Homicide Rewatch: Partners & Other Strangers

 

Written by Anya Epstein, James Yoshimura & Daryl Lamont Wharton

Directed by Leslie Libman and Larry Williams

 

In what has already been an incredibly dark season for Homicide the writers choose to end Season 5 with the darkest storyline yet: Pembleton being called to the scene of a suicide and learning that the dead man is Beau Felton, who was suspended along with Bolander way back at the start of Season 4 but whose absence has essentially been ignored by the squad.

Partners & Other Strangers begins a two-parter that is the most transitional episode in series history to this point. Felton's death will effective trigger events where the show more or less bids adieu to the 'old school' format in the first two to three seasons. That it should do so through Felton's death is a bitter irony.

When Crosetti committed suicide back in Season 3 it was a shock to the squad as much as the audience. But while Crosetti was respected and admired among his colleagues the same was never true of Felton. This is made clear when every character has flashbacks of their memories of Beau and with the sole exception of Howard, none of them are fond ones. Even Howard, who this affects the most, acknowledges she hasn't so much has said a word to him since he resigned. There's clearly guilt involved with his death – and the more the squad learns about Felton's activities it becomes clear they didn't know him as well as they thought – but the truth is they were always inclined to think the worst of him. His absence has not been mourned the same way Lewis has felt Crosetti's death or the way that Bolander's absence has clearly affected Munch. Felton wasn't a distinguished cop or even a very good one. No one has mourned his absence because they were never much fond of his presence.

So when Frank comes thinking it’s a shotgun suicide, he thinks its nothing and takes care of the officer whose struggling and when he sees who killed himself Frank is unnerved even taking his hat off for the loss of his fellow detective.

After basically sidelining Howard to desk duty for nearly two years Melissa Leo gets to shine for the first time in a long time. We see her going through the same denial Meldrick did when Crosetti died: in her case she can't accept its him. Meldrick takes it even harder  - this on top of what nearly happened to Mike is clearly hitting him like a ton of bricks. When Lewis begins chanting about ways to kill himself and then goes to Mike saying: "You're with me, aren't you?" it’s the biggest sign of Meldrick's nasty streak in a long time.

Kellerman, who has no idea of who Felton was, asks the question that no one wants to: why had no one spoken with him in so long? When Frank tries to absolve himself saying that the man left the department of his own accord, he makes it clear he doesn't care. Howard walks in just in time to hear him and makes it very clear that if he did it takes the burden of all of them. Then a new face walks in and says he can explain why Felton killed himself.

This is our introduction to Paul Falsone currently working for auto theft. Falsone would almost immediately become one of the most polarizing characters in the show's history, something I didn't know at time and don't understand now. In his tenure on Homicide there would be reasons to find his character problematic but in his introduction he comes across as a good investigator. He knows that Felton is working for a major operator named Frank Cantwell.  The squad's had an operation into Cantwell for months with the feds until it became clear that there was someone in the department working with him. At the time of his death Falsone makes it clear that Felton was working with Cantwell. Howard takes this extremely personally and Falsone doesn't endear himself by saying that just because Felton worked Homicide doesn't mean he walked on water. He doesn't know until she tells him the two were partners.

Howard refuses to accept that Beau could be dirty. She admits he was deeply flawed but she also knows being police meant everything to Beau and that he wouldn't sell out the badge.

Frank spends the first half of the episode acting far worse then he did when Crosetti committed suicide. He refuses to take his fellow detectives concerns seriously and when Al makes it clear that he's trying to figure out why it happened Frank says its irrelevant. He doesn't care why Beau might have killed himself. When Bayliss shows up in the squad he acknowledges how messed up the suicide was and he's clearly angry that Tim wasn't there.

It's only because of the diligent work of Juliana Cox when she's doing the final autopsy report that she realizes that Beau might not have killed himself. She and Dr. Dyer spend the next forty eight hours essentially putting Felton's skull back together. She figures out that he was shot at close range and then his head was blown off to disguise it.

Pembleton and Howard go to Felton's room and Frank is awkward for the first time, We know Frank always respected Kay and he knows that while he never liked Beau, he and Kay were partners and he understand that bond better than he wants to admit. Howard is still not able to deal and she's upset that 'the bastards killed him in his own bathroom'. Its telling that he uses Beau's term: "They murdered him. Beau believed there was a distinction between murder and killing."  She admits she believed that Felton was capable of it because she always knew that Beau was capable of the worst possible behavior when they were partners.  She makes it clear she doesn't want anyone to know she cried.

After that Pembleton and Howard agree to meet up with Falsone. As is his wont it takes all of ten seconds for Frank to start pissing on the territory of other cops. For once however, he meets someone who gives as good as he gets, who makes it clear that he has an informant but he's going to talk to him on his own. Howard has to stop this measuring contest and makes it clear that an ex-cop was murdered in cold blood. That carries enough weight to have Falsone bring him in and meet.

