CSI: Crime Scene Investigation--'The Gone Dead Train'

Discussion in 'CSI Files News Items' started by CSI Files, May 7, 2009.

  1. CSI Files

    CSI Files Captain

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    <p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Doc Robbins is frustrated when a body with no known cause of death lands on his table--the third in two weeks. Brent Kelly's mother Darla told the authorities that she discovered her son having a seizure and tried to revive him after he lost consciousness, to no avail. Robbins persuades Catherine to accompany him to visit Darla Kelly, but when they arrive the woman attacks Catherine and bites her before collapsing to the ground, dead. While Brass and Langston insist that Catherine go to the hospital, Nick goes over the Kelly house. Langston joins him and finds a bottle of insulin prescribed by a Dr. Shaw. Nick goes to the clinic where Shaw works and speaks to Susan Schiff, a nurse, who tells him Darla was a patient and came in three days ago complaining of flu-like symptoms. She tells Nick that Darla's son Brent was a horrible human being who may have been beating his own mother--and that he tried to score some Oxycontin from the clinic. In the morgue, Doc Robbins autopsies Darla and realizes she's now his fourth inexplicable death. He shares his frustrations with Langston, and tells the CSI about the first three men who died, noting that unusual body modification is the only thing the three men have in common. Langston and Nick are able to find the parlor that the men used, and when they go to check it out, they're greeted by the manager, Eric Tobin. He points them in the direction of the owner, Jack Shaw--none other than the clinic doctor who treated Darla. Jack tells them he's a retired coroner from Reno. When shown the pictures of the body art on the dead men, he recognizes it as the work of Van Goe, a man he recently fired from the clinic. Brass and Nick find Van Goe working out of his shed, and arrest the man when he refuses to cooperate with them.<p>Back at the morgue, Doc Robbins is still at a loss for finding the pathogen that killed the four people. He and Langston look at Darla Kelly's brain and are stunned to discover the woman had rabies. Doc Robbins recalls Catherine was bitten by Darla, and Langston rushes to the supervisor's office to get her to the hospital. After reassuring her the incubation period is 72 hours, he ushers her out the door to go for treatment. Langston goes over recent cases of rabies in the US and is surprised to find an organ donation from several years ago in Reno when a woman was given a liver infected with rabies. Langston realizes the coroner at the time--Dr. Shaw--must have missed that the donor of the liver was infected with rabies. Brass goes to arrest the doctor and is surprised when the manager, Tobin, collapses in front of him. Tobin tells Brass that he got a shot of antibiotics a couple of days ago before having a procedure--common practice by Dr. Shaw at the body art shop. Once in custody, Shaw insists he's being framed and when Langston asks him about the case in Reno, he says that the rabies symptoms weren't apparent--and that the victim's family didn't mention the man had been bitten by a raccoon before his death. Shaw finally asks for a lawyer. Susan Schiff brings in bag of biologicals she found in Shaw's trash, and admits she's been dating the man. Nick takes the bag to Wendy, who tells him the needle used to administer antibiotics to Tobin was positive for rabies.<p>Langston and Doc Robbins take a trip to Reno to pay a visit to the coroner's office. They tell the clerk there that they're researchers from a local hospital and once granted access, they find the records of the transplant patient who died, Sandra Williams. They also see that the after Sandra's death, her husband, Eric Tobin, filed a lawsuit against the hospital. Langston and Robbins head back to Las Vegas, where they tell acting supervisor Nick that they believe Tobin framed Shaw as revenge for his wife's death. Robbins notes that with the big malpractice settlement he got, Tobin had no need to seek a job at the body art shop. Nick points out that Shaw's girlfriend brought in a bag containing a salivary gland from a rabid bat--likely what he used to make the virus. Suspicious of Susan, Langston runs her record and finds she used be Susan Williams from Reno--the mother of Sandra. Nick interrogates her and Eric separately. Susan tells him that watching her daughter die was agonizing--and that she wanted Shaw to pay for it. She claims that she and Eric only chose lowlifes to infect with the virus. Eric volunteered to take a shot of the disease to throw further suspicion on Shaw, knowing Susan wouldn't let him die. After the two are arrested, Shaw thanks Langston for believing in his innocence. Langston tells him he simply didn't assume he was guilty. Doc Robbins brings a recovering Catherine and card and flowers to apologize for her ordeal.<p>While the rest of the team pursues the mysterious deaths, Greg and Riley have a puzzle of their own on their hands: a dying girl has been found underneath a truck. While Riley accompanies the dying girl to the hospital to collect evidence from her body, Greg and Detective Vartann follow a drag trail to a house occupied by two girls, Rhonda and Diana, who recognize the girl as Kayla Nootens, a member of their diet club. They tell Greg and Vartann that Kayla insisted on walking home the night before after a diet club meeting. They suspect Kayla may have had a run in with her skeezy ex-boyfriend, Elvis Rodriguez, who dumped her after she gained weight. When he's brought in for questioning, Elvis admits to having sex with Kayla--which he insists was consensual--but denies murdering her. David Phillips performs his first solo autopsy on Kayla and determines that she bled out after being stabbed in the neck. Anemia as a result of extreme dieting caused the wound, which might not have otherwise been fatal, to lead to her death. Hodges examines her stomach contents and finds garlic, potatoes, apple, cinnamon--evidence she was cheating on her diet. On a hunch, Greg and Riley practice dragging Hodges, who weighs about what Kayla did. Suspecting that Rhonda and Diana did their diet club buddy in, they bring both women in and find out the three had a fight over who would go on a trip for losing the most weight. In a fit of pique, Rhonda threw a pork chop at Kayla, which pierced her neck. Threatening to sue, Kayla stormed out and collapsed. Assuming she was dead, Rhonda and Diana dragged Kayla's body under a truck and decided to pin her death on her ex-boyfriend. Greg tells them she died hours later, bleeding to death because they abandoned her.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>Doc Robbins gets out of the lab to chase a particularly baffling case in this entertaining entry. While it doesn't quite qualify as a lighter episode of <i>CSI</i>, there are definitely some entertaining moments seeded throughout, and the B-case is more than a little amusing. The real treat here is seeing the little moments between the characters, the camaraderie and gentle teasing that gets dropped in during the investigation. <i>CSI</i> might be the granddaddy among the plethora of crime dramas that populate the networks now, but loyal viewers are as drawn in by the characters as they are by the mysteries. There isn't always time for much of that beyond the occasional quip here and there, but this episode gets in more than most do.<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/the_gone_dead_train.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
     
