Homicide Rewatch: Have a Conscience

 

Written by James Yoshimura

Directed by Uli Edel

 

In hindsight the title really seems like advice that Homicide should have taken when it came to writing this episode in the first place. This is not just the weakest episode of the fifth season but one of the biggest missteps in the show's entire run. That James Yoshimura, one of the best writers, is responsible for such a mess makes all the harder to comprehend.

Homicide has previously made episodes that were weaker then this one and will in future seasons. But in those cases you got the feeling that they were created mainly under the pressure of the network in order to drive up the ratings. (Last season's Thrill of the Kill is the 'best' example of this.) In those cases it was an attempt to sensationalize the story usually by focusing on twists that would belong on other crime shows.

The fundamental flaw in 'Have A Conscience' is that it spends the first half of the episode trying to lead up to the final twenty minutes with Lewis and Kellerman, where we're trying to see Kellerman as suicidal and Lewis trying to talk him out of it. This won't work for many reasons, not the least of which it would go against Homicide's own rules.

First is the biggest flaw: the viewer knows that Kellerman will not kill himself. It's not just because in 1997 TV characters didn't get killed off; its that Homicide itself does not do that. This is the show that resists the idea of cops drawing their guns on the street, only forced Bolander, Felton and Howard to be shot in order to boost the ratings and killed off Crosetti only after Jon Polito had been essentially fired.

Even from a story standpoint it makes no sense that Kellerman, having spent the last four months struggling through every aspect of the criminal justice process, is going to kill himself because he had a bad day his first day back on active duty. This is a man who just the previous episode made it clear he wanted to be a good cop more than anything and has now been given a chance to do just that. For him to do having had a lousy day really seems like lazy writing.

And frankly it's just as lazy to have both of Lewis's partners die by killing themselves from the perspective of Lewis's character. The idea that Meldrick is essentially dare to talk him out of it really seems like the kind of thing a far weaker TV show would ever try.

For Homicide to pull this off the show would have to really give a great justification for Kellerman to kill himself off in the first two acts. And it doesn't come near to passing the stink test. There's nothing that we see happen that you can't imagine Mike hasn't gone through to some extent the last few months, even if the viewer didn't see it. The best argument you can make is that this is the day after he was cleared and he's still feeling some residual anger from everything that happened. But his behavior at every step really isn't any different then it was when he was at his most petulant before.

Honestly this episode really seems like the kind of thing a lesser series would send for awards consideration. Which in Homicide's case is ridiculous considering the enormously high standard it has for nearly every episode during a season. Diamond and Johnson have already given far better performances during Season 5 and they're going to give far better ones by the end of it.  

What's all the more infuriating is that for the first half hour there's a good episode here – not a masterpiece by any measure but a very good one, certainly. And that's mainly because its subverting what the viewer really wants to see after last week: the fallout between Bayliss's telling Frank he doesn't want to be partners any more. This is what the viewer's more invested in, so for Yoshimura to spend the first half of the episode focused on Kellerman's first day back and regulating Bayliss and Pembleton to the B-Story is keeping within the tradition.

Much of this does play out because of the reversal involved: Frank is the one trying to offer a hand of friendship to Bayliss and Tim, who would have killed for it any time in the last four years, keeps pushing it away. It's as frustrating for the viewer as it clear is for Frank and both Braugher and Secor are given interesting notes to play, both of which will carry forward for the rest of Season Five. Watching this episode the first time it genuinely hurt me as a fan to see this play out and I kept wanting the show to go back to the two of them rather than Mike Kellerman's no good, sort of awful, kind of very bad day.

Its particularly fascinating when both Bayliss and Pembleton discuss Kellerman and why. At this point Frank is trying to get Bayliss to take a ride with him on an old case and Bayliss says he's worried about Kellerman after Gaffney's mockery. Frank, who is the only person who hasn't openly said anything either of condolence or scorn, says that if Mike can handle 'the feds, the bosses, and the grand jury Gaffney will be no problem'. Bayliss says that there's more than that. In this case Tim is right and Frank is wrong – but fittingly for the main story neither really cares about Mike: this is about the two of them. The fact that Frank keeps trying to get Tim to work a case with him and Tim keeps putting him off with increasingly flimsy excuses makes it clear something deeper is beneath the surface with Bayliss and Frank gets the hint. When Tim comes back in after the most recent killer confesses Frank is clearly annoyed and now the shoe's on the other foot.

