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'CSI': Feed your head
I normally don't watch the CSI franchise -- I'm not sure I need to listen to the foley artists go nuts with the sound of a body being crushed in a garbage truck. (It goes crunchety-squelch, apparently.) But I'm starting to reconsider, based on this compelling, trippy and tragically to-be-continued episode. (For the record? I still didn't need that squelch.)
One pill makes you spoiler, and one pill makes you small.
The episode was directed by movie great William Friedkin of The French Connection fame, and it shows. The irony, of course, is that Friedkin launched William Petersen's career, but Gil Grissom is almost peripheral to the story. Nope, it's all about Warrick, and Warrick wears it well.
The bodies of the week come from a runaway garbage truck that's spewing paper all over the road. The driver crashes and runs, but he's hit by a car (another opportunity for the foley artists to shine and/or squick me out), and another body falls out of the truck. Two bodies for the price of one!
The squelchy body was Jason Crewes, a club promoter who turns out to be the son of a dead mob boss. The driver was Brody Biggs, a former cop with a clean record who used to work with the dad guy's dad. The investigation takes everyone to a strip club called Pigalle Blvd, run by Lou Geda, one of the last of the original wiseguys still haunting Vegas. Word is he's particularly brutal to those who don't pay up or otherwise displease him, strapping them to a barber's chair and slicing away at throats, genitalia or anything else that catches his fancy.
Warrick is convinced that Geda is behind Crewes' assassination, and sets out to prove it. Unfortunately, Warrick is not at his best -- he's taking uppers now to balance the sleeping pills, and he's caught up by his divorce. Grissom isn't exactly one to go to for long, emotional talks -- he basically tells Warrick to concentrate on work, to hell with the personal life. Warrick gets more attention from Nick, who realizes that he's spiraling downward. Nick gets rid of Warrick's uppers, which is good in principle, but in practice means Warrick is not in his right mind for the rest of the episode.
And here's where we go down the rabbit hole. Warrick starts losing it -- screaming at the undersheriff about a warrant that isn't issued, theorizing that the cops are involved with Geda's extortion scheme, and finally noticing people that others seem to overlook. One of those people is Candy, who works at Pigalle. He follows her around, eventually ending up in her bed, completely off his head, fading in and out of focus. It's a gorgeous and queasy-making bit of TV.
Also queasy-making? The sight of Candy in Warrick's car with her throat slit. That's not good. And that's where we end.
Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends
- I loved the supersaturated colors during the opening chase, which ended when BB was hit by the car. The colors leached out of the scene until we were left with BB's gray corpse, which is how the CSI folks found it. Nicely done.
- Am I the only one who thought it was hysterical the mob boss was killed in the Wisconsin Dells? The Dells are all water slides and mini-golf. It's awesome, but it's hardly a place where you expect mobsters to get whacked.
- Candy drags a huge duffle bag through the parking lot to her car. Warrick thinks she's got a body in there, but it turns out she's just cleaned out her locker. I don't buy it -- either the woman wears plutonium pasties and lead-lined thongs, or there was something underneath all those lacy unmentionables.
- What the hell was Warrick thinking ordering bottles at Pigalle in hopes of goading Geda into torturing him? Best case scenario, he ends up making an ass of himself (which is what happened.) Worst case? He ends up tortured an/or dead. I'm going to assume the brain cells normally used for risk analysis were busy withdrawing from pills.
- I loved the scene where Warrick and Candy end up together -- and that's only partially because a shirtless Gary Dourdan is an inspiring sight. Just the combination of the white room, Warrick's messed-up perspective, the hypnotic background music and the layered voices really worked for me.
Who killed Candy? Will Warrick still have a job next week? Did you like the direction, or did you find it distracting? And do you get to hear bodies squelch every week? Gah!
Such a trippy episode!
It was really different.. i think it worked.
I may be a bit biased because it was focused on my favourite character.. the shirtless-ness may add to that bias..
but that's okay!
It was just really intense seeing all of the strain of Warrick's face for the entire episode.. usually he's so calm and put together. It was interesting to see how he totally loses it and in a BIG way.
Nicki | Dec 6, 2007 11:39:37 PM | #It was nice seeing the episode focused on Warrick. I find that Gary Dourdan has been ignored in favor of other characters and I'm glad he had some time to shine, even if he had to play a tripped up druggie.
I also liked how they showed Warrick and Nick's friendship. I think Gary and George portray it very well. I think mentioning the different dynamic between the CSI's was a good idea and I noticed it too, even before Sara left. Something has seemed missing between the whole group all season.
I like Grissom and Catherine, but I also like when the supporting characters get some attention too. This was a definate improvement over the previous episode.
Penny | Dec 7, 2007 12:47:18 AM | #The garbage truck chase at the beginning and the way it was filmed reminded me of the French Connection's famous subway car chase. Nothing tops that car chase!
Good episode. By the way it was progressing and building, I figured the murders wouldn't be solved in one episode.
Tim | Dec 7, 2007 8:39:40 AM | #Too bad Rebecca Buddig (formerly Greenlee of All My Children fame) had to die at the end of the episode; I've always been a fan of hers, and it was cool seeing her doing something so completely different. Her scenes with Gary Dourdan were spot-on, even the ones where Warrick was obviously having some sort of hallucination caused by his coming down off the uppers he'd been chugging like Pez candies. This episode proves that although Grissom is supposed to be the boss of all, the show can do just fine without him, which speaks very highly of the others in the cast. Even if William Petersen does decide to leave at the end of the season (or next season, can't remember when his contract is up), I think the show will go on fine without him. As long as the core cast stays solid, there are probably at least another two or three seasons of CSI left before it gets like Law & Order and starts stinking like two-week-old tuna fish...in Texas...in August...Anyway, the mystery is fascinating and other than the aforementioned squishy FX, not quite as gnarly as other episodes. I could've done without the mob dude in the towel and nothing else. For a minute there, I thought we were watching a preview of The Golden Compass with one of the fighting polar bears. *shudder* Now I just wish I knew where I'd seen that guy before.
Dark Disciple | Dec 7, 2007 12:10:32 PM | #I didn't think of waterslides when they said the mobster was killed in Wisconsin Dells. Having spent some of my childhood in that area, I know it was at one time a dead body dumping ground for Chicago mobsters, though not so much '80s (more the '20s and '30s).
When I did laugh (then fastforwarded) was during the trippy sex scene with Warrick and the about-to-be-dead stripper. Really bizarre.
shelwood | Dec 8, 2007 1:40:48 AM | #I agree that Rebecca budgig did an awesome job in this episode and would have been a great addition to CSI as a love interest for Warrick.
Denise | Dec 8, 2007 7:03:21 AM | #Very well done episode. It's about time Warrick got his focus episode. Everyone else has had theres. It seems pretty obvious who the killer is, but i guess we'll find out next week. It'll definitely be interesting to see how it plays out.
Shaggysteve | Dec 8, 2007 8:27:30 AM | #Shame they killed off Candy. She seemed to have a lot of depth to her character. Really intriguing episode
Corey | Dec 8, 2007 10:44:42 AM | #Anyone else get distracted by how much work Jason Crewes' mom (Aunt Zelda from Sabrina) has had done on her face?
Linds | Dec 8, 2007 11:52:00 AM | #I've heard in the past that mobsters used to visit the Dells prior to the water slides of course. Al Capone had a place up north from the Dells so who knows he may have dropped in once in a while for a boat trip a visit to Stand Rock..
Josh | Dec 8, 2007 8:41:35 PM | #i lve Warrick he is one of the reasons y i watch CSI but is wish the creators would at the end put Warrick and Tina back together i lve those 2
Other | Dec 13, 2007 10:02:21 AM | #what was that song that was playing while they were in the strip club its like "she got a.." and then a girl sings??
Hillary | Feb 1, 2008 8:40:16 AM | #
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