NYPD Blue Summary/Review by Amanda Wilson aka Puedo01@aol.com
"Bale To The Chief"
Season 12, Episode 19
2/22/05
Teleplay by Tom Szentgyorgyi & Keith Eisner
Story by Bill Clark & Tom Szentgyorgyi & Keith Eisner
Directed by Jesse Bochco

Stop it already! You're makin' me cry and so forth..... and now I'm gonna 
make you cry because this summary is so g*d long. Review and fun Quick 
Hits follow.

SUMMARY

BALE SHOOTING: Every lead the creep Misha gave the detectives about where 
to find the shooter, Serge, is dead.  ADA Munson is called in to talk 
about a deal with Misha, but she's not much more willing to deal than the 
cops were. She agrees to recommend a suspended sentence for him but only 
if he can really produce Serge. Unaware that it's highly unlikely anyone 
connected to a cop shooting will get anything out of the DA or a judge, he 
leads them to Serge via a hotel flea who helps Serge peddle his whores to 
the hotel patrons. Not until the flea is in cuffs in the fine hotel lobby 
does he give them the address of Serge's stable.  Once there, the cops 
pick up three Russian hookers. None of them will say anything. Two of the 
three appear to be near incontinence at the mere mention of Serge's name. 
The third has a big attitude, goes a few rounds with Andy, and still 
refuses to say anything.  When her prints come back later, they discover 
she's Serge's sister. Andy tries a different approach with her. He tells 
her that her brother is a dead man walking unless she tells them where to 
find him so they can bring him in peacefully. She's persuaded that because 
he's already shot one cop, he'll draw on others, and that other cops will 
gun him down the minute he draws. Andy promises her that he'll bring him 
in alive. The thought of him dead makes her chin quiver. She gives him up. 
The cops stake him out and when he sees them coming, he begins to shoot. 
Andy orders everyone to hold their fire as Serge runs into a dead end. 
Andy shouts to him that his sister wants him alive, and not to make her 
have to ID his body. Serge gives up. 

Later, Clark and Jones are given the task of getting Serge to confess. 
Bale is unable to ID him from a photo array, so they don't have as much to 
go on as they'd like. They tell Serge they do have an ID, and that it 
doesn't matter if he talks. They only thing about talking, they tell him, 
is that he might be able to help himself a little in court. They feign 
disinterest and start to walk away a few times. Serge bites. He's 
persuaded that he can claim self defense or that he had no idea Bale was a 
cop; all he has to do is say why he shot Bale. The key is that he's 
admitting to the shooting. Like Misha, Serge is unaware that there's no 
way a claim of self-defense or that he didn't know Bale was a cop is going 
to fly. They've got him.

MUSLIM STABBING: A woman named Farrah is found in her apartment with a 
huge steak knife protruding from the center of her chest.  A freaky 
neighbor says he's heard her arguing with her husband a lot lately, but 
that since they speak Arabic to one another, he has no idea what they've 
been yelling about.

The woman's husband is brought in. He's mortified at the news of her 
murder. He says she was a good wife.  He also says that another guy from 
their home country of Egypt did the killing. Ibrahim is his name, and he 
wanted to marry Farrah. Her family wouldn't allow it because Ibrahim was 
too poor. Her family, also poor, put her name on a registry and her 
husband paid to marry her and bring her to America.

Ibrahim is confronted. He is also mortified at the news of the woman's 
death and is shocked and angry that he's a suspect. He states his firm 
belief in God and says he's accepted completely that his desire to marry 
the woman wasn't God's plan. He says he only came to America to be her 
friend. Rita and Murph don't buy that and tell him he'd better think twice 
about lying to God. This moves him deeply. He admits then that he did 
sleep with Farrah, but only once, and they both felt awful about it. She 
called him a few times to tell him how sad and depressed she was about 
being far from home and not very happy with her new life.  A few days 
earlier, he'd gone to see her to comfort her, but they only talked. Her 
husband came home, however, and threw him out. Farrah called him again to 
tell Ibrahim how angry her husband was.  He's convinced the husband is the 
killer, and he asks if he can be allowed to pay to have Farrah's body 
taken back to her family in Egypt for burial.

