S01.E11: Ghost in the Machine

[ottoDbusdriver]

Episode Description:

 

A killer manages to hack into a popular online game and is able to con people into delivering illegal weapons.

 

[threebluestars]

This aired last night in Canada.

 

Meh. But isn't that true of every episode?

[shapeshifter]

I actually thought this episode was better quality than the rest so far--until the list at the end. What was that supposed to be about?

[ottoDbusdriver]

Online Gaming will kill you and everyone you love -- or at least use you to deliver weapons to dead drops so that people can kill other people with the guns being delivered.

 

Teenager goes to drop a package off at a location in a residential neighborhood in a thicket of bushes by the driveway of a house, but after he places the package on the ground he opens the package and discovers a cordless drill.  The teenager picks up the cordless drill and when he is startled by the homeowner he drops the cordless drill that was secretly containing a handgun and shoots himself in the chest when the cordless drill hits the ground.  Not to ask a silly question -- but how does an automatic accidentally fire when dropped ? 

 

Parents of the kid that was shot think that he's a good kid and they monitor ALL of his online usage -- except for the 5+ hours a day playing an online game on his Gamevex, which is where he connected with the killer.

 

Mundo is fooling around in the kitchen with his ex-wife, and for some reason his ex-wife has a kitchen chair with a blinking red LED mounted to the top of the chairback -- WTF is that about ?

 

Turns out this method of using innocent people to deliver weapons is the signature of some guy named Trigger that C-TAC has been after for years.

 

The homeowner shows up dead near his office killed by a gun that was similarly hidden inside a cordless drill.  Couldn't they get a sponsorship from Black and Decker for this episode ?

 

Raven has returned from her sabbatical -- wherever she has been for the last handful of episodes.  And no one even says "Raven, where have you been lately ?".  And there are noticeably fewer background workers in the C-TAC pit this episode.

 

After a gun goes off in the park where yet another gun was delivered.
Mundo: "Do you think he made us ?"
What with the convoy of black SUVs showing up in the park chock full of FBI agents with FBI in big letters on all their vests -- does anyone think that gave them away ?

 

Gamers are, in fact, egomaniacs and use their gaming handle on all other social media accounts -- uh, no. Especially when they are 3 only digits long, but look he has a togglefly account so problem solved here's his IP.

 

And this is why according to law an IP address is not in fact directly connected to a person -- Mundo blows past the woman at the door and a chase ensues, when it turns out the person they were looking for was actually the woman answering the door.  And she has already bolted.

 

And the way to find Trigger is ... a supercookie. And linking it to an online article about the shootings in Chicago on the local Tampa newspaper websites.  Wouldn't local Chicago stories on the homepage of a Tampa news website send a redflag out to Trigger ?   What if Trigger used a browser that blocked all cookies ?  Just saying.

 

Bow Wow:  "That's it" as he points to the screen showing a .22 handgun and a cordless drill kit.  How did Bow Wow ever figure that out ? </sarcasm>

 

While Krummie and Bow Wow confirm the shipping addresses in Chicago, they discover that a 4th gun was just delivered to Chicago.  But they completely gloss over the fact that Trigger also shipped guns to L.A. San Francisco, Dallas, Ann Arbor, Miami -- are they going to follow up on those too ?  Plus, per his web site he also sold machine guns, shotguns, assault rifles and lots of other stuff, shouldn't they be following up on those as well ?

 

This Trigger guy is so sophisticated that he uses a public library workstation to conduct all his nefarious deeds -- for anyone to see.  And he is really easily captured, as he stayed logged on at that workstation working on his illegal gun website for several hours while the C-TAC team flew down to Tampa from Washington, staked out the library workstation area with undercover officers, and waited.  Sure he did, just so Krummie be all up in Trigger's face when he was arrested.  Once again, why wouldn't they call the local FBI office to arrest this guy in a much shorter timeframe ?

 

Viper75's motive was to get revenge on the two eyewitnesses at the trial that put his father behind bars for bank robbery and his father was then killed in prison, but his son claims he didn't commit the crime.  Not the judge or the members of the jury or the D.A. or the guy that actually killed his father in prison (or the bank employees that forced his father to take the money, for that matter) -- because that's some pretty weak tea.  Why didn't he attack Avery and try to steal her gun ?  He could clearly see her holstered weapon when she flashed her badge on her hip.  Who cued the police cars in that that was the time to rush up and confront the fleeing villain at that exact moment ?  Just so Mundo could say Game Over.

[Jamoche]

"If customers found out their personal info was being stolen they'd just stop playing"

 

Hahahahaha. No.

