Homicide Rewatch: Hostage, Part One

 

Written by James Yoshimura; story by Tom Fontana & Julie Martin

Directed by Ted Demme

 

The opening sequence where Gaffney and Bonfather double team Al about the squad could seem very much like the bosses being the bosses. To be sure Gaffney is just as much a sexist prick as before, this time demonstrating some homophobia which should come as a surprise to no one. But the difference is for once Al is arguing in favor of the rule book.

As he talks about the doctors saying that Frank has made great progress and that the department owes it to him to come back, we can't help but think that this is the first time he has quoted procedure. When he makes it clear that Pembleton was hurt on the job and that the department is obligated to bring him back Bonfather is right when he says is using the rules for once and that he usually makes it up as he goes. And when Gaffney and Bonfather point out the very real possibility of what might have if the old Frank comes back – that he might get worked up in the box, suffer another stroke, drop dead in the squad room – and argue that it will be on Giardello this time if it happens, for once he doesn’t have a real defense.  Giardello is struck dumb at this.

And it is worth noting that its not clear in the opening minutes whether Pembleton's decision to return has the support of the rank and file. We've always known Frank was never the most popular man in the unit, respected for his work but cold and aloof to everyone around him, if not outright arrogant. Kellerman and Lewis are talking about his medical condition but it's not clear if they're concerned for a colleague or for their own liability. At one point Lewis will actually mock his potential way of speaking. Munch is openly hostile to the idea of Frank returning, something he doesn't bother to hide when he goes out with Bayliss on a call. Howard seems more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps because she was in a similar position after being shot in the heart a year and a half ago.  Only Bayliss seems genuinely anticipatory and it will become clear almost immediately how much this is not rejoined by his partner. (Interestingly Brodie seems the most clear-headed about what to expect from Frank post-stroke and he's remarkably lucid about what to do and what not to do. We'll actually learn more about why down the road.)

When Bayliss answers the phone he decides to bring Munch with him as a partner, very reluctantly. To this point on Homicide they've never gone out on a call together: Bayliss has always been with Pembleton and it is rare that he's gone out with someone else in the four seasons so far. Munch has worked with multiple partners even when Bolander was in the unit and he did the same with Russert. And its clear Munch is in a bad mood. It's conceivable some of this has to do with the fact that for the second time in little more than a year, he's without a partner. As we're told in the opening Russert has gone off to France, though no one is quite sure why even among the squad. Bolander has quietly retired after his suspension ended. Munch is feel left behind again and it is possible that the way the squad is willing to bend over backwards to let Frank in really does chafe. He might be cold about it to Bayliss and he may not like that he sounds like Gaffney but he has a point.

As always Homicide is patient. Pembleton is late getting to the squad; Mary is bringing him in. He's late enough that some of the detectives start worrying about him. When we finally get our first look at him just before the episode cuts to commercial the writers have built it to perfection. Using the Cowboy Junkies classic song: "This Street, This Man, This Life' – and praise the lord both streaming and syndication kept that moment in for all to witness – Frank steps out of his car. He know has a head of hair he hasn't had since the first season. He moves slower, in contrast to the confident stride we associate with him. He hesitates before opening the door to the squad, looking back at Mary for reassurance he didn't need before. And he confronts the stairs slowly holding the banister.

When he finally enters the squad there's a notable pause as everyone looks. Howard is the first to come to him, then he walks to Meldrick and Mike. When Kellerman says its good to see him: Frank says: "You too" Then he pauses and seems to need to remember Mike's first name with a struggle. There's a clear sense that's he trying to muster the old Pembleton bravado asking if everyone looks disappointed but with the clear stagger in his speech and his slurred works, for once he can't pull it off. Even the compliment Lewis says about liking his hair is a direct affront: "I didn't want you to see the scars."

Giardello calls Frank in immediately after he arrives.  Frank is no more welcoming his advice then before but this time Al doesn't seem to care. He tells Frank that department regulations mean he can't be allowed back on the street until he qualifies on the range. Frank says he's always been a lousy shot (we saw as much in firing practice before the stroke). Gee tells him that he will be working half shifts, answering phones and while he tries to say Frank will act as an adviser on some cases it's clear not even he believes that.

