BROOKLYN SOUTH
Love Hurts

BROOKLYN SOUTH "Love Hurts" First season, episode 7, first airdate Nov. 10, 1997. The hour-long weekly series follows the work, the doubts and the loyalties of patrol officers in a Brooklyn, NY, police precinct. James Morrison plays Paul, a gay man furious with his younger lover for flirting.

brooklnk.jpg (16387 bytes)Outside Smokey's Pub, a small crowd watches Paul slam Doug up against a car. Doug wishes he were dead. "And I want to kill you," Paul bellows in his face. "That's why we're America's favorite couple."

Two police cars pull up. From the first car to stop, young officers Phil Roussakoff and Hector Villanueva rush to break up the fight. Roussakoff grabs Paul while Villanueva sees about Doug. From the other police car, older officers Eagan and Pittarino rush to escort the excited crowd of onlookers back into the bar. Their inappropriate crowd control techniques include wisecracks about homosexuals to the mostly gay crowd.

Even though the burly Roussakoff has him restrained, Paul ignores him. He continues to yell at Doug. Over Roussakoff's shoulder, Paul shouts, "You're a whore and a liar and you've turned me into something I hate."

brooklnn.jpg (15924 bytes) brooklno.jpg (13030 bytes) brooklna.jpg (14706 bytes) brooklnq.jpg (12369 bytes) brooklnd.jpg (11443 bytes)

brooklnm.jpg (13096 bytes)Roussakoff demands Paul's name and identification. He finally has Paul's attention. Paul plants his hands on his hips and glares at the cop. "I'm Emil Jannings in 'The Blue Angel.' "

However, Roussakoff takes him literally, missing Paul's reference to the 1930s German film about an older professor besotted with a much younger nightclub singer. "It better say that on your ID." Fearing Paul's impending arrest, Doug says he doesn't want to press charges.

A beer bottle tossed from above crashes over Roussakoff's head. Villanueva scans the windows for the perpetrator. Paul calls for a doctor for the bloodied Roussakoff. From inside the bar, Eagan and Pittarino rush out and look back up at the windows of the building.

bsbig7.jpg (20881 bytes)A stunned Roussakoff, touching the cut high on the back of his head, says, "That guy's not Emil Jannings. Give him a smack." Villaneuva takes Roussakoff to the emergency room leaving Eagan and Pittarino to transport Paul and Doug to the station house. Even though their fight is over for the moment, their troubles are beginning now that they are in the custody of Eagan and Pittarino.

On the way to the police car, Doug expresses concern over the injured officer. A more subdued Paul suggests whoever threw the bottle was trying to hit them. Pittarino tells him and "his wife" to shut up. Paul asks if he and Doug are under arrest. Eagan confirms his fears when he cracks that it's a double date. A panicky Doug asks why he's being arrested since he is the victim. Pittarino tells him they need his statement as to what happened. Agitated again, Paul responds with a vulgar reference to Doug's flirting. Eagan tightens his grip on the back of Paul's neck, yells at him to shut up and calls him a derogatory name for gay men. Eagan shoves him into the back seat of their squad car for the trip back to the station house.

bsbig8.jpg (20607 bytes) brooklnp.jpg (15828 bytes) brooklnr.jpg (16536 bytes) bsbig11.jpg (23470 bytes) brooklnf.jpg (13212 bytes)


brooklnh.jpg (12037 bytes)Both Paul and Doug look beat up when they are escorted into the police station. Paul, who was uninjured at the scene, has a bloody nose, a swollen eye and facial injuries. Doug has a bloody nose. This time, Doug is agitated and Paul is eerily subdued.

brooklni.jpg (10730 bytes)Desk Sgt. Richard Santoro asks what happened. Doug tells him police brutality. Eagan tells him one assaulted the other, and then they both fought so much in the back seat of the police car they had to pull over and stop the fight. Doug says the officer is lying, while Paul remains silent and unsteady on his feet. Pittarino tells Doug to be quiet, but Doug tells the sergeant that the officer beat Paul "for no reason" and then beat him when he tried to intervene. Sgt. Santoro grips the unsteady Paul by the arm and asks how he's feeling. Paul simply says, "My head hurts."

brooklng.jpg (12301 bytes)Doug explains Eagan punched Paul and then slammed his head against a trash bin. Eagan shrugs off Doug's statement, and Doug worries aloud about Paul having serious injuries.

