CSI: Miami--'Stand Your Ground'

[CSI Files]

Synopsis:

Calleigh leaves a diner and gets into her car, only to have a car pull up next to hers, the passenger aiming a gun at her. She draws her weapon and the car speeds off, but when she pursues on foot, the car turns around and heads straight for her, causing Calleigh to fire into it. The car veers off into a shoe store, crashing into it. When Calleigh goes to investigate, she finds the driver dead, the passenger escaped--and a woman, apparently a customer in the store, dead on the ground in front of the car. When the CSI team arrives, they identify the driver of the car as Mark Dow and the young woman as Valerie Gaynor, a middle school teacher. Delko comforts her, but IAB Rick Stetler turns the screws on Calleigh, asking her if she was drinking at brunch. She admits to having two mimosas, but her blood alcohol level is only .04, well below the legal limit. Blood on the glove compartment box leads the CSIs to Pete Morton, but when Horatio accuses him of attacking Calleigh, he counters with a threat to sue for personal injury. He claims the only reason he and Mark turned around and headed back for Calleigh is because a truck was blocking their escape route. He denies trying to run her over, but Horatio is skeptical. Alexx has some good news for Calleigh: Valerie Gaynor wasn't killed by the car crashing into the store. She was dead before it hit, meaning someone murdered her.

Stetler, who has already removed Calleigh from the active duty, asks why there are six mimosas on her bar tab. She claims they were for friends, but later confronts Jake Berkley, whom she actually had brunch with. He lies to her about the mimosas at first, claiming he bought a round for his buddies, but Calleigh sees through it and is not pleased. Horatio pays a visit to Valerie's school and talks to Dave Keppling, the art department substitute teacher, whom Valerie was seeing. Keppling mentioned Valerie looked tense on the morning of her death, but she didn't tell him why. Horatio's questioning is interrupted when a thirteen-year-old girl goes into seizures in the hallway, the victim of a drug overdose. Ryan finds drugs in Valerie's desk and wonders if she was dealing. He visits the home of Charlie Sheridan and his younger brother Logan, who caught Valerie trespassing on their property. Ryan wonders about Charlie's arrest for possession a year ago, but Charlie tells the CSI that the cops got it wrong. Ryan and Natalia turn to Valerie's journal and determine that she wasn't selling drugs to kids--she was trying to make a case against someone who was. They connect the drugs with candy found in the backseat of the car and realize that Valerie was tracking people selling flavored narcotics to children.

The CSIs go back to the car and discover the weapon used to kill Valerie lodged in the bottom of it: a dumbbell from a shoe display in the store the car crashed into. Delko and Ryan question the owner, Andre Harding, and when they find a lot of cash in his register, they suspect him of being in on the drug deals. Delko has good news for Calleigh--the location of one of the bullets from her gun negates the story Pete told about the truck blocking them; they were trying to kill her. When she thanks him, he tells her Jake found the evidence and asked him to document it. Ryan and Natalia find a tie tack in the glass shards from the shop with a school logo on it, connecting Dave Kepling to the murder of Valerie. Horatio figures out that he was the dealer Valerie was investigating. When she investigated the store--where Keppling was buying shoes to hide the drugs in before giving them to kids to sell--she saw Keppling there with Mark, Pete and Andre and realized he was the dealer. He killed her, but when they spotted Calleigh walking by, he worried she had seen something and sent Mark and Pete to take care of the problem. Vindicated, Calleigh tells Pete he'll be going away for murder, while Horatio finds one of the young drug dealers--Logan Sheridan--and gets him to turn in the others.

Analysis:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the most exciting episodes of any of the CSI shows are the ones where one of the characters has a personal stake in what's going on. This time it's Calleigh in the hot seat, and <font color=yellow>Emily Procter</font> shines throughout, delivering a nuanced and thoughtful performance. In Miami, the plotting of the cases is often so intricate and multi-layered that the characters don't get as many little moments to react personally to things as the characters on the other two shows in the franchise do, so it's especially nice to see an episode devoted to what happens to one of the Miami team when she's simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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[miamirocks]

Hey - awesome review. Calleigh definitely kicked ass in this episode. I've always complained about why "bullet girl" never got to fire her gun in the field. We know she's a great shot, and this episode really proved how tough she is - loved that! Emily Procter did a great job with her emotions, as you said. I hope Cal will be getting some more action in the field as the season goes on (if the writer's strike doesn't end it )

Surprisingly, one character who doesn't offer a single word of comfort to Calleigh--or even appear in a scene with her--is Horatio ... But why don't we get to see Horatio comforting Calleigh, offering her words of encouragement and promising to look out for her? Horatio is the team's leader, and when one of his people is in trouble, it really stands out in a negative way if he's not around with at least a few comforting words. At the end of the episode, he's not celebrating with Calleigh but keeping vigil in the hospital room of the girl who ODed, and then is seen offering comfort to a very misguided little boy. David Caruso is great with kids, but it still feels like something's missing when the hero of the show doesn't offer the leading lady a single word of support.

Ummm - all I'm gonna say is AMEN TO THAT! Couldn't have said it better myself. THANK YOU

As for H working a crime scene - that put a smile on my face, too . H with a flashlight looking for evidence - that was good to see. Maybe he'll upgrade to gloves next week? One can only hope - he is still a CSI, right?

I really liked the scene between Eric and Cal - glad she could cry on somebody's shoulder. The scene between Alexx and Cal was nice, too - Alexx is definitely the "mother hen" of this crew, and she needs more scenes. I mean, I'm glad they're putting her in more scenes so far this year than they did last season, but I was hoping for a little more Alexx in this episode. I think there's just too many darn cast members now...arrg.

LOVED Stetler - can't believe I said that, but yea, he's one of the better characters on the show. Nice comparison to Conrad Ecklie on CSI:Vegas. I feel H hates him just to hate him now, you know? Your analysis of Stetler wanting people to like him, but going about it in a negative way, was on target. Loved Calleigh calling him "Rick," BTW LOL. That was awesome.

As for Jake - he lied, and that's a definite red flag for any relationship. He seems to be getting a bit more complex and likeable, but then he pulls stuff like lying to Cal. I did like how he asked Eric to collect the evidence. BTW - What was up with the ring on Cal's finger? Any thoughts on that?

 

[church2001]

I do agree that Horatio should have offered Calleigh some words of encouragement or some kind of comfort (in fact I'm pretty sure the two haven't said a single word to each other since the season began).

It's interesting that you compare Stetler to Ecklie because Conrad has largely mellowed out since becoming head of the LV crime lab. Instead of being Grissom's nemesis, he's sort of become the no nonsense boss who begrudgingly respects the CSIs. Rick is sort of on that path right now and I do want to see what's in store in the future.

 

[Top41]

miamirocks said:
Hey - awesome review. Calleigh definitely kicked ass in this episode. I've always complained about why "bullet girl" never got to fire her gun in the field. We know she's a great shot, and this episode really proved how tough she is - loved that! Emily Procter did a great job with her emotions, as you said. I hope Cal will be getting some more action in the field as the season goes on (if the writer's strike doesn't end it )

Thank you! And yeah, Emily Procter was just awesome--she needs to get more storylines, because she's fantastic. It was great to see Calleigh in action, and be reminded of just how strong she is.

Ummm - all I'm gonna say is AMEN TO THAT! Couldn't have said it better myself. THANK YOU

As for H working a crime scene - that put a smile on my face, too . H with a flashlight looking for evidence - that was good to see. Maybe he'll upgrade to gloves next week? One can only hope - he is still a CSI, right?

It was definitely nice to have that reminder, because that's what this show is--a procedural. To not have him ever working crime scenes feels off.

I really liked the scene between Eric and Cal - glad she could cry on somebody's shoulder. The scene between Alexx and Cal was nice, too - Alexx is definitely the "mother hen" of this crew, and she needs more scenes. I mean, I'm glad they're putting her in more scenes so far this year than they did last season, but I was hoping for a little more Alexx in this episode. I think there's just too many darn cast members now...arrg.

Yeah, I would have liked more Alexx, too, but the scene she was in was so perfect. It was nice to see Alexx be the one to tell Calleigh that she wasn't responsible for Valerie's death.

LOVED Stetler - can't believe I said that, but yea, he's one of the better characters on the show. Nice comparison to Conrad Ecklie on CSI:Vegas. I feel H hates him just to hate him now, you know? Your analysis of Stetler wanting people to like him, but going about it in a negative way, was on target. Loved Calleigh calling him "Rick," BTW LOL. That was awesome.

Poor Stelter--he really does try, even if he also does his job very well. The questions he's asking and his investigations are important. If someone in the police department didn't do them, the department would be leaving itself open to accusations of bias and protecting their own. So Stetler's thorough investigation was necessary.

