Blood Ties: Part 1
Directed By: Alan Taylor
Story By: Tom Fontana and Julie Martin
Teleplay By: Anya Epstein
After getting reassigned to Robbery for three months, Bayliss and Pembleton return to Homicide, only to catch the murder of Malia Briere (at a hotel), who happens to be maid to Felix Wilson (James Earl Jones), a snack food magnate, a philanthropist for the African-American community, and a close friend of Giardello's. Pembleton immediately butts heads with Gharty and Detective Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne), newly arrived from Seattle. Kellerman, Lewis, and Stivers get targeted by a gunman, who turns out to be Junior Bunk, Luther's nephew, and who's working on behalf of Luther's sister Georgia (Hazelle Goodman).
This episode contains examples of:
- Back Story: Giardello is not only a close friend of Felix Wilson, he was also a romantic rival with Wilson for his wife Regina (Lynne Thigpen).
- Call-Back: When Kellerman thinks Munch is being paranoid about the noises he heard, Munch tells him he knows what it's like to be shot at.
- Creator In-Joke: Two of the names under Ballard's list of cases are "Doherty" and "Stringfield", referencing the rumors that Shannen Doherty or Sherry Stringfield were in line to replace Melissa Leo on the show.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Wilkie Collins is a drug dealer, but he doesn't like to see cops shot at.
- Gilligan Cut: When Bayliss and Pembleton return to Homicide, they say the others will miss them and the place would have fallen apart without them. In the next scene, we see Gaffney publicly congratulating the Homicide Unit for having its highest clearance rate in years., and Giardello barely notices Bayliss and Pembleton's return.
- Gangland Drive-By: Junior Bunk opens fire on Lewis's and Falsone's car from a motorcycle while both are moving.
- Groin Attack: When Kellerman introduces himself to Georgia by saying, "I had the pleasure of shooting your brother.", she responds by kneeing him in the groin.
- Law of Inverse Recoil: In real life, a .50 calibre pistol would have such violent recoil that it would be impossible to fire one from a moving motorcycle without losing balance.
- Multi-Part Episode: The first of three parts.
- Murder by Mistake: When Junior Bunk shoots at Stivers, he accidentally kills a witness to a burglary that she was questioning on the street.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When Junior Bunk runs away from the police, Lewis says, "Here we go again!"
- Pet the Dog: Barnfather shows up at the scene where Falsone and Lewis have been shot at, and immediately orders them to put on a vest so they don't get killed.
- Put on a Bus: Sergeant Howard has been rotated into the Fugitive Squad, Russert has gone back to France, and Brodie has gone to Hollywood (see Take That! below).
- Serial Escalation: Homicide began as a naturalistic cop show that avoided over-the-top action and gunplay. This episode includes a Car Chase Shoot-Out and the heroes chasing a private jet aircraft in helicopters.
- Take That!: When Munch mentions Brodie won an Emmy for the documentary Brodie shot about the homicide unit, he says, "They give them to anybody."
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: As she's being locked up, Georgia tells a guard to tell Kellerman he has no idea who he's dealing with.
