CSI 14.13 "Boston Brakes" Review

                                                 
As journalist John Merchiston (James Callis) waits at a coffee stand to meet someone named Suvari.  He asks for change of a $50 for coffee, cos that's all he's got.  All the while he's being watched and listened to. A woman approaches and says that Suvari sent her and covertly hands him over a flashdrive.  As they leave, a car races out of the garage and speeds down the road and is chased by a police car.  Moments later, the car explodes.  Finn (Elisabeth Shue) arrives on the scene with Sean Yeager (Matt Davis) so she's stuck with him for now.  The car hit a lamp post and exploded on impact.  Inside a photo is found of John and this leaves Finn in shock.  As the DB is also burned.  Sean comes up with the line about there being a story to this.

DB (Ted Danson) arrives and she tells him how John was working on a story about the government spying domestically on its citizens and using drones to do this.  DB gets the impression she and John were close and there's more she's not letting on about their 'relationship.'  But he's told her what he was working on.  For this reason, Finn doesn't believe it was an accident. His rental car had a black box in it which Greg (Eric Szmanda) finds, showing the internal systems of the car, but there's no bomb evidence there as Finn was hoping to find.  Sean and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) look at the video footage from the cameras and follow the car back to the garage and also see John talking with the woman.  Doc (Robert David Hall) finds that he was over the limit and there was evidence of drug use, which Finn knows isn't right cos she just finished telling DB that he didn't drink or do drugs.  So he's ruling it an accident cos he shouldn't have been driving at all. Doc was rather callous in his reasons to her, yes if that had been the case he shouldn't have been driving, but it wasn't.  He was IDed as John from dental records.

DB meets with John's attorney, Jill McDermott (Kate Danson) who says he was unhappy that his story was leading nowhere.  The person he was looking at was an airforce General Robert Lansdale (John De Lancie) out of Nellis and that's why John was in Vegas a lot.  She doesn't recognize the woman in the photo.  As DB leaves, he's approached by John in the shadows telling him that his death was faked.  The person in the car was Brian, his assistant and he gave him his coat and car to drive.  The dental records were faked by John, just as the government hackers faked the toxicology report.

DB takes him to Finn's place where he thinks he'll be safe, but really wouldn't he just be putting her in danger too.  He tells them of the flashdrive which DB takes and gives to Greg to analyze when he breaks the encryption code.  John also telling them about Project Jericho, the domestic spying programme.  He only met the woman on that night cos Suvari would communicate using dead drops.

Nick (George Eads) and Sean take the call on the mystery woman who's DB is found, cue Vegas rain, but her DB's shielded by a tarpaulin.  She's IDed as Emily Rey (Monica Dean) and an object with a fingerprint is found by Sean, used to bludgeon her.  He takes a picture of the bloody print on it and it comes out with that of John.  But she was killed 6 hours ago and John was meant to have been killed 36 hours earlier.  Nick concludes he's still alive and tells DB this.  As the FBI enter the Vegas lab and proceed to take over all the evidence and remove it. DB tries to call Finn, but she's in the shower and then has a conversation with John about something that happened to her recently, but she's not ready to talk about it, thus missing DB's call. Agents raid her place along with Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) and take them into custody.  DB tells Nick about what's happening, saying that John took a forensics course with Scotland Yard and so wouldn't be clumsy enough to leave behind his fingerprint and leaves him in charge.  He has to get him and Finn off the hook.

DB is  questioned by Lansdale himself and tells DB how he knows about his parents in the '60's and what they did, but he went the other way and became a cop despite that.  Also telling him he has a family and disguising his questions as threats against them.  Agent Sturgis (Greg Ellis) interrogates Finn and accuses her of workign with Suvari and also helping John with his story.  Brass interrupts by telling him to screw himself, cos that' what Finn wants to say, when he gets too personal.  This is his home and his people and he's going too far.
Brass: "This is my house, these are my people. And if you don't start acting nice, I'm gonna kick your FBI ass right out of here."

Nick, Greg and Morgan talk about the case and Nick took a photo of the print form the phone.  He asks what's wrong with the picture and Morgan notices the prints don't have pores, thus they were planted.  Greg tells her about Millander and how he planted Grissom's print with latex and this wouldn't leave any pores. Thus they know John is being set up.  Also Hodges (Wallace Langham) walks in timely, or untimely as the case might be and he's the only one who can come and go without being suspected.  Greg gives him the flashdrive to unencrypt.  He does this and tells Greg about Project Jericho, including technology that could override a car's CPU.  Including black boxes, like the one in Johns Camero.

Nick gets delivery of a phone he didn't order and a message wanting to meet him at the same coffee stand. Yeah, people are being watched using drones etc and what does Suvari do, send a message to meet at the same obvious place.  Jill turns up and obviously the coffee stand man is Suvari.  She says her client can help them.  She drives with Nick and suddenly loses all control of the car.  They miss driving into an oncoming vehicle but head for the stationary truck in the road.  Thanks Channel 5 for that ad break in that place! Suddenly the car shifts gears and grinds to a halt.  Coffeeman gets out and leaves a coffee cup behind, along with a control box.  Inside, Nick finds another flashdrive.

Jill's car is taken apart by Greg and Hodges and they find a black box attached, thus clearing DB and Finn. The FBI saying they're all on the same side.  Nick says Suvari left behind a cyber footprint when he saved them and they can trace this back to his location.  So why didn't he think of that? When they arrive, they find him dead apparently of a rug overdose and a note claiming responsibility for the murders, how convenient. Sturgis also tells him about a DOD employee, Cheryl Perez who had the same "Boston brakes" used on her too.  She was Lansdale's mistress and had a son with him, but was 'killed' in a car accident.  Suvari's real name is Joseph Powers and he was a contractor on Project Jericho.

DB confronts Lansdale about this but he can't prove anything.  DB is certain he'll get him someday, or someone else may develop a conscience.  But in the meantime, DB could be leaving his family to be targets of Lansdale, though it's unlikely a car accident will work in the same way for him.  John leaves but tells Finn he's a a good listener if she wants to talk about what happened to her.

John was previously seen in the conclusion to the two part story Skin in the Game begun in season 13 finale and the season 14 opener, The Devil and DB Russell.  Obviously he and Finn were going to get close cos all the signs were there.  Of course she cant resist a man, as I've written several times over, ha. DB is weary of him when he turns up as he doesn't really know anything about him, but we get a flashback to the season 14 opener when he asked DB about what will happen when the work's all over.  He doesn't trust anyone except DB and the CSIs.

Greg references Paul Millander again, from Pilot, Anonymous and Identity Crisis, who was the thorn in Grissom's side as he spent many an hour trying to catch him.  It's good when CSI alludes to some of its best eps and stories and to mention Grissom now and then, especially being an integral part of his team.  Ted's daughter, Kate makes another appearance as she was last seen in Sheltered.  Of course as Lansdale 'gets away' with it for now, it's likely he will return at a later date.  Brass had a small role this ep and he exerts his presence and closeness to Finn when he tells Sturgis to back off, showing once again that he's concerned about a CSI and after what she went through in Girls Gone Wild.

Sara was absent once again, as was Henry!  Really people will talk!  Probably one reason why Sean was brought in again, not that he and Morgan mentioned anything, but they just did their work.  It was good to see nick being put in charge and being recognized as a superior CSI, cos he gets the job done, as we knew he would! Ha.  Boston Brakes referred to the CIA and it involvement in causing car accidents and there are many articles relating to this online.  This one is particularly interesting:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/25/gordon-duff-boston-brakes-no-skidmarks-in-the-sky/

NB the link is for info purposes only!