Inside the Box

Day breaks over Las Vegas -- sunny, cloudless, devoid of any portents of doom. Who will buy this beautiful morning? Such a day I never did see. Who will tie it up with a ribbon and put it in a box for Gil? I mean, that's what the title of the episode refers to, right? Gil's fabulously sunny day?

Oh, I sang too soon. There are men loading guns and synchronizing their watches. Then we switch to the lobby of First National Savings and Bloodbath. A blonde woman and her fidgety little boy are waiting in line. The boy turns around to gape at Detective Lockwood, who is also waiting in line. As Lockwood reaches into his coat pocket to settle his billfold, we see his badge and his gun. The kid gapes, the mom catches on, and we have a nice little moment wherein we establish that Lockwood is kind to children. Also, we can't help but wonder if nobody ever hipped Lockwood to two wondrous inventions: drive-through banking and ATM banking, because either of those financial conveniences could have dramatically changed the outcome of this episode.

Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First, a squadron of goons outfitted in black ski masks, all-black outfits, and long black trench coats has to march into the bank. You'd think that a teller sitting at the counter facing the all-glass wall and doors would see this crew coming and press the alarm, but you'd be wrong. You'd also think that the security guard for the bank would be stationed so he could watch both the entrance and the bank, and thus see this crew coming so he could hit 911 on his phone, but you'd be wrong there too. Their flashy entrance is apparently an enormous surprise to everyone in the bank, and within seconds, gunfire is spraying as the thugs command people to line up against the counter. One guy quickly disables the security camera. Lockwood assesses the situation and decides to go along with the up-against-the-wall crowd, a sensible survival move I would applaud but for my conviction that he won't be there long. One of the thugs threatens the blonde, "One peep and you die! The boy too!" Lockwood looks over. It's got to really bite to be an off-duty cop in a situation like this: you do something, and you risk getting killed; you do nothing, and the press has a field day afterward wondering why an off-duty cop doing his errands didn't pull a Die Hard and rescue everyone.

Anyway: mayhem, shooting, bossing around of hostages, bank manager being taken to the safety deposit vault, where he opens up the doors under threat of gunpoint. Another thug -- look, the whole point to the all-black getup is so we can't tell one guy from another, so I'm not even trying here -- enters the vault and begins placing explosives on certain safety deposit boxes within the vault.

Back in the bank lobby, the "I'm a people person" thug is handling the hostages, mainly by commanding them not to look at him. The useless blonde panics, "I've gotta get out of here!" I ardently wish the rest of this scene would play out like it did in Airplane, with a line of people smacking her to and fro while commanding, "Get a hold of yourself!" because...well, because the dramatic trope she is perpetuating deserves to pilloried through broad satire. Instead, the people-person thug threatens, "If any of you moves a muscle, I'll blow you away!" She continues bleating, "I've got to get out of here! I've got to get out of here!" I'm sure that's going over well with her fellow hostages. Lockwood watches with mounting anxiety; no doubt, he's reviewing all his options here and finding them wanting.

The vault blows, sending stacks of cash and other valuables flying. We see two of the four thugs watching.

In the lobby, people scream as the explosion rocks the building. Naturally, this is when Blondie decides to prod her kid into joining her as she makes a break for it, because the words "If any of you moves a muscle, I'll blow you away!" failed to penetrate the thick layer of undignified hysteria in which she is swaddled. Frankly, at this point, if I were one of the other hostages, I'd be asking for her to get shot, if only to give the rest of us a little peace and quiet while we're being held by violent, unpredictable men. Anyway, Moron Mom and her spawn attempt to make a break for it, and the gunman turns to fulfill my wish of making this tense, noisy hostage scenario a tenser, quiet one.

And that's when Lockwood moves to pull his gun. He is promptly shot from behind, a nice move since there's no gunman behind him in the bank, and it's a mystery how long-distance shooters would have been able to detect Lockwood going for his gun. I guess this is the remote branch of the "If any of you moves a muscle, I'll blow you away!" enforcement patrol. Blondie and that poor being saddled with 50 percent of her extra-panicky DNA are doing some sort of free-form panic thing while they watch Lockwood fall, the remaining thugs come out announcing that they have what they're looking for, and the men exit the scene, leaving in a van just as the police arrive. There's a shoot-out, of course, because the mystery shooter who tagged Lockwood lingered. I've got to wonder why nobody in the building opposite the bank noticed the armed man standing at a window and firing a gun.

