Heartbeat
Directed By: Bruno Kirby
Story By: Henry Bromell and Tom Fontana
Teleplay By: Kevin Arkadie
This episode is all about secrets. Lewis and Kellerman put down the case of a drug-related murder, and the culprit, hoping to get some kind of deal, tells them about the location of a body. Howard and Munch get the case, which turns out to be a an old unsolved murder leading back to Joseph Cardero (Kevin Conway), a drug dealer and self-styled poet. Munch decides to ask Dr. Dyer out, but ends up cheating on her with her roommate. Bayliss lets it slip that Mary's pregnant, which pisses Pembleton off, even though Russert, Howard, Lewis, Kellerman, and Giardello are all happy for him.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: When Munch walks into the break room, he finds both Bayliss and Howard watching a daytime Soap Opera, and both admit to find it fascinating. Melissa Leo and Kyle Secor both got their start on soap operas (All My Children and Santa Barbara, respectively).
- All Men Are Perverts: Munch, who shows up for a date with Dr. Dyer, only to find her roommate there as well, telling him Dyer will be late and asking him for his help moving a mattress. The next time we see them, Munch is in bed with Dyer's roommate and having a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
- Buried Alive: Howard and Munch find the dead body behind a brick wall. At the end of the episode, consumed with guilt, Cardero walls himself up alive.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Though Cardero never admits to doing the deed, it's implied he killed someone for stealing his book of Edgar Allan Poe's works.
- Driven to Suicide: Cardero kills himself after being overcome with guilt for the murder, in the same gruesome way as his victim died.
- I Have This Friend: Played with - Bayliss is actually talking about Pembleton, not himself, when talking to Russert about someone he knows whose wife is pregnant but who is unenthusiastic about it, but Russert sees right through Bayliss and realizes he's talking about Pembleton.
- I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: This is how Munch tries to justify himself to Howard after he confesses his one-night stand. She doesn't buy it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When Munch finally confesses he slept with Dyer's roommate, Dyer responds by socking him in the eye.
- Shout-Out: The episode is one long Shout-Out to Edgar Allan Poe in general (Cardero is a Poe fanatic) and The Tell-Tale Heart in particular - when Munch and Howard have Cardero in the box, Munch even has Giardello play a tape of a human heartbeat to unnerve him. Even after they let him go, Cardero continues to hear the heartbeat.
- Superstition Episode: When Howard sees a black cat in the break room, she freaks because she buys into the idea black cats mean bad luck (which at least is somewhat consistent with her belief in ghosts). Downplayed in that the worst thing that happens to her is she and Munch ultimately don't put down the case they get stuck with.