Braugher is magnificent in ways we've never seen before. In four seasons he's always been the monarch of all he surveys and now everything he's worked for has chained him to his desk. Frank is as arrogant as possible when Gee confronts him, saying he's earned the right to be here after thirteen years. Al is as sanguine as before, making it very clear that Frank has pissed a lot of people in his career (and the ones we've seen onscreen don't even come close to covering the ones he must have gotten before this) and repeated that the department wants him in evidence control or out altogether. He makes it clear that he has 'burned all his IOUs' with Frank.

The thing is Al's not wrong. We see Frank struggle to remember names, sweat when he's walking upstairs, he can't remember words like Xerox or how to spell pizza. His memory is a mess as we see in a horrible moment when he has to deal with the phone during a hostage crisis, is distracted for the lunch order, and can't remember who he's talking to when he gets back to the phone.

 

With everything going on its almost a relief when the phone starts ringing with murders. Bayliss and Munch go to the home of Francine Uba, a woman who was shot dead in her home while making breakfast. The witness to the crime is a pig named Angie and notably missing is son Jerry.

Considering how things will play out in the final season its interesting to watch Munch and Bayliss' interactions as partners. After Bayliss smacks Munch down for being a jerk, the two of them investigate. Munch takes the situation no more seriously then with his other partners: when he finds the pig and sees her making breakfast he says: "I think we found our motive. Bacon." Bayliss is playing straight man for once, and its interesting to see him now playing the voice of solemnity. This will be a breakthrough season for Kyle Secor. We are reminded of how he wasn't sure he'd be a great detective without Frank and the first half of the season he seems determined to prove.

And while Frank is being told the new rules Kellerman comes running in and tells Gee there's a hostage situation at a middle school with two dead and the hostage taker barricading himself in. In keeping with what is more old school Homicide Kellerman and the squad ride off, just as Bayliss and Munch come back to the squad, talking about Brody and the  pig, unaware of the crisis unfolding – and unaware Frank is back.

It is keeping with how Homicide works that the episode makes it clear immediately about the two's relationship. Bayliss immediately runs to Frank, tries to embrace him and Frank immediately pushes him away.  Bayliss tries everything he can to be considerate and comforting to Frank and Frank just resents it. He pushes away the chair Tim bought for him ("I don't want a present', he stutters out) and resents every attempt Tim does to try and show he gives a damn. Frank wants to talk about the job and Tim tries to ply him off.

Then Munch reaches new levels of meanness when he says that they're working this case and "we've got this really uncooperative witness and we could use your expertise. He tells him to call Animal Control and talk to Angie. You still walk on water, don't you Frank?" This is incredibly mean but it's telling that when Bayliss finally tells his partner Angie's a pig he takes it out on Bayliss.

It's only at the end of Frank's first shift that we get to the core of it. Munch tells Frank he called him fifty times, sent flowers and called his wife – and Frank never returned one call. We saw how shocked he was when Frank went down and how much it hurt him. Frank then sheepishly admits he knew but that he didn't think it was that important to him. For the briefest of moments Munch has the moral high ground.

The hostage situation that unfolds was considered unrealistic in 1996 but it is yet another moment from the show that is eerily prescient in the era of mass shootings in public schools. Indeed the ultimate body count is strikingly low when its all said and done: most of us would love for a school shooting to happen and only four people be dead  by the end of the episode in the entire building. And it plays out like it would under real-life circumstances: QRT is called out first and given priority as 'a red ball'. Homicide essentially has to stand around being bystanders, trying to get information. It's actually interesting watching this episode in regard to Jaspers. Usually he's had to answer to the detectives and Giardello and now for once Jaspers runs the show. It's a great performance for Gary D'Addario, particularly as it demonstrates that these people are good at their jobs and can do things well when left to their own devices. Perhaps Homicide's arrogance at being the best of the best is overstated.

And we also get a sense at the multiple sides of Bonfather. We've seen him in crises before and they usually bring out the worst in him, so its refreshing to see him take a position and stick with it, at least in this episode. He makes it clear QRT is there to run the show and that the detectives are there to observe when the investigation is over. It's clear that they're not used to being this powerless at what is a crime scene and it clearly unnerves all of them, particularly Giardello.

