Episode
Homicide: Life on the Street: Bad Medicine
Overview
More drug-related homicides are occurring. Pembleton is still relegated to desk duty and now so is Kellerman. A federal grand jury investigation is being conducted that goes back to the time when Mike was in the arson unit. Frank is still not taking his medicine and getting ready for the range test. Brodie moves out of Munch's place and into Bayliss'. Lewis finds out that the witness to his drug homicide has been brought downtown. He goes after him and meets Stivers, a female detective in narcotics. Lewis's witness points toward Luther Mahoney as the initiator of the contract. They go to find the executor, who's been executed. Stivers pages Mahoney and he comes in for questioning, but they can't make a case that Danvers thinks will stick. Frank misses a passing grade on his test by four points.
Details
- Series
- Homicide: Life on the Street
- Season
- Season 5
- Episode
- Episode 4
- Air date
- 1996-10-25
- Runtime
- 45 min
Episode context
Bad Medicine is Episode 4 in Season 5 of Homicide: Life on the Street. It aired on 1996-10-25. The runtime is 45 min.
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Episode 3: Prison Riot
A riot breaks out at the prison, where two inmates are killed. The squad goes to the scene, but Frank must still stay behind. Bayliss, Lewis, Kellerman and Howard interview the inmates; many of them have familiar faces. Frank works on his target practice. Bayliss thinks that one inmate really wanted to tell him something, so he puts together a deal to get the information. The inmate confesses to the murder and Bayliss doesn't believe him. Another riot breaks out and the truth is finally discovered.
Episode 5: M.E., Myself and I
The new Chief Medical Examiner (CME), Julianna Cox, speeds into town. An FBI agent, Pandolfi, conducts interviews with the squad about Kellerman. Frank looks for way to celebrate his anniversary with his wife. The new CME arrives on the scene of a homicide that Lewis and Bayliss are working on, they lay down their respective ground rules. Bayliss' murderer confesses to committing another crime. Kellerman is worried by the ongoing investigation and takes it out on another arson officer. Brodie offers to make chili for the Lewis family but the dinner turns into a fight for Meldrick and his wife. From a suggestion by Frank, Bayliss and Lewis get the other body exhumed and checked out. Frank and Mary celebrate their anniversary. Bayliss gains some insight into the new CME.
More episodes from this season
Episode 2: Hostage (2)
Night has fallen and the crisis is no closer to being resolved. Gee demands that Barnfather make a decision. Frank continues to trying to adjust. Frank insists on going to the hostage scene. The identity of the hostage-taker is made when he demands that his pig be brought to the school. When the pig doesn't arrive in time, he sets a fire and seriously wounds a hostage (who later dies) and then becomes badly burned. Brodie takes issue with Munch's treatment of Pembleton. The paperwork gets completed and the hostage-taker is formally charged. Frank makes a decision regarding his recovery.
Episode 6: White Lies
An article appears in The Baltimore Sun about Kellerman and the other members of the arson unit who are under investigation. Munch investigates the death of women whose husband returned home to find her dead, cause unknown. He suspects the husband but Cox thinks differently. Pembleton tries to help Bayliss close the Lambert case. The article puts Kellerman on edge and he goes to Roland's office where he discovers Roland is a federal witness. This incident gets him suspended until he takes a polygraph test. Brodie gets an offer to stay at Kay's place. Munch presses his witness and breaks him but Cox's evidence still says otherwise. Kellerman takes the test and while waiting for the result tells Lewis the truth. Cox visits Munch's suspect in his cell. Frank reflects on his past and the future. Kellerman passes the polygraph, but so did the federal witness; one of them beat the test.
Episode 1: Hostage (1)
Gaffney and Barnfather give Gee a hassle about the return of Frank to duty and the sudden departure of Russert to Europe. Bayliss and Munch are called to the scene of a homicide, where the victim, Mrs. Uba, was cooking breakfast and the only witness may be a male pig named Angie. Frank returns to work and Gee tells him what his limited duties are going to be and that he's called in all his favors and both their asses are on the line. The squad is called out for a hostage situation at a middle school.
Episode 7: The Heart of a Saturday Night
Family members of murder victims (Widmer, Rath and Silvio) are in a support group where they discuss their feelings about the loss they have each suffered. Short-handed, Gee investigates the Widmer homicide at the Waterfront Bar. Bayliss' homicide is unidentified for 48 hours before she is identified as being Rath. Lewis and Munch investigate a car jacking at Federal Hill, where the mother is the victim and the 3-year-old daughter in the car at the time is missing. Meanwhile, Howard, Kellerman and Pembleton stay behind. Frank interviews the two witnesses that Tim had in for questioning and gets a lead on a suspect. Cox joins the support group meeting late; she is still coping with the death of her father.
