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Monday 18 June 2012

CSI: Miami - 8.20: "Backfire" Review


Ryan and Calleigh are caught in another housefire and Calleigh succumbs to smoke inhalation, exacerbated by her previous condition. Then returns in ghost-like form and attire.

Calleigh (Emily Procter) and Ryan (Jonathan Togo) are involved in another housefire and she runs inside to save a boy she sees.   Ryans tell the officer to stay out, "We don't need anymore heroes."  She finds a boy upstairs, barely alive, so how come Calleigh was the only one to see him at this point when there was nothing wrong with her, since he's too far gone to be saved, it means she had to have seen his spirit calling for help.   But she's not in the hospital yet and hasn't succumbed to her symptoms.   She and the officer fall though the floor upstairs, when Ryan carries the boy out.   Calleigh is overcome by smoke.   Horatio (David Caruso) tries to save the officer, Leah (Megan Markle) whilst the boy reaches out exclaiming he's not dead.   Ryan notices his burnt hands and thinks he may have started the fire.   Ryan lets the EMTs know Calleigh's had respiratory problems before.   Ryan says it could be an accident, or adds Horatio, murder.

Tripp (Rex Linn) questions the boy, Patrick's (Robert Bailey Jr) grandfather, Henry Dawson (John Beasley) who believes Patrick to be at school and he wouldn't set the fire.   No that's cos Henry suspiciously looked guilty himself and that was a giveaway.   ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) finds Patrick had 70% carbon monoxide fumes in his blood, making COD asphyxiation.   Also he has third degree burns and a chemical smell on him.   Ryan: "...find it in your heart to give me a sample."  Was Ryan grovelling after the last episode, where he was so rude to ME Tom by hanging up on him.   Calleigh walks in behind Ryan saying she's okay for work, but Ryan can't see or hear here, though it looks like he may be ignoring her.   Thus she's not really there.   Ryan: "Calleigh, Calleigh, Calleigh, you always gotta be you."  She couldn't have saved Patrick.

Calleigh proceeds to peer through the microscope and identify an oil-based solvent.   Ryan calls Jesse (Eddie Cibrian) to find the painter.   Patrick had turpentine on his hands.   Walter (Omar Miller) describes that as an accelerant.   Walter suggests they find the area with the deepest charring, which will locate the point of origin.   Ryan uses the mini-ray to find heavy concentration of turpentine.   Walter feels a draft which the others don't.   Jesse thinks Walter doesn't want to be in the house as he's watching too many Rob Zombie movies.   Good to see Jesse knowing lots about Walter in their burgeoning, short-lived friendship! Patrick protests his innocence but no one can hear him.   Jesse notices the house had sprinklers but they weren't on during the fire.   Walter spots the absence of insulation in the house - turning the house into a killer.

Horatio questions the contractor, he let the fire burn and he didn't get round to the insulation as Henry wanted to save money.   Horatio arrests him.   Cue Calleigh in a white suit which she doesn't normally wear, and seems to be surrounded by a glowing light, akin to a halo, someone overdid the lighting!  Cos we know she's really not there, not her colour for starters, she doesn't wear all white, at least not for many seasons.   In the UK, there was a show from the '60's called Randall and Hopkirk, Deceased, about private investigators and Hopkirk was killed, subsequently returning as a ghost dressed in a white suit.   Only Randall could see him.  Calleigh is at the CS.   She notices an oily substance in the burn, finding a second point of origin.   Calleigh can hear Patrick as she's in a coma.   Patrick's hanging around until he clears his name and asks if she would believe him if he was dead.   Calleigh gets angry, she's never seen a ...ghost?

Tripp questions Henry's neighbour, Stephanie (Robin Bartlett) who set their lawn on fire, but claims she's not a criminal.  .   She wasa infuriated with the workers making noise at 6am.   Horatio believes she's hiding something, which she was.   Walter finds a second point of origin in the house, just like Calleigh, wax paper on the wall, which is combustible.   Jesse finds the box of wax paper in the kitchen.   Henry chews tobacco, another clue.   He denies setting the fire.   Tripp informs him Patrick has missed school on several occasions this past month.   Patrick wanted to work on the House.   Jesse believes the fire could have been set for Henry.   Patrick says the fire began in the hall.

