Ray (Laurence Fishburne) is rushed to hospital after being stabbed by Haskell (Bill Irwin) and whilst there he hallucinates him escaping his handcuffs and being attacked by him. He comes out of it when he hears Nick (George Eads) saying he'll be okay. Glad Jorga came back, she was missed! Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) worries about her team, which some may call being too emotional for a woman! But she's got the right balance between knowing when to show emotion and when to be heavy-handed.
At the funeral of Officer Clark (Reggie Vaughn Watkins), Nick is asked to leave by Brass (Paul Guilfoyle). "Sometimes the best thing to do is to just walk away." Understanding Officer Clark's family's grief, but that was a harsh thing to do, it's not his fault he died in the line of duty and Nick wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. Nick is clearly hurt by this and his pain is apparent. Brass has been where Nick is. Leaving Nick to sit alone in his car and cry. He's another CSI who gets to show plenty of emotion, which is a good thing and again isn't a sign of weakness. He flashes back to sending Officer Clark to the back of the restaurant and getting shot. There's something about Nick and guns in this show - ever since season 1! Nick spots cockroaches streaming over and under a parked van and hears chirping. Our Nicky being the curious CSI that he is, has to check this out , hearing a clicking sound, he finds a bomb strapped underneath. Before he's able to act/react, two bombs go off one after the other, sparking chaos and panic. Causing everyone to run towards the parked van. Nick fires his gun to warn them off, the bomb explodes and the door comes hurtling towards us on the screen. Duck!
Nick can't hear Catherine question him due to temporary tinnitus. He tells her Pariplaneta Americana (a species of cockroaches) were attracted to the clicking.
So are Catherine and Lou Vartann (Alex Carter) still seeing each other, they appear to be. Brass vents to Catherine, angrily that if Haskell remained in prison then none of this would have happened and his officers wouldn't have been killed.
Greg (Eric Szmanda) takes Nick's jacket for evidence. It was his best suit. Greg asks if he's seen the state of his car. Nick heard that or did he read Greg's lips. Still it was Nick's car, so must be a male thing as far as car's are concerned.
Ray asks after Nick and refuses morphine as it has an affect on his thinking process. Haskell's mail and calls were being monitored, but he could have got outside help, as he's used acolytes before. Ray informs Brass to "play your game, not his" when questioning Haskell. Ray has lost one of his kidneys. Haskell hopes Ray's fine so he remembers him everytime he uses the loo, he'll see the scar. So why did Haskell want to be untied so he can eat lunch, he doesn't need to be untied.
Kacey Monahan (Sienna Guillory) is the resident bomb expert on the scene, finding unexploded ammonium nitrate, as only one barrel went off. Ugh if I hear one more Brit who can't speak their own accent properly, I'll scream! No one really talks like that here. It's meant to be called a 'lilt', her accent. But she ended up sounding like Peyton (Claire Forlani) from CSI:NY.
Catherine and Sara (Jorga Fox) determine the bomb was to cause maximum chaos and injuries. Catherine has plenty of evidence. Nick finds a cellphone under the turf, which was the detonator. He asks if it could make a clicking sound. There were three different bombs. The first was the casket bomb, in the coffin of officer Clark, the second the tombstone bomb. The first was a low explosive. Ray explains it was easy to build the car bomb, as a similar one destroyed the Federal Building at Oklahoma City. The tombstone contained a Claymore and the van was the kill bomb. The first bomb was to scare, not to kill, so people would run for cover towards the tombstones where the second bomb was planted and the third bomb was in their path when they ran to it. Ray: "shock, run, kill." Catherine believes the bomber has a grudge against cops.
Nick finds it difficult to work with one arm and Catherine tells him to go home. She almost lost him and Ray and she doesn't want to lose this case. She advises him to see the shrink, as is standard procedure, she's not worried about the rules, but him. Nick feels he'll just be wasting time when he could be working the case. She confides in him that after losing Warrick (Gary Dourdan) she threw herself into work so she wouldn't have to think about his death, but "there isn't enough work in the world. I realized I couldn't do my job without talking to somebody." Nick didn't know that about her and she's good at hiding things. She asks if Nick would want to be his own back up in a situation if he was called out to the same restaurant where Clark was killed.
Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) comments how Clark has now been in his morgue twice. He finds a simcard in the officer's body.
Kacey finds the bomber's signature, he took the wire out of the post and twist it. Maybe he had OCD and was meticulous. She admires his work. A phone number is found on the Sim. Sara: "hey bomber we got your number."
