Homicide Rewatch: Secrets

 

Written by Yaphet Kotto

Directed by Ed Bianchi

 

Secrets is the second episode written by Yaphet Kotto and a completely different beast than his previous episode Narcissus. In fact of the three episodes Kotto will pen for Homicide this is the most atypical as it doesn't put his own character front and center the way other two will.

That doesn't make it a bad episode. Indeed Secrets plays very much like an episode any of the other writers during the show's run could have turned out and I mean that as a compliment. Kotto manages to put several of the critical storylines that have been playing out throughout Season 6 with perfect precision, continues the trend of the season for having the unit investigating cases that don't fit the traditional mantle of what Homicide has done in the first five years and centers it on a plot that as it unfolds is fascinating both in the nature of what the villain at the crux of it is doing and the grayer area of just how horrible it is. Indeed nearly thirty years later the question at its center is even more fascinating then it was back then, even though we now live in an era where it is increasingly difficult for anyone to hide their secrets from the world – and increasingly there are no consequences when they come out.

Munch and Ballard are called in on what is clearly a suicide: Josephine Dalton, 46 who's killed herself via carbon monoxide poisoning. She's clearly very wealthy – the car is a BMW and the house is mansion. What's more she's married with two young kids who discovered her when they came home from school. Not the type to kill oneself but they have to do the paperwork. Dalton is Vice President of Fayette Securities and the kids knew something was wrong when she was there when they get home: she's always at work. They say she was fine until the previous night when she was crying in her room and wouldn't say why.  Ballard wants to know what could have inspired Dalton to kill herself but first Munch and then Giardello make it very clear that if it’s a suicide move on. "It's hard enough understanding why people kill each other. Why they kill themselves, that's not ours to answer."  Considering Al is no doubt still unable to understand why Crosetti killed himself four years later, he speaks from experience.

Meanwhile Bayliss and Pembleton are dealing with Kenneth Alden who has shot himself. He left a note: "I'm sorry. Love, Ken." Pembleton is somewhat more philosophical considering that Alden is the President and CEO of another prominent Baltimore business. He shot himself in his office while his secretary was bringing him coffee. He has a wife and a son. Its only when Scheiner shows up and is told that a middle-aged man of the corporate variety killed himself that the detectives put it together. (Scheiner: "Must be contagious.") This causes Bayliss and Frank to wonder if there's a connection.

It is a suicide and Ballard still wants to know why. Munch wants to move on and he very likely would have until Pembleton and Bayliss come in and ask if there was a connection.  The two of them were prominent in the Baltimore financial community, which isn't that big. Bayliss is more sanguine saying that two suicides in one day is plenty. They might have been inclined to let it go except the 'widow Alden' wants to have a word with them.

The widow knows what "I'm sorry" means because she received a similar envelope, one that has photos she's very reluctant to share.  They are photos shot from a distance of Kenneth with another woman and Mrs. Alden believes he killed himself out of fear of exposure. Pembleton finds this a bit extreme – he's had his share of murders involving infidelity – until Mrs. Alden tells him that suicide might be the easy way out. The women is Jesse Mesker, Kenneth's half-sister.  The two have the same mother. Pembleton posits that Alden killed himself not because of guilt but because he was afraid of being exposed. Ballard and Munch realize that these photos might indicate that blackmail was involved – and part of the Homicide detail's mandate is to investigate extortion.  Giardello orders an investigation to find out who might have took the photos. Munch, to his credit, now realizes that Dalton's suicide fits the same profile and Alden and that an investigation might have merit.  Bayliss is more philosophical: he knows that no matter what secrets these two people had they didn't have to kill themselves. "Time passes on, people can forgive anything," Bayliss says. The viewer knows he's talking about what happened in his family. "People can forgive anything."

