Homicide Rewatch: M.E., Myself & I

 

Written by Lyle Weldon & Emily Whitesell ; story by Tom Fontana

Directed by Michael Fields

 

If Homicide had any flaw it’s the one that all police procedurals suffered from in the era of network TV. (Many of the creative forces behind Homicide would resolve them in their follow up series on cable and streaming.) How do you handle main characters who aren't detectives and therefore not central to the actions in investigations?

With Megan Russert the series started out decently but eventually had to double demote her to use her as a detective, thus acknowledging the basic flaw. It's been nearly a full season since J.H. Brodie became part of the unit and the detectives seem to treat him no better than the show itself. No doubt in large part to deal with the departure of Hoffman the series uses this episode to introduce its newest female character Chief M.E. Julianna Cox.

Michelle Forbes already had a reputation as a superb actress (see Hey, Isn't That to see that it would only get better from here) and this episode uses her to the most vital effect possible. The problem is the nature of the medical examiner as a whole in relation to the series. No one denies the medical examiner is important to the investigation and the series already has a solid rotation of performers in small but critical roles. Ralph Tabakin, who we see again in this episode, has been superb as the ancient and crotchety Scheiner who can say a lot with just a few words. Other actors such as Herb Levenson and Harlee McBride have done much with smaller roles.

To make a medical examiner a series regular and more importantly to justify doing so Fontana and the writers will go out of their way to give Forbes more screentime, particularly in the first several episodes after she's introduction as well as give her a fascinating backstory for her reason for coming to Baltimore in the first place.  However they will also end up putting Cox in places the show has never had them to this point, such as the squad room and getting in the faces of detectives which goes against their traditional role. And unfortunately the writers end up doing what they've done to every major female character other than Howard and essentially turn Cox into a love interest for one of the detectives.  To be fair they will handle it with much more of an effort then any prior romantic relationship they've done for any detective who is single on Homicide before and mostly do it well. But it speaks to the flaw in so many network dramas that they still can't see a female character in any role other than girlfriend.

It's a shame because from the moment she appears on screen Forbes nails Cox much in the same way few new characters have been introduced to this point when it comes to establishing the kind of person they are. While some viewers quickly got a negative impression – one book says they might have thought  "Uh-oh, here comes the token ratings-boosting bimbo" – Homicide has never been the kind of series that does things that way with any character.  They might well be forced to cast actors based on their good looks but they go out of their way to make it clear that there is much going on beneath them.

The first time we see Cox at work does much to show the strengths and limitations of her as a character. Bayliss and Lewis are investigating the murder of a prostitute and they begin to move the body rather than wait for the ME. Cox drives up in a snappish fashion and becomes territorial of the crime scene in front of Lewis. Oddly enough Lewis backs down but Bayliss is the primary and he only came for pretzels.

Bayliss is clearly impressed by her authority and it becomes clear almost immediately he has a crush on her. But this does nothing to compromise the chain of command. When they find the killer just a few feet away and Cox asks a question Bayliss firmly tells her to take care of the dead and he'll handle the living. Cox to her credit backs off for the only time in this episode.

We are now getting a case in point in regards to Mike Kellerman. Being reduced to administrative duty was already bad enough for a man of action; now he has to watch as the FBI talks to every single member of his unit in regard to the grand jury investigation.  And we can already see how much of it will bring out the worst in him.

Because he is an outsider and because he poses a threat to one of the detectives it is easy to view Agent Thomas Pandolfi as some kind of enemy. But from another perspective its clear that Pandolfi really isn't any different from any of the detectives, either in his approach or the questions he asks. It's not a huge shock to learn he worked Homicide himself considering he has the same behavior. That all of the detectives view him an obstruction is telling and is in itself a commentary on how little police believe they should be policed.

  Edward Hermann was just about to age into the patriarchal force he is now known for being in TV  but during this stretch of his career he also had the ability to portray characters with an edge that was adversarial.  At his core he's not doing anything the detectives haven't done before: trying to get to the truth of a crime. Indeed Kellerman himself put Jake Rodzinski through this exact process when he was investigating the murder of Kenny Damon.

