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Wednesday 11 July 2012

CSI: NY - 7.6: "Do Not Pass Go" Review


Several calls to the parents of a missing teen, lead to the discovery of a decomposing DB on a rooftop. Ultimately leading to a woman out for revenge for the killing of her fiance.

A couple at an abandoned building are given directions on where to find their son.   The wife, Elizabeth Harris (Helen Slater) tells her husband, Charles (Thomas Calabro) to do exactly what the man said to find their son, and to put his hands on the railings.   I knew that was to cover over any prints or evidence that may have been left behind.   They find a decomposing DB in the car on the rooftop, which they believe to be their son, Jeremy (Zachery Spicer).   Sid's (Robert Joy) out of the morgue again, in another difficult retrieval of the DB.   He says the COD could be anything from a few days to a few months.   Shouldn't he have said TOD? Hawkes (Hill Harper) believes due to the weather, the humidity, etc, this will prove difficult.

Jo (Sela Ward) has to cover her nose due to the putrid smell given off by the DB.   Mac (Gary Sinise) comments on it being "a perfect place to commit a murder."  Lindsay (Anna Belknap) is on the scene again with Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) getting to be too much of an occurrence.    She finds partial prints on the door handle.   Danny finds the rooftop is clean and will now have to check the stairwell, he can manage 738 stairs.   Lindsay asks if he can imagine finding his child like that.   What a question to ask from her, imagine asking that to begin with, let alone thinking about it, which is exactly what Danny doesn't want to do.   Especially since it's not the first time they've come across such a scene.  

Flack (Eddie Cahill) tells them the parents made the call, they were looking for their son.   The building is deserted.   The original owner was was a drag racing and boy toys fanatic.   An anonymous voicemail told them where to look.   Mac dreamed of owning an old car too, but adds finding a DB in one, "wasn't an option."  Yeah that's really funny! I say sarcastically.   Elizabeth said Jeremy's been missing 7 days, they offered a reward and got several calls.   Charles tells of the instructions they received and Elizabeth wanted to follow them.   Sid lets Hawkes have the tails of the DB and have to remove it "band aid method."  I.e a short.  sharp pull.

Hawkes comments on the level of decomposition being too much and so Sid suggests they need to examine the bone marrow, for DNA purposes.   He finds a tattoo on the DB.   Mac notices a girl in the lab and follows her when she wanders off.   She's Ellie (Sydney Park) Jo's daughter.   She doesn't like it here and wants to go back to Virginia.   Jo calls themselves the three musketeers, along with her brother, Tyler.  So when do we get to see the fourth musketeer, Jo's ex (David James Elliott) ha!

Adam (AJ Buckley) analyzes the voicemail and Mac hits him on the shoulder to ask him what he's found.   The call was made from a pre-paid phone and the Sim card is no longer active.   They trace the steps of the caller as the Harris's were told to do.   Mac asks why they had to go through so many obstacles.

Sid shows Jo the findings, such as the tattoo which he enhanced to find a leprechaun with a basketball.   Jo thinks it's a version of the Boston Celtics mascot.  Lindsay struts in, with basically nothing again, but looking so pleased about it too, in that the partial prints on the door handle of the car belong to the Harris's.   Jo says there's a second Vic and it's not Jeremy.

Danny identifies the DB as Craig Anderson (Paul James).   Hawkes adds they were studying at NYU.   Mac needs to find the connection between the two.   Hawkes comments on there being no trauma on the DB, no strangulation, no clothes were torn.   So the COD must be poison, but the Tox screen was negative so the poison must be rare and exotic.   Mac believes the crime to be personal and asks why the Harris's found the DB?

It was nice the way they showed Flack walking past the window, when Jo was talking with the Harris's and then had to talk with Craig's mother, Mrs Anderson (Stephanie Venditto).   Flack's been so sympathetic of late - which is great to see lots of character development on his part and though he's dealt with Vic's relatives before, due to his own personal trauma, he knows how to relate to them just that little bit more and exactly what to say.   Plus Eddie gets to show a different side to his character in Flack.  He tells Craig's mother that Children aren't meant to die and there's no right way to act.  

Flack recalls his own first words were "cookie and cake."  His mother said that finding his killer won't bring Craig back, which is true but it will give her some sort of closure and justice at the same time.   Flack advises her against seeing Craig as it's "not how you wanna remember him - don't - not where it counts."  You don't say goodbye where it counts is what he said.   Where it really matters, in your heart.   Ah, don't you just wanna hug Flack/Eddie!

Charles wants to see Flack and tells him they had another voicemail, giving him the address of where Elizabeth went alone.   Mac tells Jo it's the transportation building.   Flack adds it's where "tired old street signs go to die."  Jo sees smoke and tells them they're on the wrong floor.   Lindsay wasn't there with them now, but of course had to arrive later to gather evidence.   SO who's looking after Lucy?  Danny no doubt.

