Homicide Rewatch: Work Related

 

Written by Tom Fontana

Directed by Jean De Segonzac

 

Note: Much of this is taken verbatim from an article I wrote on this episode not long after Andre Braugher passed away. However since much of it is just as applicable to this series I think my readers will forgive me for repeating myself.

 

As Season Four approached its end Andre Braugher was very much the signature star of Homicide. And like many television stars he was started to become bored with the familiarity of his role. While audiences might be thrilled of Frank Pembleton as a supercop who could do know wrong, the apparent infallibility of the character was troubling Braugher. He approached Fontana and said that something needed to be done.

Fontana proposed the action in the finale which both then and today is more radical then anything I've seen a season finale on television, even in cable or streaming, certainly in the parameters of the police procedural. Putting a cop's life in jeopardy was nothing new but they would go down in a hail of bullets; Homicide itself had done so in the previous season. Similarly an automobile accident would be used to kill of Claire Kincaid in the season finale of Law & Order which aired not long after that of Homicide.  But a health risk was not something that one did and certainly not to someone who had been a force of vitality the way that Andre Braugher had made Frank for the last four seasons. And for it to happen it had to come out of nowhere.

For that reason, I am inclined to think now that the writers were engaging in not only misdirection in The Wedding  but also laying the groundwork for storylines that would play out not only in the next episode but for the next several seasons for many of the characters. And because we’d seen so many bizarre things in the previous episode, we might think that the season finale will have no more surprises for us.

Indeed, what may be the most remarkable thing about ‘Work Related is that well into the third act, is how ‘ordinary’ it is compared to how season finales worked then and now. Usually we are given proliferations of ads about how everything will change or how the whole season has led up to this. (That was truer of shows like The X-Files and other mythology shows.) But for the first forty minutes of the episode we truly believe everything that might happen has happened in the episode before.

In the teaser Bayliss  is somewhat annoyed that he is happier about his partner’s new baby that the always dour Frank seems to be. (Frank finally admits he happy before they get out of the car.) As is always the way, they are at a crime scene. Two people have been killed at a fast food restaurant; another young man has been shot and is on his way to the hospital. As the investigation evolves, they come to the conclusion that the perpetrator is an Eloise Pfeiffer, a former employee and the boyfriend of one of the victims. (We see Frank and Tim visiting the families of both victims and see their dismay.) Alex McKenzie, the young man in the hospital, says he was a friend of Eloise Pfeiffer and that Pfeiffer shot him in the knee when he recognized him. Tim goes to Pfeiffer’s house and Eloise isn’t home.

Meanwhile Lewis is back from his honeymoon and Kellerman is teasing about leaving him hundreds of condoms. Lewis answers the phone and says they have a killing on the highway. As it turns out what has happened is that someone from the highway has died when someone dropped a bowling ball on his head. (Lewis, typical with his puns, says this might be a red ball.) He seems way to focused on investigating what Kellerman knows is going to be a stone cold whodunit and wonders why Meldrick doesn’t want to go home to Barbara. Meldrick then tells him that he and his wife have not consummated their marriage. At the end of the first act, Kellerman tries to get Meldrick to talk about his marriage and he says: “No we’re talking about my divorce. As of half an hour ago, Barbara and I are separated.”

 We never get a clear idea what went wrong with Meldrick’s marriage and not even he can truly explain it to Mike. Now he thinks he got married too quickly and is afraid of being the joke of the squad. As the two of them bowl (pursuing a lead, of course) Mike wants to offer succor but he really can't. When Meldrick thinks he went too fast Mike tells him that he and Annie lived together for three years and now he eats cold cereal three nights a week. He asks Meldrick if he wants his marriage to be over but when Meldrick says he doesn't he backs off. Mike didn't want his marriage to end and it did. In the end Meldrick spends the night on Mike's houseboat.

That same night Tim convinces Frank to go home to the Pembleton house for dinner.  Frank does not want Tim to come to his house, so naturally Tim asks Mary. “Your wife likes me,” he points out cheerily. That night Frank and Tim sit over the infant who they have named Olivia. Frank, in a rare moment of openness, expresses all of the concerns that he has for his daughter. Frank entire work persona is that of being superhuman so it is rare to see him showing doubts. Of course because he’s Frank he says that he’s worried that one day Olivia will grow up and bring a man just like Tim home and say she wants to marry him “I’m not good enough for your daughter,” Tim says straight-faced. Frank doesn't answer the question but doesn't seem impressed by Tim's gift. "It's too cute."  Tim goes down to dinner. “I love you, Olivia,” he says in a sweet tone once he and his daughter are alone.

The next day the restaurant manager – his restaurant is deserted, even though they have reopened – tells Bayliss and Pembleton something he withheld. He saw Eloise Pfeiffer come into the restaurant but with Alex McKenzie. The two of them came in together and left together, which is at odds with what he told them. Leaving the restaurant Pembleton learns that McKenzie has checked out but intends to bring him in: “Because bad knee or not, I want his ass in the box."

