from Dancing at the Blue Iguana to The Merchant of Venice (2004) with Al Pacino. He was also a documentary filmmaker known for Michel Petucciani, the late French jazz pianist. This was his only foray into series TV.