AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Six "Ghosts"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Six, Ghosts
Original Air Date:  March 30, 2011

Greg Stevens confessed to a hospice priest that he'd murdered three people before dying.  When Duncan and Rhys start investigating the claim, they find that the three names Stevens had written inside his Bible were connected.  The case takes a shocking turn when the evidence leads them to the son of the man Stevens used to work for.  Homicide isn't quite prepared for what they learn next.

Duncan and Rhys are called to the hospice bedside of a man, Greg Stevens, who has died from prostate cancer.  Not much is known about him other than he had lived on the streets before having been diagnosed with cancer.  Stevens told the hospice Father (Trent Baker) he had murdered three people but didn't give any additional details.  The Father gives them a small Bible Stevens carried around with him.  Inside the front cover he had written three names:  Mavis Simmons, Peter Faulkner and Ruth Benson.

Bernice Waverley fills Stanley and Jarvis in on Lombardi's plans for Homicide, which doesn't set too well with Stanley.  Bernice plans to tell those assigned to the squad that night that Friday will be the last day for Homicide.

AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Five "Last Man Standing"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Five, Last Man Standing
Original Air Date:  March 23, 2011

The murder of Dane Majors barrister and then the judge that presided over his trial bring the Homicide team to focus on him.  When both Alan Sullivan and Nick Buchanan are confirmed as missing, Homicide focus on Dane Majors.  With the possibility more people who were involved in the Majors case will become targets, Homicide must work fast to prevent anyone else from dying.  Can the team get to Nick before anything can happen to him and take a cold-blooded killer off the streets?  Meanwhile, Lombardi drops a bombshell on Bernice Waverley when he calls her to his office to discuss her budget proposal for Homicide.

Papers flutter to the floor from above and fall around the body of a slain barrister, Helen Jefferson.  Her robe is thrown from above and falls beside her body last.  As the other members of Homicide are tied up with the car bomb investigation, the murder of the barrister is being worked by Matt and Jennifer.  Matt explains that she fell from the same floor as the papers and her robe.  She has smeared blood on her face and Matt is guessing that was from being punched before being pushed over the railing.  She was murdered between 5:30 and 6:00 that morning.  The assailant checked out of the building using the barrister's swipe card which was then thrown in the bin outside.  Jennifer recognizes the name and, when she looks at a book lying amongst the papers around the barrister, finds that she was the barrister who defended Dane Majors.

AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Four "Tangled Web"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Four, Tangled Web
Original Air Date:  March 16, 2011

Dane Majors is released from prison with his fans and the media waiting on him at the gates.  Graham Proctor warns him as he's leaving that he won't get away with murdering his daughter.  Homicide officially re-opens the Tahnee Majors murder investigation.  Moments before Tim Padgett is killed by a car bomb in Alan Sullivans car, Sullivan gives Bernice information that was sent to the Tribune by Deep Throat, information which takes the case in a completely different direction.  Nick Buchanan becomes the next target in the case.

Both Dane Majors and Nick Buchanan awaken from their sleep with nightmares of the murder of Tahnee Majors (Saskaia Hampele).

Dane Majors walks out of prison a free man after his conviction was overturned.  He is met at the gates by the press, his supporters and even Nick Buchanan is standing with the crowd.  He challenges the authorities to bring on a re-trial because he will be found innocent because he is innocent.  Tahnee's father, Graham Proctor (Graeme Blundell) is there and calls Majors a liar, stating again that Dane killed his daughter.  Proctor warns Majors he won't get away with it.

AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Three: "If It Bleeds, It Leads"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Three, If It Bleeds, It Leads
Original Air Date:  March 9, 2011

The investigation into Juliette Gardiner's murder begins and Nick is quickly cleared as a suspect.  A new reporter takes her place at the Tribune on the Dean Major's story and it's clear things aren't going to stop with her death.  They only get worse.  Evidence points even more strongly to Nick's old mentor and friend, Bruce Dalton.  Could Dalton have planted the evidence against Dane Majors and, if he did, what will be the fallout of that information becoming known?

