photo: cbs

Maria – Sr. Reviewer
maria@thetwocentscorp.com

We open on pole-dancing. It’s a gym and the women there are just trying to keep fit and healthy. I find the fact that CSI: NY chose to show such an erotic activity a little off-putting. There’s a creepy looking guy outside, waiting in the shadows.

The camera cuts between the creepy looking guy and a woman working out, Heather Marist. As she leaves, there’s a masculine voice over of a phone call, describing a crime, a murder, that’s about to happen. The CSIs turn up… to find that Creepy Guy is the victim.

Creepy Guy is actually a serial rapist, but his signature has been used against him: bound and gagged with purple duct tape. The vigilante killer also added two bullets to the groin and one to the head for good measure. Pepper spray was found around the man’s eyes but it’s the black lesions on his tongue that give away his occupation as an exterminator. Creepy Guy’s name is Garland Clarke, but that’s barely important.

The CSIs are able to get the victims that came forward to identify the corpse as the man who assaulted them, yet none of them are suspects because the phone call had a masculine voice. However, one victim stands out and she’s met CSI Lindsay Messer before. When Lindsay was giving a talk at a rape support group, Kate Price asked Lindsay for a gun to protect herself, but Lindsay gave her pepper spray instead.

The duct tape used to tie up Clarke was the exact same one he used to tie up his victims. It had a hair with its root attached, so the CSIs are able to get DNA. The DNA comes back to Kate Price too, but the fact her hair is on the role of tape used to tie her up isn’t really condemning evidence. Despite this, some lawyer called Annie Cartland feels the need to defend her.

Meanwhile, the CSIs have found Clarke’s van abandoned in a navy yard. Looks like Clarke was killed in his own van, which is also where he took his victims. In the van there’s a container with different locks of hair, one lock from each of his victims. It shows that there were more victims than the five who came forward.

There’s another phone call, but this time the audience is shown that it’s Heather Marist making the call. The CSIs are able to track it this time, and it leads them to the body of Craig Tomlin, another rapist. The blood spatter shows a void, meaning there were two accomplices, two vigilantes but the scene looks like things hadn’t gone to plan as Tomlin was impervious to pepper spray. The vigilantes left the phone by accident and it’s up to our CSIs to figure out what other evidence they left behind.

Finally, over half way through and the CSIs realise that the phone call could have been made by a woman! Now they realise a voice distorter was used, techie Adam reverses the effects. As a reward for his efforts, he’s ordered to trail through the countless calls made to 911 over the last three years in order to try and find a match to any rape victims… and he gets a match with Heather Marist.

A crystal found at the Craig Tomlin murder conveniently has a microdot on it, with the sole purpose of documenting who it belongs to. The other vigilante turns out not to be Kate, but her lawyer Annie Cartland. We learn how Craig Tomlin served a lighter sentence because of Annie Cartland and the guilt and horror she felt; we hear from Kate, as to how she recognised him and told Annie and Heather; and how Heather was willing to play bait in order to turn predators into prey.

I’ve got to confess that I’m not a big fan of this episode. I found myself really frustrated that the CSIs never considered the phone call was from a woman when I realised it straight away. The evidence and results found seemed incredibly lucky. The dialogue between Jo Danville and Lindsay Messer about being human yet following the law seemed very contrived, especially when pitted against Hawkes’ desperation as he recalls how it affected everything when he had a girlfriend who was raped.

I think the real problem I have with this episode was how biased it seems. Not all rape survivors become vigilantes, there are other ways to cope but CSI: NY doesn’t really show those other options. I keep thinking the dialogue and story may have made more sense if Stella was still in the show, given her experience with men, but I doubt it. What are your thoughts? Did you suspect the phone calls were being made by a woman? What’s your stance of vigilantism and do you agree with how this episode portrayed it? Please, reply with your TwoCents.