CSI: Miami--'Urban Hellraisers'

CSI Files

Captain
Synopsis:

After an ATM machine eats his card, Delko heads into Dade Mutual Bank to get it replaced. But while he's arguing with the bank manager, Frank Welch, about overdrawing his account, three bank robbers burst in. They take cash from one of the tellers and take the manager hostage, but when they go to rape a young woman at the bank, Delko draws his gun and shoots the would-be rapist. The other two robbers flee, taking the manager with them and fatally shooting another teller. When Alexx arrives at the scene, she's surprised to discover the dead robber is just a teen. The CSIs find nothing makes sense on the case: the dead robber has a clicker counter, one of the robbers was wearing wheelies on his feet and they only robbed one teller, taking $18,000 dollars. Though they shot the cameras in the bank, Delko recalls that there are several cameras around the ATM. When Delko and Ryan go over the footage with Dan Cooper, they spot the robbers car stop when the people inside spot Delko's Hummer. Dan Cooper is able to focus on a Miami University decal in the window of the car. Ryan places a call and learns that a dye pack exploded on a female student.

Calleigh questions Kim Mills, the girl who the dye pack from the stolen money exploded on. Kim claims she came upon a duffle bag containing the money in the laundry room and that it exploded on her when she opened it. Calleigh doubts her story, but Kim claims the only reason she was reluctant to come forward was because she was using a new, empty dorm's laundry room. Calleigh remains skeptical. In the lab, Ryan finds a large water stain on the bottom of the moneybag. Horatio tells Ryan that Erica Sikes has been looking for him. Delko analyzes the water stain and discovers coolant in it, leadings the CSIs to the Miami University ice rink. They go to the basement where the ice is made and discover the bank manager tied up. He tells the CSIs that the robbers were interested in the Federal Reserve bank drop. They arrive at the rooftop drop in time to stop the robbery, capturing one of the robbers. The kid remains defiant, saying they're "still in play." The words are familiar to Ryan: it's video game lingo. Ryan recalls a similar game called "Urban Hellraisers" and thinks the kids might actually be recreating the action in the game.

Calleigh greets Treasury Agent Peter Elliott who has arrived to look into the attempted bank robbery. They flirt briefly before Elliott goes off to interview Kim. Horatio and Tripp interrogate Gabe Hammond, the young man who was trying to rob the Federal Reserve officers. He is flip with them and says they decided to rob the bank after seeing Delko's Hummer because robbing a bank with a cop inside offers bonus points in the game. Each player used a clicker to keep track of the points he earned. Horatio is disgusted, but he can't get any information about the third bank robber, the one wearing the demon mask, out of Gabe, who claims not to know the guy's name. Horatio and Tripp track down Chris Allen, who wrote the game and owns the company that makes it, but he refuses to tell them about the games' levels, telling them instead to play it. They arrest him and give Ryan the task of playing the game. When he gets to the second level--the Federal Reserve robbery--Ryan notes that a sniper is supposed to be involved, so Delko and Horatio go back to the scene and discover the demon mask on a roof overlooking the helicopter drop where Gabe tried to rob the Federal Reserve officers.

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Excellent review! Wish I could express myself as well as you do.

The holes on this plot were so gargantuan I was nearly sucked into the center of the earth. How did the kids manage to get into the lab? Isn't pretty much every government facility full of guards? And the Miami lab is so posh no way would I buy that they don't have a metal detector. No way. Even if there are no metal detectors, they wouldn't allow a bunch of kids into a government building without asking what their business is, who they are going to visit, etc. And they were carrying these huge, suspicious bags, and yet no one bothered to check them? They were just allowed to go into the lab without even getting questioned? That was idiotic. How about being a little more inventive?

The kid playing video games until he died. No. Freaking. Way. There's such a thing called a 'pause' button, and every game has one.

I'm sorry, but those kids didn't care about killing or getting killed, why didn't the sniper open fire on Horatio?

As soon as Eric said he was only looking for males in the Student Facebook I knew the other shooter would be a girl.

