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Tuesday 29 May 2012

CSI: NY - 1.10: "Night, Mother" Review

A woman is caught with her hands inside another woman's body and is suspected of her murder. Mac seems to think she may be innocent and needs to prove this. Danny and Aiden look into pickpocketing.

In story 1, a night basketball game leads to the discovery of a woman performing a heart massage on another.   Flack (Eddie Cahill) deems it an open and shut case.   The Vic was Rachel Camden, ( Ranjani Brow) married and divorced.   Flack says the suspect was covered in blood and the murder weapon was found next to her.   Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) says the Vic died instantly.   Mac (Gary Sinise) comments on it being a "crime of passion between two apparent strangers."  She looks at Mac.  Stella processes her for trace, talk about giving her the rough treatment.   She drinks water and Stella takes the glass.

In story 2, the DB of an unidentified man is found.   Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) notices the presence of blood spatter.   Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) notices his pockets have been turned inside out and he doesn't have a wallet or keys.    Hawkes (Hill Harper) removes his clothes (no not his own clothes!) and finds fibres on his socks and money in his undies.   COD was blunt force trauma and he had collapsed nasal bones, showing he was beaten with great force.   Danny thinks it's brutal for a robbery.     The Vic wore contacts, implanted for people with serious astigmatism.   There were clinical trials in the US.   Aiden looks at his lens to find a name.   Danny processes the money.

Hawkes posits the Vic in the first story was killed using a wooden stake, akin to a "crude knife," penetrating her heart.   There's some sort of resin in her hair.   Mac takes a lock of hair and a sexual assault kit is done.   Rachel's husband, Todd (Corin Nemec) is questioned and he doesn't know the suspect, named Ophelia (Heather Kafka).    Stella process the evidence and discovers cardiac muscle tissue taken from Ophelia's hands.   The prints on the stake belong to her.   Mac checks the surveillance footage and Flack believes Ophelia killed Rachel.   Mac: "What's your rush to put this woman away?"  Flack: "You saw her, what's your rush not to?" They make Flack appear eager to get the job done here, without waiting until the evidence is in, but Mac appears unduly sympathetic.   They usually only do that with Mac when he's sure the suspect is innocent, otherwise more times then not, he sometimes is quick to rush to judgement, just like Stella.

Mac replies to this, "In all my years of doing this, there's one thing I've learned - sometimes, the slam dunks are the most deceiving."  The video shows Rachel and Ophelia, Mac wonders why a stranger would stab her and then try to grab her heart.    Again he asks why?  She doesn't recall the injury on her shins and Ophelia disposing a corpse is a misdemeanour in NYC.   Mac tells her she wasn't disposing but tampering with evidence, which is a Class E felony.   She's a paralegal and hasn't met Rachel.  Ophelia is sorry for keeping Mac up so late.   Mac: "You're not keeping me up."  As we know Mac doesn't sleep.   Stella's got a bit of a sloppy lab technique.   The residue from the water Ophelia drank shows nicotine.   There's nothing at the scene to show what made the shin injuries.

At her apartment, Mac believes she lived in fear.   She was trying to stay in and her door opens into the hallway.   Which is nothing new really, since most US doors open outwards.   There's a child's book with an inscription to Chris.   Stella tells Mac that according to Flack, she didn't have anyone.   He was right, as we'll see at the end, she didn't have anyone.   Stella trying to imply Flack can't do his job!  Sorry love that's you.   There's a step ladder near her bed and blood, so she hit the ladder when she woke up.   Ophelia is a sleepwalker.

Doctor Rydell (Scott Valentine) diagnoses her as a parasomniac, stuck between stages 3 and 4 of sleep; caused by trauma, depression.   Stella brings out the big books again with her comment, "the unconscious mind overrides the conscience self."  Stage 4 is partial arousal where Ophelia wakes up and hits her legs over and over in a stabbing motion.   Mac tests out the splinter pattern on a pig by stabbing at it.   Dr Giles (Grant Albrecht) says, "thy science is after all sadness."  Mac knows that's Thomas Hardy and asks for some help.   Well, a hand, literally.   The murderer was pushing against the grain of the wood.   The splinter pattern is different and these will be shown on the killer's hands.