The interviews take on an atmosphere that is all-too familiar today but in 1996 was still relatively rare. And its demonstrated when Kellerman interviews a young girl while Brodie is filming. The girl's clearly in shock and when she hears this is a movie she reacts: "This isn't really happening. This isn't real." It's done in the familiar rapid-cut we've become used to on the show but we're not allowed escapism because then she turns to a friend being wheeled away on an ambulance and says she can get up. When she turns around and says: "You lied to me," it breaks your heart even in a way that should those who've seen these things play out countless times in real life.

The common theme in both Frank's return and the hostage storyline is impatience. Frank wants to get back to what he does but the rules won't let him and his partner is willing to play by them. So much of his rage is based in frustration which he takes out on those who care for him – Al, Tim, and Mary. At the end of the episode he goes to the range to take target practice and the fact he couldn't even come close to the bullseye is a visual symbol of how off-center he is.

And outside the school the detectives are paralyzed and unable to do their jobs. But neither is QRT or the negotiator. At the end of the episode he makes his first demand: he wants beer. Now the squad is forced to wait and see what will happen and they have no control over what this man – who as we see in the final moments has already killed four people – will do next.

And of course we the viewer are left at home waiting to see what happens next week in a state of tension. We know that one of the stories will be resolved but the larger issues won't even come close.

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

 

Inconsistencies: Its been at least three months between the fourth season finale and today according to everybody in the unit. But according to the board there have been almost no murders between May and September. The last recording murder in Season 4 was 152 and the first murder of Season 5 is 160.  A later shot of the board will show there have been a few murders but nowhere near as many between the end of Season 3 and Season 4.  So either people decided to stop killing each other  out of respective for the departments issues during the summer of 1996 in Baltimore or this is a massive continuity error. (It's the latter; the next two seasons will remember this mistake.)

As you might have noticed the opening credits are much different from the first four seasons, taking a somewhat more music video style montage. This was not admired by viewers at the time. I had no problem with it then or now.

Pembleton's return is in fact based on a real-life police board decision. In a landmark decision by the Baltimore pension hearing board, the department concluded that if an officer was capable of answering phones and performing a minimal level of administrative work, that was enough for the officer to return to work.

It was the 1990s: In his last remark to Al before leaving Gaffney says that with Russert leaving for Paris and Pembleton's stroke "it's like an episode of Nash Bridges in here." This was actually a thorn in Fontana and everyone's side. In the spring of 1996 the Don Johnson-Cheech Marin cop show Nash Bridges premiered at Friday at 10 PM and would regularly beat Homicide in the ratings for the remainder of that show's airing on the run. At best a lightweight procedural if it is remembered today it is because two of the most noted showrunners in TV history worked there: Shawn Ryan, who after he left it would create the groundbreaking drama The Shield and Carlton Cuse, who would be one of the co-creators of Lost.

Detective Munch: Aside from the snideness he directs towards Frank in general there are quite a few Munch zingers. My personal favorite comes from when Howard asks him if he wants a cup of coffee:

Munch: That's the first time in weeks, no months, a woman has asked about my needs.

Howard: The offer was coffee, not a vestal virgin,

Munch: More's the pity.

Of course he's out of the squad by the time Howard comes back with his coffee.

Hey Isn't That… As another tribute to the much missed Baltimore Colts one of Uba's neighbors is played by Art Donovan, who was one of their defensive tackles, first in 1950 and then from 1953-1961. During this period he led the Colts to two back to back championships in those days before the Super Bowl. He actually had multiple TV late night appearances, appearing on David Letterman ten times, and guest starring on the Adventures of Pete & Pete  as a football coach. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 89.

The story of Megan Russert getting pregnant and running off with a French diplomat isn't that far removed from reality. Hoffman was pregnant and ran off with her former co-star (and onscreen lover) Daniel Baldwin at the end of the 1996 season. We'll see and hear from her again but its worth noting what she's been up too in the aftermath of her departure.

After departing Homicide she would take on the role of Cecile Malone, the wife of a network executive on Showtime's Beggars and Choosers, one of their first real entries into prestige television. The show would run from 1999-2000. She would appear in The Practice, The Division and role of Dr. Renee Dunseith on Providence. She had a recurring role as Lt. Maryann Cavendish between 20022 and 2004 and has acted in almost every series from Grey's Anatomy to Criminal Minds to Alpha. She had a recurring role as Clarissa Stein in the Arrow-verse. Her last major role was in the Lifetime movie My Mother The Madam. No comment.