Thomas Rand was a marine who died in Afghanistan. Brass questions his wife who gave the phone for a charity drive at the community centre. Well that was easy. Also we find out Brass was a marine in Vietnam. Hey what's the SEC NAV (Jude Ciccolella) doing playing a radical, sorry wrong show, that was NCIS. Ha. Sara taking a swing at that woman was fun to watch, she's never done that before and later tells Ray, she's like Ghandi and believes in turning the other cheek. Ralph was Jason's brother and he speaks up for him, in the first scene with Justin Bieber.
Ray analyzes the blast pattern and finds it was all about timing. The bomber had 'eyes' there and finds the plane on the film footage. It was radio controlled and dips and crashes at the same time the as the two explosions. So the bomber had to be nearby.
Ecklie (Marc Vann) needs more evidence and can only sanction holding the group from the community centre for 24 hours.
Greg finds the plane at the CS because "nobody looks up." Kacey discovers the cell phone didn't click as the radio controlled detonator can make the clicking sound. (I have to say come back Wendy (Liz Vassey) all is forgiven.) The click searching for a signal and didn't find one, Nick comments all he had to do was flick the switch and he becomes a bomber.
Brass has a black eye from the fight before and wants some good news. A print comes back to an Alex McCann, he has a brother in their custody, Jason. (Justin Bieber). Anyone can tell he was a part of the bombing too and it runs in the family. Brass is angry at Catherine for telling him how to do his job again and she tells him she's more concerned with how he shouldn't question Jason. Nick questions him instead and his obvious aversion to authority is apparent. The little weasel. Nick describes how the police officer lost his life on Nick's watch and Nick became a part of law enforcement because of his desire to help people. Nick doesn't have a badge, only an ID. (As we know, he's a criminalist, not a cop.) Nick asks where they can find Alex and Jason claims he didn't blow anyone up, he only bought the plane. He gives up his brother so easily, so much for family loyalty. Why was he quick to do that, to get him out of the way. He does exhibit some sociopathic tendencies. But his innocent exterior hides a murky and depth. Even Nick couldn't see past his fresh face.
Kacey checks the hideout for booby traps. Should've exploded her lousy accent. Nick's arm healed quickly. White powder is found at the scene which turns out to be TATP: triacetone triperoxide. Alex ran out of hydrochloric acid so Nick scans the barcode on the bottle to find the nearest pool store for more supplies. That was simple. (Agh Kacey is completely cockney now. talk about changing accents.) They arrive at the store just in time to see Alex leaving. Refusing to surrender resulting in a shoot out. Nick panics and empties his entire magazine of bullets when he fires at him along with the others. Catherine tells him to drop the gun and finds a map and plans to bomb the entire police department.
Vartann doesn't want Catherine to beat herself up next time Brass tries to do the same to her, she saved the cops and she shouldn't forget that.
Doc gives Ray a walking stick, there are "some things you have no control over in life...and when accept that... can move on."
Nick glances at Gil's (William Petersen) 'pickled pig foetus' as I call it and decides to call the shrink. Probably given him inspiration to call. Gil that is, not the foetus.
Sara is too tired to go home - too tired or some other reason. Catherine takes Greg to a call out. David (David Berman) comments that a trash run can be refreshing. Vartann has no battery in his torch and asks Greg for one, conveniently dropping the battery so the bomb would explode. He was killed and dragged there to lure them. Greg pulls back Vartann and saves him after Catherine yells not to touch anything.
So begins the bomber storyline with the CSIs and cops lives being placed in 'grave danger' once more. (Oh subtle pun there.) No, it's just an excuse to bring back Justin Bieber! He was evil!
A great start to the season and a pity Marg is leaving very soon. With lots of displays of emotion from Nick, Ray and Catherine.
Unlike Lindsay's (Anna Belknap) display of machismo, Nick was finally more than happy to see the shrink. Nick has an aversion to guns and who can blame him, as he's been on the wrong side of one for as long as the series is old! (Somehow get the feeling the writers don't want to forget how George faced a gun man when he was younger back in Texas, as they seem to keep writing this into storylines with Nicky.)
It's always good to see Nick let go of his emotions and have a good cry since there's nothing wrong with a man showing emotion or man tears. (Even Horatio (David Caruso) cried in CSI:Miami) That makes Nick who he is and gives the character a different, more caring and vulnerable edge. As I said before, he is a criminalist as opposed to a hardened cop and at least there's some consistency with his character. Similar in some respects to Catherine who is so human and a perfect leader for this team, she cares. Expect more emotional portrayals from them all in the future. Especially with Nick I hope, as he's always excellent in that department. George plays Nick with such believable depth, it's great to watch that in a CSI show.
Catherine telling Nick and Sara to go home. Whilst all Nick and Ray wanted to do was to get on with the case. Having Ray liaise and carry out his own investigation from his bed was a good touch.
Using a cellphone as a detonator was also done in the season 2 finale of CSI:NY.
