NYPD Blue (season 3)

Greg and James bust up a robbery when one of the men on scene shows them a badge, then gunshots ring out and James is wounded. Greg gets him to the hospital and he has surgery. The squad investigates and Andy and Bobby manhandle a suspect until he gives up his contact, who turns out to be the guy with the badge. The DA doesn't want to prosecute because the badge-holder is a guard at Rikers who is providing information on crooked corrections officers. Andy gets a tip that the guard is full of it and planning to skip town, and leaks the detail through Bobby's reporter ex-girlfriend so the deal falls through and the guard will get the book thrown at him. James initially has no feeling in his leg, but later regains some in a sensitive area that shows he's on the mend. With the go-ahead from her AA sponsor, Diane decides the time's ripe to renew dating Bobby. And Sylvia surprises Andy with the news that—she's late.

Notes

• Melina Kanakaredes guest stars as Benita Alden.
• Isaiah Washington guest stars as Antonio Boston.

Sylvia is indeed pregnant, and swears Andy to secrecy, but he manages to blab the news to the entire squad and annoys his wife. A young woman is stabbed to death on her first-floor apartment. Her father seems convinced that his mentally unstable son did the killing, but Bobby zeroes in on a rude, supercilious young man who was acting strangely in the vicinity of the murder site. He and Diane are able to use some fast footwork to get access to his trunk of bloody knives, and Bobby then manipulates him into talking about how he stalks women with big breasts and then murders them. Andy is busy on a case with Greg where a priceless Torah has been stolen from a synagogue. Andy goes undercover as a rabbi and busts the thief.

Notes

• Sam Rockwell makes an appearance in this episode.
• Rebeck and Clark won an Edgar award in the category of "Best Mystery Teleplay from a Series" for this episode.

Bobby reluctantly meets with his old "friend" Ray DiSalvo, who wants out of his admittedly unfair long stay at Rikers and has hard facts about an old robbery case that left two retired cops dead. Bobby runs with the case only to see that IAB is already there, but has to face two hard truths: IAB's Sgt. Martens is a non-idiot who knows what the hell he's doing, and Ray sold him out earlier. Bobby tells Ray that after he gets his deal, he never wants to see him or speak to him again. Lt. Fancy takes center stage when a shooting at a bodega leaves a Latino punk dead, and he learns the punk beat up a good citizen's kid before a shootout. Fancy and Andy work together seamlessly to make sure the citizen won't face jail time. Greg handles a dispute between a young actor and the abusive, egocentric star who's been giving him hell on the set of a play, and manages to get both parties to live and let live.

Notes

• Anthony Stewart Head guest stars as Nigel Gibson.

A neighborhood basketball game with controversial origins (it's in memory of a young man who died while in NYPD custody and the chief organizer is an outspoken community activist) ends in disaster when gunshots erupt and two men are dead. Andy and Fancy immediately don't see eye to eye on the case, and when Andy runs into the activist things get very ugly. The activist makes a racial remark which Andy throws back at him, unwittingly in front of a reporter. The activist gets Fancy angry enough to toss Andy off the case but not to kick him out of the 15th, so Bobby (who was disgusted by Andy's comments) and Diane take on the investigation with help from James and Greg. They find out a notorious drug dealer was behind the shootings in retaliation for men leaving the drug trade without his permission. Fancy tells Andy that he won't transfer him out because he believes his white bosses will send him another bigot to replace Sipowicz (as a message to Fancy) and doesn't want to take the chance that the replacement won't be able to do the job that Andy can. Andy finds out the reporter was shot and gets confirming information about the earlier killings before the reporter dies. Sylvia, who has seen Andy making an offensive hand gesture regarding African-Americans, sternly tells him he had better NEVER talk or act like that in front of their son.

