Danny Messer
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| CSI: NY character | |
|---|---|
| Danny Messer | |
| City | New York City |
| Status | Alive |
| Job | CSI |
| Rank | Detective Investigator 3rd Grade |
| Position | Detective Investigator |
| Seasons | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Portrayed by | Carmine Giovinazzo |
| First appearance | MIA/NYC NonStop |
Danny Messer is a fictional character on the TV series CSI: NY. He is portrayed by actor Carmine Giovinazzo.
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[edit] Background
It can be inferred that Danny grew up on Staten Island, in a family under surveillance (as hinted at in the episode "Tanglewood"). As a result, he formed his own set of hybrid ethics, caught between the world of lawbreakers and law enforcers. Though very little is known about the Messer family, Danny openly admits that he has had a very rocky relationship with his older brother, Louie, since a fateful night in 1991. After promising to take Danny to Atlantic City with some of his friends, they stopped off at Giants stadium where he (Louie) and two others began to severely beat a drug dealer, telling him it was an initiation into the Tanglewood Boys gang. When Danny protested, Louie called him a disgrace and told him to leave. It was later revealed that Louie sent Danny away to prevent any involvement in the subsequent murder of that drug dealer (episode 220, "Run Silent, Run Deep"). Despite the strained relationship that resulted, Danny would later come to lend money to Louie on more than one occasion (episode 211, "Trapped").
While Danny and his older brother grew apart in their teenage years, it can be said that they were close as children, since Danny fondly recalls rowing in "the bay" with his brother in their grandfather's boat to dive for bottles, (episode 402, "The Deep"). He goes on to say that on one occasion their boat drifted into the harbor, and they were taken home by the coast guard, much to the dismay of their mother who, in turn, didn't speak much to her youngest son for a week thereafter. Danny recalled it as the most peaceful week of his childhood.
After graduating first in his class at the NYPD police academy, (episode 122, "The Closer"), Danny was chosen by CSI team leader Mac Taylor to join his team, an honor and a responsibility that he attempts to live up to each day.
[edit] Outside the Lab
It has been implied that Danny is in his early 30s; Lindsay Monroe made a reference to his 30th birthday (episode 208, "Bad Beat"). Danny attended college and played minor league baseball until he got into a fight and broke his wrist. He is a very good handball player, once using his skills to acquire evidence (episode 216, "Cool Hunter"). He grew up in the same neighborhood as the Tanglewood boys, but maintains he was never a part of the gang like his brother, Louie, was (episode 220, "Run Silent, Run Deep").
[edit] On the Job
On the show, Danny has displayed a tendency to follow his intuition when solving a case, rather than relying on the evidence, for which Mac has reprimanded him (episode 105, "A Man a Mile"). Danny is a very suspicious person; though he gets along well with the rest of the CSI team, Detective Don Flack is one of the few people he truly confides in.
Almost a year after a episode featuring a case that involved the Tanglewood Boys gang (episode 113, "Tanglewood"), Danny was implicated in a 15-year-old cold murder case. Louie is severely beaten by the gang and left in a coma after attempting to prove Danny's innocence. With Mac's help, Danny eventually clears his name, thanks to a taped confession from the real killer (episode 220, "Run Silent, Run Deep"). Louie's condition is still unknown, though it is widely presumed that he is still comatose.
It seems that Danny is particularly sensitive when it comes to suspects who act out on the loss of a loved one. In episode 304, "Hung Out To Dry," Danny tells murder suspect Shane Casey that he understands Shane's desire to clear his brother, Ian's, name, but does not agree with Shane's methods. Danny's words come back to haunt him later when, during the events of "Raising Shane" (episode 311), Shane tries to exploit Danny's sympathy for his situation, as well as Danny's concern for Louie, to get Danny at gunpoint to process the since-abandoned crime scene to obtain evidence that would prove Ian's innocence. To Shane's despair, the CSI brings evidence with him that proves Ian's guilt, and the police take Shane into custody without incident.
In the episode "On The Job" (episode 121), Danny's relationship with Mac becomes strained when, during a critical case, Danny fires his weapon blindly in a shootout that resulted in the death of a police officer. Ultimately, it is determined that someone else actually fired the fatal shot. Nevertheless, Danny is taken off the promotional grid after talking to Internal Affairs when Mac specifically told to him wait until the preliminary evidence report was in. The mistrust fades by the end of Season 2, when Mac talks to him outside the hospital after the events that leave Danny's brother Louie comatose (episode 220, "Run Silent, Run Deep"). Danny is annoyed when he discovers he is evidently the last to learn about the romantic relationship between Mac and Medical Examiner Peyton Driscoll, especially that "even Flack" knew about it before he did (episode 316, "Heart of Glass").
Danny takes it upon himself to trade shifts with Lindsay Monroe in episode 324, "Snow Day", taking her place to assist lab tech Adam Ross at a warehouse crime scene. When he arrives, he is taken hostage and held, along with Adam, by Irish mobsters who hope to use the situation to distract the NYPD while others of their clan break into the lab to retrieve a huge cocaine seizure from earlier in the day. Danny is badly beaten during his captivity (taking a total of 4 blows to the head, one to the spine and having his left hand broken), but, with Adam's help, manages to take down their captors in time to be rescued by the officers gathered outside.
