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In the first story, a man is assaulted in Central Park, leading to a mounted police officer intervening and is shot. The horse escapes but is run over by a taxi and is still alive. Flack (Eddie Cahill) says he heard the shot from 6th Ave and it shook the windows of his car. Mac (Gary Sinise) explains it was the echo from the weapon, as if Flack wouldn't know that already. The policeman was shot through the back and through his vest by a sniper. Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) process the scene in search of the elusive bullet. Mac finds a mobile/cell phone, but no bullet and Danny takes the tapes from the cameras.
Hawkes (Hill Harper) deduces the COD was a single GSW to the back, which left through the front, from a high powered rifle. His vest is examined to see where the bullet entered and it exited into the saddle and the horse. The vet, Dr Huff (Jim Metzler) does a CAT SCAN to check the neck area of the horse and finds the bullet which will be needed for evidence. Mac says the bullet changed directions and he needs it. However removing it could prove fatal for the horse. Danny says the centre of the CS is the distance where the officer fell and the taxi and the horse, at the naval, where the shooting occurred. They scan Central Park in various directions.
In the second story, Aiden is sent to investigate the possible homicide of a DOA. Det Thacker (Paul Carafotes) tells her about the 19 year old Lenny, ( Kanin Howell) who has burns to his face. Aiden: "Don't check out my ass on the street when a kid is dead, have some respect." She tells Thacker. This is what was so great about Aiden, sassy and not afraid to speak her mind, unlike dire, boring Lindsay.
Danny uses the security tapes to determine the geography and begins the reconstruction at the taxi and Vic perspectives on the computer. Mac gives various orders on the direction Danny should focus on and they end up with the location of the Patterson building. Here they find GSR on the window ledge. The sniper was here. Mac notices a print on the window. Flack relays the results of his canvas of witnesses and comes up with the usual, it was aliens or he shot himself. "This city's full of nuts." Yep and he comes across most of them. Mac: "That's why we're scientists." Yes but he's a cop first, they all are. The print is a match to a Richard Smockton (Barry Del Sherman) who has a record for staging animal protests. Obviously it's not him. Mac notices his hands shake, he has hyperthyroidism, known as Graves Disease, so he couldn't have been the shooter.
Hawkes autopsies the Vic from the second story and finds he had trauma to the cranium, secondary burns, severe blistering. Destruction of his epidermis shows he suffered a contact burn, like from an iron. The burn hadn't healed yet so it was recent. Voids on his face reveal the burns were obstructed and tissue is sent for micro analysis.
Danny uses facial recognition, courtesy of Identi-feature software used at the Tampa Superbowl 35. This measures the distance between the eyes, nose width, jawline, chin. It matches facial recognition to the NYPD, where a mugshot is revealed on the database, belonging to Willie Chancey ( Allen Payne). Mac found his phone. Danny: "They don't call me the eagle eye for nothing." Chancey admits he was in the Park and got into a fight, losing his phone. A tourist was harassing him demanding his money back. Mac is visited by DA Tom Mitford (Terry Kinney). There's photos of Mac from his time in Beirut on his office wall. The horse was donated by the widow, Mandi Como (Erin O'Connor) of policeman Don Como, in his memory. A delay of 6 hours is requested before operating on the horse to see if a weapon is found. Flack hits on a signal from the phone at La Guardia airport. Brown (Gabriel Casseus) is arrested on the plane and he doesn't own a car.
Results of the analysis shows Lenny had beaker's yeast on his face and corn meal, which is narrowed to a pizza place. Aiden checks the oven for blood or burn stain inside. The cook says she burnt two fingers of her hand and it's a fresh wound. Aiden uses ALS (Alternate Light Source) and Nick, (Jude Ciccolella) the owner, tells her to leave.
Mac is all for saving the horse and constructs a 3D replica of the bullet. Jane (Sonya Walger) calls him a "scientist with a heart." Jane had her eye on Mac didn't she, but alas he wasn't to be a conquest. The bullet matches a military surplus round, which Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) says is no good since they can't get any real stria from it. Mac wants to construct a profile of the bullet to understand the shooter. Stella however wants the horse dead and in autopsy already. I didn't like Stella from the outset, as you may know, but her reaction here was justification enough for my feelings. Already inconsistent character-wise, she reinforces that by wanting to get on with the case, without giving a thought to anyone, including Mac, whom she just wants to override on everything he wants to do. She's not friendly towards suspects or Vic's alike at the best of times, but at the worst, she's just someone who has no emotions whatsoever, unless it's about her.
