Homicide Rewatch: Shaggy Dog, City Goat

 

Written by Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Kyle Secor

 

Those of you who've seen Magnolia – and I think its more likely that by this point in time its been seen by more people than Homicide was – will recognize almost immediately the story that Juliana Cox decides to baffle a group of medical examiners in the aftermath of her being honored as Chief Medical Examiner of the year. Indeed if you remember the opening of the movie Ricky Jay says this very story was told at a convention of M.E.'s – I assume with the names changed.

So the main plot by seem protracted given that Paul Thomas Anderson and Jay deal with it in less then five minutes of screen time in the prologue of that classic film. Like most of the stories in it the tale plays out with heightened emotion, anger and depression. But because this is Homicide – and more importantly because the primary is John Munch who loves these kinds of stories – it plays with humor and charm all the way through. And indeed throughout the entire plot it plays as a frothy comedy because it is helped with one of great bits of stunt casting in the show's history. But we'll get there.

Cox tells them about how she's called from home to see what appears to be a straight up suicide 'a jumper'. Munch and Kellerman are on the scene of a white, male John Doe in his 20s. He took a header of the roof, no signs of a struggle  with witnesses who, according to Munch "witnessed liftoff, solo flight by all accounts'.  He fell seven stories and they note the awning, mute witness to his solo trajectory. (That's the biggest difference; there's no netting that would have saved our jumper's life this time.) Cox seems determined to go home but Munch tells her "not to jump to any conclusions, as it were." (Long of great Munch lines in this one, obviously.) Then Cox notes the gunshot blast. Kellerman actually seems to enjoy this next part: "I say Holmes," he says in a British accent. "Shotgun if I'm not mistaken. Which would make this murder." Then he and Munch, as all good detectives do, bet on what kind of gauge was used.

The M.E.s then begin the speculation we're used to from our detectives. One says he was suicidal, stands on the edge, gathers his nerve and just as he's about to jump, gets shot in the back by an unseen assailant. (All of the storytelling is related over several dinners.) Cox admits to thinking this but its clear he was shot in the chest, not the back.  One woman claims to have heard a shot before our jumped launched his 'short but brilliant career as a kamikaze.

In the midst of this conversation Cox's pager goes off (mirroring what happened in the flashback and then is called into work. (The convention is clearly being held in Baltimore.) Cox makes it clear that the shotgun blast would have killed him. However if his intent was to kill himself it was still suicide. She argues the awning might have slowed his fall enough  to survive. In other words he would have been left in a permanent vegetative state "with a little bit of luck'. But then Cox realizes that he was shot from 'inside the building' because they found fragments of glass from window glazier'

So they went back looking for tell-tale signs. And they receive the slight clue that someone has their window boarded up. Now the episode really gets fun.

Every season since Robin Williams appeared in 'Bop Gun' Homicide has made a habit of having at least one episode a year with an actor or actress known primarily for their comic talent in a guest role, frequently but not always cast against type as a murderer. We saw Lily Tomlin play the seemingly benign Rose Halligan in The Hat, Chris Rock as an almost comically clueless killer in Requiem for Adena, Lewis Black as an ex con in Betrayal. Now in the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Cochran we get one of the first couples of television Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows, playing a feuding couple appropriately with the first names George and Emily. (See Hey, Isn't That…for the direct connection the two of them have with Fontana.) And while there's a similar darkness it plays out, like so many stories involving Munch, as tragicomedy as opposed to melodrama.

Allen and Meadows, like so many other great comic performers, play what follows completely deadpan. The two of them bicker in a sense of fairly curmudgeonly behavior as they lead them to the shotgun which "it's never loaded…almost never." He discharged the weapon on Friday night. To be clear this was a bit of theater between the two, something they did when they fought which was often. George asks: "How could I murder someone who was committing suicide?"

Munch: "You killed him before he finished killing himself."

George: "I didn't even know he was out there.

Kellerman: "if you try to kill A and end up killing  B instead, it's still murder.

He's been threatening his wife with a shotgun for years. An unloaded shotgun, of course.  He points the shotgun, pulls the trigger, goes boom and cackles like a maniac.

