1. Blood Ties, Part 1

Complete story — includes the ending

After the summer rotation, the homicide unit reassembles itself with several personnel changes. Brodie and Howard are gone, and Falsone and Gharty have transferred in, along with newcomer Laura Ballard from Seattle. Lewis teams with Falsone, leaving Kellerman to partner with Munch; someone shoots at both pairs of detectives, then kills a woman being escorted home by Stivers. The shooter is Junior Bunk, acting on orders from his mother Georgia Rae (Luther Mahoney's sister) to get revenge on Kellerman, Lewis, and Stivers. She is arrested as she tries to flee the country, while Falsone begins to question the trio's accounts of the Mahoney shooting. Meanwhile, Melia Brierre, the housekeeper for prominent black businessman Felix Wilson, is found dead in a hotel bathroom. Cast: First appearances of Det. Laura Ballard, and Hazelle Goodman as Georgia Rae Mahoney. Guest starring (all three parts): James Earl Jones as Felix Wilson, Lynne Thigpen as Regina Wilson, Mekhi Phifer as Junior Bunk, and Jeffrey Wright as Hal Wilson.