'CSI': Catching a code

Sometimes, "CSI" isn't about the whodunnit, or even the why: It's about the other times when you remember why these scientists put themselves in danger on a weekly basis.

[These spoilers are totally code four.]

This episode doesn't really lend itself to the whodunnit format, so let's set it aside for an evening.

We open on the CSIs stalking through a low-lit kitchen, and I immediately wonder why they're packing heat and clearing a dangerous crime scene when that's the real officers' job. Greg is taken hostage by a gunman, and Riley calls him Riley before our heroes take out his captor. Don't look for Horatio Caine just yet: This is all a training situation, and Riley apparently gets props for tricking the hostage-taker with the whole name switch. All righty then.

At least Greg gets to explain that a "code four" means all clear, and "code 482" means it's time for lunch.

But there's no time for lunch: A neighborhood watch captain and a 7-year-old boy have been shot dead in an otherwise well-kept suburban cul-de-sac. We time-skip to the next morning, where the CSIs notice a blood trail leading away from Bill French, the dead watchman. Looks like he got a couple of shots off. Also, Priscilla Hatcher reports that some men broke into her house and roughed up her son Reggie and nephew Frankie.

Oddly enough, the 7-year-old's father is still cradling him in the same pose as the night before, and it's times like these the abrupt shifts from night to daylight really don't work. May as well forget him, though; he has zero bearing on our story.

Two items do have bearing: One, Nick finds a palm print at the Hatcher house. Two, a member of the Snakeback gang is dropped off at Desert Palm Hospital, but dies of a gunshot wound like Bill French might have inflicted. Not long after, Snakeback member Aaron Sweets is found shot dead in the trunk of his car... but it happened before the shootout. The palm print belongs to a third Snakeback, Robert Danwood.

All this is just setup to get Ray and Riley into Reggie's house, where a ringing phone leads to an entire secret basement. This is no man cave, though, more's the pity: It's a PCP lab with topnotch but highly explosive chemicals. Worse, a wounded Reggie and gun-toting Frankie are in yet another secret room and take the CSIs hostage. Did I mention Frankie's hopped up on fumes from the chemicals? He's not stable. He's so unstable he confesses to killing Sweets; turns out the Snakebacks were forcing Reggie to pay protection money on the PCP lab.

Ray convinces Frankie to let him try to remove a huge shard of glass from Reggie's shoulder; that lets Riley first use the name trick to signal to Greg that something's wrong, and then later to covertly report the situation to the cops outside. Eventually, she's able to talk Frankie into letting her get a medical kit from her truck, during which trip she signals to Nick that she's armed and has the situation well in hand.

Sure enough, a mistake by Ray (he nicks an artery with the glass) gives her a chance to disarm Frankie, who's then pressed into service helping keep Reggie alive. Riley calls in a "code four," and then requests an ambulance "code three," which we can all agree means "get here fast."

We got some really nice moments here, and were reminded these folks are able to think quickly without sacrificing their dedication to science (or in Ray's case, medicine). Unlike Miami, there were no explosions or onscreen shootouts except in flashback, which befits the flagship show's thoughtful, methodical feel.

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