When Pranks Turn Deadly

New York! Some guy gets handcuffed by two cops because he’s either on steroids or doing an impression of the Incredible Hulk. The perp breaks free, punching a cop and climbing on top of Angell’s desk. She lets Flack take a teen into interrogation as she joins the dog pile on the perp. As Bruce Banner is subdued, Flack rushes out, calling for an ambulance. Angell runs in to see Flack doing CPR on the teen. He explains the boy started convulsing. Angell checks for a pulse and woefully tells Flack, “He’s dead.”

CREDITS!

CRIME SCENE. DO NOT CROSS. Danny takes pictures as Flack gives his statement to Mac. Hey, what’s Adrian’s dad doing here? Isn’t he a DA in Cali? Flack goes to talk to Adrian’s Dad about “Mr. Fleming,” who was picked up at wrestling practice in connection to another case. Mac notes a bruise just as Adrian’s Dad mentions it. Flack said he got it when he lost grip on the convulsing Fleming. Adrian’s Dad thinks Flack hit the poor guy. That’s when Flack asks for his union attorney. Oh, Flack.

As the tatters of Flack’s incident report go flying, we see a title card: 2 days ago. The city starts to go backwards as we rewind time. We see some teens snowboarding down some snowy stairs. Good thing for producers it actually snowed Sunday and Monday here in New York City. One boarder discovers a dead foot. Stella finds bloody old Christmas wrapping paper. The same wrapping paper type is found around a dead arm Danny and Hawkes fish out of a dumpster.

Sid puts death the night before with the chop-chop coming after. Sid can’t tell what caused the chop-chop. Lindsay brings in a dead hand, this time it has peeling skin. Danny notes that happens when the body is submerged in water long enough. Sid makes an OJ reference and peels the skin to get prints using the skin as a glove. It comes back to Vince Nelson. Cut to his wife telling us he was the head wrestling coach at Hillside High. There are many awards ALL over the place. Mrs. Nelson says her husband was taking a night class in business so he could open his own school. She was asleep and didn’t notice he didn’t come home until she woke up. Lindsay notes a laptop as Mrs. Nelson cries. Lindsay and Stella take their leave as Mrs. Nelson recalls two men lurking around on the roof. A neighbor checked, noting blood.

They put a pregnant woman on a roof? Stella finds and photographs the blood as Lindsay checks it. We cut to Flack noting that Nelson wasn’t taking business classes. He was hiding something. Mac wants to know what that is. Stella looks at the blood and tells Mac it isn’t human, it’s alligator. Not the old alligators in the sewer legend!

Okay, I spent half a season trying to figure out why the guy in the Eleventh Hour show looked familiar but I didn’t go on IMDb.com ever to check. Finally, during Grissom’s last episode it finally hit me: Rufus Sewell! Thought I’d share.

NEW YORK! We go back to the coroner’s room where Danny makes a Mr. Potato Head joke and Sid recalls how he used to time himself on putting Mr. Potato Head together. I always liked putting the lips in Mr. Potato Head’s nose hole. Sid found an acupuncture magnet, which Lindsay notes is supposed to cure smoking. The spine is burnt, possibly from kinetic energy. Sid also finds sawdust, leaving Danny to speculate it might be a chainsaw that did the chop-chop. So, gets to work hacking away while Lindsay works on the acupuncture magnet. They both get something! Danny: Murder weapon, Lindsay: Finger print.

We cut to a salsa class. A woman is spun right into Flack. Lucky. Bitch. Apparently, she was arrested for prostitution, which is when she dismisses her student. She knows the victim; he was a student. Nelson was learning salsa to surprise his wife for their anniversary. Aww. However, Sheldon starts showing kiddie pornography on Nelson’s laptop. He sent it to several students on his team. Mac looks ready to hurl as Sheldon tries to see if there are more. Flack decides to track down the kid using the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Mac shows the kids who were sent the e-mails. Danny shows the chainsaw was new to the market but none of the kids on the e-mails bought it. Stella comes in to say that Todd Fleming, dead kid from cold open, did a science fair project on the properties of alligator blood.

Angell and Flack go to talk to Fleming, discussing it with the assistant coach. They catch Todd with the alligator blood. He protests his innocence on killing but not being on the roof. They take him out, which he isn’t too thrilled about. We cut to time moving forward and…it’s the cold open with Bruce Banner again. Flack asks Todd about the e-mail Nelson sent. He said it was crazy and no one was supposed to get hurt. At that point, Todd does a fine imitation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Flack grabs him before running out to request that ambulance. Todd is seen in the background, convulsing and foaming. Did someone take something?

