Directed by Jeffrey G Hunt
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Pam Veasey & Trey Callaway
"Child's Play" is the 11th episode of Season 4 and the 82nd overall. It originally aired December 12, 2007.
A man is killed by an exploding cigar. Danny's young neighbor, Ruben Sandoval, is killed during a bodega robbery while under his supervision, and Danny is wracked with guilt.
Tropes for the episode:
- Accidental Murder: Ruben is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is hit by a stray bullet.
- Bait-and-Switch: In Essex' scene, he buys a drink for a woman, then slips something into it while the bartender's back is turned. We initially believe he's roofied the drink, but the woman's grossed out reaction shows he actually pulled the "ice cube with a fly in it" prank on her.
- Broken Tears: Danny weeps along with Ruben's mother, Rikki, who is distraught, after he tells her that the boy has been killed.
- Christianity is Catholic: Danny takes Ruben to the boy's church to get his bicycle blessed by the priest. They are on their way home from there when Ruben is killed.
- Deadly Prank: The victim in the exploding cigar case isn't the intended target. The man who is had passed it on to him without realizing it was lethal. The victim lights it up in a crowded bar and dies when his bottom jaw is blown off.
- Death of a Child: Ruben is only 10 years old.
- Exploding Cigar: The victim is killed after lighting and beginning to smoke what appears to be a regular cigar. A few short puffs later, it blows up, killing him and taking his bottom jaw off in the process.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Decades after the death of a childhood friend stemming from false advertisement, a father forbids his own little boy from reading comic books and playing with toys.
- Grief-Induced Split: An indirect case, as one of the week's culprits watched his friend drown as a child due to a prank gone horribly wrong. The man's lingering trauma and grief manifested in adulthood as being so overprotective of his own son that he would keep the boy indoors 24/7. His wife, understandably and rightly, left him and took their child away for the boy's own good.
- Invisible Writing: A joke shop owner signs a contract in disappearing ink. When the other party is questioned in a murder case both men are connected to, he produces the (apparently un-signed) contract as evidence. Stella uses a hand-held ultraviolet light to reveal the jokester's signature.
- Mail-Order Novelty: Laughing Larry used to run fantastical mail-order ads for toys and gags in comic books, including the cardboard submarine the killer's friend bought.
- Meaningful Name: "Laughing Larry's" last name is Gelachter, which is German for "laughter."
- Murder by Mistake: The exploding cigar was meant for Larry, but Larry passed it onto Essex, so the blast got him instead.
- My Little Panzer: The motive in the first case is a cardboard submarine that the killer's childhood best friend, believing it to be safe due to false advertisement, had drowned in a lake while using.
- Proud Papa Passes Out the Cigars: Exploited. The man out to kill the joke shop owner poses as a new father and gives him a cigar loaded with a powerful explosive. The shop owner unwittingly passes it on to the victim.
- Squirting Flower Gag: Defied. The murder investigation leads to a joke shop run by a guy called "Laughing Larry" who is wearing a fake camera around his neck. While questioning him, Flack tells him that if he squirts him with it, he'll arrest him for assaulting an officer. The guy gets a dejected look on his face and refrains.