Let's not forget that Kellerman made a big deal that he was almost certainly guilty of a crime and willing to give up being a cop yesterday. Now the moment he sees Ingram he's pissed that she didn't put anything in the paper about him not being indicted. Now I have absolutely no doubt this was intentional, maybe as a personal dig at Kellerman for threatening to mess up her nicely done case with a bow. But even it isn't, she's right on the facts: this is how the process works and Kellerman himself knows this face. When she reminds him that his partners are in the headlines for being indicted (perhaps implying it could have just as easily been him) he backs off but is just as mean-spirited as he was when he facing charges the last four months. He was never innocent under anyone's standards but his own and that starts the episode off on a bad note.

Equally noteworthy is Kellerman's behavior when he enters the squad room. Brodie goes out of his way to congratulate him; Munch and Howard try to persuade him to relax the next night and Giardello welcomes him back. They are all doing exactly what he's wanting: treating him like a normal cop.  And Kellerman basically greets their good wishes with indifference at best. For that matter when Kellerman tries to thank Al for what he tried to do (which he denies) he basically says, "Next time, let me deal with it." That's practically spitting in Al's face considering that Mike basically spent the entire time begging Al to do something and how much Gee agonized over it. Giardello's response is a combination of encouragement and warning: "There won't be a next time.'

It's only when Gaffney makes it clear he openly thinks Mike got away with murder that he reacts at all. Now I'm not going to pretend that this isn't the meanest Gaffney has ever been to any detective so far in his tenure and for him to treat a subordinate this way is abusive. But its worth noting that the scene in the squad is very much how Mike has been this entire period: he refuses to accept the good wishes of those around him and only hears the damnation.

The best chance the episode has of getting away from this comes when Kellerman takes his first call and is back on the street. The case in itself is a good one frankly; one that has a deeper resonance. It is the shooting of a Korean grocery store owner named Tommo Roh. Both his wife and son are clearly shocked and believe in his honor.

The discussion is about the 'change in the neighborhood', in this case the dealers that have begun to proliferate. His customers – who are all African-American – basically have nothing but good things to say about him. It turns out that he picked a fight with the wrong man: Luther Mahoney. The day after he chased some dealers off the street Luther came up and threw the fear of God into his mother, even though "he was very polite about it." Roh went crazy and went to the youth center. We already know Mahoney is more than willing to flaunt his authority in front of police; a sixty year old storekeeper is something he would merely flick away.

Its telling the viewer never doubts Mahoney would do this, despite the denials he makes in front of Kellerman and Lewis. At this point he's encountered the two of them in some form often enough that he barely bothers to make up a plausible story. He seems more interested in baiting Kellerman and daring him to do something that will get him into trouble with his superiors. We've now passed the point in Homicide where the detectives believe any word that comes out of Mahoney's mouth and he's not even bothering to play with the idea he's a community organizer any more. Considering he was more than willing to go to the Waterfront and flaunt Lewis the last time they met, it's as if he makes it clear that human life is irrelevant to him other than how it profits or benefits him. He truly thinks he is above the law and its impossible not to blame either Kellerman or Lewis for their behavior when they come face to face again. (Meldrick, who is by far the calmer of the two, basically implies as much in their final exchange in this episode.)

This episode works the best when we see Diamond struggling to come back and acting like nothing's bothering him. Homicide has already established how much of a trigger Luther Mahoney is for him and the fact that an innocent civilian, a fundamentally good ma was murdered because he got in the way of a drug lord, is the kind of story Homicide rarely did. It also does more to establish the true ruthlessness of Luther. To this point all of the people who have been killed by Mahoney's orders are soldiers in the drug word themselves. That Luther chooses to have a man erase who was at most an inconvenience to him simultaneously makes him more evil and more realistic. (The Wire rarely would have people murdered who were essentially trying to do the right thing in this way.) The fact that Kellerman is clearly taking this case more personally then some also works as to Homicide's best notes: we saw just last week how well Homicide works when the cases resonate with the detectives on a personal level.

So when Kellerman and Lewis rant about Mahoney in the car on the way home its believable as is Mike's line: "We're going to be in pension and he's gonna be in Congress. That's the way of the world." But when he starts kicking the car and saying he's going to sue everybody who he thinks screwed him over and then gets out of the car and walking away, it really does feel like he's throwing a tantrum.

