Written by Noel Behn ; story by Tom Fontana &
Noel Behn
Directed by Alan Taylor
It's keeping with how Homicide has always
operated that what is arguably the most anticipated the moment of Season Five –
Frank finally passing the firearms exam and being able to return to active duty
– is essentially moved to the background for what is the main plot. Indeed, the
moment Frank learns about only happens at the end of the third act and our
attention has to go back to the real climax of the episode.
Not that we don't get a good hint at what the
stakes are in the first act. We see Al go to pick Frank up at the Pembleton
home. This is the first time in the show's run we've seen Giardello visit the
household of any of his detectives. We cut to Frank watching Al show up but
Fontana and Behn make it clear the stakes are by having Al talk to Mary. The
usually calm Mary is more nervous around Frank's boss when it comes to making
small talk. When Al says he’ll be fine Mary tells us that Frank can't keep going
through this limbo. There's something so subtle you might not see it. Mary asks
what happens if Frank doesn't pass the test. When Al says he'll take it again
Mary says: "In another month. Another long thirty days." Because our
focus is on Frank the viewer might miss this but that's because we get a sense
as to just how nervous he is. The fallen Catholic kneels down and holds his
hands in silent prayer. That's how desperate he is to return to the street.
He's willing to get back on first name basis with God.
We then spend the episode after it happened with
Frank unsettled and unaware of the result. "The system is designed to
torture me," he tells Munch. And when he learns the truth we find him in
the most undignified place: on the john. "This isn't the right time,"
he tells Gee. But when Al tells him he passed, he lifts his head over the men's
room door, confirms its true and lets out a cry of sheer joy that we've rarely
heard him say. (Typically when a hungover Kellerman passes bye he looks around
as if he's baffled.)
This is one of the subtlest episode in the show's
history of dealing with race as it is set an exclusive prep school in
Baltimore. Yet this episode demonstrates in the most brilliant way possible the
difference between how society views African-American children. Marshall
Buchanan has managed to find his way into what should be a path forward and
finds himself the victim of an upper class white student. Marshall is very much
the model student who represents the best of what America should represent; McPhee
Broadman is clearly the ultimate problem child whose is nevertheless protected
both by his white privilege and his powerful mother. What makes this the most
striking is that the woman protecting him is there to uphold the law.
Homicide doesn't look away from this: we've actually met Judge Susan Aandahl
a couple of times in Season 4 and she seems very much a stickler for procedure.
The True Test reveals yet another subtle way the justice system works in favor
of white people more than African-Americans. Aandahl knows just how dangerous
her son even before she put him in prep school, has clearly been covering for
his pranks and behavior long before the murder of Marshall and knows full well
just how dangerous her son is. She even knows
to an extent how McPhee is using his mother to protect him from the
consequences of his actions. The final horror at the climax of the episode is
not merely that Aandahl knows the true nature of her son's darkness but that
even then she's determined to keep him safe. This is a future serial killer in
the making and Aandahl seems fine letting him get away with murder.
This is a contrast between our brief scene with
the Buchanan family. Marshall couldn't afford to attend the school but he won a
scholarship. He didn't want to go to Larchfield Prep but his mother, desperate
to protect him from the violence of the streets, forced him to go. Heartbroken
she tells Bayliss and Lewis that she cried when he got there: "Our child
is safe."
Larchfield Prep is, as we are told by Bayliss, a
prep school for 'the finest blue bloods in the South'. He holds both it and the
headmaster in contempt from the start. In another part of Bayliss' back story
we learn that he and his cousin Jim (who we met back in Season 3) used to live
right around the corner. Jim wanted to get into Larchfield more than life and
he was smart and from money. "But he wasn’t the right kind of WASP for
Larchfield." The implication is that Jim Bayliss was from 'new money', the
kind that prep schools then and sadly now still hold dear too. Tim argues that
Jim changed significantly after he was rejected.
