CSI: Crime Scene Investigation--'No Way Out'

Discussion in 'CSI Files News Items' started by CSI Files, Mar 16, 2009.

  1. CSI Files

    CSI Files Captain

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    <p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Following a training exercise addressing hostage situations, the team is called out on multiple 419s in a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood. Two people are dead, the victims of fatal gunshot wounds: the street neighborhood watch captain, Bill French, and a seven-year-old boy named Jason Morley. The apparent targets were Priscilla Hatcher, whose home was broken into, her son, Reggie, and nephew, Frankie Kirkland, but only Priscilla has been found and is on her way to the hospital. .38 caliber bullets from a 9-millimeter gun are recovered from the street and Catherine posits that the neighborhood watch captain may have fired at one of the suspects. Brass notes that neighbors saw an SUV parked in front of a house a few down from Priscilla's, and Catherine finds fresh collision damage to two cars parked near it, indicating that the SUV sped off. Nick and Ray process the Hatchers' house and Nick discovers a palm print on the television set from the struggle while Ray takes note of Reggie's diploma, which shows he was the valedictorian in his high school graduating class. Nick finds a book of checks with Reggie's address on them indicating he lives right down the street--in the house the SUV was parked in front of. Meanwhile, Brass gets a lead on a shooting victim who was dropped off at Desert Palms Hospital. By the time Brass and Catherine get to the hospital, the man, Marcus Garfield, is dead. From distinctive tattoos on his face and body, Brass is able to identify the man as a member of the Snakebacks, a dangerous Vegas gang that deals in drugs. Catherine wonders if Reggie was involved in dealing drugs in some way, and Brass says that if he was, he and his cousin are probably dead. Back at the lab, Catherine and Hodges go over surveillance footage from the hospital and see Marcus Garfield tossed out of an SUV with tinted windows. They run the plates, but the car belonged to Garfield himself. Riley recovers 27 bullets from the scene, all from a 9-millimeter gun.<p>Six blocks from where the murders took place, an abandoned car is discovered in a mall parking lot. When Catherine and Brass show up, they find the body of a man named Aaron Sweets, a member of the Snakebacks, in the trunk. In the morgue, Dr. Robbins uncovers four .22 bullets from the body, and determines the man has been dead for 24-48 hours, meaning he wasn't involved in the attack on the Hatchers. The team is able to identify a second suspect, Robert "Little Bobby" Danwood and determine that a stray bullet from Garfield's gun struck and killed Jason Morley during Garfield's shootout with French. Nick is able to connect Reggie to the Snakebacks when he finds four outgoing calls on Aaron Sweets' phone to Reggie's landline. Ray and Riley return to Reggie's house, which had been searched by the police but never processed. They call Reggie's landline and follow the ringing to a closet, where they discover a hidden door down to the basement. When they go down into the basement, they find an extensive drug lab with the components of PCP on various tables. While they set about processing the basement, Brass learns from Detective Vega that Reggie was pushing drugs in Snakeback territory. Greg goes to tell Jason Morley's grief-stricken father that his son's killer is dead. In Reggie's basement, Ray notices fresh blood on a pipe and signals to Riley that they need to leave, but before they can a boy, Frankie Kirkland, bursts out of a door to another room waving a gun and ordering them not to go anywhere. Behind them they can see the wounded Reggie Hatcher. Greg comes to check on Riley and Ray and a frantic Frankie orders Riley to get rid of him, so she goes to the stairs and tells Greg that "It's okay, Riley, we don't need any help." Greg catches onto the way she calls him by her name and goes to get help.<p>Ray recognizes Reggie and offers to look at his injury. Reggie has a huge piece of glass in his shoulder from his altercation with Garfield. Ray tells Frankie they need to get Reggie to a hospital, but Frankie refuses to budge and let anyone leave. Riley manages to turn on a walkie talkie so the team, assembling above with SWAT, can hear what's going on in the basement. Frankie strikes her when he sees her fiddling with it, but assumes she has turned it off after he orders her to do so. Riley identifies the gun Frankie is holding as a .22, but when Frankie hears a helicopter above, he realizes what she's done and smashes the walkie talkie. Riley reminds Frankie he hasn't hurt anyone yet, but he tells her he killed a gangbanger--and also reveals he's only fourteen years old. The landline starts ringing and Frankie panics, but Ray tells him that if he's going to save Reggie, he needs his kit, which is in their SUV. Riley answers the phone and says she's coming up for the kit. She does, alerting Nick, who is hiding behind a car that she's okay--and armed. She returns to the basement with the kit and Ray removes the piece of glass from Reggie's shoulder, causing an artery to begin gushing. As Ray calls for help with the artery, Riley pulls her gun and tells Frankie to help his cousin--and drop his gun. Frankie reluctantly does so, and with Frankie's help, Ray is able to stop the bleeding. The four emerge from the basement: Reggie is taken to the hospital and Frankie is arrested, with a caveat from Ray to Brass that "he doesn't have to be a lost cause." Relieved their ordeal is over, Ray and Riley are reunited with the team.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>Nothing screams, "Danger ahead!" like opening an episode with a training program addressing hostage situations. The heavy-handed foreshadowing intro is a misstep in what is otherwise an exciting, if not exactly shocking episode. Why give away the rather clever tell of Riley calling Greg by her name in the intro when it would have played out much more dramatically later in the episode without the earlier flag? I think Greg--and the audience of <i>CSI</i>--is smart enough to figure out that Riley is signaling that she and Langston are in trouble when she calls him by her name without the set up during the training exercise. Though previews for the episode gave away the fact that Ray and Riley would run into trouble while processing a crime scene, the opening sequence essentially does the same thing--never a good thing in a mystery series. Though it provides for a little bit of humor with Greg getting "taken hostage" by the man testing the team, overall it simply serves to telegraph the upcoming danger. The time could have been better devoted to getting a better sense of the Las Vegas neighborhood that is rocked by two murders.<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/no_way_out.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
     
