Recap / Homicide Life On The Street S 1 E 1 Gone For Goode

Gone for Goode

"Life's a mystery. Just accept it."

Directed By: Barry Levinson

Written By: Paul Attanasio

Lewis and Crosetti investigate a widow murdering her husbands for insurance money. Munch and Bolander try to solve a months-old cold case. Felton passes off a difficult case to Howard. Giardello assigns Pembleton to work with rookie officer Bayliss.

List of tropes applying to this episode:

• Actually, I Am Him: Bayliss initially mistakes Crosseti for Giardello while he's talking to the real deal.
  Giardello: I'm Giardello.
  Bayliss: …Oh.
• Bait-and-Switch: The day after seeing a murder, Crosetti admits it gives him nightmares… the other in question being the Lincoln assassination, which he starts rambling about.
• Based on a True Story: Much of what's in this episode comes from David Simon's book:
  • Adena Watson, the young girl found murdered and sexually assaulted at the end, is based on Latonya Ann Wallace, a young girl found murdered under similar circumstances.
  • The widow Crosetti and Lewis investigate for having her husbands murdered for the insurance money, is based on Geraldine Parrish. Also, when Crosetti and Lewis find out the grave of one of the widow's victims has the wrong person buried there is happened with one of Parrish's victims.
  • Jenny Goode, the woman whose murder Bolander bugs Munch about throughout the episode, is based on Carol Wright, and her murder is solved in the same way Wright's was - when Munch looks at a photo and discovers a previously dismissed suspect had died their hair brown when they were blond in real life.
  • Near the end of the episode, when Crosetti, Lewis and Munch are hanging out in front of the building, a would-be mugger approaches them, and Munch turns him away by saying, "We're murder police - go mug somebody else," which happened to Sergeant Terry McLarney, the Expy of Crosetti.
• Blatant Lies: Bernard comes up with an implausible alibi about how a Jamaican committed the murder he was arrested for, cut his hand, and then drive him to the hospital while sweating him to secrecy. Munch demands the suspect lie to him more convincingly. He later claims that the killer was actually his girlfriend, at which point Munch snarks that he liked the first alibi better.
• Butt-Monkey: The second he walks into Homicide, Bayliss starts getting mocked by his colleagues.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Crosetti rambling pseudo-philosophically about life while Lewis bickers with him about it and calls him a moron, all while they investigate a crime scene.
  • Bayliss is initially unable to find Giardello, and then admits to him that he's always wanted to work in Homicide, because it has "thinking cops". It immediately sets him up as idealistic and naïve, as well as being rather inexperienced when it comes to police work.
  • Giardello eating lunch with his subordinates and joking around with them immediately established him as A Father to His Men.
  • Pembleton is initially only mentioned by the other detectives complaining about his egotistical attitude, which is reinforced when he wastes hours trying to find his car in the parking garage filled with identical Chevy Cavalier because he's too prideful to go back upstairs. Then he effortlessly tricks a suspect into confessing, showing that he has the skill to back it up.
  • After a suspect gives him a blatantly false alibi, Munch goes into a rant about how he deserved to be lied to with respect and analogizing the situation to Montel Williams and Larry King.
• Everything Is Racist: Pembleton accuses Felton of resenting him because he's black. Felton replies that he resents Pembleton because he's an arrogant jackass, and because they've spent an hour in the hot garage looking for his car because he's too prideful to go upstairs.
• Experienced Protagonist: Subverted. When Felton and Howard mock him for being a rookie, Bayliss tries to gain respect by pointing out he was part of a SWAT team for two years. Felton immediately points out that he's probably only done training exercises and asks him if he's even seen a dead body before, which Bayliss pointedly doesn't answer.
• Insistent Terminology: When Bayliss asks Pembleton if he can sit in on the interrogation he's about to do, this is how Pembleton responds:
  What you will be privileged to witness is not an interrogation, but an act of salesmanship. As silver-tongued and thieving as ever moved used cars, Florida swamp land, or Bibles. But what I am selling is a long prison term to a client who has no genuine use for the product.
• Jump Cut: Used when Munch and Bolander are driving to interview Jenny Goode's family, and then when Munch is with Crosetti and Lewis at the end.
• Morality Pet: Bolander talks Munch into solving Jenny Goode's murder rather than letting her case turn cold.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Neither Bolander nor the suspect know who Montel Williams is, making Munch's whole rant fall flat.
• Shout-Out: Munch says that Bernard's Blatant Lies have "a real Elmore Leonard quality".
• Stupid Evil: All of the suspects are total idiots. Jerry Jempson moronically walks straight into the station, Bernard's alibis are obviously false, and Johnny is easily tricked by Frank into confessing to murder.
  Pembleton: Crime makes you stupid.