CSI: Crime Scene Investigation--'Grissom's Divine Comedy'

<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>When the body of the key witness in Deputy District Attorney Maddie Klein's case against gang leader Emilio Alvarado turns up dead twenty feet from a burning car, Maddie insists on getting Gil Grissom on the case, even though he's home sick with the flu. Though Don Cook's body is badly burned from the waist down, Dr. Robbins determines the man was killed by a gunshot to the back. Catherine and Nick spot the letters LAT painted on the bumper of the car--the letters of the gang Cook was going to testify against. Brass talks with Cook's wife, Cody, who tells Brass she last saw her husband the night before and that they argued. She knew Cook was set to testify before the grand jury, as did her parents and best friend. Greg and Nick start in on processing the car, determining the victim was shot after exiting the car. Maddie and Grissom try to assuage the fears the grand jury members, who are nervous when they learn about the death of the key witness. Brass admits to Grissom that he feels guilty for convincing Cook to testify about seeing Alvarado coming out of Little Gordo just after Little Gordo was murdered. Warrick relieves Nick, who is fighting a cold, and finds a gun in glove compartment of the car registered to a Richard O'Malley, Cook's father-in-law. O'Malley claims he gave the gun to Cook after the man asked for it for protection.<p>Grissom concludes the fire heated the gun up and caused it to fire, killing Cook. With Maddie's help, he obtains a warrant to search Alvarado's apartment, but as he and Warrick are going up the stairs, the apartment literally explodes before their eyes. The cops catch the culprit, Roddell Gomez, but he refuses to give up anything, though he does threaten the DDA, which tips her off that the LATs are aware of the grand jury. Warrick searches Alvarado's cell, but can't find anything incriminating. When Grissom more closely examines the LAT stencil on the back of Cook's car, he notices its been painted with a paintbrush rather than spray paint, suggesting that it's a fake. The CSIs turn back to the O'Malley family. Cody fought with her husband the night of his death, but adamantly denies killing him. It is her father's prints that are found on the brush used to paint the letters on the car; he refuses to talk to the CSIs, but he yells at his enraged daughter that he did it for her.<p>Catherine is disappointed that the murder didn't lead back to the gang, but Grissom is bothered by the fact that Alvarado's gang knew they were heading to the leader's apartment. He subpoenas the grand jury's phone records and learns Marie Leahy was calling disposable cell phone numbers. She confesses that the LAT gang contacted her and offered to get her brother Petey out of prison in exchange for information. Warrick and Nick are convinced Alvarado has been contacting his gang somehow. Grissom goes to the prison and looks at the books Alvarado has borrowed from the prison library, noticing some are missing pages. He examines the book in Alvarado's cell, Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i> and notices some of the pages are soiled. The CSI lights a flame and shows the guard that Alvarado has been sending messages in urine--only visible when the pages are heated up--to his gang. The latest one threatens the DDA, and it's enough to stop Alvarado's release. Maddie thanks Grissom, noting that the CSI has never let her down.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>Dropping viewers into a story in the middle is a tricky thing to do. If done right, it feels thrilling, like the episode is starting out at sixty miles per hour, rather than building up to it. <i>Miami</i> has played with this a bit during its run with episodes like <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season3/recoil.shtml">"Recoil"</a> and <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season4/nailed.shtml">"Nailed"</a>. The episodes began at a frantic middle point in the case and then flashed back to the beginning. This allowed the viewers a little taste of the excitement to come without being overly confusing.<p>Sadly, the same is not true of "Grissom's Divine Comedy," which throws a great deal of information at the audience in one phone call made by a character we're unfamiliar with, all in the space of a minute or so. It's an exposition-heavy first minute, and gives the episode a convoluted feel right from the get-go, which is never a good thing. The audience has to untangle a dense web of information--a gang leader who committed a murder but is in jail for another crime, a grand jury assembled to assess the evidence against the gang leader, which comes from the man just found murdered on the highway. That's a lot of information for the audience to digest in the space of a minute, and it's delivered by a character we're just meeting.<p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45\%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full reviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/reviews/csi/grissoms_divine_comedy.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Ah, Kristine, I have to disagree with you (and I hate to do so!).

I thought the way the writers brought us into the middle of the story was done quite well, and even done much better than a Miami storyline. The writing was so well done in this episode, the pacing, storyline, etc it made me feel like I was watching a Season 2/3 episode of CSI.

One thing that bothered me though was the call at the end of the episode. Were the writers trying to convey that the call was indeed from Sara, or from Maddie? Probably left up to viewers interpretation, but at this point in the show I wish the writers would just leave the Sara-story done with.

Your points about Bonnie's character Maddie were spot on though! I really connected with her character and you could tell she had chemistry with Grissom. She fit in with the cast and I like the backstory they gave to her character right from the get go (the alcoholism and past history with Grissom). I hope we see more of her.

 

I agree with most of it. Wasn't a big fan of this eppy...but i disagree with the twist of the murderer coming out of left field. As soon as they showed him, i knew he was the killer, and framed the gang. It just seemed really obvious to me. Oh, and i didn't like the ending...Sara left, they keep dragging this on and on and ON. It makes Grissom really pathetic to stay with a woman who left him with a note...come on Gil!

 

AHH, the thing is fans, its not done, WP just stated, we've not seen the end of Sara Sidle let what go, their still in touch, 10 years, he's so not done, and neither is she..Jorja Fox is returning.. so the fans that don't want to deal with this or don't like it.. oh well:cardie:.. because many are thrilled and apparently so is Billy Petersen!

