bellino-angelo2014

My summary refers to the fact that in the first three seasons of HOMICIDE we were used to Detectives Beau Felton and Stanley Bolander (Daniel Baldwin and Ned Beatty) who were so far my favourite characters. Then season 3 came to an end and they left the unit, and now we are introduced to Arson squad detective Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond) and as you might have guessed, for followers of the show it might be some sort of frustration.

When the episode begins we see Howard and Munch on a rooftop discussing of when during a police convention some police officers ran amok in the hotel after becoming drunk and subsequently Felton and Bolander were suspended for 22 weeks. As they talk they notice a fire distance, and when they arrive they witness firemen finding a charred body and calling the homicide unit.

After the short first two seasons of HOMICIDE (the first of 9 episodes, the second only 4) we finally had a first long season since it was becoming popular among TV users of the time. And this final episode closed the season well.

Victor Helms (Bruno Kirby) has served a six-year sentence for negligent homicide since he installed incorrectly a heater that thanks to a leak managed to kill with an explosion the entire family of the house where he installed it. Since Pembleton was in charge of the investigation, it's no surprise that when Helms is released he seeks revenge against Pembleton. Despite Helms stalks Pembleton he can't seem to act his scheme properly. Surprisingly, Helms and his colleague Danny end up in a crime scene short before Pembleton arrives where the head of a fortune teller has been severed but Helms steals the head and the knife for complicating matters for Pembleton and subsequently humiliate him in front of the press, but some time later Danny quits because he started to respect Pembleton also for the fact that he saw him go to a fertility clinic for making his wife pregnant. When finally Helms seems like to kill Pembleton he then bursts in tears and is taken to custody.

What I liked about this episode is that Helms wanted to play the same game Robert De Niro did to Nick Nolte in CAPE FEAR (or Robert Mitchum to Gregory Peck if you also saw the 1962 original) on Pembleton tho in a more subtle manner and the ending was a relief. One of those season enders that makes you want to see more seasons of it.

14 episodes prior we had our detectives investigate on Crosetti's suicide that looked like a murder, and there was a funeral. Now, 14 episodes later, we are shown the detectives discussing again about the case and as I said in the summary, what TV show would be great without having a deja vu episode? Here on HOMICIDE, it came the time.

Crosetti's case is reassigned to the detectives and Howard's clearance rate might be in jeopardy when she is given the most difficult and unsolved case, and at the same time Giardello's personal life becomes volatile when he thinks of having been discriminated by a friend of Russert. Felton has his life in shambles as both his former wife doesn't let him see the children and loses a piece of key evidence for Howard's case and goes to Russert for comfort. As the episode comes to an end Bayliss, Munch and Lewis close the deal for permission for the bar only that trouble has just began as we'll see in the following episodes.

Along with being a deja vu episode it looks also a bit like a filler episode, one of those made for the run of the season but that probably wouldn't have changed a thing if it wouldn't have been made. Nonetheless it's still good for the acting, script and stories.