  2. Nicksfriend

    Nicksfriend Police Officer

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    Though it provides for a little bit of humor with Greg tripping and getting "taken hostage" by the man testing the team, overall it simply serves to telegraph the upcoming danger.

    Nick tripped the pan leaning against the wall with his foot,not Greg.
     
  3. Half

    Half CSI Level Two

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    Nice review, Kristine! I've been waiting for this one. :)

    I agree that Ray was definitely the more calm one. Riley is more of a risk-taker, even though she was obviously a little edgy about the whole gun-in-face thing.

    About the opening... no matter how extremely foreshadowing it was, I still liked it. :D

    One tiny thing I had to point out, though: Riley is hit when she knocks over the radio. When Frankie hears the helicopter, he goes to hit her with the radio, but doesn't and just smashes it against a wall.
     
  4. Top41

    Top41 Administrator Administrator Moderator Premium Member

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    Thanks, guys. Fixed in both places!
     
  5. Faylinn

    Faylinn Adam Fangirl Super Moderator

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    I agree that the scene at the beginning was overkill - I did enjoy that little head-jerk thing Greg did when they were ribbing each other about it afterwards, though. :p

    Another thing that seemed to scream All Is Not As It Seems was the numerous references to Reggie being such a good student and whatnot - I was like, 'Well, we're going to find out he's been doing some bad things.' Lo and behold, I was right. Making PCP in your basement? Seriously? :rolleyes:

    Overall, it was an interesting episode, and I like learning more about the newbies - as you pointed out in the review, we've known the other guys for years. It only makes sense to let us see the new guys a bit more. As long as the older characters aren't forgotten in the background, I think it's all good. :)

    I felt so bad for poor Mr Morley. :( He lost his wife and now he's lost his son. Losing his son would have made him a sympathetic character in any case, but that's just a lot of bad luck for one person. I did enjoy Greg's scenes with him, though.

