Jo (Sela Ward) takes Mac (Gary Sinise) shopping, which he hates and can't believe he let her talk him into it. Oh admit it, you really wanted to go! Mac notices a pickpocket whom he watches and then chases. Jo can't believe he just did that. She then calls the window display amazing, agreed by the pickpocket, whom she wasn't talking to. Mac still is disinterested until he sees a DB in the display. Mac: "You see why I hate shopping." They process the shop window. Yay Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) without Lindsay's (Anna Belknap) 'shackles' ha. Someone listened to my plea from last episode, when I said we need to see less of her,
Flack (Eddie Cahill) identifies the Vic as Richard grossman (Jeff Roop). The staff liked to call him other names as employees were being fired. Jo comments he "makes our boss look pretty good."
Danny: "I wouldn't go that far."
Mac: "I heard that" and lets them off, must be Christmas as they all share a laugh. Hawkes (Hill Harper) finds signs of blunt force trauma and that the wound impressions are "oddly textured." He must have fallen against something. Or Mac suggests he could have been struck very hard. Flack tells them the pickpocket's jacket has a blood stain on it. Based on the liver temperature the Vic died about half an hour ago.
Danny finds signs of a struggle, as someone stepped in his blood. Jo asks if he's "ready to go shopping?" Danny asks what for. The killer of course. They follow the blood trail until they lose it in the store. Using luminol to spray the floor. Jo and Danny follow the second trail to the make-up counter. Where the assistant, Tracy Parker (Hayley Marie Norman) was giving away free make-up kits. Jo looks at her shoes, but she's wearing stilettos which calls cute. Danny grabs the free bag she gives to Jo, for "the girls." Like Lucy really needs it, now Lindsay... Hey, that'd be considered a bribe, you can't accept gifts like that. Jo comments that the astringent in the bag is 80% alcohol, thus the killer would have needed it for the wound. Since they see blood on the counter. Checking out the family bathroom, Danny finds bloody cotton wool and the discarded bag in the bin. Danny: "Boom." He hasn't said that in a while and seizes the opportunity, now he's free from Lindsay.
Blood on the cotton wool matches the blood on the pickpocket's jacket. Howie (Steven Crowley) is questioned by Flack and Mac and Flack gets no amount of amusement from it. Flack comments that perhaps pickpocketing isn't his forte. Howie says he knows the law and they haven't found him with any stolen goods. Mac tells him he's a witness, he saw him lift the woman's wallet, which will be enough for the Grand Jury. Howie calls it his word against Mac's. Which Flack finds funny. Good to see his humour back when dealing with suspects in usual Flack interrogation mode. Mac asks how blood from the Vic got onto his jacket. Flack tells him he hasn't heard of felony murder. He can still be found guilty. He claims a woman bumped into him and he went "about my business." Yes he did; he stole from her. This was apparent from the security footage Jo and Danny watch. But don't see him lifting something from her.
Jo recalls the woman from the street, she was making snow angels. She goes back there and finds blood on the snow and also the woman nearby. She doesn't reply to Jo's questions and Jo takes scrapings from her fingernails. She has bruises too. Jo tells her what she knows. Her blood was found in the area and she cleaned herself in the bathroom. Flack explains her name is Alena (Lisa Brenner) and she's assistant manager at the store. She bought a one-way ticket to Aruba for tomorrow. Jo says this makes the killing premeditated.
Adam (AJ Buckley) checks the iron branch. The print on the broken USB belongs to Grossman. (Well he had an appropriate name.) The blood spatter on the branch is impact spatter so was used as a weapon. Hawkes says it matches the odd wound on the Vic. Danny finds that the burnt human flesh on the broken glass found at the scene belongs to Pascal Denton (Hart Turner). He was fired a week ago. Flack and Danny back together again ha, go to pick up Pascal, who happens to run from Flack, why does he run if he had nothing to hide. Guess that'd be 'once a perp, always a perp'. Danny throws the dummy down and domino style the other dummies fall on him. They don't waste anytime time taking him downtown either but continue their questioning right there. Joking that they have a thing going where they bet each other $100 everytime a perp says they didn't do anything. They're up to $2.5 million now. Flack calls Danny his partner here.
Flack with another funny line, "there you go getting all innocent again." Pascal fought in the shop window with Grossman over the display and burnt his arm on the lamp. He was engaged to Alena but she called it off 6 months ago. Jo says he's telling the truth. Sid (Robert Joy) tells them Grossman was also an attacker as there are scratches on his face, neck; bitemarks on his arm and defensive wounds. Jo thinks Alena was defending herself.
Jo talks with Alena again and tells her she was taught to respect the dead. There had been harassment complaints from other employees. Alena holds Jo's hand and then lets it go. Jo feels what she's going through, she wishes she could read Alena's mind. Flack tells Mac that she still killed him. Mac calls Flack Don here and tells him the new DA is not pressing charges for lack of evidence against premeditation. Flack is worried about her leaving the country if they find new evidence.
Tracy was being sexually harassed by Grossman but her complaint was dismissed by the store. Tracy explains how Alena would cover for her when she left early, she closed her till. Tracy agreed to date him as he threatened to cut back her hours. Alena wanted him to stop taking advantage of the other women.
Adam tells Mac the USB was froma pocket camera which broke off during the struggle. Mac believes there was something on it Alena didn't want him to see. Mac recalls the camera Howie had and knows where to find it. In the drain. Adam dries the camera out using silica desiccantt. Howie stole the camera from Alena. It was taken from her cardigan and not her coat as Mac says. Adamrecovers footage of Alena stealing money from the tills (cash registers.) Jo explains any minor discrepancies under $10 are written off by the store. Lindsay examined the blood and found Alena had leukemia.
Jo explains that she would want to live as long as possible. Grossman knew Alena was stealing and extorted her, he demanded 'sexual favours'. Alena tells Jo he was robbing her of her humanity. They fought in the window and she hit him. Taking the camera but leaving behind plenty of evidence. She gave the money to the employees. Jo realizes she was stalling by not talking to her earlier on. Alena wanted to leave behind a reason for her living.
Jo and Mac are in his office again and she picks up the snowglobe; explaining why she loves window shopping: where you don't have to buy everything you see, "you stop, you look; find something to admire and then move on."
Mac: "I'll buy that." So who does shop for Mac, we know from a past episode that he does his own grocery shopping, but what about his Christmas shopping.
CSI:NY hasn't done a Christmas episode before so it would have been interesting to see what the others were doing for Christmas. Again at the end Jo was telling Mac why Alena shouldn't be arrested - not only since she has a short time left but because she didn't steal for herself. But the staff were still receiving the proceeds of a crime, but the trick would be having to prove all that. Not their work. This was the show's Christmas episode as said already, so there had to be some Christmas spirit in the air; of charity and understanding.
The song at the beginning, 'Baby It's Cold Outside', was partly sung by David James Elliott in an episode of JAG. Oh come on they were so preparing us for his appearance next episode!! in my opinion.
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