Homicide Rewatch: Wu's On First

 

Teleplay by David Simon & Anya Epstein, story by James Yoshimura & Julie Martin

Directed by Tim McCann

When this episode first aired it was in February of 1997 still considered sweeps month for network TV.  In this era, as is true to a certain extent today, network series used this period for appearances by major guest stars either for stunt casting or to get big names you wouldn't be able to get normally. Homicide had already done this quite a few times already but always by its own rules, most recently by casting Elijah Wood in The True Test.

Here it casts three actors who were fairly prominent in movies during the 1990s: Joan Chen, Tate Donovan and Eric Stoltz. In the case of the latter two there was a significance  that some viewers at the time (myself among them) was unaware of.

 Donovan, Stoltz and Reed Diamond had been among the young stars cast in the 1990 World War II film Memphis Belle. Ever since then the three of them had been extremely close with Stoltz saying he loved them "like the brothers I never wish I had." So to cast Donovan and Stoltz as Mike Kellerman slightly older brothers is a bit of stunt casting, as is the fact he's never mentioned them to Meldrick and the first words out of his mouth when they storm the boat is: "Just when I thought my life couldn't get any worse."

With good reason. This is the first time his brothers have shown up in Baltimore in three years. His mothers thinks her babies are dead, his father is convinced they're in jail and its clear from the moment Mike opens his mouth which parent he knows is telling the truth. And sure enough Drew tells him that he owes $18,000 to a bookie in Ohio and that they need to go to Miami to get away, Greg says to pay for the charter fishing they have stolen a uniform of Babe Ruth that they intend to sell to a pawnbroker. Neither brother feels the least remorse for their actions and they clearly bully Mike into seeing a dead body just so they'll show them the uniform. This understandably outrages Cox and its clear again Drew and Greg show no respect for her job or really anybody.

 We know even before Meldrick checks their rap sheet just how criminal their behavior is. When you steal Babe Ruth's jersey from one set of gamblers in order to try and pay off another gambler that's a pretty good sign you're not exactly friendly with the law. That they even show up to his boat in the first place, knowing he's a cop and how bad this will hurt him shows just how little respect that they have for him as well as his job something we see as they mock him for always wanting to be a cop. Greg tries to say that Mike is depressed about something and he clearly picks up on it in the very awkward but inevitable scene at the Kellerman household – but he doesn't care that much about his brother's wellbeing.

But in this episode watching Mike interact with the two of them it explains a lot about why he's so focused on being a good cop far more than anything in the grand jury storyline ever did. It's clear pretty much from the start that Mike has been cleaning up his brother's messes ever since he was a kid and that has driven him to become a cop more than anything else we've seen. It also explains why he was so reluctant to tell his parents why he'd been subpoenaed and why the way his father talked to him hurt so much. The Kellermans have clearly taken so much grief from Drew and Greg over the years that they've pinned all their hopes on Mike and subconsciously been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And we also know that emotionally Drew and Greg could not have shown up at a worse possible time for Mike. After months on suspension and suspicion that he thinks at some level will never go away, the knowledge of his guilt in not reporting a bribe, the failed relationship with Juliana and what happened on his boat a week ago, the last people Mike needs to see are his brothers sneaking on to his boat and treating him like they're all still kids. It's clear they've never had the relationship where Mike could be honest with them; they're perpetual liars even to themselves and they really don't care about his personal well-being. Its pretty clear the only reason they showed up was not to lure him for a charter fishing business but because they were in trouble and they wanted Mikey to bail them out, one way or the other. Mike knows this and at a certain level so do his brothers.

Much as we like spending time with the Kellerman brothers this is Homicide and there is a murder to solve. Except the show tries to look at it from a lateral perspective by having the first person we see be Elizabeth Wu. And when you learn that Homicide was considering making her a recurring character  you can tell why this could have paid off.

Chen is incredible in this episode, playing a character who is just as good at getting information, holding off her adversaries and determined to get to the truth even if it means bucking the bosses. Pembleton dislikes her immensely (what else is new?) but it's clear all the other detectives as well as Gee clearly respect her.  To be sure they mock her name over and over in this episode but there's none of the snideness we've gotten with so many of the other reporters and media we've seen them interact with over the last four and a half seasons.  Giardello says: "She's a player" and it's clear all of them (save Frank)treat her with a certain dignity they haven't treated other reporters or even Brodie. (We'll see the best contrast of that in the next episode.)

