Fire: Part 1
Directed By: Don Scardino
Story By: Henry Bromell and Tom Fontana
Written By: Julie Martin
A warehouse is set on fire, with a dead teenager inside. Bayliss and Pembleton have to team up with Detective Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond) of the Arson Squad to find the murderer. Howard decides to take the sergeant's exam.
This episode contains examples of:
- Amicable Exes: Kellerman and medical examiner Anne Kennedy give this impression (though this turns out to be somewhat misleading).
- Continuity Nod: Detective Gaffney is still in Missing Persons, and still incompetent - when Bayliss and Pembleton him to declare someone missing so they can find out for sure who was killed in the fire, Gaffney says he won't declare someone officially missing unless they've been missing for at least 24 hours, not because it's department policy, but because it's his policy.
- Foreshadowing: Matthew Roland, the crooked real estate dealer Kellerman initially thinks is responsible for the arson, becomes important in Season 5.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bayliss realizes something's going on with Pembleton when he hesitates in chasing a suspect.
- Put on a Bus: Bolander and Felton have been suspended for 22 weeks after they got drunk and disorderly at a police convention, leaving the Homicide Unit shorthanded.
- The Reveal: Pembleton tells Bayliss the reason why he hesitated in chasing the suspect is Mary is pregnant.
- Shout-Out: Giardello says he sent Bolander and Felton to the police convention because he thought it would be good for them, and snaps, "How was I to know that when they got there, they'd turn into Dumb and Dumber?"
- Two-Part Episode
