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Wednesday 28 November 2012

CSI: NY 7.18 "Identity Crisis" Review


                                                              
A man is killed on the subway platform and is revealed as a woman. Jo has problems with Ellie as she wants to visit her biological mother and my fave David James Elliott drops by again!

A man gets onto the subway train at the last moment.   Ellie (Sydney Park) gives up her seat to him.   It was apparent it wasn't really a man since he had effeminate features!  Another man gets up and questions what's in the cigar box and asks if he remembers him, cos he knows him.   They get off at the next stop where a struggle ensues and the old man is killed.   Flack (Eddie Cahill) bets Mac (Gary Sinise) coffee that this'll be the best CS he'll have for the entire week.   Hawkes (Hill Harper) gives Flack the pleasure of asking Mac what his age is.   Hawkes answers in his 30's and he's actually a she.   Flack prefers his coffee, black with no sugar.   Mac should know how he has his coffee by now, mustn't he.   Oops, may be my bad, they usually meet for drinks not coffee, ha.   There's no ID on the Vic, of course there wouldn't be.   Flack adds no one knew he was a woman and a single gunshot  was heard.   Hawkes finds the GS was close contact but there's no trace of GSR.   Mac concludes a gun wasn't the murder weapon.

Ellie describes what happened and the two knew each other, the younger man smelt of fish (clue) and put his hand on the window.   She heard the sound of a silencer.   Surprised Lindsay (Anna Belknap) didn't question Ellie instead of Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) she was doing everything else, practically, should've just let her solve the entire case in the episode.   Jo (Sela Ward) is more interested in why Ellie isn't at school.   The cigar box had newspaper bound together like notes (bills).   Ellie was on her way to see her mother.

Sid (Robert Joy) thinks of cryogenics when he notices the wound and surrounding tissue is frozen.  COD was exsanguination, no GSR was present (which Hawkes already said) and there was no bullet and the wound wasn't a through and through.  The Vic was melting on the table and in all his years as an ME, he's never seen any weapon like it.   Adam (AJ Buckley) processes the Vic's jumper.   Danny doesn't find a match to the palm print on AFIS and the mask wasn't a costume mask.  Adam says the newspaper clippings were the same shape and size of money, that was obvious.   Danny believes she was in disguise as an older person isn't so threatening.   Lindsay believes she could have been an actress on her way to an audition and pigs fly!  Adam and Danny laugh out loud at Lindsay's older appearance with Adam's manipulation using age progression software.   Lindsay adds he'll be married to her.   When Mac walks in Adam acts very innocent saying Danny and Lindsay were "goofing around."  He wouldn't believe that since in his eyes it's only Adam who does the goofing around.  

                                            

Adam found a rust-like substance.   Danny tells him he needs a chemical distinction.   Danny's print hit a dead-end and Lindsay has to use that phrase too, not being able to think for herself.   She has to tell Mac everything about their results not amounting to anything, but hers, smugly, did.   Then adds the Vic was up to something, excuse me, but Danny said that not two minutes ago!  She got a partial print from the cigar box, but she didn't match it to anyone, Russ (David James Elliott) did!  Lindsay admonishes Danny in front of Mac, saying she's his wife, he doesn't have to turn on her like that.   Oh what a script, I could scream, again.   But it's okay for her to joke around at the expense of other people.   Glad Mac was able to see her bickering, and surprised he didn't say anything to put them in their place, like he would have done if that was Adam messing around on his own.   Mac says the mask was custom made, (but they didn't find who made that either) and need to see if there's any trace on the palm print.   Thought that would have been their next step anyway.

The Vic's phone rings, (a plot used before on the show) it's her husband, Harvin (Christopher Jacot).   He calls her Renee.   (Remember the gurneys they used to use in season 1 of the show, when the DB would be brought up on the trolley and the lift would make that eerie squeaking sound.   They don't do that anymore.   Well, also cos they've got a new set.)  She lied to Harvin too.   Flack finds she wasn't Renee either, who has been dead for 12 years.  Hawkes uses Jellomen to determine which weapon could have made the wound.  Cue Lindsay, honestly, she was like Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) in this episode, the way she used to strut about from lab to lab, not doing any of her own work!  Getting others do it for her.   Hawkes was looking for something that fired like a gun but didn't leave any GSR, the closest he comes to is a bolt device, which mimics the wound tract, but the organs were frozen.   High pressure expansion of compressed gas would cause freezing.

Jo needs help from Mac.   She messed up with Ellie.   Her friends told her when people get divorced, they jump into a rebound relationship, or go on vacation, but she adopted a baby.  Jo: "You run a  tough confession."  Good to see her and Mac's burgeoning relationship and how they've really bonded for two people who haven't known each other that long.   Mac's more curious to learn how she messed up.   She painted a pretty picture about Ellie's mother.  Mac advises now is a good time to tell Ellie the truth and she has reinforcements.   Tyler,( Cody Longo) her son and Russ.   Jo: "Oh great, ex husband."  Russ was having lunch with Tyler when Ellie called.   We briefly get to meet Tyler now before he's sent away to take Ellie home.   Russ is worried about Jo and he says he has a little black book listing all the things he adores about her.

