Frank Pembleton

Detective Frank Pembleton
Detective Frank Pembleton
First appearance	"Gone for Goode"
Last appearance	Homicide: The Movie
Created by	Tom Fontana
Portrayed by	Andre Braugher
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Family	Olivia (daughter); Frank Junior (son)
Spouse	Mary 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. Although the show featured an ensemble cast, Pembleton would become a fan favorite and is often identified by them as the show's signature character. He is based on Baltimore Police Department Detective Harry Edgerton, who, like Pembleton, was an eccentric New York bred African American detective in the BPD homicide unit featured in David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

Early life

Pembleton was born into a Catholic family in New York City on July 1, 1962. It was implied that he had siblings, but they never appear on the show. He was educated first in a Catholic elementary school and then in a Jesuit high school, a reference to Braugher attending a Jesuit school, St. Ignatius College Prep, in Chicago. Frank later said that "the Jesuits taught me how to think," which comes up on the show from time to time. He knows Latin and Greek and is well versed in Catholic theology. He met his future wife, Mary, on the Great Lawn in Central Park shortly after graduating from the Police academy when he was 24. He claims that he knew as soon as he met her that she was "the one." They married sometime afterwards.

Frank and Mary moved to Baltimore because Frank wanted to be a detective and felt there was no room for advancement in the NYPD. According to Frank, the move caused a permanent rift between him and his in-laws, since he had moved "their little girl" so far from home. He loved working in Baltimore, however, and Mary got a job as a lobbyist (making more money than he made) and often took trips to Washington, D.C. where her family lives.

Pembleton the detective

Frank's attitude

Pembleton became a detective at a fairly young age (compared to some of the other detectives), getting into the Homicide unit by his early 30s. Frank was completely devoted to his job—he often called it a calling and vigorously pursued justice. Nothing infuriated him like seeing justice go unserved (i.e. a murderer getting off was unbearable for him). The world was black and white for Frank, and he was almost never swayed by mitigating circumstances. He mentions in an early season episode that he speaks for the dead, because there is no one else to speak for them ("We speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves").

Pembleton is a notably unwavering and dedicated detective, disinterested in the background of the deceased victim with regards to how he approached the investigation into their deaths (he would, for example, investigate the death of a drug dealer with as much dedication to finding the killer as he would a priest). In this vein, he notably disagreed with fellow detective Beau Felton (with whom he had a long-standing enmity) as to which cases mattered. Although they agreed that a murder was the wrongful death of a person who mattered whereas a killing was the death of someone who did not matter, Pembleton believed that everyone mattered (including, for instance, drug dealers) but Felton did not (he believed that elderly women, for instance, mattered but drug dealers did not). He was also uncompromising in the investigation of a doctor who deliberately performed substandard surgery that led to the death of a gangbanger who routinely beat up his girlfriend and committed robbery and fraud, because he reminded her of a hoodlum who mugged her husband; whereas Det. Bayliss contemplated letting her go, Frank replied simply that "a man is dead" and implied that she should be arrested, though the story ends without showing the final fate of the doctor (as the primary detective on the case, Bayliss has the final decision on how to proceed, and defers to the prosecutors). Despite His commitment to His work, he has fallen short on occasion. He was indifferent to the (Possible Police) Murder of Gordon Pratt who was suspected of shooting three Homicide Detectives (Howard, Felton, & Bolander) and did not push Bayliss to investigate. He was also very willing to quit his job after being used as a pawn by Commissioner Harris.