Jo and Mac listen to the second voicemail.   Elizabeth was told to set fire to the place.   Mac says all of their instructions were to destroy evidence, which is what I said at the beginning.   Jo recognizes the service apron as she once worked in a burlesque bar, as she tells Mac when she was an undergrad.   Mac asks as a bartender, she didn't say that.   Wouldn't Mac have recognized the apron anyway, considering the number of bars, pubs etc they've been to, personally and professionally.   So what was the big deal, just to give Jo a chance to be mysterious with Mac.   Well it peaked his curiosity.

Hawkes analyzes the remains of the burned snakes.   Jo lets Mac know she was a weekend accountant for the burlesque club.  Lindsay finds the blood on the apron didn't belong to Craig or Jeremy.   Jo comments the mutation in the DNA is uncommon and the blood belonged to Ryan,a bouncer,  he was shot and killed in an unsolved homicide.

Mac just can't stop being so abrupt towards Adam who finds the Sim card was used once and the voicemail was left from a second phone.   The phones were bought at the same time.   The third phone number is traced to a bar which Lindsay recalls was where Ryan worked..   Mac hopes Flack and Jo "are thirsty."  Surprised Lindsay didn't go there either.   The number of appearances she's been making in the episodes, Danny has just been relegated to the sidelines this season, in particular.  

Jo tells Flack she can think of a less intrusive method of finding who has the phone, by calling it.   Which kind of defeated the purpose, since when they realized it was the bartender, they stood around watching him for ages.   Yeah, always the way so we can have a Flack chase (minus Danny)!  Well at least we got one with Flack!  Great slide under the truck, even if it was a stuntman.   Flack's not done that before.   Jo makes the bartender run into a dumpster.   Then a HI-Five between Flack and Jo.  Something no one else would've done, not Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) or Lindsay or Mac, even.   He ignores Adam when he wanted to 'hi five' mac in a similar way.

The bartender, Reuben (Chad Todhunter) denies killing anyone.   A friend wanted him to make the call.   Mac shows him the evidence bag with the bloodied apron inside and then with his torch in hand, he notices a UV Riker's stamp on the back of his hand.   Jo believes he's telling the truth, he can tell them who did it.   Flack says she "should've put him under the dumpster."
Mac comments he's "just visiting jail."  Hence the title of the episode, Do Not Pass Go from the boardgame Monopoly.

Danny discovers Reuben was visiting with a female inmate, Allison Scott (Maite Schwartz) she was engaged to the Ryan.   Mac believes they've found the motive for the murder.   Two college guys were thrown out by Ryan and he was later shot in the back.   The blood on the apron was from him as Allison couldn't let go of him.   Hawkes comments Jeremy and Craig had weak alibis but they didn't shoot him.   The neurotoxin from the snake venom caused paralysis.   Danny states they were trapped inside their bodies and couldn't move or talk.  

Jo tells Allison she lured them there and poisoned them.   She tells Allison it was a tragedy that Ryan died and if that happened to her family, Jo would hunt them down so they could feel her pain.   She couldn't live with herself if she killed the wrong person.   Allison didn't have enough to ID the shooter.   She couldn't be sure who it was.   Jo asks where Jeremy is so his parents can have closure just like she did with Ryan.   But Allison's closure turned to hate and vengeance.   She didn't show any remorse or even flinch at the possibility of having killed two innocent people.   Such was her grief, she didn't grieve though, all she saw was hate and assumed they had killed Ryan.   Coincidentally she was arrested right about now for drugs.

Jeremy is found still alive and Flack asks Mac how he survived.   Mac coming up with a scientific explanation that he had slow metabolism of the poison.   If he's asking for his personal opinion, then science had nothing to do with it.   In other words, it was God's work and probably a miracle.   In earlier seasons, it was mentioned Mac used to go to church.   Now it's not said as much but the implication was this is what he believed, that it wasn't a science explanation that saved Jeremy, but a religious one.

Flack: "It's too bad they all can't have a happy ending."  No CSI cases hardly ever do, aside from the criminal being caught.

Jo tells Mac she adopted Ellie as it was love at first sight.   her mother was arrested for a double murder and Ellie would have wound up in the system.   Mac doesn't join them as he's "already had heaven on a bun for lunch."  Jo bonds with Ellie and the comparison is that she's as devoted to her family as the Harris's were and especially Elizabeth.   In not giving up but doing everything for her son.

A serious and sad episode, with some funny moments too.   Jo bonding with Ellie and showing what a great mom she is.   Also bonding with Mac, to the point where he reads Jo's file just to see who Ellie is.   Also bags of character stuff for Flack, since in the past, he's mostly shown dealing with suspects, harshly, mockingly.   Though he was one of my faves from season 1 and onwards, it's good to see him evolve and he just gets better and better and more comfortable in his role as seasons pass.   He hasn't been stagnant and used only as an ancillary character to the others, or as a foil for Mac, on past occasions.   Pity Danny isn't given the chance to shine, now that Lindsay's on his case 24/7.

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