Howard and Giardello are talking about the Desassy shooting and Giardello mentions how hard it is to go in the room every day and see a reminder of the murder he committed on the board. (Almost in passing we see the Lugo shooting was solved in interim; typically with the show, the actual identity of the killer is irrelevant to the story.) Munch (Richard Belzer) tells Frank and Kay that Pembleton has a suspect in the box “but he doesn’t know he’s a suspect.” Gee and Howard walk out and Gee pauses looking at the board before leaving. Howard walks to the board and erases Desassy’s name. “Sergeant’s prerogative,” she says before following him.

There is nothing in the interrogation of Alex McKenzie that gives any sign that anything radical is going to happen. McKenzie is there with his attorney, Russom (the lawyer who seems to defend every accused murderer in Baltimore, regardless of race or social class)  Bayliss starts the questioning in a friendly tone, and Pembleton just sits there, holding his head in his hands. In hindsight that might have been a warning, but by this the viewer is so familiar with Frank that we’re pretty sure this is just a tactic of his. Bayliss leads the questioning for a minute about Alex’s relationship with Eloise and Mary Rose for nearly a minute and a half before Pembleton finally starts to talk. He doesn’t stall.

“I’m confused. And the worst part is, I shouldn’t be,” he says. “I’ve got two dead bodies in the morgue. I’ve got the name of the guy who put them there.. I’ve even got an eyewitness. But still, I’m confused.”

He then begins to pull apart the story that Alex told him that goes against the manager. Russom sees the problems and whispers in his ears. Bayliss asks if Alex can tell them how he got outside. Alex whispers in Russom’s ear and tells them that Eloise shot the two victims then Alex. He followed him outside. Frank says: “I’m still confused. You said you followed him. Why would you follow someone who just shot you?” Alex tries to intervene and Russom says: “He had been shot he wasn’t thinking clearly.” Both Frank and Tim start chuckling. “Good answer! Great lawyer!” Tim says.

Frank then presents the medical report, which tells them that there are only two types of blood in the restaurant, neither of which is Alex. “Are you saying you got shot in the restaurant but you didn’t bleed in it?” Alex and the lawyer are blustering, but Frank and Tim both know they’ve got him. Frank starts to lay out what happened and says the two of them went outside and Alex said something like “We’re never gonna get away with this. Eloise panicked, shot you too.” Then he walks to Alex’s left.

“I don’t have a trigger man, counselor. I got the next best thing, an accessory. Tell your client how many years he’s gonna do in Jessup. Tell your client. I know you didn’t pull the trigger, son, I know that, but two people are dead and you got…”

Frank never finishes the sentence.

By this point Frank has put his hand on Alex’ shoulder. In a moment that went down in television history, Frank’s grip on Alex’s shoulder tightens and he begins to shake violently. Tim starts to freak out as Frank grabs his head and collapses on Alex and Russom. A freaked out Russom recoils and Frank hits the floor.

In the next minute, we see a series of faded shots of Bayliss and other detectives trying to say something, flashes of Frank on the street, blood, cuts of Warner brothers cartoons and finally Frank’s body in the morgue. Frank is standing over it saying no and tells himself to get up.

We cut back to the box where half the squad and paramedics are gathered. Munch, usually the coolest of the squad, is frantically trying to get them to take Frank to a hospital. Finally Frank begins to mutter and they hear: “Get me a cigarette.” Everyone looks relieved for a moment – and then Frank starts to seize again.

One of the paramedics tells everybody that this a possible CVA. Tim shouts: “What the hell is a CVA?!” The paramedic says the scariest word possible: “Stroke.”

They load Frank into the ambulance and Tim gets into the back with his partner. The last words before it rides off are from him: “Somebody call Mary!” Bayliss tries to talk to his partner and has to be told that Frank's in a coma. Bayliss has spent so much of the show trying to get his partner to engage with him and now he's faced with the possibility that the last time they talked was in the box.

In the final act of the episode Meldrick and Kellerman show up at the squad room to see everybody going to the hospital. When Munch tells them Frank had a stroke, Lewis says: “That’s funny.” Howard has to tell them that it’s serious.

The squad drives to the hospital but it is telling that unlike most cop shows, Giardello immediately sends everybody back because the work cannot stop. He tries to send Tim back to finish closing the case but Bayliss absolutely refuses to go. Gee knows better than to try and push, and he reassigns the case to Munch and his partner Russert. (Russert has the lightest case load.)

Bayliss is in no condition to do so. As he tries to update Gee and Howard (who were the first to ride over) he keeps unraveling in the diagnosis. When the doctor tells him that Frank had too much pressure in his head, he tries to almost laugh it off: "You knew that and I knew that. There was always too much pressure in his head." The fact remains that Frank Pembleton is 34 years old (its mentioned by one of the paramedics who brings him in) and until three hours ago seemed the picture of health, despite the smoking.

