 " A Many Splendored Thing " is the second season finale of the American police drama television series Homicide : Life on the Street , and the thirteenth overall episode of the series . It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 27 , 1994 . In the episode , Pembleton and Bayliss investigate the S & M @-@ related murder of a young woman , which forces an uncomfortable Bayliss to confront his darker side . Meanwhile , Lewis is disturbed when a man commits murder over a $ 1 @.@ 49 pen , and a despairing Munch crashes Bolander 's date and ruins it by venting his own romantic woes . 