As for Jake - he lied, and that's a definite red flag for any relationship. He seems to be getting a bit more complex and likeable, but then he pulls stuff like lying to Cal. I did like how he asked Eric to collect the evidence. BTW - What was up with the ring on Cal's finger? Any thoughts on that?

I did notice the ring, but it looked more trendy to me than any engagement/wedding ring would be. However, this is Miami so you never know...

church2001 said:
I do agree that Horatio should have offered Calleigh some words of encouragement or some kind of comfort (in fact I'm pretty sure the two haven't said a single word to each other since the season began).

It really stood out in this episode. I'm kind of surprised there wasn't a scene at the beginning or at the end between the two--that was odd.

It's interesting that you compare Stetler to Ecklie because Conrad has largely mellowed out since becoming head of the LV crime lab. Instead of being Grissom's nemesis, he's sort of become the no nonsense boss who begrudgingly respects the CSIs. Rick is sort of on that path right now and I do want to see what's in store in the future.

Agreed, and I'd love to see Rick become more like Ecklie. I really like both characters a lot--they've never been those cardboard nemeses so many shows go for, who exist simply to make the hero's life miserable. I love that there's more to them. I still remember the great scene where Stetler was watching Horatio in church. I'd love to see a case come along where Horatio has to work with Stetler, and try to understand him more.

 

[Della]

Hello

Sorry, but I have to say that there are a couple of parts of your review that I disagree with, but to be honest, it is always lovely to read such an indepth view of an episode

I too think Emily Proctor did extremely well with what was given to her character for this epsiode, but, I'm afraid, I am still of the mind that Calleigh was very much out-of-character concerning the attitude she adopted throughout 'Stand Your ground'.

I'm sorry but the last thing on my mind was thinking that Calleigh Duquesne had seriously 'kicked arse' in this episode. Her attitude when dealing with Rick Stetler was rather insulting to the character, in my opinion, because she completley lost her cool, and when I consider that, sadly, Rick Stetler actually had every right to inverstigate the incident, her outbursts held no water whatseover for me.

In my opinion, to 'successfully' kick someone's arse for them, you at least have to have a strong foundation in which to start from, but when it came to invesitgating the incident, the ball was firmly in Rick Stetler's court, as in, he had every right to be there.

Also, Calleigh used an hypothesis to back her claim that she had been right to do what she had done, such as using the theory that if she had been drunk then she would be dead. It is something that cannot be said with any certainty whatsoever and certainly something that cannot be proven - unless you place Calleigh in a position where she is drunk and is facing a gun from someone who would like nothing better than to pull the trigger - and this lack of credibility to her argument weakened the character considerably for me.

All in all, in my opinion, there was nothing pretty about Calleigh Duquesne in this episode. She was mouthy, obnoxious and very much in the wrong, no traits I would have previously associated with Calleigh.

Also, I could not see one once of compassion coming from Alexx when she and Calleigh met in the Mortuary. In all honesty Alexx's attitude bordered on arrogance, a 'stick this where the sun don't shine, Rick Stetler' and yet the Alexx I know would have showed compassion towards Calleigh by asking how she was and then calmly told her that she had nothing to worry about because she had discovered that the woman had died before the car hitting the shop window. But we didn't get that at all.

All in all, I spent the entire episode wondering where the cool, calm, collected 'Team' had gone to. The 'Team' where they already knew without question that Calleigh had acted correctly and that the evidence they produced would prove this.

Instead I had to watch Calleigh adopt such a horrible, belittling attitude, and then Alexx adopt an arrogant stance that only conveyed a desperate need on her part to 'stick it to Rick Stetler' and then finally I was forced to watch Horatio make an arse out of himself by also questioning Rick Stetler's right to hold the investigation.

To be honest, I don't mind a woman sticking up for herself, even if that means her losing her cool and yelling, but the most damaging part of this episode concerning Calleigh Duquesne was that she never really had a leg to stand on in the first place when it came to her adopting such a condescending attitude during her interview with Rick Stetler.

Numerous times now it has been shown that Calleigh Duquesne is a strong, confident, self-assured character, however this episode slighted the character so much that it makes me wonder if I actually viewed the character correctly in the past.

This was a travesty of an episode because, for me, it damaged two of the main characters and it didn't seem to care about it.

In my opinion, if Rick Stetler can come away smelling of roses then there has to be something wrong - and I think this episode was just that in spades!

 

[adorelo]

Hello, hello.