Seconds later, Gil arrives on the scene. We hear the alarm ringing, and then it fades out, because Gil's going deaf, you see. Gil stops and stares at the alarm -- because he thinks he can glare it into submission, as he does so many CSI employees? Because he's trying to detect its ringing? I'm not sure -- anyway, as Gil is staring at the alarm, Catherine comes up and comments, "Mwah wah mwah wah wah wah," or, as the closed captioning says, "What a day to come back to work." Gil just gapes. Catherine charges ahead, then turns back to look at Gil and ask, "Coming?" That's when Gil's hearing conveniently kicks back into normal mode, and the alarm goes off.

Brass is crouched over Lockwood's body, with Emergency Backup David on his other side taking notes. Without looking up, he tells Catherine, "This crew was in and out. Three, maybe four guys depending on who you talk to. Detective Lockwood drew his weapon protecting a woman and a child." Brass's delivery is clipped; it's a nice touch because it tells us -- as does Brass's scooping up Lockwood's badge -- that Lockwood's death affects him. Catherine sighs, "Wrong place, wrong time." Brass grits, "There is no right time to kill a cop." Especially not one so charismatic as Lockwood. He will be missed by me especially. Gil is looking around and casing the joint as Emergency Backup David points out that he only sees one bullet wound through the back. That corroborates witness reports of being taken down with a single shot. Gil walks over to a bank window spiderwebbed with fine cracks; when Catherine joins him, he says, "Beveled edges on the inside. The shot came from outside. We need to get a picture of this." Catherine adds, "These guys were pros." You think? What tipped you off? The lack of Dog Day Afternoon-style antics between bank robber and police?

Catherine and Gil ask how much the robbers get, Brass tells them the robbers weren't interested in money, and Gil's follow-up query ("What were they interested in?") is answered by a field-trip to the smoky vault. Blasted electrical wires sizzle and snap, debris litters the floor, and the precise hole betrays the purposefulness of the blast. Gil shines his flashlight and says, "See the blast marks? Charges were placed in corner quadrants. Four boxes up, five across, the rest looks like collateral damage." Catherine adds, "Whoever did this knew precisely what they were after." Gil replies, "Well, the one good thing about their precision: it'll narrow our focus."

The Who seem to concur; they've narrowed their focus to only one question too.

Once we come back from commercial, Gil is glowering in the foreground while we see the Young Turks come strolling in behind him. Their conversation is muffled. Weirdly enough, both Warrick and Nicky are in their CSI bulletproof vests, while Sara's wearing a tan suede scooter jacket and a red tee. Come to think of it, Gil and Catherine have the same sort of thing going on -- he's in a County windbreaker uniform thingy, and she's in a black v-neck shirt and baby-blue jacket. It seems weird that the men are in uniform and the women are not. Everyone's standing behind Gil, and we hear a lot of "mwah wah mwah wah wah wah" to establish that Gil's deaf, since we really haven't had a lot of clues leading up to this startling revelation or anything, and then Catherine practically shouts Gil's name. As she taps his shoulder, his hearing is miraculously restored. Gil apologizes, and looks at Catherine, puzzled. She gives him her usual "I am figuring you out, buddy" look -- the perps usually get this look right before Catherine nails them to the floor -- and tells him she's all about processing the bank. Gil replies, "Right. I'll take the safety deposit boxes. Sara, you're with me, since I can't think of a more optimal work situation than one where an employee with amorous intent is trapped in a small space with the person who rejected her affections. Or are we pretending that didn't happen?" Or, you know, nothing to that effect past the words "you're with me." Nicky heads off to check out the shot-up patrol car, Warrick heads to the altered security camera, and Catherine stands there and looks all thoughtful. Or she's watching Warrick swab the camera and tell us what we already know. Brass comes jogging in right then to tell Catherine that he found the getaway vehicle a block away, near an off-ramp. He adds, "The coroner's en route." Catherine's all, "Coroner?"