And it is worth noting that Kellerman's behavior has not been beyond reproach to this point. We are reminded of how he sold a hot VCR to Munch and that nearly got both of them in trouble with internal and everything involving the Rose Halligan case should have gotten him and Lewis facing some consequences.  When Lewis says: "No man is without sin!" Pandolfi surprises him – and the audience – when he agrees. "My job is to find out if Kellerman's are mortal or merely venial."

The problem is Kellerman is taking the approach that even the idea of the process is an insult.  He keeps pushing everybody to tell him what happened in the interview room even though that violates how these things work.  He keeps walking to the observation room, despite the fact Giardello says its off limits. When Lewis comes out and tells him what happened Kellerman immediately sees it as a betrayal. The fact that he is guilty of the sin in question doesn't matter; that Lewis would have been in a jackpot of his own if he tried to hide the truth from the FBI is also irrelevant. What he clearly wants is everyone to tell him that they absolutely one hundred percent support him and that they didn't tell the Bureau anything that could remotely been seen as incriminating, even if they have to lie.

Kellerman clearly thinks he superior and is already showing it in the worst possible way. When Detective Connelly, who's also being investigated shows up in the bar, a drunk Kellerman goes out of his way to humiliate him under the eyes of brotherhood, when he throws beer at him and the two start brawling

By the time he sees Pandolfi he's actually insulted that the FBI has no interest in hearing his side of the story. If Kellerman believes that he can just wiggle out of this by saying he's innocent and that they'll take his word for it  - something he's been making clear to everybody who will listen – this is the first clear sign that his word will not cut it. Pandolfi has no doubt been in enough situations that he knows that what the accused has to say is the least important part in grand jury testimony and the only interest he has is Kellerman taking a drug test. Kellerman says that's humiliating which is beside the point. Kellerman tries to argue that everyone looks bad if you look hard enough, ignoring the fact that's he spent the entire episode paranoid and picking fights with allies and enemies alike. He both doesn't want to justify his behavior and wants the presumption of innocence and Pandolfi has no interest in giving him either.

And its not as though the main investigation of the episode doesn't demonstrate the very reason that the police force can be trusted to follow the rules.  The case Bayliss investigates – the murder of Steffy Hammett – is resolved so quickly the name is written up in black. But the suspect keeps talking for so long that he also confesses to the murder of a second prostitute. Bayliss can't find a record of her on the board and he asks Cox to look into it.

Her diligence leads to the discovery of Amy Introcaso, another prostitute whose death was listed as a drug overdose even though the toxicology doesn't read high enough. The case was investigated by Detective Higby who works for the other shift; we've seen him a few times in previous episodes.

Higby is the example of another in a line of sloppy cops. Not only is he not impressed by Bayliss's accomplishment he admits that he'd didn't bother investigating because the woman was a prostitute, he had a busy workload and no one would miss the victim. We've seen sloppy police work from some detectives before but we've rarely seen someone so lazy he doesn't want to work a murder because he doesn't think the victims life mattered. Cox is nearly as indignant as Bayliss on the subject, though in his case its due to professional reasons.

Not long after this Thomson's public defender manages to get the suspect to rescind his confession and the fact of the false toxicology report throws doubt on it. And its here we see something we haven't seen in a while. Frank Pembleton rising to the opportunity.

It seems as though Frank has decided to take his failure of the firearms exam and Gee's refusal to pull strings as a wakeup call. He knows that he has to prove to everybody that he is still a good detective even if he gets no credit for it. And that means doing something he rarely did when he was active: try to help his partner be better at his job. He does so in his typical indirect fashion. When Bayliss and Lewis are stumped he says: "You know what I would be doing if I were a Homicide detective?" It's not clear if either detective will listen but Frank actually tells them that the next thing to do is to unearth the dead prostitute's body and figure out if she died of an overdose or not. Tim and Meldrick agree (while of course saying they would have done it themselves). And sure enough the autopsy does prove Introcaso was strangled and Thomson is guilty. Bayliss points this out to Higby and its clear this experience was meaningless to him. (He won't be in Homicide much longer but not because of this.)