I knew from the moment this episode was advertised that it would be a huge slap to the gaming community and boy was I right. This is what pisses me off about Miami so much, everything is black or white. You're either evil or you're a saint and there's no in-between. The criminals are just evil. No motivation whatsoever. They're just evil. For once I'd like to see a fleshed out character who happens to be guilty. CSI is so good at that.

Oh, but there was a motivation. The girl just wanted to be noticed by the boys. Because that's all women want, you see. From the hot girl in the teaser, to Calleigh, to Natalia, to the demon girl. Girls' brains are so simple and pathetic all we care about is being noticed by the boys. ZOMG!

Typical Miami sweeps episode. This was almost as ridiculous as Crime Wave. Lots of flash and 'oooh' and 'ahhh' and yet terrible, terrible, awful writing.
 
Excellent review! Wish I could express myself as well as you do.

Thank you! And you totally write as well as I do.

The holes on this plot were so gargantuan I was nearly sucked into the center of the earth. How did the kids manage to get into the lab? Isn't pretty much every government facility full of guards? And the Miami lab is so posh no way would I buy that they don't have a metal detector. No way. Even if there are no metal detectors, they wouldn't allow a bunch of kids into a government building without asking what their business is, who they are going to visit, etc. And they were carrying these huge, suspicious bags, and yet no one bothered to check them? They were just allowed to go into the lab without even getting questioned? That was idiotic. How about being a little more inventive?

Yeah, that bothered me too. Ryan was playing the video game and just! as he got! to level 3! the gunmen appear in the labs! They must have beamed in courtesy a Star Trek transporter, because otherwise how did they just walk into the labs armed to the hilt? Yeah, right. Like those state of the art labs don't have metal detectors. :rolleyes:

The kid playing video games until he died. No. Freaking. Way. There's such a thing called a 'pause' button, and every game has one.

That made me laugh so hard. My ex-boyfriend loves, loves, loves his videogames, but even he knows eventually you have to put down the joystick or whatever the high tech ones are called these days. No one dies that way. No one. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry, but those kids didn't care about killing or getting killed, why didn't the sniper open fire on Horatio?

Maybe they know Horatio has an invisible shield around him?

As soon as Eric said he was only looking for males in the Student Facebook I knew the other shooter would be a girl.

I figured it was Kim early on. Who abandons $18,000 even if you're going back after more cash? No one.

I knew from the moment this episode was advertised that it would be a huge slap to the gaming community and boy was I right. This is what pisses me off about Miami so much, everything is black or white. You're either evil or you're a saint and there's no in-between. The criminals are just evil. No motivation whatsoever. They're just evil. For once I'd like to see a fleshed out character who happens to be guilty. CSI is so good at that.

Yeah, both NY and CSI show many more gray-area cases. If you believe Miami, like half the population is comprised of sociopathic liars.

Oh, but there was a motivation. The girl just wanted to be noticed by the boys. Because that's all women want, you see. From the hot girl in the teaser, to Calleigh, to Natalia, to the demon girl. Girls' brains are so simple and pathetic all we care about is being noticed by the boys. ZOMG!

Miami has always shown women in the worst light possible--weak and helpless or vicious and evil--but only over men. It shocks me sometimes that this show is run by a woman. I was impressed with how Calleigh stood up to Peter, but otherwise, it was another blow to feminism.

Typical Miami sweeps episode. This was almost as ridiculous as Crime Wave. Lots of flash and 'oooh' and 'ahhh' and yet terrible, terrible, awful writing.

True. "Nailed" last week was much better.
 
That made me laugh so hard. My ex-boyfriend loves, loves, loves his videogames, but even he knows eventually you have to put down the joystick or whatever the high tech ones are called these days. No one dies that way. No one. :rolleyes:

Actually, it's based on a real event. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm

What pissed me off was that GeekBoy had to play the game to find out what was going to happen. Any gamer worth their salt knows they can find the walkthrough online.
 
^Yeah, I actually talked to my ex last night and he told me about two cases! I take it back then. But that's kind of twisted.

Good point about Ryan having to play the game--that was just done to be dramatic. If the game is popular, there also probably would have been plenty of people who had played it--just get online and Google the game.
 
^That's too bad! It easily could have been an extra on the DVDs.
 
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