CSI Files
Captain
<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Fresh off a performance, a stand up comic discovers the body of a little girl in a packing box. The CSIs begin the search for the four-year-old's identity and her killer as Brass deals with the press. Dr. Robbins determines the little girl, whom Catherine dubs "Baby Cordelia," was killed by a blow to the head. Hodges determines that a substance found on her body was drain cleaner. When mourners set up a memorial for the girl, Warrick installs a camera in case the killer returns to the scene. Hodges finds evidence that the girl's hair was dyed and curled, leading the CSIs to wonder if she was abducted and her appearance changed. Prints off the packing slip tape from the box the girl was found in lead the CSIs to Nora O'Toole, a bubbly young woman who lives with her boyfriend, Dean James. Nora says the box was from a vacuum cleaner she bought and that her boyfriend got rid of for her. Dean confirms her story. Warrick searches the missing persons database and believes he's found the identity of the little girl: Sashira Sayeed, but when he brings her parents in to identify her body, they say the little girl is not their daughter. A hair on the box matches to a registered sex offender, Leo Finley, who turns out to be none other than Dean James, Nora's boyfriend. Catherine interrogates him and he tells her he's in the database for accidental indecent exposure. He denies having anything to do with the little girl's death, but Catherine remains skeptical. The CSIs catch Leo in a lie when they learn he brought a car part in the box to a body shop near where the girl's body was found. He says he lied because he didn't think they'd believe him.<p>The CSIs finally get an ID on the girl when a convict named Donald Balboa recognizes her as his daughter, Inez. He tells the CSIs he suspects his former cellmate, Boyd Waldrip, of killing her. Boyd is now married to Donald's former wife, Grace, and has two children with her. The CSIs storm the house where Boyd and Grace are living, but the family is gone--and it looks like they left in a hurry. Catherine discovers blood under the kitchen sink. Boyd, Grace and their two children are tracked to a diner, and Boyd takes the customers hostage when he's recognized. He's talked into giving up, but in the chaos, Grace is fatally shot. Devastated Boyd agrees to confess that he killed Inez, but Catherine gets a different story from Inez's half-siblings, who tell her that they played a game of hide and seek while Boyd slept on the couch. Inez hit her head while hiding under the sink. When Boyd woke up and discovered her bleeding and unconscious, he took a bus to the hospital because his wife had the car. Inez died on the way, and he left her body in the box. Because of his status as an ex-con, he didn't report her death, fearing he'd be blamed. Catherine leaves for the night and is confronted by Leo, who accuses her of ruining his life and tells her he's contemplating suicide--and that it will be her fault if he does take his own life.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>The death of a child is always a downer, and out of the three <i>CSI</i> shows, the flagship's tone, lighting and score lend the subject the most pathos and gravitas. There's a grimness to the Vegas show that the spin-offs don't have, which generally makes the dark episodes of <i>CSI</i> intense and depressing. The opening of "A Thousand Days on Earth" is reminiscent of <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season5/no_humans_involved.shtml">"No Humans Involved"</a>, when Greg discovers the body of a small boy in a box in the trash. Unlike that boy, the body of Inez Balboa has not been literally thrown away in the trash but carefully arranged in the box, though she is discarded all the same. Unlike Devon Malton, Inez's death is the result of an accident, not neglect.<p>Boyd Waldrip isn't negligent in the same way Divine, Devon's guardian was, though like Divine he wasn't Inez's birth parent, but her stepfather. Unlike Divine, he's torn up about the girl's death, though he still makes an attempt to conceal it, assuming his status as an ex-con would prevent anyone from believing that Inez's death was an accident. <font color=yellow>David Meunier</font> gives a great performance in Boyd's final scene, when he admits to Catherine what happened with Inez. There's anguish in his demeanor and speech, and it's no surprise when Grissom discovers Boyd and Grace on the surveillance camera the CSIs set up at Inez's memorial.<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/a_thousand_days_on_earth.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>