Jessie tells Bayliss and Pembleton that the two of them had been having an affair for 25 years, longer then his marriage. They'd been meeting at lunch at the Ambassador for decades. The detectives are more perfunctory then usual but its worth noting that Jesse doesn't feel the least bit ashamed about what she and her half-brother were doing and wonders more about her brother's own guilt. Mr. Dalton is very reluctant to let Munch and Ballard go through her things until Munch reveals that Alden committed suicide and the link's established – the two victims were members of the same country club, Fairglen. There's no evidence the two knew each other but Mr. Dalton reveals that before she died his wife also received photographs of his wife having an affair with their children's babysitter.

There follows a hysterical sequence where Bayliss and Pembleton interview a clerk at the Ambassador Hotel where despite not being able to tell about the tenant's privacy she tells them everything they need to know about Alden renting the place, that he and Jesse saw each other their repeatedly and the visitor one Brenner Jones. It becomes more serious when Frank and Tim bring Jones into the box and show him his photos. They can connect him to the apartment and a fight that was heard, and once they reveal the truth – particularly that the subjects of the photos he took have committed suicide – he's genuinely shocked.

Then the case takes the turn that makes it interesting. Jones admits he took the pictures and made delivers but not to blackmail.  He was told to do this by an old money, old society member of Fairglen named Remington Hill. He told them where and when Alden and Dalton would be having their affairs and was right both times. Jones tells them he did this because he needed the money – but that's a lie too.

The scene between Bayliss, Pembleton and Hill is a highpoint of the season. After a short discussion in which Bayliss and Pembleton talk about Jones he barely puts up a denial and then says about Jones: "He's a weak man, don't you think?"

He admits he hired Jones to do some 'research' – which he calls the 'proper term'  But then he says he didn't blackmail the two of them despite behavior he considers disgusting. Hill said that the two of them were behaving like animals and he wanted them to stop what they were doing.  He says he never threatened to expose them. He went to them directly, said that if they didn't change their ways, he would reveal the truth and that they chose to kill themselves instead.  Furthermore he tells them that he was doing this to give themselves a chance to reform. While he is brazen saying "I'm not responsible for the weakness of others."

He's momentarily shaken when Bayliss points out that both Alden and Dalton left children behind and spouses to grieve – but only momentarily saying: "Then they were sacrificed for the greater good." This would be frightening until he tells them that there were others that he photographed and threatened them with exposure. He has been compiling information for over a year for those who needed 'intervention' . This week he sent photos to eight other people and made the same demands – and they all promised to stop. He says that if 8 out of ten made the right decision, the moral ledger shows a balance.

When the two leave the club Frank immediately wants to go back and doesn't like the idea of Bayliss saying we have nothing on him.  Frank doesn't like that Hill passed judgment but Bayliss reminds him Dalton and Alden made the choice to kill themselves. Bayliss actually seems to be on Hill's side – and then he points out what has been the subtext: "If someone had taken pictures of me and my uncle, I might have been better off. I would have been better off."

I have to say, now that we live in a world where society takes pictures of what it considers the worst behavior of strangers and holds them publicly guilty, Remington Hill's actions almost seem benign. He privately took the pictures, told no one else but those involved and only said he'd tattle – as Danvers puts it – if they didn't stop. By the standards where TMZ and Twitter are almost the mildest versions of this Hill's behavior almost seems merciful and certain utilitarian. (I actually agree with Ballard when she says tattling should be a crime.)

And as Frank and Tim find out there's no real crime to charge Hill with and not even Jones. The matter would be closed – except Gharty then comes in and tells them Fairglen has one less member – Remington Hill.  The detectives assume he killed himself but Dyer points out his trigger finger is clean. He's been killed and its been staged as a suicide. They look at the list of the eight people he blackmailed. Three of them were at the club but they have iron clad alibis. However Brenner Jones was in the club too.

Jones makes it very clear that he killed Hill when it was clear the detectives weren't going to do anything to stop him. He also says that he wasn't doing it for money; Hill had a secret on him as well. He's willing to go to jail for murder but he won't tell his secret no matter what.

