CSI 10/11: Worst.Episode.Ever.

I just saw Thursday’s episode, and have a few rants. Open spoilers…cuz if you haven’t seen it, why are you here? :slight_smile:

OK, I can deal with the central crime: 12 year old slut gets her kiddie porn boyfriend to kill her family. A bit out there…but no problem. It’s everything tacked on top of that that bugs me:

Why would her family take her to a un-ordained storefront preacher for an exorcism? Did they have any prior relationship with the preacher (Michael (WALLLT’s dad) from Lost)?

Why did the exorcism take place in the sleazy motel room, instead of, say, their home? Why did Preacher leave his bible behind?

And did I miss something…the slut brought her parents back to the motel room to get offed by the boyfriend?

Why did Preacher go to such lengths to hide his exorcism videos? AFAIK, conducting an exorcism isn’t a crime.

And was this a Bad Seed ending – the kid was just Too Evil for the justice system to deal with? Were we supposed to think that the Preacher was so obsessed with the slut that he’d toss her off a balcony? That seemed as contrived and tacked-on as hitting her with lightning.

Why was there *balut *(disgusting Filipino delicacy) sitting on the counter? Were there any Filipino characters in this episode?

And the murder weapon was found laying in a puddle outside the house? Have I got that right?

Now, to the subplots:

Our secondary crime was: homeless guy has run-in with the cops, then dies of exposure. Uh…that’s it? And spending 5 minutes in handcuffs left indelible marks on his wrists?

Why was Sara bitchier than usual? :slight_smile:

And her photographer sidekick never noticed that she has the same first AND LAST name as the star of her father’s favorite film?

Warrick was mumbling worse than usual…was the guy who left for the FBI that lab tech, (Smarmy McKnowitall)?

And finally…

WTF was with the bees? Grissom’s only role in this episode was to carry out the beehive, and toss off a factoid about Colony Collapse Disorder.

The photographer sidekick is hot!

But I wasn’t really paying attention to the actual show; it’s my wife’s program. I was surfing the Dope!

Perhaps becuase there are few that do exorcisms? he has a history of helping the drug addicts? (other than that, got nothing)

Nuetral ground, probably didn’t want preacher man in their actual home, neighbors and all that. Left Bible behind because dad threw him out of the room.

Yep, after all was said and done (she ran off apparently) she got bad boyfriend in the room then lured parents back with apologies (Mom believed and was tortured for it).

Becuase of his prior convictions for Pedophilia - these would not look good for him.

Except that this preacher ‘truly’ believed what he was preaching and doing - no idea how he thought throwing her off the balcony would ‘save’ her - but yeah, he was as far gone as any of them.

not addressed - but good for “disgusting” affect.

Yup - and tied by serial number to “boyfriend” who was found with girl in mom-dad’s car.

Only important part of that whole subplot was Sara’s quote about not “ignoring” evidence because it led to a fellow officer, other than that (and introducing a new char) mostly pointless.

No, the guy that left (based on implication, not direct statement) would have been the handwriting/ink analyst they used a few times - but his lab was much nicer than that.

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To start a storyline to get Grissom back to the bugs - other than that, got nothin.

This may be the only part of the show that I liked. Sara mentioned the (probably false) conjecture that the loss of bees would doom our species. Not terribly subtle, but it seemed like they were drawing a parallel to a collapse of our society. The two plot threads had to do with a man dying through the inaction of the police, and a girl dying at the hands of clergy, two groups who we count on to protect us. Grissom, as always, is the fascinated observer without adding judgement to cloud the science.

Speaking of: I’ve never been a tremendous fan of William Petersen, but I find myself liking his character more than any of the other roles from any of the other CSI shows. He rarely offers judgement, usually only trying to understand. Compare that to the others who are usually quite shrill and venomous in their condemnation of potential suspects, guilty or not.

I agree – I love the fact that the most outrageous behavior just causes him to raise an eyebrow and give an anthropological cite. Lt. Brass, otoh, is getting on my nerves as the anti-Grissom.

This episode left me wondering if the writers had already gone on strike. Coupled with Sara’s wandering off into the desert (away from the search team) carrying her rear-view mirror, and I’m not pleased with the season so far.

Yeah, not a very good episode. Too bad, because this show is generally pretty good. Having Michael (from “Lost”) was bad enough, but the plot was just lame. DId anyone notice that Michael’s lawyer was played the Whacko Director Guy from “Entourage”?