When the episode cuts away from the squad room and moves to Kellerman's boat this is when the episode moves away from possibly brilliant to the misstep it is. It starts out decently with Cox and Lewis interacting and Juliana saying that Mike's in one of his moods. She says: "I don't know why I keep caring about that guy." Lewis then says: "I didn't know you did." It's clear that Lewis has no idea about what's been going on between Juliana and Mike the last few weeks, nor how its starting to sour. He offers to grab Kellerman and they'll party at the bar. That's nice and sweet. Meldrick's clowning around on the boat, calling Gilligan and wanting Mike to let him in is fun. Mike being rude when Meldrick comes in and busy cleaning is realistic. The moment we see the gun however we're worried, though not to much. Kellerman says, "He's tired', that's believable.

But the moment he grabs the gun and starts talking Have A Conscience starts getting into trouble.  And it really shouldn't: long scenes with two people just talking are Homicide's strength. But in fifteen minutes there's nothing that Kellerman and Lewis say that we haven't seen play out either in the episode, or throughout the entire storyline involving Kellerman's the last few months. This is particularly true with Diamond because all he's basically doing is either restating things he's said in the episode, albeit with more pronouncement, or everything else in the few weeks to an extent with more self-aggrandizement. When you consider that he was only innocent of the charge of not taking the bribe and was planning to plead the 5^th until he was forced to by circumstance, it really makes so much of his emotional strain just sound false. It's believable this entire process who be emotionally exhausting for him and its been established he's spent more energy on clear his name than getting support but considering that he's spent far more time pushing everyone away who could help him, its hard to feel that this is realistic.

Johnson comes across slightly better in this scenario because it is more realistic what he's going through to see it play out. The viewer may never believe the show is going to let Kellerman eat his gun but Meldrick doesn't know this going in. The only times this comes close to working is when Lewis makes it very clear how much Crosetti's loss has hurt him. The show's already established that Meldrick has been less open to his fellow detectives since Crosetti's suicide and we've already established that he hasn't told Mike much of his personal history even though Kellerman has done the same. So that part does seem really as well as why he might feel guilt for that fact.

But the fact remains Yoshimura has run out of things to say five minutes before the episode ends when Meldrick finally takes the gun from Mike. It's just as heavy handed when we keep cutting to the Waterfront where another depressing night is unfolding. When Howard says: "Real life never plays out the same way," its heavy handed in a way the show almost never is.

There is a certain amount of reality being restored in the last couple of minutes. Meldrick saying that he can't look out at the water for very long because that's where they fished Crosetti out is realistic, as is Mike's being adamant of not letting the department know about his mental state because he's afraid he'll lose his job. And the show manages to set it right in the next couple of episodes with Kellerman in a way that almost makes this worth it. 

We can't entirely dismiss Have A Conscience because the story involving the rift between Baylis and Pembleton and the Roh case and its link to Luther Mahoney are critical when it comes to the rest of the season and beyond. You just can't help but wish they found a better way to do it.

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

 

'Detective Munch' John tells Howard a story he heard on the radio of a man they found in scuba gear in the forest in Oregon. The speculation was he was practicing diving in the lake and one of those planes that fought forest fires scooped up water and dumped it on the flames.

This story, however, is one to many for Kay. "You're always doing this. You come in with some crazy story that's got no point." This actually pisses Munch off. "So what's your point?"

And yes this is one of the stories that Ricky Jay will tell us in the opening of Magnolia in two years' time.  Believe it or not, this isn't the only time Homicide will presage Paul Thomas Anderson's cinematic masterpiece. (Did Paul Thomas Anderson get his inspiration from Richard Belzer?)

In this episode Juliana Cox is on crutches because she says she tripped over her dog. This is in fact what happened to Michelle Forbes. Forbes was not happy the writers including this onscreen.

There's a very subtle in-joke about the case Pembleton is investigating, the Bianculli murder. David Bianculli was (is?) a New York TV critic who was one of the earliest and most vocal supporters of Homicide when it was on the air. And as always the writers thank him by having his namesake killed under undignified circumstances at a topless bar.

Despite the fact that Kellerman thinks the Roh case will never be closed it will end up being solved in a few weeks' time. Of course that will lead to some continuity problems but we'll get to that when they happen.

Uli Edel, who directed this episode was a prominent German director who made his American film debut with Last Exit to Brooklyn. He made his TV directorial debut with Twin Peaks and would work again with Lynch's production company on Rebel Highway. He directed three more episodes of Homicide and one of OZ before later directing the TNT adaptation of The Mists of Avalon. He's also directed such mini series as Casar and King of Texas. He would return to Germany to direct The Baader Meinhof Complex and the German TV series The Palace, the story of the Freidrichstadt-Palast Music Hall in the late 1980s. He would be nominated by the DGA for directing the HBO TV movie Rasputin and an Emmy nomination for directing The History Channel Houdini which would star Adrian Brody in the title role.