[Zahdii]

ottobusdriver, excellent!  So many times during the episode I was thinking the same thing, only to come here and realize that you thought it first.  <bows>

 

Completely off topic, but did anyone else get the disturbing Little Miss Puffy Tail commercial during the show?  I immediately banned any decorations with a face from my bathrooms!

 

http://www.tvcommercialspots.com/home-and-garden/quilted-northern-little-miss-puffy-tail-smash-me-into-a-million-little-pieces-designed-to-be-forgotten-quiltednorthern-daddy-gator-puffytail-daddygator-designedtobeforgotten-toiletpaper/

[iscoffy]

Gamers are, in fact, egomaniacs and use their gaming handle on all other social media accounts -- uh, no. Especially when they are 3 only digits long, but look he has a togglefly account so problem solved here's his IP.

What the heck was Togglefly even supposed to be?

I think they must have just enjoyed saying "Goldenbeast," since it was said approximately 8,423 times. I kind of wish the name I saw on the top 20 of whatever that first-person shooter was called had been involved, because hearing Patricia Arquette say "Jefftastic" would have been amusing. By the standards of this show, anyway. Although I did get a laugh about her lecturing to Mundo about gamers thinking they can jump off tall buildings in a single bound.

Did I understand correctly that they would know when Trigger clicked on the news story because he would do so from the Dark Web? Um, would a guy in a public library who had somehow been avoiding getting caught by our crack team for years not just use Google to look at a news story about himself? Unleash the SUPERCOOKIE! (And its amazing dialogue, too, which went something like-- "How about a super cookie?" "Super cookie!" "Yeah, let's do that." "What's a super cookie?" Such great writing!) Which apparently they can just do without authority from anyone, even though either they'd have to fake a news page (which you'd think Trigger would maaaaybe find suspicious), or involve a legit news organization, which probably would need to be aware of the super cookie.

Sure he did, just so Krummie be all up in Trigger's face when he was arrested. Once again, why wouldn't they call the local FBI office to arrest this guy in a much shorter timeframe ?

Local LE never exists, except to show up at the last minute. There's only Mundo and Avery Ryan, who must split up, except when they need to mill around with large FBI lettering all over them when they are trying to find someone in a crowded park.

Did they ever explain how Viper had all the equipment in the game? He just raided other people's stuff and had a huge Ponzi scheme with one virtual katana, with drill guns as an end game going on?

Apparently Peter MacNicol's character's son's punishment for participating in cyber bullying did not include losing his faux X-box Live.

Oh my gosh, the ridiculous speech at the end with all the cheering and the list of names. Yes, your job is one of the most difficult EVER! So L33T.

Edited May 13, 2015 by iscoffy

[Zahdii]

Did I understand correctly that they would know when Trigger clicked on the news story because he would do so from the Dark Web?

 

I understood it to mean that anyone who clicked on the story would then be tracked to see if they visited the dark web after that, not that only people clicked on the story from within the dark web.  Then they had the problem of tracking everyone who clicked on the story to their future sites, and apparently the sites they'd visited in the past for a period of time, like everywhere they'd been in the last 24 hours.  But the cyber team only focused on the hits that either led into the dark web or had been on the dark web recently.

 

There was no indication that records of all of those hits would be stored long term (but I wouldn't guarantee it), but really the only one of interest at that moment would be the ones that led to the dark web, and then only the ones that could lead back to Trigger.

Unleash the SUPERCOOKIE!...Which apparently they can just do without authority from anyone, even though either they'd have to fake a news page (which you'd think Trigger would maaaaybe find suspicious), or involve a legit news organization, which probably would need to be aware of the super cookie.

 

It never occurred to me they'd need authority to make a supercookie (assuming there is such a thing) because aren't they the authorities?

 

The Peter MacNicol character told the heavyset one to write up the story and said he'd talk to the Tampa newspapers about putting the story on their websites.  Don't know if those newspapers would need to be told of the supercookie, because cookies are often imbeded in sites of many kinds, at least according to my web browsers and virus software.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Zahdii

[Tony]

This episode has to be the dumbest one yet, and that's saying something.

 

Just to be clear - Trigger went through all the trouble of hacking various gamers, luring them with armor and weapons, and then recruiting them all so they can deliver super stealthy handgun cum power drills? If he's still going to be committing the murders himself, then why not just show up with the weapons in hand instead of this whole charade? I swear the writers are challenging themselves to come up with the dumbest, most convoluted storylines imaginable.

[NYGirl]

I haven't watched since the first 2 episodes but I was too lazy to change the channel last night. I see it's still the same old convaluted crap.

 

Who was the guy in the library?  Why did it take 2 guys in different states to commit these murders?  Also, when the first kid died was the guy that yelled at him the next victim?  Why was he there? The acting in this show sucks..

