"House Of Hoarders" Discussion **Spoilers**

[byline]

Though I got a little confused about who killed that womens other daughter, the one whose body they found first? Was it the same girl who killed those boys?

My understanding of the episode is that it was an accident. The daughter, Diana, was cleaning out her mother's place, they argued and a stack of books that were bound together fell on Diana's head, causing a subdural hematoma that eventually killed her. The mother had hoarding "blindness" and so her daughter's body just sort of disappeared, literally and figuratively, into the mess.

My mom is a hoarder -- not nearly as bad as this woman, but bad enough that it can create problems -- so I know a little bit about this situation. I think they did a good job of explaining the triggers and showing the consequences . . . though of course these were pretty extreme consequences.

I loved Sara's "talk to the hand" salute to Ray as she walked out the door. I also felt that the conflict between Sara and Nick was quite believable, especially for two people who know one another so well. A newbie probably wouldn't have had the guts to call Nick an ass, but Sara did. Both of them had dug their heels in with their respective theories, and neither was going to budge. Hence, the conflict. It happens.

I think the ongoing references to Grissom are a sort of "gone but not forgotten" tribute to the character. I like the fact that we're hearing him mentioned so much this season. He left as he wished, with no cake in the breakroom, but of course his influence on the remaining characters continues to manifest itself in their experiences because of all that they learned from him. In a recent episode, didn't Sara say something to Nick about "He hates it when you call him that"? (I forget now what that was in reference to.) So it sounds like Grissom is still there in her life, but just not there in the workplace. Even though he's present in Sara's life, the references for all the others are going to be in past tense. It's a conundrum for the writers, but I think they're doing a pretty good job with it.

I'm really enjoying this season. Ray's character felt more "settled in" to me somehow this time around. Greg was more at the forefront again. And, as with last week, all the main characters' behaviors felt believably rooted in their history with one another. This episode gets an "A" from me!

 

[S_Bright]

I thought it was out of character for Nick. He's usually pretty open-minded, and tries to understand people even if they're different (getting down on his knees in A Little Murder comes to mind). In this episode, he was jumping way ahead of the evidence, and when Sara said he was being an ass, I had to agree with her - he was being rather unreasonable.

I noted his behavior changing after the "trauma" discussion. I figured that one hit too close to home. Nicky is repressing hard and I think it was on purpose he seemed like an ass. I am hoping we'll see more of his coping mechanisms get rattled since I still have a hard time believing anyone can walk away from what he's been through without major scars.

I haven't watched show in 2 years but now it's looking good again! Yay!

I like the schism between Nick and Sara, the show needs it, it brings a dynamic that I've sorely missed.

 

[Desertwind]

A gross, sickening, disgusting, vile, repulsive, demented, twisted and disturbing episode. The All American happy family:evil: How'd ya' like to live in that house:klingon: Nick was hilarious in this, and he seemed to be the most grossed out of them all. His lines cracked me up. Talk about the seedy side of life EWWWW:angryrazz:

My summary and comments of this one. And on the name it could have been "House Of Horrors", so good play off on the nameAlso I wonder where the special effects people got all this crap/junk?

The cops can't even break down the crammed door. Nick and Sara arrive. [great to see them working together again].

The clutter city, and foul smell was so overwhelming, I almost gagged. Nick: "How could someone live like this"? A bump, and he goes "I think I just saw a rat wearing a saddle":lol: then he steps in to the gelled corpse.. Sara "Smile" and he gives a fake smile:rommie:

Greg arrives and goes " I called the coroners and told them to hold off till we clear a path" Nick: "Good luck with that":lol:

Greg and Sara digging and sifting around all the clutter Greg to Sara "Where are you'? Sara: "Just follow the north star"

Mrs. Santiago arrives. I'm Sara Sidle [I thought she was married and her name was Mrs. Grissom Mamn "Is there anyone else living in the house with you She goes 'Ghosts" creepyShe goes a ballistic towards Nick, Super Dave arrives, sticks out his tongue:angryrazz: "Your didn't clear a path" Nick "Your Super Dave:lol:

Doc and Ray doing autopsy so comfortable together. Back at the house and it sounded like Jorja had a cold Nick and Sara disagree on things. Nick: "Between the cat urine, dog feces and gawd knows what else" his lines were so funny:guffaw: the peroxide and blood testing..

Julian arrives [he's the guy from the "Harvest" episode] The doctor and Ray on Mrs S. mental illiness of the "hoarding" at the stage 5 level. she claims not to remember anything, or does she?

