New York has always been a place of multiple ethnicities, languages, cultures, and people. While this is true of any large city, the Big Apple seems especially conducive to making a melting pot of it all. One place to find that trend is on a train. After all, everybody uses one at some point or another.
It's been a while since a train was part of the main storyline ("Murder Sings the Blues"). Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) found himself bumped off the case this week because he had a personal connection to the victim. It was only a chance encounter, but Mac (Gary Sinise) knew any case which is potentially compromised has a slim chance of a conviction in court. This week, Det. Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) caught a ride home once on a subway, only to find a dead body lying across the tracks. Do the words "Subway surfing" ring a bell ("Risk")? After Season Four's multi-episode arc focused on a killer who used a taxicab as a death machine ("Taxi"), it stand to reason that a train was about due for a part in a script.
An arrest in the first ten minutes is an immediate clue that the person is not going to be guilty of a crime. Why? It's too easy. Police procedurals tend to take the entire hour for all the pieces to come together so the right person can be hauled in for questioning and later taken into custody. Besides, this show relies a good deal on an interrogation in the fifteen minutes before the closing credits fade out.
Several good partnerships were at work this week. Hawkes and Dr. Sid Hammerback (Robert Joy) got to work an autopsy together. I especially enjoyed the virtual x-ray of the intestines so Sid would know exactly where to cut without having to go all the way through their length. It's a perfect blend of science and technology at work. Watching Joy and Harper in the same scene is seeing two good friends combine their talent for finding the truth with some good old fashioned quirk.
I also enjoyed the translator Det. Don Flack (Eddie Cahill) had on his phone. Nice nod to the iPhone app! It's a clever way to gain information without having to deploy extra personnel to the scene.
Anna Belknap was still out of the picture this week, although the scenes about Danny trying to figure out boy names was a sweet touch. The best part was having him find out they are having a girl! Oops. The camaraderie between Danny, Hawkes, Adam (AJ Buckley), and Flack is solid, and cops, after all, are family. Watching them have a laugh together only reinforces the concept.
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