The homicide team arrives to the Juliette Gardiner scene.  Matt takes control ordering more officers to search every floor and the entrances be sealed off.  Nick tells Matt he's wasting his time as the shooter took off.  Matt wants them to work with uniforms as there isn't anything they can do until crime scene and pathology arrive.  Rhys leaves to speak with security as Nick is telling Matt the direction from which the shots came.  Jennifer asks Nick if he's alright.  He's been better then offers her his gun saying it hasn't been fired.  She puts the gun in an evidence bag as he offers information about Juliette meeting someone he believed to be a man (he didn't sight him) and there were shots (he says "a bunch"; four) as they started to talk.  The first shot took her down, a car door slammed, he ran down the ramp and he saw no one.  He tells them he wants his hands swabbed for residue.  He informs Matt that Juliette was working on a story that could have implicated him in corruption.

AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part 2: Go Down Swinging

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Two, Go Down Swinging
Original Air Date:  March 2, 2011

A man comes into Homicide about his missing wife and the case takes on a surprising twist when he identifies the Jane Doe in the morgue as the woman who was the lover of him and his wife from swingers parties they attended.  His wife is later found dead and the investigation leads the team into the swinger scene.  Were the women murdered because of their lifestyle choices or could there have been another motive and who had motive to kill them?  Meanwhile, Juliette Gardiner's continued digging into the Dane Majors case takes a deadly turn.

A distraught man, Drew Preston, comes into Homicide looking for his missing wife, Rebecca.  Stanley takes him aside to speak with him and is told that the man's wife disappeared three days ago.  He filed a missing persons report but he has a feeling something bad has happened.  Allie and Nick are at the morgue and the description the man gave matches a Jane Doe that was found the night before by the freeway.  Preston is brought into the room with Nick and Allie.  Allie takes him into the room with Ronnie and the body where he identifies the body not as his wife but as Sophie Mayne, a woman who was a lover to Preston and his wife.

AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part 1: Reward Day

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part One:  Reward Day
Original Air Date:  February 23, 2011

The murder of a prison guard leads the team to a drug ring within the prison.  The list of suspects range from the usual to the surprising.  Meanwhile, Nick Buchanan meets up with Dane Majors, a man he put in prison for the murder of his wife.  There's clearly tension between the two but is it because Nick planted evidence against him like Majors claims or just because Majors got caught by Nick?  Matters are further complicated when a beautiful reporter wants to interview Nick about the Majors case for a story the Tribune is planning.  Will she uncover information that will destroy Nick?

Nick and Duncan interview Eugene Ashton (Stephen Pease), the survivor of two prison guards who were terrorized and shot.  One of the guards, Ben Kelton (Lloyd Bissell), died.  The prisoner they were transporting, Sean Lynch (Chris Weir) pulled a gun on the two guards not far from the prison.  Lynch forced them from the car at gunpoint and demanded the keys.  Ashton turned them over and while Lynch was distracted with them, Ben Kelton pulled his gun and was shot by Lynch in the chest.  Ashton turned to run and was shot in the arm.  He blacked out and when he came to, Lynch was gone and the car and Ben Kelton, dead, were still there.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 5.2 "Secret Love"

City Homicide
Season Five, Episode Two, Secret Love
Original Air Date:  February 16, 2011

When the body of a young woman is found in an empty lot the case takes a troubling turn.  Numbers from a passage in the Quran are written on her forehead leading the team to believe her murder might have religions significance.  Could her brother have killed her for honour, was it her fiance or her ex-boyfriend who was still in love with her?

Rhys and Allie are called in to investigate the body of a young woman that is discovered in an empty lot.  She was stabbed with a seven-inch blade eleven times.  There's no identification with the body but the M.E. finds henna on the woman's hand and the numbers 24 30 31 written on her forehead.

Allie is able to identify the young woman.  She was an eighteen-year-old student from a Pakistani family, Marina Durrani.  Her mother reported her missing late on Sunday night, the same day the M.E. suspects she was killed.  Once he knows Marina is Muslim, Rhys Googles the numbers and finds a link to a passage from the Quran:  "And tell the believing women to subdue their eyes and maintain their chastity...".

