Finnegan's Wake
Directed By: Steve Buscemi
Story By: David Simon and James Yoshimura
Teleplay By: David Mills
An elderly man comes into the Homicide unit and confesses to Bayliss he believes his father was responsible for the rape and murder of Clara Slone, a 10-year old girl, except the girl was murdered in 1932. Thomas Finnegan (Charles Durning), the last detective to work the case, gets called on to help Bayliss and Falsone close it.
This episode contains examples of:
- Accidental Truth: When the police diver says he's not going to spend any more time in the lake looking for the gun that might have killed Clara, Finnegan tells him her family would like closure on the case, which convinces the diver to look for another 30 minutes (sure enough, he finds the gun). When Falsone asks if that's true, Finnegan admits he thinks the Slone family is all dead, but Bayliss finds out Clara's sister is still alive, and he and Finnegan visit her to tell her they closed the case.
- Bigot with a Badge: Finnegan has, to put it mildly, unenlightened views about women, Italian-Americans and African-Americans. When Falsone complains to Giardello, Giardello points out Finnegan is a product of his time.
- Book Ends: The episode opens and closes with "Hello Stranger" by Barbara Lewis.
- Call-Back:
- Bayliss is still thinking about Adena Watson, even confessing to Pembleton he still has nightmares about it. When Bayliss asks Pembleton why he never heard about Clara Slone, Pembleton confesses he and the others wanted to spare Bayliss because of Adena Watson.
- Finnegan recognizes Kellerman as the detective who's been in trouble because of Luther Mahoney.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: When Finnegan asks Falsone to sing, Falsone does a tone-deaf version of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
- Literary Allusion Title: To the novel by James Joyce.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Bayliss is initially dismissive to the apparently senile old man accusing his long-dead father of committing a murder decades ago. He's shocked when he mentions it to Giardello and discovers that it's a famous case still remembered in the city.
- Racist Grandma: Deconstructed. For much of the episode Finnegan's bigoted opinions are tolerated and treated as humorous by the younger detectives, until, during a drinking session at a bar, he refers to a criminal in a (somewhat morally questionable) anecdote as a "spook", causing Lewis to walk out and bringing the party to an end. When Falsone drives him home, he launches into an outright hateful rant about how much better the city was when the "right people" were in charge, including calling Falsone a "dago punk". After this, nobody wants much to do with him except for the doggedly tolerant Bayliss and the similarly ageing and Irish-American Gharty.
- When I Was Your Age...: Finnegan pulls this a lot when talking to other detectives about how it was when he was in Homicide.
- While You Were in Diapers: Discussed - Giardello tells Falsone Finnegan was working cases when Falsone wasn't even a thought in his father's brain.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is Falsone's reaction when Giardello tells him to work the Clara Slone case.
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: Lewis is laughing along with the others at Finnegan's stories until he calls an African-American drug dealer a "spook". Finnegan protests he didn't mean anything by it, and Falsone, echoing Giardello, says Finnegan's a product of his time. Lewis, however, is having none of it, and says he's leaving before he says something he regrets.
