{ CSI, 7x12, 7x13. }

[delga]

Re: Battlestar, I loved 3x11 and really, really didn't get most of 3x12. By which I mean to say, I didn't really understand what they were going for. But hey! War trial. OBVIOUS MUCH? Anyway, parts of the latest episode felt a bit too much like the latter episodes of season 2 to make me care all that much, which is a shame. I loved Gaius, though, and I loved Adama's interactions with him. I really, really loved DeAnna's fate because, shit, that's insane.

--

The latest two CSIs to be aired? I have absolutely adored. In the first, I really love the introduction of the new guy - Michael Keppler? I kind of love that CBS has given him his own website wtf (it redirects to the CBS CSI page, but still). Anyway, 7x12 was a really atmospheric episode, with all the soundtrack really key in in to the mood. I like that psychological aspect of him and it really felt like CSI was bringing back the science. The scene where Keppler, Catherine, Warrick and Sara one-by-one are montaged into the evidence room was really, really great, and you know I love exposition scenes. I'm trying to remember more about it but all I can think of is how eerie and amazing the composition of the episode was.

7x13 was fabulous. Firstly, I loved the dichotomy between the Catherine/Keppler/Brass team versus the 'Young Turks' (tm TWoP, heh), how Catherine was full of nerves about playing her own team and then seeing Nick wind tighter and tighter, feeling like he's been put aside. (Nick putting together all of the pieces, seeing how the case just didn't fit, was painful and made for excellent drama.) Nick's trust issues are insane in this episode because now he doesn't trust the team-runner and that's a huge issue because for him, Grissom and/or Catherine dictate his morality up to a point. And now he has to step out from that dependency. I mean, for Warrick there's annoyance and frustration - see the scene with Brass, wow - but mostly he shakes it off. So this episode shows a lot of growth for him which pleases me so much because Nick was a character I never took to early on. The end scene, when Warrick tells him to drop it? Aie. Nick is stepping out, and it wouldn't surprise me if this (as in the show) ended with Nick transferring to somewhere else, a promotion alongside. These guys have worked for other people and taken their leads for a long time. Even Sara doesn't lead her own cases since her breakdown. It's an intense situation.

Speaking of Sara, I hate that her fucked-up storyline led to her being placed only above Greg in the pecking order. In terms of this season, I think I've mentioned the way in which her voice is a lot softer now and how she is much more relaxed. It's not just that, I think, it's also that she's matured a lot. She's had setbacks, she's overcome them. The scene with the cocoon gift made me laugh because of course Gil didn't send a note. OF COURSE HE DIDN'T. Sara really intrigued me in the past two episodes, more than she has done for a while. Firstly with her quiet farewell to Grissom, "I'll see you when you get back", and that pause afterwards which I took to mean that she thought maybe he wouldn't come back. She's trying really hard to be the woman who is not a burden, who is not a white wash and I thought that was especially interesting considering that the point of the therapy she was having was to make her talk more. But stepping into the relationship seems to have been a bit of a two-step. Not quite sure if that's a good thing or not, yet.

Secondly, her entire reaction in this episode made me consider just how much she has changed since we first met her. She's so much more reticent now and I wonder if she'll ever go back to being as forthright as she was before the breakdown. There was a quiet intensity to her actions, especially "You know, I really hate deceiving people because eventually, you get what you give." This is Sara to me, through and through, from the very first season to now. No bending corners, the case above everything else, above even having a life.

At first, when they're all outside discussing the case, she's the one to mention Catherine telling the lab guy to step out, but she's also the one to posit the idea that there's an actual IA investigation going on. But when Nick tells her that he can't find the evidence for the Holstein case, it's her alarm bells that are set off. She is stunned: "What?" Warrick tells the group about Keppler and the too-clean bullet, and Nick mentions not being able to find a body and Sara cannot believe what she is hearing: "Do we have access to any of the Holstein evidence?" It's a beautifully composed scene, even if a couple of the continuity edits are off. Warrick asks if Sara is in and she looks at Nick before deciding where her loyalties lie. She's always questioning the decision; she looks so worried when she palms the keys (across that ominous box that's been sent to Gil. I knew that case wrapped up too clean).

By far my favourite interaction, though, has got to be when Catherine and Keppler 'fess up and Sara tells Catherine that anything she has to say, she'll say in private which is such an amazing call back to when Catherine ripped her a new one on that case two years back. (Ha! Catherine is all, "I didn't have a choice!" and Sara's face is all, BULLSHIT.) I also fucking LOVE that she turns to Keppler almost apologetically - "No offense," because for her, this is all on Catherine. Catherine should have known better. Sara is quiet, she is calm and mostly she is collected. This is not the Sara who cried in Too Tough to Die; this is not the Sara who raged in Sex, Lies and Larvae. This is a Sara who is working to limitations placed on her personality and on her circumference of action. She is constantly guarding her opinions and her actions, and she is always, always working at being invisible. It's a horrible, and yet beautiful thing to watch, and is the reason why I still love the character. She's lost her fire but she's tempering it. It's all about control now.

(The episode is Greg-lite, but he's the one out of the group who doesn't seem to give that much of a damn. I love this episode a crazy amount.)

My favourite, favourite scene is the pow-wow outside the labs. I was pleased to see Bobby, too, so that was nice. I miss the show having this depth and this intensity. The evidence here wasn't so explicit, but it wasn't forced, and Nick was piecing it together quickly and carefully. If you add to all of that Bobby's OCD over his lab and Hodgins, that marvellous freak, this episode was a fucking winner. (And I really, really like Keppler. REALLY. hen he's talking about the criminal in the first person? When he puts himself in the position fo the guy's killer, dropping the soda bottle? Can you say Chaos Theory?) Five fucking stars. Seriously, I loved it.

Um. Is anyone on my flist still watching this? spiescameout, you will be, right, when it airs? Anyway, I now have a really big yen to write the rest of the Sara Sidle fic I was writing as an addendum to the Megan Reeves one I wrote. Can I pull it off? Likely not. OK. Back to fandom.

Comments

[dreamer-86.livejournal.com]

Awww...! Now I so wanna see these episodes!
Haven't downloaded S7 episodes in ages, but I'm dying to know all about Sara's breakdown! ^__^

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Hee! WATCH IT.

She had the breakdown in season 5, btw.

[dreamer-86.livejournal.com]

Aaaah...! You mean that S5 episode where she tells Grissom about what her mom did to her dad? If so, then I've seen that episode before. :) Just thought she had had another breakdown or something earlier in S7. ;)

But still, gonna try & watch the episodes ASAP. ♥

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Well. I mean the whole storyline, really. The alcoholism, the therapy, arguing with catherine, being sent home and having to tell Gil. That's the last moment, that's where she starts to get better. (I have so much Sara meta! I love her.)

YES. DO. Especially because the last two episodes have been awesome regardless of Sara.