CSI: New York--'Dead Inside'

<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>The body of Kevin McBride is found in a cellar, the apparent victim of a fatal blow to the head. Stella finds the crime scene miles away, in a house that has literally been upended and is being transported across the river. McBride and his wife Annie own a home relocation company, and the house Kevin was killed in is one they were transporting from Staten Island. Stella finds a bullet casing at the house, while Lindsay discovers a large carrot. Sid autopsies the body and makes several discoveries, including a crumpled up piece of paper in McBride's hand. After questioning McBride's secretary, Rita Mannete, Detective Angell tells Flack that she met his sister last night--after Samantha chucked a beer bottle at her police car. While Stella receives a disturbing call telling her to drop her investigation into the rat fisherman's death (from <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season5/the_cost_of_living.shtml">"The Cost of Living"</a>), Lindsay discovers that the crumpled piece of paper is part of a picture of McBride, with the word "TELL" written on it. She also finds part of a QR code on the back--a code that when scanned, leads directly to a website. Sid gives Hawkes trace from a laceration on McBride's wrist, while Hawkes hopes patterns on the skull fragments from their victim can lead him to the murder weapon. Lindsay identifies the carrot as a "veggie pipe" used to smoke marijuana while Adam finds THC, not GSR, in the shell casing, indicating it was being used to hold the drug, not as weaponry. Adam gets DNA off the carrot, which leads the CSIs to Tanor Sommerset, who claims he went into the house to smoke up, only to panic when the house literally started moving! He claims he caused quite a commotion when he leapt from the house, which was being transported on a truck in the middle of busy street at the time.<p>Flack finds Sam at the bar where she works and asks about her near arrest for drunk and disorderly conduct the other night. She tries to distract him by talking about a song they used to love when they were kids, but Flack cautions her not to use his name again to get out of trouble. Danny determines the murder weapon was a rather common large hammer, while Hawkes identifies a large fish scale in the abrasions on McBride's arms. McBride's daughter, Ella, pays Mac a visit; she's upset that the CSIs have taken her father's computer and other personal effects. Mac reassures the girl, and promises her he's going to find her father's killer. Flack brings Danny the murder weapon--a hammer discarded in a garbage can not far from the house's original location. Flack notices the QR code Lindsay is working on and tells her he recognizes it from cards at his sister's bar. The two head to the bar where Flack is surprised to learn Sam no longer works; she was fired two weeks ago for drinking on the job. While Lindsay gets the cards, Flack confronts his sister about the course her life is taking. The CSIs find two potential suspects: Tanor, who used to own the house McBride was moving before his mother sold it out from under him six months ago, and Rita, who the CSIs connect to the fish scale via a high end manicure. Both deny any involvement; Rita claims the abrasions on McBride's arm were caused accidentally when she tripped on her heel and he caught her and saved her from falling. For his part, Tanor admits to buying a hammer recently but denies using it as a weapon. Lindsay gets a break when she discovers the QR code on the card leads to a website where people mail their deepest darkest secrets. The CSIs discover the rest of the card in between the floorboards of the house, and discover when put together it reads: "I'll tell her if you don't." Lindsay goes over McBride's computer and recovers some deleted files that reveal he was having multiple affairs--the most recent of which was with a girl on the internet who went by "Lola54." Lola54 cut off all contact with McBride after he sent her the photo--and is likely the source of the threatening message.<p>Flack goes to his sister's apartment, but Sam won't let him in. He plays the song she was reminiscing about earlier through the intercom, causing her to cry, but she still doesn't open the door. While Hawkes views a video Annie McBride made of a house walkthrough at the time of her husband's death, Lindsay uncovers the identity of Lola54: Ella McBride. The tearful young woman tells Mac she thought she'd met the man of her dreams and was horrified to discover he turned out to be her own father. She cut off all contact and sent the picture with the note, hoping he would tell her mother the truth. She swears to Mac that she didn't kill her father. Stella discovers DNA on the weapon is a familial match for Ella, and she confronts Annie: shadows cast on the street behind the house in the video Annie used as her alibi prove it was made at 2pm, not 10:30am when her husband was killed as she claimed. Annie breaks down; she discovered the picture sent by Lola54 and confronted her husband. In a fit of rage, she grabbed the hammer and struck her husband with it. After she killed him, she dragged his body down to the cellar where it remained while the house above it was moved. Ella watches behind the window with Mac, who promises to keep her secret. Flack follows his sister and learns she's joined an AA group. Angell meets him outside the building to drive him home, but he tells her he needs to walk and think about what he's seen. Before he leaves, he gives her a kiss and thanks her.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>A healthy dose of Flack family drama saves an otherwise mediocre episode of <i>CSI: NY</i>. There are some episodes of the show that really make either the victims or the killers come alive for the audience; think the scuzzy victims from last week's <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season5/enough.shtml">"Enough"</a> or the slimy killer with a doll for a girlfriend in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season5/sex_lies_and_silicone.shtml">"Sex, Lies and Silicone"</a>, all of whom had distinct personalities that came through over the course of the episodes. Not so here--Kevin McBride's only distinguishing characteristic is that he's an unfaithful husband, and his wife Annie is simply the woman who can't take it anymore. Not only do these characteristics not distinguish them, but they're highly clichéd. Collectively, the <i>CSI</i> shows have explored so many stories involving unfaithful couples that to stand out, an episode featuring such a pair really has to have something to really make the characters unique and memorable, a la <i>CSI</i>'s most recent episode, <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season9/leave_out_all_the_rest.shtml">"Leave Out All the Rest"</a>, in which the unfaithful guy was sneaking out to an S&M club to engage in his infidelity.<p>The only unique aspect of the case is daughter Ella's involvement, albeit in a way that's just downright creepy. How horrified would a girl be to discover the flirty guy she fell for on the internet was actually her own father? There aren't really words that do justice to how unsettling that is. The final scene between Ella and Mac plays out all wrong: here's a girl who's just learned her mother murdered her father because he fell for another woman--Ella herself!--on the internet, and all she can say to Mac is that she misses the way the romance made her feel important? Given that her family has just fallen apart in full Greek tragedy fashion, you'd think she'd be more concerned with the fact that she's essentially lost both parents in one fell swoop than that she wants that feeling of importance back. Despite Ella's tears, the whole McBride family tragedy is devoid of deep feeling because the emotional center feels off, and this prevents the audience from connecting with the case--and the characters.<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/dead_inside.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Great review!