The rifle goes off and Nick says "Geez Louise":guffaw: that really made me laugh, I say that all the time. another body:vulcan: He finds a disgusting scorpion and babies another EWWWW:scream:

Sara and Mrs. S. what a good actress she is [Jorja that is]~ Ray and Henry on the arsenic poisoning. Greg and Sara find 3 more boides in the backyard..

Ray and his theories and Nick goes "what does this have to do with the case" "Trash whisperer", he says, trying to figure her mind out.. bizarre stacking. She must have spent a fortune on plastic containers.. lordie how many were there?

They find one totally cleaned out room, then find other daughter Alisia.. chained up like a dog, this just keeps getting creepier and and deplorable

Brass and Julian and his always funny one liners How the boys were run-a-ways Julian run a half-way house of sorts saying "It does happen" Brass: "Sure it does" And "Love is a beautiful thing":lol: Ray and Nick think she's insane, gosh really

Nick at hospital with Alisia "Are you afraid of your brother"? she goes 'My mother did this to me" then w/ Ray and his pearls of wisdom~

Greg upon looking at the girls kidnapped room. "Garbage and bodies I was handling OK. but this is some kind of twisted":cardie:And him with the scratched handcuffs~

Ray, Nick and Sara and her and Nick disagree. He think's the mom was responsible and she think's it was the brother she calls him an "ASS" he goes "I'm an ass" Ray kinda of breaks it up and goes 'Lets stick to the evidence we have now, we can't prove either subject committed murder"
They both lawyered up Nick goes to talk to Mrs. Santiago, and Sara is ticked off and steamed. She looks over at Ray and goes "what", he goes You know I've been where you've been Sara [as she walks off] and I find it best to "walk away":lol: great timing with his lines:bolian:

They find the red ribbon and scads of rat poison, [doesn't eveybody have tons of rat poison at their residence?]:borg:

Ray interogating Alisia and she killed the guys in the graves for her own insane reasons. and her mom out a stop to it by locking her away She tried to play cat and mouse with Ray "I hate her" Ray: "she loves you". All crazy to me, and wacked out then Sara shares her horrible childhood [mom stabbed dad] with Julian & about her schizophrenic mom "I survived just like you did, you both took different paths and someitmes there are no answers"

Ray walks in on Nick "I can see your wheels turning" and his profound wisdom "In 1960 there were no public storage, now there's over 2 billion:wtf: Nick: "So society is to blame"? Ray "There's always going to be an extreme like Mrs. Santiago"..so she's get off free..

Last scene, Nick cleaning out his drawers in his desk. Sara enters. Nick: "I almost threw out something Grissom gave me a blue marble" You know what he said "Nicky, if life ever gets crazy, roll with it". Sara said he said and gave the same thing to her I get Nick reminiscing about Grissom, he worked with the guys for 9 years, but Sara.. absurb and silly, why is she here, and him over there. Oh, I know cause he's [WP] off the show..they didn't really need to add this lame comment on this episode, not from Nick ,but it didn't make any sense, coming from her~

Hard to grade this one, due to the fact that is was so sickening..

 

[DragonFriend95]

I give this episode a 'C'.

I'd comment more, but an hour after watching it and I can barely remember what happened. The only scene that sticks in my mind was Mitchell and Akers at the start- I thought that they worked well together, and I realised that Larry Sullivan is pretty good looking :lol:

Apart from that, I was kinda bored. Being somewhat of a hoarder myself I thought I would enjoy it, but I didn't. The only reason I rate it higher than Sqweegel is that Greg got more time, but that's about it.

I didn't find it 'creepy' or 'gross' at all. Could be because I was six the last time I was grossed out by something, but there was nothing that made me feel even the mildest bit queasy. I guess the decomposing body might have counted, but I barely raised an eyebrow at it :lol:

 

[Desertwind]

I do get the "memories" part, but geez have a special room, a storage shed, a closet, not everything everywhere. I'm a neat freak, and my spot is neat, clean and organized. I can't relate to this in any way, shape or form, unless their nuts which they were:shifty:

 

[A. FineLabrats]

What a great episode. Apart from the cheese factor of some of the lines, it was an all around great one -- and with a bunch of twists I couldn't see coming.

 

[ladyhunter]

I'm not a doctor nor I pretend to be but Hoarding is a serious condition.
Something most of us who don't have those tendencies don't understand. Just like excessive drinking, smoking, taking drugs, etc. If we don't do those things we'll never understand what it's like.

