CSI:NY, "Child's Play"
"I can't tell you that he's okay; I can't tell you that."
Even with the 333 mystery put to rest, and in the wake of "The Thing About Heroes," the show this season continues to keep its focus on questions of family and responsibility.
Danny's grief here is heartbreaking, as is the state of shock he goes into once the initial moment of horror passes. The episode is constructed in such a way that we feel that grief along with him: we, and he, don't know that Ruben has been shot until we see the gurney go by in the morgue, in what's almost an incidental moment. There's no musical sting to warn us, no foreshadowing; there's just suddenly a too-familiar body. These are the way these moments happen, suddenly and with no warning, and that creates an interesting parallel with the 333 storyline, one of several.
First, there are obvious family themes going on here: the boy killed is a young neighbor of Danny's, one with whom he clearly has a bond, and in the wake of his death, Danny is faced with the impossible task of telling Ruben's mother that her son is dead. It's kind of difficult not to compare this to what happened to Jimmy and Will and Drew after Will was murdered, especially if we recall Jimmy's speech to Mac about how his family fell apart after that night. Now we're seeing another family fall apart, and Danny, like Mac, is the one without blood ties but with an emotional connection who's forced to stand by and feel that his inability to act caused this situation.
And that's where we come back to the notion of responsibility, too: Danny couldn't have known, could not possibly have known, and couldn't have stopped this from happening. Yet he clearly has assumed the guilt and the responsibility; he talks to Mac about what he should have done, and even after Mac reminds him that he couldn't have known and that he did what he thought was best at the time by telling Ruben to go home, the burden is still with him. As it has to be; there's no way to move easily or quickly beyond a tragedy of this magnitude.
It's important, too, that this emotional moment happens with Mac, because we now know that Mac has been in a very similar position himself -- when he was a child, too, granted, and when he held a gun in his hand. The two situations may not line up perfectly in the details, but they do in the emotional fallout, and in, I think, their meaning: both involve the death of a child, both happen before any of the participants have time to really understand what's going on, and both center on the guilt felt over the inability to act: Mac because he froze, and Danny because he simply didn't know, because he couldn't know.
These moments that change us, that change our lives forever, happen in split seconds; these are things that are unforeseen -- and, in Danny's case, literally unseen, since he doesn't see it happen and doesn't know until the morgue. Just as Mac didn't know the extent to which Jimmy's family fell apart after Will's death -- because, as Jimmy also pointed out to him, and as I touched upon in my previous review, he wasn't there to see, because he walked away and things fell apart.
(Just as Danny's life also changed in that split second in "On the Job" back in S1, another incident that Mac was directly involved with, and that directly contributed to how badly their relationship fell apart over the course of that entire season.)
Also notice what Mac tells Danny here: "You acted on instinct." That's interesting, and ironic, because here it's meant as reassurance and comfort, where before, when Mac has talked to Danny about acting on instinct, it's been an accusation and cause for conflict.
Even the Laughing Larry case, which is largely played for laughs right up until the reveal, ultimately comes down to being a situation in which the impetus for murder is, again, the sins of the past; once again, the death of a child comes back to haunt someone, and the guilty man in this case was apparently planning his revenge against Larry for a very long time. Just like Drew Bedford did with Mac. And why? Because he wants Larry to be held responsible. (And Larry, too, didn't know, couldn't have known.)
There's also a painful irony in the fact that Ruben's death takes place immediately following the blessing of the bikes, a blessing which is intended to keep the bike riders safe. I'm also interested in the close-up that we see of the drop of holy water running down the nameplate on Ruben's bike: this is the closest thing we get to any kind of foreshadowing, and it's pretty oblique in and of itself. However, there also seems to be a recurring use of water as a symbol this season. Possibly its use (or one of its uses) is as a hint that things are about to change, or that something is about to happen: that seems to be how it functions here, and look back, again, at "The Thing About Heroes," where Mac's conversation with Jimmy takes place by the side of the water in Chicago. We first saw an extensive use of water in "The Deep," though, and I need to go back and watch that at some point.
The question for Danny is, ultimately, the same as it is for Mac (and Stella, to a lesser extent) after "The Thing About Heroes": where does he go from here? How does he deal with this?
Briefly Noted:
There are several other moments throughout the episode that emphasize the ongoing theme of family and of the team as a family: Mac's and Hawkes' moments with Danny when they attempt to comfort and when Danny reaches out to them, and Lindsay asking Mac what she should do since she's "not very good at this kind of thing." Fortunately, we also get some more lighthearted moments in that vein: Flack and Lindsay bonding over the ways in which Laughing Larry blighted their childhoods, and Stella's mingled skepticism and amusement over the entire discussion.
Not to mention: "I bought sea monkeys." I remember those damn ads, too, and if my mother had ever let me get them, I'm sure I would have been terribly upset to find out they were just brine shrimp instead of little humanoid sea creatures with family units and societies (and bows in their hair on the girls).
Flack was a comic book geek! This goes along nicely with the fact that he can make Doctor Who references.
"The only thing I ever saw through those was a nun coming at me with a yardstick." Poor Flack, although he totally wins for this line. (And this would seem to establish him as Catholic, too.)
"The long-sleeved lab coat: both stylish and practical." Stella, as usual, for the win.
Fashion Watch:
As a general note, the lighting in this episode drove me crazy. Whatever they were doing, several outfits were too darkly lit for me to get any kind of good look at.
Flack wears a gray pinstriped suit with a pale blue shirt and an orange tie with a diamond pattern. I really like the way the orange tie works as the pop of color here, especially against the more muted palette of the suit and shirt. Later, he wears a black suit with a mint green shirt and a black, gray, and white diagonal diamonds-patterned tie.
Mac wears a light gray suit with a dark blue shirt. Later, he wears a dark gray suit with a bit of interesting gray-on-gray striping detail on the lapels with a light blue shirt. Thank god for that one little detail, because otherwise this is almost completely uninspired. Blue shirt count: fourteen.
Stella wears a brown leather coat over a white ribbed v-neck. Later, she wears a white scoop-neck knit shirt with dark-wash jeans, and finally she wears a dark green v-neck with some kind of ribbon detailing around the neckline, which looked interesting, but which I couldn't get a good look at. (Ditto the brown leather coat, actually; it looked like there was some detailing on that, too.)
Lindsay wears a lavender cropped cardigan over a black cami, and a navy a-line coat. I like the coat a lot, and wish she had worn it more in this episode. Unfortunately, I was far less fond of the cardigan, and think it's the first real misstep for her wardrobe this season. The color is good on her, but the cut left a lot to be desired. Cropped sweaters are certainly trendy right now, but the cut didn't look like a modern one; this looked more like something from fifteen to twenty years ago. It was too baggy and hit at a point on her torso that visually cut her in half. Not a great choice, which is why I wish we'd seen more of the navy coat. Later, she wears a teal-colored scoop-neck over a black cami. I think she was also wearing something different under her police jacket at the warehouse, but I couldn't quite tell.
Danny wears a black blazer-cut leather jacket over jeans and a rust-colored t-shirt. Again, love the jacket; I love, in general, what they do with jackets and coats. Later, he wears a black crew-neck sweater with red stitching.
Hawkes wears a short black wool jacket over...I don't know. Some kind of plaid or patterned shirt. This was yet another thing I never got a good look at. Later, he wears a camel-colored leather jacket with some military detailing over a maroon shirt. And I would like to note, happily, that the goatee appears to be officially back.
Next week's review will be coming to you live from New York City!