A gas bomb goes off in the subway, killing 20 African-American people in what turns out to be an attempt to set off a race war. Pembleton and Bayliss come up all the way from Baltimore; the bombing is related to an earlier bombing in an African American church.
Tropes present in this episode
- Angry White Man: Le Clair (Leo Burmester), Brian Egan's (Kevin Geer) lawyer, does a lot of race-baiting in his cross-examinations, as well as his closing statement. McCoy is able to take that on in his closing to get a guilty verdict.
- Artistic License – Geography: There is no 106th Street subway station in New York City.
- Crossover: This episode is part 1 of a plotline concluding in the "For God and Country" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Pembleton and Bayliss, both from Homicide: Life on the Street, are in this episode.
- Death of a Child: There are references to children having died in both bombings. In the subway, one of them is 15-year-old Thomas Bell.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Egan admits he didn't know there were kids in the church he bombed in Baltimore.
- First-Name Basis: Bayliss insists Kincaid, whom he's flirting with, call him Tim.
- Foreshadowing:
- The photo Munch sees in the Egan's house of Kenny and his "Uncle Alex" will become important in the next episode.
- Both Bayliss and then Curtis ask Pembleton if they think Egan acted alone, which also becomes important in the following episode.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Between the New York City and Baltimore cops.
- No-Tell Motel: Briscoe guesses Egan would want to stay at one of these because he wants to remain incognito. He's proven right when the clerk at one of the motels he and Curtis visit recognizes Egan's face.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The witness who helped the sketch artist draw the culprit was the father of one of the dead.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Two events: The Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995, and the Colin Ferguson/Long Island rail road shooting of 1993.
- Sarcasm Mode: Kincaid, incredulous McCoy would allow a change of venue outside of the city (in Westchester), comments on the racial makeup there compared to what would have been in another New York City borough and adds, "I'm sorry, I must have missed the day they taught ethnic stereotypes in law school."
- Shout-Out:
- Egan registers at the motel under the name Ronald Reagan.
- Munch brings up Clint Eastwood's suit against The National Enquirer.
- Pembleton tells Egan with 26 bodies on his name, he's up in Ted Bundy territory.
- When Briscoe wonders if the bomb was just a chemistry experiment gone wrong, the forensics expert quips, "If your chemist is Dr. Mengele."
- When Kincaid wonders if the jury will let political considerations cloud their verdict, McCoy brings up the Rodney King verdict and Marion Barry getting re-elected as mayor despite his drug conviction
.
- Title Drop: When he and Bayliss are interrogating Egan, Pembleton asks, "You miss Charm City, Brian?"
- Yiddish as a Second Language: When Le Clair pushes for a change of venue because he claims the Bronx jury would automatically be prejudiced against his client, Judge Scarletti calls that chutzpah in the first degree.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: When McCoy tries to make a deal with Egan to get him to give up the man he's working for:Egan: You don't see anything. You have no idea what's really going on.
McCoy: Why don't you tell me?
Egan: I'm just the tip of the iceberg.
McCoy: You're a racist and a murderer, and you just found out your country won't tolerate it.
Egan: You mean your country won't. Mine is growing. You think you can stop it? You can't stop anything.
