Full Court Press
Directed By: Clark Johnson
Story By: Phillip B. Epstein and David Simon
Teleplay By: Phillip B. Epstein
Gharty and Munch investigate the murder of a high school basketball star who had a reputation that was less than stellar among other kids. Bayliss and Pembleton try to bust their suspect in a murder, but end up making a major drug bust instead. Ballard and Kellerman are assigned the case of two associates of Georgia Rae Mahoney who get murdered, which Kellerman is unenthusiastic about investigating. When more Mahoney dealers show up dead, Falsone realizes all of the dead dealers are the same people whose names he gave to Lewis. Kellerman goes to the FBI to tell them about the tape he made of Judge Gibbons incriminating himself in regards to Georgia Rae Mahoney, but while they put him off, one of them privately admits to Kellerman the judge has been under investigation for a while.
This episode contains examples of:
- Asshole Victim:
- Mark McCarren was a sadistic bully who bullied at least three young men and sexually humiliated his killer. Needless to say, his death isn't exactly treated sympathetically.
- As far as Kellerman is concerned, Georgia Rae Mahoney's associates qualify as this.
- Batman Gambit: Bayliss calls their suspect's pager number while Pembleton is in the bar to observe to see if the suspect picks up the phone so they can follow and arrest him. Unfortunately, it turns out they got the wrong suspect.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Partially what makes David confess his crime is that the investigators were friendly to him, which he thanks them for before answering where the weapon of the crime is.
- Bittersweet Ending: David won and finally had his story heard, the school will probably suffer for having ignored the bullying for so long, but his life will never be the same, with a high chance of him being arrested or put in a reformatory for a long time.
- Blatant Lies: Barnfather holds a press conference after the drug bust and claims it's been part of an investigation going back several months. To be fair, there's not much else he could have said.
- Broken Bird: David is a genuinely friendly geek kid, unfortunately being bullied and ultimately sexually humiliated caused the poor boy to break down and be driven to commit murder.
- Bullied into Depression: David is heavily implicated as not only being depressed but also suicidal from the trauma of being bullied, even saying at one point that maybe he should have shot himself with his father's gun.
- The Bully: Turns out McCarren was one of these to a few of the kids at his school, one of whom ended up killing him.
- Call-Back:
- Munch mentions he and Dyer have a history.
- When Gharty is getting on Munch's nerves, Munch says Gharty is reminding him of Bolander, "another short round guy" who he worked with.
- Challenging the Bully: David's initial objective was to confront MaCarren, but the taller guy, being Too Stupid To Live, decided to provoke him even with a gun pointed at his face.
- David Versus Goliath: MaCarren probably never believed that David could actually shred, not only because his size and frame made it impossible, not only because David was a weak 5'6'' guy, but also because the school administration was grossly negligent at best and fatally incompetent at worst. Unfortunately for him David found a third way when he found his father's gun, killing him in his moment of vulnerability.
- A Day in the Limelight: Inverted — Pembleton and Bayliss, who tend to get the serious and tragic major plotlines, have this episode's comic relief subplot.
- Death by Irony: The event that led to MaCarren's death was him removing David's clothes without his consent, pulling out his pubic hair and throwing him in the women's locker room naked. When his body is found he is naked in the locker room, basically being exposed for everyone to see.
- Defiant to the End:
- Subverted. McCarren tried to be that, smiling when he saw David with a gun, probably believing he wouldn't have the courage to pull the trigger. This ends up being what kills him, as it encourages a furious David to shoot. When David actually shoots, McCarren's smile disappears, much to his killer's satisfaction.
- A non-lethal variation, has David making it clear to the detectives with a proud smile on his face that he in no way regrets what he did, even though they make it clear that there is no way back from that point.
David: I aint sorry about a damn thing. - Disco Dan: The drug smuggler Pembleton and Bayliss accidentally arrest dresses in an extremely 1970s style, causing Frank to mockingly call him "Superfly''.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Attempted - after listening to Munch talk about how he was bullied in school (while Gharty was someone who was a bully), Gharty offers to let Munch punch him. Instead, Munch picks up an ashtray and tries to whack Gharty over the head with it, at which point Gharty gets him to back off.
- Does Not Like Spam: David the killer doesn't like sports, with the implied reason being his school's fixation with sports and the fact that he was picked on by the athletes there.
- The Dog Bites Back: David who killed McCarren after being Bullied into Depression for months while being neglected by adults at school.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Gender-Inverted. Calling him a bad guy is an exaggeration, but David is a killer who doesn't feel guilty about killing someone and who maintains a proud smile the entire time. The only thing that disturbs him is the detectives mentioning his father, whose involvement in his problems seems to be his only concern.
- Friendless Background: David mentions that he had no friends, as no one would want to hang out with someone who was bullied by the most influential and powerful person in school.
