<p><b>Synopsis:</b> <p>The CSIs arrive at the Glanville Apartments to investigate the death of a young blonde woman found shot in one of the units. Grissom notices a bullet hole in the ceiling and the body count doubles when a dead woman is found in the apartment upstairs. While the blonde woman's identity remains a mystery, the woman upstairs is identified as Maria Espinoza. Maria was shot through the cheek, leading the CSIs to wonder if she was listening through the floor to what was going on in the apartment below and was hit by a bullet going up into the ceiling. Greg finds seven bullets and seven casings in the downstairs unit, leading him to call Catherine to have her test the dead blonde woman's hands for GSR. He also finds urine at the scene. Catherine does, and the test is positive. The bullet removed from Maria Espinoza is from a different gun than the one that killed the blonde woman. The CSIs make a surprising connection when they learn both apartments were being rented by Kellen "Drops" Tyford, a club owner they've encountered on two previous cases, currently serving an eight-month jail sentence on a weapons charge. Brass pays Drops a visit and he identifies their mystery victim as Jessica "JJ" Jaynes, a woman who worked as "atmosphere" in his club. He says Maria Espinoza took him in as a child and that he rented one of the apartments for her and one for him. He claims to have no idea as to what JJ was doing in his apartment. <p>JJ's husband, Walter Jaynes, identifies his wife's body at the morgue as he holds their young son in his arms. Catherine and Nick examine Mrs. Espinoza's apartment and discover a bullet in the ceiling from a .38. The CSIs conclude JJ must have killed Maria before being murdered herself. Wendy matches the urine from the apartment to Maria Espinoza's daughter, Dana. Brass pays another visit to Drops and asks him about Dana. The club owner tells him Dana is pregnant with his child and that he's the only one who can find her, imploring the detective to let him out of jail to do so. Catherine and Archie go over JJ's cell phone records, finding her last text 30 minutes before she died was to her husband, reading "I know where D stashed the money." Her last call was to a woman named Valinda Carlisle, but when Catherine calls her phone, she's shocked to find Warrick answer it. Valinda has been shot to death in her car, leading the CSIs to conclude Dana is on a spree. With no other options, Brass and Nick retrieve Drops from the jail to help them find Dana. He takes them to his financial planner's house, but when they arrive, they find it's too late: the man has been shot to death on his porch. Their next stop is the fast food joint where Drops' stepsister Sherry works. She tells him she hasn't seen Dana in days, and he hands her Brass's card, asking her to call if she hears from Dana. Back at the lab, Warrick processes Valinda's car and finds JJ's ID inside. Catherine thinks JJ tried to shake Drops down for cash, killing Maria Espinoza when she didn't offer up Drops' money, and then Dana killed both JJ and Valinda in revenge. Warrick is skeptical: judging from the angle of the shot, he surmises that the killer was sitting in the backseat. <p>Drops takes Nick and Brass by his club and the manager, Dale, tells them he saw Dana an hour ago with a white man. The three view the surveillance tapes and see Dana with Walter Jaynes, and based on his position, it seems he has a gun on her. Dale brings the three sandwiches and conceals a GPS scrambler in Drops'. Drops makes a run for it, scrambling the ankle bracelet GPS. Nick gives chase, but Drops jumps into a station wagon that pulls up and speeds away. The CSIs run the plate and description and learn the station wagon is registered to Walter Jaynes. At Maria's apartment, Walter aims two guns, one at Drops and the other at Dana, demanding Drops turn over what he believes is his wife's cut of the money. Drops does, but then Walter makes a heftier demand: Drops has to choose between Dana and his unborn child, because Walter is determined to kill one of them. Drops turns off the GPS scrambler, allowing the CSIs to locate him, and stalls, finally launching himself into Walter when the CSIs arrive. The gun goes off twice, first hitting Dana, then Drops, but both survive, though the trauma induces Dana’s labor. In the hospital, Dana refuses to let Drops hold his newborn son, promising they'll be gone when Drops gets out of jail. Nick tells the chagrined club owner that Dana's killing of JJ will most likely be deemed self-defense, and that Dana will get the money from Maria's apartment. Drops muses that he's done something good in his life at least, and Nick reminds him that his life isn't over yet. <p><b>Analysis:</b> <p>Poor Drops--the guy can't cut a break where the CSIs are concerned. "Forensics be trippin' a brother up" indeed. But this outing adds depth to the Drops character, and also perhaps proves to him that once in a while, law enforcement officials come in handy. Drops tries to give Nick and Brass the slip, and he's successful, but when it comes down to the life of his baby and his girlfriend, he turns off the GPS blocker and allows the CSIs to find him. Drops obviously wants his freedom, but he's by no means a hardened criminal, despite the rather clever way he gets his message to the manager of his club. I knew when he asked Brass for a business card and then wrote on the back of it, it was bad news. <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/drops_out.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
I'm honestly not surprised if that's why Gary or Khandi is leaving. The stereotypes that Gary Dourdan had made it known he was trying to avoid were forced on him, and I commend him for having the courage to leave (if that is indeed why he left). The fact that Alexx had very little character development is no surprise to me, seeing as TPTB have a terrible problem with avoiding certain characters on the show. I would love to see more of her, but, alas, she's leaving. *tear* If I think of something more to say, I'll edit it in... but I'm too tired right now. Just wanted to get the gist of my opinion out there.
CSI is guilty of a lot of things: Stereotyping, lpoor racial diversity and poor character development. The two lead characters of CSI are white and we've got the older man and the older woman-the female one is a former stripper and very sexualized, the older man seems to favour romantic liasons with women half his age. All of whom are white. Then you have Warrick whose character just went to hell and then we gets a storyline, the first in a million years-it's one of drug use-black man using drugs-gee that's never been done before!!!! Why not have Nick be the drug user, he certainly earned it! Nick is a whitebread character, but he certainly didn't escape the stereotyping-young white male who spent three seasons being kind of a dufus and writers' bXXch and probably would have stayed that way had the actor not put up a fight for integrity. Now they hired a new actress and she's (big surprise) young and white. Why didn't they hire an actress of colour? Or an older actress? Or both? I'm sure in the real world, there are many (maybe not as many as white people,unfortunately) CSIs of African-American, Carribean American, East Indian, Asian and other CSIs of colour. There are plenty of actors from this background who could do the roles. Love the show, but hate some of the people behind it.