"Backfire" Discussion **SPOILERS**

[Smokey]

Episode Title: 'Backfire'
Episode Number: 1319
Synopsis: "When the CSIs investigate a triple homicide, Russell has to find a way to connect with a 6-year-old girl who was the sole survivor and witness."
Original Airdate: April 10, 2013

Written By: Jack Gutowitz
Directed By: Frank Waldeck

Guest Stars:

• Larry Mitchell as Officer Mitchell
• Amy Acker as Sandy Larken
• Kylie Rogers as Molly Woodwin
• Dey Young as Agnes Goodwin
• James McCauley as Bruce Goodwin
• Malea Mitchell as Crystal
• Vincent Ventresca as Connor Durman
• Wings Hauser as Tony Lash

 

[Smokey]

Finally a promo for the episode! Nothing like waiting until the last minute! :lol:

 

[Smokey]

Not a bad episode, although I didn't really see Nick and DB "bonding" and apparently they decided not to have the stripper recognize "Nicky" as spoilers indicated.

It seemed a bit like "Blood Drops" at first with the little girl and then the icky body in the trunk was like "Bodies in Motion" except Greg didn't taste it this time. :lol: I was shocked that the guy in the trunk didn't turn out to be tied to the home invasion murders.

And an ongoing pet peeve of mine...that Agnes woman seemed like she would have been the little girl's grandmother, not great grandmother. Sure enough, the actress is only 11 years older than her "son" in the episode. Sorry, but that's just distracting to me.

And I always enjoy Hodges. :lol:

 

[MacsGirlMel]

This one I might have to bring up on On Demand, due to the 'Angel' castmember...there wasn't any ship stuff, was there?

I find it interesting they recycled Amy Acker for another role in the same series...although I don't know how large the part was this time. Last time,she was in a few scenes, and then was more visible at the end, since she was the perp, IIRC. I know that, aside from the ones who've been in two or all three series, which I only notice every now and then,a lot of people have been in minor roles more than once in one series. Of course, that's nothing compared to...who was it that was in 'Unbearable' and then returned as a recurring character? I want to say Henry or Bobby, but I'm not sure.

 

[blackflag]

I find it interesting they recycled Amy Acker for another role in the same series...although I don't know how large the part was this time. Last time,she was in a few scenes, and then was more visible at the end, since she was the perp, IIRC. I know that, aside from the ones who've been in two or all three series, which I only notice every now and then,a lot of people have been in minor roles more than once in one series. Of course, that's nothing compared to...who was it that was in 'Unbearable' and then returned as a recurring character? I want to say Henry or Bobby, but I'm not sure.

That was Henry (Jon Wellner) in Unbearable. And he actually wasn't the first - Archie Kao was in Chaos Theory (s2) before he was Archie Johnson.




Susan

 

[sharp52092]

Reminded me of Blood Drops and Bodies in Motion and even 73 Seconds

I had a feeling the son/grandfather was involved when they mentioned he had been out of the picture for awhile

I didn't realize Amy Acker was returning as the Wendy clone, I remember seeing the motorcycle crashing into the buses in the promo, but I didn't realize it would be continuity. I figured they were recycling that scene

"She'd a black widow and I'm going to prove it" had me cracking up laughing :lol: and so did the ground squirrel posion /explosion Greg explained

 

[Rena]

And an ongoing pet peeve of mine...that Agnes woman seemed like she would have been the little girl's grandmother, not great grandmother. Sure enough, the actress is only 11 years older than her "son" in the episode. Sorry, but that's just distracting to me.

To me, too. I had to play it again to make sure I really heard her saying "great grandmother" :wtf: They would have had to be in their very early 20ies to make her a great grandmother at the age of 65 - 68.

I thought it was a good, solid episode. I liked Hodges, Morgan, and Greg, but there was no Sara. Btw. I'm wondering whether they're working day shift or night shift? There seems to be no difference anymore.

 

[Smokey]

I thought it was a good, solid episode. I liked Hodges, Morgan, and Greg, but there was no Sara. Btw. I'm wondering whether they're working day shift or night shift? There seems to be no difference anymore.

