Just can't get enough of CSI:NY...do you feel the same?
A man with a chainsaw cuts down a tree as the camera shows two other men in a window above. He then comes out and is chased by a man in red but his bike is gone. The first man falls down the stairs. Jo (Sela Ward) comments she shouldn't have done her Stairmaster as she walks down the stairs. Mac (Gary Sinise) adds it is a long way down and Flack (Eddie Cahill) even counted the steps, 130, on his third trip up. Ah the poor, amazing guy, what he does for his job and more! The satchel belongs to the Vic, Greg (Tim Barraco) who ended up at the bottom of the 187th Street Steps. Flack: "Question is, was he pushed?" Mac: "Looks like we'll have to back up a few steps to figure that out."
Jo collects from the ground, a wad of purple residue which suspiciously looks like gum. Sid (Robert Joy) isn't around and Hawkes (Hill Harper) covers for him. He suffered skull fractures, breaks. As they don't have a preliminary autopsy report, Mac determines they can't comment on whether it was an accident or murder. Hawkes claims he'd take the day off too if he was still in Sid's position for this very reason.
Lindsay (Anna Belknap) finds the purple substance was gum, well that didn't take a genius and was violet flavoured, which she wouldn't eat. Well there are already violet flavoured sweets available, called 'Parma Violets.' They do taste awful. The gum had unidentified male DNA. Greg was a bike messenger (another one) and Jo wonders what happened to the bike.
Mac calls Christine (Megan Dodds) as he has something for her. Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) used the new counter-terrorism surveillance cameras installed on the streets (Jo used that last season, so it can't be new, maybe it's improved.) He used the footage to rewind back and find the man in the red who is chasing Greg. Facial recognition IDs his chaser as Scott.
Right on cue is our Flack with a short chase scene down yet another fire escape and Scott (Alex Weed) falls down those steps too. Flack: "Karma's a bitch." Yeah and I was going to say that was prophetic or rather poetic justice! He demands to be in hospital from where he's been released and his arm hurts. Flack asks if his pride hurts too as what Greg sold him weren't drugs. Mac's a scientist so he can tell him what his bag did contain. Flack asks why he killed Greg? Scott bangs his arm on the table which gets a grin out of Flack since he claimed his arm was hurting. Actually this must be a first where a perp has actually suffered injuries after falling. Usually no one has in the past. Scott chased Greg who fell and he took his money.
Danny and Jo respond to a DB found in the park, spotted by nature enthusiasts. Danny: "I'm guessing they're not so enthusiastic anymore." He's hit by an arrow and has also been strangled. Danny asks which injury killed him. Lots of questions abound this epsiode. Then horror of horrors, Lindsay arrives. Where'd Jo vanish? Danny found footprints and partials near the path so he was attacked there. Lindsay shows off. She used to climb trees in Montana and yet needs a lift here; after she uses a laser to determine the direction of the arrow. Danny asked if she climbed trees, "before or after she started cow tipping?" It's always about cows with her. She tricks him into jumping by yelling, 'snake.' Oh highly droll, not.
She discovers anti-viral medication on the tree which Danny runs and comes up with H7N2 - bird flu and an alert to contact the CDC. Sid's autopsy is inconclusive as far as Greg's death is concerned. There's no proof it it was an accident or he was pushed. He avoided telling Mac where he's been. Jo will get it out of him. Obviously he's nervous and she didn't need to profile him to say that. He found trace from Jimmy's (Dale Gibson) abrasions round the neck and partial prints at the back of his neck, as well as purple gum from his teeth. Jo: "When it comes to crime there are no coincidences." Hey that's what Gibbs (Mark Harmon) says in NCIS. Sid eventually tells Jo he sold his patent for the pillow for $27 million to the Japanese. They want to use it as an anti-snore pillow, which Jo wishes she'd have had for her ex, Russ (David James Elliott). Hey I'm sure Dreamboat doesn't snore!!
