Cuckoo's Nest

Cuckoo's Nest
Season	6
Number	8
Writer	Zachary Reiter, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas
Director	Jeffrey Hunt
Original Airdate	November 18, 2009
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Cuckoo's Nest is the eighth episode in Season Six of CSI: NY.

Synopsis

A body that crashes onto a boat from the Manhattan Bridge and interrupts a shooting turns out to be another victim of The Compass Killer.

Plot

A disgruntled ex-employee shoots his former boss on a boat party for the company and is about to shoot another partner in the company when the body of a man falls from the bridge above. When Mac joins Stella at the scene later, he notices that Flack isn’t there and Stella admits the detective simply didn’t show up. Hawkes finds the ID of the jumper, Raymond Caldrone, on the bridge above, along with a couple of pictures and a necklace with a cross on it. Mac calls on Danny—who is now back on his feet and walking without the assistance of his cane—to go to Flack’s apartment and his usual haunts. Mac makes excuses to Flack’s commanding officer, Lt. Sythe, who realizes Mac is covering for the errant detective. In the virtual autopsy room, Sid shows Stella that in addition to breaking almost every bone in his body, Raymond Caldrone was shot, suggesting his death was a murder, not a suicide. Hawkes goes diving for the gun in the Hudson while Mac and Stella wait in a boat above. Danny calls Mac to tell him Flack isn’t at his apartment, but that his service weapon is. Hawkes doesn’t find a gun at the bottom of the river, but he does uncover a compass—pointing east. The Compass Killer is back. Stella spots a man watching them and Mac calls for backup, but when he and the cops mount a search of the bridge, the man is gone. Mac finds a note he left behind reading “I should have stayed awake. I’m sorry.”

Flack sits in a subway car, drinking, until two men board the train and, seeing him as an easy mark, attack him. One steals his wallet and the other pulls a knife—until Terrence Davis jumps on the train, grabs Flack’s gun and drives them off. Terrence brings Flack back to his apartment and drops him on the couch, noticing Flack’s phone as it rings. Flack makes it to the bathroom to throw up, but he and Terrence are interrupted by a knock at the door from two of Terrence’s former cohorts. Terrence gets them to leave before they spot Flack, but when Flack scoffs at the company Terrence keeps, Flack finds a familiar face waiting in the main room of the apartment: a disgruntled Mac Taylor. Flack tries to brush off Mac’s concern, prompting the detective to throw him against a wall and tell him the efforts the team has made to search for him. Flack starts to tell Mac about Simon Cade, the man Flack shot in cold blood after learning he was responsible for Angell’s death, but Mac cuts him off, saying he just needs to know he can count on Flack. He storms out, leaving Flack to consider what he’s said.

Stella and Danny follow up on a lead: trace from Raymond Caldrone’s body, which was found to be a special organic insulation used in a psychiatric ward. The two question Louise Dukes, who runs the facility, and she recognizes the Compass Killer as Hollis Eckhart, a paranoid schizophrenic suffering from PTSD who escaped a month ago. She shows them to his room, where the CSIs find sketches of his victims and his wife, Calliope, who was murdered two years ago. Back at the lab, Flack shows up for work and apologizes to Mac. After the lab confirms Hollis Eckhart’s blood matches a sample from the Compass Killer found on his first victim, Flack digs up the 911 call Calliope Eckhart made the day she was murdered. Calliope was visiting Hollis at the surveyor’s office where he worked at the time when the receptionist’s boyfriend ended a heated argument with a shotgun—and proceeded to shoot up the whole office. He shot Hollis in the face, leaving him scarred, and killed Calliope. The team recovers Caldrone’s car and finds signs of a struggle in the back. They get traces of gasoline and a water-cleaning agent off rope shavings, allowing them to trace the Compass Killer to a tour commemorating the World’s Fair in Queens. Mac and Flack go the fair and spot Eckhart, but the killer manages to escape, despite the area being surrounded by cops…

Cast

Main Cast

• Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor
• Melina Kanakaredes as Stella Bonasera
• Carmine Giovinazzo as Danny Messer
• Anna Belknap as Lindsay Messer
• Robert Joy as Sid Hammerback
• AJ Buckley as Adam Ross
• Hill Harper as Sheldon Hawkes
• Eddie Cahill as Don Flack

Recurring Cast

• Skeet Ulrich as Hollis Eckhart
• Nelly as Terrence Davis
• John Mese as Lt. William Sythe
• Fredro Starr as Deacon
• Marguerite Moreau as Louise Dukes
• Alex Cranmer as Bob Tanner
• Kieran Campion as Kenneth Grant
• Austin Lysy as Thomas Gates
• Josie Davis as Calliope Eckhart
• Brian K. Jones as Gigantaw

See Also

• List of CSI: NY episodes
• CSI:New York Season 6
• Category:Images from Cuckoo's Nest