Homicide Rewatch: Hostage, Part 2

 

Written by Julie Martin story by James Yoshimura & Tom Fontana

Directed by Jean De Segonzac

 

I should begin  by quoting Kalat's book in regards to the episode:

"While, once again the real-life Baltimore (a place where most of the killings are drug-related) has been transformed into a place where lunatics kill six people in a single day, the structure of the story seems more basic than usual."

Looking back on it with the aftermath of thirty years I can only say sincerely how much I wish there were days when lunatics kill only six people in a single day, particularly in a school shooting. It's sadly impossible to remember an era when these kinds of shootings were not a weekly occurrence in American life.

What is realistic and keeping with Homicide's attitude is that there is no grandstanding or politicking by any of the detectives at the scene or later. They are weighed down by the tragedy of it all to be sure (the last death in particular is shattering for Kellerman) but there's no dialogue about guns or psychology at any point. Everyone wants to bring this situation to an end, one way or the other.

And Homicide continues its trends of making serial killers utterly uninteresting and unworthy of admiration. I find this particularly striking considering all of the time that has spent trying to figure out in the aftermath of so many shootings – the overwhelming majority of which end with the shooter themselves dead – for the root cause. What was the reason they did? Was it because of abuse? Was it the availability of guns? Their childhood? The internet? TV and video games? Why do so many people try to kill each other? And because the killer is dead, we can fill in the blanks besides our politics.

Well this time the shooter lives (despite his best efforts) and Bayliss gets a chance to interrogate him and ask why. And the answer we get is he just wanted to kill himself. It could have been a shopping mall or a park or anywhere else. He just wanted to kill himself and he did a spectacularly bad job at it.  There's no great motive: he's just a loser with no axe to grind.   When Giardello asks if Uba had anything to say Bayliss says: "He's just another in a long-line of babbling, pig-loving fruitcakes." Why can't we just let that be said at every mass shooting and let that be the end of it?

Once again I can't help but think that Homicide had the best answer to our societal fixation on why these things happen and its no different than what Pembleton himself. "One time I'd like a murder to make sense. One time for any reason." If we could just accept that and stop trying to dissect everything we'd probably be better off as a society. If we stopped fixating on it in our entertainment, we'd probably be better off too.

Just as telling is that Homicide has far less use for the killer and cares far more about the horrors he unfolds. When Bayliss is at the hospital waiting to interrogate Jerry Uba Darcy Cole is across the way and he spends time talking to her father who can't work up the courage to go inside. When Cole succumbs to her injury we see her father run to Uba's hospital room only to be intercepted by Bayliss who holds the man and shows compassion in a way he wouldn't show to the killer.

And one of the last scenes comes when Lewis and Kellerman come to talk to Mrs. Di Grazi whose history class was held hostage. In a small but powerful monologue she tells us of how excited she was to come to work, how normal a day was. She was here when the school was opened, she loves teaching and this incident has shattered her that she will never return to the job or the school she loves.

Much of the second part of 'Hostage' is about helplessness in the face of events and the anger we feel in the inability to control the. Giardello spends the first half of the episode shouting at Bonfather, Jaspers and City Hall to listen to him because he can't control what the shooter's going to do. The detectives on the scene are still standing around feeling useless and nervous because they can't start their job until the situation's resolved – and they know that it's almost certainly going to end with more dead children. Once the shooter is in the hospital Giardello demands that he be questioned whether "he's conscious or not" because he needs to know why and he wants to get him arraigned and on his way to prison or the death penalty. He needs to feel like he's doing something to make up for his powerlessness.

Pembleton feels just as hopeless at home as he did at the office. He can't make love to his wife because of the medication, he insists on going to the scene because he needs to do something and the minute he gets there Giardello tells him to turn around and go home. Braugher is, if anything, more brilliant here than he was in the season premiere : this is a man who is a prisoner of his body in every way they counts, his mind and tongue continue to betray him and the powerful force of rage now sounds like the tantrums of a child. Rarely have we seen him more at a loss when he goes to tend to Olivia can't figure out what to do and screams at Mary. Frank is in tears at the end of this and its stunning because this is a man who has never shown himself to be this vulnerable.

This is felt even in what appears to be a personal storyline. While waiting for Danvers Lewis tells everyone that Danvers is engaged. Part of this is no doubt part of his ongoing feud with Howard (even Kellerman seems to be getting tired of it by this point). But it's also a sign of just how much Kay and Danvers have drifted since they broke up at least in Season Three. Howard was seriously dating someone last year but she is still a woman and she wouldn't be human if it didn't hurt to find out that Danvers has since moved on. It's a great episode for the usually dour Ivanek as he actually seems cheerful as he discusses his upcoming nuptials and seems more willing to bend the rules. (It makes what will happen later this season all the more tragic.)

Members of the squad are still trying to be decent – when Frank mistakes the word coffee for bagel in front of Kellerman and Lewis neither rubs in it or says anything. But Munch continues his open hostility. When Brodie calls him out on it Munch finally vents. He says that he does his job day in, day out. No fanfare, no bows. He may not be as good a detective as Frank but he is still a member of the unit. He makes it very clear he believes that no one would do the same for him if he had a stroke and honestly I really can't Giardello being willing to bend over backward for Munch the same way he does for Pembleton.  I think John would have gotten a gold watch and a disability check.

But it's worth noting that Brodie, who's spent the last year basically jumping whenever someone says frog, decides to give it right back. Munch has offered Brodie a place to live (more on that below) but Brodie turns on him. "If this is the way you treat people, no wonder your partners keep leaving you!" It's by far the most acerbic thing Brodie has said to anybody in the course of a year and he leaves before Munch can say anything back. And the thing is it makes a difference. When Pembleton admits he's having trouble John writes down his home numbers on his phone where Frank can see it and from this point he basically drops the cold shoulder.

