Well, this episode has only just aired in the UK and I'm having trouble deciphering whether I liked it or not because there were so many things about it which frustrated me and almost had me screaming "WHY?!" at my TV. :scream:
The main problem with the episode in my opinion was Ray. Okay, fair enough it's a chance to finally catch Haskell, and he's Ray's "nemesis" but even so I felt he was still really OTT during the situation. It seemed he took over the whole episode (even more than usual) and I personally think this is the closest the series has come to "The Ray Langston Show". The worst part was definitely his obnoxiousness towards Henry whilst processing the box, it kind of came across as a moment to create a bit of "awkward comedy" but all I ended up thinking was that he was an idiot.
Sofia was wasted. I was looking forward to seeing her again and I was disappointed with the 2 minutes screentime she got. It was still great seeing her, but like Lady Heather last week, it felt like she was just added in to promote Raskell again. This is probably what annoyed me most about the episode.
I liked the opening scene with the cows (which was probably the funniest moment of the episode, not that there were many to choose from) but looking back, was there any point Ray being there? All it was, was a "oh look the hands don't match, gotta go bye" and he was gone. Personally think it should have been Greg with Nick at the beginning:
Firstly, it would have made the opening scene a bit funnier in my opinion (I tend to think Ray makes a funny situation seem really awkward).
- Secondly, Ray had enough screentime anyway throughout the rest of the episode. (Silly me I forgot it was the Ray Langston Show.) Yet again it seems that Greg's been demoted to "back-up" CSI, only coming in when Ray's dancing round the lab trying to save the world.
- Thirdly, it would have made more sense for Ray to be shown the video as he got in to work, as ladybronco said, it didn't make sense for Cath to call Ray back to the lab and for them to watch it without him.
Oh and it struck me as odd that the whereabouts of the lab rats were explained, yet Sara was not mentioned at all.
There were some good moments in the episode however, firstly being the incident with the cows. It seemed very real that the CSIs would get lost on the way to the scene.
Nick/Greg's case was really what kept me interested, despite descending into Raskell. The scene where they found the bodies in the tub was excellently done! I was expecting worse to happen, it definitely seemed creepy and I was half expecting some insane person to run out with a kitchen knife dressed up as their mother. :lol:
There were a few good lines as well, not as many as usual but I really liked Brass' line about the Joker and Henry's one concerning Hodges moving out of his mother's.
Ray being reprimanded by Catherine was a scene I have been waiting for all season. It throughly did not disappoint and I hope that the writer's don't make the same mistake next season of portraying Ray as Superman.
Overall though, it was okay, but I can safely say that probably for the first time ever, I'm not looking forward to next week's episode. Especially as I've heard it's worse than this one. I'm half expecting that most of the episode will consist of Ray walking round LA sporting tights, a cape and a blue T-shirt with a big-red "R" printed on the front. I just hope next week involves Kryptonite...