 

WP also stated he didn't want the relationship out in the open...hmmm. Also, they are given stuff to say in interviews for promotion of the show, so who knows what he thinks. Of course they are going to say that stuff...they want to keep the GSR fans watching.

 

I'm not sure how well I would have followed what went on if I hadn't already know what was going to happen (damn spoilers)--but I have to say, that phone call at the beginning was hard to follow. Maybe it was just hard to hear on my tv, but it was like I was trying to comprehend what was being said, and I couldn't do it as fast as she was talking.

Or maybe I'm just slow.

The thing with the characters being sick got old, I agree--I'd hate to have to pretend to cough and sneeze for take after take. Poor woobies. *pet pet*

 

Thank's Top41 your very perceptive and neutral, and that's great, as it should be. For me if the TPTB had of chosen two other characters in a long term relationship, then, for me I would have accepted it by now. It's not like GSR is some kind of horrible cult, it's two people who by one of our writers, Allen MacDonald recently said, "Grissom & Sara are in love, and are "true soulmates" and the thing is, it's not what others like or want, it's what they want:bolian: sometmes I feel that fans didn't watch all the eps. that showed this coming~ a brief, synopsis..not ship talk, episode talk, lines that were spoken, in the particular episode not going all the way back to S/1 for the pages would go on forever!

Ep. 7x11 Grissom "I'll miss you" in "LLV"
7x13 The gift a cocoon, to Sara
7x14 The love letter.. "I said I'd miss you and I do!
7x15 I'll see you later, Yeah you will"
7x17 Shaving scene, "Do you trust me, "intimately"
7x18 Grissom wipes away a tear from Sara's eyes!
7x21 Grissom to Sara "You make me happy"
7x22 Grissom and Sara in their bedroom!
7x22 Sara read the love letter from Grissom!
7x23 "This girl [Natalie] blames me for taking away the only person she ever loved..and now she's going to do the same thing to me"!
7x23 The team, and their facial expressions and his revelation of this!

8x02 Ecklie "How long have you been intimate/" 2 years..Sara..Grissom 9 years!
8x04 Grissom Y' know, maybe we should get married" Sara "Lets do it"

"Goodbye and Goodluck" Sara, and the love letter.. way to long to post but a few key lines~
"I've loved you forever, you're my one and only, and I'll miss you with every beat of my heart"

 

Seems like ship talk to me.

Anyway, I've seen every episode, and I know I haven't missed anything. The point is, if Sara is gone from the show right now, they could at least move past her until she does come back for her guest appearance.

 

I agree with most of your review. I liked the beginning with Grissom and his dog in the kitchen.I was a little confused with the narative at first, but was able to follow well enough. Bonnie Bedelia would make a great recurring character. Her sass and cynicism would play off Brass well and another strong female character is needed.
I found it somewhat unbelievable that the father would go to such an extreme to kill his son-in-law for no particularly good reason. I thought the daughter was more annoying. But it was nice to see Natalie Wood's daughter. The urine writing was both gross and interesting, and I do enjoy watching Grissom solve crimes. I would have liked to see Dante's Divine Comedy explored a little more, but I guess they didn't have time.
I did find the whole sickness thing to be somewhat distracting. While it made sense for Grissom to be sick so people would have to come to his house, I didn't see the point in the others being sick. Maybe to allow some comic relief but it seemed forced.
I adored the final scene. A typical understated CSI moment. There is no doubt in my mind that Grissom and Sara are together and that they are, indeed, 'soulmates'. Mr. Petersen said a lot with just his facial expression, his body language and his chuckle. Well done, WP. I hope Sara comes home to Grissom soon. I think Hank misses her, too!

 

i think they made Greg and Nick sick, b/c if it was only Grissom, it would seem as if it was a part of a bigger storyline. everybody would speculate his health is deteriorating as a result of either being tired of his job (and probably leaving soon), or having to put up with Sara's absence. it would be much more dramatic, and people would be concerned about him.

but having Nick and Greg, the young and fit CSI's sick as well, made the viewers believe that it's just a flu that goes around the lab and everybody was just as likely to get it.

it gave us a couple of laughs and humanized the characters. that they actually get sick sometimes, like everybody.

 

Hi. This is my first post so forgive me if I make a mistake or step on any toes.

I thought this was a great welcome back to CSI after the strike. I didn't feel like there was too much information thrown at us to digest and I liked the idea of being plunged into a story and trying to keep up with it all. It would be nice if Bonnie Bedelia could return intermittently in the future. She and Grissom have a nice spark, and the references to previous ways she's helped out really cemented their relationship.

I have 2 gripes with this episode. The first is Warrick's now-you-see-it-now-you-don't earring. Did anyone else notice that? For a show that's centred on the minutiae of detective work you'd think someone might have noticed. The second was the evidence against the father-in-law. He paints, they're his brushes and his stencils, so why wouldn't his fingerprints be all over them? He, or any other potential murderer, could have cleaned them up post-murder, and then he could have used them again. I know it probably would've taken too long, but it just seemed a bit too easy for me.

 

Ok, so I just had to register just to get to comment on this... Thanks for the review - I agreed with most of it; quite frankly, what I remember most of the episode is the scene that was cut out (in Grissom's apartment), which on the other hand possibly says more about my focus than this particular episode... but I also remember commenting on the fact that I thought it was a *good* move to give more people than Grissom a cold! It makes it more authentic. It's easy to use an illness as an excuse to remove a character from the regular setting - for whatever reason - but it's that little extra touch of realism that is one of the things that I like most about the original CSI; that usually when a cold hits a workplace, it's going to affect more than one person. And thus Grissom's absence becomes just a natural part of an ongoing flu, rather than just an excuse to show his house. So, I liked it! :thumbsup: