Title: Homicide: Part 2
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Frank Dungan and Jeff Stein
Air Date: November 6, 1980
Previous: Homicide: Part 1
Next: The Delegate
Guest Starring: James Gregory, Jack Somack, Jack Dodson, Tricia O'Neil, Harold J. Stone, Ben Piazza
"Homicide: Part 2" is the second episode of the seventh season of Barney Miller.
Events follow immediately upon the previous week's episode, which ended with Mrs. Harriet Shulton coming in to the squad room and telling the detectives that she put a hit out on her husband David. The 12th calls David Shulton's office and finds out that he is out to lunch. Dietrich and Levitt head out to David Shulton's place of work, and wind up saving his life when the hit man tries to shoot Shulton by a corner newsstand. They come back with Mr. Shulton and the disappointed hit man, one Vincent Sykes.
Meanwhile, the 12th is still operating as a homicide-only specialty squad. Their old friend Mr. Cotterman, the liquor store owner, comes back in and tells them that the person who threw a brick through his window is not his antagonistic neighbor Mr. Haddad, but instead two punks who are demanding protection money. He asks for help, but an embarrassed Barney has to refer him to the 10th Precinct, which is the specialty squad handling extortion cases. Soon after, they get horrible news: the two extortion punks have murdered Mr. Cotterman.
In other plots, Harris is still hunting a serial killer who is chopping up bodies and leaving them in trash cans. He is also still hitting on Alex the attractive crime scene photographer (Tricia O'Neil), and Inspector Luger is still pressuring Barney to recommend him for a job Luger should definitely not be doing: public relations.
Tropes:
- And Starring: James Gregory gets his usual "Special Guest Star" credit.
- Black Comedy: A lot of this again as the 12th is investigating only homicides. Mr. St. Martin, the creepy guy who killed his barber over a bad haircut, is still in a holding cell. When Mrs. Shulton wonders if he killed his wife, Mr. St. Martin says "Yes, but they don't know about that yet."
- Call-Back: One of Mrs. Shulton's complaints is that her husband is terrible in bed and that "he hums." Later in the episode he starts humming, and she cringes.
- Captain Obvious: When Mr. Shulton is brought in to the precinct he is revealed to be a smarmy prick who basically deserved to get murdered. When talking about how his wife tried to have him murdered, the oily, annoying Mr. Shulton says "I can only conclude that something's gone woefully wrong in our relationship."
- Mood Whiplash: The Black Comedy mood of the episode suddenly goes very dark indeed when Mr. Haddad comes back into the squad room and tells everyone that Mr. Cotterman has been murdered.
- Multi-Part Episode: Second half of a two-parter in which the 12th Precinct gets turned into a homicide specialty squad.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: When irritating, smarmy Mr. Shulton comes into the squad room, his wife ends up regretting that she didn't go through with having him killed. Her plot thread ends with Barney telling her that she's going to be charged with assorted crimes including soliciting a felony and attempted murder. She takes one look at her husband, looks back at Barney, and says "Thank you."
- Previously on…: Opens with a montage reminding the audience that the 12th is now a homicide squad and that Mr. Cotterman is having problems with vandals.
- Professional Killer: As it turns out, Mr. Sykes was just getting started out as a hit man and is disappointed that he wasn't able to pursue his new career.
- Reset Button: The episode ends with the ill-considered specialty squad abandoned, and the 12th back to handling all cases.
- Serial Killer: Harris is chasing a serial killer who is chopping up bodies, putting the pieces in trash bags, and throwing them away in trash cans around the city. At the end he is all smug about how he chased down insubstantial leads to find the killer, only for Barney to note that Harris caught the killer because the killer left his wallet in a bag.