Notes

• Hill Harper guest stars as Bo-Bo

Andy and Bobby catch a case of a young woman who was tied up and burnt almost beyond recognition. They learn her girlfriend's lowlife husband was behind it after a failed ransom attempt. Greg is assigned to guard a longtime numbers runner who's had a contract put out on him. Greg wins a lot of money at poker while doing the bodyguarding, only to find that the contract-setter has been killed his own self. Notes

• Poppy Montgomery appears in this episode as Lisa.

A young woman is found dead in her apartment, disemboweled with bizarre messages written on the walls in blood. Andy and Bobby first suspect a Meals on Wheels worker, but then get a lead on a creep whom they arrest in Atlantic City. The creep tries to pretend he's insane to avoid jail time, but Andy poses as a psycho to get him to admit he's not insane, just a psychopathic killer. A doctor with a battleaxe for a wife gets shot by punks while visiting his office assistant/mistress, and the cops have no sympathy for the wimply doctor, his domineering wife, or his stupid mistress. They do crack the case with some help from an older guy who wants his car taken out of the impound lot. James and Adrienne consummate their relationship, Greg pretty much tells the whole squad about it, and Adrienne turns clingy to the point where James is sheepish and everyone else looks embarrassed for him.

Notes

• Jenna Elfman guest stars as Patty Snow.

Simone finds his best informant ever, a drug addicted stick-up man Ferdinand Hollie, casing out some Colombian drug runners. After coming to the 15th for a chat, Hollie gives them info that checks out, but Andy's worried about Hollie's law-breaking activities and his lifetime of needle drug use. Andy is irritated when a cop named Ray Kahlins shows up and to request Diane's help on a federally funded investigation into the murder of a young girl by a drug gang. Diane and Bobby quickly learn Kahlins is less interested in solving that case than dragging it out to earn a lot of overtime pay. When Bobby learns Hollie has HIV, he is sad, but Hollie says he'll carry the weight, then does Bobby a favor by providing data that leads to the murder's closure. Fancy agrees to overlook Hollie's activities in exchange for his cooperation with Kahlins's drug unit. After finding drugs on Hollie's information Kahlins gives up Hollie's identity to one of the gangs and isn't sorry given Hollie's criminal activities. Andy gets angry later when Kahlins is lying that he was Andy's brother in arms during the Vietnam War, and tells Kahlins to tell all the lies he wants about everything but not about Vietnam. Andy and Bobby then get word that Hollie robbed the Colombians, who refuse to cooperate with police, but then hear he was shot twice. Bobby arrives to find out Hollie recognized the shooters as the gang members, tells Bobby he hasn't left any bodies on the streets, and dies. Upset over Hollie's death, Bobby goes back to the bar Kahlins is at and beats the hell out of him. In the B story, Greg and James investigate the murder of a "white magic" priest and find out he was killed by an ex-convict who lost his mind when an "invisibility potion" the priest concocted for him failed to work as advertised.

Notes

• Danny Trejo appears in this episode.
• Giancarlo Esposito guest stars as Ferdinand Hollie.
• Daniel Von Bargen guest stars as Sgt. Ray Kahlins.

Andy and Bobby go to the hospital to investigate a bar robbery where a man intervened to prevent the robbers from raping a waitress and got shot. To their horror, the man who was shot and killed was Andy Sipowicz Jr. Andy can barely contain his shock, and Bobby resolves to work the case around the clock until they catch Andy Jr.'s killers. But Andy tells Bobby he wants the men who murdered his son dead, and Bobby is unable to respond before Andy races out of the 15th. He tells Sylvia and his ex-wife Katie the horrible news and they both collapse in tears. Bobby works the case with Diane and after the murder weapon is found near a construction site, he orders her to not come with him as he busts into a trailer two vagrants are living in, but ends up pistol-whipping one of the men after a gun was brandished. Diane rips into Bobby for his actions and he tells her what Andy said. They resume working well together and find out the vagrants were not involved in Andy Jr.'s murder. Andy makes funeral preparations and continues blaming himself for his son's death, saying Andy Jr. stepped into that situation without a gun and asking "What did I teach this kid?" Andy confronts Bobby and Diane and is furious when he learns that there are no suspects. Andy leaves Sylvia alone at home with their newborn son and goes to bar where he ends his long period of sobriety. In other sad news, Donna decides to leave the NYPD and take a job with Apple. Greg is clearly hurt but keeps his feelings to himself as the woman he loved walks out the 15th forever.

