User Reviews

This is (after Grave Danger) one of the best episodes dedicated to Nick Stokes, performed delightfully by George Eads. A Hanssel and Gretel kind of story mixes with the CSI team investigating a brutal three going to four murders case in a derelict house in the middle of nowhere.

In that place Nick finds himself in the same situation his friends and companions were in the past looking for him, but now he looks for the lost little girl. Although the chapter has plenty calm scenes, the rhythm is unstoppable, and the Emmy to best cinematography is perfectly delivered, although George deserved another for his performance.

The best episode of this season by far, everybody (fans or not of CSI) should watch it. Twice.

This was a great, great show, ranking right up there among the best I've ever seen in six years of watching this television crime series. They did it without their two main stars, too, as William Petersen was absent and Marg Helgenberger was only in one five-second scene. (Sometimes the show is better without those two.)

George Eads, who plays "Nick," was the star of this episode with Jorja Fox, as "Sara," a close second. It shows Nick as he is: the most compassionate and nicest character of the series. In this story, he makes it his mission to believe and to find - if possible - a missing young girl, when others think he's crazy even hoping she's still alive.

The little girl, her older brother and her two parents are all missing and presumed dead. The story is told in past-tense narration by "Cassie," the young girl.

It all begins in a nice, peaceful town outside Las Vegas, where a murder hasn't been committed in 10 years, according to the sheriff, who finds a nice house filled with blood and bloody footprints but no residents inside. Later, motive is discovered as we see a big marijuana-making greenhouse in the baseball with a all dried weed missing. That, bloody footprints and gum wrappers all help find who the killers are and where the bodies were dumped....but the main question for last third of the show is "was the little girl killed, too?" because her footprints and dead body are the only ones not found.

A thoughtful, riveting episode told in a unique manner and one of the few, if any, that almost brought a tear to my eyes in the end. I wish CSI would make more of these type of shows, meaning a straight crime story without all the sleaze in it.

As revealed by the writer on the DVD commentary track, the episode was originally written to feature GRISSOM as the CSI who becomes obsessed with finding the little girl. Nick wasn't even one of the CSIs called out to the scene. So much for "Nick is the nice one." They had actually completed one day of shooting when William Peterson was called away on a family emergency. Production shut down for one day while a frantic rewrite was done and a the schedule adjusted to complete the episode in the time remaining. One result was that scenes were changed to reduce the number of sets and locations required, which eliminated scenes set in the bed and breakfast where the CSIs stayed.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANYONE CATCHING UP WITH THE SHOW ON DVD OR WHO HASN'T SEEN THE SEASON SIX FINALE FOR SOME OTHER REASON:

This is interesting because in the original draft of the script Grissom, Sara and Greg are the only CSIs to travel to Pinoche, and they stay at the B&B. Grissom and Greg share a room while Sara, as the only female, gets a room of her own. But Greg snores. So Grissom knocks on Sara's door. They end up in separate beds, in the dark, and having a typical G&S conversation - superficially about the case, life and death, but with a subtext of "other things". Fade to black. Even writer Sarah Goldfinger couldn't remember all the details of the scene the next morning, except that when Greg comes looking for the two, Grissom and Sara are still in the same room and one of them is just coming out of the shower. As usual, the whole thing would have been left ambiguous. (See Grissom and Lady Heather and that whole "Did they or didn't they?" moment.) Anyway, it makes an interesting footnote to the season, because depending on what happened when, this could have been a neat foreshadowing of the season-ender, a clue that they were already involved, (the business of Greg snoring and the banter in the dark the G&S version of foreplay), or an indirect depiction of the night the relationship finally went to the next level. Since that version was never shot, we'll never know.

The version that does exist is a good strong episode for CSI and a nice showcase for Nick and Sara. (Ironic that events conspired to give them one, in light of their earlier contract disputes. The episode might have gone to Catherine, with William Peterson not available, except that Marg Helegenberger had a long-standing commitment to a charity event in the Midwest, which is why she is only in a couple of scenes back in the lab, all either shot on the same day or squeezed into the shooting schedule for a previous episode.)

I think the only CSI episode I rate as highly as this is "Unfriendly skies" - a quite different type of story (the Milander and Miniature killer episodes are other favourites that come to mind)

If true, it's fascinating how 'Gum Drops' was originally written with Grissom in mind. I wonder if it could have possibly been as good as what we got here with Nick and Sara leading (ironic after both actors had disputes with the shows makers). Certainly one of the good things here is that we're breaking the mould, abandoning the standard formula.

(plenty spoilers from here on)

There is another experiment with the girl's voice speaking at the beginning. Is she alive or is her spirit talking to Nick, the only one able to hear it, although distantly.

On the same theme, we get one of those archetypal moments* where a character (unconnected to the rest of the plot) comes in and tells the hero an insight. In this case, a 'spiritual' hippy girl appears and tells Nick that his 'third eye' (Hindu idea of the eye that provides perception beyond ordinary sight) is predominant at that time. This is perhaps because of his recent ordeal, still fresh in his memory (the producers rightly left this open to the viewers interpretation)

Anyway Nick and Sara mull over whether the little girl is still alive, the evidence unfolds, and the resolution is VERY moving indeed. Quite beautiful I think. My partner and I watched this again recently and both had tears in our eyes, though we more or less remembered what happens.

The CSI series is consistently superior to any other crime drama I've seen for years, and this particular episode stands out from all the others in quality.

* this reminded me of the Big Lebowski, though I know there are better examples

Nick arrives at the house of Jude McBride and the sheriff explains to him that they received an anonymous call reporting a possible crime. There is blood everywhere inside the house including three large pools. Nick learns that the Jude, Nina, Jeremy and Cassie McBride are a happy family and they are missing. Sara arrives in the house and tells to Nick that Grissom is at a conference. Then Warrick and Greg also arrive to help the investigation. Soon Sara finds a marijuana farm in the basement of the house. They also find that the anonymous phone call had called several times the family phone and they locate the caller, the local Dr. Malcolm Parker. When the laboratory discovers the identity of one fingerprint, the case begins to be resolved.

"Gum Drops" is an excellent episode of "CSI" and certainly one of the best of the series. George Eads has top-notch performance in the role of Nick, pursuing his instincts that says that the girl Cassie is alive. The investigation of the team is also magnificent. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Gum Drops"