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Wednesday 16 May 2012

CSI: NY - 8.8: "Crossroads" Review



The murder of a judge calls into question his past cases. Jo meets the daughter from the Washington rape case again and Curtis walks free on bail, as he said he would.

A man comes too on the floor of an apartment and the TV plays in the background, a scene about self defence and not being believed.   He leaves on his bike.   A jury and judge arrive to view a CS and the judge is shot by a shooter on a bike.   Mac (Gary Sinise) picks up his rolling cigar.   Flack (Eddie Cahill) comments the criminal court judge was shot under the noses of the cops and the jury was sequestered.  Judge Vinnie Corsica (Brad Blaisdell) was presiding over the Markov trial, a Russian mobster.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) talks about him being the "Sammy Bull" of Russian organized crime and Markov has "a dozen bodies on him." Mac: "Looks like it just went to a baker's dozen."  Groan that was definitely one of Stella's lines.  

Hawkes (Hill Harper) and Lindsay (Anna Belknap) process the CS.   Hawkes finds a smashed bullet.   Three are in the van and one bullet is missing.   Hawkes says the biker rode down the alley so there may be a blood trail.   The bullet must have hit his backpack since that was obvious.   Hey CSI:NY called the backpacks as 'backpacks' whereas CSI called them 'fannypacks.'  Lindsay walks the alley and meets up with Danny at the other end.   He tells her there won't be any blood trail.   The judge was on  a protection detail so the roads were closed, leaving the bike as the only mode of transport.   She mentions his backpack but doesn't think he could have taken the bullet with him, or at least hit the backpack.  

The bike was hit by a car and Danny finds glass from the car.   Mac gives a press conference and tells them they are using every possible resource to show how "powerful our system of justice is." That was an understatement.   He's asked questions about John Curtis (Jason Wiles).   His preliminary hearing is tomorrow.   Mac also defends Jo (Sela Ward).   It was a lab tech who blew the case, not Jo.   Which does not bode well for Lindsay, no really see later.   (Like I care.) Jo has "courage and integrity."  He tells the press Jo isn't working the rape case, which is what I said last episode and she wasn't working it either.   More's the pity.   She can't work it cos of bias.   Jo visits Curtis and wishes she could gloat but it would be at the expense of Ali and the other Vic's.   Curtis claims he will walk free which again was obvious.   Jo: "You will not walk away this time."

Sid (Robert Joy) finds the bullet killed the judge instantly and he found one in his kidney leading to him discovering traces of antifreeze in the tissue sample.   (Reminded me of Desperate Housewives season 7 when Felicia was poisoning Paul using antifreeze in his food and blamed it on Susan.)  It was thought he suffered food poisoning.   Hawkes says this wasn't the first attempt on his life.   Mac thinks the shooting and poisoning are related.

Mac talks with Senator Matthews (Jeffrey Nordling) who likes playing these father roles.   In Body of Proof he was Megan's daughter's father, a lawyer and in Desperate Housewives he was a step father and former agent who went on the run with a witness.   His daughter, Serena (Jenn Proske) is also there.   Mac tells him he always has a lot on his plate and his team always does a good job.   Lindsay goes through what happened and she is now going by Lindsay Messer and not Monroe Messer as she was before.   Jo had to walk past at that moment.   Mac has already said Jo isn't on the case so doesn't the Senator listen to the news? In such an important case, I would have thought he'd have known that; considering he was the one who got Jo booted out of the FBI.   Surprised he wouldn't have gone to Chief Sinclair and put his foot down already and had her removed from working the case through official channels.   Mac tells him if this happened to his daughter he'd want Jo on the case (and not Lindsay!  I would add.)

Danny found partial prints on the bike and food residue.   Also grey paint from an Audi on the bike.    Hawkes' bullet fragments matched a Russian gun.    Also a print was found on the casing belonging to Barshay.   Flack raids his house and finds it empty, but the furniture has been overturned and a window is open.   The Barshay's were away.   The place was cleaned.   Hawkes notices food particles on the table and brings in a doggy bag from outside.   Flack is reluctant for him to open that bag inside but it's a food doggy bag.   Great funny scene!  He finds part of an eaten sandwich inside.   All roads lead to food which was the key in solving this case.