Episode 8: The True Test
Lewis and Bayliss investigate a homicide at a boarding school. Gee goes to Frank's house to pick him up for a trip to the gun range. Kellerman wants the investigation into corruption in his old arson unit to move along, but he finds out that all the real guilty parties have made plea bargains. Frank's firearm test looked promising. The tiny little voice in Bayliss' head tells him that McPhee Broadman might be their suspect despite the fact that his mother is a powerful judge in Baltimore. A student comes forward and confesses to the student's killing; however, the detectives aren't convinced he alone was responsible. Frank passes the exam and can return to active duty, but as far as he is concerned the real test is in the box.
Episode 9: Control
Pembleton waits with anticipation for the phone to ring. It does and with Bayliss as the primary, they proceed to investigate the triple murder of a divorced woman and her children. Kellerman asks Brodie not to return to the boat. Lewis and Munch get a homicide that they can track back to Luther Mahoney. Bayliss and Pembleton disagree on who the primary suspect is in the murder. Mahoney's nephew wants to remain ""monogamous"" in implicating his uncle. Kellerman gets his summons to appear before the grand jury. Frank and Tim must work out the finer points of working in the box together again. Mahoney's hand reaches out from jail and silences his nephew; the case is a bust. Lewis lays down the law to Luther Mahoney in the Waterfront Bar. Cox finds Kellerman and his predicament intriguing and offers him some company, the night of his summons.
Episode 10: Blood Wedding
Frank gets his first case as a primary-- unfortunately it is a case that involves the shooting of Danver's fiancée. Danvers is concerned about Frank being the primary and keeps throwing his opinions into the investigation. Danvers changes his perspective on the death penalty and also reflects on his past performance in many of the cases he's tried. Brodie continues to look for housing; the latest place he tried staying was the morgue. Kellerman is discouraged when it appears as though Cox may have only been looking for a one-night stand and nothing more-- so he takes a sick day. Gee takes some time out of his day to have a talk with Kellerman's former partners to see where they stand with him in regard to their testimonies to the grand jury. He also sees the Deputy Commissioner to see what can be done for Kellerman; what he learns instead are some truths about the Gaffney promotion.
Episode 11: The Documentary
On New Year's Eve, the detectives sit back in the quiet of the evening and watch a documentary that Brodie has made about them and their work. In this documentary, entitled ""BACK PAGE NEWS: Life and Homicide On The Mean Streets Of Baltimore"", one of Frank and Tim's cases is covered where some ""lies and hidden truths"" are revealed. During a sequence about one of Mike and Meldrick's cases, they chase a suspect right into the filming of something called ""Homicide"" by director Barry Levinson and his crew. Mike and Julianna agree to try a date. Also, the identity of the ""lunch bandit"" is revealed to be Gaffney. Brodie reveals that the documentary has been sent to PBS and gives his reasons why. As the new year rolls in, things return to normal as the phones start ringing.
Episode 12: Betrayal
Frank and Tim investigate the death of a young girl whose abused body was found by the side of the interstate. Brodie goes to an interview with a new potential roommate. Kellerman finally gets his day in court, where he is supposed to take the 5th amendment. Frank and Tim disagree with their pursuit of the investigation. Frank tries a different approach with the mother and she tells him the story-- only they won't be able to get a murder one conviction. Julianna comes down to the courthouse to offer Mike some moral support. He sees Connelly come out of the courtroom and thinks things are going bad, so he prepares to give it all up. However, his appearance before the grand jury doesn't go quite as he expected. Brodie walks out of the building with his new roommate. The detectives try to celebrate Kellerman's freedom, though he has different thoughts about the situation. Tim tries to come to grips with the child abuse he experienced in his past and also tells Frank he doesn't want to be
Episode 13: Have a Conscience
Kellerman is disappointed with his treatment in the press (or rather the lack of it). Back on the job, Mike gets his first case. There was a shopkeeper who was killed for chasing the drug dealers out of his corner. The prime suspect is Luther Mahoney. Frank tries to reconnect with Tim who is still resolved to no longer be Frank's partner. Mike is visibly on the edge, with all the pressures of the past months and his reputation tarnished, and agitated by the fact that Luther Mahoney may get away with another murder. Meldrick tries to talk him down, not anxious to lose another partner.