<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>The episode opens with Danny Messer facing a life crisis, talking about the last crisis he faced, ten years ago when a wrist injury ended his baseball career. He flashes back to discuss the case that marked a change in his life just days ago: Decomposing remains discovered in a crushed car at a junkyard brought the CSIs in, and Danny and Lindsay quickly made another discovery: a live man locked in a trunk. Mike Hess told Flack that he and his friends were 'live action role playing' when the rest of the group locked him in a trunk as a joke. A set of headlights coming into the lot scared them off. Sid and Hawkes determined that the bones in the car belonged to a woman, between the ages of 17 and 25 when she died, and Sid put time of death at approximately three weeks ago. The car's VIN plate led Stella and Danny to Elizabeth Barker, whose husband Steve reported the car stolen that morning. When Steve came back from a walk with the couple's newborn son, he was surprised to find the CSIs there not for the car theft but a murder. Adam found prints on the junkyard's severed lock that matched to a man with a record for assault named Reggie Dunham, but Dunham, a surly character who tried unsuccessfully to frame Mac and Flack for police brutality, told the pair that he simply broke in to lift parts from cars. Sid and Hawkes found blood on the driver's side door handle and determined that the victim died due to blunt force trauma to the head. The doctors also noticed markings from a knife on the victim's vertebrae that were made post mortem. Danny was able to reconstruct the victim's face using the reassembled skull, while Adam found a silver spoon in her pocket and a card for Life Systems medical clinic with the name of Dr. Lori Hinton on it. Danny and Stella went to question Hinton, who can't recall the victim, but Danny was shocked to see Lindsay in the clinic. She ran away before he could ask her what she was doing there.<p>When he got back to the lab, Danny waited for Lindsay to return while he ran DNA on the blood from the car and discovered it was a familial match for their victim. Adam discovered the antibiotic tetracycline in the victim's remains, while Hawkes discovered the victim was pregnant at the time of her death--and that her child was cut from her body. Lindsay finally returned to the lab and Danny confronted her only to have her reveal shocking news: she's pregnant. As Danny reeled from the news, Lindsay noticed the facial reconstruction of the victim and recognized her as a woman she met at the clinic a few weeks ago: Nicole Harris. As Danny watched, Stella and Mac gave her parents, Andrea and Jim, the sad news. They had kicked Nicole out of their home in Albany seven months ago when they learned she was pregnant. Hawkes discovered that Lori Hinton had written Nicole's prescription for tetracycline, so Stella and Danny went back to the clinic, where the doctor claimed to see so many patients that she couldn't remember all of them. Her phone records revealed multiple calls to the Barkers--including a recent one just after the CSIs finished questioning her--and DNA on the spoon found in Nicole's pocket matched Steve Barker. The CSIs arrest Steve, but his wife has already fled with Nicole's baby. Steve tells them Elizabeth was desperate for a baby and her childhood friend, Lori Hinton, helped broker a deal for the baby with Nicole, who originally came to the clinic for an abortion. When Nicole changed her mind, the Barkers fought with her, and Nicole fell down the stairs. She was dead, and Steve feared the ambulance would never get there in time, so he cut the baby from her body and hid it in his car, until it started to decompose, leading him to dump the car and report it stolen. Elizabeth was found in a gas station bathroom with the baby; Stella talked her down and took the child from the devastated woman. Danny finishes up his story, revealing his audience is Nicole's parents. Hands touching slightly, Danny and Lindsay watch as Mac and Stella give the Harris their grandson.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>When I first heard the writers had decided to write <font color=yellow>Anna Belknap</font>'s real life pregnancy into <i>CSI: New York</i>, I was pretty surprised. A few years ago, <font color=yellow>Anthony Zuiker</font> had proclaimed "romance is not what we do" in regards to the then brand new <i>CSI</i> spin-off. Indeed, up to that point, the franchise as a whole eschewed love affairs between its characters. Fast forward a few years and things have changed drastically, to say the least. The end of season six of <i>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation</i> revealed that Sara and Grissom had finally gotten together after years of the "will-they-or-won't-they" dance. On <i>CSI: Miami</i>, Natalia and Delko had a brief tryst in season four that resulted in a pregnancy scare; now Delko and Calleigh are circling each other, avoiding feelings for each other that are painfully obvious to the audience. In <i>CSI: NY</i>, Danny and Lindsay slept together at the end of season three after two seasons of back and forth. The franchise that didn't do romance is suddenly filled with it; is it really shocking that a pregnancy has followed?