Tim Bayliss
Encyclopedia
Timothy Bayliss is a fictional detective on Homicide: Life on the Street
. He was a primary character, and was played by Kyle Secor
. He was loosely based on the real-life Det. Tom Pellegrini from David Simon
's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
, though the real detective was reportedly not a fan at all of his fictional alter ego.
to stay out of it. Pembleton learned that Kurt was killed during the Persian Gulf War, an event that may have played a role in the shooting. Jim and Kurt's father (Tim's uncle) was extremely racist
, as Jim claimed that the first time he ever heard racist words were out of their father's mouth. The case went to a grand jury
, which voted not to indict
Jim. Bayliss has also mentioned a six-year-old niece on one occasion.
In Season 5, it was revealed that Bayliss had been sexually molested as a child by another of his father's brothers, George. After telling this to his father, he was accused of lying. At that point onward his relationship to his father was mostly hostile and remained so to the man's death. He told Det. Kellerman that he was arrested for protesting U.S. policy towards El Salvador when he was a teenager, a story idea that Secor reportedly disdained as out of established character for Bayliss. It was quickly discarded in favor of the character developments for Seasons 5-7, including his childhood sexual abuse and religious journey.
for a girlfriend but seems to have not been particularly sincere about it.
. His first case as primary detective was the rape-murder of Adena Watson, and he was never able to close it. This case haunted him throughout the series, but particularly in the first four seasons. At times, it led to friction between himself and his partner, Frank Pembleton
, who scolded him for putting too much of himself into his cases. In the Season 4 episode "Stakeout," he learns that Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an arabber
who was the prime suspect, has died of natural causes. Pembleton and Bayliss had put Risley through a long interrogation in hopes of getting him to admit his guilt, but without success.
The Season 4 episode "Requiem for Adena" centers on the murder of a young black girl that shows similarities to the Adena Watson case. Bayliss becomes obsessed with the idea that the two cases are connected, to the point that his actions begin to jeopardize Pembleton's efforts to get a confession. He learns that many of the people connected with Adena and/or Tucker have moved on from her death much better than he has, and he states that he has begun to hate Adena because he cannot do so himself. At the end of the episode, he takes a framed photo of her from his desk (where it had stood ever since that investigation wound down), packs it into an envelope with a carnation
from his lapel, and drops the envelope into a trash can.
In the Season 6 episode "Finnegan's Wake," Tim wrestled anew with the Watson case when he learned about the longest-running unsolved homicide on the BPD's books, the rape and murder in 1932 of a little girl named Clara Slone. Pembleton told Tim that the senior detectives all decided to not tell him about the Slone case because it strongly echoed Adena Watson's case, not least because the lead detective in 1932 was a very young cop who saw the case quickly spiral out of his control. Tim was having dreams about the case, and told the retired cop who helped Falsone solve the case that he wondered if he had true evil (Risley Tucker) in his sights and let him get away.
exchange student, and also said that Bayliss lacked an understanding of "his dark side" so would do poorly in his job. Yet Pembleton also saved Bayliss from being charged in an incident that could have been interpreted as robbery, and Pembleton once told Bayliss that he was the only man he trusted. The only other person Pembleton said he trusted was his wife, Mary. While Pembleton saw the world in strict black and white terms, Bayliss was far more open to accepting the shades of grey present in police work.
That being said, the two ended their partnership for a time in the fifth season, partly due to Pembleton's stroke. Bayliss stated that Frank's rhythm was "off" after recovery, but there were also hints that he had come to prefer working without him. In addition to that he felt uncomfortable with Pembleton after he told him how he (Bayliss) was abused in childhood. The case in this episode involved a mother who allowed her husband to beat her daughter from a previous marriage to death and was pregnant with the husband's child, and Pembleton showed some sympathy to the woman's story. Later he returned to partnering with Pembleton due to Mary leaving Pembleton for a time. While working on a case in which a teenage girl murdered the stepfather who beat her mother, the two had very different views. While Pembleton is far more sympathetic to her, Bayliss is determined to see her charged with murder. Pembleton sees Tim's personal involvement and assures him that it is not his fault that he was abused. Following his stroke, Bayliss treats Pembleton in the same cold manner, often refusing to listen to his theories and indifferent to any attempts Pembleton made towards repairing their relationship although this animosity had all but disappeared by the end of the fifth and start of the sixth season
Pembleton left the force shortly after Bayliss was shot by a member of Georgia Ray Mahoney's gang. Pembleton met Bayliss's mother, Virginia, after Tim's surgery. She told Frank what Tim thought of their friendship "You're not a person who has friends but he's your friend." Shortly afterwards Frank and Mary say a prayer for Tim.