Sgt. Santoro now doubts his officers but wants to hear more sides to the story. Pittarino is stunned, suggests Paul is faking. Disgusted, Eagan sharply states his concerns that he knew things would go badly for him and Pittarino as soon as they got to the station house. He makes a point of reminding the sergeant of Roussakoff's injury. The sergeant orders them to get Paul and Doug medical attention.

Out on the street, Officers Jack Lowery and Nona Valentine respond to a call at a deli where a hot dog vendor allegedly glued the store's padlock shut. Nick the deli owner is sputtering over the glued lock as his nephew looks on. The officers also learn that the deli owner and the hot dog vendor, who likes to park his cart in front of the deli, have a history of squabbles. The officers say they will return to the deli when the hot dog vendor usually sets up his cart to get his side of the story.

Officer Jimmy Doyle meets his younger brother Terry in an empty bar. The brothers are part of a traditional police family of generations of NY police officers. Terry is a trainee at the police academy and is worried about a job he did on the side when he was with a driving service. While driving a client, he learns he drove the client during what he realized, once it was too late, was a very shady deal. Jimmy tells him he has to report this to the Internal Affairs Bureau and, with deep disappointment, offers to set up a meeting for his brother with IAB Lt. Jonas, who Terry says, "takes no pleasure in hurting cops."

Back at the station house, a bandaged Roussakoff and Villanueva arrive at the front desk after their trip to the hospital. Roussakoff tells Sgt. Santoro they saw Eagan and Pittarino at the hospital with Paul and Doug. Sgt. Santoro tells them he just heard that one of the guys had swelling in his brain from a hemorrhage.

Roussakoff is wide-eyed. Santoro tells them Eagan's story about how the fight continued in the car. Roussakoff tells him the one guy was beating the other for flirting, but both weren't fighting when he saw them. He mentions Paul's mouthiness, saying that Paul had said he was a pilot, a Blue Angel. Sgt. Santoro tells them to write up line-of-duty injury reports regarding the incident.

After the two patrolmen leave, Sgt. Francis Donovan comes out of an office with the promotion list. The IAB lieutenant Stan Jonas has been promoted to Captain. Santoro tells him he expects a visit from IAB because of the incident outside the bar and summarizes the situation for Donovan. Unbeknownst to Santoro, he really is telling IAB about the situation because Donovan is a mole for Internal Affairs.

In the locker room, Roussakoff and Villanueva are worried. Villanueva is torn between his loyalty to the brotherhood of officers and his knowledge of the situation when they left. Although pained about contradicting fellow officers, Roussakoff believes they are lying.

At the front desk, Sgt. Santoro politely congratulates the former IAB lieutenant Jonas on his promotion and comments upon how quickly he arrived to investigate the circumstances of the suspiciously injured suspect. Jonas admits he was unaware of the potential IAB investigation and tells the sergeant that he is at the station house for another reason. Although the news would be announced the next day, Jonas wants to let both patrol sergeants know he would be the next station commander. Jonas acknowledges the officers who knew him as an IAB investigator may be suspicious of his motives as their new commander, but he wants to make it clear that his loyalties would be to his officers in the station house. Santoro tells him he plans to keep an eye on him, and then he gives him a summary of the situation. Jonas tells him he wants to stay informed about the case. Sgt. Donovan sees him leave and comments to Santoro about how quickly IAB showed up. Santoro surprises Donovan with the identity of their new station commander.

On the street in front of the deli where the lock had been glued, the hot dog vendor has already set up shop. When Officers Lowery and Valentine pull up, the deli owner rushes out to meet them. Valentine asks the hot dog vendor about the glue, which he denies doing. The deli owner and the hot dog vendor trade angry insults and threats while the officers quiet them. The hot dog vendor thinks a homeless guy the deli owner had kicked out for camping out in the toilet glued the lock. Stunned, the deli owner's anger is deflated. He asks the hot dog vendor why didn't he tell him? The vendor said he wouldn't go inside because the deli owner always threatened him. They even finally exchange first names. As the officers leave, Valentine expresses her appreciation of Lowery's newfound preference for getting people to talk out their differences.