As Mac tells her, "no one's delaying the case - we're not forensically there yet...the bullet's only half the puzzle." Stella says the bullet should have been removed first. I rest my case! Mac replies they need both the bullet and the weapon for an arrest, but she wants to jump the gun (bad pun fully intended!) At least Mac overrules her, it's his call. Stella searches Brown's house and finds pieces of the weapon and then tests it herself. Stella: "In Stella talk: it's time to get the bullet out of the horse Mac. End of conversation." She 's so patronizing, thinking she can always throw her weight around, reinforced by her using Mac's phrase of "end of conversation."
Aiden assures Mac she'll call for back up as soon as she finds something. He advises, "you're processing evidence that could put someone behind bars for life. You take nothing or no one for granted." Clearly this shows Aiden's inexperience and that she's new to all this. As we know, this line of Mac's will come back to haunt Aiden, after Vanessa decided to leave the show at the end of the season. The pizza place is a sport's book, which isn't unusual in NY. Mac: "It's your first threat, it won't be your last so you take back up. You go back to the scene, follow the evidence and if for some reason, you need a little help with this Nick Vincenzo, don't forget the rule." Which will be seen in action later in the episode. Mac was giving her pointers just like he did to Danny previously, now it's her turn to follow the evidence.
The surgery on the horse was a success and Mac tests the gun. The bullet isn't a match and there's no GSR on any of the suspects. Chancey's DB is discovered at the airport garage in the back of his own car. He was shot in the trunk. Danny examines the car, with Stella and finds a secret compartment, which has the stashed AR15 rifle.
Aiden returns to the pizza place with back up. The cook's fingers match the voids on the Vic's face. Two sets of prints were found from the oven and Nick says it's his place. Lenny's head was slammed with the door. He left and was stabbed to death. At least this is what Aiden tells him. Nick admits he hit him, but didn't kill him since he owed him money. Here's that rule, Aiden: "you know what one of the greatest rules is of an investigator: we can lie to suspects legally." Which will be demonstrated a few times over the seasons. Lenny wasn't stabbed but died of an epidural haematoma behind his ear. Lenny died after Nick had left him in the street, as he experienced "delayed deterioration." Here's another suspect trying to be clever and failing miserably.
The prints on the gun bullets match Brown, who was a sergeant in the army, a marksman who was dishonourably discharged. Mac being a Marine knows that the "chain of command is sacrosanct." Someone should tell Stella that, cos she always wants to be in command. Chancey was his accomplice so he had to kill him. Chancey was the bait in the Park. Brown shot him since he hated policemen as his father was falsely arrested for drugs and was killed in jail. Brown claims to have picked any cop. Mac: "you shot an NY City police officer. He wasn't just a cop, he was somebody's son... when you shot him in the back, you shot those people through the heart, from where I stand, you're the one who should be put to death...an eye for an eye."
You can see this was an emotional case for Mac and not just cos of the horse but of the shooting. Stella apologizes , they haven't had a fight in a while and he reminds her of the old Mac Taylor, "the one that lets his heart out of his chest once in a while." Which is more than can be said for Stella. Mac wouldn't do this job without her. Yet in season 7 that's what he exactly does when she leaves. I liked them arguing, it was different, showing their characters aren't infallible.
The widows of police officers actually donate the horses as was mentioned here. CBS wanted the producers to inject more science into the show and that explains the technical scene between Danny and Aiden in the Park. Mac makes his feelings known about the death penalty, which makes you wonder how easy it was for him to take a life as a Marine, since that comes under the heading of serving your country. Some of Mac's emotion will be lost in future episodes. In real life, the NYPD are legally allowed to lie to suspects.
Flack's allusion to the eye witnesses and aliens will be done again in 3.8 Consequences. Though he gets his line in about the city being full of nuts. Oh wrong choice of word, especially since in the plane scene, Flack was meant to have the line, "I'll carry your nuts for you." Which had to be removed for obvious reasons. Why were Mac and Stella test firing weapons without their lab coats on!!
CSI:Miami had a sniper episode in season 1's Kill Zone. CSI:NY also had a sniper episode in season 7 Hide Sight. CSI season 2 episode Alter Boys, here Sara (Jorga Fox) also found that the flour was used in making pizza. The actor who played Brown, was considered for the role of Warrick in CSI.
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