Lines of Fire
Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow
Story By: Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura
Teleplay By: James Yoshimura
Mike and Gharty have to talk down Emmet (Ron Eldard), an unemployed man who's taken his son Zach and stepdaughter Zoey hostage.
This episode contains examples of:
- Because You Were Nice to Me: A variation - Emmet asks for Mike because he saw on television the other cops laughing at what happened (in reality, they were laughing at the fact Emmet tried to shoot a cop at point-blank range and only hit his foot), and Mike wasn't laughing.
- Blatant Lies: When Emmet shoots his ex-wife Lucy, Mike tells Emmet he didn't kill her when in reality, she's dead.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place in and around the apartment building where Emmet, Zach and Zoey are, and the only regular characters who appear on the show are Mike, Gharty, Bayliss and Lewis.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Lucy manages to get through the police lines to shout at Emmet from the courtyard, and then Emmet manages to shoot her dead by firing wildly out of the window with a short-barrelled pistol. Lewis even calls it a "miracle shot".
- Downer Ending: Mike is unable to stop Emmet from shooting Zach and then himself. Not even the fact he was able to save Zoey makes him feel any better.
- From Bad to Worse: The siege begins with Emmet shooting a uniformed officer in the foot after a row with his sister-in-law. Then Emmet kills his wife, and finally himself and his son.
- Heroic RRoD: Mike goes through this after Emmet shoots Zach and then himself, to the point he kicks Emmet's dead body in a rage.
- Let Me Get This Straight...:Gharty Let me get this straight - these crisis guys, they're going to let you go up to the door with this pizza, and our pal Emmet, he's gonna open the door, you're going to hand him the damn pizza, and he's gonna give you his gun?
Mike: That's the plan, champ.
Gharty: And what if he doesn't give you the gun?
Mike: QRT. They shoot him dead?
Gharty: What if he shoots first? Shoots you? And then your old man comes back into town, he's where?
Mike: I don't know, out of town somewhere.
Gharty: The lieutenant comes back into town, and I gotta tell him you got shot?
Mike: My father's here, he'd be the first one through that door. - Pater Familicide: Emmet shoots his wife, his son and himself, sparing his stepdaughter because she wasn't a blood relative.
- Unusual Dysphemism: After being convinced that Mike actually is part black and part Italian, Emmet refers to him as "chitlin scallopini".
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bayliss and Lewis do this to Lt. Jasper after Lucy slips by QRT and gets killed by Emmet.
