Carpe Diem
Episode Recap: "The Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp"
Wow! As you all know from reading my preview item, I did not see this coming! Especially because of
Michael Ausiello's scoop -
Jorja Fox is still leaving, though she may flit in and out of
CSI kingdom from time to time. But despite all of that, when Grissom popped the question, Sara said yes!
Let me tell you, I heart this proposal. Heart heart heart! Spontaneous declarations of love are always better than scripted, pre-thought out speeches, don't you think? I haven't always been on board with Grissom and Sara's relationship, but after tonight's episode, I'll support them no matter what! It was perfectly sweet and lovely. Only one thing darkened what should have been a storybook moment - despite Sara telling Grissom that she trusted him to keep her safe, she got stung by a bee anyway. Is this a dark omen, a sign of things to come? The knowledge that Jorja Fox is leaving the show makes me think that it is, but I really don't want it to be! Now that I'm finally on board with this relationship, we know that it has to end. I'm bummed.
Also bumming me out - though
not in a Jeers kind of way - is this week's main story line. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was fabulous. But during a week when Al Gore won a Nobel Prize for drawing attention to global warming, this episode about terrible things in the environment - terrible things that we put there - got to me. Brian is an 18-year-old found hanging from a tree with male genitalia and breasts. An intersexual? A pre-op sex change? A victim of a hate crime? It turns out he was none of these things. The ground water where he lived was so polluted with pharmaceutical waste that it actually threw off his hormonal imbalance, causing him to grow breasts while at the same time causing the local carp to have both male and female organs. In the end, it was a hate crime - Brian hated himself so much that he hung himself from a tree.
But the mystery didn't end there. Paul Cydon - a person of interest in the case who was a retired scientist - was found dead in his home, shot three times through the chest. The CSIs suspect the manager of the water treatment plant (also known as the father from
Boy Meets World!) killed the scientist to keep him from spreading the word about the contaminated water. He certainly had a wonderful motive. But in this, at least, he wasn't guilty. The shooter was Brian's mother, who suspected Paul of something untoward. She had no idea what was going on in her son's life. She had no idea how unhappy he was.
For the first time this season, I liked the secondary case just as much as the main case - maybe more! Catherine and her mom are at the site of her dad's old casino, the Rampart, which, you remember, was demolished last season to make room for his new casino. Despite Sam's death, the casino is being built when they find a body. It may or may not be a number of deceased - a chimpanzee, a mobster, a soldier from Vietnam. He turns out to be a journalist who was covering a story at the Rampart the night it opened. He found out that Sam was bribing a gaming official, and one of Sam's people took him out. But the thing I liked best was Greg's outrageous enthusiasm for the old Vegas stories. We've seen this from him before, but I loved it even more this time around.
There are so many things to talk about with this episode! What did you guys think of the cases? And, most importantly, the proposal? And what do you think about all of it in the context of Jorja Fox leaving? Leave your comments here!
Plus, to see some great clips from
CSI, check out our
Online Video Guide!
To go behind the yellow tape and see exclusive interviews with cast and crew, tune into
TV Guide Special: Inside the Crime Scene; October 21 at 8pm/ET on the TV Guide Network.
