The second spin-off of the successful forensics drama series continues. In this episode, the search for Mac’s stalker leads him to Chicago, where the discovery of a 30-year-old corpse reveals a secret from his past. Meanwhile, the lives of Mac’s teammates are put in danger when the stalker entraps them in a runaway subway train.
The hunt for the ‘333’ stalker reaches its dramatic conclusion as the CSIs investigate dual leads in Chicago and New York. A series of clues has brought Mac to the Windy City on the trail of the stalker who has plagued him with phone calls and messages connected to the number ‘333’. His quest takes him to an abandoned office in the Tribune building, where he finds a partially mummified corpse suspended from the ceiling. A hangman-style game is daubed on the wall in blood, and Mac gleans from the missing letters that the blank spaces spell ‘coward’.
The autopsy shows that the dead man was killed by a gunshot wound to the stomach nearly 30 years ago. He was apparently buried then disinterred by Mac’s stalker. However, It would seem that Mac knows more than he is letting on, and it is only when his boss, Sinclair, sends Flack tokeep an eye on him that the truth begins to emerge.
Mac tells Flack he now knows the case is related to a shooting in his past. When Mac was 14, his best friend, Jimmie, shot dead a Mafia associate named Bobby Toole in self defence. Toole was attacking Jimmie’s older brother, Will, and Mac and Jimmie tried to intervene. Bobby’s gun fell into Mac’s hands, but he was too scared to use it. Jimmie then took the weapon and killed Bobby; Will later died of his injuries. “I suppose some might think I was a coward,” Mac says. “ButI just couldn’t pull the trigger.”
It is clear the Chicago body is that of Bobby Toole, and all the clues suggest that Jimmie (Frank Grillo, ‘Prison Break’, ‘The Shield’) is the stalker; he is now punishing Mac for not shooting Toole when he had the chance. However, DNA evidence clears Mac’s old friend, and indicates that Jimmie’s younger brother, Andy, may be the stalker.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Stella and the team are called to a subway station where a train driver has been murdered. The driver was onboard an empty train that careened out of control all way from the rail yard down to 42nd street. The CSIs are just about to inspect the corpse when the doors close and the carriage springs to life. “This is no practical joke!” Hawkes cries, as the train races off and threatens to crash into the one ahead of it. Only quick thinking by Danny saves his colleagues from certain death.
It becomes clear that the subway trap and the driver’s murder are also the work of the ‘333’ stalker when the train comes to rest at 33 Street station on the ‘3’ line. The investigation reveals that the culprit used a modified MP3 player to hijack the subway’s control system, but the search for further clues eventually leads Stella back to the New York jigsaw puzzle sent by the stalker (see last week’s episode, ‘One Wedding and a Funeral’). Looking at the pieces anew, Stella deduces that her would-be suitor, Drew Bedford (Kerr Smith, ‘Dawson’s Creek’) must be the killer. “I was part of his plan,” she says. “He was using me to get to Mac!” Mac realises that Drew is Andrew, Jimmie’s brother, and quickly returns from Chicago. As he prepares to lead the team in a swoop on Drew’s home, he has to convince Sinclair to let him bring the case to its conclusion. “This guy has a plan for me,” Mac says. “What it is, I don’t know, but I have to play his game to find out.” The CSIs enter the apartment, but disaster strikes when Mac is attacked and abducted by Drew. Is the ‘333’ stalker about to take his final revenge on the man he blames for his brother’s death?
Saturday March 15 at 9:10pm on five
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