I do like it when CSI does touch on these kinds of episodes. Back in Season 6 Dog Eat Dog it touched on Prader-Willie Syndrome. My step-sister's son has that condition. It's excruciating for him. Something I, someone who does not have that condition, doesn't understand, especially when it comes to food.

I think Hoarding also falls into that category. It's not about being messy, dirty, unsanitary, etc... all of those things that we saw, it's about how people categorize their lives.

 

[Smokey]

I didnt know there rules about photos in posts. I will take all of them down.

Well, just that there are specific threads for posting pictures. No worries!


As for the "ass" scene...I think both Nick and Sara were being a bit stubborn, and it looked to me like a brother/sister kind of argument with neither one willing to back down.

And honestly, I think Nick should have backed down a little and maybe talked to her about the differences between their ideas, since he's the Assistant Supervisor. But I like the idea that S_Bright brought up about maybe this out of character reaction by Nick is a post trauma thing.

 

[electra]

I was not expecting to like this episode so much but I did.Sara was awesome. This is the character that I liked so much in earlier seasons:tough,sassy and compassionate.Case was disturbing but intriguing.I am definely going to watch the serie about Hoarders.

Nick and Sara conflict was needed.Nobody can be so perfect all the time so conflict is part of life.At the end ,they make up like adults.

So no Catherine but the season is still an A!!:thumbsup:

 

[DragonFriend95]

I do get the "memories" part, but geez have a special room, a storage shed, a closet, not everything everywhere. I'm a neat freak, and my spot is neat, clean and organized. I can't relate to this in any way, shape or form, unless their nuts which they were:shifty:

Suffering from a serious disorder doesn't automatically make someone nuts, and I find that a tad disrespectful. I can relate to the woman- I have trouble throwing anything away and as a result any storage space I have is overflowing with junk.

Saying they have a problen is one thing, but calling them 'nuts' is disrespectful IMO.

 

[A. FineLabrats]

I think they could have made the house more filthy. It actually looked pretty organized..kind of like my room haha. There wasn't enough...dust I think. Plus, they should have showed the woman's room where she gets all dressed up nicely for work. Cause she looked SOOOO put together it was weird. I looked at it much more detached, kind of like a clinical psychologist might look at a case study. Just an interesting phenomenon to be examined (which is how Grissom would have seen it).

I actually REALLY liked Ray in this episode. He was essentially playing Grissom's role between Nick and Sara, except that where Grissom would have just said "stick to the evidence", Ray tried to mediate, which is exactly where his character differs from Grissom's. Grissom doesn't have as well-developed social skills to mediate a dispute, since his mind is very analytical. Ray didn't do much of a better job, but that's pretty normal with two people so stubborn like Nick and Sara. The point is that he tried, which is the natural impulse when your two coworkers are going at it and disrupting their and your jobs.

Finally, on Nick and Sara, I think they were both acting like jerks. Nick immediately assuming the worst about the hoarder is exactly the same as Sara immediately assuming her innocence. It all boils down to unreasoning assumptions.

Making Sara's mother kill her father with an absense of abuse actually makes her childhood much more scary, disturbing, and scarring, actually. It's a lot easier to comprehend for a child that someone might kill their lover because of abuse. It's a LOT harder for a child (or even a fully formed adult) to be able to understand a) mental illness, which for a child would seem like some invisible bogey monster and b) the randomness of fear caused by knowing that this person could all of a sudden come after you with no prior provocation.

 

[DJRideout]

I was just watching it again, and when they are interviewing the mother about the older daughter, she's kind of vague about what happened..."things were falling, there was blood". Then she says the daughter said she was fine and left. Soooo....did she really and then collapsed in the house and the mom didn't know? Or did the mom really know she died and/or was the one who killed her and then left her there? Either way, I don't understand how she is set free at the end, unless there was just not enough evidence to prosecute her for the first death.

Again, I did like the tension there between Sara and Nick and how it slowly escalated, peaked, and then came back down. He and Warrick went at it a few times. It happens.

That scene with the shotgun is about the funniest thing I've seen on there in a long time. :lol: Nick and Sara laughing at each other on the floor. Priceless! :lol:

I don't have the powers to re-watch the episode, but if I do recall, didn't the mother also say that after her daughter told her that she was okay, she left and the mother didn't see her since? Perhaps I am wrong.

And someone else mentioned that wouldn't the mother have smelt the body? I'd say with all of that junk, there would be a strong odor that comes with it, so it was probably masked by that. And after seeing a deceased cat, hearing another and seeing a well used liter box, that alone probably added to the smell. But I am just taking a guess at that :lol:

As for the episode itself? I enjoyed it. Probably would have enjoyed it a little more myself if I had seen Hodges in it and hearing him have his two cents worth in on the case. But, it didn't work out that way so......oh well!

