November 27, 2006: Semper Fi
Yes! We got the triumphant return of
Rob Estes as Natalia's ex-husband, and it happened not a moment too soon. That all-too-brief scene was definitely the highlight of last night's episode. The exchange between Maxine and Natalia after he asked out Maxine was too priceless. "Are you mad?" "Not at you." Is no friendship sacred? (I guess that if Denise Richards can steal Ritchie Sambora away from Heather Locklear, then there's no hope for us mere mortals.)
What can I say about the plot? The opening was certainly intriguing. A marine recruiter gets shot at a civilian gun range, but he was dead before he got there. In the end we find out that in fact, Matthew (the guy who shot him)
was actually the one that killed him. For a child of two pathologists, I'm a little concerned about his intelligence. His argument for dragging Hicks to the gun range in the first place was so that it would look like an accident. Either way, he still killed him. I'm guessing that this was one of those "Don't think too hard about it" situations.
Kevin and Patrick Kirby's story line was certainly depressing. To me, this seemed like the one time this season that
CSI: Miami's attempt to be controversial was actually done effectively. These two brothers signed up for the Marine Corps in order to have a better life when they got out of the military, but only one come back alive. Of course, the other is wracked with guilt thinking he killed his brother, when in fact it was their childhood friend who was there as a contractor - a guy who still had the gall to show up at the wake. I especially appreciated that, for once, Alexx found something in a medical exam that others had missed (and without Horatio's help, no less!). I still wish we could see a little more of
Khandi Alexander, but I'll take what I can get (supplemented by
NewsRadio reruns).
For the second time this season, I really appreciated the music selection over the closing montage. What a nice use of Johnny Cash's "Like a Soldier." Let's ignore that these guys weren't "like" soldiers - they
were soldiers; it was still a great closer.
Finally, I would like to applaud the return of classic
CSI: Miami lines:
- "Frank, the war may be staged, but the murder is real."
- "There's no return address." "That's OK, the challenge keeps us frosty. That's the CSI way."
There were others, but none that quite reached those sublime heights. At least they left us with something fun until after the break.
