Homicide: Life on the Street (season 7)

Bayliss, Gharty, and Ballard return to duty to find a completely remodeled squadroom and a new detective in the unit: Rene Sheppard, fresh from the fugitive squad. Everyone is called in to work a trio of savage murders in Little Italy, with one of the victims being Gee's cousin Mario. Gee's estranged son Mike, an FBI agent stationed in Phoenix, arrives in town and helps close the case, whose roots stretch back to Mario's choice to testify against a union boss 25 years earlier. Bayliss exhibits a new, Buddhist-influenced philosophical attitude toward his work, and hints of relationships among the detectives begin to surface - including one between Munch and Billie Lou.

Lewis and Sheppard investigate the shooting death of a man in his own home. The long-standing rivalry between the victim and his identical twin brother leads them to a reason for the killing. Ballard and Gharty team up with a narcotics detective from Washington, D.C. to check out a teenager's fuzzy account of a D.C. drug buy that led to his friend being shot and killed. Mike surprises Gee with news of his transfer into the BPD as an FBI agent liaison, and Gharty decides to leave his wife.

Days after the disappearance of a best-selling mystery writer, his wife arrives in the squadroom insisting that he has been murdered. With no body or direct evidence of a crime, Ballard and Gharty scramble to wade through the potential suspects - the writer's wife, his mistress, his agent, an ex-CIA operative - and Danvers has his hands full taking the case to trial. Munch's plans for a weekend getaway with Billie Lou are thrown into chaos when he and Bayliss investigate the death of an elderly woman during a burglary attempt; the two are hard put to decide whether or not they have a murder on their hands. Taking a not-so-subtle hint from Stivers, Falsone asks Ballard out on a date.

Guest stars: Patti D'Arbanville as Darlene Everett, Tom Atkins as Grenville Rawlins

A rash of strange flu deaths turns into a red ball once Bayliss and Sheppard learn that all the victims drank poisoned wine. The FBI gets involved and places Mike in charge of the case, but his decisions on strategy and public relations put him sharply at odds with Gee, especially after Gee leaks information to the media in hopes of preventing more deaths. Bayliss' reaction to a suspect's confession leaves hin wondering if his outlook on life really has changed after his shooting. Rumors fly in the squadroom after Falsone and Ballard's first date, while Munch confides in Lewis about a secret trip to his doctor and soon comes to regret it.

A man is shot and killed when a team of bounty hunters raids a house looking for a bail jumper. Falsone and Stivers quickly arrest one of the team members, P.J. Johnson, as the shooter, but he soon jumps his own bail to look for the fugitive. The detectives and team leader Dennis Knoll form an uneasy partnership to find Johnson, but their chase turns disastrous with a car wreck that leaves Lewis and a woman seriously injured. Gharty's mention of his Army service during the Vietnam War leads to relentless pestering from Munch, who does not believe his accounts, and Gaffney starts leaning on Mike to give him inside information on the performance of Gee's shift.

The discovery of a hastily buried newborn behind a motel leads Falsone and Stivers to a teenage couple, Debbie Straub and Craig Halpern. Although both of them insist that the baby was stillborn, the autopsy points to homicide. The case brings Mike Kellerman - now a private investigator, hired by Debbie's parents to clear her name - to the squadroom in search of information. His arrival rankles most of the squad, and Gee orders Falsone and Stivers to tell him nothing. After Danvers gets indictments against Debbie and Craig, Kellerman advises the Straubs not to bail their daughter out; soon afterward, she calls home and offers to testify against Craig.

Bayliss and Ballard take the case of a bride-to-be found dead at the bottom of a cliff. None of the evidence conclusively points to homicide, suicide, or an accidental fall, and even the capture of a mugger fails to resolve the case. Ballard admits to Falsone that it has touched a nerve for her because she ran out on her own wedding. Sheppard and Mike are called to a movie theater in which one of the customers is found dead in his seat. The man had a habit of yelling out endings to the films; fed up with this behavior, the manager laced his popcorn with a sedative overdose. Gee's daughter Charisse gives birth to a son.

Detectives from Baltimore and New York continue investigating the deaths of both a government official and her killer. They eventually discover that the plot to commit the original murder started with allegations of sexual discrimination within the office of the White House Chief of Staff. However, an independent counsel looking into improper behavior in the White House takes over the case, frustrating Danvers and McCoy in their efforts to prosecute the murders. Meanwhile, Danvers comes up for a judicial appointment, but loses it after details of his juvenile criminal record come to light. Gee begins to regret allowing Mike to work with the unit after Mike's reports to his FBI superiors help to derail the prosecution. This episode acts as the conclusion of a two-part crossover episode with Law & Order; it follows the fourteenth episode of the ninth season of that show: "Sideshow".

A woman comes to Falsone and asks him to reopen the case of her younger brother's 1972 death - an accident she caused, according to her mother. The case stirs up painful memories for Gee, who had been its primary, and he, Falsone, and Stivers eventually learn the truth: the mother battered the boy to death and blamed her daughter. Bayliss faces widespread ridicule and criticism within the department after word spreads about his personal website, which includes his musings on sexual and spiritual matters. Warned by Gee that it may jeopardize his career, and reeling from his sudden rejection by a gay sergeant trying to stay in the closet, he decides to shut the site down. Falsone and Ballard reconsider their secret relationship after Stivers spots them together at dinner.

A man takes his two children (son and stepdaughter) hostage, shoots and wounds a cop when the Quick Response Team arrives, and then demands to negotiate with Mike. Mike learns that the man has acted out of desperation over being laid off and his wife leaving him. When his wife breaks through the police line, he shoots wildly out the window and kills her, a fact that Mike works desperately to hide from him. The man offers to trade his gun for a pizza, but breaks the deal and lets his stepdaughter go before killing his son and himself too quickly for the QRT to react. Mike berates himself for missing a chance to save both children, even if it would have led to the man being killed by the QRT.

Note: This episode was originally scheduled to air on April 30, 1999, but was postponed one week in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings.

Ballard and Sheppard team up on the shooting death of a teenage girl outside a high school. The victim had been a member of a gang, introduced into it by her older sister, and had sex with a rival gang member before her death. Sheppard suspects his girlfriend, but the detectives find her dead before they can arrest her; they then take the older sister into custody, believing that she acted out of revenge. Billie Lou asks Munch to talk to her neighbor's abusive ex-boyfriend, who later storms into the Waterfront and slams her head on the bar. She decides to postpone their wedding, leaving Munch frustrated because the two have promised to abstain from sex until their wedding night.