CSI: Miami - "All Fall Down"

csi: miami season 8 finale review

Why is it when shows and movies want to really get under your skin, they choose a child singing a nursery rhyme? What is it about the odd juxtaposition of young innocence with adult cruelty that makes it so spooky? That’s how last night’s season finale of CSI: Miami opened: a little girl singing to her two dolls, her mother washing dishes at the sink. As with all crime shows, a scene as tranquil as this is bound to come undone. It did, of course, with a sniper’s rifle putting a hole in mom’s forehead.

The scenes of the CSIs at the station intermingled with the domestic scenes. They all received letters without a postmark or return address. That could only mean one thing–someone put those letters in the police station by hand. When all the envelopes were open, the team finds plastic transparencies. The CSIs fit the puzzle together, complete with an address. Too late. The mother is already dead.

At the crime scene, Calleigh processes the evidence inside the house, all the while struggling with the fact that, had they opened the envelopes earlier, they might have prevented this murder. Walter and Jesse, meanwhile, are outside, the camera showing us the scenes through the rifle’s crosshairs. Except the rife is operated by a computer equipped with Wifi. The shooter, as Jesse says, “can be literally anywhere right now.” The only anomaly are a stack of checks in the dead woman’s purse. They are all from Dade University and, according to the grieving widower, made out in his wife’s maiden name.

Amid this sad case, good news. Eric talks with Horatio. “I realize this is where I want to be,” Eric says. “I’m back full time.” Horatio is happy to welcome back his old friend and promptly assigns him the task of determining why the dead woman was earning checks from the university. Turns out, Mrs. Potter was part of a graduate research project. A young grad student, Melissa Walls, talks with Eric and Horatio. Yes, she knew Mrs. Potter, and yes, she was a part of my psychological research project into an updated Milgram’s investigation. Melissa, all perky and smug, is happy since she’s gotten a new position at a new, better university.

The CSI team has no luck finding clues on the rifle or the website used to activate the trigger. The widower, Mr. Potter, arrives and delivers a letter addressed to the CSI team that had been left in his mailbox. In a neat, technological twist, the outside of the envelope has an augmented reality tag. When put in front of a computer’s camera, it transforms into a 3D image. Naturally, it’s the scene of the next crime. Ryan bolts from the station and, arriving at the scene, is met by Eric. In a very cool bit of camera work, the two race to the faculty pool at Dade University. They vault a fence (in unison!), and Eric dives in, yanking out the drowned victim, Neal Brusatti. Not coincidentally, he worked in the university’s psych department, too. And he was on the graduate committee for Melissa Wells. After some spectacular verbal jawing between Horatio and his suspect, she taunts him to find her. Lady! Don’t tempt Horatio Caine like that. He always wins. Always.

Using fibers from under Brusatti’s nails, Horatio determines that the mechanized pool cover prevented Brusatti from getting out. That very same pool cover provides the team with their next clue: a fleur de lis in flames. Horatio confronts two other men from the department, Bob Starling and Stephen Madsen. He offers them police protection. Starling points out that he’s just an adjunct professor. Surely the killer won’t come after me. Madsen, on the other hand, takes the police up on their offer, and Natalia finds herself in Madsen’s apartment. Walter is back at the station, paging through scores of different types of fleur de lie shapes. He finds one that matches a particular type cologne, the very cologne that Madsen doused himself with in the bathroom. He bursts into flame.

Horatio, Eric, and Natalia look for their next clue. She finds a quote on a sticker of the cologne bottle. It matches a line from a paper Starling wrote. As Tripp and Eric bring him to the station, Starling frets that he’s next. Upon being asked if he recognizes the quote, Starling says he wrote it. What follows was the funniest line of the night, delivered, with typical no nonsense panache, by Tripp. (Note to the writers: more Tripp next season, please.)

Starling: Yes, I wrote it. Perhaps you’ve read it?
Tripp: I couldn’t put it down.

Interestingly, Melissa saunters up to the station. When asked where she was at the time of Brusatti’s drowning, she produces not only a list of the folks at her pilates class, she also delivers an affidavit by her pilates instructor. She then delivers, with smirk on mouth, a lecture to Horatio (didn’t she learn?) about police procedures. She ends with a flourish: even if you do hold me, it won’t stop any murders that have already been set in motion. “I’m just an impartial observer.” Horatio delivers a smirk of his own. “Not,” he says, “if somebody dies.” And Melissa’s cool facade fades just a bit. So good to see it, too.

The team is focused on Melissa being the killer. Since she had unrestricted access to Starling’s office the previous day, the CSIs take all his stuff back to the station to pour over it looking for clues. Calleigh makes a discovery–Starling was denied tenure. She then throws out a theory; what if our killer is the very man we’re protecting? Ryan confirms, via watermark, that the stamps on their original envelopes match the stamps in Starling’s office.

As they look around, fellows in the station start coughing. Horatio and Tripp visit Starling at the site of a lecture. Cut to the station and more people are coughing, including all our CSI heroes. Starling quotes Shakespeare and is hauled off to jail. Tripp hands Horatio an envelope and he opens it (really?!). Inside is a card on which is typed ”They All Fall Down.”

The last scene is Eric, getting off the elevator. Everyone around him is on the floor. Are they dead? Are they merely passed out? And why isn’t he affected? He rushes to Walter’s side, then finds Calleigh in the firing range. His words echoes in the empty station and will throughout the entire summer, “Somebody help!”

I don’t know about you, but I really dig stories like this when the killer/bad guy has planned to the Nth degree all the little stages of the great game. This episode was quite well done with an ending that’ll easily have me back next year, despite the day change.

Speaking of CSI: Miami’s move to Sunday night next fall–I’m irritated. I’ve been with CSI: Miami since their mini-pilot within an episode of CSI. For eight years, it’s been a Monday night staple. It was a great way to kick off the week. The show felt right on Mondays. At least from this vantage point, it won’t feel right (or fit?) on Sundays. While I’m not hoping Hawaii Five-O does poorly (thus opening the door for the return of Horatio Caine’s team to Mondays), I’ll certainly not mind having CSI: Miami and Castle not competing for my attention. Heck, with 24 and Lost bowing out, I’ll be down to only three hours of television I’ll be watching next fall, even those days when football pushes back the start time thirty minutes. But Mondays just won’t be the same.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing these recaps for season eight of CSI: Miami. It was an unexpected offer Damon made to me last September. I’m glad he made the offer, and I’m glad I took him up on it. Thank you. And thanks to Elena, BSCReview’s editor, for fixing up my words to make them sound better. I’ve enjoyed the discussions and meeting new people. It’s been a blast.

What did you think of last night’s episode? And what are your thoughts on the timeslot move?

CSI: Miami – “All Fall Down” – review

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