 

 

The title is accurate because it also refers to the Mahoney storyline and all of the secrets that are starting to spill out. It starts on an optimistic note when Falsone asks about Meldrick's trial board and asks if Giardello can do something to 'grease it'

Al's response is hysterical: "Are you suggesting that a trial board can be manipulated? That there's no integrity in the process?" Falsone doesn't hesitate. "Pretty much."  Al: "I'm shocked, very shocked, by the very notion of such a thing." We already knew that in fact Giardello has done exactly that because he more or less implied it to Lewis last week and as we see very clearly in the trial board it plays out exactly like Giardello said it was and Meldrick knows as much.  He doesn't contest the findings and indeed he gets the exact punishment.  Giardello then says he called in more favors then Meldrick wants to know.

I have to tell you that immediately afterwards Gaffney chooses to weigh in. "If it was up to me, you'd be back in a radio car for that stunt you pulled. He then faults Al on his problem being a 'lack of discipline."  This is the broken clock occasion. Still its hard to resist their final exchange:

Gaffney: "If I were running his shift, I'd be offering you a transfer out."

Meldrick: "Respectfully speaking, sir, if you were running his shift, I'd be taking it."

Giardello doesn't say anything at all; just smiles beatifically. He has no idea how soon he will regret his decision.

When Kellerman, Falsone and Stivers see Meldrick their reaction is 'the football's back'. None of them seem overjoyed Meldrick is back from suspension and there's a real awkwardness between them that the tossing of the football – Lewis's bonding exercise for the entire series – doesn't erase. Stivers is uncomfortable she's at Meldrick's desk but Lewis doesn't want to talk about it. Critically no one wants to toss the ball to Mike and when they do no one wants it back. Mike's hopes that this will be over soon are dashed almost immediately.

Meldrick has no desire to partner with Mike when he makes the offer in the weight room  and when Mike tries to 'thank him' for helping clear the Barnes murder – a murder, it's worth remembering Mike had no interest in closing on his own – Meldrick denies any involvement. It's also clear given how bloodthirsty Kellerman is when he asks Meldrick how he got the Mahoney crew to turn on each other that Lewis really does want to move forward. When he reveals what's going on with Judge Gibbons and says Meldrick should "ease up" whatever he's doing. The fact that Mike plans to go to jury selection on the civil suit in order to make Gibbons sweat and that Lewis has no interest in it basically shows how far apart the two are. Meldrick genuinely just wants to forget everything he's done; Mike wants to dance on the graves of every last bit of the Mahoney organization as it falls apart.  Lewis is genuinely upset when Mike leaves.

And there are signs that things are getting worse. Falsone and Stivers have caught the murder of Tonio Cornell who'd been in line to replace Luther if Georgia Rae hadn't stepped in. At this point Stivers knows that if he's dead they're can't be much left of Georgia Rae's crew. Falsone then says that they should talk to Meldrick directly. Stivers has been living in denial that Meldrick did this but Falsone enlightens her and tells her his part in giving him the information on the Mahoney crew.

In doing so he officially takes off any shine that was left on his halo at the start of the season.  He admits his role and what was happening to the Mahoney crew. When Stivers asks why he helped him he just says: "He's my partner. He asked." And when Stivers asks why he was so interested in Luther's shooting to the point we thought he was on a mission for some higher calling Falsone makes it clear that his problem was that half the shift  was carrying some big secret. He wanted to know what the dirt was, so he could transfer out if the shit hit the fan.  Everything he did about the Mahoney shooting was simply so he could avoid working with Kellerman so if IID came down he wasn't dirty. And the fact that Stivers is clearly willing to tell him about the shooting and Falsone says he knows enough makes it clear he has no desire to make a mess. He doesn't want the truth revealed. He just wants to stand clear when the dirt hits.

The bigger problem is Lewis didn't ask for Cornell's name. Now that he's dead things are out of control. Meldrick may have started a drug war but he has no way to stop it – something he will find out at the end of the episode.