It's always been muddled over the years, but I'd say they're still officially on grave shift. Last night Nick made reference to the home invasions being investigated by the day shift.

 

[MacsGirlMel]

Oh this is continuity from that ep? Cool

 

[Rena]

I thought it was a good, solid episode. I liked Hodges, Morgan, and Greg, but there was no Sara. Btw. I'm wondering whether they're working day shift or night shift? There seems to be no difference anymore.

It's always been muddled over the years, but I'd say they're still officially on grave shift. Last night Nick made reference to the home invasions being investigated by the day shift.

Oh, then I missed that reference. All the more odd because they solved the home invasion case without even contacting day shift. But hey, who cares? They're all geniuses and omnipotent :lol:

 

[stokesmyfire]

And an ongoing pet peeve of mine...that Agnes woman seemed like she would have been the little girl's grandmother, not great grandmother. Sure enough, the actress is only 11 years older than her "son" in the episode. Sorry, but that's just distracting to me.

To me, too. I had to play it again to make sure I really heard her saying "great grandmother" :wtf: They would have had to be in their very early 20ies to make her a great grandmother at the age of 65 - 68.

I thought it was a good, solid episode. I liked Hodges, Morgan, and Greg, but there was no Sara. Btw. I'm wondering whether they're working day shift or night shift? There seems to be no difference anymore.

It happened in my family.

My mom had my oldest brother at 19/20, he had his oldest son at 23 or so and my nephew had his daughter at 20 so my mom was a great-grandmother at 64.

I would have liked for Nick to bond with the girl, did they forget he's good with kids too? Guess that's Russell's thing now. I did like how Nick seemed to take this case more personally for some reason, maybe it had to do with the girl, a throw back to Cassie McBride (Gum Drops) and wanting to give Molly's mother back to her since he couldn't with Cassie?

Loved the Nick/Doc Robbins part--sometimes it gets to you Nick? I'd say that was an understatement since you quit.

I figured Morgan/Greg's case was tied in too, what a surprise that it wasn't. Nice parallel with Morgan/Hodges and the the girl and the guy who died, kissing when her father was in the hospital.

The way the guy died felt like an old CSI ep. :lol:

When is the next one on? Putting a rerun of Elementary on next week,really?

 

[Crumbs]

I would have liked for Nick to bond with the girl, did they forget he's good with kids too? Guess that's Russell's thing now. I did like how Nick seemed to take this case more personally for some reason, maybe it had to do with the girl, a throw back to Cassie McBride (Gum Drops) and wanting to give Molly's mother back to her since he couldn't with Cassie?

Doesn't mean there has to be just one person on the team who's good with kids though.

I really thought this was a great episode! Plenty of callbacks to past stories ("Homebodies" and "Tell-Tale Hearts" spring to mind for the A-case and I got a "Bodies in Motion" vibe to the B-case) and there was a welcome return to some science and forensics which has been lacking in some stories this season. Particularly with Greg/Morgan's case.

I definitely thought the characters felt more like characters than robots in this one too. Brass was his usual sarcastic self, DB and Nick showed some compassion/frustration/determination and I loved how excited Greg got about explaining his theory of "death by burping". It's a shame that the best character-balanced episodes have to come at the cost of one of the main characters (Sara).

The gran was pretty damn cold though. Having your two children, who were molested by their father, killed in order to protect the father. That's the first time in a while I've been disgusted towards one of the perpetrators in the show.

Two things which bugged me though:

- What was the opening all about? The girl was seen making some eggs and then going outside before meeting the police but it's not ever mentioned again. Was there any relevance to that or was it just there to have an artsy-looking opening?

- One line I thought that came off as cringe-worthingly bad was when Nick looks into the camera and says "we're gonna hunt them down". The combination of the camera angle, the choppy editing and George's delivery made it seem like Nick was trying to channel Horatio... and it was bad. Note to the director, don't try anything like that again please.


Oh and regarding the day shift/grave shift discussion, I think I'm right in thinking that any crime which gets called in between midnight - 8am gets sent to grave shift, so it looks like both cases were early rollout calls. That's my explanation for why they were working in the day.