I'm back offering you more praise and kisses I wont be here to annoy you next week, I'm afraid :lol:.

As usual, a wonderfully in depth review. Capturing both the positive and obscurities of the episode, you still manage to remain objective. Congratulations.

I am still of the mind that Calleigh was very much out-of-character concerning the attitude she adopted throughout 'Stand Your ground'.

Hey there Della,

I actually disagree. I can fully see where Calleigh was coming from. You say it's OOC for her, but no one can be a rock all the time. "No man is an island", is the famous quote I believe.

After going through an experience like that, being lied to and being accused would leave anyone shaken, especially for someone who bottles up her emotions like Calleigh does.

From a fan's point of view, I can appreciate what you're saying, Calleigh was very... different.

But as a psychologist, I say long time coming. I can tell you from personal experience, holding in emotions and anger can be very dangerous and it is something Calleigh does everyday. We always see this sunny, happy smiley persona (which is why I think you felt she was out of character to be negative - but please correct me if I assumed wrong) but once something happens to break a wall down, all the negativity comes out.

In her case, it came out in tears, and anger.

As for Alexx, I was a little confused myself. Her behavior could be seen as compassionate or arrogant and I wasn't sure which way to turn. But going off my past knowledge of her, I headed towards compassion, Though her tone was a little off for me.

Again, just my opinion I'd love to hear your views on this Della.

 

[Della]

Hello adoreola

I do agree that bottling any form of emotion up, especially betrayal and anger, can have a negative affect on the person and that a negative emotion will sooner or later, depending on the individual, be expressed often ten times more vociferously than if they had initially let go (though not always).

However, this was not the problem I had with Calleigh and is not the reason why I thought, in my opinion, she was acting out of character. My main problem with Calliegh was because what she used as a justification for her actions, which was to raise a hyperthetical situation, weakened her stance for me and therefore changed how I perceived her outbursts, and it also changed how I viewed her manner as well.

My other problem is, I honestly have never viewed Calleigh as a smiling, grinning, nothing can hurt or touch me kind of character and we've been shown on many occasions now how something has affected her. In all honesty, I don't have to be shown a full blown breakdown such as someone bursting into tears or yelling at someone else to know how that character has been affected. Just a glimpse of it will do and leave the rest up to the audience to figure it out.

So, from that POV, what we've been shown before concerning Calleigh, I honestly can't believe that such a situation would have rattled her so easily and would excuse the attitude she adopted throughout. Also, if she thought she was right in what she had done, and that the alcohol reading was not an issue, then why did she react in the manner that she did, and most especially with such an attitude?

The core of the Calleigh character, and all of the CSIs, is that the evidence will speak up for itself and yet, all of a sudden, the three most experienced CSIs were behaving as if this wasn't the case, that they did not have any confidence in Calleigh or the situation, to the point that they felt the need to try and belittle Stetler, which, for me, brought into question all three characters. (Horatio, Calleigh and Alexx)

You could say that this was the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for Calleigh, however, it's not how I viewed it, and I can only assume that the reason I never viewed it that way is because it's not been made clear to me that Calleigh was on the verge of striking out in the way that she did. There has been no foreshadowing whatsoever as far as I'm concerned.

You mentioned Calleigh being lied to. I can't honestly recall anyone who had lied to her. I suppose you could assume Jake had, but you could not say for definite because we never saw Jake in the bar with or without his buddies.

On that, there was a lot left to audience interpretation in this episode, which I think was criminal to be honest, because it left Calleigh's actions, such as her attitude, very unclear, in my opinion.

For instance, was Calleigh off-duty for the entire day, or was it just a lunch break with Jake where she was expected to return to work afterward? If the latter was true then her having a drink knowing she would be going back to work raises a whole lot of other questions and again, more importantly, weakens her stance. We can assume she was to have had the whole day off but we can't know for sure and, in my opinion, that's something that should not have been left to audience interpretation.

Also, where was Jake when Calleigh left the bar? Had something happened between the two that had triggered Calliegh's attitude later? Had she actually met Jake for lunch? If so, then how was it that she only knew about his buddies when the receipt was shown to her and she questioned him on it?

In my opinion, all of these questions should have been answered on-screen, and possibly more, because then we may have been shown a justifiable reason, without question, as to why Calleigh was behaving in the manner that she was. As it is, without that, we are left to assume and not know for definite

As for Alexx's attitude. I honestly can't see it being compassion. I can see it as her being supportive, but her tone and attitude did not suggest any sort of compassion to me because the tone and physical stance that Alexx conveyed was harsh, abrasive and arrogant - That what she imparted to Calleigh was more like a 'Go stick this in Stetler where the sun don't shine, girl' and considering that Stetler had every right to hold the investigation in the first place, I felt, and still feel, that Alexx's attitude was very questionable.