Back with the husband, they confront him with this story. He admits that 
it's true, but swears he didn't kill her.

Later, the cops get word that the woman's diary has been translated. Her 
last entry is a shocker. It's a suicide note, meaning she drove that steak 
knife into her own chest. The ME agrees that it's possible she did it 
herself.  Her husband is given this news and breaks down. He blames 
himself for her action, and he explains that in his religion, to stab 
yourself in that way means you will suffer that stabbing for all eternity 
in hell. He tearfully begs them to charge him with murder so their 
families will never have to know Farrah's fate in the afterlife. 

Murph and Rita ask Andy for advice. He tells them to leave the case open 
as a homicide for a month, then quietly close it out as a suicide. That 
way, the families will never have to know and can think the case is 
unsolved.

BALE'S OUT: A new boss arrives in the 1-5 to fill in while Bale recovers.  
Lt. Henry is his name, golf is his game. Not only is he the Anti-Bale, he 
makes Eddie Gibson look like the second coming of Arthur Fancy. He arrives 
with his golf club in hand and the only thing he cares to know about he 
squad is everyone's name. And he can't even remember them later. He lays 
his ground rules quickly: tell me about your cases, uh, whenever and for 
God's sake, don't bury me in paper work.

Andy goes to the hospital to talk to Bale about the shooting and see how 
he's doing. Bale is alert and seems to be doing OK without his spleen. 
He's a little nick in a kidney, but says that shouldn't be a problem 
either. Andy says they're all looking forward to his return. Bale asks 
about the new boss (he must be thinking the guy is really bad if the squad 
is waiting for his own return). Andy says nothing bad about Henry. Bale 
then suggests they might have to get used to Henry.  He drops the 
bombshell that in spite of his healthy appearance, he's got some nerve 
damage and that it's probable he'll lose a good bit of function on his 
left side. He tells Andy he's sure he won't be able to continue on the 
job, and he suggests that Andy take the post. He offers to make a call and 
try to make it happen. Andy refuses and says he's not cut out to be a 
boss. He says he has no idea what he was thinking becoming a Sergeant. 
Bale says he think Andy would make a fine boss at the 15th, but promises 
not to make the call without Andy's OK. Andy says no.

Back at the house, Andy has to interrupt Lt. Henry while he's trying to 
get his electronic desk barometer to work in order to bring him up to date 
on the shooting of Lt. Bale. Henry hears only about two words Andy says 
and one of those words is "Russian." That sends off into a story about 
some guy he knows who once owned a Russian car.  Andy boils it all down to 
the fact that they might need to work some overtime. Henry couldn't care 
less. He spies PJohn near his office door and sends him on an errand to 
get batteries for his gizmo.

Andy heads back to the hospital later to see if Bale can ID Serge. Bale 
cannot. But he presses Andy again on the topic of being squad commander. 
Andy dances around the idea, but it's clear he wants Bale to call. Bale, 
however, wants it crystal clear. He asks Andy several times to say it 
aloud: yes, make the call. Andy finally does. Bale promises to call.

After that visit, Andy returns to the station house and quietly tries to 
feel what it would be like to be boss. He suggests that Clark and Jones 
take the interview with Serge. They don't want to do it without him, but 
he insists. He then watches from behind the mirror and sees that they 
handled it like two masters; two young detectives who've learned well from 
him.  Rita and Murph ask his advice on their case, and after he suggests 
they sit on the suicide for a while, he advises them that this idea should 
be run by the boss.  Andy gets another good look at why he'd be better 
than this guy. The three of them walk into his office and disturb his 
newspaper reading. They tell him the story of the Muslim woman and his 
eyes glaze over a few sentences. He complains it's a lot of detail. Andy 
again tries to get to the point by explaining his recommendation. Henry 
looks at him and asks if he's got it covered. Andy says he does, and Henry 
says then whatever it is, it's OK with him.

