The 25 Days of Christmas Episodes – Day 14 – Homicide “And All Through the House”
Detective Meldrake Lewis and Lieutenant Megan Russert take the burning case. The victim, Whitney Ellsworth, turns out to be the black-sheep daughter of a wealthy society family. Lorraine Freeman, Whitney’s mother, seems to take the news in stride. Her strongest reaction comes from berating the servants trimming the Christmas tree for hanging too many ornaments of the same color next to each other. When the detectives return to tell her that they caught her daughter’s killer, Lorraine finally breaks down, but she directs it once again at the Christmas tree.
Bolander and Munch check Santa’s ID and find that he’s one Nicholas McGaffin. The detectives head to his house to find that his wife left him and only his young son Fidel is in the house. Fidel initially doesn’t want to let them in, until they prove their bona fides with badges, licenses, major credit cards, and $5 each. Bolander heads to Child Welfare, and leaves Munch to keep an eye on the still oblivious Fidel.
Fidel wants to watch horror movies, insult Munch, and talk about how great his Dad is. Munch is not interested in any of these things. Finally, with no word from Bolander, Much decides to take the bullet and tell Fidel about his father. And at the last second, Nicholas shows up right there at the door. Seems Nicholas was a drunk, and when he got liquored up before heading to his Santa job, a hobo rolled him and stole his clothes.
While all this is going on, Frank Pembleton gives us a lesson on the history of the Christmas tree and Tim Bayliss looks for somebody to play a game of Hearts. Finally, Giardello agrees, and in a hilarious performance, Gee pretends to be completely captivated by this new game. Once Bayliss has been cleaned out, he finds out that Gee used to be a Hearts champion. Strangely, we never find out where that watch came from, though.
Best Line – Fidel, to Munch: “You use all these weird words. It’s like when you talk, you’re listening to yourself like a cartoon and watching the words come out. And the whole time you’re thinking ‘I’m cool, I’m cool’.”
Christmas Tropes:
Santa Claus – Few sights are more disturbing than a corpse in a Santa Claus suit discovered in a dumpster.
Trimming the tree – We see three different scenes of tree decoration. There’s Bolander in the squad room, Lorraine Ellsworth’s servants decorating a giant tree, and the idyllic scene of murder suspect Boots Chiggins’ family trimming their own tree. Despite the half-assed decorations, Bolander’s tree is the only one that isn’t fraught with subtext or irony.
Gifts – Megan Russert gives Giardello a box of Christmas cookies.
Reference to other seasonal holidays – Chief Medical Examiner Scheiner decorates the morgue with tinsel, but also a handmade “Happy Hanukkah” sign, to make sure everybody’s comfortable. The sign includes a picture of a menorah that actually looks more like a birthday cake.
Celebrity guest – Nancy Marchand plays Lorraine Ellsworth. At the time, she was best known for Lou Grant, but she would soon be immortalized as Livia Soprano.
Learning a lesson – As Gee puts it, “Never hustle a Sicilian”.
Cheer-o-meter Score: Less depressing than most Homicide episodes, despite Munch’s speech about Christmas suicides and Lewis and Russert sharing their holiday depression. The Hearts subplot and the fact that there’s a happy ending for Fidel and Nicholas gives this one a 7.
