At the end of last season Angell was shot and killed as kidnappers grabbed Robert Dunbrook's son from police custody on the way to the court house where he was to testify against his father. Flack kills an unarmed, but very bad, man. Dunbrook tells Mac to "be safe" and we're left with the entire team being shot at with a machine gun by some unknown gunman inside a car while they're in the bar toasting their fallen comrade.

We've been waiting almost five months, but now we finally get to see exactly what happened. Who made it? Who did it? Who was the gunman? Will anything happen to Flack?

I should warn anyone who has not been able to watch this episode yet that there will be major spoilers and if you don't want this episode ruined for you, turn away now. I mean it. I'm going to spoil everything. I will make things up and pretend that they're spoilers just to trick you. Still here? Alright, let's continue.

Assessing the Damage

The episode opens exactly where the last one left off previously; with bullets flying in the bar, people ducking for cover and glass breaking everything. We see Mac pull his gun and glance to the side to notice a pool of blood slowly growing larger.

After The Who plays mini a concert and some companies try to sell me laundry detergent, we're greeted with Mac staring at a board, in the present, at list of suspects. We see a montage of what all the other team members are doing. We find out later that it's been 3 weeks since the bar shooting.

Mac glances at Danny's ID & Badge lying on the table. Moments later we see a wheelchair and as the camera pans up, it's Danny. Oh, Danny... Why do so many bad things happen to you? They're on a floor in the police building that's being remodeled meeting with a female who wants to provide them information, but wants protection for her brother, Jake. How is he connected? She backs away without providing them information. She's scared. As she turns to leave, a gunman appears in the elevator and proceeds to shoot and kill her. Mac runs after the gunman while Danny lounges out of his wheelchair in an attempt to find her. A sad ending. On the other hand, if they can ID her (CSI talk) then they can always ask her brother questions.

Flack's on a leave of absence, but with a new lead, he's brought back in on the case. He seems to be ahead of Mac and already review video tape of "the perp" entering the building which ended in the possible informant's death the previous night.

The shooting seems to have really affected Danny. Obviously, it would anyone, but we all know how things to get Danny. There does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel though, because it doesn't appear that he'll be in the wheelchair forever. They have left it open so that he could logically make a full recovery. While Danny first announced it was 60% chance of walking again, it turns out it's only 10%, but 10% in TV is all the percentage he needs.

Mac seems affected by what happened as much as anyone else, if not more so. He's taking it as a personal slight towards him and I pity the fool (Mr. T voice) that has put Mac in such a mood.

A New Lead

After an announcement of a similar shooting with the same MO as the bar shooting, they find bullet casings at the scene that match the ones collected at the informant shooting. While on the scene, the shooters hack into the Time Square billboard and replace it with text that says, "Pay us and we'll stop!" Hmm... with a note like that, it makes me think of the kidnappers from last season, but it can't be.

We have a new clean up tech, Hayden Becall (Sarah Carter), sticking her head in and helping out with some missed evidence. I'm happy with this addition, even if it is limited, as I really enjoyed her in the canceled legal drama, Shark. She finds a bloody print in the elevator because of some really nerdy things that are too nerdy for me to remember.

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As the information unravels, it appears that they're not so much targeting the police as much as they're trying scare people away? We find out that the killed informant was not only in the bar with the CSI team the night of the shooting, (she caught some shrapnel in the shoulder) but also worked in the same building.

With a lucky break by some brave, but dead, man named Albert, they have a lot of blood that belongs to the unsub (oops, wrong show. That's Criminal Minds.). Turns out the guy they're looking for is named David Wilson. By the time they find him, he's dead. He was "dropped off" at the hospital and by "dropped off" I mean they threw him out of the car, but at least it was at the hospital. That's good, right?

Come to find out, it leads back to a guy named Tyson Menlo. As the police bust into his residence we find the mysterious brother Jake standing in front of Menlo with a gun pointed at him. Angry about his sister's death, he's threatening to shoot. The police attempt to stop him, but there's no stopping him. Brother Jake kills Tyson Menlo.

After some questioning by the very angry Mac, Jake confesses that they weren't trying to target cops or kill anyone, but that they were trying to get the city to work for them? I'm still not sure if I understand that. I guess it's some kind of power thing? As they review the message that was left on the tip line by the informant we find out that the reason why she was at the bar was to stop her brother and the others from continuing their plan to shoot up the city. She felt that if her brother saw her in front of the bar that they would call it off. Unfortunately, her brother wasn't in the car at the time.

The episode ended with a moving montage of the team and what they're up to and we end with Danny in his wheelchair staring at his feet. He's trying to make them move with all his might and finally, they do. (Told ya 10% is enough)

Review

It's hard to describe how I feel about this episode. On one hand, I really enjoyed it - I thought the story was good and interesting and I'm content with everything that happened. On the other hand, this was an episode that I have been waiting months for. After everything that happened in the fifth season finale, I was expecting some kind of continuation of that. The only continuation apparent is from that of the view. Even the team didn't think it had anything to do with anyone involved in last season's finale. Dunbrook isn't even in this episode. If not for flashbacks they wouldn't have even said Angell's name. I feel kind of cheated on that point... It was a false climax. You would think that after being on the air for six seasons they wouldn't feel the need to do such things.

Ultimately, it was a good episode on its own, but if you view them as marked (Part 1 & 2), then it's a poor combined episode. I have to say that the best thing to come out of this episode is that Adam and Bonasera hooked up. Yeah, and then Adam agreed with Bonasera that they should never do that again. I'm sure that's exactly what he was thinking.

What do you think about  this premiere episode? Was it everything you expected it to be? Were all of your questions answered? Are you happy with the answers? Am I wrong? (Of course not, but I just thought I'd be nice and put that.)