[shapeshifter]

Completely off topic, but did anyone else get the disturbing Little Miss Puffy Tail commercial during the show?  I immediately banned any decorations with a face from my bathrooms!

 

http://www.tvcommercialspots.com/home-and-garden/quilted-northern-little-miss-puffy-tail-smash-me-into-a-million-little-pieces-designed-to-be-forgotten-quiltednorthern-daddy-gator-puffytail-daddygator-designedtobeforgotten-toiletpaper/

Heh.This may motivate me to get the bunny pictures out of my bathroom.

Zahdii, did the ceramic bunny's voice sound like Dean Winters to you? They aired it a lot during Battle Creek.

[Zahdii]

Heh.This may motivate me to get the bunny pictures out of my bathroom.

Zahdii, did the ceramic bunny's voice sound like Dean Winters to you? They aired it a lot during Battle Creek.

 

It could be.  Whoever did the narration certainly has the deadpan slightly dark humor thing all sewn up.

 

Now to drag the thread back to the show at hand...How about that CSI: Cyber, eh?

 

Sorry to see Peter MacNicol in such a minor role on a show that should celebrate him more.

 

Also surprised that Patricia Arquette has such jacked up teeth.  Surely somewhere along the line she's had the money to fix them?  Having them all crammed together like that can't bode well for her future, orthodontically speaking.

[henripootel]

Are there any first person shooter games where you can get upgraded armor and such?  I know that's standard shizz on World of Warcraft and such, but that wouldn't fly on Halo.  You start equipping some folks better and game skill goes right out the window.  I thought this was the same for all such games, so this seemed to me like another area where the writers don't know what the fuck they're talking about.

[thuganomics85]

Oh, yeah!  Got our "Evil Video Gaming" story in, before the season wraps up.  I guess it could have been worse (they at least acknowledge that some gamers aren't that bad), but they still made sure to have Avery bring up that online gaming is a haven for all the evil pervs and predators of the world.  I mean, I'm sure there is some truth to it, but I'm also sure every hobby or sport, will have it's share of disturbing individuals.

 

Favorite dumb moment has already been mentioned:

 

 

After a gun goes off in the park where yet another gun was delivered.
Mundo: "Do you think he made us ?"
What with the convoy of black SUVs showing up in the park chock full of FBI agents with FBI in big letters on all their vests -- does anyone think that gave them away ?

Seriously, did Elijah just get hit on the head or something, during that scene?  Even a blind person would have been able to make them, with all those sirens and agents screaming "FB!"  That is going beyond lazy.

 

Oh, look: stuff involving Elijah's love life, that I don't care about.  Just reminding us the ex and daughter exist, so we can the eventual episode where an evil cyber terrorist kidnaps them, and Elijah must unleash the Mundo on their asses!

 

Hey, Raven's alive!  Good to know.  Didn't really do much, but I at least find her more tolerable then Bow Wow and Krummy.

 

One positive I'll give this show is every now and then, Peter MacNicol shows a glimmer of the entertaining actor he normally is.  It ain't much, but I'll take it.

 

The final game off was so, so bad.  I'm pretty damn sure Patricia Arquette has never, ever played a vide game before, because he was holding the controller so awkwardly.

 

Two hours tonight!  Probably will watch the one at nine, but wait on the final one tomorrow.  I don't think I can handle two back-to-back episodes of CSI: Cyber.  That can't be healthy.

[roomtorome]

If I get nothing else from this series (and, I won't) I do know there is something called the "deep web" - and, in case it slipped my mind for about 2 seconds, they jumped in to say it again - and, again.

 

This is like a parody of all the L&O/CSI shows - what a mess.  And, sorry, but does her face move at all?

 

I watched last night (admittedly, not the whole thing) just to check in to see if it was as I remember it from when it first appeared - gad, I can't get over had bad this is - 

I read today that Ted Danson is heading to this show now that CSI has been cancelled.  Adds nothing.  But, I do wonder how PA feels about it - 

Edited May 13, 2015 by roomtorome

[BooksRule]

Who was the guy in the library?

 

I didn't understand that either.  I thought that he was the murderer, but he wasn't.  So, he was Trigger, and was running the website with all of the weapons?  And, Viper-whatever was the actual killer who bought the weapons?  And they weren't really connected or working together, right?  I'm confused.

 

Also, I agree with the poster who asked why all the trouble?  Why not just buy a gun and go shoot the people you want to kill?  It might have made a little more sense (a teeny tiny bit more) if he had been getting others to do the actual killing (convincing them that it was all fake or something), but if he was going to pull the trigger why make it so complicated?

Edited May 14, 2015 by BooksRule

[iscoffy]

I didn't understand that either.  I thought that he was the murderer, but he wasn't.  So, he was Trigger, and was running the website with all of the weapons?  And, Viper-whatever was the actual killer who bought the weapons?  And they weren't really connected or working together, right?  I'm confused.

