About Last Night…HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET

Let’s talk about last night’s TV!

“Map of the Heart”: This episode felt a bit like “Full Moon” to me. There were elements I appreciated, some of it worked really well, but I didn’t love-love it. It’s also interesting to be so far removed from it originally airing that I don’t if it was me, how many other great episodes I’ve watched during this run, or it just didn’t work for most viewers.

Part of the fun of this show has been that there aren’t neat and easy answers to everything (or even many things), but it felt like there needed to be a little more there with the NSA thing. Or if they weren’t going to do that, to have the side plots be a bit more weighty versus Kellerman selling Munch a questionable VCR and Kellerman being on a quest to find the lunch bandit. Alas.

“Requiem for Adena”: This, on the other hand, felt like a stellar hour of the show.

Adena was so important to the show’s early days, but there was no neat answer. There were suspicions about hunches about who killed her, but there was no justice. We’ve seen how it has haunted them in the years since—but especially Tim. To bring the case back in this kind of way (admittedly, indirectly, as Tim was convinced there was a tie when another young Black girl was killed) and still not directly solve it? Chutzpah, in the best way. The fact is, that’s life. We might want clean and easy solutions—or closure—but it sure as hell is not guaranteed.

There was also a delicate line the show had to walk with bringing back the case, too: Adena’s mother felt she got answers. She wanted Tim to move on and to be left in peace. It made it clear that while Tim (and perhaps the audience) wanted more, the person most impacted by the loss was as okay with what she knew as possible. It wasn’t enough for Tim, at first (and we knew it wouldn’t be), but, eventually, Tim (maybe) got to the place where he realized that his first big case would never be solved the way he wanted.

The show also really utilized its own history well, too. The parallel to season 1 and those interrogations (as Frank and Tim were in the early days of their partnership, trying to get justice for Adena) to their present-day case as they tried to get answers from Chris Rock’s (!!) Carver was uncomfortable to watch, in the best way. We know what Tim and Frank can do. We could see that Tim was out of control. There was a looming bit of dread that Tim was so wrong about the Carver tie and it might actually lead to another young girl getting the justice she deserved. (And it was a really effective use of flashbacks, too.) It was really effectively tense.

I also loved how Tim really wanted Al to be able to give him some magical advice about how/when to stop caring. We’ve seen them be light at times when it would make no sense to people outside of the unit (and also seen how it’s been perceived by grieving families), but we also know how much this can haunt them.

I’m so curious how the show utilizes Frank as a father when the birth actually happens. Loved the joke from Tim that Frank was 35 when he was born (sounds about right), and we saw Frank literally get in his child’s crib as a way to see how they’ll see the world. If this child is actually born (and I don’t know either way), will it continue to be as big of a part of his personal storyline? Or are they getting their stories out now when the child is merely an idea versus a living, breathing baby?

Which shows did you watch last night?

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