  2. Faylinn

    Faylinn Adam Fangirl Super Moderator

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    Excellent review, as usual. :)

    My favorite parts of this one were the scenes with Doc Robbins - I've been looking forward to this episode since the CSI Files interview with Robert David Hall, and I wasn't disappointed. I loved his interaction with Ray, especially when they were lying in Reno. Awesome stuff. :lol: I also adored the scene where Doc brings Catherine flowers. So funny and cute.

    David doing his first solo autopsy was also a great part, and I enjoyed the scene where Hodges was getting dragged across the floor. The best parts of this one were definitely the character interactions.

    The cases were interesting (the one with the dead girl was morbidly humorous), but the fact that it was revealed ahead of time that the victims had rabies (in Hall's interview) kind of took away some of the suspense. I was waiting for them to figure it out rather than waiting to find out myself. (I wouldn't have been so bothered if the 'medical mystery' aspect hadn't been emphasized.) The 'whodunit and why?' aspect was still interesting, though.
     
  3. Top41

    Top41 Administrator Administrator Moderator Premium Member

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    I did put a spoiler warning at the top of the interview, didn't I? But I agree that knowing it was rabies took some of the mystery out of it. I actually suspected Eric Tobin from the beginning, too, but only because he gave the CSIs his full name. Whenever anyone does that, chances are, the case is going to come back to them in one way or another. :lol:
     
  4. Faylinn

    Faylinn Adam Fangirl Super Moderator

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    Oh yeah, there was a spoiler warning - I was just kind of surprised that they gave it away ahead of time. I figured if they said Catherine got bitten by someone with rabies that there would be a different twist involved - like the other mysterious deaths weren't from rabies or something, and it was a separate issue.
     
  5. church2001

    church2001 Witness

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    I loved that Greg and Riley got to use Hodges as a test dummy. Four seasons back, I remember Grissom and Sara used Greg in a similar capacity (when the larger woman squeezed her man to death in bed; can't recall the episode name). It just shows Greg doesn't have to do these kind of tests anymore.
     
  6. poodlelu

    poodlelu Civilian

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    I'm new to the forum so I hope I get this right! I enjoyed this ep much more than some of the recent ones, it was more like its 'old self' with two cases on the go and a bit of friendly banter among the cast which seems to have been missing recently. I did guess right off that it was Rabies, however the episode was so well put together that it didn't spoil it one bit. Great episode!
     
  7. Top41

    Top41 Administrator Administrator Moderator Premium Member

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    Welcome to the forum, poodlelu! :D Great to have you here. I really enjoyed the ep as well--there was a nice team dynamic to it that's always fun to see. And yes, the Hodges dragging scene was funny! I have to say, I really like Riley a lot--the character/actress is a great addition to the team.
     

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