Crosetti

Unbelievably moving. Best example for what a good ensemble cast can do. If you grow to like them that way, you really care when one of them goes down. Everyone did great in this episode. After the church murders, that did indeed seem to be a bit too focused on Pembleton's crisis of faith, and had a quite unsatisfying resolution in the end, this one is 10 out of 10 again. Although you could see right from the beginning where this was going, that caused no problems, cause most of the time, with HOMICIDE, it's not about the "Who did it?", but about the "How do things unfold and how does everyone cope with it ?" The little details, like e.g. the relatives at the funeral, or the quarrel about the price of the funeral cookies, are what makes everything so real and believable. You feel like you're watching real people in real life situations, and that's a terrific achievement by Levinson and his team.

Remember detective Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito) who was on the HOMICIDE team up until the end of season 2 but you didn't saw him in the first episodes of season 3? Well, here we finally know where he ended up.

Up until the beginning the squad thaught that Crosetti was on vacation but suddenly they hear the news on TV that he was found dead on Chesapeake Bay. Bolander quickly assumes that it's suicide but Lewis asks more investigations for avoiding to put suicide as Crosetti's cause of death. Only after a while there would be the autopsy that in Crosetti's blood there were lots of substances and Bolander would end up conforting Lewis with a hug. Despite Pembleton refuses to go to the funeral mass since he refuses to step in a church after the discussion with Annabelle Wilgis in episode 3, he'll stand dressed in high uniform in front of the police station during the funeral procession, along with the fact that they refused to do a funeral with full honors to Crosetti since he killed himself.

While it was certainly a shock hearing that Crosetti killed himself it's still a good episode thanks as usual to the performances by all and the writing. Usual for the standards of the show, and great in dealing with issues about loyalty and friendship without being too preachy.

This is such a powerful exploration of how people used to dealing daily with death deal with death. The final image of Pembleton always brings tears to my eyes. This series was one of the top 3 ever produced for network television boasting incredible acting from season 1 to season 7. And this episode is a must see example of why!! Thank goodness for DVD. I have watched them all 9 times. No Homicide No Wire

If Clark Johnson never acted in another episode, play or movie, he could rest comfortably knowing his performance in this episode was simply the best ever, in a show known to raise the emotional heights higher than usual on television.

His work has always been understated and cool, which made his explosion all the more unexpected, realistic and moving in this show. Highly recommended; kudos, Mr Johnson!

Padding for length Padding for length Padding for length (silly rule -- who's fault is it that I don't have a full 10-lines worth of kudos for Clark Johnson here?)