Pembleton's fiery attitude and his ruthless pursuit of justice frequently put him at odds with many of his fellow detectives (many of whom he considered amateurish) and his lieutenant, Al Giardello. One example of the former case came in Season 5 when Frank was on limited duty after his stroke while Det. Mike Kellerman was forced to desk duty because he was being investigated on charges of accepting bribes. When Mike tried to commiserate with Frank over their respective situations, Frank said that they had nothing in common because Frank hadn't done anything wrong. Mike got angry and told Frank he didn't know anything about his case but assumed he did, as usual. Frank later apologized to Mike for thinking (wrongly as it turned out) Mike had taken bribes. The rift between Frank and Giardello was notably apparent in the episode 'Black and Blue', involving the investigation into a police-related shooting of a young African American man. As it became apparent that a white uniformed police officer was the most likely suspect, Giardello - a firm believer in the brotherhood of police officers - pressured Frank to find a civilian culprit. To stress the brotherhood of the police force, G told Frank a story about how during his first few weeks on the job in the 1960s, African American leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and rioting broke out in every Black neighborhood in Baltimore. G told Frank that as a Black officer on the mostly White BPD, he had to decide which side he was on during that night and that Frank was now faced with a similar decision. Frank then interrogated a subject both he and G knew was not guilty for the crime and got him to confess to it as a means of appeasing G. (This is just one example of Frank's unparalleled talent for getting confessions in the interrogation room, a plot point that recurs throughout the series.) Seeing that the suspect was innocent, Gee tore up the confession allowing Frank to arrest the guilty police officer for the crime. During the investigation, Frank made it apparent that he was not loyal to either black or blue but rather to justice in solving the murder.

Pembleton and Bayliss

When Det. Tim Bayliss was assigned to the homicide unit, Lieutenant Giardello partnered him with Pembleton, much to Frank's chagrin. Pembleton had no patience for a rookie, but Tim eventually managed to win his respect. For most of the series, the two would be partners, though Frank never allowed Tim to get too close to him. Their relationship was strained more than once, but they always eventually came back to working together and being an effective team. Although Bayliss had great respect for Frank, to the point of once calling Frank his best friend, Pembleton was often cruelly dismissive of Bayliss and Bayliss' attempts at friendship. Pembleton does not seem to respect Bayliss as a colleague. Following his stroke, Tim treated him in a similarly cold manner though Frank worked very hard to win back Tim's respect. After repairing their partnership, Frank became frustrated with Bayliss disappearing for hours and not telling Frank where he has gone. Eventually Frank follows him and sees that Tim is taking care of the Uncle who had abused him. By the end of the season, they had developed a greater understanding of each other. While Frank thought he could handle himself, he later realized that he wasn't half the Detective he was without Tim to help him.

The first major "breakup" occurred when Pembleton was investigating the shooting of a foreign exchange student accidentally shot by Tim's cousin, Jim (portrayed by David Morse), to whom Tim was as close as a brother. Pembleton was convinced that Jim, if only in the few seconds before the shot was fired, was motivated by racism (the victim was Turkish and Jim's brother had been killed in the Gulf War). Pembleton investigates the case vigorously, despite the familial connection. Frank was outraged when Jim was acquitted at trial and he told Tim he was furious that crowds erupted in cheering at the news, asking incredulously if there would have been that much joy for an acquittal if the victim had been a white kid from the U.S.

They split again midway through season 5, after a painful case where Frank is sympathetic to a pregnant woman who allowed the father of her child to beat her daughter to death. Tim reveals that he was sexually abused by his uncle as a child and then says he doesn't want to be partners with Frank anymore. They get back together after Mary asks Tim to do it and Frank manages to swallow his pride and agreed to restart their partnership. They remain together until Frank leaves the force following Tim's shooting. He returned in The Movie to find Gee's shooter and Frank seemed realize that he misses working with Tim. The final scene between the two of them involved Tim telling Frank about his Murder of Luke Ryland and Frank refusing to arrest Him.

Pembleton's family

Frank and Mary, once settled in their careers, decided to have a family. They were forced to see a variety of fertility specialists before Mary was able to become pregnant. They had two children, a daughter Olivia and later a son named Frank, Jr.

Frank was the only detective on the show to maintain a marriage—every other one either never got married, had their spouse die, or (more often) got divorced. Frank and Mary's did go through some rough times, owing to Frank's incredible drive for work. Even after marriage counselling, Mary felt that he had become too detached from his family. She was also bothered when he lost his faith, especially when he denied Olivia a baptism for many months. Mary left Frank for a couple of months while pregnant with Frank, Jr. but eventually came back to Frank. Nothing made her happier than when he eventually quit the force in the Season 6 finale.

