Directed by Vikki Williams
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn & Kim Clements
"The Untouchable" is the 16th episode of Season 7 and the 156th overall. It originally aired February 25, 2011.
A disturbed young woman who had previously sought Mac out to report the cover-up of a crime she witnessed has turned up dead herself. First blush suggests she died of an overdose, but Mac dismisses the idea because of everything he knows about the victim. Mac is abducted, threatened, then quickly released during the course of the investigation.
Tropes for the episode:
- Blindfolded Trip: Mac's kidnappers place a cloth hood over his head and shove him into the back of their SUV, then dump him in an alleyway while threatening to kill him if he continues to pursue his current case.
- Bodily Fluid Blacklight Reveal: Mac and Flack search a room in a gentlemen's club for clues after a woman dies at a party there. Mac turns on his ALS and finds semen stains on the couch. Flack makes a comment about a different kind of party. Mac says, "Sex isn't illegal, murder is. We need to find blood." He shines his light on the other side of the room and promptly finds cleaned-up blood stains there.
- Continuity: The newspaper article the young woman kept to identify Mac is about the drug bust in "Snow Day." The accompanying picture is of Mac exiting the Lab's high-rise at the end of that episode.
- Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing: The kidnappers bind Mac's wrists with a zip-tie, but leave him in an alley where he, still blindfolded, *immediately* finds a piece of rebar to saw it off with.
- The Dissenter Is Always Right: Mac, Jo, Danny and Lindsay are all at the scene of the young woman's death. Mac is the only one who doesn't think she was a drug addict.
- Distressed Dude: Subverted as Mac frees himself from his make-shift handcuffs and blindfold, then uses a call box phone to report his situation. note
- Dramatic Gun Cock: While Mac is blindfolded, one of the kidnappers cocks a gun behind his head before threatening him.
- Fleur-de-lis: The disturbed young lady kept telling Mac about a woman with "the purple flowers," which turn out to be the tattoo of a fleur-de-lis on the first murder victim's wrist.
- Just One Little Mistake: The kidnappers had put their license plate in the back of the vehicle they transport Mac in. The raised figures are dirty and leave tell-tale smudges on his shirt, allowing Jo to lift enough of the plate number to track them down.
- Mistaken for Junkie: Sid finds three things to confirm Mac is right about the girl not being an addict: only a small amount of heroin in her system, not a single other needle mark on her body, and calluses on her fingers suggesting her dominant side was the one with the needle.
- The Ophelia: The disturbed woman trusted Mac because she'd seen him in the newspaper. She always spoke in confusing non-sequiturs, referred to the perps as various members of the infamous Chicago Black Sox scandal, and would abruptly leave without ever giving Mac all the details. Jo notes that, with her other symptoms, she was probably suffering from a severe case of OCD. Danny later finds her daily pill sorter...full and covered with a thick layer of dust.
- Punny Headlines: Among the newspaper articles Tessa has tacked to her wall is one with the headline, "Headless Body Lost in Topless Bar."
- Smith of the Yard: Mac. The young woman seeks out Mac to tell her story to because she saw an article entitled "Hero Cop" from the time when some violent drug runners stormed the Lab, and knew she could trust him to believe her and go after the bad guys.