- Gentle Giant: The adults tried their best to paint MaCarron as one before and after his death, even though many knew he was in fact a terrible person to other students.
- Graceful Loser: In fact, David is quite cooperative and is the only person in that school who is 100% honest with the detectives. When he finally confesses, he smiles and thanks them for being kind to him.
- I Was Never Here: After the FBI agent tells Kellerman not to disclose what he said about Judge Gibbons being under investigation, Kellerman gets the hint and said, "We never had this meeting and I was never here."
- Jerk Jock: Mark McCarren was the leader of a team made up of these, it doesn't end well for him, after all that's is the reason he died.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Not just McCarren, but probably the entire school team. Not only was the school's biggest bully killed by one of his victims, cutting his successful career short, but the adults who chose to ignore the bullying and the other players who are just as bad lost the school's star and main source of profit, likely resulting in a major funding cut.
- Kick the Dog: Mark McCarren mentally and physically tortured David Tarnofski and even laughed at his reaction to the events, this ends up being what kills him.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In a move to make fans of another Steve Burns role uncomfortable, David interacts directly with the camera in the same way Steve would when interacting with “his friends”.
- Manipulative Bastard: Lewis comes close to confirming to Falsone that he's deliberately spreading mistrust and hostility within the Mahoney gang, causing them to kill one another.
- Meaningful Name: Perhaps accidental, but the culprit in the school case is not the first David to kill a "giant" considered untouchable. His surname, Tarnofski, being of Jewish origin does not help.
- Mellow Fellow: David behaves disturbingly calm during interrogation, even though he is confessing to killing someone, his reaction to Munch saying his life would change? Smile and say he has zero regrets.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Everyone (except the killer) apparently had a lot of good things to say about McCarren (although it is implied that it was so they wouldn't become suspects), which only hindered the investigation as there was no real evidence pointing to anyone in specific. Only when they encourage people to talk about the bad things Mark did they discover the killer.
- Nice Guy: Ironically, the school case killer is one of the most genuinely collaborative people in the episode, which only makes his ending more painful, not just for those watching but also for Munch and Gharty.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Munch is interrogating the kid who killed McCarren, David gives details on how McCarren bullied him, and asks Munch if he knows what that's like. Munch says quietly, "Yeah, I know what that's like".
- Pants-Pulling Prank: Played for Drama. The trigger that leads to McCarren's death is a painfully realistic example of the trope, when he stripped David naked without his consent (which counts as sexual assault) and threw him into the women's locker room exposed for all to see. The aftermath ends with a traumatized David running home and taking his father's gun to kill him.
- Perpetual Smiler: The Killer maintains a calm smile during the interrogation, he tries to temporarily stop smiling during the confession, trying to feel guilty, but immediately returns to the same cheerful tone as usual.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: David seems to believe that there is someone watching the interrogation from behind glass as he has seen it happen on crime TV shows, which Munch confirms is not happening in that way.
- School Bullying Is Harmless: No. David makes it clear how the bullying has mentally destroyed him to the point that the interrogation room where he is admitting to having killed someone is where he feels safest. The other two boys have clearly become anxious from all the stress of being bullied by Mark, but having a hard time explaining because they don't want to speak ill of the dead.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: David is the most open person to insult McCarren after he is dead, while the others force themselves to say good things about him. No wonder, after all, David was the one who killed him in an act of retaliation against his abuse.
- Sympathetic Murderer: David Tarnofski, a kind and cooperative boy, was driven to murder after being bullied into madness and sexually assaulted, when this is revealed, neither Munch nor Gharty can blame him for getting to that point.
- Too Stupid To Live: McCarren doesn't get intelligence points for laughing in the face of someone who has a gun pointed at him.
- Trauma Button: When Munch and Gharty are talking about the case after work at the Waterfront, Munch mentions how he was bullied at school. Gharty admits that he bullied other kids without showing much guilt about it, and patronisingly offers to let Munch punch him if it will make Munch feel better. Munch glares at him with absolute rage and hatred, grabs an ashtray off the bar and tries to smash Gharty's head in with it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: MaCarren was a aggressive jerk and a big bully, but the school tries to build him up as a Gentle Giant, with one of the employees even using the fact that he went to church every Sunday as an argument. When he is caught the killer mentions that they didn't have classes that day because they spent the whole day talking about how amazing McCarren was, before saying that Mark deserved to die.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Falsone chews out Lewis because he thinks Lewis is responsible for many of Georgia Rae Mahoney's crew ending up dead.
- Ballard, partnering Kellerman, is shocked by the extent of his cynicism and lack of interest in solving the drug murders.
- Working with the Ex: Dr. Dyer and Munch are extremely hostile to each other when she's explaining the results of McCarren's autopsy, puzzling Gharty.