Back from the hospital, Eagan and Pittarino escort Doug back at the station house. To Santoro, Doug comments upon how the officers' attitudes toward him had become much more solicitous. Santoro tells Doug that reports on the incident are being filed. Doug repeats his story and adds that Paul is going into a coma. Eagan reminds Doug of his public drunkenness and fistfight in the street. Pittarino tells Doug he has no right to complain about what happened in the alley. Santoro sends the two officers to write up their reports.

Alone with Doug, Santoro tells him he probably won't be charged, but he should write up his version of what happened. Doug is skeptical of his motives, but Santoro convinces him that an assault was committed and whoever did it would be charged. Doug agrees to write his account.

At the water cooler, Eagan asks Roussakoff how his head is. Eagan makes another crack about the gay men. Roussakoff inquires about the badly injured one. With no sign of compassion, Eagan tells him Paul has a subdural hematoma for which his skull had to be drilled to relieve the pressure. He reminds Roussakoff of Paul's attitude at the scene and mentions having had to pull over on the way to the station to calm down both suspects. Eagan tries to see if Roussakoff's story matches his own. It does not, and he blames the younger officer for the incident. Citing Roussakoff's offhand remark upon leaving the scene for the hospital, that he "give him a smack," Eagan tells him that he did what Roussakoff told him to do. Although Roussakoff remembers his comment, he disagrees that he should have been taken literally because he had just been injured in a surprise attack. Eagan accuses Roussakoff of betraying him.

On the way out of the restroom, Santoro runs into Pittarino, who is changing his tune from righteous indignation to regret and fear. Santoro asks him if he would like to amend his report, but Pittarino declines. On the way out of the restroom, Santoro encourages him to amend his report.

Upstairs at the station house, young Terry Doyle sits in an interview room with two IAB investigators, one of them Jonas. The man Terry once drove for is a suspected of gun running, so IAB asks Terry to go undercover for them. Of course, Terry would have to leave the academy in apparent disgrace as a cover story. Jonas points out how undercover work is a shortcut to the detective squad, and adds that Terry must decide his course of action that day. Terry wants to talk to his brother about his decision.

In the hallway, the brothers discuss the pros and cons. The cons include the necessity of Terry hanging out with criminals and IAB officers, both of which cops consider equally dismal company. Plus, he would have to leave the police academy and its treasured camaraderie with other officers. The advantage would be an express ticket to the detective squad. Despite his older brother's misgivings and the shadow of disgrace he would have to bear, Terry plans to go for it.

Jonas meets with Pittarino and Santoro, not as an IAB officer, but in his new capacity as station captain. He asks Pittarino, off the record, what happened. Pittarino asks for a deal. When Jonas declines, Pittarino restates his and Eagan's story, adding this time that the men in the back seat had been kicking each other. Jonas asks for more, but Pittarino fears prison and abandoning his family, so he refuses to cooperate more without a deal. Jonas asks if the situation could be that bad. An upset but still tight-lipped Pittarino leaves.

Officers Lowery and Valentine are called back to the deli. This time, the deli owner is waving a baseball bat and has his nephew treed up the fire escape. The hot dog vendor is pleading to the deli owner to calm down. The deli owner has learned that his nephew was the one who glued the store's padlock because he was angry at having money taken from his pay to compensate for his breakage in the store.

Back to his old tricks of name-calling and threatening, the deli owner pushes Lowery's ability to use his new negotiating skills. Lowery threatens the deli owner with imminent arrest. He calms down, allowing the kid to come down from the fire escape. Soon, the winded deli owner sits with the hot dog vendor who has been helping him calm down. Officer Valentine mildly teases Lowery for altering his approach.

