Three Men and Adena

Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) prepare to interview Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an elderly arabber. Bayliss is convinced Tucker murdered 11-year-old Adena Watson, but Pembleton is less confident. Since they have already interviewed Tucker multiple times, the court will not allow him to be questioned further if he does not confess after this interview; the detectives have only twelve hours to elicit a confession before Tucker walks free. Pembleton starts off acting friendly while Bayliss, who has taken the Watson case very personally, is more aggressive. Pembleton brings up Tucker's alcoholism, but Tucker said he gave up drinking sixteen months earlier because it caused blackouts. Tucker also insists he had not seen Watson for three days before she died, but Bayliss shows him she had soot on her skirt that matched soot from Tucker's barn, indicating she was there the day she was killed. In a moment of anger, Bayliss nearly presses Tucker's face against a hot pipe on the wall, but Pembleton stops him. Tucker still angrily insists he did not kill Watson and agrees to submit to a polygraph test. When Bayliss leaves, Pembleton speaks to Tucker in a soft and comforting tone, trying to get Tucker to trust him. He suggests Tucker had a drink and blacked out the night he killed Watson, and seems close to getting a confession before Tucker once again insists he is innocent. With four hours left before the deadline, Bayliss returns and says Tucker failed the polygraph test. The detectives then aggressively team up on Tucker, talking quickly and intimidating him with repeated questions. They bring up a previously dropped statutory rape charge against Tucker involving a 14-year-old girl, then suggest he attempted to have sex with Watson and killed her when she resisted. Confronted with gruesome photos of the crime scene, a frightened and confused Tucker admits that he is no longer sure of his own innocence. With less than an hour left and still without a confession, the detectives are exhausted, and Tucker turns the tables on them. He claims Pembleton has the attitude of a man trying to distance himself from his African-American heritage because he is ashamed to be black. Tucker also accuses Bayliss of hiding a "dark side" that he is afraid to embrace. Eventually, Tucker admits he harbored pedophilic feelings for Watson and feels shame that she was the only great love of his life. He breaks down and cries but again insists he did not kill her. The deadline passes and the detectives fail to get a confession. Tucker is released and Bayliss is miserable he was unable to close the case. Pembleton, who has a new respect for Bayliss, tries to comfort him by saying he is now convinced Tucker is the killer, but Bayliss is no longer so sure. ==Production==

(pictured). "Three Men and Adena" was directed by Martin Campbell and written by Tom Fontana, executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street. The interrogation room at the homicide division, colloquially referred to by detectives as "The Box", is a setting that appears in almost every episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. While filming an interrogation scene there in "Gone for Goode", the first episode of the first season, director Barry Levinson commented to Fontana that the acting from Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor was so effective, an entire episode could be filmed revolving strictly around an interrogation. The comments partially inspired Fontana to write "Three Men and Adena". Fontana said, "I only had the courage to write that episode based on the fact that I had seen what (Braugher and Secor) could do in the pilot episode". Almost the entire episode of "Three Men and Adena" takes place within the confines of the police interrogation room with Braugher, Secor and Moses Gunn, the actor who guest starred as Risley Tucker. It was Gunn's final acting role before his death in December 1993. Fontana acknowledged a certain amount of risk in producing such an unusual episode in only the fifth week of the show, but he said, "It was important for Barry Levinson and I to establish that we weren't going to do the same old show every week." "Three Men and Adena" marked the conclusion of the Adena Watson murder case, a story arc that began at the start of the first season. which is chronicled in Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, the 1991 David Simon non-fiction book that served as the basis of the Homicide series. Elements of the interview in "Three Men and Adena" were incorporated from real-life police interrogations in that case. The Wallace case was never solved, and Fontana insisted that the Watson case in Homicide remain unsolved as well, despite pressure from NBC for a more satisfying conclusion. Fontana said, "We never solved it because we felt that it would be a disservice to the real girl, to have this fake TV solution. Because it's not O.K. that she died, that no one took responsibility." The scene when Tucker admits for a moment he is not sure in his own mind that he didn't commit the murder was inspired by a similar real-life interaction Fontana found in a police interrogation transcript during his research. Fontana said, "It was so chilling (and) I was like, 'Oh man, how do you get there?'" Fontana deliberately wrote the script so that it would remain ambiguous whether Tucker committed the murder or not. He wanted the character to have a genuine feeling of love for Adena Watson, but the strong feelings do not specifically mean he killed the girl. Braugher praised Fontana for creating such a three-dimensional character in Tucker, and said, "Fontana's genius is that we are never quite certain as to what it is that we have on our hands." During the opening scene of the episode, Bayliss watches the music video for "Surround", by the British band Bleach. ==Reception==