Loss of faith

In the first two seasons, Pembleton remains actively Catholic, but his job has turned him very cynical. Following a high profile string of serial killings of Good Samaritans where Frank was the primary, he lost his faith. In his last episode on the show, Frank is shown praying out loud for God to save the life of a critically wounded Bayliss. He is also seen talking about faith in Homicide: The Movie while in his new job as a professor, saying that even individuals who do not belong to organized religious groups often maintain faith in their own ways.

The stroke

In the fourth season finale, Frank suffers a stroke while interogating a suspect. Pembleton nearly dies with a blood pressure of 220/140 and is shown having flashbacks of his daughter's birth on the way to the hospital. When he returns to duty, his speech and memory have been noticeably impaired. He is assigned desk duty until he can pass his firearms exam, and is frustrated when others (like Tim) baby him. Unfortunately Larsarton, his blood pressure medication, impairs his focusing (and sexual relations with his wife), so he takes the dangerous risk of flushing his medication. He still has trouble with the exam, failing it at least once in the episode "Bad Medicine". He actually did well hitting the target but when instructed to reload he couldn't remember what a ammunition magazine was. As a result of that and peer pressure including his wife and Bayliss, and Giardello refusing to us his influence to get Frank back on the street despite the poor exam, he restarted taking his medicine (all also in "Bad Medicine"). He eventually passes and returned to active duty. He eventually makes a full recovery from the stroke. While medically, strokes as severe as the one Pembleton was shown to suffer do not bring total recovery, it was viewer dissent that led to Pembleton's recovery. Andre Braugher had wanted to add the handicap to make Pembleton less than the perfect detective he seemed, to add an element of struggle. But when NBC took note of viewer complaints that demanded they bring back the "old Frank," the plot changed to allow for complete recovery.

It is somewhat ironic that so much hinged on the firearms exam, since Frank later confirms that he never had to shoot anyone; a trait reflected in the real-life Det. Harry Edgerton, who didn't consider a firearm to be very useful to a detective. The closest he came was drawing down on a few suspects. Pembleton's first case as primary investigator since the stroke was covered in the Season 5 episode "Blood Wedding," which involved the fatal shooting of State Attorney Ed Danvers' fiancee, a public defender, during a robbery at a bridal store. Danvers, convinced Pembleton is not ready to return to full investigative duty, and emotionally unable to distance himself, constantly interferes with Pembleton. When the investigator's instincts prove as intact as ever, and the perp is caught, Danvers realizes Pembleton has regained his skills and Pembleton shows Danvers the compassion he was unable to offer before the case was solved.

Recovery and aftermath

In the two-part "Fallen Heroes," Frank fails to pull the trigger twice. The first time is when Junior Bunk is shooting up the squadroom and fails to notice Frank standing behind him in the entry to Gee's office with a drawn gun. He takes aim momentarily but changes his mind and runs down the hall unseen by Junior, who is shot to death by several other detectives after wounding Ballard and Gharty and killing three uniformed officers. In part two he hesitates to shoot in defense of his own life when a fleeing Mahoney crew member points a gun at him. To save Frank, Bayliss puts himself in the line of fire and is critically injured. Later while being interrogated by Frank and Falsone, Kellerman blames him for nearly getting Bayliss killed. Once Frank finally gets the truth about the Luther Mahoney shooting, he visits Bayliss in the hospital and hands Gee his badge. His guilt over letting Bayliss down, and his disgust at Gee's decision to let Kellerman resign in order to protect Lewis' and Stivers' jobs and avoid a jury trial, are what drive him to quit the department.

It has been questioned whether Frank's failure to shoot came as a result of his insecurity over his marksmanship (especially after the stroke) or his regard for human life. In Homicide: The Movie, Bayliss tells him that he doesn't believe Frank is capable of taking a human life.