. The end of the relationship led to his pulling a gun on a store clerk. In later seasons he explored bisexuality
. He did not "come out
," in the standard sense, until season 7. In the first episode concerning the matter he flatly stated he was "not gay
" and did not formally declare himself to be bisexual until Season 7, but even then he did not want to be deemed "a crusader" on the matter. This way of treating his sexuality is believed to have made the network uncomfortable. He had a fling with Dr. Cox and a semi-flirtation with Det. Ballard, and briefly dated a closeted
uniform cop, but had no serious relationships in the final seasons of the show.
During Season 6, Bayliss and Pembleton partnered again, and a drug war sparked by the killing of Baltimore drug kingpin Luther Mahoney led to brutal retaliation against the police department, including Mahoney's nephew, in custody, getting hold of an officer's gun and shooting up the squad room. Bayliss was among the detectives who shot down the gunman, and accompanied Pembleton and other members of the unit in carrying out the ensuing police response. During a gun battle, Pembleton froze and Bayliss, who shoved him aside, was shot and severely wounded. Pembleton, disgusted to find that fellow detective Mike Kellerman
had deliberately shot Mahoney and would resign instead of being prosecuted, grief-stricken over Bayliss's wounding, quit the force in disgust in the season finale. Bayliss would return for Season 7, forever changed and foreshadowing his actions in that season.
As mentioned in the childhood section he had not had a particularly religious upbringing. In Season 7, having been shot at the end of Season 6, he became more interested in the matter and converted to Zen
Buddhism
. Other officers questioned how sincere his conversion was, with some justification. At the end of the episode Zen and the Art of Murder it is implied he abandoned Buddhism as he feels having to shoot a man during the job made him "not a very good Buddhist." Bayliss' sexual orientation and religion had prompted him to develop a website which was later shut down on request of Homicide Captain Roger Gaffney
. The series finale implied that he murdered Luke Ryland, "the Internet killer" after a legal snafu allowed Ryland to escape prosecution. He is later shown cleaning out his desk, with the implication that he is quitting the force, despite his explanation to Giardello that he is merely doing some spring-cleaning. In Homicide: The Movie (2000), Bayliss was revealed to have taken an impromptu leave of absence, presumably conflicted over his murder of Luke Ryland. He returned to the force to solve Lieutenant Giardello's murder and subsequently confessed the killing of Ryland to Pembleton, and asked Pembleton to turn him in.
Bayliss' outcome is somewhat vague, but immediately after Bayliss confessed, Ryland's name is rewritten in blue, not black - not by Meldrick - as Meldrick is subsequently shown at the bar with the rest of the squad questioning Bayliss and Pembleton's whereabouts - and Pembleton later comments that he caught two killers that night. The blue ink indicates a solved cold case, as was indicated in the Season 6 episode, 'Finnegan's Wake'. It is unknown if he committed suicide. If Bayliss had committed suicide, he had not done so by the end of the TV movie - as Bayliss was not at the table playing poker with the deceased Crosetti and Felton.
Nevertheless, there is an additional chair at the poker table that has not been filled yet. Munch mentions in Law and Order Special Victims Unit that he once had a partner who took cases so seriously that he eventually killed himself. This partner is never named but Munch was Tim's partner during Season 7 after Frank's departure.
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
. He was a primary character, and was played by Kyle Secor
Kyle Secor
Kyle Ivan Secor is an American television and movie actor, best known for his role as Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.-Early years:...
. He was loosely based on the real-life Det. Tom Pellegrini from David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...
's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
, though the real detective was reportedly not a fan at all of his fictional alter ego.
Childhood
Born on May 31, 1960 in Baltimore, MD, Tim had a difficult relationship with his family. However, that became the very reason he strongly valued family loyalty. Growing up he was very close with his cousins Jim and Kurt Bayliss, whom he claimed were like his brothers. In Season 3, after Jim shot and killed a Turkish exchange student, Bayliss tried to shoehorn himself into Pembleton's investigation but was warned by Lt. GiardelloAl Giardello
Alphonse Michael Giardello, Sr. is a fictional character from the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street. The character was played by Yaphet Kotto...
to stay out of it. Pembleton learned that Kurt was killed during the Persian Gulf War, an event that may have played a role in the shooting. Jim and Kurt's father (Tim's uncle) was extremely racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, as Jim claimed that the first time he ever heard racist words were out of their father's mouth. The case went to a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
, which voted not to indict
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
Jim. Bayliss has also mentioned a six-year-old niece on one occasion.
