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Post by darmok on Feb 24, 2004 21:42:30 GMT -5
I still can't figure out why the body was drained of blood. In the promos it sounded like the contaminated product and the body drained of blood were connected (I know - you can't go by promos), but I never figured out the reason. It seems like it would be a lot more to clean up.
Also, Sherwood presumably recognized Eric's name from college. It's surprising that he would recognize the name without ever having met Eric or Brian. I'm not sure why he thought he could get to Buchanan through him.
And the homosexuality thread was really just a red herring. It's interesting though that the conclusion that Eric was gay was based on a false assumption (that the watch with the hair belonged to Eric), but the conclusion was true. Also, Goren assumed that Eric was protecting Buchanan; therefore, Buchanan was gay. Again the initial assumption was false, but the conclusion was true. Hmm.
I like the complicated CI episodes, but I agree that they bit off more than they could chew in this one.
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Post by trisha on Feb 24, 2004 22:18:39 GMT -5
Elena, I really enjoyed your post. It made me think, and I always appreciate that Darmok, the body was drained of blood so it wouldn't soak through the luggage. Here's the real question... What was the good of cutting Sherwood in half and sending his body in his luggage to the airport? The airlines don't ship a bag without a passenger on passenger flights, and even if he sent them cargo, the bags would still go though security. No way would those bags get to Bangkok the way they were packaged. Someone was bound to look. Brian doesn't strike me as an idiot, but in this case...
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Post by popularlibrary on Feb 25, 2004 9:36:21 GMT -5
Hi to all!
Metella - sorry about the long posts, but I can't help it. I've been long-winded since childhood, and made matters worse by admiring some very long-winded critics, like GB Shaw, who (as a critic) is one of my idols. I'm not sure about the wish fulfillment thing - yes, all of us long-winded types tend to read-into, but mostly, we're just trying to figure out how the thing worked.
Trisha - thanks for the kind words. You're probably right about the shipping mistake. I don't know beans about security procedures in international shipping (weren't there yowls recently about the general laxness of it all?), and I have a notion that Eric/Brian didn't know a whole lot either. That doesn't seem to have been part of his job. But he was planning this murder in haste, under pressure and probably hadn't time to check if his improvisation was feasible. Which it wasn't, as it turned out. As Goren remarks, keeping all that deception together must have made for a state of constant semi-terror.
As for the drainied blood - apart from the obvious practicality (the drips ended up giving him away anyhow) I liked the sort of 'contaminated blood' theme being carried right through both crimes.
Darmok - I don't think the homosexuality was just a red herring. If I remember correctly, the real Eric was gay, and part of a boating crew that was gay, so Brian was obliged to follow suit, even though he was a straight womanizer. It complicated his deception, and is one of the things that helps unravel it - Goren made a guess that Eric/Brian was gay when he thought the fancy watch was his, but began to grasp the truth when he found out differently (not only the girlfriend, but the DNA test). It was also important because it gave Brian an edge with Gordon Buchanan, and I tried to deal with him in my earlier post. I don't see anything special in Goren guessing, from Buchanan's horrified shock and rage, that his reaction to infecting people with AIDS had a personal basis.
I liked this episode - and I think it played with plot structure and atmosphere in a very interesting, and I thought successful, way.
There! Another long post! Sorry...sorry...
Elena
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Post by trisha on Feb 25, 2004 13:21:10 GMT -5
That wasn't long at all, and I'm glad you have no plans to limit yourself I have one critique for your posts, Elena. You keep using AIDS instead of HIV. The two really should not be confused. People can die of AIDS related complications without even having HIV, and it is possible to have HIV and not develop AIDS. I admit this is currently unlikely for most people, but medical advancements are made everyday and there are many people who have lived with HIV for over ten years and are still healthy enough to have every reason to hope for many more. Magic Johnson is one such case. Hopefully we will see a cure for HIV soon, but even for now it should not be synonymous with AIDS The shipping is one thing I'm very sure about. Even before 9/11 it was common practice at many airports to remove baggage from the cargo hold if the passenger associated with the baggage failed to get on the plane. Now it's FAA law. To ship something like luggage on a cargo fight, it would still go though security check points before getting on a plane. That the bags looked shrink wrapped closed would be a good reason for security personnel to take a closer look. After all, why would someone do that to their bags? I wonder if a drug sniffing dog would alert its trainer to a body in a bag. They are trained to sniff for all sorts of things, and to ignore others. Do you think they would naturally alert their trainers to a body, or would they skip over it? Anyone know anything about that?
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Post by popularlibrary on Feb 25, 2004 15:16:02 GMT -5
Thanks Trisha - will try not to be careless with terms. You're quite right, of course. HIV and AIDS are not the same thing.
Interesting about the baggage checks. So Brian would have been caught in any case. I wonder if a later discovery would have given him more cover? Oh well.