Jesse talks with Natalia (Eva Larue) and Calleigh gets into the lift with them, but they still don't see her.   They visit Calleigh in the hospital.   Delko (Adam Rodriguez) comments she's worse than he thought.   Patrick adds no one can hear her.  Calleigh asks if she's dying.   Only she and Patrick are able to see each other.   Jesse tells Walter that Calleigh is holding on.   Horatio isn't convinced Patrick set the fire intentionally.   He could have been cleaning brushes.   Jesse says if so, then the fire was an accident.   Walter feels the draft again.   Jesse: "feather's not gonna scare away a ghost." Since we were having a surreal CSI:Miami moment this episode, it would have been good if Walter could have seen a ghost, okay that sounds far fetched, but at least we could have been led to believe the draft he was feeling was Patrick leading them to the DB body, but then he didn't know about it.   The feather floats away in the draft and Walter says the wall hasn't been sealed properly.   A DB falls from inside.   Jesse thinks the fire damage masked the smell and they wonder when he died.

ME Tom identifies Ralph (Chris Dollard) as a plumber.  Horatio surmises he died before the fire.   He has burn marks on his knees from electrocution (here's another reference to electrocution in a CSI:Miami episode.   Second one this season too.) Horatio: "Maybe that floor was hot."  Jesse finds exposed wire in the kitchen and water would have been needed to conduct electricity.   Jesse having to explain that again as in the season's earlier episode, Bolt Action.   Ryan finds evidence of water damage and Jesse checks the fuse box which contains a penny inside from Key West.   Pointing to the Stephanie.   What a silly neighbour, putting it mildly, she was a danger to everyone.   She admits the penny is hers.   Ryan tells her she's admitting to murder.   She "treated him in kind."  She had to stop the noise and freely admits to murder like she's proud to have committed it.   She'll sleep like a baby in prison - not.

Ryan tests the sprinklers and gets himself wet in the process.   Calleigh watches and says he's on the right trail and counts steps to the lawn.   She needs to let them know what she's discovered and at this point she goes into defib, just as a way of getting through to them, or so we're expected to believe.   The doctor (Scott Alan Smith) explains the smoke aggravated her pre-existing lung disease.   She writes a message for Horatio, who claims it makes perfect sense as she was first on the scene and probably saw something.   Land surveyors measure distance.

 In Miami, the water line is buried at 36.   Digging up the garden, there's a towel on the water pipe.   Horatio thinks the water was turned off and the carbon dioxide solidified turning into dry ice, this froze the pipe and stopped the water from flowing.   Tobacco stains are seen on the towel, proving  Henry set the fire.   Well, something always gives them away.   Jesse tells him he'd have let Patrick take the blame for him.   Henry did it for a better life, for the insurance, but crime doesn't pay.   He sees Patrick briefly.  Calleigh felt like she knew Patrick.   Horatio doesn't put his shades on which was good, almost as a mark of respect for Patrick.

Oh wow, Miami's foray into ghostly territory, was going to type ghastly, never mind.   What with kooky neighbours, hyped up on adrenalin and not caring about the cost of human life, she killed for some sleep.   Henry killed for money, though it wasn't intentional on his part, he'll have to live with the death of his own grandson on his conscience forever.  Then Walter and his drafts, Calleigh as a would-be 'ghost' and Patrick as a ghost and it wasn't even Hallowe'en.

CSI:Miami also likes its fire episodes, such as Alexx (Khandi Alexander) and Delko getting caught twice in fire, once in the Everglades in Slow Burn, a good episode with Joe Flanigan.   Then this was Ryan and Calleigh's second encounter with a fire.   In the previous episode, Smoke Gets in your CSIs (from season 7.14) Calleigh refused to get medical help, choosing to chew gum instead, which had a toll on her health.

Ryan here wasn't as obnoxious as they've made him out to be in some episodes, but he didn't visit Calleigh in hospital though and neither did Walter, which was a shame, since Walter asked Jesse how she was doing and Ryan was with her in the beginning.  Most of the CSIs were making prejudgements this episode, with plenty of suppositions, before the evidence was in, but Ryan kept on with his one theory about Patrick being responsible for the fire, just like in the previous episode, he was sure the DB on the beach was an accident, or a prank gone wrong.  Lots of questions to answer though, was it an accident, deliberate, was it murder, did Patrick do it.   No wonder the poor boy had to express his innocence, even as a ghost.   Calleigh was the one who provided the clue, the nail in the coffin, oh that was in poor taste, never mind.

The thing I didn't like about this episode was that just as in the season 8 opener, Delko, in his hospital bed was looking back at how it all started, how the team got together; there were lots of events he wouldn't have known have taken place, in the same way here, Calleigh kept cropping up during their investigation, when there's no way, logically, she could have done that.  

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