Subterranean Homeboy Blues (Season 1, Episode 2)
Premise: A young white woman opens fire on two Black teenagers on a packed subway train, and the city argues over whether she is a victim or a vigilante.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 2
- Detectives
- Sgt. Max Greevey (George Dzundza), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Cynthia Nixon as Laura Di Biasi, Lorraine Toussaint as Shambala Green, Akili Prince as Darnell Chenault, Dwayne McClary as Michael Jones
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by Bernhard Goetz’s 1984 New York subway shooting, with the shooter recast as a woman.
- Director
- E. W. Swackhamer
- Writers
- Robert Palm
Summary
The Investigation
In “Subterranean Homeboy Blues,” Laura Di Biasi pulls a handgun on a crowded train and shoots two young men, Darnell Chenault and Michael Jones. Witnesses can’t agree on how the pair threatened her, and the tabloids turn the unidentified shooter into a folk hero. Greevey and Logan track her down, and she admits firing, saying she felt she was in danger.
Laura’s history complicates the picture: a violent attack on the subway years earlier ended her career as a dancer. One of the men dies and the other is left paralyzed. The detectives split on the case, with Logan more sympathetic to Laura and Greevey insisting the law can’t pick sides. Stone charges her with murder rather than let the shooting look like permission for armed commuters, and evidence that she had been preparing for another confrontation, including a letter to a newspaper and books on weapons and combat, pushes him toward a revenge theory.
The Trial
Laura reaches out to Paul Robinette, hoping for support, but he keeps his distance from the racially charged case. Her public defender, Shambala Green, argues that a woman with Laura’s past had every reason to fear for her life, and the DA’s office itself is divided on whether to proceed. Stone counters that the evidence shows anger and a wish for payback, not panic, and that a verdict excusing her would tell every armed rider that the subway belongs to whoever shoots first.
Stone’s theory weakens when the dead man turns out to be Michael Mosket, who has a violent record under that real name, and new information suggests the two men had attacked someone before. Stone has to decide whether a murder prosecution is still the right course.
Spoiler, the ending: Stone drops the murder charge. Laura pleads guilty to illegal gun possession and reckless endangerment and receives a suspended sentence with probation and community service, leaving the prosecutors unsure whether the outcome was just.
Why it stands out
- Cynthia Nixon plays Laura Di Biasi, years before Sex and the City.
- It is the first appearance of public defender Shambala Green, who returns in later seasons.
- The case mirrors the Goetz shooting while flipping the shooter’s gender, which reshapes the self-defense debate.