    I also enjoyed Catherine hugging Ray at the end. I want to hug Ray. *pout*
     
  6. myfuturecsi

    myfuturecsi Corpse

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    I said this before it was a good scene with Greg because it's shown how far he's come. He's grown a lot since his kooky lab days-although I do miss those lab rat moments because he was very, very funny.

    Get in line sister!:lol: I want a big bear hug from Morpheus!
     
  7. koshi700

    koshi700 Dead on Arrival

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    This episode was good. I admit I was annoyed that it was once again an episode focused on Langston. But they managed to focus a bit more on the other characters. Namely Greg, so it eased that annoyance quite a bit. Though I do wish we could have an episode or two where Langston is just "there" like the other characters are from time to time, and doesn't have to have a "special scene" to draw attention to him. I think we are slowly making our way to that though, so we'll see.

    I loved all the Greg moments, it was nice to get to see him do something for more than five minutes and actually have an emotional connection to the case. I loved the beginning, I thought it was funny and cute.

    I enjoyed getting to see what makes Riley tick a little. I wouldn't mind seeing more of her.

    It was nice to see at least a little focus on Catherine being in charge. There has been very little focus on that. And I would like to see how she is mentally handling filling in Grissom's shoes.

    But all in all, I really enjoyed the episode. It was well done. :)
     
  8. happyharper13

    happyharper13 Pathologist

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    Great review! Personally, I disagree about the 'foreshadowing' scene. Maybe it was cheesy, but I really enjoyed that scene. It was great to finally see some team bonding (and Greg holding a gun sure didn't hurt). I loved the banter between the younger CSIs after it. I thought it was really great to get some more background on their job, aside from just the case narrative.
     
  9. Faylinn

    Faylinn Adam Fangirl Super Moderator

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    Greg was definitely a funny guy back then - I think they've regained some of his humor now, but for a while he seemed like a shadow of his former self when he became a CSI. It's one of the reasons I'm reluctant to like the idea of Adam ever becoming a CSI on NY - I wouldn't want him to lose his zing the way Greg did by moving into the field. (Not that there's any indication of Adam moving into the field, just me thinking. :p)
     
  10. m1304m

    m1304m Dead on Arrival

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    Two Weeks ago, after sitting through an extremely boring and painful episode 5. I decide to give up watching CSI after being a diehard fan for 9 ½ years.

    A couple of day ago a friend called and persuaded me to watch Episode 6 and 7 which she had taped. She was eager to hear my take on it. After watching it prompted me to post this.

    I totally agree with Jayceepat that Fishburne is being forced down our throat and he is likely to be up for sainthood by the end of March sweeps. Episode 6 opens with the CSI’s celebrating Nick’s birthday. I would have expected Catherine or Greg to get a gift on behalf of the CSIs. Instead St. Langston a new comer who had only known Nick for 5 weeks picks up a gift for him.

    Previously, CSI had always taken great care to get even the smallest of details correct. In the scene 356days, Nick gets a voicemail from Grissom wishing him Happy Birthday. On his cell phone the date was Mon 02-09-09. So he must have gotten a call from Grissokm from the future! When Haley was found dead, I was surprised that Brass could not recognise her (yes she had coloured her hair) but he had questioned her a couple of months ago but being a police officer for more than 25 years – he would not have forgotten a face easily. As usual the glory of breaking the case was given to Langston with his eagle vision – he pointed out the barbwire fence and logo on an officer to Nick.

    I would have expected Catherine or Greg whom Nick had worked with for so many years to console him when he cried like a ‘sissy’ over the death of Haley whom he had met briefly a number of times. Again St. Langston, the hero came to Nick’s rescue.

    Since Petersen’s exit, the CSI’s spend most of the time discussing cases walking along corridors. I have notice that Fishburne can hardly bend or squat to examine evidence. Moreover although Catherine is the boss, it seems Langston is running the lab. I have a feeling that in a couple of weeks he will be promoted to CSI 3.

