S15.E01: The CSI Effect

[photo fox]

Finlay must deal with a bomb planted in her car. Russell gets a call from someone claiming to be the Gig Harbor killer.

[merylinkid]

Oh good god, they are STARTING the season with an episode of "CSI in Danger."   Really?   Because they weren't in enough danger last season?    There is no else to get killed, harmed, threatned in all of the Las Vegas area?

 

To make it worse, it's Fin.    Do they really want the first episode of the season to be everyone hoping the bomb goes off and kills her?

[RandomWatcher]

Or what if Zach Morris was a psychopath

[Linderhill]

Dammit!, what a terrible tease!  I was hoping against hope that they would go thru with blowing the wench up.  NOT impressed at all with this episode.  Dull.  Sorry the cases didn't interest me until Nick and Sara and Greggo showed.  Way toooo much Fin and too much of a tease about blowing her up.  

 

On the upside, my belief that he cast of Saved By the Bell is evil.  And Nick's beard is awesome.  And Brass was actually mentioned.

[threebluestars]

Nick is turning into Grissom. I am not against this lol.

 

Fin is annoying as hell, and I'm hating the "DB's family in danger" thing again. His character was so good the first season, then they did the granddaughter kidnapping and it's been downhill since then. The addition of Fin has really made his character suffer as well. I can't stand Fin and was hoping she would blow up. I actually think it would've been nice to have a CSI die - since Warrick it hasn't happened. It's time, show!

[miles2go]

Probably a minority viewpoint, but I quite liked this one, even if the car bomb tease was a lot like something that happened on The Bridge last year.

 

Finn -not my favorite character, but I don't hate her.  Really wouldn't like to see her blown up. (not that there was any danger of that, the actress must be under contract!)

 

Just out of curiosity, is it usual procedure to take a death-row felon out of prison just for an interview?  I remember when the Green River Killer task force wanted to interview Ted Bundy, they went to his prison in Florida, he wasn't sent back to Seattle.

 

I miss Brass.  Maybe he'll be back in a guest appearance.

[spottedreptile]

I hate to say this, but I'm finding Russell so very very dull. All the promise he showed when he took over from Lawrence has gone. Instead we have this Dudley Do Right who loves his family sooooo much we have to be reminded of it every episode with anvils. Please Mrs. Russell, step out on DB for a bit. Make him less than saintly for a change. 

 

Finn is still Finn. Unfortunately.

 

This show has reached its use by date, and there doesn't seem to be anything more in the cupboard, sad to say. Brass is going to be missed. I really liked his character because Paul Guilfoyle made him round and interesting. This lot are just going through the motions till someone finally brings down the hammer and says DONE. 

[mertensia]

Has Marc Vann put on weight?

Finn in danger. I'm not sure why I should care.

[Trey]

So, how many infallible foes targeting the CSI team does this make?  I don't know why the writers keep doing these boring storylines. Just hope they don't drag this stupid story out all season.

 

At least Russell and Ecklie sounded sad that Brass was gone.  I really missed him...

 

I was glad to see Nick, Sara and Greg, Hodges and the Doc.  I agree that Russell just isn't as great as he was at first.  Still a thousand times better than Dr. Ray Langston though.

 

ETA:  Forgot to mention the ick factor with the crime scene strings being made out of tissues from the victims.  That was not necessary at all.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Trey

[Julie23]

Yeah, Fin is not one of my favorites, but I pretty much knew she wasn't going to get blown up. Kinda tired of her sleeping around with every man she comes into contact with.

Nice to see Mark-Paul Gosselaar in a more serious role than Franklin and Bash.

 

"I was glad to see Nick, Sara and Greg, Hodges and the Doc.  I agree that Russell just isn't as great as he was at first.  Still a thousand times better than Dr. Ray Langston though." - AGREE!!!

[emma675]

So they didn't blow Fin up? Dammit.

 

I may be done with CSI before the season is even halfway through. I barely made it through last season and I don't even really have the interest to watch the first ep now. I hung on for Nick, Sara, Brass and Greg, but my hatred of Fin and the dull-ification of Russell made for a long season.

[Carolina Girl]

For a second there, though, seeing the "villain" I was all "I forget....is that Franklin? or Bash?"

[Lillybee]

Did the actress playing Fin have some work done during the break because it does look like it?