Lindsay identifies the prints on the cigar box to a Quincy Willis, took her time about it.   Mac tells her there's an FBI agent right here for help.   She could've asked Flack, I mean he'd have connections too, no she had to sit in with Russ again, what, has she got the hots for him or something!  Russ calls Quincy a master of disguise.   He taught the Vic, his daughter, Sabrina (Laurie Fortier) everything she knew.   Con artists have an addiction.   Newspaper money was Quincy's trademark.  Mac surmises they've been going about it all wrong, instead of concentrating on the old man, they've been going after the Vic as a woman.   Which was obvious since his/her Vics would only know her as a man.   Two of her marks recall the old man.   Lindsay's lame advice to the second mark, he should watch The Sting (1973) from the beginning.  Yeah great advice - not!  Then she acts all smug again when she tells Flack she restrained herself from telling him the con was a woman.   Even Flack had more sympathy for the marks who were taken for so much money, but not her.  Flack believes someone found out she was a woman, thus he solved the case!

Russ tells Jo, Ellie's great and she did a wonderful job raising her.   He's jealous they didn't adopt her together.   So Ellie didn't really know Russ when she was growing up and probably had some contact with him when he'd visit Tyler, so why did Mac think Russ would be able to help out with Ellie.   Cos he knows Jo.   Jo would love to let Russ do the hard part but she has to deal with Ellie on her own.   He kisses Jo goodbye on her forehead.   Aww.   Jo tells Ellie the truth about her mother being in prison.   Jo adopted Ellie because she needed Jo and Jo needed Ellie too.  It wasn't out of pity.

Hawkes identifies the weapon, an HPK knife; the handle expels a freezing ball of compressed gas, which froze the tissue.   It's used by hunters, divers etc and is used for sharks since no blood is expelled.   Adam and Danny identify the trace from the rust which was from sunken ships like the Titanic and was used on German U-boats in World War Two.   Mac recalls a wreck of a U-boat in New Jersey.   So Adam and Danny took thus long to identify vanadium.   Flack and Danny apprehend said suspect, but not before Danny flashes his badge which the suspect sees and fleas.   A cop out scene, no pun, but a chase would've been more interesting, I know it's expected everytime we see them together!

Jayson (Taylor Kinney) tells Mac she took him for $50,00.   He had to borrow and beg to get that kind of money for her cos she lied and was beaten up for it.   She was a bartender and he thought he was in love with her.   She asked him if he wanted to do something risky and planned to rob an old man.   The money was in his cigarbox and it was part of a scam.   He doesn't even remember killing her.  He wants Mac to let his brother know he can't pay him back.   For a brief moment there, thought I saw a moment of compassion from Mac, feeling sorry for him.   How come Sabrina's blonde hair was visible under her disguise, but we didn't get to see it in the opening, that wasn't very clever of her and what are the odds of her actually being on a train where Jayson and Ellie both were on too.

Ellie doesn't want to see her mother anymore, she just wanted to see what she'd look like when she grows up.   Jo thinks Mac would make a great father and he should get married and have a child, or even adopt, doesn't he want to be a grandfather.   He asks if she'll be quiet if he buys her a burger and beer.   She insists he'll still make a good father though.   There's a lot he hasn't trusted her with yet.   Jo and her messy desk, but ordinarily she's so organized.   Jo saying she has a weakness for food, just like Flack.

It's all about Lindsay again and her smug, irksome attitude.   So Adam and Danny were messing around, but she acts if she's the only one doing all the work.   How doe she know she'll still be married to Danny in years to come, he'll probably trade her in for a younger model, excuse the terminology, but the writers on this show behave as if there's no other character they can have in place of her running around from scene to scene.   Then she had to be the one to sit in on the heads up with Russ and the others, why not Hawkes or Danny.

Mac didn't tell Jo about Reed (Kyle Gallner) he is Clare's son, which makes him his step-son, but not even a mere whisper of the boy's existence.   Nor does she seem to know that Mac was married, not helped by the fact he took his wedding ring off a while ago.   Perhaps he's just not comfortable talking about it at the moment.   Danny and Flack in a scene together, long time since that's happened, Danny already flashing his badge to warn off the suspect!  He, Adam and Hawkes did disappear for long moments.   Danny would've been better in that interview scene with the Vic's marks, since he used to work such cases, but no, belittle their experiences by having Lindsay there and then advise him to watch The Sting.

Russ so wants Jo back, it's sweet to see.   He wishes they could have adopted Ellie together, he said the same thing Jo did about her, that she's magical.   Excellent to see David James Elliott back to revive his role, but he also didn't get much screen time.   Even Russ must've dreaded Lindsay being there again, ha.    Anyway, David and Sela have such a real chemistry on screen, which makes their scenes a pleasure to watch and his feelings for her, as Russ, are so believable; there's not a hint of contrivance.   oh Jo how could you have left him!

In season 5.10 The Triangle episode, epithelials found on a sticker are a familial match to a father's daughter, who robbed an armoured truck, only she escaped at the end with the money.   Here the father taught his daughter everything she knew about conning people.   Lots of train episodes in CSI:NY, as well as diver episodes.   Season 1 Night Mother,  where Danny was showing Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) how they pick pockets.

My Twitter @mila255h  For my 100th follower I will send out a signed copy of my Unofficial CSI:NY book.  OPEN TO RESIDENTS OF UK, USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA and EU.

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