CSI Files
Captain
<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Picking up the minute <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season8/for_gedda.shtml">"For Gedda"</a> concluded, Under-sheriff Jeffrey McKeen, who has just shot Warrick twice, calls in the shooting and claims he saw a white adult male fleeing the scene. Blocks away, Grissom hears the APB and rushes to the scene. He pulls Warrick from the car and begs him to hang on, only to have Warrick die in his arms. Catherine and Nick arrive soon after, stunned by the tragic news. McKeen tells Brass that he was twenty feet west of the alley when he heard the shots. He ran back to find Warrick wounded and the shooter fleeing the scene. He tells Brass he thinks it may have been Officer Daniel Pritchard. Grissom tells Ecklie he wants his team to work the case, and the supervisor acquiesces. Catherine finds a .25 casing and a pistol by the passenger side of the car, where the shooter appeared to have been standing. Nick wonders why Warrick would have rolled down the passenger side window and not his own. Grissom turns over his shirt, which is covered in Warrick's blood, and returns to his office to find a devastated Sara Sidle waiting for him. She's heard the news and offers solace and help. Sara and Greg go to Warrick's apartment, where they make a shocking discovery: Warrick had a son, Eli, with his ex-wife Tina, and he was involved in a custody battle for the boy. Nick discovers knuckle prints on the passenger side window of Warrick's car and tells Grissom and Catherine that he thinks the killer knocked on Warrick's window. Nick knows Warrick wouldn't have opened his window for Pritchard; he thinks McKeen is corrupt as well and, when he saw Warrick wasn't going to back down, killed him.<p>Grissom, Catherine and Nick test McKeen's story about hearing the gunshot and determine that from the position he claimed he was standing in, he couldn't have heard the shot over music that was playing in the street the morning Warrick was shot. Grissom goes to Brass with the information and Brass tells him he's always felt McKeen was a man who could be bought. They recall Warrick's assertions that someone higher up that Pritchard was involved in the murder of Lou Gedda. McKeen, certain no one is on to him, wants to get Daniel Pritchard, who he's been hiding at a seedy hotel, out of town. When Grissom comes to him with the team's suspicions, Ecklie advises caution and suggests that they need find concrete evidence, leading the CSIs to turn to the tiny .25 bullets. Mandy Webster is able to get a partial print off one of them--enough to match it to McKeen. The CSIs trace McKeen's phone calls to the hotel where he's been hiding Pritchard and storm the room, only to find it empty. Brass places a call to McKeen and keeps him on the phone long enough to get his location and learn he's on the road to Mexico. The police give chase only to find McKeen's car overturned after having smashed through a guardrail. Pritchard is dead inside, and Nick follows a blood trail to find a wounded McKeen--shot by a mistrustful Pritchard--who quickly realizes the game is up when Nick aims his gun at him. McKeen taunts Nick who fires a shot just to the side of McKeen. Brass and his men arrest the crooked Under-sheriff. Grissom and his team lay their fallen colleague to rest. <p><b>Analysis:</b><p>Far and away the most gut-wrenching episode of <i>CSI</i> to date, "For Warrick" is a tear-jerker. That the team has gone this long without losing a member is perhaps surprising; they've certainly had a few near misses. Nick was saved in the--pun intended--nick of time in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season5/grave_danger.shtml">"Grave Danger"</a> and it really seemed to be touch and go for a while after Brass was shot in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season6/bang_bang.shtml">"Bang Bang"</a>. Given the buzz surrounding <font color=yellow>Jorja Fox</font>'s planned exit for the show, there was genuine tension around her plight in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season7/living_doll.shtml">"Living Doll"</a> and <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season8/dead_doll.shtml">"Dead Doll"</a>, especially given the title of the latter, but it would have been a depressing ending--even for <i>CSI</i>--if Sara had struggled through the desert and Grissom and the team had labored to find her, only to have her die in the end. Given all of those near misses, though, by the time <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season8/for_gedda.shtml">"For Gedda"</a> rolled around, it wasn't exactly impossible to guess that maybe the CSIs' luck had run out.<p>That doesn't make Warrick's death any less shocking or heartbreaking. The scene in which Grissom discovers Warrick shot and pulls him from the car is devastating. <font color=yellow>William Petersen</font> pours his heart into the scene; the audience feels Grissom's shock and horror at finding his protégé gravely wounded. Warrick literally dies in Grissom's arms as Grissom, as he tells Sara later, tries to hold him tight enough to keep the life from seeping out of him. Anyone who saw the final scene of "For Gedda" knows it's a futile effort: McKeen shot Warrick point blank, twice, in the neck. I'll admit, I was surprised to see McKeen actually called in Warrick's shooting, and tried to pin it on Pritchard rather than just leaving Warrick to die and be found at some point by someone else. But then, it seems McKeen is just that arrogant: he clearly thinks he's covered his tracks well enough, and underestimates the CSIs' ability--and determination--to uncover Warrick's killer.<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/for_warrick.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
I wanted to get this one up earlier, but I also wanted to have the time to really do the episode justice.