Before the investigation even begins its put on hold and then we meet the other detective and this face is familiar: Stu Gharty, who's now been promoted to detective and is working for IID (Baltimore's Internal Affairs). We will realize the full consequences of Gharty's involvement in the next episode but we're busy with the biggest revelation: at the time of his death Beau Felton was still a cop, working undercover for IID. Someone was tipping Cantwell around last April. Felton was coming up on the end of his suspension and made it clear he didn't want to go back to Homicide. Gharty decided to use Felton and find a way to figure out who was tipping Cantwell off about customs.

When Al learns about this – and even more upsettingly that Bonfather knew about this – he is furious: he believes it is because of Gharty's work that Felton was killed. He has less use for Gharty who has another problem: if they bring in Cantwell's crew which is the next step, they will never find out who the leak was and Felton will have died for nothing. Bonfather splits the baby and makes it clear Homicide and IID will work together to solve Felton's murder. Al is already furious the decision was made without him – and he's going to be even angrier in the finale.

Because this is a season finale Homicide spends much of the two parts resolving storylines that have lasted much of Season 5. The biggest one in 'Partners & Other Strangers' is the on again, off again rift between Pembleton and Bayliss that has been going on basically since Frank returned to the squad. Bayliss is off on another one of his errands when Frank gets the call that leads him to learn of Felton's death. He's already pissed at Tim for doing this and he lets him have it with both barrels in the aftermath of Felton's shooting. He makes it clear how truly angry he is at how Bayliss has been gone from the squad all this time and how indifferent he seems to have been to the job. When Bayliss again pushes him aside for another errand for the first time Pembleton tails Tim – and sees that he's been taking care of his Uncle George.

In keeping with the grand tradition of Homicide the writers resolve the story by revealing the secret but not providing closure for anybody. Frank knows what's going on and Tim can't explain if this has resolved anything for him. But it's enough to finally heal the gap between them. Tim makes clear he went there he hated him and he wanted revenge to take away from him what he took away from me. And now he can't take away anything he hasn't already lost. Bayliss wanted to talk to him and try to understand why he did what he did. He understand that he has to forgive him and his father before anything can change. And when Frank asks Tim never answers.

The other major storyline from last week is told. Gaffney tells Giardello that the letter he wrote to the Mayor has been carried out and Deputy Commissioner Harris's career is now under investigation from the U.S. Attorney. While its never followed up on after this season Harris is never heard from again, so the assumption is he's been forced out of office, perhaps only in retirement. Gaffney makes thinly veiled warnings about Al not writing any more but its clear he's unnerved – he knows his involvement in the interference with Burundi Robinson and he doesn't want to end up in jail. Gaffney survives, of course – he's a cockroach after all and will be back to his nagging self soon.

Before Pembleton enters the squad room Munch is reading the news of the memorial for Luther Mahoney. Even as Howard jokes that they all wanted to make sure he was dead when Munch tells them that 300 people showed up to view a man many viewed as a leader Lewis and Kellerman are appalled.

The eulogy that Kellerman reads where the reverend says: "there were many sides to Luther Marcellus Mahoney. While we reject and renounce his criminal activities, we must at the same time recognize his countless good works."

Of all the things that all the writers ever wrote this in many ways is the most prescient as it illustrates the most clearly how so much of today's African-Americans are willing to push aside the often horrible things so many of the leaders have done in the past and do the day in service of a greater good. One almost wonders if before he died Luther's youth center had collaborated with Robinson's movement considering that both men's public face excused a huge amount of corruption, wrongdoing and murder.  The viewer knows all too well the horrible things Mahoney has done and that so much of Baltimore seems willing to complete set it aside makes one wonder if Mahoney might very well have ended up in Congress had he not been killed – or perhaps become a version of Clay Davis.

One wonders how much of learning this will lead to Kellerman's downfall. Not long after reading this eulogy he starts going to the bar and getting drunk, something he will do on a regular basis until the season ends and then will resume doing during Season 6. He's been willing to carry this because he thought he did the right thing and he can live with Stivers judgment. But the fact that so many in Baltimore will still look on Mahoney as a hero despite that – well that's a lot for a man who just wanted to be a good cop to bear.

It's clear how much this is beginning to weigh on Mike. He and Cox are on a date, something he's just admitted to Lewis is a relationship. However its clear very quickly that Kellerman isn't interesting in listening or sharing or even having sex with Juliana. He wants to brood and get drunk. It's telling that immediately after this we see a flashback from 'Nothing Personal' when Felton is getting drunk; it’s the clearest prophecy yet of Mike's downfall.