I get what you're saying about Flack and Danny but I'd like for there to be a chance for that to be refuted. Simply because I think it would be really nice for Danny to give a little. I'd like to see Flack be the vulnerable one for a change.

Of course, that could be because the Flack/Sam and the Flack/Danny relationships are the only ones I care about on this show anymore. I'm all for the platonic relationships these days because lord knows CSI: NY pretty much fails when it comes to the romantic ones. :lol:

As for that kiss? My only reaction was to cringe and then go "What the :censored:?!"

Totally felt wrong. To be fair though I'm not an Angell fan to begin with so I'll admit I'm biased here...

 

I absolutely agree that last night’s episode belonged to Don "Grumpy Mad Dog" Flack. This storyline gave Flack/Eddie a chance to show his emotional range and he gave a nuanced performance. Flack is certainly carrying a lot around. He has to worry about his sister, do his job, his friends all turn to him to help them out of trouble and from the sound of it, he the one in touch with and probably helping out his father plus he does charity work (he met Devon at a charity hockey game, he mentioned his kids from the Y in another show). Last night we saw that Flack/Eddie is more than a few snarky remarks and facial expressions. He certainly knows Flack very well. That moment when he played the song through the intercom could have been a lot mushier. He could have gone for the obvious emotional reaction, but he was grinning like an idiot as you would expect Flack to do...feeling like a dope standing there doing that.

Kathleen Munroe also held her own. The storyline was well written, well acted and fascinating. The man has a life - albeit a complicated one - outside of work. The only disappointment came at the end in the scene with Angell. He never should have turned back. It wasn't the right moment. It was too contrived and soap-opera-ish. What exactly did she do that he needed to thank her for? The two characters don’t mesh. Flack has the weight of the world on his shoulders and Angell is only happy that she scored a kiss, grinning as she got into the car. Even Lindsay looked more concerned for him when they were in the bar! I just don't understand why he didn't turn to Danny other than the fact the writers are trying to push the Flack/Angell romance on the audience.

The main story was dull and too creepy for words. Talk about things that make you go ewwwwww! I’m just glad that my dad is computer inept! It made me long for a good old-fashioned burglary-gone-wrong storyline. Sometimes it seems like the writers are trying to create more complicated storylines for no real reason. I think this is where the Vegas crew of writers sometimes do better....they sometimes keep it real and straightforward, which is nice.

I guess the 333 subplot is now being replaced by the rat! Stella just seems to be a magnet for trouble - her ex tries to kill her and she killed him, she lost her apartment in a fire, then there was Drew Bedford and now this! Cut the woman some slack already.