Danny processes the money and finds fingerprints.   Sequential Aussie bills.   Aiden finds the lens trial was at NYU and the prints Danny found match Ryan Mallone (Nicholas Pratley).   He changed money at JFK.   He hasn't seen the DB and the name on the lens matches Lenny Cook (Craig Baxley Jnr).   At the apartment they find mannequins with bells, which Danny explains to Aiden are practise dummies for pickpockets to perfect their 'trade.'  Danny tells Aiden to try it and then comments, "you're such a girl." Danny finds money under a torn carpet and blood.   Which could be ketchup stains as Danny recalls from his time at the 63 Precinct.   Also found is an NYC train pass.   One of the stains isn't ketchup but blood.

The sexual assault kit shows a condom was used recently and there's resin in Rachel's hair,  identified as architect's glue.  Stella thinks her hair was brushed up when that happened as there's evidence of "motion and  and direction."    Various hair wigs are pulled with resin.   She had waves in her hair, thus she had implants in her hair and it was pulled.   Todd admits they fought and he suspected her of having an affair.   She didn't use birth control.   Mac believes Ophelia isn't the killer.   Stella: "You're never going to get any sleep in this lifetime."  Mac: "Not when there are questions keeping me up at night."  Ophelia noticed bruises on her body and she was putting on weight.   She put up barricades for herself but got around them.   She doesn't recall being outside.   Mac explains she subconsciously knew Rachel was dead, shown by her use of the word 'corpse'.

On the video, shadows are seen and Ophelia saw the killer but didn't realize.   Mac uses a spoon as the cornea is roughly shaped like that.   If she's in his blindspot it will reflect off.   Stella likens it to corneal imaging.   Magnify and reverse the image to show a T shirt and someone carrying a basketball under one arm.   The player who saw Ophelia, Jason (Bradley Stryker) is arrested and his bag is swabbed for blood.

Danny suggests the killer got on the train and then they work backwards, staking out a train stop where a suspect carries a fake baby.   Danny: "Don't take them down until they snatch the wallet."  Flack: "You telling me how to do my job now."  Yeah the cheek of it Danny! ha.   Her partner picks a man's pocket.   Eduardo asks 'who?'  Flack: with a rye comment, "He's an owl now." Eduardo has blood on his knuckles.   Mallone met the Vic and he scratches his wrist.   Danny: "Something's keeping me in suspense, you know there's something going on and and I can't figure it out."  Mallone scratches his wrist and Danny notices fibres are caught in his watch strap.   Some are left on the table and Danny analyzes them.   Aiden finds the fibres under Eduardo's nails are microscopically similar to brown paper.   GCMS shows green dye in the fibres.   Analyze clothes from Malone's apartment and Danny thinks he may have taken his pants to the cleaners, finding a dime in the fold of the leg.

Stella finds Jason had a splinter in his hand and a condom in his wallet so he had sex with Rachel.   He grabbed her from behind, she wanted to call it off and he stabbed her with the stake.

Danny finds the dime from the cuff of the pants has blood, which matches Lenny.   Mallone took all the money from under the carpet and was allergic to the jute under the carpet.   Lenny was skimming so Mallone was set as a mark and Eduardo beat him up.   Mac looks over the New York News Archives and finds out about Chris who was killed in a car accident.   Ophelia was mimicking the actions in her attempt to save her son, when she was trying to save Rachel.   She tells him his eyes were like Mac's.   Ophelia watched the surgeon in the ER when he tried to save Chris's life, he held his heart in his hand and that's what she was doing with Rachel.

More mention is made of Mac and his lack of sleep, which we get plenty of references to over the seasons.   In contrast to Ophelia and her irregular sleeping patterns.   Danny takes lead on another case with Aiden, it's so great watching these two work together and how they click with each other.   Stella on the other hand, is still attempting to be as clever as ever.   Also being heavy handed when processing Ophelia and convicting her even before all the evidence is in.   A bit like Flack, but then he's not the forensics guy and she should know better.

CSI episode I-15 Murders where a glass chard is found in the cuff of a suspect's pants, as the dime was found here.   Nick found some peanut dust in the cuff of some pants in Evaluation Day.   CSI season 2 episode Cool Change, fibres are found on a watch  and CSI:Miami season 7 episode Headcase, a suspect claiming amnesia was sent to an FBI facility to be tested.   Ophelia was tested here for sleep disorder.

1 comment:

Melinda said...

I always remember this one for the guest star, Corin Nemec, having been in The Stand with Gary.