CSI: New York--'One Wedding And A Funeral'

Synopsis:

Brett Dohn and Emma Blackstone are set to have the wedding of the season in Central Park, until Brett turns up dead. The CSIs discover he's been wrapped in bubble wrap and apparently wasn't killed in the room where he was found. Mac finds yellow paint transfer on a curb nearby, especially puzzling as the curb was painted at 6 a.m. and Sid determined the groom died between 2 to 3 a.m. Sid makes a gruesome discovery when he unwinds the bubble wrap--someone has shoved a cell phone into the laceration that killed Brett. Hawkes discovers evidence that orthopedic pads were removed from the groom's shoes, but comes to conclude the shoes were switched out by the killer, based on the yellow paint and the shoes' worn appearance. Hawkes and Flack find the primary murder scene--the hotel room where Brett was staying the night before, and conclude that a missing wedding gift might contain the weapon. Hawkes and Mac match hair from Brett's clothes to one of the groomsmen, George, but while George admits to wrapping Brett in bubble wrap and moving the body to satisfy a hundred thousand dollar bet that Brett would make it to the altar, as well as switching shoes with Brett, he denies killing his friend. A bit of green goop leads Danny and Flack to the caterer, Timothy Maxwell, whose child had a birthday party the day Brett was killed. Phone records from Brett's cell indicate he was calling Timothy incessantly, and Timothy admits to reaching a breaking point when he was called away from his son's birthday to change the catering menu at the last moment. He sliced into Brett with a spatula from a wedding gift, and shoved his cell phone into his body before leaving.

Stella leaves the courthouse after testifying at a preliminary hearing to make a frightening discovery: someone has left a box on her car. After the bomb squad declares it safe, she opens it to find puzzle pieces inside. After confronting Drew Bedford, who insists he didn't send her the puzzle, she brings it back to the lab. She notices blood splatter on it and sets Adam to the task of reassembling it. He does, revealing a partial 3-D architectural landscape of New York. There's one piece missing, so Stella goes to Drew's and finds a piece under his desk. She apologizes to him on the way out. Adam tells her the piece isn't a match, so she and Lindsay go to the building and the floor the piece would have depicted where they find another box, a chalk outline of a body and a satchel. Stella is puzzled; so far she can't find a personal connection in all this to her. She and Lindsay follow up on a tiny piece of redwood found in the corner of the first box, which leads them to a store where a pedophile named John Andrews work. They question him, but his ankle bracelet provides him with an alibi.

When Mac sees the puzzle, he realize it's connected to him, not Stella. It's a roadmap of the places in New York that are significant to him: his first apartment, his first crime scene and the building where he got engaged. A third box is discovered on the roof of that building, with more puzzle pieces and another piece of debris, this one limestone from the Alamo. Mac realizes the fragments, along with an imprint on the satchel, are connected to the Tribune Tower in Chicago, which features stones from world landmarks on it. Mac arrives in Chicago at the Tribune Tower and gets a call from the 333 stalker, asking him how it feels to be home.

Analysis:

Poor Adam Ross. The guy couldn't catch a break in this episode. First he has to assemble the contents of a box full of puzzle pieces together without any help. Somehow he manages to figure out that the puzzle is a 3-D one and his reward is...another box with a bag of puzzle pieces in it. Then he brings evidence he can't make sense of to Danny, offering to pay the CSI twenty-five dollars. Danny smirks gleefully, figuring out what the substance is in a matter of seconds. That was probably the easiest twenty-five bucks Danny Messer ever made. And then poor Adam gets another bag of puzzle pieces, though this time Lindsay condescends to help him assemble them because now she can impress the boss by helping out. Poor Adam; I imagine he got a bigger headache going through all that than I did watching it and trying to follow the twisted path the story took.

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Excellent review, as always--and good catch with the timeline problem. I need to re-watch it to know for sure if they explained it or anything. Maybe we're supposed to assume that Timothy went to change the menu and didn't get done until later, and when he went to see Brett afterward, that's when things got ugly...

Also, yay for Adam!

 

Mac did not let the shirt sit around for weeks. It had been processed and run through CODESS with no matches. He did pull it out of an evidence bag after all. I am of the belief he is keeping things on the down low (or was) as opposed to being "slow on the uptake".

I am quite enjoying the 333 storyline. Mac has often been a man of steel and seeing him off balance and shaken up (like in the voodoo store) is a little refreshing.

At any rate, the 333 line is supposed to culminate next week - hopefully it has a strong finish. The spoilers I've read for the ep sound terrific.

I agree they are making Stella into a dim wit with this Drew thing and I am finding that boring. She's a great character and I think they are mucking this up.

 

Danny does mention that Brett was calling Timothy at all hours every day. Thus its logical Brett called him in the afternoon (during his son's party) to change the menu (which probably could only be done at his place of business). Then Brett most likely called again at 2 am to change the menu one more time. This, of course, proverbially broke the camel's back. However I wish this was explained better during the show since we do get some clues like the cell phone records (maybe those scenes were cut for time).

However I was wondering what caused the wedding fight at the beginning. Did the groom not show (considering he was dead)and tempers flared between both families?

 

Great review Kristine. Yes, the wedding murder was a bit confusing but I thought he'd been called from his son's party to make the new menu, and saw Brett later that night with it, at which point he killed him. I quite enjoyed the wedding story although I felt it was a little rushed, and was overshadowed by the ever so confusing and somewhat irritating puzzle pieces. One puzzle, fair enough, two would have been acceptable, but three... Mac really has seemed rather slow in this one, because this incredibly patient, persistent and creative 333 stalker has managed to run rings around him. Mac has a 3D puzzle of his life? He really must be the special one.

:lol: Oh how I wish they had gone down that route with the storyline... I'll be relieved when it is over.