CSI: New York--'Forbidden Fruit'

<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Two officers run across a man dumping the body of a woman into a car trunk. They go after him and in the process of climbing a fence in an attempt to flee, the young man is killed. Mac Taylor shops in a convenience store and runs into Ella McBride (last seen in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season5/dead_inside.shtml">"Dead Inside"</a>), whose mother killed her father. Ella asks Mac out to breakfast, but he gets a call to a crime scene. He meets Danny and Flack by the car; the man the police shot is identified as Tony Clark, while Danny finds car registration forms belonging to Isabelle Vaughn, giving them an ID for their victim. Danny uncovers a bright red stain on the driver's side carpet, and recovers Tony's cell phone with a fresh text reading, "Is it done yet?" There's no corresponding stain on Tony's shoe, suggesting a second person is involved. The bodies are brought to the morgue where Sid begins the autopsies and is shocked to discover Isabelle's organs have literally liquefied. Sid tells Hawkes that both victims consumed some decidedly odd cuisine, from raw onions to dandelions to citrus peels, but Isabelle consumed large amounts of sodium hydroxide, which killed her. Adam tells Danny he discovered the substance under Isabelle's fingernails is elephant dung. He tries to give Danny financial advice, but Danny is distracted when Lindsay comes to tell him the baby kicked. Lindsay heads off to show Mac a discovery she's made: the trace on the car carpet was from a red berry that alters taste buds, explaining the odd cuisine Isabelle and Tony ingested. Flack gets an ID from the phone company for the person who sent Tony the text: Quincy Feeney. The young woman tells Mac and Flack that she barely knew Isabelle, a famous handbag designer. She claims Isabelle's death was accidental and that she and Tony were simply trying to get rid of the woman's body, knowing that her death at Tony's party made them look suspicious. At Tony's apartment, Danny and Hawkes find the primary crime scene in the bathroom, where the sink is filled with Isabelle's blood. Danny finds drain cleaner and wonders if it is the murder weapon.<p>Ella McBride shows up at Mac's office with one of the postcard confessions from the site she runs that she thinks might be linked to Isabelle, featuring her trademark logo with the words "I want her dead" on the back. Mac and Flack question Marina Morton, Isabelle's business partner whom she was suing and about to break away from. Marina scoffs at the idea of Isabelle as a threat, and claims she made Isabelle who she was. She denies any knowledge of the postcard. Back at the lab, Hawkes discovers the sodium hydroxide that killed Isabelle was mixed in a blender. He also learns it was pure, meaning the drain cleaner Danny found wasn't the murder weapon. Hawkes is befuddled when the genetic analyzer is unable to get a read on Marina's DNA, and he takes the machine apart to recalibrate it. Adam has analyzed elephant feces found in Tony's apartment and managed to trace them to a man named Colby Fisher, who uses the material in making recycled paper. Danny and Flack pay the man a visit, and he admits to trying to get Isabelle to eat the material as a prank at the party. Danny notices sodium hydroxide on a shelf and takes a canister for analysis. Lindsay analyzes the card Ella brought Mac and finds evidence Ella herself made it, confirmed by Mac when he runs a handwriting analysis on a doodle beneath the other material on the card. Mac angrily confronts Ella, who tells him she was lonely and just wanted to see him again. Mac leaves angrily after telling her she wasted precious time on the case. Danny matches the sodium hydroxide from Colby's paper plant to the substance that killed Ella and he and Flack interrogate the paper maker. Colby admits to having a relationship with Isabelle that ended when he cheated on her with her business partner, Marina. He adamantly denies killing her. Hawkes figures out the mystery of Marina's DNA: a leaf she ingested that dissolves DNA. When the CSIs find traces of the leaf on the blender and realize Marina's affair with Colby gave her access to his sodium hydroxide, they realize they have their killer. Marina arrogantly tells them she killed Isabelle for defying her. Mac gets a call from Ella McBride, clearly in distress. He rushes to her apartment and finds she's sliced her wrists; he bandages them up and takes the distraught young woman to the hospital, passing by a secret that reads, "I will make him love me."<p>Stella has a case of her own: Angell calls her to a pawn shop where owner Declan Rooney has been murdered in the exact same way Wolford Bessie was killed (in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season5/the_cost_of_living.shtml">"The Cost of Living"</a>). Stella is convinced that Sebastian Diakos, an antiques dealer she met at the Greek embassy, is behind both murders. Sid confirms the killings were performed in the same manner, and Mac posits that the murderer had special ops training. Stella examines an empty piece of display felt she found at the scene and finds an impression of a Greek coin, which she shows to Danny. Danny recognizes it as the same Philip II coin they recovered from an amulet in the previous case. Angell introduces Stella to Stan Travado, an ex-con who went away for counterfeiting coins. In exchange for getting his brother, Marty, transferred to a different prison, Stan agrees to make 20 counterfeit Philip II coins for Stella. When Mac gets wind of Marty's transfer, he orders Stella to drop the idea of trying to trick Diakos with the fake coins. Stella storms out of Mac's office. Later, Angell meets with George Kolovos from the Greek Embassy offering to sell him a batch of the coins and showing him one of the fakes as proof. After she has him hooked, she rendezvous with Stella in a car outside the restaurant and tells the CSI he took the bait.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>When are New Yorkers going to learn to stick to good old fashioned pizza and hot dogs? First we had the "exotic cuisine" in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season2/fare_game.shtml">"Fare Game"</a>, which included lamb brains and worms, and now we have a party full of people who purposefully trick their taste buds so they can feast upon cod liver oil and dandelions. I have to share in Flack's disgusted befuddlement; I can see adventurous spirits chowing down on insects for curiosity's sake because they're delicacies elsewhere, but cod liver oil? At least Isabelle drew the line at elephant dung. As ever, Flack is the voice and expressive face of reason here; his disgust mirrors the audience's. There's no moment quite as brilliant as the look of abject horror that crossed his face in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/season4/happily_never_after.shtml">"Happily Never After"</a> when he saw firsthand the truth behind his beloved vendor carts, but it's always fun to see Flack turn his nose up at some of the decidedly weird habits of certain sects of the city's population.<p>Marina's motivation for the murder is slightly less than satisfying--one presumes she simply assumed she'd get away with it, but it's still a flimsy motive. Surely if Marina is as shrewd a businesswoman as she appears to be, she could have found a more inventive and less personally perilous way to crush Isabelle. That aside, the case is a thoroughly enjoyable one right from the get-go, with its deceptively simple opening. How many times does a guy dumping a body turn out to be completely innocent of any wrongdoing, aside from complete stupidity? The decision to get rid of Isabelle's body rather than just calling the police certainly isn't a sound one, but then to compound it by running is just plain asinine, especially when the cops are waving guns. <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/forbidden_fruit.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Didnt he just fall from the barbed wire on to that mental 'stake'?!

