While I consider most
CSI episodes to be a good watch, on the basis of how they discover things (and how they deal with the surprises that come, sometimes, at the very end), last week's episode is particularly good. And, no, it's not because Taylor Swift was the guest star.
Remember when I wondered if I'd be distracted by her presence, as is my peeve with most shows who recruit big-name stars as guests? Actually, I wasn't. Maybe it helps that we first found her with shortened black hair and a piercing somewhere in her face. Oh, and dead, too, a fact that moved Nick (
George Eads) perhaps a bit too much for a policeman's liking. But I'm a geek, I'll admit, and I was mesmerized by perhaps the most shallow of things: the transition between different periods of time. Never mind if Nick obviously is in front of a green screen at the end. I don't know. It feels nostalgic, if not painful.
And, for once, I was mesmerized at a
CSI episode, not for its science chops or its puzzle-building peaks, but because of the storytelling. So that's the way they highlight Haley Jones, beleaguered daughter of the owners of a beleaguered motel: three different crime scenes with her story in the background and in the foreground. Me, my mouth was wide open while watching the episode.
As a cherry on top, some predestination-tinged dialogue from Langston (
Laurence Fishburne): things are sometimes the result of events that have long been put in place. Those aren't his exact words, but the bottom line is, there's nothing we can do about it. And then Nick cries, giving in to destiny. Ouch. Pain.
I don't think tonight's episode could live up to what they've done last week, but perhaps we can return to discovering who Langston is exactly. Tonight, he finds himself held hostage, along with Riley (
Lauren Lee Smith), after a shootout that they're investigating. Perplexed is perhaps the thing in their heads as it happens—the crime scene's in a usually quiet part of Las Vegas, so what exactly gives? It's an unlikely place for a murder, more so for a hostage situation, unlike that motel last week…
The Great Debaters' Denzel Whitaker is the guest star in tonight's
CSI, from 9pm on CBS. Photos are, as always, below.
-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of CBS)