These are just some of the reasons why, for me, Calleigh was very much out of character in this episode, and also Alexx too, but they are just an opinion

I enjoy a good old civilised debate and if you'd like to continue chatting about this I'm more than willing

 

[miamirocks]

Hey Della,

Thought maybe I could clear some things up about the episode after having watched it a second time around:

1. Was Calleigh off all day or just on break? — She said to Eric that it was "her day off" - so yea, she had the day off.

2. Where was Jake? - She said she had met someone for brunch - meaning Jake. Later on that day, Jake was on-duty, and it was mentioned that it was not his day off. So he probably left for work again after brunch (and four drinks later) and Cal left shortly after, which is when she ran into trouble. (Because it was not Jake's day off, it seems as if he's the one who has the problem.)

3. Did Jake lie to Calleigh? — I think he basically admitted as much when he talked about his "undercover" days and how he had to do things he didn't like to - he said he was "just a guy trying to unwind." That to me indicated that he had lied to Cal, b/c he did not try and continue to argue his story. He didn't say, "Cal, I mean it, I didn't have four drinks, it was my buddies" - he started talking about his time undercover - that tells me there's a problem.

4. The outbursts — No facts here, just conjecture Calleigh seemed oddly out-of-control, but I think her outbursts and death stare at Stetler may have been b/c Stetler had hurt her relationship with Jake. Remember the new policy? Well, Stetler was quick to punish Jake and Cal for breaking it - and now they had to have this relationship in secret. Another issue is that Cal basically had to conceal the truth - if Stetler found out that she was seeing Jake, there would be consequences for both of them, so she was on edge during both of her conversations with Stetler.

Regarding her outburst w/the criminal - yea, that was weird - that whole "too bad he's dead" line seemed way to callous and cold - she killed the man. But maybe that's another point - we've never seen Cal even shoot her gun in the line of duty, (she's drawn her gun, but I don't think she's ever shot at someone) let alone kill someone.

Maybe knowing that she was responsible for someone's death for the first time really was eating at Calleigh and kept her on edge. I mean, killing someone is not easy to deal with, no matter what the situation is. (This is why H's character has been bothering me so much lately - he shoots to kill with ease.)

The problem, I think, is that the episode did not focus enough on Calleigh to get inside her head. All we saw were these outbursts, but the context was missing. I was actually waiting for H to fill in the blanks with her, to talk to her about it, but obviously he never did.

As for Alexx - I think she was just happy to vindicate Calleigh. I think everyone hates Stetler for what he's done in the past (and let's not forget the guy beat Yelina...he's no "nice guy".)

Horatio and Stetler fighting is not a first - I mean, it made no sense for Horatio to defend Eric in "Shattered" - he'd popped positive for marijuana, and all the evidence pointed to Eric's guilt. Horatio has always erred on the side of his team and has had confidence that they are doing the right thing. I think he said what he did to Stetler b/c he believes in Calleigh, that she wouldn't act irrationally. He was trying to protect his team, like always, and sometimes that means ignoring the preliminary stuff until all the evidence and hard facts are brought to light - things are not always what they seem on the surface, and he understood that.

So...yea. I think Calleigh did what she had to do, and I hope that the next few shows will not drop this whole thing. It's an important arch for Calleigh, and I hope it will color other future episodes.

 

[macpeyfan]

I have a question - when the car turned around and started back at her, why didn't Calleigh just get out of the way? I've never understood why just getting out of the way isn't an option.

 

[starzsgirl]

I think Calleigh went into fight or flight mode and decided that she was tough enough to fight back. Also the adreline was a huge factor and she was then ready for anything.

 

[Top41]

Really interesting debate in here! I love it when an episode gives us something to talk about. I agree that Stetler wasn't wrong to pursue the line of questioning he did, but I think Calleigh's defensive reaction was natural. She'd been in a stressful, horrible situation, and when it was all over, she found herself under fire from the department. Maybe she didn't react in the most professional way verbally, but she did pretty much remove herself from the case unless called in by another member of the team (Alexx, Delko). I think her angry reaction was very human, and she probably did expect a little more credit from the department for her years of good service and clean record.