Searching for clues
With a solid seven seasons and two successful spin-offs behind it, ‘CSI’ wasn’t too worried about losing its audience after the Writers Guild strike.
Unlike cop shows like ‘Law and Order,’ crime shows like ‘CSI’ simply use the evidence to guide the case. In this episode, ‘A Thousand Days on Earth,’ lead forensic investigator Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) breaks from her role as an objective investigator and became personally attached to the case since it reminds her of her daughter. She decides to play police officer, which lands her in deep trouble and ruins a suspect’s (who turns out to be innocent) life.
In the more recent seasons of ‘CSI,’ perhaps in an effort to shake up the show’s usual one-crime-an-episode formula, writers have been focusing more on character development rather than thinking up weird new cases. While this works in some instances (learning anything about introverted head investigator Grissom feels like a victory), lately it has been taking away from what audiences have come to like about ‘CSI’ and its scientific plot twists.
The actual crime of this past week’s ‘CSI’ was reminiscent of its earlier seasons due to the unexpected plot twists no one could have guessed the outcome even with the evidence presented in the show. It stood out from other episodes earlier in this season because it showed another side of crime investigation the show doesn’t often highlight: the influence these investigations have on the accused, especially when they turn out to be innocent.
In typical ‘CSI’ fashion, the show begins with a random person discovering a dead body.
In this case, it was a 3-year-old girl whose body was found inside a box outside of a comedy club.
A piece of evidence linking the box in which the girl was found and who bought it, brings the team to the doorstep of Leo Finch, a registered sex offender who changed his name and now lives with his na’ve fiancée. Give Willows her shovel because this is where she digs her own grave with her wrong intuition and closed-minded values. While the name change and the former molestation charges turned out to be slightly misunderstood, (he went streaking near a preschool; nobody was hurt) puts Finch in a bad light.
The evidence doesn’t seem to match up with Finch, and Grissom (William Petersen), the ever-rational leader of the team, tells Willows she’s headed in the wrong direction, but she continues to press Finch.
In the end, it turns out the death occurred when the small child was playing hide-and-go-seek with her other young siblings. They encouraged her to hide underneath the kitchen sink amongst all the cleaning products. The child safety latch on the cabinet trapped the young girl (which begs the question, how did she get inside in the first place. But ‘CSI’ is not always known for its realism.) And when her stepfather (another plot twist, an ex-con) came home, he found her dead and decided that disposing the body himself was a better idea than going to the cops.
At the end, while the viewer thinks the case is closed, Willows is walking back to her car, and several ominous camera angles alerts viewers something is amiss. There stands crazy looking Leo Finch to tell Willows that thanks to her handy dandy detective work, he has lost his job, fiancée and self-respect.
Threatening to commit suicide on her front lawn, he walks away, opening up yet another mystery for the series to follow just as one was solved. It’s another story arc that forces viewers to tune in week after week to see the outcome – something ‘CSI’ has been using in recent seasons to mix up the show’s format.
Despite confusing parts like a random shootout between the stepfather and the police near the end, this episode of CSI was superb. It went back to its crime solving roots rather than focusing on staff relationships and cases that take up multiple episodes.
Published on April 12, 2008 at 12:00 pm