Danny and Flack check out the condemned building Jimmy owned where they speak to the Super, Toby (Connor Barrett). He's blowing glass. Knew that shelf behind Flack was gonna come crashing down at some point and Toby burns his fingers in front of them. Hawkes determines Jimmy was strangled with a bright orange coloured zip tie. Then he had to tell Lindsay again! How boring. Blood from the arrow shows it was used before.
Mac returns Christine a chewed pen he'd 'borrowed' from her brother, Steve. Her restaurant is empty. So Steve's mentioned again for a reason. Jo and her Post-Its, this time all over Mac's car. She's called about the virus being Avian flu, wasn't that already apparent when it came up on Danny's computer, including the strain, H7N2. There's only one case in the US carried by Bristow (Bill Zasadil) who hunts animals illegally and was after a deer. He sneezed when he fired the arrow and it hit Jimmy. So it was an accident. Sid finds the arrow wasn't the COD on Jimmy but the strangulation was. Flack calls Hawkes this time round. The zip tie is being used in an art sculpture by Patty, who lives at the same condemned hotel. He got some 'witty responses' from his cops when he asked them to look out for the ties.
Hawkes finds only partials and no match until Danny realizes that's cos they're not partials but actual prints, belonging to Toby since he's got burnt fingers. Danny takes samples from the hotel which are a match to Toby. Danny: "Boom." Flack crashes into the shelf, as predicted, ha, when Toby threatens with the hot glass. He paid Jimmy $15,000 to bribe Doug on the Building and Safety Commission so the hotel wouldn't be condemned. The money's missing and Jimmy hired a messenger. So Toby strangled him - for someone who said they weren't violent, he didn't live up to that.
Jo and yet more Post-Its, wonder if she has shares? She pieces together everything that happened. The gum was found cos Greg had a pick-up at a diner near the hotel, which was the money from Jimmy for Doug. She looked at the footage again and found the man who stole the bike with a chainsaw, thus Greg was on foot. So are they gonna find the bike thief? He set the events in motion. As the money couldn't be delivered Jimmy was killed. Flack: "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard." Mac: "One crime leads to another... and another." Known as 'The Ripple Effect.'
Mac gets most of the NYPD to eat at the restaurant and Sid buys a piano but not having anywhere big enough to put it, brings it to the lab. He needs a bigger apartment. Jo plays piano too. In the hotel, Danny takes a good look at the woman getting a tattoo which took me back to season 8 episode Get Me Out of Here, when Lindsay was being morbid and planning their funerals. She said Danny would probably marry that tattooed woman from Coney Island. Danny must have a penchant for tats on women or just tattoos. (Carmine also sports a tattoo of his own, at least one that we know of.)
Good to see the show tackle another case where the crimes turn out to be connected and Jo finding the connection too. This hasn't been done in a while and in the on-line chat with Pam Veasey and Zach Reiter last year, fans commented on how much they love such episodes where two or more stories become one.
It's nice when the cast get equal airtime - sometimes it's not possible, but they're tending to go overboard on Lindsay to the detriment of the others. She's in this scene, she's in that scene...
Danny mentioning cows and Lindsay cow tipping. Cows were mentioned by Lindsay in 3.14 The Lying Game, when she left that note for Danny saying, "Montana calls and the cows are heading home. Moo." There's no getting away from her or the poor cows.
A bike courier was also killed in season 1's Recycling, must be a dangerous job since Castle season 2 had a bike messenger being killed too. Sid's invention finally pays off, but how long until the others find out? Seems strange he wanted Mac to try out the pillow and give him his honest opinion and yet he can't share his fortunate news with Mac. Although he was nervous and excited, Sid's never one to hold back on his thoughts.
Flack's one-liners were desperately needed this episode - welcome relief. I can never fault Flack! Sid and Jo play Heart and Soul by Hoagy Carmichael. Adam (AJ Buckley) was missing second week in a row.
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