In the Victims Services office, Santoro waits with Doug as he calls the hospital for Paul's current condition. Doug tells Santoro that Paul's head has been drilled and the doctor has told him "there's a good likelihood his faculties won't be impaired." When Doug points to the report he has just written and asks about its future, Santoro says they will corroborate the stories, even Paul's once he is able to talk. Doug admits of his friend, "He's an unhappy person and he was unhappy with me." Soon, the level of Pittarino's involvement becomes known. The officer had restrained Doug while Eagan beat on Paul. Doug had the impression that Pittarino did not know what all Eagan was doing, that he seemed to avoid looking.

Villanueva is already in the break room when Roussakoff and Jimmy Doyle join him. Eagan walks in and makes a point of telling Doyle his side of the story. Roussakoff quietly tells his partner they should go. Eagan accuses him of running away. Their accusations almost come to blows, as Villanueva holds off Roussakoff and Doyle restrains Eagan. Sgt. Donovan rushes in to break it up, but the cops insist the fight is over anyway.

An off duty cop from another precinct shows up at the station house. Anthony and Santoro are old friends, so they first catch up on each other's personal lives. Anthony, who lives in the precinct although he works elsewhere, wants to talk to Santoro privately. From his building's roof, Anthony witnessed a beating in the alley. He saw one cop hold one suspect back while the other cop beat the other suspect and rammed his head into the corner of a dumpster. Anthony also gives Santoro the number of the squad car involved. When he leaves, he asks Santoro to keep his contribution to the investigation quiet.

With additional information, Santoro takes Pittarino to see Jonas again. Pittarinio insists nothing has changed, that he has no information to offer without a deal. Jonas informs him that two witnesses saw what happened and that he could go to jail. However, Jonas points out, things could be different if Pittarino didn't actively do any of the beating

Meanwhile, even though the shift is over and the other officers have changed into their street clothes, Eagan is still pacing downstairs in his uniform. Santoro tells Eagan to go home, but Eagan is certain Pittarino is betraying him and is intent on confronting him. Eagan rants about Paul, who had deserved what he got because of his attitude. Other officers, all out of uniform before leaving for home, stop by and listen to his tirade. When Pittarino finally comes down the stairs, Eagan accuses him of betraying him. Pittarino responds about how he has to take care of his family. Donovan pushes Eagan away from Pittarino and restrains the officer against a wall. Eagan finally stops his rant to see all his co-workers staring at him. He breaks down with sobs. The other officers leave, while the sergeants stay with the sobbing Eagan.

In the cop bar, the Doyle brothers have told their sister the bad news, the story they cooked up with Internal Affairs to set up Terry's undercover operation. Terry has been kicked out of the academy, they say, for an old drunk driving charge he didn't report during his application process. Of course, the arrest is news to her. She tries to ease his pain but is too upset and has to leave the table. Her reaction upsets her brothers.

Roussakoff comes to their table but sees the serious expressions on the faces of the Doyle brothers and heads off to get a beer at the bar. Jimmy Doyle follows his co-worker. He repeats the cover story about Terry's dismissal from the academy to Roussakoff.

Another off-duty officer steps up to the bar. He speaks to Doyle but ignores Roussakoff. When Roussakoff speaks to him, the cop says he's angry because Roussakoff betrayed Eagan. Doyle politely suggests that cop take his beer back to his own table.

Doyle's sister returns, so Jimmy returns to their table. Confidentially, Jimmy tells her about the undercover assignment. She is relieved, and they apologize for upsetting her. Once all is well, the Doyles invite a Roussakoff to join them at the table.

Behind the station house, Santoro is leaving when Jonas stops him. Santoro expresses his hope that Pittarino receive less harsh treatment than Eagan. Jonas politely disagrees because he sees no difference between the actions of the two disgraced officers. Jonas tells the sergeant that he is looking forward to looking for the good his officers do instead of concentrating on the bad, as he did in IAB.

After Santoro leaves, IAB undercover officer Donovan steps forward. He tells Jonas he cannot work with him as an officer under his command and as an undercover officer for the IAB. Donovan sounds a bit like a western sheriff telling a rival the town isn't big enough for both of them. Jonas suggests he try because, if it doesn't work out, Donovan can transfer to another precinct.

 

Back to The Lobby
To Lobby To TV Listing