But the biggest revelation comes in the final minutes when we see the final familiar face. Megan Russert has returned from Paris with brown hair and dressed all in black. When she reenters the squad to see Howard and Munch she makes it clear she planned to grieve for Beau in Paris until she learned he was murdered. She's come back to help with the investigation. Howard isn't thrilled with this – she and Russert never had the easiest relationship – and then we see that in over a year Al never got around to erasing her name from the board.

The final scene has Bayliss talking about Felton and reminding Pembleton he didn't like him. Frank says he doesn't have to work this case. When Al tells them that the squad is back investigating Felton's murder Frank and Tim go back in united. Their partnership has endured. Others won't be as lucky.

 

 

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

It was the 90s: In describing what turns out to be Felton's body Juliana Cox jokes about what was then the brand new TV ratings system between TV-PG and TV-MA. Believe it or not in 1997 this system was relatively new to television and most network TV was crossing the line between TV-PG and TV-14. No one dared to think of an era where the best shows on TV would exclusively be rating TV-MA – though in a few months' time Tom Fontana would help usher it in.

Daniel Baldwin only appears in flashbacks in this episode. In chronological order:

'Nothing Personal' plays while Howard is reeling from the news of Felton's suicide.

'Dead End' plays when Howard's at the morgue.

While Lewis is playing pool we see an excerpt from 'See No Evil'

When Giardello is discussing the shooting we see Felton being shot in 'The City That Bleeds'

Bayliss remembers their horrible conversation in 'All Through the House'.

Before Howard learns that Beau was murdered we see their last interaction in 'From Cradle to Grave'.

Pembleton remembers their volatile discussion in Last of the Watermen.

Kellerman starts to get blitzed as Felton did in Nothing Personal.

Russert's return to the unit is bracketed with her memory of Beau in 'Fits Like a Glove'

Mahoney PTSD: In addition to everything else Lewis calls Stivers to the Waterfront because she's been avoiding him. Lewis makes it clear that Mahoney is dead and what good will it do to have Kellerman up on charges, Stivers and him off the force and Mike going to jail for murder. He seems willing to make peace with it. He asks Stivers if she can carry this. "I don't have a choice," she says. Not long after that he has his flashback about Felton.

 

"Detective Munch" Interestingly – and hysterically – the best description of Munch comes from Dr. Alyssa Dyer in what is the character's first major interaction with Cox since she took over the morgue. As the two of them work on stapling together Felton's skull the two discuss what Felton looked like when he was alive and then Dyer describes what it was like to date a cop. "Gloomy, cynical, completely devoted to their own misery." Beat. "Alyssa please tell me you didn't go out with Munch?" In one of the best inside jokes ever Dyer tells Cox she has sworn off dating cops. Instead, she's dating a stand up comic. Harlee McBride must have loved delivering this line and Richard Belzer must have loved hearing it.

The other jab comes from the other woman in John's life. When Russert passes him she slaps him on the shoulder. "What was that for?" Munch demands. "You couldn't close Bongi and Sabatino while I was gone?" (Her two open cases are still on the board.  "I knew you were coming back; I wanted you to feel at home  when you got back," Munch says.

FUTURE INMATE: Scott Winters, as the credits identify him, plays Eddie Dugan the spotter for Cantwell with a distinct southern accent. Just as his brother Dean made his debut in Homicide Scott made an early appearance here though you'd remember him better for Clark the man Matt Damon famously says, "How do you like them apples?" in Good Will Hunting. He'd take the middle name William when he took on the role of Cyril O'Reilly, Ryan's younger and brain damaged brother in OZ a role, like Dean, he would play to the series ended.

Scott has been very prominent in television ever since, ironically often as a cop. He played Matt Jablonski on the short lived series 10-8: Officers on Duty, Stan Hatcher, a cop who becomes a thorn in Sipowicz's side in Season 11 of NYPD Blue and Detective McNamara in Season 1 of Dexter where he shared the screen with Lauren Velez, David Zayas and Erik King, all of whom had been on OZ while he was there. His most prominent roles have included Agent Samuels on Day 6 of 24, Rafaele Riario Sansoni on Borgia (where he co-starred with John Doman, another OZ alum) Detective Joe Dumas over multiple seasons of Law & Order: SVU, Nick Fischer on Berlin Station and Westley Clark on six episodes of NCIS in 2018-2019. He played Todd Hastings on the first two seasons of City on a Hill (written by Tom Fontana), Eric Dawicki on the miniseries The Girl From Plainville and Detective Marty McGee on Memory of A Killer. And in case you were wondering, yes, that is him playing the younger brother of Dean Winters as Mayhem in an ad for All-State.

On the Soundtrack: In the scenes in the Waterfront when Kellerman is getting drunk with Cox you can hear 'Never Change' by Love Riot.