After rewatching last night's rerun of "Not What It Looks Like", at the end when they apprehend one of the "Hollys", she's freaking out because if they don't let her go to deliver the stolen diamonds, she knows they'll kill her friend. Stella/Flack are determined to arrest her. It shows a close up of Lindsay's face as she's watching the girl freak out over the thought of someone killing her friend, and she looks very troubled. That's when she pipes up and offers to go undercover as "Beth" to return the stolen goods. Seeing the girl so traumatized at the thought of someone killing her friend obviously resonated with Lindsay, and I actually missed "her look" during that scene, the first time around, and it was evidently supposed to be very significant in the overall "secret past" scenario. And that made sense, Lindsay being troubled over seeing a girl so freaked out over the thought of someone killing her friend, just another piece of the puzzle that brought the old memories back, since she also lost some of her friends.
Txs for pointing that out MBGrissom. I never noticed that, but with (what little) we know now her volunteering makes so much more sense. She had to help that girl who was about to lose one of her friends and when she did succeed (this time?!) that may have triggered something.
Um, I'm not sure what you're saying, VManso. Yes, the CSI writers seem to be incapable of writing totally unique plotlines for their female characters, but all I've seen so far is a discussion of Lindsay. What possible comparison do you see to Sara or Catherine?
Yeah, and that does explain why she went in. But the situation turned out okay and while Lindsay had a gun pointed at her, the only explosion was from the sound/light bomb she herself set off. I guess anything can set off PSTD, but it does feel like a crutch the writers are falling back on to explain why she's such an inconsistent character--nice one minute, freaking out the next. What happened with her friends also happened half a lifetime ago for her. Again, not to say PTSD couldn't pop up 15 or so years later (Lindsay looks to be at least 30), but given her career it's hard to believe that she hasn't encountered dead teens and people pulling guns before. The NWILL situation probably is what the writers were intending as the trigger for all of her odd behavior, but she had plenty of issues last season, too, in "All Access" and "Stealing Home" to name two.
Maybe I missed something, but what is PSTD? This is the second time I'm seeing it mentioned in connection with Lindsay. And are the writers actually saying this is why she's been inconsistent? I'm putting my money on something to actually have to do with her case back then that triggered something. She told Danny some things needed to be delt with, and she told Stella that she didn't understand it herself. I'm wondering what doesn't she understand, and what's being delt with. So I'm guessing something happened with a trial, the case, the person who committed the crime, something along those lines.
I think that "All Access" and "Stealing Home" were triggers as well, but not as much. There was nothing in those episodes that actually threatened her. Of course Sara brought back memories, but all in all, there was no gun held up to her face. Where in "NWILL", a gun was held up to her, and that would be scary to anyone, whether you had a terrible crime in your past or not. In her case, she did, and it seemed that all the memories came rushing back in an instant. I also think in "NWILL" she needed to go undercover to make sure she was okay with her past and that everything had indeed been dealt with. We've seen she was a bit wrong. Also,it seemed Linds seeing one of the three friends extremely upset that her other friend was about to be killed triggered something as well, she remembered the feeling of losing friends, and she didn't want Beth to suffer the way she had (and still is). I think a lot of the problem has to do with trust. Maybe it was someone she knew who comitted the crime. Therefore trust was broken between those she thought she could trust. It's hard to say at this point, but I like throwing out ideas to pretend I think I know what's going on. Also with the trust thing, she certainly needed Stella as her friend (and personally I think they've all got her back whether she knows it or not) because it'll help Lindsay grow back trust that she lost towards others. In a couple other chats I've read that people were suprised that the case in "Manhattan Manhunt" didn't give her the "willies". Perhaps part of the reason she was frusturated about working in the lab was because she wanted to see if she could handle the crime scene. IDK, I'm just throwing out ideas. If TPTB had thrown Lindsay out-of-whack as early as that- it would've been too early to introduce her background, considering yes, she is a new character. Just wanted to point out so I dont start anything... most of this is my opinion.
This sounds plausible to me. And as for PTSD (my mom's a psychologist), sometimes even the most innocuous thing can trigger it ... a loud crashing noise might snap a Vietnam vet back to his chopper crashing, for instance. That said, I believe the writers have written this clumsily. The fact that so many of us are baffled by it is an indication. It shouldn't be this difficult to understand, IMHO.