CSI:NY 407: "Commuted Sentences"--SPOILERS

I'm tired, so this is a note to say I'm not dead, just lethargic from a Florida cold snap. It's 34 degrees outside, and my legs are frozen despite an elephantine pair of sweats. The perils of poor circulation.


( CSI:NY 407-Commuted Sentences--SPOILERS )

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CSI:NY 407: The Bumpy Humanity Behind the Heroes

Last night, surreal_44 asked me what I thought about the case on CSI:NY, and the short answer is that I don't know.

The longer, more complex answer is that I'm divided. The Pollyanna in me, the little girl who grew up believing that laws should always be obeyed, says that Stanton was wrong to kill Mr. Swanky Rapist Dirtbag and deserves to be punished. Two wrongs don't make a right and platitudes ad nauseum.

But the little gremlin in me, the part of my subconscious that wrote Danse Macabre, understands that motive, that desire to even the scales. There are few human beings on this earth who don't secretly believe that the wrongs done them merit greater justice than man can mete. Stanton, ass-chafing, elitist snob that she was, did nothing more than what any mortally wronged soul would. When human justice failed, she sought her own...and created it. And how can I condemn that when I've written about it in lurid detail?

I am confused as to why Stanton created justice for someone other than herself, however. Was her attacker caught? Or were we meant to tap into the mythical sorority of the snatch, wherein women form bonds over shared trauma? Either way, it's interesting, and in a perverse, Grimms'-unsanitized-fairytale sense, Stanton fits the definition of a superhero. After all, she attained unattainable justice for someone else, an uniquely selfless act from an otherwise self-absorbed woman.

Much has been made of Mac and Flack's callous treatment of Vern upon her arrest. Mac has always conducted himself like a sanctimonious asscramp, so I am not at all surprised that he had his head tucked firmly up his own ass, the better to smell his magnificence. Flack, though, is more puzzling.

Flack has never struck me as a misogynist or a brute. On the contrary, he is fundamentally decent, and we've seen from "All Access" that he's capable of enormous sensitivity. So his demeanor with Vern is troubling. I can't imagine he sympathizes with a dead rapist. From his "They should've stopped at two" jab earlier in the episode, he seemed indifferent to the alleged rapist's demise.

Maybe he was upset that Vern-insofar as he knew-had taken the law into her own hands. Maybe he was overcompensating to hide his sympathy. Maybe he thought she was snowjobbing him. Whatever the case, his behavior was aggressive. I can't say it was unprecedented, since he raises the snark stakes with those he thinks to be absolutely guilty.

As to why he didn't apologize once her innocence had been established, maybe it was as simple as him not wanting to insult her further with a a lame "I was just doing my job, ma'am" defense. Maybe he thought he'd done enough and was lying low. I know I want to crawl under a rock after I've shown my ass. Not noble, but very human.