In Season 5, it was revealed that Bayliss had been sexually molested as a child by another of his father's brothers, George. After telling this to his father, he was accused of lying. At that point onward his relationship to his father was mostly hostile and remained so to the man's death. He told Det. Kellerman that he was arrested for protesting U.S. policy towards El Salvador when he was a teenager, a story idea that Secor reportedly disdained as out of established character for Bayliss. It was quickly discarded in favor of the character developments for Seasons 5-7, including his childhood sexual abuse and religious journey.
Religion
Unlike several characters in the series, religion was not important in his family background. When asked he stated he had been raised "mutt." In this case that meant his family attended several different denominations, most of which could be termed "Mainline Protestant," but they had no attachment to any of them. Bayliss states that he was baptized into the Presbyterian Church and confirmed in the Episcopal Church. He briefly joined Unitarian UniversalismUnitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
for a girlfriend but seems to have not been particularly sincere about it.
Adena Watson case
Tim Bayliss had originally worked for the mayor's security, but his ambition had been to work at HomicideHomicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
. His first case as primary detective was the rape-murder of Adena Watson, and he was never able to close it. This case haunted him throughout the series, but particularly in the first four seasons. At times, it led to friction between himself and his partner, Frank Pembleton
Frank Pembleton
Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons...
, who scolded him for putting too much of himself into his cases. In the Season 4 episode "Stakeout," he learns that Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an arabber
Arabber
An arabber is a street merchant who sells fruits and vegetables from a colorful, horse-drawn cart. Once a common sight in American East Coast cities, only a handful of arabbers still walk the streets of Baltimore.-Arabbing:...
who was the prime suspect, has died of natural causes. Pembleton and Bayliss had put Risley through a long interrogation in hopes of getting him to admit his guilt, but without success.
The Season 4 episode "Requiem for Adena" centers on the murder of a young black girl that shows similarities to the Adena Watson case. Bayliss becomes obsessed with the idea that the two cases are connected, to the point that his actions begin to jeopardize Pembleton's efforts to get a confession. He learns that many of the people connected with Adena and/or Tucker have moved on from her death much better than he has, and he states that he has begun to hate Adena because he cannot do so himself. At the end of the episode, he takes a framed photo of her from his desk (where it had stood ever since that investigation wound down), packs it into an envelope with a carnation
Carnation
Dianthus caryophyllus is a species of Dianthus. It is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years. It is the wild ancestor of the garden carnation.It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall...
from his lapel, and drops the envelope into a trash can.
In the Season 6 episode "Finnegan's Wake," Tim wrestled anew with the Watson case when he learned about the longest-running unsolved homicide on the BPD's books, the rape and murder in 1932 of a little girl named Clara Slone. Pembleton told Tim that the senior detectives all decided to not tell him about the Slone case because it strongly echoed Adena Watson's case, not least because the lead detective in 1932 was a very young cop who saw the case quickly spiral out of his control. Tim was having dreams about the case, and told the retired cop who helped Falsone solve the case that he wondered if he had true evil (Risley Tucker) in his sights and let him get away.
Partnership with Pembleton
The partnership with Pembleton would form a core element to the character and the entire show. Pembleton was by turns supportive and hurtful to Bayliss. He wanted to take a hard line on Bayliss's cousin who killed a TurkishTurkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
exchange student, and also said that Bayliss lacked an understanding of "his dark side" so would do poorly in his job. Yet Pembleton also saved Bayliss from being charged in an incident that could have been interpreted as robbery, and Pembleton once told Bayliss that he was the only man he trusted. The only other person Pembleton said he trusted was his wife, Mary. While Pembleton saw the world in strict black and white terms, Bayliss was far more open to accepting the shades of grey present in police work.
That being said, the two ended their partnership for a time in the fifth season, partly due to Pembleton's stroke. Bayliss stated that Frank's rhythm was "off" after recovery, but there were also hints that he had come to prefer working without him. In addition to that he felt uncomfortable with Pembleton after he told him how he (Bayliss) was abused in childhood. The case in this episode involved a mother who allowed her husband to beat her daughter from a previous marriage to death and was pregnant with the husband's child, and Pembleton showed some sympathy to the woman's story. Later he returned to partnering with Pembleton due to Mary leaving Pembleton for a time. While working on a case in which a teenage girl murdered the stepfather who beat her mother, the two had very different views. While Pembleton is far more sympathetic to her, Bayliss is determined to see her charged with murder. Pembleton sees Tim's personal involvement and assures him that it is not his fault that he was abused. Following his stroke, Bayliss treats Pembleton in the same cold manner, often refusing to listen to his theories and indifferent to any attempts Pembleton made towards repairing their relationship although this animosity had all but disappeared by the end of the fifth and start of the sixth season
Pembleton left the force shortly after Bayliss was shot by a member of Georgia Ray Mahoney's gang. Pembleton met Bayliss's mother, Virginia, after Tim's surgery. She told Frank what Tim thought of their friendship "You're not a person who has friends but he's your friend." Shortly afterwards Frank and Mary say a prayer for Tim.