The other standout was Emmanuelle Vaugier, but for all the wrong reasons! Angell has got to go…send her to the morgue, give her a transfer, anything! This chick couldn't act scared if she was being mugged and continues to be the weak link in the show. Even the bit part players and guest stars act better than she does. Watching the show last night, I thought at first that maybe her acting was getting worse (it can’t) but then I realised that she’s getting more airtime, which means we are seeing more of her bad acting. I understand they want to give Flack a love interest but at least get a better actress.

 

Great review, Kristine. I definitely agree that this episode was great for Flack, and that, as always, Eddie Cahill was fantastic.

I love seeing Flack and his sister interacting, it's great to see more about the Flack family, and I love this kind of relationship being explored. Moreso that the romantic relationships if I'm being honest, although I didn't mind Flack and Angell's interaction, they do seem to be close in some ways, even if he doesn't seem to want to fully let her in (which is indeed in character for Flack).

Yeah, the case was OK, not fantastic, but OK. Being in a online relationship with your Dad is probably such a very disturbing thought for any child, so I definitely would have bought the daughter being the murderer. I was a little surprised it was the mother.

I disagree. I think Emmanuelle does a great job of playing Angell. I enjoyed her role in Two and a Half Men, and I think she plays a tough, sarcastic NY detective rather well (I've not particularly seen her in anything else). If anything, I'd be happy to see more of Angell, not less. I love seeing her interrogating suspects, she's awesome, I wouldn't want to mess with her, she could definitely hold her own!

 

Great review, as usual.

Flack and Sam's scenes were definitely the best part of the episode - it's always nice to see two talented actors get a chance to do a meaty storyline together. They both did a wonderful job in their scenes, conveying the emotions and the sense of history between their characters. I'm really hoping we get to see Sam back again, and I'm crossing my fingers that Papa Flack comes into the picture sooner rather than later.

The case itself was pretty typical for this show - slightly over-the-top set-up (the house is moving!), cliche motive/murderer (woman kills her cheating husband instead of leaving his sorry ass), super high-tech gadgetry (in this case the QR codes leading to the SecretU website, which is obviously a knockoff of PostSecret), with a few unnecessarily complicated twists (the bullet casing is part of a veggie pipe! They knew the secretary had scratched him because a Very Rare fish scale from a Super Hip type of manicure was found in the abrasions on his arm! )...I think this show would be well-served to spend more time developing sympathetic victims/suspects and including more 'normal' crimes.

And yeah, the girl finding out she was internet-dating her father definitely brought out the ick factor - something like that needs more focus and even a few more minutes of screentime could have lowered the skeeve factor, particularly of the girl's comment to Mac at the end. Well, okay, it would be pretty hard to lower the ick-ness of that whole thing, but at least to give it a bit more depth and complexity.

The kiss between Flack and Angell was way rushed. They're cute, their chemistry and flirting has been nice - so why the need to skip over what has been working and shoehorn in a kiss that came out of nowhere and had so little build-up (aside from that 'coffee date' in 4.13 or whenever it was)? *sigh*

I like Angell, and I think Emmanuelle does a good job with the role, but I'm more interested in finding out more about her and seeing her in different situations - mostly we just see her being snarky and unimpressed with suspects or being snarky and showing how unimpressed she is when she's talking to the CSIs about the case. There's so much to work with, and I'd hate if they limited her inclusion on the show to when she can be Flack's arm candy (plus, together they could create a supernova of hotness - perhaps TPTB should be cautious about the amount of exposure we get ).

 

:lol:

Great review, Top! (As always)

Angell is my favorite recurring character on any of the shows I watch. I don't think she was being insensitive because of the smile. I think it was more of a "...Okay..." smile.

 

I thought Flack was the tough sarcastic NY detective! Why would they pair him up with a female version of himself? Sorry, the chick can't act. She should stick to B-movie roles.

 

:lol: Yeah, I can see how that might seem strange. I know they say that opposites attract, but that's not always the case. I suppose one tough, sarcastic detective is great, but two is dynamite! I don't know, I do think of her as similar to Flack (they are also both from cop families), but she's not quite as snarky as Flack, there's no one who can compete with him in the snark department. :lol:

On a more serious note though, whilst I don't particularly object to the Flack/Angell pairing, I don't see her character as one who was necessarily brought in to be paired up with Flack. She was a recurring detective way before she even first interacted with Flack, so similar or not, I doubt this was their original intention for the character. Now though, it does seem that most of the time they bring Angell in she is with Flack, which is a bit disappointing. I personally do think that they have chemistry, it was perhaps slightly forced upon us (their first interaction together involved flirting ), but I think it comes across as quite natural. But as Fay pretty much said, and I agree, she has more to offer than that, she doesn't need to just be Flack's arm candy.