We actually see all of this.

This has been going on for a while, but the last time was a Thanksgiving dinner where she burnt the gravy.  Then she burned the pot roast which led to it playing out. Munch and Kellerman spend much of this time trying to get them to stop arguing. None of them can agree who loaded it in the interim.

It takes two more meetings for drinks before Cox gets to the point. Still unaware of who the victim and who loaded the shotgun they take a warrant to the Cochran home. They find the shotgun shells in the cupboard that have been put away by George Jr. They last saw him Thanksgiving. Emily had cut off George's allowance and they had been estranged since. They figure out his fingerprint on the gun matches the body in the morgue. And here's the twist.

George Junior knew the game they used to play and he was mad enough to load the shotgun to get back at his parents. If the gun went off it would kill Emily and his father would go to prison for it. He went back to Tulsa hoping that would play out.  Despondent at his plan of revenge not playing out – the Cochran's were getting along better thanks to couples counseling – he went to the roof of his parent's building to throw it in their faces. Ironically he picked the very night she burnt the pot roast causing his father to fire the shot just as George was 'passing by, so to speak." He wanted his parents to identify the body, but he underestimated their lack of interest in the outside world.

It's suicide, avec torque. You know, with a twist.

Gharty and Ballard are investigating a non-starter 'a street dealer, based on the neighborhood." Ballard tells him that they're not supposed to profile the victim based on race or neighborhood. Gharty's reaction says a lot about him: "What a crock. What else does a cop do?" He refers to him as "one more unknown soldier of the drug wars…what we call a collateral casualty of the drug war." Of course this being Homicide Gharty is immediately backed up when Cox comes on to the scene and says: "Let me guess, drug dealer?"  And when they talk to Stivers, whose still in sex crimes she immediately identifies him as Antonio 'Jake' Livingston. 26 separate slugs in what was clearly an execution.

 Livingston was known for peddling counterfeit drugs, sugar as smack, etc. They find out a couple of white boys from Pig town in a pickup truck. Ballard actually seems amazed white boys came up for drugs. Gharty is less surprised when Stivers refers to this as a city goat stretch 'bailing wire, caulk and compound and string." Both the black female detective and the white old male detective refer to them as dope fiends.

The phrase 'city goat' is a Baltimore term for hillbilly. Appalachia isn't that far from Maryland. Gharty talks in the derivative terms we all too frequently do for what was about to become known as white trash, arguing that if these weren't the people involved they're probably cousins. Ballard tries to make the argument that this isn't politically correct.  This leads to as close to what we've gotten to a car chase on this series between a cruiser and a beat-up pickup. The pickup wins, naturally. The car belongs to Douglas McCord and a section of Baltimore we've yet to see on this show.

He shows her the public baths where for a nickel you could get a scrub and for another nickel a towel and a cardboard comb. Ballard admits that there's a whole sense of history here that's not out west. Gharty says in Baltimore history has you by the throat on a daily basis. We got a sense of it from the antebellum side last week; here we get the other side. They go to the McCord household and find a woman who refuses to let them in. She refuses to talk any more than any African-American does to the cops. They find Donna McCord who looks like she's in her twenties at the most. Ballard thinks she's their sister. Donna says: "I'm their mother."  When Ballard says she's too young to be their mother she says: "Somebody shoulda told their daddy that." 

Ballard and Gharty take a trip to their uncle in Allegheny County, 90 miles away without clearing it with Giardello. When they look at it Ballard is stunned: "This is America?" (You might consider this bigotry except the writers keep it even-handed; when they look at they say: "West Baltimore ghettoes must have looked deceptively pleasant.) However when Gharty says: "It's a shock to see white people live like this" Ballard says: "As a matter of fact, yes."  They find the weapon belong to the McCord's but when they go to a dive bar to chase them down they get involve in a brawl (Ballard is manhandled by a barfly) they get away. Gharty (who is the primary) thinks that they're going to be spending every free weekend for the next two years 'chasing our city goats around." (Turns out its actually about two months, give or take.) Interestingly while at the Waterfront, nursing their wounds, Billie Lou says that she's from that part of Baltimore. "Some get out, some get left behind," she says.

