Happy To Be Here
Directed By: Lee Bonner
Story By: Tom Fontana and Julie Martin
Teleplay By: Julie Martin
Sam Thorne is killed while in a restaurant, and the teenage boy who pulled the trigger (on behalf of a drug cartel) did it for the money to buy a new bicycle. Bayliss and Pembleton are supposed to be investigating the case of a man who didn't report his wife dead (she died of natural causes), but Bayliss has become unhinged by the acrimonious end of his affair with Emma Zool, which causes him to go over the edge.
This episode contains examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Though Emma gets hit by her boyfriend (which causes Bayliss to confront him), it only seems to turn her on, and she demands of Bayliss that he fight with her, not him.
- Berserk Button: Do not tell Giardello you're not devoting time to a case because of a "personal matter".
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Arthur, the elderly man who kept his wife in the house even after she died, comes off as this when Bayliss and Pembleton question him, as he still seems to think his wife is alive.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The boy who killed Sam Thorne paid for a breath mint shortly afterwards because while he may be a killer, he's not a thief.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: The elderly and somewhat senile widower who left his wife's body in a chair in the front room for two weeks, and seemed a bit confused about whether she was dead or not.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bayliss goes so far over the edge here - holding up a convenience store cashier at gunpoint after the cashier refuses to let him buy a six-pack and some cookies because he's eleven cents short - it's Pembleton who comes off as the rational one, talking down both Bayliss and the cashier (Pembleton also intervened when Bayliss was confronting Emma's boyfriend), getting the cashier to agree not to press charges if Bayliss did security for the store three nights a week.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: At the beginning of the episode, Munch, Pembleton and Russert talk about how a person's eyes should be perfectly symmetrical, length wise, with their nose. Russert also mentions how the distance between the top and the bottom of a man's nose is equal to the length of their penis. Munch and Pembleton agree to test that theory later.
- Unwanted Assistance: Emma breaks up with Tim because of her anger that Tim confronted her other boyfriend about him hitting her, without telling her.
