CSI: New York--'Happily Never After'

CSI Files

Captain
Synopsis:

Two teenagers frolicking at The Dorothea Hotel's ice sculpture garden stumble across the body of Fiona Chisolm, the owner of the hotel. Fiona is known for both her wealth and her cruelty, and the crowd actually starts clapping when the CSIs unveil her body. Dr. Hammerback determines that Fiona was both stabbed and burned, but actually killed by a stab wound to the heart. Lindsay recovers a nose print from Fiona's body from her dog, Otto, but his leash has been broken and the dog is missing. Tina O'Donovan, the concierge at The Dorothea, lets Stella and Lindsay into Fiona's office where the CSIs find signs of a struggle and a broom with blood on it. Lindsay is able to trace the blood to a Dr. Harrison Green, the head of a charity Fiona had given money to in the past. Flack and Stella pay a visit to Green, who admits he fought with Fiona after she withdrew her promise to donate to his charity, but refuses to elaborate beyond that, even when Stella reveals she knows he was being investigated by the IRS. Hawkes and Lindsay determine Fiona was killed with a snow machine's liquid nitrogen tank. They find the machine and recover a skin sample of it from Tina, who they learn was fired by Fiona two days ago. Tina tells the CSIs that after Fiona was found dead, she went back to work, assuming no one else would know she'd been fired. She denies killing Fiona; her skin is on the fatal snow tank because Fiona had ordered her to fix it a few days ago. Fiona's dog Otto is recovered, and blood and remnants of chestnuts and charcoal lead the CSIs to Fiona's killer: Felix Hall, a roasted chestnut vendor Fiona was trying to have evicted from his spot outside The Dorothea. Felix tried to reason with her and when he failed, he killed her and moved her body on his vendor cart.

Mac, Danny and Detective Angell investigate the death of a young woman whose body is thrown from the top of a school bus. She has the name "Wendy" written on her chest, she's clad in only a nightgown, there's an impression of a fairy on her back and Sid determines she was killed by a hook--and postulates that the girl's death has a lot of tie-ins with Peter Pan. Mac determines their Jane Doe fell thirty-five feet, and Adam identifies the paint on her chest as acrylic and trace under her nails as play dough. Angell informs Mac and Danny of a rash of break-ins at kindergarten schools, where the intruders make a mess but don't steal anything. She takes the CSIs to the school most recently broken into and Mac spots blood splatter on a model of Mars. A quick sweep of the room confirms it's the primary crime scene. Danny discovers a library book, Peter Pan and Wendy, with numbers written on the inside. Mac recovers the murder weapon--a hook--from the garbage.

Adam discovers DNA on a baseball hat Angell found on the school bus "Wendy"'s body was dumped on is a familial match to the dead girl. The logo on the hat, Stanford Linwell, is a local high-powered law firm. Mac and Danny show the dead woman's picture to Michael Wright, who recognizes her as his sister Leslie. He tells the CSIs he last saw his sister the evening before and that she mentioned she was going to a party. Adam identifies a pill with a fairy on it that Danny found in the kindergarten classroom as "Foxy," the newest designer drug. Danny decodes the numbers in the copy of Peter Pan and Wendy that he found as text message codes, and he shows the message to Mac: "Alice will see you at Dunhill." The CSIs head to Dunhill, a pricey kindergarten, where they find a group of twenty-somethings in the midst of a party, dressed as characters from children's literature. The revelers are brought into the station, with Mac and Danny focusing on Bryce Aldicott, the "Mad Hatter" whose prints were on a star on Leslie's forehead as well as the paint on her chest--and on the murder weapon. Bryce vehemently denies killing Leslie, insisting he was using it to spar with a friend. When Adam finds DNA on the baseball cap that matches someone else other than Michael Wright, the CSIs turn back to the law firm--and use DNA from a drug test to identify a young man named Tyler as their killer. He slept with Leslie when she was on the drug, and afterwards she accused him of taking advantage of her. When she threatened to tell her brother, Tyler stabbed her and tossed her body out the window onto the top of the school bus.

Analysis:

Fairy tales aren't all they're cracked up to be in the latest installment of CSI: NY. Sure, the Wicked Witch of Manhattan gets crushed beneath an ice house, but poor Wendy ends up falling out of Neverland with a nasty hook wound to the abdomen. The writers have fun playing with fairy tale conventions in the episode: Fiona is killed when she's stabbed in the heart with a snow machine, literally freezing her heart; adults in costume party in kindergarten classrooms, using drugs and play dough to reclaim their childhood; the CSIs are greeted by the Mad Hatter who welcomes them to a scene that is as strange to them as Wonderland was to Alice. The thing about fairy tales, of course, is that many of them have a dark undercurrent to them, and some of the truly scariest villains ever created reside in their pages.

