25 Days of Christmas #14: "All Through the House"

Here is Homicide's first real Christmas episode: "All Through the House."

It's Christmastime in Baltimore, and the murder police are having a bleak time of it. Lewis's partner has recently committed suicide, and Russert can't shake the memory of her late husband. They go out together on Lewis's new case, since the victim, Whitney Freeman, was a witness in one of Russert's most important ongoing investigations. Felton's wrapping up presents for his kids, though his wife has left him and taken them he knows not where. Pembleton misses his wife. He misses his fire. He misses Nat King Cole.

Only one person really feels the Christmas spirit, and that's The Big Man himself, Stan Bolander. He's put up a tree, which prompts a rant from Munch about the relentless cheer of the season and the pressure to be happy. Soon, they get a call: someone's shot Santa. The dead Salvation Army Santa had his kettle stolen, and the neighbor lady says that Santa's house is right down the street. A kid answers the door, and Stan goes off to find social services to care for the kid, while Munch has to watch the kid and try to work up the courage to tell him of the murder.

They don't get along very well, and it's great fun to watch the kid calling Munch on his idiosyncrasy: "You've got a weird way of talking. ...You're using all these weird words. Like they were a cartoon coming from your mouth, and you're watching them thinking, 'I'm cool!' " 

"I get a lot of bodies.A lot of different backgrounds.This time of the year, I want every body to feel welcome."

Lewis and Russert go to notify their victim's mother. Mrs. Freeman is a socialite who's only focused on making sure her houseful of servants decorate the tree properly, until she breaks down with guilt over her daughter's drug problem and death. Back at the squadroom, Bayliss is trying to get a game of hearts going, but nobody will play with him. Until, that is, he convinces Gee to play a few hands, for a nominal wager.

Stan gets back to Munch and the kid, with great news: the Santa who got murdered wasn't anybody's dad. The victim had mugged the real Santa, the kid's father, for the contents of his kettle, and stolen his suit. Bolander is reassured by this Christmas miracle, and Munch, who hadn't quite gotten around to notifying the kid, is relieved, though he can't quite see the hand of God or miracle of Christmas in the night's events.

Lewis and Russert roust the assistant state's attorney, Ed Danvers (played by bigtime TV star Željko Ivanek), out of his home and warm cider and red holiday sweater, to find the file on their case.  Their clues finally lead back to the wife of the criminal Whitney Freeman was about to testify against -- she did it so their kids could have their own father back.

Bayliss and Gee's card game has expanded, and become a lot more expensive, as Gee ends up shooting the moon. You see, Gee put one of his daughters through college playing hearts, and as he tells Bayliss, one should never try to hustle a Sicilian. (I always said this was the funniest serious show on TV during its run, and this episode is a pretty good example, between Gee's hustle and Munch's sparring with Santa's kid.)

The squad's night ends, and they all go outside to find more fresh snow falling. An impromptu snowball fight erupts, and everyone shouts "Merry Christmas!" to each other, and to us.

As an episode of Homicide, I rate this 8/10. The relative lightness of the storylines in this episode doesn't trump the truthfulness of the series' tone as a whole. Our next Christmas episode will be more characteristic in tone.
As a Christmas show, I rate this 9/10. A lot of dark shows have a hard time balancing a lighter tone in their Christmas episodes, but this one is almost perfect. Sure, it's about murder police, but no innocent person loses their life in this episode, and it's got a lot of heart and warmth and snow and Christmas music over the end.

Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Series