In this episode we see the personal lives of the two married detectives in the unit in two very different ways. We've known Meldrick's marriage was troubled ever since the fourth season finale but this is the first time we get an insight into it. Of course it's solely because Brodie has forced his presence on the Lewis household but this visit actually makes us wonder how much of the reason Brodie keeps being thrown from house to house is problems they already had.

Meldrick clearly doesn't think his wife is a good cook and she's clearly not welcome to the flirtations he tries early on. When we see Barbara say grace at the meal its clear this chafes Meldrick just as his remarks on Brodie's cooking hurt her. When Brodie casually mentions the portrait of Teddy Pendergast this leads to a fight between the two of them which makes us question what Barbara and Meldrick ever had in common at all. Barbara clearly never liked his taste in anything as a bachelor and its clear Meldrick thinks Barbara's overbearing. When Barbara decides to make the painting a condition of staying in the marriage and Meldrick has to think about it at all, it speaks to just how little commitment he really has to this. Meldrick blames Brodie for Barbara going to her mother's but we already knew this marriage was on thin ice without a third party involved. We've already seen Lewis often shift responsibilities to others while on the job; this demonstrates he's exactly like this in his personal life.

Now contrast this to Frank and how he is dealing with he and his wife's upcoming anniversary. We've rarely seen Frank this open or uncertain about his personal life to anyone, even Bayliss, and its interesting that he chooses to confide in Munch. (Clearly John's overcoming his issues with Pembleton being back a few episodes ago have had an impact on the relationship between the two.) Munch tells Frank that what his wife wants is not a great meal or a great theater experience but a roll in the hay. Frank is understandably dismissive of this but John reminds him that despite having three failed marriages he's had seven anniversaries. (Eight if you count when he and Gwen slept together after the divorce.)

The scene where Frank goes to his doctor and tells her what he wants to do is incredibly raw for him. This is a man who doesn't like to show any sign of vulnerability even to his wife and its telling how much he loves Mary that he's going through it at all. This degree of humility is a superb moment for Braugher as well as how he thanks the doctor for giving him this small opening.

The final scenes of the episode show all of the characters we meet at their most vulnerable. Mike, who has been carrying the weight of all this for weeks, finally breaks down prior to taking the drug test and decides to call his parents and tell them what is happening. This is a moment of personal vulnerability for Kellerman that we rarely see throughout this and indeed much of the series, and it makes the episode a personal high point for Reed Diamond.

Then we see Frank and Mary at home having sent the sitter home. We see just how nervous he is about making love to his wife and just how much Mary's support to him. The scenes between the real life husband and wife Braugher and Brabson always have a great soulfulness to them and it adds a layer of tenderness.

And then Bayliss comes down to the morgue to thank Cox, who is sitting by a body waiting for the funeral parlor. For the first time since we met her Julianna looks vulnerable as she opens up telling him something close to the truth about how she deals with her job:

I drive too fast. I drink too much. I fall madly in love with the wrong man.

She will do all three on this show before this season is over. But its only in the final moments we realize this significance.

We learn she came back home earlier to take care of her father, who has refused to be hospitalized for reasons we don't yet know. Now with a shock that comes with the kind of pain we've haven't really felt since Frank's stroke, we learn that her father has succumbed and she is there to take him to the parlor.

Had Cox served only as a recurring character instead of a regular the ability of Forbes might have had more power. As it is this episode is very much the high point of her work on this series though we're not going to see the evidence of the decline for many months to come.

 

NOTES ON THE BOARD

Detective Munch' He's actually more supportive then he appears not only when it comes to advising Frank on the best way to celebrate his anniversary but when he tells Kellerman that its in his best interest to talk to his parents because they might be able to help. That said he still has some good lines in regard to the FBI, particularly when Pandolfi first arrives. "The Bureau just hasn't been the same since J. Edgar Hoover. They can't find the right man to fill his bra."