That evening, at Greg's retirement party, the Chief of Detectives 
approaches Andy. He says he thinks it must be the pain medications, but 
Bale called and recommended Andy for the squad boss job. He tells Andy 
flat out that he's not getting the job and then proceeds to bust Andy up a 
bit over why he's the last man for it. As with Bale earlier, Andy is a 
little reluctant to speak up, but a few hits to the chops from this 
blowhard Chief of D's fires him up and Andy begins defending himself well. 
He makes a very strong case for his leadership which is punctuated with a 
speech about how that command would be the only job for him and his last 
job. He promises never to seek another promotion as long as he can teach 
and look out for the guys in the 15. The Chief seems to have wanted to 
hear all of that. He smiles, offers his hand and tells Andy the job is 
his.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER: Andy is confronted with the emotion of all the 
changes, especially Lt. Henry, in the form of the squad's heart and soul, 
PJohn. In the coffee room, PJohn--whom Henry referred to as Bruce--admits 
that all the changes are too much for him. He speaks of Medavoy's 
retirement, Andy's moving downstairs and now this new Lt. He says the 
place has just meant too much to him over the years, and that he can no 
longer deal with everyone leaving, especially since now three are leaving 
at the same time. He admits to probably being too attached to things, but 
tells Andy he's going to put in for a transfer and just start over.

The recently retired Det. Medavoy drops by to meet up with the gang before 
his racket. Chinese food is had by all, even a weepy PJohn.  At the big 
soiree that evening, Greg is toasted by all and expresses his love and 
appreciation for his coworkers and friends. He makes the traditional NYPD 
toast to "the guy who invented this job."

Review:

This one had everything except a good joke. You had cops breaking down 
doors, a regular street shoot out, coy interview techniques (you know, 
like lying and stuff), party clothes, hospital gowns, tears and applause. 
Even I was clapping at the end (which I can't believe I just admitted on 
the Internet).

Anyways....  I really enjoyed the cop stories tonight, and it's been a 
while since that's been the case.  The Bale story was good, good, good.  
Not only did Currie Graham make me want to give Bale a hug (?), but I 
loved the way the detectives played players. Misha and Serge both thought 
they had an angle, but the detectives managed to exploit their cultural 
ignorance on the point of cop shootings to get what they wanted. That's 
smart work.  The Muslim suicide story was also compelling. Both men looked 
innocent at first, then both looked guilty (which isn't so new in Blue 
land), but the suicide was something I didn't see coming at all. Here's a 
case where what some might call "gratuitous" violence in the form of that 
knife sticking out of the woman's chest was anything but gratuitous.  That 
image burned into my mind, and when it was revealed that she'd done that 
to herself, the moment was extremely powerful.

And to sew it all up nicely, there was the Andy thread throughout. That 
storyline was woven into the show perfectly.  My only criticism is that 
Lt. Henry was way over the top. OK, he's a load, a sham, a loser--you 
don't need to beat me on the head with a golf club to show me that. The 
scene where that went off the rails and into the weeds of disbelief was 
where Henry was interrupting the update on the Bale shooting to discuss a 
guy with a Russian car. Woah! That was waaaay too hard to believe.  That 
aside, Andy's ascension to the throne of the 15th was lovely, understated 
and appropriate. Bale's turn around from evil bastard to sad, lonely man 
fit so well into the story that I couldn't believe it. The Other Bale, the 
one we first met, would not have been believable in these moments.  But 
months of watching him back off and be forced to see Andy as more than a 
problem paid off in the hospital scenes.  I loved how Bale had to drag it 
out of Andy, and what was even better was how that was mirrored in the 
scene between Andy and the Chief of Ds. Both Bale and the Chief wanted 
Andy to speak up, and he finally did. After all these years of railing 
against authority and change, Andy finally said the right things about 
leadership and stepped confidently into one of the biggest changes in his 
life.

