AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.15 "Reunion"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Fifteen, Reunion
Original Air Date:  October 13, 2010

An entire family (mum, dad and two children) are murdered in their home.  The father has a connection to both Jennifer Maplethorpe and Nick Buchanan.  The case quickly becomes embroiled in politics and secrecy when Jen and Nick learn the Secret Intelligence Service is involved and it changes their lives drastically by placing them in danger.

All of the murders were execution style causing Nick to note that it had to be a professional job.  At the scene, Nick and Jennifer both recognize one of the victims, Abdul Supomo.  Jennifer wants to tell Stanley Wolfe but the situation is complicated.  As they sit in their car talking about the murders and what they know, a man in a black SUV is taking pictures of them.

At headquarters, the briefing yields that the family was apparently model citizens.  The parents were immigrants and their children were born in Australia.  Stanley Wolfe takes charge of the case given its nature and delegates tasks to the team.  He places Jennifer and Nick in the position of lead detectives.

Abdul Supomo's brother makes a positive ID of his slain relatives and both Duncan and Rhys feel he wasn't in any way involved in the murders.  Rhys, while going through the victims belongings, finds that a locker key was found in Abdul Supomo's sock rather than on the ring with the rest of his keys. 

Jennifer and Nick talk in hushed voices in the kitchen about how the murders have to be related to what happened four years ago.  Abdul was their contact and worked intelligence.  Jennifer is certain that is why he and his family were killed and that the information they have must be given to the team so the killings can be solved.  Allie walks in while they are talking and they stop until she leaves.

Rhys identifies where the locker key is from (City Bath House, CBH) and Jen and Nick take it and leave.  Allie immediately questions Duncan and Rhys about Jen and Nick's strange behavior.  Rhys suggests that when two people start acting odd at work "it only means one thing", which Duncan laughs off.

Jen and Nick's mysterious photographer is at work again as they arrive at CBH to investigate the key.  Abdul is identified as a regular and the key as one of the locker keys.  While they are waiting to be taken to the locker to see what is in it, the photographer walks up to them and tells them to come with him.  He says he thinks they know who he is and why he is there and that whatever was in the locker is long gone.  They leave with him and he takes them to a black car where another man, Richard McCallister (Joel Tobeck) is waiting.  They are questioned about having worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the past. 

Abdul was still working for SIS and the homicide investigation is getting in the way of an ongoing SIS investigation.  McCallister wants them to slow down the homicide case because the SIS investigation is a national security measure.  The homicide investigation must stay clear of the SIS investigation.  McCallister gives them a "lead" that Abdul's brother was having an affair with his wife with the implication that they must set him up for the murders.  He threatens them with the loss of their jobs and imprisonment if they reveal anything. 

Once back at headquarters, Nick plants the information about Abdul's brother and wife having an affair.  Duncan had checked his alibi and he was at work at a petrol station across town until at least an hour after pathology had timed the murders.  While he doesn't feel right as a suspect to Duncan, Nick and Jennifer are able to talk Stanley Wolfe into ordering he be brought in for questioning.  Rhys and Duncan get him to admit that he was having an affair with Gemma Supomo. 

Stanley comes through with a warrant for the bath house locker and Allie takes a call from the owner who says he has interesting information about locker #27.  The owner had asked Allie why Jen and Nick left before he could show them the locker and Allie brings this up in front of Stanley.  Jen explains it that they needed the warrant.  Stanley orders them to take Allie with them since the owner will be expecting her.  The owner explains that the locker didn't belong to Abdul Supomo and takes them to it.  They open it and find thongs and a bathrobe.  The owner of the locker, Waheed, and Supomo never came to the bath house at the same time and they always came alone when they did visit.

Allie confronts Jen and Nick about their behavior and notes that it appeared Nick knew the victim at the crime scene.  He denies it and Allie then asks if they are having an affair which they deny.  The three go to Waheed's address to talk to him but he doesn't appear to be home.  As Allie goes round back to make sure he isn't there, the black SUV drives up in front of the home and Mr. Photographer and another man get out.  They are again warned to keep Homicide away from the case.

Around back, Allie sees a circle of glass cut from the door and is accosted by a man with a gun.  Photographer requests Allie accompany him.  Nick and Jen come around the house and tell Allie to go back to Homicide.  As she is arguing the issue, her phone rings and she is ordered to answer it.  It is Bernice Waverely ordering her back to the office.  When Allie is gone Nick and Jen learn Waheed is dead.  He had been indirectly working for SIS as he was part of a local terrorist cell and was approached by Supomo and convinced to pass information on to SIS. 

