Tonight’s episode (that’s right, tonight’s — I’m actually writing this on time!) of CSI was called “The Theory of Everything” and was one of those way out there plots that don’t really keep my attention on this show. Basically, several seemingly random deaths and murders end up all being connected together in some way, leading to a Grissom lecture about how there’s no such thing as coincidence.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The ep begins with Brass and Nick questioning an obviously intoxicated guy who is suspected of animal cruelty (for shooting a deer and then putting a cocktail dress on it). As Nick passes over a breathalyzer for the suspect to blow into, the guy bolts out of the interrogation room and plows through half a dozen officers in the halls in an attempt to escape. Finally, another officer is able to pull out his pepper spray, and on Brass’s command of, “Light ‘im up!”, sprays the suspect — who then bursts into flames and burns to death.
As Grissom and Nick try to recreate the scenario to find out where the flames came from, a homeless woman dressed in a tinfoil suit (who saw the whole thing go down) is run over by a truck driver after she carelssly dashed across the street. The unusual thing about her death was that she had green blood. Apparently, this was NOT because she was a Vulcan, but rather because she had a high concentration of sulfur in her bloodstream.
It doesn’t take long for Greg to find another dead homeless person. This time it’s a man, and he too has green blood seeping from a gaping head wound, making the previous case all the more puzzling.
Meanwhile, Catherine and Warrick are investigating the strange deaths of an older married couple who were found in their bed. The apparently died at the same time, though there was no sign of foul play or suicide. Catherine can’t believe that their hearts would give out at exactly the same time naturally, so they start questioning the neighbor, an obnoxious artist who doesn’t seem to care what happened. This wasn’t one of those artists who wear vegan shoes and tie-dye shirts and preach about peace and love. No, she was a welder who killed the old couple’s cat — and used to date the guy who went up in flames at the police station.
Anyway, the CSI team eventually figures out what happened to everyone, and none of the deaths turned out to be as unusual as they seemed at first glance.
My Reaction: As I said, this isn’t the kind of CSI episode that I like. It was far too quirky for my tastes, and really isn’t what I tune into this show for. I know the writers have given us similarly strange eps in the past (like the Halloween episode called The Chick Chop Flick Shop or whatever), so this isn’t a complete departure from form, but still. I don’t like it.
That being the case, I don’t really have much to say about the ep. It was fun to see Don Swayze acting like a crazy man in there, and I thought the green blood victims could have been interesting, but not much actually materialized from those cases. It’s almost as though the writers collected death ideas that weren’t strong enough to merit an entire episode, threw them together here, and then tried to justify it by adding the Theory of Everything tag.
Overall, I thought this episode was extremely boring, just like most of Season 8 has been for me. I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be buying this season on DVD anytime soon!
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see the new film Iron Man, which opens nationwide tomorrow. It features an all-star cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges, and is directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man, which has already opened in a few other countries, currently boasts an 8.3 average user rating on IMDb.com (after 740+ votes) and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. You better believe I’ll be going to see it in the theater!