photo: cbs

Original Air Date: Nov 12, 2010

Maria – TwoCents Reviewer
maria@thetwocentscorp.com

Looks like a spooky special, I’m having flashbacks to Halloween. The episode begins with a close-up of the victim. Her eyes are open wide and blood-shot, her hair is pale blonde, her skin is white and her lips are blue. She’s sat down with her knees brought up to her chest. Her clothes are all white, as are her shoes. She looks terrified. With rigor set in, she is stiff. She is a visual Title Drop and to make matters worse, the cause of death is proving hard to track down so it also looked like she was frightened to death too.

The CSIs don’t have much to work with, gaining most of the evidence from the victim’s hair and clothing. She looks to have been redressed and there is a yellow stain on the back of her dress. The CSIs search Central Park for more information.

This is an episode where atmosphere is an important part and Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, Don Flack and Jo Danville do well to set up the paranormal vs. rational debate. Unfortunately for me, this chilling feeling disappeared the second Lindsay Monroe-Messer witnessed two very poor CGI ghosts. Thankfully, this spectacle is interrupted by Mac seeing a man of medium-build acting very suspicious. Mac soon sees why, there is a body half-buried in the ground.

From here, the episode goes into two directions because the two bodies don’t appear to be related. The second body has been dead for 15 years and was being dug up. She was obviously stabbed and bludgeoned to death where the first victim shows no obvious signs of trauma. Mac Taylor and Danny Messer head this investigation whilst the other CSIs work the original case.

The yellow stain on the victim’s back dress is sulphur. It traces back to a supernatural documenter. The Documenter had been filming Central Park when she bumped into him but he continued filming elsewhere in the park during her time of death. What he was able to get though, was the direction she was coming from.

Sid has finally deduced that she died from a combination of antidepressants and nitrous oxide, the reason she suffocated. We also have a name to go with the poor ghostly body: Isabel Wilde.

There’s also an ID for the second body discovered. She’s revealed to be the sister of Chief Ted Carver. Chief Ted Carver was introduced in the last episode and it appears he may have a recurring role. Especially since Danny and Mac are able to get so close to the killer, who has been using the woman’s identity for the past fifteen years, but the killer is gone by the time the two CSIs and the Chief arrive. The murder is unresolved. For now.

As for Isabel Wilde’s murder, the CSIs are able to fingerprint her body. She was drugged and dressed. Thankfully, the person who dressed her left behind some fingerprints: Gordon Sprouse. Gordon Sprouse grew up in a funeral home and even though his parents died and the practice closed down, he still lives there.

Personally, I find Gordon Sprouse one of the most repulsive criminals on CSI:NY. He never sexually assaulted his victims, he just made them utterly helpless before dressing them in pure white and adding make-up to them. Then, when the laughing gas wore off, he’d let them go. He didn’t know Wilde was on antidepressants. He didn’t want her to have hallucinations or die. He just wanted to ‘play with’ her. Then he admits that he doesn’t do want he wants to do. He doesn’t fulfil the fantasy in his head. Hearing him explode like that, so vile and dark is utterly terrifying to me, because even the most normal and charming person could have the scariest fantasy inside their head.

The distress he’s caused is highlighted by having the other women he had drugged and dressed without their consent come forward. Gordon Sprouse is a true, flesh and blood, living monster.

The investigation into Chief Ted Carver’s sister’s murder is still open whilst Isabel’s murderer could have still been traumatising women if he hasn’t been caught because of her death. For all the spooky ghost stories and the chilling atmosphere the talk of the supernatural of the episode, it proves that we have more to fear from the living.

So, do you believe in ghosts? What do you think of the continuity with Ted Carver, do you believe they can continue it to a satisfactory conclusion? Where you as scared by Gordon Sprouse as I am? (I think I may even have nightmares tonight!) Please, let us know your thoughts and reply with your Two Cents.