Nick and Jen are taken to an SIS unit where McCallister brings them up to speed on the case they are working on.  A man named Muhammad Hartono is planning a major terrorist attack on Australian soil.  Travis Martin Abbott was the man who murdered the Supomo family on order of Hartono.  McCallister wants Jen and Nick to go back undercover on an open-ended assignment and get close to Hartono.  They are given a small mountain of paperwork about their covers and Hartono's operation with only overnight to learn it.

Bernice Waverly informs Jarvis and Wolfe that Jennifer and Nick will be working undercover indefinitely with SIS and that they are not to divulge the information to any other members of the team.  Bernice was given a list of people Homicide is not allowed to investigate which doesn't please Jarvis.  Allie wants to know what is going on and Stanley places Matt in charge of the Supomo case because Waverley wants Matt to coordinate.  Matt is given bare bones information about the case and what areas he can pursue.  The answers the team wants aren't coming.

Allie and Rhys can't let the case go and when Allie suggests that Bernice knows something about the case, Rhys talks to his aunt.  She knows he's there to ask for information and flat-out tells him she can't tell him anything.  Allie and Rhys go to Waheed's home that night to investigate.  The glass with the circle cut from it has been replaced and all signs of a disturbance have been removed.  A flight itinerary has been left on the table stating he had gone to Jakarta that morning.  Rhys smells bleach where the floor had been cleaned and Allie finds blood splatter on the coffee cup on the table. 

Rhys finds pictures in a drawer and one of them has Jennifer and Nick in the background.  The names "Trish and Wesley Claybourne" written on the back cause Rhys to remember when Jen was accosted on the street by the woman who called her "Trish".  Allie and Rhys realise Nick and Jen have been working undercover.  At the office, they look up the Claybourne's and read their police files.

The next morning, McCallister tells Jen and Nick he has decided against giving them firearms.  Their house is under constant surveillance.  They are to contact Hartono as soon as they are settled in.  They arrive at their new "home" and not long after, "Don" from across the street drops in to let them know if they need anything at all he's there.  Nick makes the call to Hartono.  They will be meeting him the next day at eleven. 

Allie shares the photo of Nick and Jen undercover with Duncan.  He advises her to leave the case alone.  Rhys puts the info that Trish and Wesley Claybourne are real people on the table and Duncan knows right off that SIS is involved.  Rhys wants to back away from the case.

That night, as he's getting ready to go home, Mr. Photographer asks McCallister when he's going to finally tell Nick and Jen why they are really undercover.  McCallister says the info stays in house and that they know what they need to know. 

When they awaken the next morning, as Nick is telling Jen that she knows how he feels about her, two masked men with guns come into the room and overpower them.

Complicated and intense are the best words I can find to describe this case.  When a complicated murder investigation moves into politics and national security it becomes intense.  The secrecy starts and all hope for answers dims.  Allie is especially frustrated that there aren't any answers being given seeing as how she had a gun pointed at her.  Honestly, if SIS wanted to mess with anyone on the Homicide team, Allie is the last person I think they would want to choose.  She doesn't give up.  Poor Matt was placed in a bad situation when he was handed a case that was doomed by the SIS and given orders that he couldn't talk about anything with the team (not that he knew anything as he wasn't given any answers either).  Jen and Nick are thrown back into lives they thought they'd long left behind them.  It's troubling that the murders of an entire family, including two small children, are pushed aside for a larger "more important" case, but, isn't that how it usually goes? 

I loved seeing Stanley Wolfe again.  He hasn't been around as much as I would like for him to be.  Same with Duncan.  Duncan seems to have been pushed into the background a lot here of late and I find that a bit frustrating.  Both Stanley and Duncan are favorites of mine and I wish they were in the mix a bit more like they used to be.

This case is continued next week and I'm sure that, when the end of it does come, it will be BIG!

Note:  I missed the name of the guy working with McCallister at SIS so I'm just calling him "Mr. Photographer" right now.  If I catch it next week, I'll update this post.

For more information:
City Homicide Official Site:  http://au.tv.yahoo.com/city-homicide/
Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024932/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-17228