Brodie Is On The Move! The episode begins with Bayliss dropping Brodie's bags on the squad floor and telling him to have a nice life. "Now I understand why he got kicked out of his own place," he tells Munch.  Again this seems to be more Bayliss' problem then Brodie's: his big sin was getting philosophical over the breakfast table. "You ever discuss Nietzsche over a Pop-Tart?" Which makes you wonder why Munch kicked him out.

He ends up in Lewis's place by saying he won fourth prize in a chili cook-off. Meldrick's reluctant until he describes the recipe as 'beer chili'. It's not clear how long Brodie would last anyway; he's not as confident in his cooking as he claims.

Maybe You Need the DVD, Maybe you Don't: The streaming version of means you don't get to hear Los Lobos version of 'Georgia Shop' as Cox drives into Baltimore, which is fitting theme music. However you will hear Jimmy Scott's mournful "There's No Disappointment in Heaven in the final scene in the morgue when Cox drives away.  I think that works well enough.

 

Hey, Isn't That… Michelle Forbes began her career as Sonni on Guiding Light between  1987-1989. She would make a spectacular film debut in Kalifornia along side David Duchovny, Juliette Lewis and a then relatively little known Brad Pitt. She'd had a recurring role as Ensign Ro in Star Trek: The Next Generation and was originally supposed to be one of two semi-regular characters to go to the next spin-off Deep Space Nine along with Colm Meaney's Miles O'Brien. She elected not to and would have roles in smaller films such as Swimming With The Sharks and the sequel to Escape from New York, Escape From LA.

After leaving Homicide she has one of the most formidable careers in television of any actress in the 21^st century. She had a recurring role in the first season of The District and was a regular in Wonderland, the very short-lived debut of Peter Berg as a writer director in TV. She would play Lynne Kresge in the second season of 24.

She would play Admiral Cain of The Pegasus in the reimagining of Battlestar: Galactica and play Samantha Brinker in Season 1 of Prison Break. She also had roles in short lived series such as Waking The Dead and Durham County, while playing Kate Weston, Gabriel Byrne's troubled spouse in the HBO drama In Treatment during its first two seasons. She played Maryann Forrester, the major villain in Season 2 of True Blood and received what is shockingly her only Emmy nomination to date for her role as Mitch Larsen in the AMC's masterpiece The Killing.

She's had major roles in genre TV more than anything else, from a small role in Orphan Black, Helen in the ABC remake of The Returned, Retro Girl in Powers. Her biggest roles in TV include Valerie in Berlin Station, Ellen Becker in Treadstone and Veronica Fuentes in New Amsterdam. Her last appearance on TV to date was the recreation of Ro Laren in Picard.

Edward Herrman, who plays Agent Pandolfi, is one of the very few actors who appeared on all three series associated with Tom Fontana in the 20^th century. He played Father McCade on St. Elsewhere and Tobias Beecher's father on OZ starting in 2000. One of the greatest character actors of all time I'm strictly to focus on his television work.

He would make his TV debut as Richard Palmer in Beacon Hill and play FDR as a young man in the TV miniseries Eleanor & Franklin which would he play again in the follow up. He would nominated for Emmys for both roles as well as for playing Father McCabe on St. Elsewhere in 1986 and 1987. Throughout his career he played many famous people in TV movies including Lou Gehrig, Alger Hiss, George Bernard Shaw, Branch Rickey and in the James Dean TV movie Raymond Massey. He would also play Herman Munster in the ill-fated TV movie Here Comes The Munsters. He would eventually win his only Emmy for playing Anderson Pierson, a mentor to Lindsey Dole in The Practice accused of murder.

But it was only he took on the role of the warm-hearted Richard Gilmore, father of Lorelai, mother of Rory that he became worshipped in the eyes of millions to the point of beloved. He continued to act in series such as Law & Order in multiple roles, the oldest intern in history in Grey's Anatomy and Senator Warren in the failed pilot of Wonder Woman. He had recurring roles on the Good Wife and Harry's Law as well as the short-lived series Black Box. He would give voice to FDR one last time in Ken Burns' documentary The Roosevelts. He passed away on December 31^st 2014 at only 71.