Directed by Marshall Adams
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Wendy Battles & John Dove
"Unusual Suspects" is the 21st episode of Season 6 and the 138th overall. It originally aired May 12, 2010.
A 14-yr old boy is shot while he and his brother, the only witness, are walking home from school. Flack takes the younger boy under his wing as they try to identify the shooter, but the boy has trouble doing so to the point of freezing during the line-up.
Tropes for the episode:
- After-Action Healing Drama: The boy is shot in the stomach and has to be raced by ambulance to the hospital for emergency surgery. Dr. Hunter says if they hadn't gotten him there within "the golden hour," he would have died. His younger brother constantly asks about him before being allowed to visit him at the end of the episode when the teenager wakes up.
- Bank Robbery: The brothers rob a bank and are then robbed at gunpoint themselves by a guy who'd been waiting to rob the same bank, but they beat him to it and he shoots the older of the two for not handing over his backpack.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: At the end of the episode, Mac and Aubrey head off for pizza. Aside from being mentioned a couple of times in the next episode, she is never seen or heard from again.
- Justified Criminal: Not the shooter, but the boys themselves. They rob the bank in a misguided effort to help their mother pay the rent.
- Look Both Ways: Flack is chasing a guy who is wanted for questioning in the shooting. The guy runs straight into the street without looking either way and is mowed down by an oncoming truck. Flack drags him out from underneath it, but he's already dead.
- Punny Title / Shout-Out: For/to The Usual Suspects.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Justified. Right before the shooting, Mac buys Aubrey a slice of pizza on the street. After she takes one bite, they hear police and ambulance sirens and take off running down the street to help. She tosses the slice in the nearest trash can on the way.