<p>Probably not. Are Danny and Lindsay the best couple to introduce the first <i>CSI</i> baby? Possibly. Danny is hands down the show's most complex character, while the last few seasons have established Lindsay as little more than a love interest character; she hasn't had a storyline that wasn't tied in with Danny in almost two seasons. And let's face it: in the end, her "dark secret" amounted to little more than an obstacle to pairing her up with Danny. In the two seasons since its revelation, we've gotten nary a reference to any baggage Lindsay would presumably still be carrying; she's handled a shotgun with aplomb, and apparently dead girls--even ones she's met--don't get to her anymore. There's not much to her character, other than to create drama for Danny.<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_box.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
Excellent review, as usual. More than anything, this episode felt like what it was - an attempt to shoehorn in the pregnancy so they can stop badly covering Anna's stomach. That's not to say it didn't have any redeeming value on its own, but I think that was the main purpose of the episode. And to spin the Rikki situation so it 'fits' with this new storyline which, if I may be so blunt, comes out of frickin' nowhere. If Anna had not gotten pregnant again (congratulations to her, of course), I can't help but wonder how long it would have taken before this would have actually been the "organic" storyline it's been deemed by TPTB. It's a shame that Rikki, Ruben and that entire storyline has to be balled up into a 'mistake' and tossed into the wastebasket to accommodate the baby storyline. Anna's performance was more of the same IMO - whether it 'worked' this time or not isn't for me to say. Her acting rubs me entirely the wrong way, even on her best days. It never feels entirely genuine - which is a shame since I'm sure this was a much more 'genuine' performance given the storyline and Anna's intimate knowledge of how it feels to be pregnant and whatnot. (Although her situation is markedly different from Lindsay's, of course.) The cheesy moments in the episode were kind of embarrassing - that motorcycle ride was so random and...corny. Has Danny always squinted and scrunched his face that much, or is it just more noticeable since his glasses mysteriously disappeared? I know, it's a silly thing to point out, but I couldn't help noticing how squinty and confused he looked during the entire episode - even before he knew he had put a bun in Lindsay's oven. I don't know whether this is going to end up being a good storyline or a bad storyline - I'll just have to see how it goes. In the meantime, Sid and Sheldon are an awesome team and I love seeing them together, Flack and Mac always work well with each other, Flack's snark is fantastic on its own, and Adam is just a big dork and I love him dearly. That being said, I hope Adam gets to work with Danny, Mac and the others more (more scenes with Sid, please!) - while his crush on Stella is cute, we don't need to see him constantly being a dork around her to 'get it'. Overall, an average sort of episode with some good notes and some bad notes that don't really make it as stand-out and fabulous as AJ Buckley led me to believe it would be - I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised after he deemed it 'possibly the best episode ever' (not his exact words). It was still a decent Danny episode, and an interesting way to switch up the format of the show, and the actors were all at their best - but overall it just didn't feel spectacular.
I do think that's a shame, and given that Rikki was originally slated to come back for several episodes, it's obvious that that storyline has fallen victim to this one. And that's sad, because I do believe it's Danny's most compelling story to date. I'm certain if Anna hadn't gotten pregnant and TPTB felt the need to write her pregnancy in (and I can see why they did), Lindsay certainly wouldn't be pregnant this season...and possibly wouldn't have ever been pregnant. I wonder what the reasoning was behind getting rid of Danny's glasses. That truly was a bad decision IMO, and I think it takes something very distinctive away from the character. As for the squinting, maybe an old habit? If Danny (or realistically, Carmine) got LASIK surgery, it could be that he's simply used to squinting without glasses and is falling back on an old habit. Or perhaps it's something Carmine's doing because Danny doesn't have the glasses and he's trying to convey the change?