Note:

• Last appearance of Gail O'Graidy as Donna Abandando.

Andy has continued on a drunken bender after his son's murder, to the point where an angry Sylvia throws him out of their apartment. His behavior on the job is just as abysmal; during an interview with an admittedly hostile and unpleasant woman, Andy falls asleep and the woman chucks a soda can at him, leading to Andy nearly attacking her before Diane defuses the situation. Fancy hears about it and orders Andy to take lost time, saying he doesn't want to end Andy's career but will if he comes back a wreck again; when Andy insults the Lt., Fancy says "You're embarrassing the Job--and you're embarrassing your son's memory." Andy storms out of the 15th with unkind words for Bobby. However, Bobby and James get a break when a prostitute comes in with a story that might be useful. Bobby tells her to either give the whole facts or face a beating, and she pulls out a police badge that two creeps left at her place: it's a Hackensack PD shield, which matches Andy Jr.'s. She arranges a meeting to return the badge, but the creeps are about to beat up a passerby when Bobby walks up to them in the street. They both pull guns on him and Bobby shoots them both to death. Andy is getting tanked at a bar when he sees the news on TV, and he calls in to the 15th to confirm details. Afterwards, he spots a group of teens hanging out on a street corner and drunkenly orders them to get out, under the delusion that Andy Jr. is with him. They beat him up and take his gun. At the hospital, Bobby learns the doctor there kept Andy's identity a secret, but Bobby knows if news of the gun gets out his partner's career is over. Bobby has tough words for Andy's behavior and asks in anguish "Do you want people to HELP you, Andy?" Andy says yes, and Bobby gets to work. Officer Shannon knows the teens who beat up Andy and helps Bobby bring in their leader. When Fancy asks what's going on, Bobby tells him, and Fancy talks to the leader and brokers a deal where he gets the gun back and the kid walks. Fancy then talks to a badly beaten, sober, and sorrowful Andy and asks him what he wants to do. Andy says, sadly but clearly, that he now knows his son is dead and he wants to regain his job so he can do good again. Fancy gives him back his gun. Andy later thanks Bobby, noting he gave Bobby nothing but grief and his partner still stood up for him. He then goes home and tells Sylvia he wants to be with his family, and she says that she and their son want him back as he steps into the apartment.

Note

• Future King of Queens star Leah Remini appears as an angry suspect who throws a soda can at a half-drunk Sipowicz during an interrogation. Remini and Sharon Lawrence appeared together on the sitcom Fired Up.

Andy begins his comeback on the job by teaming with Bobby and Diane to investigate a double-homicide at an auto repair store. The cops figure out the perpetrator is a veteran convict facing life without parole, but his good-citizen brother refuses to rat on his sibling. After Andy tells the convict the story of Andy Jr., he convinces the good brother to tell the truth. James, Greg and Adrienne Lesniak catch the case of two murdered junkies. They figure out that another junkie killed them, and the hard part is telling the truth about this to one of the victim's estranged husband, who still loved his wife and is devastated by her death. The new PAA is transferred out by Fancy because she's not competent, Greg finds a nice apartment he can afford, PAA John Irvin leaves the department to start his own business, Bobby and Diane decide to take some vacation time together, and Andy prays for the first time in a very long time during his son Theo's Greek Orthodox birthing ceremony.

Notes

• Last appearance of Justine Miceli as Adrienne Lesniak.
• Casey Siemaszko appears as Jim Bauerline. He would later appear as the squad's internal affairs nemesis, Captain Pat Fraker.
• This episode marked the last appearance on the show for Justine Miceli's character, Adrienne Lesniak.
• Neal McDonough appears as Jerry Selness
• This episode sets up the short-lived spin-off series Public Morals.