But I did like seeing Nick,Greg and Sara working together. Personally, I didn't find Nicks' stepping IN the body overly funny, but the shot gun/ducking scene was very amusing. George, Eric and Jorja did an excellent job in timing their reactions.

And the Nick/Sara tension? I liked it! Cause it gave us a look from two different perspectives, if you know what I mean. And honestly, who wouldn't have walked away hot headed after a heated argument? Not because it happened to be Ray trying to mediate, heck it could have been anyone sitting in his spot. I've done it...I've walked away from people from time to time, when they were trying to smooth things over after an argument. Sometimes it's better to just walk away, or you might say something you might end up regretting. Anyway, it seemed more of "the heat of the moment" scenario more so then it being Ray trying to calm the situation. But again, that is just my opinion.

And I liked how they touched on how it was an illness...the seriousness of this type of problem etc. They (the writers) seemed to have done some research on the problem.

Overall? I liked the episode. I wouldn't say it was the best of the season thus far, but it was definitely good. So far, I haven't any major complaints about the writing and the quality of an episode as a whole this season. Not yet anyway :lol:

 

[PraetorCorvinus]

Making Sara's mother kill her father with an absense of abuse actually makes her childhood much more scary, disturbing, and scarring, actually. It's a lot easier to comprehend for a child that someone might kill their lover because of abuse. It's a LOT harder for a child (or even a fully formed adult) to be able to understand a) mental illness, which for a child would seem like some invisible bogey monster and b) the randomness of fear caused by knowing that this person could all of a sudden come after you with no prior provocation.

I thought there was abuse involved? I'm not certain, but didn't Sara once mention (either in "Committed" or "No Humans Involved") that there was some form of abuse? Maybe not physical, but I always got the impression that there was verbal abuse.

I'm really not sure about this though. Sara fans, help me.

As for Nick being OOC, I still maintain he acted in character. He might have grown more tolerant for situations and people he's encountered before, but perhaps with new ones he's still a little paranoid.

And I too loved the shotgun scene. The way all three ducked was hilarious. :lol:

I also enjoyed Ray in this ep. He's best with Robbins and I actually felt bad for him when Sara walked off.

 

[Speedystokesgirl]

I still need to watch the beginning, but I think everyone pretty much covered it.

Here's my take on the Nick being an ass thing. First of all, we ALL have been asses at time and we've ALL been "out of character'.

Any case, Nick has always had empathy for the victim. So he sees the dead daughter that either could have been killed by the mother or by the 'house'. He fights for the victims not the suspect and the mother was a suspect.

Then they fine a skeleton, what was he suppose to think? Sara playing that the mother was a victim was way off. Her mental illness doesn't make her a victim, it makes her sick. I can speak from personal experience (not her kind of illness though). The keyword here is 'illness' NOT victim.

Sara was being just as big of an ass, too; not to mention she was being insubordinate, AGAIN!!! and her assumption was wrong, as well. At least this time it didn't cause the killer to get off like it did with the Hannah West story.

Now the house was very claustaphobic and Nick could have had issues with that since he was buried alive. Add that to his recent trauma and this case and scene could have agitated that.

Or Nick could have simply been in a bad mood. We've all been there.

Was he being an ass? yes. What it out of character? Sorta, because we don't see that side often enough and with the theme this year fits it.

Greg was being passive, as usual. Nick and Sara are 'fighting' and instead of saying something to the both of them he goes first to Nick and then to Sara. Where Ray spoke right up.

Greg has known these two long enough that he should have and could have said something.

It's like Greg is the little brother and goes behind their backs to stir up trouble. He wasn't really doing that, but it looked like that. :lol:

Ray was like the older brother or dad and saying 'knock it off'. :lol:

But that's typical Greg and typical Ray.

I like the spat between Nick and Sara. It was refreshing and shows just how comfortable they are with each other. There is no way co-workers work all the time without conflict like it has been shown lately on CSI.

Many many funny moments in this episode. And see even after the spat, Nick and Sara still love each other. Just like Nick and Greg were getting along at the end of 'Family Affair'.

 

[A. FineLabrats]

I don't think Greg was being passive. Rather, he knew that both were right and both were wrong, and they were both his friends so he couldn't really pick sides. PLUS, he's said before that everyone still treats him like the lab rat, and I don't think that has ever really left his psyche. He may act buddy buddy with them, but I think he still thinks they don't respect him much so saying anything wouldn't do much.