Im glad i wasnt the only one who thought that Marina's motive was a little weak, great review, as always

 

Excellent review, dahling.

Motives on this show aren't always believable - nor is the method for killing people. I mean really, blending sodium hydroxide into her drink after she ate a weird berry to liquify her insides? What ever happened to a good old shooting? Stabbing? Traditional poisoning? *sigh* They waste their creativity, clearly.

Flack and Danny are always fun together - I love when Flack tells suspects what's-what in interrogations. Fact: Flack is a sexy beast.

Stella working with Angell is indeed awesome - and I loved Angell going undercover. The lady can keep her cool, that's for sure.

I'm interested to see where Stella's storyline goes. However...

Spoiler: Later in the season

However, I'm not sure it really needs to be dragged out until the finale, which was implied in...some recent article or another. The TV Guide, I think. This is episode 11, and it's going to keep going for the rest of the season? I find myself unconvinced - the 333 thing was dragged out too long, and it was only for like half of the season.

Adam is the cutest thing ever. Poor baby, though - his father was a real a-hole. Danny should have given him a high five.

Hawkes 'dissecting' the expensive machine was hilarious, and Mac's OMG-WHAT-ARE-YOU-DOING response was funny - almost as funny as him telling Hawkes to fix it when he realized either the machine was wrong or he was. (BTW, was that the machine they're getting rid of Adam for? *glares at it*)

I hope we aren't going to be subjected to multiple 'LINDSAY IS PREGNANT. DID YOU HEAR THAT? SHE'S PREGNANT' scenes in every episode leading up to the birth. Yes, it's relevant, but it was mentioned how many times within a five minute period? I guess they have to make use of all of the 'pregnant humor' they can squeeze out of the storyline.

I'm tired of her Famous Demonstrations - I'm probably supposed to think it's a cute little inside joke for Mac to be subjected to something in order for Lindsay to prove her point, but I really just don't think it's cute. I'm sure Mac would believe you if you just told him about the berry instead. But then we wouldn't get multiple pregnancy reminders and Mac noshing an onion, I suppose.

Overall, a good episode but with some out-there components (which are not atypical for the show). My favorite characters were my favorite part, obviously.

 

So at this point, we have 3 (hope I didn't miss any) "continuing" storylines...:

-The stolen USB flash drive
-Stella and Diakos
-Mac and Ellla
-I knew I forgot one...Danny/Lindsay/baby..

Although all 4 are decent plotlines, I wish CSI would only focus on either 1 or 2 of those....hard to keep track sometimes. Still love this show, nonetheless.

 

Love the review!!

You brought up some very interesting points, that I definitely agree with and can make sense out of. =P

 

Just wanted to piont out that some thing was missed, by what seams to be everyone. When Ella gives Mac the confession card, on the back it said "I want her dead" but it also said something else. The graphic in the top right corner is a q-code.

Hunter

 

double post

 

A q-code?
I missed that, I guess I'll have to go back.

Regardless, I believe that CSI: NY built too many continuing stories all at once.

There is Mac, dealing the stolen USB and now Ella McBride and the daunting "I will make him lOve me" emphasis on the O, being the same as her previous writings.
Stella, now with Angell, are ready going after the Greek government, using fake coins and an evil plot for revenge.
Danny/Linsday are having their child soon, with whatever may go wrong.

Regardless, as long as they don't stack them all at once, or drag them on too long, it'll all be worth while in the end.

 

In "Dead Inside", I think it was explained that people take the blank cards (with the QR codes on them), decorate them and then send them in, right? So any card in Ella's apartment would have a QR code on it - but I'm curious if the QR code reveals anything in this episode, though. (Is there a way to read one in a situation like this, from the show itself?)

 

Yes, and Flack and Hawkes seem to be the only ones left out.

 

Actually Flack has the story line with his sister and Angell (even if it isn't as frequently brought up as the others it's still an ongoing story line) so it seems only Hawkes is left out. Again. :shifty:

 

i thought the episode was ok, the story was a little far fetched and motive lacking but i enjoyed seeing stella go against mac.

although most will disagree in this forum with me, i really loved the scene with mac and lindsay. i like all her little demonstrations. they're interesting to watch and its funny how her and mac interact with each other. i like scenes with lindsay that dont revolve around danny.