It's fun for us who've been watching Andy all these years to see him 
finally in the bosses chair, but beyond that, it makes sense for the 
character. It's really the best way to bring him along fully.  Dennis 
Franz was perfect in those scenes.  I have a lot to say about Dennis and 
the Andy he helped create, but I'll save that for the final review next 
week.

QUICK HITS:
*As if we didn't have enough reason to hate Lt. Henry, he called PJ 
"Bruce" by mistake. I thought there was a line in a movie to the effect 
that all men named Bruce must be gay. But then I thought the line from 
Steel Magnolias was "all gay men are either Mark or Steve...."  At any 
rate, I think the line was meant to be accidentally offensive to PJ.

*Odd that in all of his talk of changes and people leaving, PJ didn't 
mention Bobby dying. He had a crush on Bobby, after all. I mean, there are 
women who write to me who know that Bobby isn't real who are still upset 
over his death.

*Murph was sleeveless. I mention it only because it's the most nudity 
we've seen since last year's Super Bowl. It's odd and sort of sad that 
we've barely seen hide nor hairy hide of anyone in this last season of the 
once nudity-rich groundbreaking network TV show. Note to Janet Jackson: 
Next time, *ask* if America would rather see a tenth of a second of your 
nasty breast or several seconds of Henry Simmons'/Mark-Paul 
Gosselaar's/Jackie O's butt. 

*How is it I felt sad for Lt. Bale? More to like about what the writers 
and Currie Graham have brought to the character. He was so sad when he 
said he wasn't an authority on marriage. Even though he never spoke a word 
about hanging out in underground gay bars, you could see right into his 
lonely little soul and what a struggle it must be for him to live the Big 
Secret. That room looked so empty. No friends, no family, just Bale. And 
then when he spoke about how he hangs on to hope, the contrast of his 
reality and what he dreams about showed with a painful brilliance. I loved 
that scene. I think it was the best in the show.

*The light moment was the Chinese food binge. Everyone simultaneously 
stuffing his face. I loved seeing Medavoy there. His absence would have 
been too much so close to the end. His fortune was perfect: "You will be 
traveling and coming into a fortune."  We can believe it'll be the first 
time one of those cheesy little fortunes comes true.

*Another moment of Andy's evolution: not shooting Serge. I imagined in 
that moment when he was holstering his gun after Serge gave up that he was 
thinking how hard it was to keep his promise not to shoot the guy and 
saying to himself, "My son was a cop who was shot."

*Hank! And he had a gun!

*I noticed some very cool shots in this show. Young Jesse Bochco showing 
off his talent in one of the early scenes where the camera is sort of 
waltzing around the squad room, then again in the way the hooker 
interviews were shot and pieced together.

*Yeah, Flip got on my every nerve in the beginning the way she chased 
after Clark, but she won me over tonight (at the 11th hour, no less). They 
looked adorable walking into the racket together; adorable rather than 
precious--the difference being precious makes me gag. They looked happy, 
and who can argue with that at the end of a long series? Ditto Brigid and 
Greg.  All the love did make me wonder, though, why Baldwin and Rita must 
end the series dateless. Talk about hard to believe...

*And didn't everyone look stunning at the racket? Greg looked 10 years 
younger. Rita was dressed to kill, and Flip with her flap tucked back 
looked stunning.

*Nice how the Chief of Ds wished them all well "and so forth."  Us, too.

CAST LEGACIES:  My email blew up yesterday and I lost the list JL Garner 
prepared for me. You can look people up at www.imdb.com.

LINE OF THE WEEK:

The Muslim husband to Rita: 
"You think all women are like you? Unable to resist temptation?"   

NEXT WEEK: The Series Finale will air.  An hour before that, ABC will run 
a retrospective of the show hosted by Jimmy Smits. And right here on this 
fine website, Alan Sepinwall and I will have a review of the show and the 
whole series.  Grab your hankies, tune in and log on.

For the last time I'll say it: See you next week,
Amanda Wilson