E
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Post by trisha on Feb 25, 2004 16:09:42 GMT -5
I assume any ME worth his/her salt would photograph the body, and maybe even make special note of the tan line. So, even if the body did make it to Bangkok, there is still a chance the cops would notice the size was off. Then they would trace the id# on the watch and get right back to Eric/Brian.
Brian had a better chance of getting off he hadn't cut Sherwood in half. He could have left the hotel and gone home and claimed Sherwood must have stolen the watch from his apartment and stuck to the story. Given the rest of Sherwood's sociopathic behaviors, this would not be surprising to any detective, even if Sherwood had millions in the bank is his own name. Sociopaths like to steal and they suspect the same of others, so putting it in the safe woudn't be far off either.
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Post by pompusone on Feb 28, 2004 12:12:25 GMT -5
I saw a demonstration of explosive sniffing dogs once. According to the trainer dogs are trained to sniff only one thing so a drug sniffing dog wouldn't react to a body or explosives or anything else.
Plus although packages are checked on cargo flights I don't think every package is checked on every flight so I expect the scheme had some probability of working.
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Post by trisha on Feb 28, 2004 13:19:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the information, pompusone So if the bags didn't leak, and if security was not curious enough to run the bag through an x-ray, it would be possible to chop a body in half and ship it to Bangkok. Hum, must find industrial size food saver and my plans will be complete...
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Post by trisha on Jun 28, 2004 15:08:43 GMT -5
Did anyone catch this one lastnight?
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jaquetta
Silver Shield Investigator
Posts: 171
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Post by jaquetta on Jun 29, 2004 13:36:53 GMT -5
I did! It didn't strike me as particularly great when I initially saw it, but it was much better the second time around. Or I just miss CI.
Interesting reading the posts back from Feb.
The doctor may not have known that the clotting factor drugs were contaminated, although how else he thought that poor little boy was infected, I don't know. Didn't he sound the alarm? There must have been something that set off the panicked self defense of the executives.
Sherwood looked up employees of .......Buchanan? and looked for someone whose name listed the same college he attended. He didn't have to know Eric/Brian, in fact, they made it rather clear that he didn't know him.
I liked the interplay between all the storylines. Eames cracked me up when she replied to the woman with the watch who said that Goren "....asked the weirdest questions." "You have no idea."
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Post by trisha on Jul 2, 2004 9:09:20 GMT -5
Yeah, the doctor must have asked some questions about the drug, and he may not have been alone. If the drug was sold all over Asia, other doctors may have picked up on it, too. Goren did drive the point home that Sherwood, Mailer, and Johanssen had to decide where to dump it, and that Asia and Africa would give them the least amount of risk. The sad thing is that it seems that it took the infection of a little white American boy for this to come crashing down on them.
I guess I liked this one a little better the second time, too. Eames' comment about the strange questions was very funny, but it was actually Goren's reaction to the cheating wife that I found most amusing. It's fun watching his wheels turn.
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jaquetta
Silver Shield Investigator
Posts: 171
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Post by jaquetta on Jul 2, 2004 12:27:54 GMT -5
Watching his wheels turn is part of the fun.
The doctor was the one who sounded the alarm on the contaminated drugs. Caught that while rewinding the tape last night. Yeah, that was pretty cold blooded and calculated dumping those contaminated vials there. I really liked the pointedness of the 'flipping a coin' crack Goren made.
I also liked Goren's semi sheepish grin when Buchanan replied to his question whether he and Eric were lovers, told him "give me some credit. I don't chase secretaries."
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Post by Metella on Jul 2, 2004 12:51:50 GMT -5
it may have taken the white boy.... because AIDES is rampent in the "native" population; but an American worker/diplomat over there would not be at the same risk & therefore I would think aides in a boy whose mother did not have it would seem too out of place & that lead to the investigation of the drugs.
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Post by DonnaJo on Mar 30, 2007 21:05:24 GMT -5
Caught some of this last night. Noticed that the murdered guy (the one cut in half & put in the luggage ) was named Sherwood. Same as the name of the guy & his family who was murdered in Badge. Sherwood is NOT a common last name. Wonder if there is a private joke about this name? Same with the name Carlotta. It's definitely used in at least two episodes of CI, one being Collective. Can't recall the other, but I heard It very recently.
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Post by spankypup on Mar 30, 2007 21:26:01 GMT -5
Same with the name Carlotta. It's definitely used in at least two episodes of CI, one being Collective. Can't recall the other, but I heard It very recently. Ginny Carlotta was Jack's ex-girlfriend in F.P.S. They also seem to like the first name Spencer... Spencer Durning (Cold Comfort), Spencer Anderson (Gemini), Spencer Farnell (The Posthumous Collection).
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