By the way Gharty tries to flirt with her and immediately shows how far behind he is. When she says she composes atonal minimalism, the best he can come up with is: "I'm a tonal man myself." Ballard rolls her eyes so high at this.

So much of what unfolds in the two stories that involve Cox are far more comedy then we usually get. And that's to be admired by the writers. This has already been a very dark season even for Homicide and the third storyline is about to bring us into our darkest territory yet.

Falsone's custody battle is still going on and he's being told by his attorney that this is an uphill battle with no real chance of victory. Falsone is starting to show an unpleasant side. He's done a background check on his wife's boyfriend and wants to get his son out of the house because the man has one DUI.  He files the paperwork but Falsone is not sanguine. As he puts it "Its like Tyson and Holyfield sitting down to dinner. Theoretically possible but…" He makes it clear he's going to make Janine work for it.  Falsone then points out something that Meldrick is about to learn and Munch already knows: "Divorce is just swapping one set of problems for another." Meldrick then says: "That’s why people sometimes choose the other solution. Murder." The way Falsone says so casually: "Don't think it didn't cross my mind."

But the real story comes when Ballard and Gharty go to see Stivers. Someone comes to them; says he doesn't read the card he just delivers the flowers. He's a process server and he's having a busy day. Georgia Rae Mahoney is suing Stivers, Lewis and Kellerman for their role in the wrongful death of Luther Mahoney. She's also suing the city, the department, Giardello and even Cox (though that defendant isn't going to be around for trial, as we'll see.) for $60 million.

Ballard and Gharty actually discuss the Mahoney case but in an abstract fashion. Gharty dismisses it as a nothing case. He knows it’s a fiasco. Ballard asks for the first time: "Does anybody know what really happened?" Gharty: "Besides Lewis, Kellerman and Stivers? Luther. He ain't talking."

When Lewis is served it is in front of Falsone. The claim is that Kellerman shot Luther in cold blood and that Stivers and Meldrick conspired to cover it up. This is, in fact, exactly what happened but when Falsone asks if that's the case Meldrick storms off without answering.

Giardello is willing to stand by his men. He says Lewis and Kellerman will stay in the rotation and its clear he's willing to take the heat for them against Barnfather.  He actually asks for the first time if there's anything he should know about this. This might have been the last chance Mike and Meldrick had to get out from under this without anything else happening. Mike says so yet again it went down like they said – but leaves out everything he's been doing with Georgia Rae to this point. Lewis storms out – and that's when things become impossible.

Lewis goes to Georgia Rae's and confronts her. He says that his brother put a gun to his head and got killed. He assumes he's got a cop and an attorney and judge on her payroll (good thinking, as it turns out.) Its when Georgia Rae says: "She's just a businesswoman trying to get the system to work for me" that she pushes Lewis too far. He tells her: "Why don't you stick this suit where you used to mule crack and skank for the Colombians?"

For the first and last time Georgia Rae show her true colors. After Meldrick throws the process in her face she kicks him square in the crotch. He pays her back by hitting her in the face. Her bodyguards are about to fall on him but she pulls them back. There's a smile on her face and we hear that laugh – though we don't know it, for the last time.

Georgia Rae is on the phone with the department and the mayor's office by the time Lewis gets back to the squad room. We don't so much see an angry Giardello as a disappointed one. Lewis is suspended indefinitely for his actions by Barnfather. And when Meldrick asks Gee to talk him out of it – something he was clearly counting on – Al stops him by saying: "For once, I agree with him."  Perhaps it's because he burnt all his IOU's bringing Frank back to the unit or maybe he genuinely doesn't recognize the detective whose been with his unit this long. Whatever the reason Lewis accepts it.

There's something incredibly solemn about the last scene. Munch asks where Meldrick is going. "To get some cigarettes," Lewis says. Munch is surprised because he doesn't smoke. Lewis doesn't answer but goes to his desk, takes his fedora and the football that we've always seen being tossed around the squad. Then he walks out tossing it in the air. Indeed many fans were sure that this was a sign that Clark Johnson was leaving the show forever. I didn't buy it  - Johnson's name was still in the credits – but it really did feel that way.