Lewis finds that out when he catches his first call back on the job the murder of one Nate Bihari, a supplier vital to the Mahoney organization. He doesn't understand why someone would kill someone who's officially neutral and who they'd need after the war was over. Munch is partnering with him (and is one of the few members of the squad still on the outside of all this) says, making sense of a drug war is like making sense of cancer. He doesn't know he's working with the man who started it when he says: "Violence is a contagion that feeds on itself." Munch is absolutely right on this.

And as if Mike has lost any pretense of being a detective his scene at the courthouse shows him basically at his most disgusting. He shows up there for jury selection, saying he's there to give Gibbons a friendly wave. Then when Gibbons sees Kellerman he all but turns white and immediately dismisses the case. Then Kellerman smirks, all but dances out of the courthouse,  and then hurries up after Gibbons to taunt him about what he's done, actively telling him with the Mahoney organization very much still around that the Feds have him dead to rights and he'd better give up Georgia Rae. When he turns and sees Mahoney's representatives leaving the courthouse himself, he doesn't even seem that concerned. We'll see that he shouldn't have shared that secret.

The episode ends with Bayliss and Ballard at the Waterfront the first time they've had dinner since "their disaster of a date" as Ballard puts it. Apparently it ended with performance anxiety on Bayliss's part. He tells Ballard that he never talks that much about his personal life, not even Frank. He comes about it very clumsily but then he confides something that's been on the backburner for the last half of the season.  He confides about his failures in relationship and for the first time to anyone he confides – vaguely but still directly for 1990s audiences – that he's bicurious.

Ballard takes it better than Frank. Bayliss confides that he was always terrified about telling anyone this because it would scare them off. And Ballard tells him: "I'm not running away." In an episode full of secrets Bayliss has chosen to share his biggest one. And in a series where the darkest truths only come to bear in the box, there's something brave and hopeful about it.

 

Notes From The Board

It was the 1990s: Gharty is suffering from a cold (that's why Munch was partnering with Ballard but comes in anyway. "After 30 minutes of Regis and Kathie Lee, I had to get out of there." Not even watching Montel Williams?"

"Detective Munch" While Munch has his own great line there's a lot of fun watching Ballard react to partnering with him. In the teaser when Munch is talking about the safest place in America to live – Stearns, Minnesota – and that Baltimore is the city with the third shortest life expectancy he tells Ballard he plans to move there and become a farmer. Ballard's reaction by the end of the teaser: "I thought you'd be milking a cow by now." Asked what would be so bad you'd have to end your life Ballard's response: "A date with John Munch." One moment later Munch walks by: "Ready to roll, partner?"

The best line comes when Lewis says Nate Bihari was like Switzerland and Munch reacts with fury: "Hey don't go trusting the Swiss. Turns out they spent World War II skimming money from my dead relatives." When Lewis is baffled Munch unfolds: "I don't like their chocolate. I don't like their cheese. I don't like that little knife that folds out into cutlery. Don't go talking up the Swiss to me!"

It's rather strange considering that she's the main client in this civil suit Georgia Rae Mahoney isn't in the courtroom. Maybe she didn't want to be seen in the same place as the judge that was on her payroll. Or maybe she's dealing with the fallout with her crew falling apart. (Or maybe Hazelle Goodman just wasn’t available that day.)

This is the first episode where all three recurring medical examiners: Scheiner, Lausanne and Dyer appear in the same episode. I guess now that Michelle Forbes is gone they can afford to free up time for these characters which honestly isn't a bad thing.

Remak Ramsey, who plays Remington Hill, was a Baltimore native who had roles in The Stepford Wives, The Front and played Richard Bissell in the NBC miniseries Kennedy, Justice John Campbell in Lincoln and the War Within and Dean Acheson in Truman. He also played Thomas Hutchinson in the TV miniseries Liberty! The American Revolution and John McWilliams in Julie & Julia. Better known as a stage actor he appeared in Half Sixpence, Private Lives, The Devil's Disciple, Saint Joan and The Heiress all on Broadway. He was twice nominated for the Drama Desk Award (Off Broadway plays) for Outstanding Actor in a Play for The Winslow Boy and Quartermaine's Terms. It is unknown if he is alive or dead as of this writing.