TODD FLEMING! Sid says it was a brain condition. He notes bruises and broken ribs—all caused by Flack’s attempt to save Todd. He’s not sure about the bruise on Todd’s head and says the tox panel came back negative. Mac is adamant Flack did nothing wrong. Angell gets interrogated in one room while Adrian’s Dad continues lambasting Flack in another. It is revealed Flack was alone with Todd while the boy changed into street clothes. Adrian’s Dad tells Flack he can turn in his gun and badge downstairs while he goes on suspension. Flack remembers this is America: innocent unless proven guilty. His record is clean, which Angell says as the other interrogator comments on their relationship. Angell comes out to ask him how IA knows about their relationship. Gossip, duh.

But Angell remains on the case as the happy trio of Stella, Mac and Danny continue working on who killed Nelson. Mac gets a call—dead head has been found! Nelson’s neck is bruised and has a dried speck of blood on it. Lindsay goes at it…I have money it is alligator blood. Anybody? Darn. It matches an ex-con named Johnny Holt, in for sex crimes. Stella goes to visit de-activated Flack. He banters with her then returns to his crossword puzzle. Holt says he’s bleed all over NYC—shot nine times, knifed five times. She asks about the child molestation, but Holt prefers raping adult women. Even the rapist looks disgusted. Holt’s blood, according to Lindsay, was three months old—Holt was in Sing-Sing. They figure the blood was on the pipe that killed Nelson.

Stella and Lindsay visits Mrs. Nelson, who has been receiving nasty calls after the e-mail was released. Mrs. Nelson argues her husband was normal, watched football and forgot their anniversary (think that’ll come up again?) and not a pedophile. Stella and Lindsay keep asking about his access to boys. She asks them to find her innocent husband’s killer.

And it looks like Nelson is innocent—no other porn is found on the computer but a firewall breach was. They figured that’s why Fleming was on the roof—he breached the firewall to download the pictures and discredit his coach for some reason. They go to the apartment and learn Nelson was stupid enough to have an unsecured Wi-Fi connection. They know Fleming is innocent—his alibi was solid—but they recall Mrs. Nelson said there were two people on the roof. Mac notes sawdust missed by Lindsay and Stella due to snow.

Danny tracks the dust to being from a tree commonly found in Flushing, Queens. He and Angell go out to find a Kyle Sheridan, a snowboarder. He runs but Angell tackles him. Danny asks if she wrestled for school, but she responds she had four older brothers. She cuffs Kyle as we go to commercials.

NEW YORK! Danny and Mac show Kyle his dead coach’s dead head. Kyle admits to sending the e-mail with Todd. In flashback, he wipes his hand, knocking off sawdust. Kyle did it because Nelson wouldn’t move him up a weight class, wrecking his chances at a much-needed wrestling scholarship. He notes his dad is a court officer, which causes Mac to realize the bruise was made by a baton. It also explains Holt’s blood on Nelson’s dead head. The two get a warrant for the Sheridan household, figuring dad saw son’s e-mails. Stella goes in as Mac and Angell parade through the court house in slow-mo. Hawkes finds a train set with wooden logs—sawdust—oh, and the wrapping paper. Stella finds blood trace. Mac and Angell find Alex Sheridan. Dad was so happy when son made the team. But then saw the pictures and called Nelson. The coach denied the pictures and Sheridan fought him, trying to protect his son. He knew the court system—child molester would get off easy, hard to prosecute for murder without a body. Mac deals the low blow that Nelson WAS innocent and that Kyle sent the e-mails to get even with the coach. Dad’s shocked.

WRESTLING MATCH! Red tussles with blue. Everyone cheers. Red beats blue. Was that Kyle? Everyone celebrates as Mrs. Nelson cries. Lindsay shows up to bring her a bouquet of white roses—Nelson’s way of apologizing for forgetting their anniversary.

NEW YORK! Flack cleans up his desk as Mac comes in. He gives him the good news: he was cleared! Todd was prescribed an anti-depressant and Sid found ten times the amount prescribed in the boy’s system. He OD-ed while Flack let him change, back to the boy. Mac hands Flack back his badge and then invites him to go watch a hockey game.

QUOTE OF THE EPISODE

Danny: “I’m thinking Christmas with the in-laws.”

But the Mr. Potato Head conversation was a close second.

Due feel free to share what YOU think should be the Quote of the Episode as sometimes, I don't find one.