Ratings In its original American broadcast on March 3, 1993, "Three Men and Adena" was watched by 7.08 million households, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode received a 7.6 rating/12 share. It was among the lowest-rated major network shows from that evening, in part due to heavy competition from ABC's broadcast of the Sixth Annual American Comedy Awards, which was seen by 14.7 million households. "Three Men and Adena" was also outperformed by CBS's two-hour broadcast of In the Heat of the Night, which was seen by 11.82 million households and Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210, which was seen by 10.33 million households. Also on NBC that day, the series premiere of the new Crime and Punishment fared better than Homicide, capturing 8.47 million viewers. In the Washington, D.C.–based affiliate WRC-TV's market alone, the episode was watched by 122,166 viewers, which locally was also the lowest rating of the evening. "Three Men and Adena" ranked number 74 in an Entertainment Weekly list of the 100 greatest television moments, and number 15 among the top television moments from the 1990s. Additionally, "Three Men and Adena" was among a 1999 Court TV marathon of the top 15 Homicide episodes, as voted on by 20,000 visitors to the channels website. David Bianculli of the New York Daily News said the episode "remains one of TV's best drama hours ever", and he ranked it the second-best television episode ever made, behind the Taxi episode where Reverend Jim gets his driver's license. Entertainment Weekly writer Bruce Fretts said the episode was "one of the most powerful prime-time hours ever" Alex Strachan of The Vancouver Sun described "Three Men and Adena" as "one of Homicide's finest moments". He called the episode "claustrophobic, cynical and ultimately painful" and particularly praised the performances of Braugher and Secor, and the fact that it was not a happy ending. David P. Kalat, writer of Homicide: Life on the Street: The Unofficial Companion, described the episode as "an astonishing tour de force of writing and acting that demonstrates all of Homicide's best qualities". He also praised the chemistry between Braugher and Secor, particularly when they found a common voice during the interrogation. Rocky Mountain News critic Dusty Saunders said the episode was "as good as dramatic television gets", and showed how the quality of Homicide is anchored in strong writing and acting rather than action. John Leonard, a literary and television critic, called it "the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen in a television hour". Leonard praised the tension, the setting and the writing, particularly when Tucker turned the tables on the detectives. He said the episode was better than such works as Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden and author Don DeLillo's books about men in small rooms. Lon Grahnke of the Chicago Sun-Times called it a "relentless masterpiece". Manuel Mendoza of The Dallas Morning News considered "Three Men and Adena" one of the best Homicide episodes and particularly praised the performance of Moses Gunn. Mendoza also said, "The claustrophobia of The Box contributes to the palpable tension. Calgary Herald writer Bruce Weir said the episode "is Homicide at its finest: brilliantly written, intensely acted and continuously surprising." Grant Tinker, former CEO of NBC, said of the episode, "I thought it was stunning." Awards Tom Fontana won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his "Three Men and Adena" script. It was one of two Emmys Homicide: Life on the Street received during the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards season, with Barry Levinson also winning an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the episode "Gone for Goode". ==Home media==

"Three Men and Adena" and the rest of the first and second season episodes were included in the four-DVD box-set "Homicide: Life on the Street: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2", which was released by A&E Home Video on May 27, 2003, for $69.95. ==References==