25 Days of Christmas #13: "Night of the Dead Living"

Hoo boy, am I behind! I'll try to write up all three Christmas Homicides today. Here's the first one, my favorite Homicide of all time: "Night of the Dead Living."

Let's start off on the right foot: this isn't technically a Christmas episode. In fact, it's the hottest night of the year, September in Baltimore. The A/C in the squadroom is broken, of course, and Lt. Al Giardello is trying to get it fixed, to no avail.

There's a mysterious candle, which is lit every night by... someone, we know not who. The night is punishingly slow, and no calls are coming in, so Felton and Lewis appoint themselves to investigate who might be lighting it.

Well, it's not fair to say the phone isn't ringing. There might not be any new homicides to solve, but a man dressed as Santa Claus is on a roof, threatening to jump. And he has a gun. Detective Howard (big-deal movie star Melissa Leo) is handling the calls about Santa and calls from her sister.

"I liked him when I first met him ... I was just showing him my gun."

Crosetti's family is on the phone, too -- his teenaged daughter and her boyfriend want to spend the night together, and his ex-wife is going to let them. Felton's wife calls too -- they're still together, kind of, but it's rough going.

Speaking of rough going, John Munch and his girlfriend have broken up. More specifically, she's broken up with him, and he goes off on a patented Munch speed-rant about relationships in general and her in particular. Bolander, meanwhile, is trying to decide if he wants to try dating again. This just sets Munch off even further. Finally, Santa is rounded up (he shot the gun into the crowd in an attempt to hit his wife, though it should be pointed out it was just a watergun), and as he's brought in, he and Munch have a chat:

MUNCH: So what is it, Kringle? One of the elves kiss Mrs Claus's mistletoe? Ozone layer thin over the North Pole? Is Rudolph's nose red 'cause of alcohol?
SANTA: People don't know how to give any more.
MUNCH: I understand. On December 24th, you're the most popular guy in the world. On December 26th, you're just another fat man in a bad suit. Happy Hanukkah.

Gee goes down to the basement to turn on the air hisownself, and discovers a baby in a cage. As they wait for social services to come pick up the baby, most of the detectives coo and attempt to make him comfortable in the hot, hard-edged squadroom. Turns out the baby belongs to the beautiful janitorial lady who's filling in that night, and her finances don't stretch to hiring babysitters. Santa escapes, but they think he's still in the building somewhere.

Bayliss is still chin-deep in the Adena Watson investigation, and he's found a new clue: fingerprints on her library book, which lead him to ... a 12-year old kid, who'd checked the book out years prior. (Much like the episode as a whole, this plot-point comes from David Simon's nonfiction book about the BPD Homicide division: Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.) Pembleton, who's been drinking hot tea comfortably while everyone else sweats, chastises Bayliss for his flaws, most notably his inability to understand the criminal mind.

Then, Santa crashes down through the ceiling, inspiring Bayliss to have a breakthrough about Adena: the placement of her body makes no sense, except from above. Only the fire escape leads there easily. He starts to follow up on leads, and we finally learn that the self-same John Munch is the one who lights the candle each night, in memoriam of all those who have been killed. Gee invites the squad up to the roof, and they share a brief moment of camaraderie and hilarious joy.

As an episode of Homicide, I rate this 10/10. It's an atypical episode, granted, but we get to just hang out with all the characters and hear what they think about... everything. This show always lets us see the detectives' personal lives, and this episode is almost nothing but that. On the rare occasions I've evangelized about this show to someone, I'd pick this and "Three Men and Adena" to sum up the greatness of the series.
As a Christmas episode, I rate this 6/10. It's September, and hot, and there aren't any gifts or songs, but to quote the show: "Santa Claus, mystery babies: it feels like Christmas." When Santa falls through the ceiling, there's even a flurry of white insulation that comes with him.

I must apologize: the single-season sets of Homicide are apparently now out-of-print, so this buy link goes to the whole thing:

Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Series