<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Covered in blood and seemingly disoriented, a man stumbles through traffic on a busy Miami street, his clothes covered in blood. Once the police arrive, a shrewd officer calls in Horatio Caine and his team. Horatio speaks with the man, who claims he can't recall anything, even his own name. While Tripp and Ryan try to determine where the man came from, Valera runs the blood on his shirt and gets DNA hits for three separate donors with familial matches: a father, mother and daughter. None are related to their mystery man. Tripp leans on the man, who maintains he truly doesn't remember what happened, and doesn't know if he killed anyone. Ryan gets an ID on the man's blood: Mitch Crawford, a financial advisor who did six months for insider trading. The CSIs rush to the Crawfords' house, but they find it empty save for a delivery boy trying to impress a girl in the pool in the backyard. The delivery boy was carrying legal papers to serve to Crawford, but when he arrived early that morning, he saw the Crawfords getting into a car and rushing off. Ryan notices a picture of the family and notes that the Crawfords have a son as well as a daughter. Back at the lab, trace tech Michael Travers identifies dirt in their mystery man's shoes as containing TNT and molasses, which Natalia surmises comes from a refurbished explosives manufacturing plant near to where their amnesiac man was found. Delko sits with the man and tries to jog his memory with pictures, empathizing with his plight and recalling his own memory problems after his shooting. Based on the few details the man recalls, Delko is able to narrow down the search to an area near a school. With Horatio, Delko finds a trail of bloody footprints, which they follow to a house. Inside, they find three bodies: the Crawfords, bound, gagged and covered in blood. They also discover a wallet with their amnesiac man's driver's license, identifying him as Doug Benson.<p>Dr. Price determines that Mitch died after his wife and daughter. While Ryan scours the scene, Delko and Calleigh take Doug to a facility in the hopes of helping him recover his memories. He doesn't seem to have any memories of the crime scene until he's shown pictures of Mitch Crawford, causing him to panic. When Delko gets back to the station, Horatio tells him that Doug witnessed the murder of his own father when he was eight, which could have contributed to his trauma-induced amnesia. Dr. Price tells Ryan that while the knife wounds in Crawford's wife and daughter were deep, the ones that killed Mitch are shallower. Ryan turns to the Crawfords' personal effects and gets DNA off Mitch's watch that matches a man named Kurt Sabin. Sabin, a client of Mitch's who lost a million dollars due to Mitch's bad investments, admits to Horatio that he confronted Mitch at his house, but denies killing him--or even suing him, as eleven other clients had chosen to do. Travers analyzes a boot print Ryan found in the dirt outside the window of the Crawfords' second house and determines the person wearing it was around 6 feet tall, much taller than 5'8 Doug. Horatio confronts Logan Crawford, the only surviving family member, a military man in training down at Ft. Lauderdale. Logan admits he was at the house; he snuck out of training to see his family and found them dead. He didn't notify the police for fear of repercussions from the military for sneaking out, but he does recall seeing Doug in a red hat at the scene.<p>Calleigh approaches Delko, who is having a hard time with Doug's plight. She reminds him that he's not alone and he ventures that her friendship means a lot to him. She pulls back, telling him he's going to have to spell out his feelings and he hesitates. The two go in search of the red hat and Delko discovers it beneath a grate near where Doug was found wandering. Natalia matches the DNA on the hat to Doug, but also notices black particles, which Horatio identifies as GSR, leading him to believe Doug was forced to kill the family. First they confront Logan, who admits he had a purpose for being at the house: his father promised to leave some money for him in the fire pit. When he got there, it wasn't there. The CSIs examine the pit and get a print off the grate, which they match to Kurt Sabin. When they go to bring him in for questioning, Tripp finds a shotgun in his office. Sabin arrogantly claims the money was his; Mitch's bad investing cost him his club. After killing Mitch's wife and daughter to get the location of the money, he forced Doug, a good samaritan who happened by, to kill Mitch, figuring he'd pin the crime on him. He left Doug alive thinking the CSIs would assume he was the killer. Horatio tells Doug what happened, and when Doug asks, admits he could be charged with second-degree murder. Horatio admits that he could go to jail, but also tells the young man he believes there's hope for him.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p><i>Miami</i> starts 2009 off with this intriguing episode, which blends a great premise with some in depth character exploration. As soon as I saw poor, hapless Doug wandering down the street in the teaser, I immediately assumed he wasn't guilty of murder. I'm glad the answer wasn't as simple as whether or not he committed a crime; <i>Miami</i> has been wading into decidedly grey territory this season, much to the show's benefit. It provides much more food for thought for viewers when things aren't wrapped up in a neat package at the conclusion, and while every episode can't incorporate that complexity, it's always gratifying when one comes along that does. Even Horatio isn't certain what Doug's fate will be. He clearly has sympathy for the young man, but he acknowledges that it's possible he'll be charged with second-degree murder--and that that could result in jail time.<p>Doug is a sympathetic figure throughout the episode, save for one moment that confused me: after Doug is questioned by Tripp and Horatio for the first time, he lets slip a decidedly sinister smile as he's led out. I'm not sure whether director <font color=yellow>Sam Hill</font> meant for the moment to mislead the audience, but it stuck in the back of my head throughout the remainder of the episode. After seeing it, I half expected to find out at the end that he'd been playing the CSIs all along. I was happy to see that wasn't the case, but the inclusion of the smile is puzzling since it really does make him appear conniving. Aside from that moment, <font color=yellow>Thomas Guiry</font>'s performance is completely sincere and sympathetic. As tragic, traumatized Doug, Guiry exudes a kind of shocked resignation: he's pretty sure he's killed someone, and though he can't remember the circumstances, he thinks he should pay for it.<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/head_case.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
Great review as usual. That part confused me too. I was like, 'Wait, does that mean he did it?' I agree - plus, it's always nice when we actually get a chance to develop a real connection to a suspect. So many times on these shows, the guest-starring characters seem like cardboard cutouts. It's hard to sympathize with any of them. So getting to see so much of Doug and going back and forth about whether or not he's guilty was definitely a nice change from the Big Baddie of the week. In the end, he was guilty, but not in a way that was cut-and-dry. I must have gotten to the point that I have zero patience with relationships in this franchise because I just keep thinking that these two need to either sh*t or get off the pot. I can't stand 'will they or won't they' stuff at this point. Either flirt and keep it ambiguous or just get to the point already! :lol: Hahaha, yes, I always talk to the television screen when I see him in a lab coat. Funnily enough, I noticed the cute bearded lab tech from the beginning. *whistles innocently* I'm not so sure about that accent of his, but I've heard worse.