Homicide: Life on the Street: Season 07 (1999)

In the seventh and final season of Homicide: Life on the Street, Baltimore detectives Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Kellerman (Reed Diamond) have resigned in the wake of the bloody shoot-out between the homicide cops and the minions of criminal mastermind Georgia Rae Mahoney (though Kellerman will return in a later episode as a private detective). Seriously wounded in the fray, detectives Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Ghary (Peter Gerety) eventually return to work, but it is clear that some emotional scars will never heal. Former recurring character Det. Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis) has become a regular, while new cast members include Michael Michele as Detective Rene Sheppard, a former beauty queen, and Giancarlo Esposito as FBI agent Mike Giardello, the long-estranged son of homicide lieutenant Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto). Before the year is out, Mike will make Al a grandfather; Detective Munch (Richard Belzer) will finally propose to his long-suffering girlfriend, Billie Lou McCoy (Ellen McElduff); detectives Det. Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne) and Falsone (Jon Seda) will enter into a romance so torrid that Giardello is forced to warn them to cool things down or they'll be suspended; and Rene Sheppard will endure both a serious injury and a humiliating suspension. Episode highlights include yet another crossover with Law & Order, this one involving an investigation conducted by a Kenneth Starr-like special prosecutor and appropriately titled "Sideshow," and the devastating "Line of Fire," in which the homicide cops try and fail to negotiate with a reluctant murderer. Homicide caps its seven-season run with good news for Giardello; the unauthorized shootdown of a killer who has managed to slip through the legal cracks; and a literal "full circle" for Bayliss (Kyle Secor), whose career with the Baltimore PD began with the series' first episode...and ends with the last one. ~ Rovi