This is true from the opening scene when Wu's clearly being bullied by a TV reporter for the only working pay phone at the crime scene. She sweetly hands it over then goes to the tape and makes it clear she's figured out the victim is a Calvert County cop named James Haybert, the weapon, the blood trail and his service weapon in the car. When Pembleton tells her to get lost, Munch and Howard do damage control trying to argue that this will make it hard for them to do their jobs. She counters she has a job to do and they're not making it easier. Al is willing to make a deal in order for her to withhold details. Then she walks back to the payphone which Daniels says isn't working because the call isn't going through. Wu then takes out the receiver which she unscrewed before she gave them the phone and screws it back in, calling the Sun. It's the kind of introduction that would work for a back-door pilot if Homicide had ever been so inclined.

It works best when Bonfather comes out and she says she wants to ask him a question after which he leaves. When Al asks what he wanted to ask her she says nothing – she just figured it was the fastest way to get rid of him, which endears her to Al even more.

Wu writes a story in the Sun in which she paints Haybert as a hero, a twenty-six year old beat cop still trying to do the right thing, who died as a victim in the War on Drugs. It’s a good story but even as Bayliss reads in admiration its becoming clear that Haybert was holding vials even though there's no reason for him.

This is the first episode of Homicide where its clear Simon's imprint as he gives a clear picture to a police reporter, an editor who refuses to let no news be an excuse to keep writing a story and the press keeps putting details forward regardless of the interest. When Wu hears something from a source and wants to talk about what she's heard Pembleton's first reaction is to call Danvers and summon a grand jury and Wu calmly quotes chapter and verse the annotated code of the Shield law. This is very much a Pembleton move which irritates him more. Munch and Giardello are more understanding and are willing to bend. And her editor doesn't care whether a story is properly sourced, all he cares about is keeping it on 'A1'  "If it's wrong we'll fix it the next day." A decade later many people would complain about how much of the final season of The Wire was badly done because of the storylines in the Sun and editors just putting whatever would be readable. No one complained here.

When it becomes clear that Haybert was buying the vials and using them for himself and was likely killed in a drug deal Wu is upset because she got the story wrong and wants to correct things. I've rarely had more contempt for Frank when he has an exchange with Wu about the story coming first:

 

Howard: Come on Frank. She has a job to do.

Pembleton: So do the hookers on Point. They just don't take as much pride in it.

 

This may be the most single offensive thing Frank has said about anyone in Homicide's entire run that absolutely can't be justified. Even Giardello feels the need to apologize after this.

In this episode Chen embodies Wu with more character then some of the other series regulars did in their runs. It's impossible not to compare her with Brodie (who isn't in this episode at all) when it comes to how much she cares about doing her job right and the importance to the truth. At the end of the episode she's very clear on just how badly she screwed things up in her two stories and how much everyone in the world must judge here. This bothers her more than Bonfather's decision to name her and get the editor furious at her so he sends her to the sticks. It's just as likely he would have done so because she didn't bring the killer back to the newsroom in a rolltop desk: that matters more to him than the actual story.

The final two scenes between Mike and his brothers tell their entire history in a nutshell. When he relates the story of how the three of them stole comic books and he was the only one who got in trouble neither Drew or Greg get the point of it. You really wish that Mike would leave his brothers to rot or at least let the out-of-state cops get them.

But the final scene when Mike says goodbye pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Despite everything they've done to him just in the past two days he still loves his brothers. He doesn't trust them with good reason but he still is willing to pay them off before they say goodbye. Maybe he's doing this as a favor to his parents: he knows how much trouble they've already caused. Or maybe its because he's already had enough problems with them hanging around and now he just wants them out of his life again. It's a good decision: one Kellerman is already enough trouble.

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

Detective Munch:  He starts off the plays on Wu's name with Meldrick.

"That's Wu."

Who?"

Wu?"

What?

To be fair Giardello and Naomi do the same thing. Munch is actually more of a good cop then we've seen in a few episodes and he actually is more than civil with her then the rest of the detectives are. Good for him.

 

Hey, Isn't That…Nope, nobody significant in this one. Just kidding.

 

Joan Chen made her debut at 16 in Chinese films and her debut in American TV in Matt Houston. She made appearance in Knight Rider, Miami Vice and MacGyver before becoming more known for her role as Wan Jung in the 1987 Oscar winner for Best Picture The Last Emperor. Then she officially became known to millions for her role as Josie Packard in Twin Peaks where thirty five years later fans are still discussing how she died and how she ended up in a doorknob.

