Ok first of all, there is something that I completely forgot to mention in my post last week. This may just be me, but I am very excited about the fact that they have decided to make Flack a little more casual. In last week’s episode and this week’s we see him more in jeans and a t-shirt than we do in his usual suit. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Flack looks very sharp in his suits, but there is something about him in a jeans and a t-shirt that makes me love him even more! Ok now to the actual episode…
A man uses his GPS to get him to a hotel in downtown Manhattan, but it instead takes him to an abandoned alley almost in the opposite direction. When he realizes that he is obviously not at his hotel and has no cell reception either, he calls for the on-call car service. The voice on the other end knows the man by name, calling him Mr. Dexter. The alarm on the car begins to sound, doors automatically lock, and when Mr. Dexter tries to drive away the car shuts down completely. Two men in black hooded sweatshirts approach the car and shoot Mr. Dexter. At the crime scene the next morning, Flack has a flashback of Jessica being shot (he obviously isn’t over it, but how will it affect his work?). Surveillance systems from the crime scene show about 20 different men tearing the car apart; the shooter is identified by a fingerprint left at the scene. Adam realizes that someone had hacked into Mr. Dexter’s GPS, purposefully leading him to an abandoned alley and crippled his car, knowing that there would people there who would harm him.
The next scene is a man in a restaurant with someone we assume to be a girlfriend or wife. He begins choking on his food, and when the waitress calls 911 the operator knows the man’s name and asks if he’s turning blue. When the waitress says yes, all the operator responds with is “yes.” Mac and Flack arrive at the restaurant and discover that the man’s order had been tampered with, putting nuts in when he specifically said he had a peanut allergy. The waitress had taken the correct order and had even placed in into the computer correctly, but it too was hacked in route to the kitchen where, instead of saying no peanut dressing, it said extra peanut dressing. Whoever this suspect is is spying on both Mac and Flack at the restaurant and learning everything about them that he can.
Back at the crime lab, there are men installing security cameras all over. When Stella asks Mac why he ordered these he tells her he didn’t. Stella shows him the email authorizing the purchase, and Mac realizes that their suspect has hacked into his email – ordering the security cameras so he could watch the team through their investigation. Mac uses the camera to his advantage and writes a note having the killer call him. He does, and says he wants to talk about Mac’s father and wants to know about how he died from lung cancer. Mac then has a flashback to himself coming home from the military and seeing his dad on life support with a breathing tube in him. The killer, who refers to himself as “gravedigger” wants Mac to tell his story and that in time, Mac will understand why.
The team learns that the killer is Victor Benton, a man who was refused treatment for his terminal disease when a wing of the hospital that gave treatment to patients without insurance was shut down. He is now going after a medical technician named Lisa Kim – the one who stopped administering him chemo when the program was shut down. Knowing about her immense fear of enclosed spaces, Benton shuts down the elevator as soon as she gets in to go home. When Kim pushes the emergency call button for help, Benton’s voice comes on. When he says her name, she knows exactly who it is that is talking to her. Mac and Hawkes run up 20 flights of stairs to try to get to Kim before Benton kills her. She begins having trouble breathing and pleads to Victor for help, but he seems to care less. Mac is able to pry the elevator door open before Benton drops the elevator and tries to kill Kim. Kim survives, and Mac and Hawkes find out where Benton lives.
On their way over, Benton calls Mac and figures out that he and Hawkes are on their way over. He ends up taking out his breathing tube and IV, hoping to die before they get there. Unfortunately for him, Hawkes is able to keep him alive until they can get him to a hospital. When Benton wakes up, he is handcuffed to the hospital bed so he can’t escape. He tells Mac that the two of them are more alike than Mac wants to realize, but Mac quickly says he is nothing like him. The final scene is a flashback to Mac’s father’s final minutes of life. We find out that his father urged him to take the job with the NYPD and even went as far as making him promise he would. This brings to light the reason why Mac is so passionate about his job. In a small way, it is how he honors his father.
I liked how we got a little more information of Mac’s past. On all of the characters on the show, his is the one whose past is still very ominous. No one knows much about him other than his wife died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Getting this glimpse into his past makes me personally, respect him more as a character. I am finally able to understand why he is the way he is.
If you guys have any questions about the episode, feel free to email me.