But as a result of this the war against Mahoney has entered its final phase. And when its over frogs falling from the sky will seem less destructive by comparison.

 

Notes From The Board

It's possible that when Juliana prefaced her acceptance speech with "I've never ever actually won anything before" that Overmeyer is making a dig at the fact Homicide's disgraceful track record with the Emmys.

I almost wonder when in the teaser one of the M.E.'s is bragging about using a 'forensic entomologist' that someone at CBS would come up with the inspiration for Gil Grissom two years down the road. Certainly the way that one of them brags about figuring out where the body is based on a bug indigenous to the Delaware river really does sound like the kind of thing CSI would perfect.

'Detective Munch': This case leads John to get historical more then once. When Kellerman brings up the theory of overkill Munch tells the story of Rasputin. "They poisoned him, they stabbed him, they shot him 12 times, and then they stuffed him in a burlap bag, they dumped him in the Neva River to drown and here's the beauty part: an hour later, he flops up five miles downstream still kicking."  Kellerman replies: "That's why you're a great detective. Because you know stuff. Except about weapons." And the two start bickering about the shotgun used.' When Kellerman tells him to stop with the metaphors Munch adds: "Without metaphors what are we left with? We have a riddle, surrounded by a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma and stuffed in a body bag." So he goes from Rasputin to Stalin in the same conversation. Munch does know stuff.

But honestly the best line from Munch comes from Kellerman.

Munch: "It's homicide if the shot was delivered with intent. If its accidental discharge…

Kellerman: "Don't you hate when that happens?"

Munch: With that mustache and beady little eyes, he looks like a cross between Steve Buscemi, John Waters and Edgar Allan Poe.

Kellerman: "Aren't they all the same guy?"

Honestly these two were born to be partners. Shame how the season ends.

We learn the havoc the rotation is wreaking on the department. The policy has made it clear that no one there knows who the current players in the drug game are. Cox suggests they search out Stivers.

Hey, Isn't That…Steve Allen is  known for being the man who essentially invented late night as the first host of The Tonight Show. He co-created it in 1954 and would run it for 3 years before leaving. He would later create both the Steve Allen Playhouse and nearly a dozen other comedy shows connected to him, One of the most famous comedians of all time he was known for extensive guest work in television and film usually as himself. One of the only times he played someone who wasn't Steve Allen was when he played Lech Oseransky, Victor Erliich's birth father on St. Elsewhere which earned him an Emmy nomination. He was one of the great pioneers for TV as an art form yet in his later years rejected the kinds of dramas such as The Sopranos and OZ that HBO was created as disgusting and sick. He died on October 30, 2000 at 79.

Jayne Meadows was the sister of Audrey Meadows, who famously played Alice on The Honeymooners. She began her career in Hollywood and starred in such films as Lady of the Lake, David & Bathsheba. Like her husband she also was a pioneer in the early days of television in the first Hallmark Hall of Fame, Kraft Mystery Theatre and Studio One. After marrying Allen in the 1950s she would star in several sixties and seventies shows, most notably Medical Center as Nurse Chambers. She also appeared in several of her husbands works including his projecting Meeting of Minds where she played Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale and Catherine the Great among others. She had regular roles in failed series like It's Not Easy. She played Olga Oseransky, Victor Erlich's birth mother on St. Elsewhere (along with Allen) and was nominated for an Emmy for that along with her husband. She was nominated for her third and final Emmy in the short-lived series High Society in 1996 for Best Supporting Actress.  After Steve passed away in 2000 she retired from acting and passed away on April 26, 2015 at 95.

Neither Kyle Secor nor Andre Braugher appear in this episode. We'll get an explanation where Bayliss is in the episode that follows.

On The Soundtrack: Depending on which service you have, you'll hear John Campbell's 'Couldn't Do Nothing' as Ballard and Gharty travel through Allegheny county looking for the McCord's.