Personal life
In the first two seasons Bayliss's character had been called a "fair-haired choir boy" and he stated once that he rejected the idea of having sex for any reason besides love. That started hints at having him "lose his innocence," or questions of whether his claimed innocence was even genuine, occurred even then. Starting in the third season they stated they wanted to more clearly have him "lose his innocence." Hence in season three he had an affair with Emma Zoole, who liked having sex in a coffin and who later broke up with him because he "wouldn't fight with her." The statement had something of a double meaning as it directly involved his unwillingness to argue with her about their problems, but other aspects of the character implied she also was referring to his disdain for rough sexRough Sex
Rough Sex is a single by Lords Of Acid, and was released in 1992. Remixes of "Rough Sex" were done by Joey Beltram, and the CD includes "Take Control" as a B-side...
. The end of the relationship led to his pulling a gun on a store clerk. In later seasons he explored bisexuality
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
. He did not "come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
," in the standard sense, until season 7. In the first episode concerning the matter he flatly stated he was "not gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
" and did not formally declare himself to be bisexual until Season 7, but even then he did not want to be deemed "a crusader" on the matter. This way of treating his sexuality is believed to have made the network uncomfortable. He had a fling with Dr. Cox and a semi-flirtation with Det. Ballard, and briefly dated a closeted
The Closet
The Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, referring to undisclosed homosexuality- See also :* Closet* Closet * In the closet...
uniform cop, but had no serious relationships in the final seasons of the show.
During Season 6, Bayliss and Pembleton partnered again, and a drug war sparked by the killing of Baltimore drug kingpin Luther Mahoney led to brutal retaliation against the police department, including Mahoney's nephew, in custody, getting hold of an officer's gun and shooting up the squad room. Bayliss was among the detectives who shot down the gunman, and accompanied Pembleton and other members of the unit in carrying out the ensuing police response. During a gun battle, Pembleton froze and Bayliss, who shoved him aside, was shot and severely wounded. Pembleton, disgusted to find that fellow detective Mike Kellerman
Mike Kellerman
Detective Michael Scott Kellerman is a fictional character on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Reed Diamond. He is a main character from seasons 4-6, 1995-1998.-Biography:...
had deliberately shot Mahoney and would resign instead of being prosecuted, grief-stricken over Bayliss's wounding, quit the force in disgust in the season finale. Bayliss would return for Season 7, forever changed and foreshadowing his actions in that season.
As mentioned in the childhood section he had not had a particularly religious upbringing. In Season 7, having been shot at the end of Season 6, he became more interested in the matter and converted to Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. Other officers questioned how sincere his conversion was, with some justification. At the end of the episode Zen and the Art of Murder it is implied he abandoned Buddhism as he feels having to shoot a man during the job made him "not a very good Buddhist." Bayliss' sexual orientation and religion had prompted him to develop a website which was later shut down on request of Homicide Captain Roger Gaffney
Roger Gaffney
Roger Gaffney is a fictional police officer of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was played by Walt MacPherson....
. The series finale implied that he murdered Luke Ryland, "the Internet killer" after a legal snafu allowed Ryland to escape prosecution. He is later shown cleaning out his desk, with the implication that he is quitting the force, despite his explanation to Giardello that he is merely doing some spring-cleaning. In Homicide: The Movie (2000), Bayliss was revealed to have taken an impromptu leave of absence, presumably conflicted over his murder of Luke Ryland. He returned to the force to solve Lieutenant Giardello's murder and subsequently confessed the killing of Ryland to Pembleton, and asked Pembleton to turn him in.
Bayliss' outcome is somewhat vague, but immediately after Bayliss confessed, Ryland's name is rewritten in blue, not black - not by Meldrick - as Meldrick is subsequently shown at the bar with the rest of the squad questioning Bayliss and Pembleton's whereabouts - and Pembleton later comments that he caught two killers that night. The blue ink indicates a solved cold case, as was indicated in the Season 6 episode, 'Finnegan's Wake'. It is unknown if he committed suicide. If Bayliss had committed suicide, he had not done so by the end of the TV movie - as Bayliss was not at the table playing poker with the deceased Crosetti and Felton.
Nevertheless, there is an additional chair at the poker table that has not been filled yet. Munch mentions in Law and Order Special Victims Unit that he once had a partner who took cases so seriously that he eventually killed himself. This partner is never named but Munch was Tim's partner during Season 7 after Frank's departure.