The case almost gets wrapped up incidentally, in typical Homicide fashion, though there are some typical parts to it. The detectives need to be brought up to speed with what happened and it turns out that Eloise came to the restaurant and had really wanted to kill the manager who had fired him because he had called him a slacker. They are told where to find Eloise, but by the time they do he has hung himself with a note around his neck. “I’m not a slacker,” are his last words.

We are more concerned with what is happening in the hospital. Frank, who works in a high pressure job and is a heavy smoker has suffered from a stroke and has swelling around the brain. Tim spends time talking about how much he has learned from Frank over the years and how much he admires his approach to being ‘murder police’. “Every death must be avenged,” Tim says. “They are equal in death." Frank just sees a dead body. To him there is never any shades of grey. Every murder must be avenged. This has been something Tim has always struggled with and Pembleton never has. Both Gee and Tim commiserate and Gee tries to assure Tim that Frank will be okay. Tim is concerned he will not be as good a cop without Frank around.

The difference between Bayliss and Pembleton and Lewis and Kellerman can be seen in the latter's final scene of Season 4. Throughout the episode Lewis has been determined to figure out who killed Steiner, even arguing that maybe Steiner had enemies. But at the end of the episode he talks about the average person driving down the street "thinking he has the world by the nads" and a bowling ball drops from the sky and kills him. "Or he has a stroke," Lewis says almost absently. "Only a chump tries to figure out why." Then he takes the bowling ball that has been on his desk ever since the murder took place, picks it up and drops it in the river. Kellerman then says casually: "You know that ball was evidence. I'm going to have to go fish it out." Lewis: "Have fun. I'm going to go find my wife."

The final scenes of the episode show Mary and Tim talking with his treating physician while Frank is still in a coma.  He says if he comes out "there'll be some right-sided weakness and some language problems." Mary wants to know will Frank recover and the doctor tells them: “The truth is, I don't know. I honestly don't know.” Mary bursts into tears and Tim holds her. The camera pans to Frank’s bedside – and then we cut to Frank in a coffin with a window. “Hey, let me out of here!” we hear him shout in a muffled voice. “Hey, let me out. What are you doing?” We see him pound on the wall of the coffin, trying in vain to break out. The end titles play over Frank’s shouts to be heard.

Because of that final image some reviews of the episode erroneously reported that Frank was dead. It's clear Fontana used this image for another reason. For four seasons Frank Pembleton has been the master of the box with more freedom there then perhaps anywhere else on the job. Now Season 4 ends with him trapped in another kind of box – only its within his body and mind.

And no matter how hard he fights to get out he may have no more luck escaping it then all of the murderers he's trapped into confessing while they were in it.

I've been watching TV seriously for thirty years. In all the years since Work Related, all of the character death, all the cliffhangers, all the characters in jeopardy, I'm not sure if I've ever seen another season finale like this one. The closest parallel came nearly twenty years later at the end of Season 5 of Homeland. In that episode Peter Quinn had been exposed to nerve gas during an attack and put in a coma. His character had been brought out of it for information, it failed, and it looked like he was going to die. I certainly thought as much in the final moments. But instead in Season 6 Peter was still alive, his language and movement seriously impaired, suffering from brain and motor damage. (If any reader can think of a similar incident, occurring at the end of a season, I'd like to know.)

Usually if a character is this close to death in any series network, cable, streaming, they either emerged and the recovery is part of it (Doug Stamper in Season 3 of House of Cards) or they are dead by the next season (take your pick from any character during most of Grey's Anatomy's run). On television, dying is easy. Recovery is hard. Homicide has already proven that it never does anything the easy way. And that will be true when it comes to Frank in Season 5.

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

This episode would be ranked 12^th best in Homicide's history in a vote by fans on Court TV.

"Detective Munch": Munch is by far the most freaked out with Pembleton collapses in the box, demanding the paramedics move Frank to a hospital and stop giving him a quiz. It's worth remembering this when the season opens.

Hey, Isn't That… Julia Pfeiffer, Elois's sister, is played by Anna Belknap in what was her TV debut. She's been around a lot since then. She played the role of Lily in the Joe Pantilano CBS Drama The Handler in 2003, when that was cancelled she went on to play Eva  in Medical Investigation and when that was canceled she went on to Detective Lindsay Monroe in CSI: NY for eight seasons. She's appeared in quite a few series since then with roles in How to Get Away with Murder, Transparent, The Good Doctor and Law and Order: SVU.

Get The DVD: As they operate on Frank we here The Cowboy Junkies 'Something More Beside You ' played on the original soundtrack. Frankly it didn't make a huge difference to me this time, mainly because I never knew what song it was the first time. (It's not listed in the official books.)

This is the first time we've seen Sean Whitesell's character Dr. Devilbiss since 'A Doll's Eyes." He recognizes Tim pretty quickly, perhaps from that case, just as likely because he keeps seeing the detectives frequently.

This is the last official episode with Isabella Hoffman as a series regular. How and why she left will become a story point in Season Five, so I'll deal with it then.