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Though I rarely watch NY I did find this ep very interesting and it held my attention through out the entire hour. Very amazing how the writers were able to wave so many stories into two crimes. The references made for good laughs and a nice addition to the story line.

I agree that fairy tales have a dark under current...the caterpiller in Alice in Wonderland was a representive of they hay days of the 60's. Louis Carroll based a lot of his characters on drug substances or addictions. Great lessons to teach and send to children.
 
Great review, as always. :D

Flack and Adam are absolute gems. :p Angell's moment with Danny was nice--it was a subtle way of acknowledging "Child's Play" and hinting that Danny is still clearly affected by Ruben's death. Like you say, Emmanuelle is shamefully under-utilized on the show. Angell is only there a few times a season, so why not give her something that makes it worth having Emmanuelle on the show? (It's not like she's there all of the time, so giving her a bit of focus wouldn't hurt the characters who are in every episode.)

Once the writers' strike is over, and everybody gets back to business, it would be nice to see more of a balance between all of the characters--Hawkes is usually forgotten, and even when he gets a fair bit of screentime, it's not always memorable stuff. From memory, he was pretty present in "Happily Never After", but I can't think of much he did that stands out. It's a shame, because Hill is such a talented actor. (His scene with Flack in "Sleight Out of Hand" was nice, so maybe putting him with Flack more would help...)

So yeah, I'm rambling. *shutting up now* :p
 
Great review. :)

I was particularly enamoured with the episode, and I definitely think the best parts were the little character moments that were there. Flack was great, I just hope his love of food will recover from this blow. :lol: Adam's little dance, he's such a lovable geek, and Angell talking to Danny about Ruben's death, it's good to see that it wasn't overlooked, and actually I thought it was unexpected that it was Angell who brought it up rather than someone like Mac asking him if he was OK (which I would have expected).

Meh, the cases weren't great, but it was watchable stuff as always. :)
 
Thanks, guys. :)

wolfesgamergirl, I was thinking the same thing about Alice in Wonderland in particular!

Fay, I was watching the rerun of "Snow Day" today and thinking the same thing about Hawkes. He really needs an episode or even better, a storyline, soon. He's underutilized, and that's doubly wrong because he's in the opening credits. That being said, I love that Danny has this storyline, because I think it's fantastic for his character, and Carmine is just doing a wonderful job with it.

Elsie, I have to say, after seeing Mac's reaction to Danny mentioning how he didn't want to be looking for a killer in toy stores and classrooms, I'm not really surprised that he wasn't the one to bring it up to Danny. I think Mac does care, but I think he just doesn't know how to react to Danny's raw pain. What Danny is letting seep out of him in waves is something Mac would be keeping under wraps. They're just totally different in how they approach being hurt/upset, and I don't think Mac is sure what to say to Danny, so he just doesn't say anything.
 
That being said, I love that Danny has this storyline, because I think it's fantastic for his character, and Carmine is just doing a wonderful job with it.
Oh, I'm with you there. I just feel like there isn't enough of a balance sometimes. It's not that I wish Carmine had less, just that Hill had more. :p
 
Faylinn said:
That being said, I love that Danny has this storyline, because I think it's fantastic for his character, and Carmine is just doing a wonderful job with it.
Oh, I'm with you there. I just feel like there isn't enough of a balance sometimes. It's not that I wish Carmine had less, just that Hill had more. :p

I agree, but there's always that one character on a show who seems to stand out and get a lot of storylines. A lot of times it's the hot blonde chick, but for CSI: NY it's the hot brown-haired guy with the glasses.

CSI shows are kind of odd with the way they spotlight characters anyway. Warrick's got a great storyline this season, but before that, when was the last time he really had something to chew on? It's probably been at least a few seasons. Over on Miami, unless your initials are H.C. you're lucky if you get one spotlight episode a season. NY does well with Mac and Stella and aside from third season, Danny, but most of the other characters get nice character moments consistently but not big storylines. Hawkes did have the 'framed for murder' episode last season, so technically Flack is even more overdue than he is, but Flack is such a presence in each episode that I think it doesn't seem like he's been neglected as much.
 
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