A Televisual Feast

It’s kind of a concept episode, but also sort of not. I mean, on the one hand, it is a full episode covering an interrogation, but it’s also the interrogation concluding the six episode-long story arc–Bayliss’s first case. So while it’s a little concept-y and a little cute, it’s also appropriate. Labeling it doesn’t matter much, because besides being about the great acting from Braugher, Secor, and guest Moses Gunn, it’s also….

Well, it’s complicated. The episode itself has a feature-length examination of what it means to be guilty, innocent, sad, scared, unsure… it’s one of those forty-fives it’s hard to believe aired (“Homicide” has had two so far–where it’s unimaginable a Tide commercial came on after the fade out). It asks all sorts of questions and offers no answers, because the questions aren’t in the purview, much less the answers to them. It’s a very confrontational episode, the kind a regular viewer would be angry about. Regular meaning a “Law and Order” watcher who got caught up in the promos.

But, as an episode of “Homicide,” it’s very obviously a turning point. Besides getting Bayliss ready for the street, it also is the episode where Frank turns in to Frank, where he becomes the walking contradiction. Not just where he and Bayliss become partners, but where he becomes part of the squad. The thing the producers never get is Frank is most defined by his interactions with the people he doesn’t have to interact with–this episode it’s Kay, but given it’s impossible for me, right now, to imagine Frank and Stanley going for the coffee at the same time… it’s obviously a very important scene then.

As for Bayliss, this episode brings him out, cultures him completely.

Though I’m still not sure (as it’s never revealed), I think he and Frank had a strategy going the whole time.

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