Hostage: Part 1
Directed By: Ted Demme
Story By: Tom Fontana and Julie Martin
Teleplay By: James Yoshimura
While Bayliss and Munch investigate the murder of a woman, Kellerman and Lewis have to deal with a red-ball when a shooter kills two at a school, wounds several others, and takes several students and a teacher hostage. All this happens on the day Pembleton comes back for his first day of work since he suffered his stroke.
This episode contains examples of:
- Continuity Nod:
- Munch is still ticked off at Pembleton partly because of Pembleton's indifference to Bolander getting shot.
- When Giardello tells Pembleton one of the conditions for him to come back to regular work is he has to pass firearms exam, Pembleton reminds Giardello he's always been a terrible shot.
- A Father to His Men: While Gaffney and Barnfather think Pembleton's not ready to come back to work, Giardello sticks up for him. Giardello later tells Pembleton he's burned all of his bridges for him.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Max Perlich as Brodie.
- Put on a Bus: Russert leaves because she got engaged to a French diplomat and followed him to France. In Real Life, Isabella Hofmann became pregnant by former co-star Daniel Baldwin, which is why she left the show.
- Take That!: When Gaffney comments on Russert going to France (see Put on a Bus above), he says it's like an episode of Nash Bridges, the show that consistently beat Homicide in the ratings.
- Two-Part Episode
