June 2, 2012

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'CSI' Team Solves Kidnapping With The Power Out (VIDEO)

First Posted: 03/ 1/2012 4:36 am Updated: 03/ 1/2012 9:35 am

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The team faced an extra challenge on this week's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (Wed., 10 p.m. EST on CBS) when the power went out mere minutes into their investigation into the kidnapping of a young boy. Suddenly, all of those high-tech forensics tricks viewers have gotten used to seeing weren't available. If they were going to solve this case -- and quickly -- they were going to have to go old school.

While it would have been fun watching them try to solve it in the three hour window Russell came up with, it turned into closer to half a day. Luckily, the complexities of the case and a bit of luck meant they weren't going to be recovering a corpse by the end of the hour. But it was fun watching them use less advanced techniques to deduce the people involved in the case, compare fingerprints and even identify powders and blood types.

It was a great way to showcase how much technology has sped up the forensics process, as well as a great reminder to the agents working in the field to never lose those old techniques and skills. There can be such a thing as too much reliance on modern technology, and that can lead to crippling paralysis should the power go out as it did here.

As for that case, while the father seemed far too obvious a suspect, having it be the psychic medium working with her old performing partner was an interesting twist. She had an obsession with the father, and in helping him commune with his dead wife, she'd somehow convinced herself that she was the dead wife. Unfortunately, she had some of the facts wrong -- like thinking that the husband had cheated with the nanny, when in fact she had just been the surrogate for their son. Did she know that the boy would be found when she killed herself via drowning, the same way the wife died? Or was she willing to let him die because she was convinced he was the product of infidelity?

Catch "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on CBS.

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