 

[stokesmyfire]

I would have liked for Nick to bond with the girl, did they forget he's good with kids too? Guess that's Russell's thing now. I did like how Nick seemed to take this case more personally for some reason, maybe it had to do with the girl, a throw back to Cassie McBride (Gum Drops) and wanting to give Molly's mother back to her since he couldn't with Cassie?

Doesn't mean there has to be just one person on the team who's good with kids though.

No, but Russell seems to be the kid handler now, I know Nick had a few kid cases and Sara too, it would be nice to see them interact with the "main witnesses" from time to time again.

I really thought this was a great episode! Plenty of callbacks to past stories ("Homebodies" and "Tell-Tale Hearts" spring to mind for the A-case and I got a "Bodies in Motion" vibe to the B-case) and there was a welcome return to some science and forensics which has been lacking in some stories this season. Particularly with Greg/Morgan's case.

I definitely thought the characters felt more like characters than robots in this one too. Brass was his usual sarcastic self, DB and Nick showed some compassion/frustration/determination and I loved how excited Greg got about explaining his theory of "death by burping". It's a shame that the best character-balanced episodes have to come at the cost of one of the main characters (Sara).

The gran was pretty damn cold though. Having your two children, who were molested by their father, killed in order to protect the father. That's the first time in a while I've been disgusted towards one of the perpetrators in the show.

Two things which bugged me though:

- What was the opening all about? The girl was seen making some eggs and then going outside before meeting the police but it's not ever mentioned again. Was there any relevance to that or was it just there to have an artsy-looking opening?

Yeah, and Molly walked through the blood but they never showed her steps or talked about them either and she had blood on her feet at the hospital.

- One line I thought that came off as cringe-worthingly bad was when Nick looks into the camera and says "we're gonna hunt them down". The combination of the camera angle, the choppy editing and George's delivery made it seem like Nick was trying to channel Horatio... and it was bad. Note to the director, don't try anything like that again please.

Oh and regarding the day shift/grave shift discussion, I think I'm right in thinking that any crime which gets called in between midnight - 8am gets sent to grave shift, so it looks like both cases were early rollout calls. That's my explanation for why they were working in the day.

Didn't they have an ep called "Early Morning Roll Out" or something that went into dayshift?

There was also one with Grissom going to a school on a Saturday (though he had the day off) and it was morning so I would say that's right.

I hope I did the quote things right. :shifty:

 

[CRM]

Another meh episode, at least to me. Sara had to be M.I.A., again. *sighs* Maybe, it's just me, but why do I lately come to the conclusion that when the least suspected character had to end up being the perpetrator? So, I gather that it was the 'great-grandmother' who either set up for someone or perhaps herself to beat to death several victims, for her sick infatuation for a child molester. If she did, she must have a hell of a swinging pair of arms.

Hodges being Hodges again. Now he's interrogating? Lmao! If the motorcycle dude being pinned by two big-ass vehicles was from a previous episode, I must have missed that. Or could it have been an old episode where Hodges rode a motorcycle and was it during the Ray Langston days?? I wish I could remember.

It's funny how the guy in the trunk looked like Sir Paul McCartney, yet he was discovered to die from a Gene Simmons pull. Hopefully, Gene always fire-breathes, or fire-burps in open places, otherwise he'd end up the same way. That trunk death is similar to the CSI: Miami episode where the guy dies while Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond blasted away.

I thought it would be edge-of-my-seat, yet it got a little confusing with some typical CSI Vegas quirks thrown here and there. A pretty meh episode just because Sara wasn't in it.

 

[Smokey]

I hope I did the quote things right. :shifty:

Close. I fixed them tho.

I wondered about the kid making breakfast too. I mean, the whole deal was that her mom taught her what to do if there was trouble...call 911 and go wait outside. Didn't say anything about making breakfast first. :wtf:

They've all had their moments with kids. This one did remind me of "Blood Drops" and when Sara said she left the girl in the car but cracked the windows. :lol: