Directed by David Von Ancken
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Sam Humprey & Daniele Nathanson
"The Past, Present and Murder" is the 21st episode of Season 5 and the 113th overall. It originally aired April 15, 2009.
A man crashes thru the window of newspaper magnate Robert Dunbrook's highrise office. Was it an accident, a suicide, or murder? His body disappears from the crime scene, further complicating matters. In the many twists along the way, Mac finds a connection to the missing flash drive from earlier in the season.
Tropes for the episode:
- Bloody Handprint: Stella and Sheldon find a trash bag with a handprint smeared in blood on it near where the body landed.
- Destination Defenestration: A man crashes through a window in a high-rise office and lands on a subway grate on the sidewalk below.
- FBI Agent: The man who goes through the window and another man who is killed in a staged traffic accident both turn out to be FBI agents who had been fired for going rogue.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Zig-zagged. Before he learns they were fired, Mac visits the agent the dead man and his partner reported to, asking for help in solving the first man's case. The agent rebuffs him, but gives him the info he needs after the partner dies from his injuries.
- Staged Shooting: Dunbrook gets his own son to shoot at him during a press conference in order to gain sympathy from the public because he thinks the NYPD - and especially Mac - are out to get him.
- The Unreveal: Although there are speculations that either Dunbrook threw the agent through the window during a fight or he went through it accidentally while they struggled over the object the man was after, exactly how it happened is never revealed.