It's not that Larchfield is that admirable to
begin with. Marshall is one of only three African-American students in the
entire school ("Congratulations. Now you've only got two," Bayliss
digs in.) And its clear the headmaster, for all his overtures of cooperation,
cares far about the reputation of his school far more then helping the
investigation. He clearly doesn't think much of Marshall and only reveals that
he knows who 'Cheeks' is when Lewis forces his hand.
I should mention that while Bayliss spends most
of the case acting as though he's in charge, it's clear his contempt for the
school clouds his judgment and his attitude. Meldrick, not having that same
baggage, spends most of the episode with a cooler head and does a better job
investigating. (He is the primary, after all.) Secor is superb throughout but
this is the first episode all season where Johnson really gets to show his
mettle and its refreshing. It's really the first time since Scene of the Crime
– another episode that dealt with race – that we get to see the good detective
Lewis is.
And that's before we get to the draw for this
episode. 'The True Test' originally aired on November 22nd 1996,
then and now sweeps month. NBC managed yet again to get a major film star
though back then no one could have predicted how big Elijah Wood would become.
Wood had made his film debut in Barry Levenson's Avalon and was already
a prominent child star. He'd already starred in North, one of the worst
movies ever made and was about to appear in the remake of Flipper. Even
while he was making this episode he was about to appear in Ang Lee's prestige
drama The Ice Storm. But even those of you who know him from playing
Frodo Baggins will be hard pressed to see his work as McPhee.
At the time I was very familiar with Wood's work
and I was stunned by the way he radiated smugness and arrogance in every scene.
We first see him looking inside Bayliss and Lewis's squad car before they know
who he is and there stunned by how smug he is. When Aandahl makes it clear that
she doesn't want anyone looking at her 'baby boy' Bayliss makes it clear he
doesn't care. He actually oversteps his bounds, something Meldrick doesn't
appreciate. And even when he's warned by Gee to watch his step, he nevertheless
feels the need to needle him while Meldrick remains calm throughout. Bayliss is
more than prepared to get at him, and while his instincts are right his
approach is all wrong and he ends up in Aandahl's office the next morning.
By this point we know that McPhee is responsible
for multiple pranks, the firebombing of the headmaster's car. When he confronts
Aandahl about what happened he doesn't back down and she seems to respect it.
She tells him her son is a clever and cruel child. "I'm a mother but I'm
also a judge. I make impartial rules." McPhee went to live with his father
after a divorce and Aandahl admits she was glad when he left. She knows McPhee is capable of 'reciting
endless formulas for blowing up the world. What would you do with a child like
that?" But then she says: "I'm a judge but I'm also a mother."
She makes it clear that her son might be one of the most dangerous and broken
person she knows but she has every indication of keeping him safe from the
criminal justice system.
McPhee is very much a bully and a racist. We
learn that Derek who actually killed Marshall did so after two days of hazing
on a forced march, which McPhee more or less did. We also he manages
self-defense class, which we assume is just a way for him to beat up students
and get course credit for it. And he ordered Kemp to throw Marshall into the
lake even though he couldn't swim. He has no problem when his lies are called
and is certain his mother will protect him.
In the final interrogation sequence Bayliss and
Meldrick run a bluff. And again we get
to see Meldrick in the box we haven't before. He plays on McPhee's racism and
wheedles him using the words he wants to hear about 'knowing your place' and
using that word uppity when referring to Marshall. He goes out of his way to
say he's in awe of McPhee – and maybe he even is, McPhee does seem to have the
ability to convince everybody to follow him.
The truth comes out: McPhee wanted Marshall to
kill someone. He asked him five times and on the last occasion actually had him
bound and whipped in an effort to do so but Marshall refused. And it is then we
learn the truth: the person McPhee wanted dead was his mother.
Sagan Lewis has two incredible moments: when we
see through the observation room that her son has confessed to wanting her dead
and when he talks to her son's attorney and tries to find ways to make sure he
can't be charged with it. Wood's performance is terrifying throughout and
watching it again, I have one question I don't know how to answer: is the only
reason he confessed was because he knew his mother would be there and he wanted
her to know just how much he hated her? That's the reason Bayliss is right:
Judge Aandahl lost.
Of course for all of this the other storylines
are followed up on. The episode features the first meeting of Kellerman with
Juliana Cox. Its worth noting that maybe one of the things that draws Mike to
Juliana is not only doesn't she know about the grand jury subpoena but that
when he tells her he's not guilty she just lets it go. "You have that kind
of face," This is the first time since the ordeal started that someone
just blanketly accepts his declaration of innocence.
And he has reason to. In this episode he learns
his colleagues at arson Goodman, Connelly and Perez have all copped pleas for
reduced sentences. Kellerman is understandably shocked: Roland has pled out to
testify against Goodman, Connelly and Perez and now that they've pled out, the
only one left is Mike, who's the only innocent one in the bunch. When he
confronts his attorney she tells him the one thing he doesn't want to hear:
take a plea. Kellerman and Juliana then indulge in a flirtation at the Waterfront
where he tells her he's afraid of not being a cop. Juliana's reaction is
telling: "So you're one of those people who think their job is their
life." We've been told for four and a half seasons that homicide is the
highest of callings; there's something refreshing about someone who can just
let her work go at the end of the day in a way that we rarely see the other
cops do.
The episode ends with Frank getting his weapon
back and being assured by Giardello that he knew he'd pass the test. Its then
we hear him show none of the bravado he showed to Tim when he said he'd be out
on the 'first death tomorrow'. "The true test is in there." He's
looking at the box. He denies it he said anything but we know he's thinking it.
And there's one last foreshadowing. Bayliss says
he's glad to have Frank back but Pembleton says: "The easy days are
over…I'm meaner then ever." We think the status quo has been restored. It
turns out Fontana and company are almost immediately going to shake it up far
worse.
And we're not just talking about on the job.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
'Detective Munch' A much smaller role then usual
save to try and reassure Frank that he passed his firearm exam. Except when
Kellerman asks to find Brodie. "Look under a rock. He'll be there."
That's because….
Brodie is On the Move! Kellerman learns Brodie is
homeless and offers to put him up on his boat. "It's a big boat,"
"The Queen Mary wouldn't be big enough," Munch says. "How bad
could he be?" "Well, I threw him out, Bayliss threw him out, then
Lewis, the three of us don't agree on much." Then Kellerman says: "My
life's already in the toilet. How bad could it be?" (Cut to next week's
episode.)
Hey Isn't That… I assume that are a few of you
who saw Elijah Wood in that small, low budget arthouse trilogy shot in New
Zealand where he played a dwarf or something. So let's talk about what he did
before and after all things connected to Peter Jackson.
Wood had a very successful career as a child
actor actually playing Huck Finn even before he played Frodo Baggins. I myself
had seen him in such films as Radio Flyer, Forever Young and The Good Son
before this episode and he started in Deep Impact after it. He played the
monstrous killer in Sin City and has done a lot of voice work whether it is
video games such as the voice of Spyro in those video game series, Kratos's
brother in God of War III and Mumble in Happy Feet.
His television debut came in the TV movie Day-O
and he later played the Artful Dodger in the 1997 TV version of Oliver Twist.
He played Ben Gunn in a miniseries of Treasure Island in 2012 and the voice of
Sigma in the TV series Red Vs. Blue. His live-action series debut came in
Wilfred, the FX comedy series where he played Ryan, the man who owns a dog who
only he sees as human. The show ran for four seasons. After that he played Todd
Brotzman in the BBC America adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective
Agency, based on the classic Douglas Adams novels. He can currently be seen as
Walter, the fellow citizen detective and possible love interest for the grown
up Misty on Yellowjackets. He and Christina Ricci played boyfriend and
girlfriend 25 years earlier in The Ice Storm.
On the Soundtrack: The hymn that the choir at
Larchfield is singing at the start and end of the episode is Jerusalem, an old
English spiritual.
