HOMICIDE - LIFE on the STREET

S01E03 - "Son of a Gun" (C+)
                              or :
The One Where a Police Gets His Wig Split

          There's a uniform down in Charm City, and it's none other than Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen), the officer on the scene of the Doohan murder.  As it turns out, he is a friend of Crosetti's, as they both spent time together in Baltimore's southern district.  Thormann's injuries are severe, having been shot in the head, and his chances of recovery are uncertain, even to the doctors who are operating on him.
          Chris' wife, Eve (a pre-Sopranos Edie Falco), shows up, certain that her husband is already dead.  Crosetti assures her that her husband will recover from the shooting, despite the fact that the odds are not in his favor.

          But Thormann, in a miraculous stroke of luck, survives his surgery.  Crosetti asks Giardello to be put in charge of the investigation, a request Gee (a nickname that seems self-explanatory, but won't get fully explained until the made-for-TV movie following the conclusion of the series) refuses on the basis that Crosetti is too personally involved in the case.  Crosetti then shows Gee his scars from his own shooting, in which he took three Teflon bullets, a point that only seems to solidify Gee's argument, but Gee reluctantly agrees to let him work the case, if only to remove the bundle of barely suppressed Italian rage from his office.
          The investigation gets off to a rocky start, with all paths leading to nowhere, and Crosetti nearly breaks his hand punching his own car.  In a last-ditch effort, Crosetti dusts off his rosary, which seems to yield results, as an anonymous phone tip may lead them to their shooter.

          Bayliss continues to work the increasingly futile Watson case.  What little evidence they have points to the murder occurring in an overpopulated row house, and after searching the house and questioning its many residence, they still have no real evidence as to the motive or identity of the killer.  Bayliss begins to crack under the pressure, and after an outburst in the squad room, Pembleton takes another opportunity to undermine and replace his partner.  Gee still sees the potential in Bayliss, and once more denies Pembleton's request.

          Bolander's incredibly awkward courtship his garnered him a date with Dr. Blythe.  Understandably nervous, the detective who "hasn't been on a date in decades" decides to pre-game it with a sixer of Pilsner Urquell back at his shitty apartment, only to have his attempt at peace, quiet, and booze disturbed by his quirky woodworking neighbor, Lorenzo "Larry" Molera (Luis Guzman).  Bolander wants to be left alone, but Molera isn't having any of that, as he snatched the beer from under Bolander's arm and dashes back into his own apartment.  "Have a beer, on me," he says.
          Molera professes his love for woodworking, as if his "I Love Wood" t-shirt weren't a dead giveaway.  The two of them share the beers and commiserate over their broken marriages.  In the center of the room is a coffin that someone commissioned Molera to craft, paying in advance with cash but never coming back to retrieve the finished product.
          Later on, Bolander's date seems to actually be going well, despite his persistent brooding.  The two are taking a walk down the pier when Blythe expresses a desire for more wine, more music, and probably some sex.  Bolander doesn't seem to perceive his own good fortune, as he darts off to a potential murder scene when his beeper goes off.  The corpse is none other than his newly acquainted neighbor, as he finds Munch at the scene, perplexed to find an dead body already in a coffin with no signs of foul play.  "He died of a broken heart," says Bolander, who suddenly remembers he likes vaginas and arrives at the doorstep of  Dr. Blythe, ready to take her up on her offer of wine, music, and some much-needed nookie.
         The whole set-up of the Molera character's sudden, mysterious, and dramatically convenient death is another example of the borderline magical realism that seems to haunt the first season of this show, but none of the others.  I think this mostly has to due with David Simon's lack of direct involvement in the project, and producer Tom Fontana's fondness of television whimsies (think of the final episode of St. Elsewhere, as this show may also occur within the Tommy Westphall Universe)

          Felton and Howard find themselves with an interesting case this week, one that actually leads to solving a case introduced in the previous episode (that I neglected to write about).  A woman involved in a workplace dispute over the merits of Spiro Agnew's vice presidency put a contract on her co-worker's head.  Being a fan of Spiro Agnew, she also lacked to good sense to not brag about having done so at the funeral.  This leads them to Miles Stradinger (Paul Schulze, best known as Father Phil Intintola on the Sopranos), who acts as a middleman for contract killings..  Stradinger then gives them information regarding Calpurnia Church (Mary Jefferson), a woman who has been playing the marry/murder/collect insurance card far too often.  When questioning her nephew/husband/future victim, he confides that she uses voodoo as a part of her methodology.  See what I mean about this magical realism thing?

Potent Quotables

• "...and I don't like his damn ties." - Pembleton, to Gee regarding Bayliss
• "Hey, Nixon has a whole library" - Munch, to Howard
• "Hey Meldrick, who's better: Jordan or Pippen?" - Felton, further proving his inadequate mental capacity.

Familiar Faces

Edie Falco, wearing the track suit for once.

Paul Shulze dabbles in OC instead of preaching
against it.

Luis Guzman, in a very Guzmaneque role.

       Wednesday I'll be covering "A Shot in the Dark", which doesn't ring any bells as being a memorable episode, but Saturday I will have the pleasure of doing a write up on "Three Men and Adena", which is a damn fine episode.











































Tags: Homicide: Life on the Street, NBC, David Simon, The Wire, Richard Belzer, John Munch, Clark Johnson, Meldrick Lewis, Yaphet Kotto, Al Giardello, Kyle Secor, Tim Bayliss, Andre Braugher, Frank Pembleton, Melissa Leo, Kay Howard, Jon Polito, Steve Crosetti, Salami Brain, Fat-Headed Guinea, Ned Beatty, Stan Bolander, Edie Falco, Paul Schulze, Luis Guzman, The Tommy Westphall Universe Theory.