Danny searches through the camera photos from the police car in the hopes of finding the bike or car and Lindsay had to turn up.  He thinks she'll be fine in court.   Jo talks to Serena who doesn't blame her.   It must have been difficult for her as a mother and a woman to watch Curtis walk free.   Jo forever thinking about everyone else says it's not about her.   Mac knows about Jo's visit to Curtis which wasn't a good idea.   Danny discovered the car was rented by Danshov, Markov's man and has three parking tickets from the same place.   Flack gives the car a flat and when Jo sees the tyre she gets an idea to check out the bike tyre since it's probably been changed.   Danny says the inner tube would have to have been patched so there'll be prints.   Danny: "Don't care what everybody says around here - you're good." So who is this everybody then, Lindsay ha.   That was Danny's little pep talk to Jo, how sweet.

Danshov's (Ivo Nandi) accent was funny.   He hit the bike and thinks the judge was crooked.   It would have been more opportune for them to blackmail him than to kill him.   He wasn't "squeaking clean."  Flack corrects him, "squeaky clean."  (Who was he, Ziva from NCIS getting his words wrong.)  The judge eats at the steakhouse and had an expensive lifestyle.   Jo looks into the judge's past cases.   Danny hits on a print from the bike to a Nicholas Albertson (Tony Oller).   Flack arrests him.   His funny line of asking whether the Porterhouse is as good as everyone says it is, even though it's not the right time to ask.   The show is skimping out on the Flack/Danny chase scenes now, they don't have far to run anymore!

Nick was the delivery boy and Flack tells him the judge was a regular there.   He denies everything and Flack posits he thinks it was just a coincidence the judge got sick there.   Flack's funny acting when he mimics Nick denying all.

Danny and Flack go over the facts and the route taken by the bike and come up with the bike coming from two different directions, meaning there were two bikes and thus two different riders.   Jo finds Nick's conviction wasn't in the Criminal Court database. She had to search for the file.   Nick stole gum and was his first offence.   Instead of community service, he was given three months at Forest Brook, a juvenile camp.   His co-defendant was Tommy Hill (James Preston) who got six months for a first offence.   If the computer file was erased why make the mistake of leaving behind a paper trail.   The camp is owned by Nelson (Casey Sanders) who got a fee for every child sent there.

Hawkes extracted a profile from the sandwich to Tommy, who is the killer.   Danny and Jo arrest Tommy and the backpack has a bullet hole, like I said.   Tommy admits to the killing.   He overheard him at the steakhouse.   Nick talks to Danny now and he got Tommy a job there.   Nick was more forthcoming with Danny than Flack, even though Danny is also a cop.   Nelson was also there with him.   The judge remembered Nick and they bought off his lawyer too.   Nick wanted to go to the police but no one would believe them.   Tommy knocked Nick down in the beginning where we came in.   The judge ruined lives and got away with it, as Tommy says.   So much for Mac and his press conference statement about the system of justice and Jo says it too.   As often said it's the only system there is.   Nelson kills himself.

Lindsay needs to talk to Ali (Beau Garrett) about the levels of GHB in her system which are inconsistent with the timeline.   Flack is willing to believe her but he's not a scientist as he's said in the past.  Lindsay had to drop the ball on this one - not that she could keep the info to herself but it's that lab tech ref.   At the hearing she testifies the levels of GHB in Ali's blood are "impossible." If she had that amount in her she'd be dead.   Curtis is granted lower bail.

Was Ali a plant, as an escort she could have been hired by the Senator to ensnare Curtis, wouldn't put it past him.   It's just all this looks pretty suspicious especially when it came to the GHB readings in her blood and getting the readings wrong.   No that Ali wasn't attacked by him otherwise why gloat but he seemed so sure he would get out.   Also maybe it wasn't meant to go so far as for her to be beaten.  As Curtis is adept at not leaving behind any forensics aside from the GHB, which any of his Vic's knew and so did the Senator and Serena, otherwise how else could the inconsistent GHB readings be explained.  Anyway I love me a good mystery and speculation too.   Let's see what happens next episode.

In the other case, if Nick hadn't interfered and gone after Tommy, it appears he would have gotten away with the killing. It was only the collision with his bike and him leaving it behind at the scene which led to Nick and through Nick they found Tommy.   Jo uses Danny's "boom."  Adam (AJ Buckley) was missing this episode and yes it was noticeable.

Sela and Jeffrey Nordling were both in the series Once and Again.   In CSI:NY 2.13 Risk, Mac finds a link between the death of a man on a subway train and the use of antifreeze, though not in the context of food.

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