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 5.1 "The Business of Fear"

City Homicide
Season Five, Episode One, The Business of Fear
Original Air Date:  February 9, 2011

The brutal murder of a customs broker leads the team to criminal activities at the waterfront.  Jarvis is asked by Stanley Wolfe to contact one of his old informants to assist in the investigation.  Things take a turn when the son of Jarvis' informant is pulled into the activities to save his family.  Meanwhile, Matt Ryan is awaiting approval of his transfer request.

Duncan and Jennifer are called in when a waterfront worker, Mervyn Mason, is found hanging from a forklift, having been run through by one of the blades.  Without the benefit of autopsy, forensics tells Jennifer they believe he was assaulted before the blade was rammed into his body.

Matt tells Stanley he was right when he told him it would be tough coming back to his old squad as sergeant.  He feels it might not have only been a tough choice but the wrong one.  Stanley wants him to give it a few months.  There's an opening in arson and Matt is hoping he can go there.  No one else knows about his transfer request and he'd like to keep it that way.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episodes 4.22 "Empowerment"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Twenty-Two, Empowerment
Original Air Date:  November 24, 2010

Note:  Episodes 21 & 22 were aired together but I am presenting them here as two separate episodes.

An extremely successful porn producer is murdered and video of his murder is uploaded into the members only section of his web site.  The list of suspects range from his girlfriend, to his business manager to a talk-back radio host who had been crusading against the porn industry.  Meanwhile, Allie and Rhys' relationship continues and Bernice finds out.  One of the team leaves Homicide for good.

After watching a computer video, a woman calls 000 saying that she thinks her boss has just been killed.  Duncan and Jennifer arrive at the scene to find that Blake Johnson, the most successful porn producer in Australia has been murdered.  A video of the murder was uploaded onto Johnson's web site at 2 a.m. into the members only section.  They find drugs at the scene. 

Myra Rawlings, Blake's business manager, called in his death.  She usually checks the site first thing in the morning to make sure nothing inappropriate was uploaded during the night and found the video of Blake.  Their relationship was strictly business.  Rawlings was an adult actress in Los Angeles before she started working with Blake.  Upon returning to Australia, he contacted her wanting to do something different.  Alice Flowers, their site, was an "ethically run empowering site" using female directors and all female crew and is the most popular subscriber site in the country. 

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episodes 4.21 "The Price of Love"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Twenty-One, The Price of Love
Original Air Date:  November 24, 2010

Note:  Episodes 21 & 22 were aired together but I am presenting them here as two separate episodes.

A young woman is found dead in an abandoned home and the trail leads a local widower.  He claims he loved the woman and wanted to start a life with her and would never hurt her.  The case becomes more complicated when the team learns the woman was a prostitute.  Was it the man who loved her that killed her, one of his children, one of her clients or her neighbour.  Meanwhile, Jennifer and Nick have a discussion about their future.  It's performance review time for Matt Ryan.

A realtor and her clients find the body of a woman in an empty house.  The team arrive to begin the investigation (after a curt conversation between Matt and Rhys).  Matt and Nick take the lead on the case.  They find no I.D. on the woman and it appears the killer brought or lured her to the house to brutally kill her. 

Matt receives a phone call from Superintendent Jarvis while at the scene calling him back to the office.  After having Matt hold a pitcher of water so he could remove a fish from Bernice's tank, Jarvis tells Matt is it performance review time.  He hands Matt the paper and tells him to fill it out with his strengths and weaknesses and he will sign it and Matt will get his increment and everyone will be happy. 

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.20 "Atonement"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Twenty, Atonement
Original Air Date:  November 17, 2010

Andrew Hope is found dead in a small, sparsely furnished house behind a church.  Andrew was a good Samaritan that helped those in need and was loved by everyone he came in contact with.  The case takes a twist when they learn that Andrew Hope isn't the good man everyone thought he was.  Meanwhile, Stanley Wolfe has trouble of his own when his daughter hits a parked car, doesn't leave a note then tries to cover the accident up.

Hope was taped to a chair and shot four times some twenty-four hours previous.  He was looking at his killer when the fatal shot to his forehead was fired as powder burns were found in his eyes.  Allie and Rhys are on scene and find no personal information for Hope on scene just one change of clothes and his Bible.  Matt arrives and is briefed on the case and is going to have forensics run his prints for a positive identification while Allie and Rhys consult missing persons.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.19 "Ties that Bind"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Nineteen, Ties That Bind
Original Air Date:  November 10, 2010

Liam Phillips (Karl Burnett) is shot in the Magistrates office while waiting for his solicitor to finish brokering a deal.  Did the union kill Phillips or was it a security guard at the court?  The case becomes intensely personal for Duncan, but not for the reasons everyone assumes.