Much of her film work afterwords was often beneath her such as The Hunted, Judge Dredd and On Deadly Ground and not long after that she has more or less returned to China, mostly working film and TV there. The few exceptions were playing Empress Chabi in the Netflix series Marco Polo and Lu Mei in the FX series A Murder at the End of the World. She is currently starring in the Chinese medical drama Wen Xin.

Tate Donovan has been one of the most formidable actors in film and TV for nearly three decades and for the purposes of this article I'm going to focus on his TV work. Prior to playing Greg Kellerman he'd played Own on Partners, a one season comedy on Fox. Known for his relationship with Jennifer Aniston he played her secret crush Joshua in Season 4. After giving the voice of Hercules in the film he did the voice work for the animated series which ran two seasons. He also started as Kevin McCalister in Trinity, which also starred Jill Clayburgh, Charlotte Ross, John Spencer and Kim Raver, all of whom would become TV phenomena just a little later.

Finally he became part of a major hit as Jimmy Cooper on The O.C. and then became part of a critical hit when he took the role of Tom Shayes, Patty Hewes top lieutenant on Damages a show I've raved about a bit. After his character met his fate in Season 3 he starred in several short-lived network series Deception and Hostages before playing Mark Boudreau in 24:Live Another Day. He followed that up with the role of George Dixon on The Man in the High Castle and playing Oversight in the reboot of MacGyver.

As you'd expect he's also done his share of directing, starting with the OC but also Nip Tuck, Glee, Gossip Girl, Weeds, Madame Secretary and such shows as the Fosters and Hawaii Five-0.

(Deep Breath)

Eric Stoltz worked In TV even longer than Donovan did starting with his TV debut in 1978. He actually first made the acquaintance of Tom Fontana when he played Eddie Carson in St. Elsewhere's inaugural season. That was his last TV role for awhile as he became a fairly significantly movie star. In fact while he'd appeared in quite a few TV movies during the 1990s (and had actually appeared on Partners with his running buddy Tate Donovan it was a get to have him as Drew. And he liked the taste of it.

He would join the cast of Chicago Hope during its fifth season as Dr. Robert Yeats but end up being hired as the show cleaned house. He then played August Dimitri a teacher of Grace Manning in the third and last season of Once and Again in a controversial arc. He played Mark on the showtime dramedy Out of Order, an odd but fascinating failure that featured Felicity Huffman, Kim Dicken, Justine Bateman, William H. Macy, Peter Bodganovich and Lane Smith.

 He played William Dunn the serial killer Meredith Grey has a bizarre fascination with on Season Five of Grey's Anatomy and after that was cast as Daniel Graystone in Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica. An intriguing series it was cancelled after 1 and a half seasons. He had the recurring role of Will Adams on Madam Secretary over five seasons.

In truth he's worked far more as a director then a filmmaker. He directed a dozen episodes of Glee over its run but has worked for Shondaland on almost every series she's produced from Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice to How to Get Away With Murder and a few failed ones like Off The Map. He also directed 19 episodes of Madame Secretary and six episodes of Bull. He even directed the independent film Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk.

In order to make it clear how flustered Mike was by his brothers Donovan and Stoltz actually improvised a lot of their dialogue in their scenes together. "It was mayhem," Stoltz admitted. The effort made off; you can tell in every scene Diamond is fighting cracking up even when he's belligerent with them, which makes sense given everything that happens.

 

It's Baltimore: Wu tells Giardello that the O's might trade Mussina next year. In fact it didn't happen that year but later…

I hate to point this out but I am a baseball fan. When the pawnbroker looks at Ruth's uniform and says that he saw Ruth 'hit a homer over his head against the Senators in '38'" that would be difficult because Ruth retired in 1935.  He was a first-base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 but there's no way they would have played the Senators.  If he'd said he'd seen it in 1934 he'd have been on safe ground.

The brothers are right about Babe Ruth beginning his career in Baltimore. He was signed with the very first minor league team called the Baltimore Orioles in 1914. It was as a pitcher and he did go 14-6 before the Red Sox bought him. Of course Ruth was the son of a Baltimore saloonkeeper and Camden Yards was built on the site where Ruth's father's saloon once stood, among other things.  Considering just how troubled Ruth's childhood was and that he was essentially raised in an orphanage, it's one of those great ironies that the official museum for the greatest Yankee of all time is in a city that he never spent any moment of his adult life in.