Lines of Fire

"Lines of Fire" is an episode of the seventh season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC on May 7, 1999. The episode was written by James Yoshimura and directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Mike Giardello and Stuart Gharty are ordered to investigate when Emmet Carey, a man who has recently lost both his job and a child custody battle, takes his children hostage on a top-floor apartment of a Baltimore high rise. Emmet sees Mike on television when news cameras report to the scene, and develops an immediate fixation on him. The usual hostage negotiator asks Mike to take over, after the otherwise paranoid Emmet shows signs of trusting Mike. Emmet initially mocks Mike's mixed racial...