 

Trigger was a deep web firearms dealer, who somehow ran his operation through the public library and by buying lots and lots of drills, apparently.  Viper was a guy who apparently had lots of time to play some online first-person-shooter, hack said game, groom kids, and shoot the witnesses against his dad, using drill guns from Trigger's dark web operation.

 

I understood it to mean that anyone who clicked on the story would then be tracked to see if they visited the dark web after that, not that only people clicked on the story from within the dark web.  Then they had the problem of tracking everyone who clicked on the story to their future sites, and apparently the sites they'd visited in the past for a period of time, like everywhere they'd been in the last 24 hours.  But the cyber team only focused on the hits that either led into the dark web or had been on the dark web recently.

I unashamedly admit to not paying the greatest amount of attention to this show, but I do think it was not really explained.  And I am not a journalist, but I don't think most online news pages would just accept a wall of code-- wouldn't they generally be putting stories submitted to them into their template?  

 

It never occurred to me they'd need authority to make a supercookie (assuming there is such a thing) because aren't they the authorities?

 

 

Well, if Krummy could have gotten in trouble for whatever technobabble thing he did that let him see that Lomis won a chess competition (illegal search), I don't see how infecting however many people with a super cookie would be any better. But of course, they are the white hats, so whatever.

[TribbleTrouble]

One positive I'll give this show is every now and then, Peter MacNicol shows a glimmer of the entertaining actor he normally is. It ain't much, but I'll take it.

Sadly, according to TV Guide he won't be back for season 2. He's leaving the show. "Creative differences." Ha! Yeah, I'll bet he has creative differences. I can't blame you Peter. Run for your life!

I thought the writing on CSI prime had really gone into the crapper in the last few seasons, but this show is even worse. So painful. Yikes. Unless they do a complete house cleaning of the show runners and the writers' room before season 2, I don't think even the snark value will be enough to bring me back to this crap fest.

[henripootel]

I gotta say that, even as a habitué of police procedurals, the apprehension scenes are completely ridiculous.  Does the Beek really have to draw his gun on a fleeing teenager?  And where was the kid running to?  Away from his home, where they know he lives, because they know his name, which the Beek said aloud causing the running away.

 

And what was up with Avery being the one to confront the guy at the end?  They had the gun, but the Beek merely unloaded it and put it back so ... what?  Avery could get the guy to incriminate himself?  By boring him with exposition about how they caught up to him?  The guy knows he's been caught, knows they know who he is, so he tries to straight-up murder a fed?  Who writes this shite?

[ghostd00d]

OK folks.......this is 2015.  Most folks understand the internet.  And for a show that is using "CYBER" as it's name it is not only stupid but ignorant to use an IP address such as 69.177.23.344  Any moron knows that IP addresses stop at .254.  It is like saying my phone number is 555-555-1212

Well actually....they end at .255.  But that is usually a broadcast message

[Calamity Jane]

I haven't watched since the first 2 episodes but I was too lazy to change the channel last night. I see it's still the same old convaluted crap.

 

Who was the guy in the library?  Why did it take 2 guys in different states to commit these murders?  Also, when the first kid died was the guy that yelled at him the next victim?  Why was he there? The acting in this show sucks..

I think it's misleading to single out the acting as what sucks on this show.  EVERYTHING sucks, which is why I will never watch it again. 

[Jamoche]

OK folks.......this is 2015.  Most folks understand the internet.  And for a show that is using "CYBER" as it's name it is not only stupid but ignorant to use an IP address such as 69.177.23.344  Any moron knows that IP addresses stop at .254.  It is like saying my phone number is 555-555-1212

Well actually....they end at .255.  But that is usually a broadcast message

I just figure the out of range IP addresses are the equivalent of 555 phone #s - they don't want idiots pinging some innocent computer.

 

What annoys me is that they seem to think an IP address is as hard a link to a computer as a landline phone number - has there been an episode yet where they haven't tracked down a physical location from an IP? When IP spoofing is something most non-US Game of Thrones fans pick up pretty quickly? And it's astonishing how many people commit internet crimes so close to their physical locations.

[crowswork]

Mundo is fooling around in the kitchen with his ex-wife, and for some reason his ex-wife has a kitchen chair with a blinking red LED mounted to the top of the chairback -- WTF is that about ?

 

Beek is so wasted here playing this stiff cliché. Seeing him on Talk Soup reminded me of how good he is at comedy. A

[ottoDbusdriver]

Beek is so wasted here playing this stiff cliché. Seeing him on Talk Soup reminded me of how good he is at comedy.

 

Totally agree.  JvDB was really funny on 'The Soup' last Friday.