Real cracker of an episode. The CSI team do seem to excel when they have a case that runs over several episodes. This is the "blue paint" mystery, connected with the killer John Mathers - which was one of the rare cases where Grissom and the team had previously been completely flummoxed.
Big Spoiler:
There's a very good build up of tension here, but the high point is when you finally get to see the serial killer. This is superb acting - in just a few minutes this guy steals the show. There's nothing unusual or immediately menacing about the guy - he looks like a small, not very successful and perhaps frustrated man, who constantly sketches as he's being interviewed; as though the conversation with Grissom is a side- issue. He smiles ruefully, aware that it's game over, and says the last few things he wants to say...
He's not particularly scary - except for the casual way he talks about his murderous exploits, his little secret. But there's something missing in his manner, as one imagines there would be with such a person*. As he chats away, one is acutely aware of the monstrous nature of his crimes, and the sort of ghoulish goings on inside his mind that must have led to them.
(We might use the phrase 'psychopath', but that doesn't help us understand these people on it's own - rather the cool emotional detachment of an otherwise ordinary person that is sometimes reported on encounters with serial murderers)
Big Spoiler:
There's a very good build up of tension here, but the high point is when you finally get to see the serial killer. This is superb acting - in just a few minutes this guy steals the show. There's nothing unusual or immediately menacing about the guy - he looks like a small, not very successful and perhaps frustrated man, who constantly sketches as he's being interviewed; as though the conversation with Grissom is a side- issue. He smiles ruefully, aware that it's game over, and says the last few things he wants to say...
He's not particularly scary - except for the casual way he talks about his murderous exploits, his little secret. But there's something missing in his manner, as one imagines there would be with such a person*. As he chats away, one is acutely aware of the monstrous nature of his crimes, and the sort of ghoulish goings on inside his mind that must have led to them.
(We might use the phrase 'psychopath', but that doesn't help us understand these people on it's own - rather the cool emotional detachment of an otherwise ordinary person that is sometimes reported on encounters with serial murderers)
