Zen and the Art of Murder
Directed By: Miguel Arteta
Story By: Tom Fontana and Julie Martin
Teleplay By: Lloyd Rose
Lewis reluctantly teams up with Bayliss to investigate the murder of Roshi James Felder, a Buddhist monk, and the two clash over the investigation (Bayliss thinks the murderer was one of the homeless people the monk worked with, while Lewis thinks it was one of the other monks), leading them to each investigate on their own, but Bayliss' end of the investigation leads him to shoot the suspect, which shatters his beliefs. Ballard and Gharty investigate what seems to be an airtight murder case, with three eyewitnesses, but none of them can agree on whether the suspect in custody was the murderer. Elsewhere, Ballard and Falsone agree to end their relationship.
This episode contains examples of:
- An Aesop: Eyewitness identification is not enough to make a murder case, especially when the eyewitnesses are unreliable because they don't agree on what they saw.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: When Gharty hears there are three eyewitnesses to the murder they're investigating:Gharty: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Ballard: Yeah - Too Good to Be True. - Chekhov's Spoon: Though Munch cracks to Lewis the spoon found at the crime scene of Felder's murder was not the murder weapon, the spoon turns out to be the motivation for the crime.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Larry Moss, the homeless man who killed Roshi Felder, did so because when he came to the soup kitchen Felder worked at, Felder offered him a spoon when all he wanted was soup, which he felt insulted his pride.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Larry Moss' motive for killing Roshi Felder, as well as why he pulls a gun on Bayliss as well.
- Hard-Work Montage: Of Bayliss interviewing people who might have seen Larry Moss and Lewis interviewing Felder's colleagues, until Bayliss sees Moss washing windscreens in the street, at which point it becomes a foot chase.
- Heroic BSoD: Bayliss has one after he shoots and kills Larry Moss, even though Giardello and Lewis assure him it was a justified shooting because Moss was holding a gun on him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lewis, who had been in Bayliss' face about his Buddhist beliefs in general and how it may be influencing his investigation of Roshi Felder's murder in particular, admits to Bayliss he was wrong and Bayliss was right about who committed the murder.
- Karma Houdini: Jocko gets away with murder because the eyewitnesses Ballard and Gharty interview can't agree about whether or not he was the murderer. The last time we see Jocko (during the Montage Out at the end), he's disposing of the gun.
- Literary Allusion Title: The title is a play on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: The responding officer at Ballard and Gharty's murder scene tells Gharty, "What you see is what you get." When Gharty gives him a Quizzical Tilt, the officer explains it was a Flip Wilson reference
. - Racial Face Blindness: Gharty warns Ballard that cross-racial identification is often difficult, and when the victim's mother admits that she didn't get a good look at the killer she mentions that white men look alike to her.
- Red Herring: Tina Jeffries, one of Roshi Felder's colleagues, reveals to Bayliss and Lewis that Roshi Felder was sleeping with some of his female students. However, this ends up having nothing to do with the murder.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Giardello orders Lewis to let Bayliss help out with the investigation, Munch uses that as his excuse to go on sick leave.
- Shout-Out:
- Munch tells Lewis the only thing he knows about Buddhism is Richard Gere and his "Free Tibet" movement.
- Lewis compares Felder's fulsome public apology after his sex scandal to Bill Clinton's.
- Trauma Conga Line: Yet another microcosm of the Trauma Conga Line that is Bayliss's life in general — first he discovers that the Buddhist monk who he looked up to as a teacher was abusing his position to have sex with the younger and more attractive female students; his investigation ends with him shooting the killer dead, which sends him into another spiral of guilt and self-hatred when he starts second-guessing himself and worrying that he did it unnecessarily out of revenge or unjustified panic.