Nick and Duncan speak with Tom Engleton, the guard who responded after the shots were heard at the Magistrates Office.  While going downstairs to speak with him, they pass Liam's solicitor, Grace Barlow, who is talking with with Rhys.  She and Duncan catch one anothers eye as they pass.  Engleton is certain that it is impossible for someone to get a gun into the building because of the strict security they have.  All of the "unsecure" areas are controlled by numeric keypads.  The codes are randomly generated by computer every couple of weeks.  Only Engleton and his staff have access to the codes.  While they are looking at the codes in Engleton's office, Rhys enters and tells them Barlow feels she knows who killed him.

Nick and Duncan speak with Barlow back at the office and she tells them why Liam was in trouble.  He was charged with the invasion of Parnell Construction Company and he and an unknown associate trashed the office using a baseball bat and iron bar.  One of the female staff was bashed during the invasion leaving her with permanent brain damage.  While Liam didn't give her the name of his associate, she gives Nick and Duncan the name Dennis Monk.  He sees himself as the union enforcer and is a thug. 

AUS Television: City Homicide Possibly in Final Full Season

The future of City Homicide is extremely unclear tonight.  Production will cease on the Australian crime drama, which is in its fourth season, a little later this month.  Tom Worner, director of programming for the Seven Network confirmed the cessation of production in October.

The show isn't completely dead as a decision on the final fate of the series has been delayed until 2011.  However, production being ceased certainly doesn't look good.

The series will continue to air throughout 2010 and in 2011 a six-part mini-series, City Homicide:  No Greater Honour will air.  After that airing, Seven will make a final decision on the fate of the entire series. 

No Greater Honour is a spin-off of the series and will guest star Claire Van Der Boom, Marcus Graham, John Howard and Graeme Blundell.  The mini-series was written by John Hugginson and John Banas, the driving forces behind City Homicide.

Struggling ratings in the multi-channel environment is being blamed for the move to end City Homicide.

Update:  After reading several different articles, I guess what the mini-series airing next year will be is the final 6 episodes from season four.  The actors listed above are the guest stars and our favorites will be there.   (Regardless, I'm still upset that City Homicide is ending.)

For more information:  Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.18 "Killer Moves"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Eighteen, Killer Moves
Original Air Date:  November 3, 2010

Homicide is called in to investigate what appears to be a tragic traffic accident where a young woman is killed when she is struck by a vehicle while she is jogging.  The case becomes complicated when Ronnie (Genevieve Morris) reveals that the man in the car, Lachlan Fraser, was dead, very dead, hours before the accident.  Rhys helps Allie try and get in touch with her past.

Allie and Duncan are called in to investigate the case but Matt re-assigns it to Nick and Jennifer.  When Allie and Duncan both protest, Matt relents and allows them to speak to the dead man's wife and sends Nick and Jennifer to help with the street canvass.  Allie questions him about the missing I.D. of the young woman and Matt orders one of them to get on that.

At the morgue, Fraser's wife, Danielle, identifies his body.  While they are giving his wife some privacy to say goodbye to her husband, Ronnie states the man had a stroke and there was major lividity in his back and in the backs of his legs indicating he was on his back for a while before he was put into the car.  Time of death was approximately 10 p.m. the night before.  There was also a bone spur found in his neck leading them to believe he was murdered and didn't die of natural causes.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.17 "Gut Instinct"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Seventeen, Gut Instinct
Original Air Date:  October 27, 2010

A jewelery store owner and his wife are awakened by two masked men.  While one takes the husband, Isaac Goldberg, to his store to rob it, the other stays at their home with his wife, Gisella.  She is found murdered by her sister, Ruth Engleman, who arrives for a planned trip to the gym.  The case turns out looking like an inside job gone wrong.  When Bernice Waverley asks Detective Sergeant Peter Copeland to assist with the investigation, the trouble begins.

