Bop Gun
Directed by: Stephen Gyllenhaal
Story by: Tom Fontana
Teleplay by: David Mills, David Simon
Robert Ellison (Robin Williams), a tourist on vacation with his wife and two children, sees his wife murdered in front of his eyes. Howard and Felton manage to catch Vaughn Perkins (Lloyd Goodman), the young man who committed the murder, but given his relatively clean record, especially compared to his two friends, Howard isn't sure they have the right killer, and since Giardello feels the same way, he allows Howard to investigate on her own.
This episode contains examples of:
- Heroic BSoD: Ellison spends most of the aftermath of the shooting like this.
- Irony: At the end of the episode, Vaughn admits to Howard he took the gun from one of his other friends because he thought he could control the situation and make sure Ellison and his family wouldn't get hurt. He ended up killing Ellison's wife because she refused to give up her locket.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The first of the show's episodes focusing on the victim's family, as Ellison struggles with grief over his wife's death, guilt about the fact he didn't do anything to stop it, and anger at what he sees as the callousness of the detectives investigating his case.
- Serious Business: One suspect admits shooting someone because they damaged a rare record by Eddie Hazel
. - Titled After the Song: The episode title comes from the Parliament-Funkadelic song "Bop Gun (Endangered Species}".
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ellison gets angry when he hears Felton joking about the murder and bragging about the amount of overtime he's going to get from working the case. Giardello has to explain to him because Felton sees so many murders on the job, he can't think of the murder of Ellison's wife in the same way Ellison does.