    Episode 7 again glorified Langston. In Season 5 Down the Drain, Grissom was told by Hazmat to get out of the basement where explosives were found. In this episode Langston and Riley – CSI are taking photos for Hasmat and processing PCP Lab and at the same time perform a surgery! Both Langston and Riley’s acting was so poor. I applaud Reggie’s and his cousin’s acting!

    The episode was more like a soap opera. As usual the glory when to Langston – Catherine giving him a hug and the rest of the CSIs patting him on his back. I’m really lost for words! If I’m not mistaken, it was Riley who disarmed the suspect – saving both her life and Langston. By the way, Langston had put the suspect life at risk by performing surgery with his pudgy fingers, which could have put the suspect’s life in further jeopardy.

    By the way the SWAT Team should have been in charge of the hostage situation not the Forensic Lab!

    This time St. Langston went a little further, telling Brass that Reggie and his cousin who had not only held him and Riley hostage but shot a gang banger, should get a fair deal. In reference to the interview with George Eads “Smith and Riley are a good fit” What I am going to say is going to piss off Eads fans. The Only role Eads is cut to play is as Nick Stokes. The movie Evil Kenivel was a flop. So I’m sure he has plans never to quit CSI as long as it is running.

    “Fishburne’s a Dream” says Eads, “I feel he raises our integrity level” – obliviously Eads is doing a publicity stunt for CBS. Fishburne who is well known for his other roles looks silly playing Langston. I won’t be surprised if he quits at the end of Season 9. If he stays then the money must be good!

    My family, friends and I strangely feel that since Petersen’s exit CSI has been pure “crap”. It is obvious that CBS has been cutting cost – letting go of some good writers and crew!

    I miss CSI, when it was really CSI with William Petersen!
     
  11. all_aboard

    all_aboard Civilian

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    loved the episode :thumbsup:

    it was great to see how the new CSIs reacted in a situation like that

    Riley was great ... and very calm considerng how she reacted to the gun in "say uncle" but she didn't seem to get enough credit for getting them out of the hostage situation :shifty: oh well she rocks anyway :p

    but i was thinking ... does anyone know if the episode summary for the season finale "it's a tough job but raymond's gotta do it" is true?
    because i thought the chances of Riley being held hostage twice in the one season is quite unlikely
    don't know if that was really a spoiler but i thought i'd just be on the safe side :p
     
  12. Top41

    Top41 Administrator Administrator Moderator Premium Member

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    I definitely like the moments of team bonding. I just think the training exercise totally signaled what was going to happen later in the episode, and was too heavy-handed. It's always nice to see the whole team together, though.

    That's bound to happen with a new character though--especially a new character played by a major actor. I hope we'll see a little more of Ray fumbling, like we did in "One to Go" when he tried to reason with the serial killer.

    I saw the tie as more of an inside joke from Ray's first case in "The Grave Shift." And didn't Greg get him a cake?


    The scene offered development for both Ray and Nick, though. Nick was grappling with his feelings over Haley's death and Ray is trying to make sense of the new job. It fit, at least in my book, in part because the two people I'd most expect to see comforting Nick--either Grissom or Warrick--are gone.

    And 'sissy'? Ouch! Poor Nick. :lol:

    The "pudgy fingers" thing totally made me laugh. :lol: But yes, it was Riley who disarmed the suspect--it's nice that Ray didn't play the superhero there. I don't think that's his character--he's a much quieter guy than that. And I like that--I like that Riley was the tough one in the situation and the one who took the risks.

    I miss Petersen, but I have to say, I think CSI is just as good without him. The writing is still excellent, and the new cast members are doing well.

    Yeah, definitely somewhat spoilery! I'd be curious to read the whole description. Where did you see it?
     
