Seeing double on CSIs
Viewers of both CSI and CSI Miami during the past week may have thought they were seeing double. Two shows, two dissimilar plots, the same ending. Coincidence? Poor planning? Script writers having fun with a theme? Or maybe a mix of these.
Thursday night, Nov. 20, 2008, CSI's episode titled "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda":
As a subplot continuation of the "miniature killer" case, Grissom visits Natalie as she is in a hearing to determine whether jail or the mental hospital is best for her now that her psychosis is starting to be controlled. Grissom talks with her in her cell before she is transferred to the jail. She says she did bad things, and "people who do bad things should be punished." Grissom finds a miniature of her, carved from a bar of soap, attached by rope to a floor tile. She hangs herself in her jail cell that day.
Monday night, Nov. 24, 2008, CSI Miami's episode titled "Power Trip":
A demoted Reggie is unmasked as a vigilante. The CSI Miami team gets both the killer and Reggie. In the last scene, H and Reggie are talking, and Reggie walks off in handcuffs saying, "We all have to pay for our mistakes." Interspliced are scenes from jail, where Reggie is ripping sheets to hang himself from his cell bars. He finally breaks his own neck with his crude noose.
So, viewers have already figured out long ago that people who do bad things get caught. Other episodes of both CSI's have had criminals punishing themselves. But two killing themselves in the same way, giving the same reasons, in the same week? Come on, writers, we know you can do better than that!