As you'd expect the murder of Francis Uba and the man holding the gun in the hostage at the school are the same man but because this is Homicide no one knows there's a connection between the two until well after the fact. When Mrs. Di Grazi comes out and tells us the hostage taker has made a demand – his pig  - the viewer instantly knows who it is but no one at the school knows what he's talking about. Bayliss and Munch came back to the squad after everyone else left to go to the school. Typically Munch and Brodie watch the situation unfold and debate it unaware that's it related to the morning's murder.  When the squad learns there is a pig in Animal Control, they have no paperwork on the pig (this is Baltimore) and all they care about is getting it there to stop future murders. Munch and Bayliss are on the street in the exact wrong place because Tim thinks Frank's advice where Jerry Uba is is the right one – and he is instantly proving wrong. Munch may be mean-spirited about it but he's dead on about Frank's instincts being off.

Frank spends the entire episode just as sour as ever. We've known basically since we met him that he thinks the rules don't apply to him and now he has to live by a set of rules that if he doesn't follow he'll die. In the longest conversation they've had since he came back Pembleton makes it very clear that he feels that he has to treat everybody the way he did before "Because who I am is all I have left." This has to be galling to Tim who has always wanted to be there for his partner and now that his partner needs help Frank still refuses to ask for it.

 In large part it is because of this that he chooses to do something that is almost tantamount to suicide in the final minute. In the final minutes Mary reminds him not to forget to take his pills. "I won't," he says. And then to the tune of the Neville Brothers he pours all of them down the toilet and flushes it.  We've often wondered whether the job means more to him than his life. We seem to have gotten an answer and we're now more worried about Frank then we were at the end of last season.

For all of the incredible work of Braugher Secor continues to step up his game. When he learns the truth about who the killer he plants himself by the hospital bed determined to wait for his suspect to regain consciousness. When he walks in, he turns off the TV that Uba is watching intently, listens as he demands the return of his pig and promises he will get him back if he talks to him. This is a move out of Frank's playbook. But he's still Bayliss, he needs to understand why he did everything he did and when he learns that all Jerry wanted to do was kill himself but he didn't he calls him a failure. When Uba says he's better than his father – he didn't leave his mother alone to mourn – it's such a cold and casual statement that were nearly as shocked as Bayliss.

And Yaphet Kotto is incredible as Al, trying desperately to control the situation, knowing the shooter has all the power. When QRT storms the school Al is right there with the squad. Even as Uba burns from the fire he seems to have accidentally or purposely set himself on, he orders the paramedics to go to Darcy first rather than Uba. And he demands that Uba be charged even if it makes no difference because "I'll sleep better."  We know he won't.

And the final scene where Danvers officially charges Uba Giardello comes to the hospital room and waits. After the charges have been laid Danvers and the bailiff leave but Giardello stays. For nearly half a minute nothing is said. Finally Uba cracks: "What?"

Gee has three simple words. "Get well. Soon." And at that moment you can tell that Jerry Uba wishes he had just simply killed himself. Given what he left behind, we hope Al's looks would do the job.

 

 

Notes from the Board

 

Brodie is on the move! -  In what will be a running gag for Season Five we learn that Brodie has been kicked out of his apartment and is living in the squad room. Munch is more than willing to offer him a place to live. "You won't regret this." Brodie says. "That's what my first ex-wife said," Munch replies.

'Detective Munch': When Munch gives Brodie the keys to his apartment and instructions he finishes by saying: "And stay out of the medicine cabinet." When Brodie asks what's the medicine cabinet, Munch says: "Nothing, Nothing, Nothing is in the medicine cabinet." Perhaps Munch has not left his antiestablishment days as far behind as he says to everybody.

Anne Meara who plays Donna DiGrazzi was nominated for an Emmy for Best Guest Actress in a Drama in 1996-1997. Appallingly it would be the only Emmy Homicide would be nominated for that year – and of course she lost.

Hey, Isn't That… Anne Meara got her break starring in the TV Series The Greatest Gift. She would later meet and marry Jerry Stiller and the two would become the comedy team Stiller and Meara that would be popular in night clubs and comedy shows for the next twenty years. A regular feature in comedies during the 1970s she was cast in the title role of Kate McShane in 1975. She went on to play Veronica on Archie Bunker's Place during the three seasons it was on the air and would have recurring roles in ALF, Sesame Street and numerous other shows. The mother of Ben Stiller she had roles in many of his films including Reality Bites, Zoolander and Night at the Museum. She died May 23 2015 at the age of 85. (Her husband Jerry had a guest role on Homicide in Season 3.)

Geoffrey Nautts who plays Jerry Uba made his film debut in The Manhattan Project in 1986. He had roles in Murphy Brown and Newhart before being cast as Stan Kelly in The Commish the show that Michael Chiklis was most famous for before he starred in The Shield. After his stint on Homicide he had roles in From the Earth to the Moon, Oz and played Dr. DiPaolo on Six Feet Under (he's the surgeon who diagnoses Nate with his AVM) He had multiple roles on all three Law & Order series.

Eventually he gave up acting and moved into writing and producing and has written scripts for such series as Brothers & Sisters, Political Animals,  Nashville and most recently A Million Little Things. He has also served as producer and writer for Grand Hotel.

 

At the end of the episode Howard asks Giardello when he's going to erase Russert's name and give out her open cases. He says he'll do it tomorrow. In truth he won't do it for all of Season 5, something that will be pointed out to him more than once.

On The Soundtrack: In the final scene you will hear The Neville Brothers' 'Fearless'.