  13. all_aboard

    all_aboard Civilian

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  14. Top41

    Top41 Administrator Administrator Moderator Premium Member

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    Interesting--I guess it's possible, but I certainly hope that's not the case! It seems like overkill to me.
     
  15. m1304m

    m1304m Dead on Arrival

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    Thank you Top41 for your respond :thumbsup:, unfortunately, I disagree that “CSI is just as good without Petersen”

    That is pure injustice to Petersen. A few years ago Anthony Zuiker contributed that the success of CSI goes to Peterson – “The Very shoe that I wear, the car that I am driving and the house I am living is is all because of Billy”

    One does not have to be a diehard fan to realise this. Since Petersen’s exit CSI is like a diamond that has lost its lustre. It has moved into the ranks of the other two mundane CSI series. It has lost its realism. CSI was formerly an interpretation of crimes. It captures the details and it is left to the CSI’s figure out the details and ties the evidence to the crime. Now it looks more like a soap opera! For 8 ½ years it had a dynamic cast with Grissom being the looming figure BUT NEVER the Hero. He is not always right and nobody have ever given him a hug or pat on the back for solving a case or when he was almost killed in an explosion in Season’s 5 finale.

    In season 8, Dropout Catherine – I like it when he gets it wrong. It makes him human.

    When Fishburne first appeared in episode 10, he was not that impressive. I considered him as the case of ugly duckling – he will bloom in time.

    But after 7 episodes, sadly he is still the ugly duckling. His acting is mundane and there is hardly any chemistry between his character and the others.

    In episode 10, his character was impatient and fumbling. And just overnight he was transformed to “Superhero” – Mr. Nice, Mr. Goodwill and the one able to solve any crime! CSI has since become cheesy and operatic. Too much is focused on his character that it overshadows the rest of the cast. Many times when Petersen was away, the show was still quite good.

    Previously, as a viewer, I enjoy “playing csi”, going along with the character to solve cases. Now it has become too predictable and there is hardly any suspense!

    Petersen on the other hand brought out the best in the other characters. Grissiom and Catherine were like a married couple whom have been married for a long time. They hardly look at each other when they talk, she is always looking out for him and she is always telling him what to do. On the other hand, i love banters between Grissom and Hodges. Grissiom does not allow him to cross the line but allows him a little leeway, Hodges trying hard to be ‘teacher’s pet’. Even the relationship between Grissom and Sara was not cheesy. Science still ruled the show. Grissom and Greg – Greg was like a teenager and Grissom the father who is always hard on him! Grissom and Dr. Robbins – they bring ‘live’ to the morgue.

    These days, scene between Dr. Robbins and the other CSIs especially Langston look like a ‘funeral scene’. In every episode there seems to be at least one scene of them bonding. Why is there the need for them to bond so much?

    “The Writing is still excellent” – NO WAY, many of the story line is so muddled and confusing, Overall plain boring and predictable. And there is also some evidence of plagiarism, only viewership and ratings will decide if CSI is just as good without Petersen. In Season 6, episode 1, we see the CSI approaching he crime scene as a team with Grissom in the forefront. They looked magnificent ! In Season 9, episode 7, the same scenario is repeated with Langston in the forefront. I know that I’m being wicked but this is my honest opinion, Langston looked like a “gorilla emerging from the mist!”:guffaw:

    Episode 6 had a quite good viewership that is most probably due to Taylor Swift’s fans tuning in.

    I hope they do not repeat the same thing that is getting some singing sensation with no acting skills just for getting the viewership’s up.

    “And Sissy – Ouch Poor Nick”. Nick had handel murder cases involving children. Yes he was upset but did not shed any tears. Why now? I’m not being mean but Haley was no angel. She did not care about anyone else except herself and even peddled drugs at one time. To cry over her death openly – someone he had briefly encountered a number of times was too much for me to stomach. Watching Episode 6 & 7 almost made me puke but I did not want to waste such a good dinner!
     

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