[staveDarsky]

Well I tried. Made it to the 1/2 hour mark and then gave up. I'm tired of the focus on one character over all others. The most interesting to me are the long-time characters, especially Nick and Sara. Yet what do we get? The Fin show. I used to be a fan of Elisabeth Shue. The CSI writers have wrecked that with sticking her in our faces so much.
 

[GaT]

My guess is it's the guy Finn was being a slut with. He showed up when the killer did.

[webruce]

First off, is there a 3rd brother?? And how did they fake the missing finger on the actor? Paul leaving the same print on the table in the diner had to be the guy?? And him talking to one of the missing girls is no coincidence.

The Gig Harbor killer, that was before we met Russell and Finley I guess. When they worked in Seattle. So he followed them to Vegas? It seems to be either Jared Briscoe(in jail) / Paul Winthrop, separated twin at birth, that hardly got interrogated. Or some how Mark Turner got a hold of Briscoe's finger? You have to see if any one is with explosive experience. Turner maybe the copy cat killer. Unless Briscoe covered for someone?

All the missing girls, and the one guy, makes me think there is something to the story behind the guy? Was he mistreated in his youth?

Fin and Detective Daniel Shaw an old bf make out in his car. Then he is ofcourse after the same guy. Well looking for one of the missing girls. Yes I don't see them bring Jared Briscoe to Vegas. Ecklie must have some pull.

Nice that they talked about Jim Brass, but I miss him already. Is nice to see all of the rest of team, except no Henry, only talked about.

Edited October 5, 2014 by webruce

[Corvino]

I finally caught up with this one, having missed the start of the season. Is it true that we have never heard of the Gig Harbor Killer before this episode? That confused me; everybody there knew all the details of the case and I thought we were supposed to know too from a previous season. 

Once it started being about previously unknown brothers and evil masterminds with twisted family dynamics, it drew me in as always. CSI may do that sort of thing a lot, but it's what I love about the show.

[webruce]

@Corvino I am not sure if we knew about it or not. But I guess the CSI team reads about other cases in other parts of the country to learn and findout new ways to solve cases, or findout things that the others did wrong on cases?

[merylinkid]

I'm pretty sure we have seen the Gig Harbor killer before?   Remember when Finn went back to Seattle and did something with her ex-husband besides have sex with him?   There was talk about it then.   And when she was trying to get the fingerprints on the glass in a Vegas case, it came out that she was fired in Seattle for the same trick while trying to nail the guy she was sure was a killer.   I think it was the Gig Harbor killer.

[webruce]

OK, that is vaguely familiar. But it would have to be something we could fall back on to help get up to speed on the case too. So it is not like it is out of left field like some shows have done.

[Starscream]

I guess Lois Lane isn't so dumb because I had no clue that was Mark-Paul Gosselaar until I saw him without the glasses playing the evil twin.

[NYGirl]

Ok this one was rerun tonight as a standalone episode..wtg TPTB.  I haven't watched in years (since Grissom left) and I've been debating whether to start watching again.  I was getting annoyed at the miniature killer then..which helped me give it up.

 

And now I step into another one of these..let's put an episode somewhere in the middle of the season...let's do part 2 3 weeks later and part 3 maybe towards the end episodes.  Ugh..I give up. 

 

I do have to say when I first saw Fin..I thought she was dirty and greasy looking.  A far cry from Marg.  Greg put on some weight and I was never a fan of Sarah anyway.

 

I'm with you Starscream..I had no idea he was Zach Morris with the glasses.

Edited January 25, 2015 by NYGirl

[John Potts]

I guess it's appropriate that this episode was entitled The CSI Effect because it highlighted a real world problem the justice system is facing - juries today are refusing to convict unless there is forensic evidence, even when they have a confession. I also get a bit annoyed with these Series Long (I guess) serial killers, because they tend to involve a lot of angsting and very little detective work (how many science montages did we get?). Could we have Nick looking a little less impressed at the crime scene and actually do his job and process the scene? Yes, the scene had been "processed", but you have no idea what traces the killer(s) left doing so (it may be nothing, but you at least look). I also wanted to know what really happened with DB and the killer, since we saw at least two versions of it and I'm pretty sure neither of them were what really happened (hey, gotta pad that run time!).

 

Since when was Ecklie the voice of reason in the show? When he was first introduced, Conrad was the "anti-Gil" (lousy scientist but politically savvy) - now he's advising DB to be careful? And suggesting - heresy! - that they may have made a mistake? I guess you could call it character growth, but it seems more like TPTB simply forgetting the past.