CSI Files
Captain
<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Sky diver Pierre Delongue plunges to the ground, the apparent victim of equipment failure. The local sheriff is convinced the skydiver's near-fatal fall wasn't an accident and calls in the CSIs. Nick and Riley question Max Girard, the man who co-owns the jump school with Pierre, and Mink and Schuyler, Pierre's two girlfriends, but all deny attempting to sabotage Pierre, though there's clearly some jealousy between the two women. Nick confirms that Pierre's equipment was sabotaged, but can't find any DNA from either woman or Max. Ray Langston has an equally puzzling case: a monk is found dead in the desert. Tattoos on his body identify him as "Holy Steven," and Dr. Robbins and Ray examine his skull and brain, determining he was likely killed by blunt force trauma to the top of his head. Ray and Brass visit Steven's "temple"--an office in a strip mall--and find it renamed "Church of the Holy George." George tells the pair that he and Steven went into the desert and that Steven sent him back on the third day. When Brass posits that George whacked Steven on the head with his staff, George confesses that that indeed is what happened. But when Wendy tests the staff, she finds no evidence that George used it to kill Steven. Langston finds a DVD of Steven's teachings and realizes the man believed in acquiescence above all else, Brass puts George in an interrogation room and quickly realizes that George is agreeing with whatever he says. George is innocent, leaving Langston and Brass with no clue as to who really killed Steven.<p>Catherine and Greg respond to a call for a double homicide in Seven Hills. Ismail Javier and his business partner Allen McKenna are sitting dead in chairs in the backyard while Ismail's hysterical wife points out that her husband's bodyguard is missing. When the first officer on the scene and Gretchen both fall ill shortly after the discovery of the bodies, Catherine realizes a deadly toxin is at work and quarantines the scene. Henry finds evidence of digitoxin, a cardiac glyceride that causes arrest in large doses on a cigar at the scene. When Catherine returns to the scene with a team, she uses a spray and florescent lights to detect the digitoxin--and finds it covering everything in the backyard. Realizing it was spread from the air, she works with Archie to track flights and finds one small plane flew over the scene at the time of the murder. Surveying the area the flight took off from, she realizes it was from Max and Pierre's jump school. Catherine calls Nick, who goes to the hanger and finds digitoxin on the plane. Brass visits Pierre, conscious but almost completely paralyzed, in the hospital and finds Max by his bedside. He gets the story out of the two men: a man visited Max and threatened harm would come to his family if he didn't fly the man over Javier's house. Feeling trapped, Max was on his way to fly the plane when he got into a car accident. He called Pierre and asked him to take the flight. Pierre did, and the man pulled a gun on him and forced him to fly over the house--and then the man sprayed the poison down onto Javier and McKenna. Guilt-stricken, Pierre was unable to live with his part in it, and sabotaged his own equipment, hoping to end his life in the dive. Pierre gives Brass the man's name: it was Javier's bodyguard, who was working in tandem with another man. Both are arrested. Still mulling over Steven's death, Langston goes back to the scene and finds a tortoise with blood on it. After confirming the blood is Steven's, he realizes the tortoise was dropped by an eagle hoping to smash open the animal's shell onto Steven's head after the bird mistook Steven's bald head for a rock.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>A true ensemble piece, there's a real natural flow to "The Descent of Man" that underscores how the recently shaken and stirred CSI team is settling into a routine and a rapport. There's been so much change in the last year for the show, with Sara's departure, Warrick's death and then finally Grissom's departure. The show lost three characters and gained two new ones--Riley and Langston--and the episodes this season, especially the ones since Grissom's departure have definitely been ones of transition. While the show hasn't slipped at all in quality, it has had to find a new balance. With no fewer than three principle characters gone, the entire tone of the show could have changed. Episodes like "The Descent of Man" prove that it hasn't--while also showcasing how the new characters have indeed impacted the show.<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/the_descent_of_man.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