Great review, Kristine. I also liked the look that Lindsay gave Danny after she delivered the news, and overall I thought the delivery of that entire scene was good. It was possibly the only part of the episode that had me convinced of either of their emotions. Even after thinking about it some more, I still cannot fathom how Danny talking to the parents of the dead girl was seen as a good idea. Listening to what he was saying I just think it was so inappropriate given the situation. Anyone else, OK, but the parents? Just no. At one point he talks about how they arrested Reggie and took him back to the precinct, then he continues with something about it 'never being as easy as it seems'... Considering he's talking to the couple about a guy who had been a suspect in their daughter's murder, the delivery was rather flippant. And don't get me started on the motorcycle, completely ridiculous scene. I did like that they seemed to be trying something new with this episode, I don't think it worked, but I can see how they may have thought that it would. :lol: If anyone could pull off something like this I might have thought it was Carmine, but I've been left disappointed. I didn't enjoy the episode, but it wasn't all bad. I did enjoy Hawkes and Sid together in this episode, and Adam's adorable nervousness. Flack was great as usual, and Stella and Mac were good as ever. I do appreciate that this was really a storyline about Danny and Lindsay, but I feel that a potentially interesting and emotional case was entirely overshadowed by it, and what was left was disjointed and at times confusing. eta: I didn't notice the squinting. But if I watch the episode again, I'll certainly look out for it. :lol:
I've just discovered CSI: New York. I've always had a fascinatin with New York City (I'm a Canuck) and I must say I really enjoyed this episode. I really like the Danny character a lot. It's like watching another Nick Stokes -but with more emotion, intensity and depth-as the writers of New York don't appear to be afraid of delving into a emotion. As for Zuiker's comments on romance. What would he know? He probably doesn't spend much time in the writers' room given his love for technology and board games. He's simply riding the tales of his franchise's success.
You sound like me. :lol: I discovered CSI NY about a year ago. I love watching older episodes and getting the backstory of each character. I'm from the West Coast. The farthest east I've travelled in the US is Pittsburgh. Although I've been to Montreal. So I'm with you myfuturecsi, NY facinates me.
Nice review,Kristine I was watching this with a friend and she made the comment that she felt Carmine was acting more with his head then with his heart. To her it felt like he was there because he had to but not wanted to. Now,she isn`t a regular viewer,more the here and there episode(or more to the point when she knows it is Danny centric:lol so I thought it was kinda interesting that she was seeing it that way. What I noticed the second time watching that the girls story more or less was a mirror to danny`s,minus the get killed part of course,but as the grandparents told Mac/Stella,she was a good student had everything going for her untill she got pregnant. While Danny started out with how he had a promising baseball career which got sour when he injured his wrist and how that made him go in a spin till he knew what he wanted and now he has another lifechanging moment with him becoming a father. Maybe it`s too farfetched but I thought it was interesting.
Correction, she had everything going for her except a set of decent understanding parents. I am appalled that the baby was just handed over to the grandparents at the end. Okay, I know, they're blood relatives etc, but they did a crap job of dealing with their teenage daughter, and if they had shown a little more compassion, she wouldn't be dead. And now they've been given another child to raise. Still, at least this one isn't going to come home pregnant. And don't get me started on the whole WTF of Danny unloading on the parents like that. Inappropriate much?
I know it was Danny's episode, but Flack was hilarious! Tru dat! I'm still cracking up over his his "merry band of numbnuts" line! :guffaw: :guffaw:
I enjoyed this episode and the review was excellent, as usual! I like how they had this case that, rather than they start the day with death, they start it with the CSIs and backtrack to the case. It was an odd point-of-view, however as they still showed the little action-scene that reveals/sets-up the corpse/incident, ect. It was awkward to sit there and know Danny was tell the story, and the episode was filling in the rest, and yet there were all the moments Danny didn't see that he knew happened. Overall I thought the actual idea of the murder and what-not was a good one. Great 101th episode!
The only thing they did which was questionable was trowing her out of the house but I don`t see how that makes them less human and I certainly don`t think they are totally to blame for her dead.
first impressions? Danny doesn't look like Danny anymore...the Converse, the dressed-down garb, the mysteriously disappearing glasses, the motorbiking...quite apart from the fact that there are now suggestions he is from Staten Island and not the Bronx (where Tanglewood is...) I know, i know, it's just a tv show... and it made me sad, cuz it was a huge Danny episode and Carmine seemed to be 'phoning it in (Gary Sinise can be guilty of this on occasion too..fantastic though he usually is). We (in the UK) see repeats of 'On the Job' fairly often and the difference is . That episode made me physically nauseous/squirmylol due to Danny looking like he was gonna vomit throughout...a career-making tour-de-force. Five years is a long time to play the same character...maybe he's bored . I know..just a tv show..
If you look at [Jorja] Fox and [Gary] Dourdan they left after 7/8 years, and Petersen, now leaving after 9. Long live Nick, Brass, and Catherine; Horatio, Calleigh, and Delko; Mac, Stella, Danny, Flack, and Hawkes, the original members.