Matt arrives at work early to find Rhys already there hoping to get caught up on some work while everything is quiet.  However, a call takes the two out of the office.  Jennifer and Nick, who have rekindled their relationship, are called in just after 6:30 in the morning.

With information provided by Ruth Engleman, they learn that Isaac is probably at his store.  Matt dispatches Rhys and Nick to find him.  They find him tied to the staircase of his shop with tape over his mouth and wanting to know about his wife.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.16 "Undercover"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Sixteen, Undercover
Original Air Date:  October 20, 2010

Jen and Nick, still undercover, must convince Muhammed Hartono that they can work for him again.  McCallister's plans for Jen and Nick aren't what they appear to be.  When things do not go according to plan, Homicide and SIS must team up to find Hartono's bomb before it is too late.

This weeks episode picks up where last weeks left off:  Nick and Jen are talking in the bedroom of the house they are staying in when masked men burst in.  The masked men aren't underworld figures but two men working with SIS.  McCallister isn't pleased with Jen and Nick's reaction to the masked gunmen.  Nick called Jen by her real name instead of calling her Trish.  McCallister is angry that they aren't handling the situation the way they should.  He orders Radcliffe to take them back to their house. 

One of McCallister's employees gives him photographs of Rhys and Allie going into Waheed's home.  The pictures make it back to Homicide where Waverley questions Matt about them.  Jarvis suggests that Matt's team has gone rogue on him but Stanley steps up for Matt.  Jarvis informs Matt that this incident reflects on Matt as a senior officer.  Matt is clearly extremely angry and assures Waverley he will be speaking to the team again.

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.

AUS Television: City Homicide "Lightens Up"

Noni Hazlehurst who portrays Detective Superintendent Bernice Waverley on City Homicide was recently interviewed by David Knox, a freelance tv.com writer.  In the interview, Ms. Hazlehurst revealed some very interesting tidbits for the remainder of the crime drama's fourth season.

The series will be focusing a tad more on the lives of the characters while still delivering the same gripping drama fans have come to love the last four years.  The tone of the show will lighten subtly as a bit of humor is injected into the storylines.  Don't think the show will become a comedy, because it won't.  It isn't to trivialize the seriousness of the cases the detectives deal with but to show the coping methods they use to deal with the grisly work they do day in and day out.

A six-party storyline will end the current season (which is scheduled to run 21 episodes) and Richard Jasek has got on board as a new executive producer.

You can read the full article at tv.com.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.14 "Twilight Zone"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Fourteen, Twilight Zone
Original Air Date:  October 6, 2010

An elderly man is pushed down the stairs in his wheelchair at the retirement home where he lives.  The suspects include his son, his fiance, her daughter, the nursing home manager and a resident who disliked the victim.  Meanwhile, a bit of mystery surfaces regarding Jen and Nick.

When Matt and Allie interview some of the residents of the retirement home they come to realize that life at this retirement home is more than meets the eye.  The victims fiance, Posy Pollard, takes quite the liking to Matt and does a fair bit of flirting with him while Allie speaks with Peter Marsh, a man who didn't get along with Branco.

The autopsy reveals Branco was still alive after the fall and his killer followed him down the stairs and kicked his head with a heavy-toed boot.

There is absolutely no love lost between Branco and his son, Andrew.  Andrew claims the hatred between the two was mutual.  He blames Posy for his fathers death saying she must have been after his money.

AUS Television: City Homicide, Episode 4.13 "Once Bitten"

City Homicide
Season Four, Episode Thirteen, Once Bitten
Original Air Date:  September 29, 2010

An off-duty Rhys finds himself in trouble when he pursues two kids he witnessed committing a robbery.  One of the men bite him and they both get away.  Upon investigating the scene closer, Rhys finds that the owner of the business was murdered.  The case gets complicated and Rhys faces a danger that could cost him his life.

While listening to a witness relate what he'd seen (or not seen) to Nick, Rhys sees an onlooker in the crowd that draws his interest but the man disappears into the crowd.  Matt orders Rhys back to headquarters to get an ID on the men. Once there, he finds that his bitten arm is in a pretty bad condition.  He gets a call from Matt and, ignoring his injury, he heads out to work on the case.