Directed by Deran Sarafian
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, John Dove & Christopher Silber
"Unwrapped" is the 17th episode of Season 8 and the 179th overall. It originally aired May 4, 2012.
A successful businessman is shot and killed in the lobby of a relative's building while visiting his old neighborhood. His wife knows more than she's telling. The team are introduced to Christine as they gather to celebrate Lucy's third birthday.
Tropes for the episode:
- Birthday Episode:
- The victim is murdered on the way to his niece's birthday party, and a missing gift holds a vital clue.
- A sub-plot involves Christine's anxiety over meeting Mac's friends for the first time at Lucy's birthday party, along with struggling to find the perfect gift. She ends up buying three.
- At the end of the episode, Adam sees Christine lugging her big bag of gifts and says she and Mac "are definitely invited" to his party the next month.
- Easily-Overheard Conversation: Due to thin walls, a neighbor overhears the wife and her sister talking about paying someone back after the sister panics and dumps some drug dealers' cocaine. He intercepts their delivery, disguised as a birthday gift, and shoots the unwitting husband when the man won't hand over the package.
- Family of Choice: Mac regards his team as his family, and tells Christine so right before they leave the office for Lucy's party.Mac: For the longest time, this place and those guys were my whole world. They got me through some really tough times. Now I have you.
- Flush the Evidence: Drug dealers force their neighbor to hold a kilo of cocaine for them when they hear cops entering their building. Terrified when the officers reach their floor and start knocking on doors, she races to her bathroom and flushes the whole thing.
- I Have Your Wife: Actually "We Have Your Daughter"; the drug dealers take their neighbor's daughter hostage to get her and her sister to deliver cocaine to them.
- Loved by All: The victim comes from a poor background, and while many would expect the people of his old neighborhood to resent him for climbing the social ladder, everyone (including the man who turns out to be his killer) respects him, especially since he invested some of his money to improve the community, such as repairing the local playground. Of note is one young man who picks up his wallet after the killer discards it, and takes out the cash. After being informed whom the money had belonged to, he voluntarily gives it back to Mac and Danny, saying it doesn't feel right to keep it.
- Maneki Neko: Some drug dealers hide heroin in counterfeit versions of the statue, using a trinket shop as the cover for their operation.
- The One Who Made It Out: The victim had grown up in a very poor neighborhood rife with drugs and crime. He'd applied himself in school, went to college, became a CPA, moved to a much nicer area and bought an expensive car. He never forgot where he came from, though. He is killed while visiting relatives in his old neighborhood and, when questioned, everyone there speaks highly of him. One drop-out even mentions that the man had encouraged him to stay in school so he could have a better life as well, and regrets not having listened.