[edit] Relationships
Some people regard Danny as a playboy, seemingly aware of his good looks and charm. The possibility of having multiple girlfriends is alluded to (Episode 113, Tanglewood) when Aiden assumes Danny has visited a so called rub-and-tug kind of massage parlor he replies "You kidding me? I got girlfriends for that, why would I pay?" During a case they worked together, Stella catches Danny checking out the waitresses in a trendy Japanese restaurant in which food is served off the bodies of nude serving women (Episode 104, Grand Master). When Stella comments about the sanitation of this kind of dining Danny replies "Who cares if it's sanitary? I wanna see the menu."
Others see no evidence that Danny is a playboy. Some feel having had more than one girlfriend and looking at and commenting on attractive women isn't unusual for a single man in his thirties.
[edit] Aiden Burn
In Season 1, Danny and fellow CSI Aiden Burn were shown to have a very close relationship as friends who routinely flirt with one another. In season 1 episode 19, Danny and Aiden work a case during which he catches Aiden behaving flirtatiously towards Officer Lily, the first officer on the scene. After putting an abrupt stop to their flirtation, they return to work and later he teases her, indicating his possible jealousy. In the late Season 2 episode "Heroes" (episode 223), Aiden, who had been fired from the crime lab earlier in the season, is found brutally murdered. Danny is, by far, the most shaken member of the team and lashes out at a man brought in for questioning for Aiden's death. When he begs Mac to let him interrogate the man, Mac refuses, knowing Danny is likely to become violent out of grief. After catching Aiden's killer, a rapist named D.J. Pratt, who Aiden had been intent on bringing to justice, Danny and the rest of the team meet at a local pub and toast their lost friend and colleague while reminiscing about her, content that they have fulfilled a promise to put Pratt behind bars for his crimes.
[edit] Don Flack
Danny maintains a strong relationship with Donald Flack, Jr., better known as Don Flack. The passionate and quick tempered CSI confides in and commiserates with the more level-headed detective when facing turmoil, such as when Danny is suspected of accidentally killing an undercover officer, and later when Mac is under fire for the death of Clay Dobson (episodes 121, "On the Job"; 323, "...Comes Around"). It is also assumed that Danny and Flack spend some of their downtime together as friends; in the very first episode Season 1, episode 1 Danny is exiting an interrogation room and casually says to Don "Hoops on Saturday, Flack. Don't forget." They also meet up for drinks and pool in episode 323, "... Comes Around," and have a heart to heart talk about their jobs and why they do what they do. They are also seen together at a basketball match in season 4.
[edit] Lindsay Monroe
Danny is initially less-than-friendly towards Lindsay Monroe, the detective brought in from Bozeman, Montana, at Mac's request to fill the gap in the roster left by Aiden's dismissal. On her first day, Danny tricks Lindsay into calling Mac "sir," a title that Mac has always hated (episode 203, "Zoo York"). Since then, however, Danny has become friends with Lindsay. For the remainder of Season 2, their relationship is one of friendly competition and playful banter which is obvious even to their coworkers; the coroner Sid Hammerback tells Lindsay that Danny calls her "Montana" because he has a crush on her (Episode 222 "Stealing Home"). In episode 302, "Not What It Looks Like," Danny's feelings towards Lindsay manifest themselves in his objection to her volunteering to go undercover, and his holding her close to him after the team rescues her. In the following episode, "Love Run Cold," he unsuccessfully tries to continue their relationship, but Lindsay stands him up for a date and refuses his efforts to offer her support.
The speculated reason for Lindsay's withdrawal from Danny is concerning Lindsay being the sole survivor of the murder of her friends, as a teen by a man named Daniel Katums.
In episode 318, "Sleight Out Of Hand," Danny works multiple shifts while Lindsay returned to Bozeman, Montana to testify as the lone survivor in a murder trial. After Mac sends an exhausted and borderline-delirious Danny home, Danny makes a spur of the moment decision to fly to Bozeman and arrives at the courthouse while Lindsay is on the stand. His presence gives her the confidence to finish her testimony, after having broken down on the stand once already. After the trial concludes with the conviction of the murder suspect, they hug and Lindsay reels him in for a kiss but they are mobbed by reporters and miss their chance. They leave the courtroom hand-in-hand.
In the third season finale Danny and Lindsay sleep together on the billiard table at Danny's after an evening of drinking and playing pool at Danny's apartment in episode 324, "Snow Day."
It can be assumed that Lindsay and Danny remain a couple during the beginning of season four, although they shared very little romantic screen time. They continue to work cases together, but except for one innuendo in the premier episode of the season (Episode 401, "Can You Hear Me Now"), they remain very professional at work.
Their relationship reaches a major stumbling block when Ruben, a child that Danny knows, is murdered. Danny blames himself for Ruben's death, even though it was not his fault (Danny stopped to help the victim of a robbery and told Ruben to bike the final block home alone). In episode 415, Flack (checking up on Danny after Lindsay expresses her concern when he misses work) discovers that Ruben's mother Ricki stole Danny's gun, and they eventually find her attempting to kill the man ultimately responsible for Ruben's death. Danny manages to take the gun from her, and faces a dilemma when Flack says that either Danny turns Ricki in or Flack will. It is revealed in the next episode (Episode 416, "Right Next Door") that Danny has been having an affair with Ruben's mother to 'take the pain away'. Lindsay notices his distraction when she calls inviting him out for lunch, but he brushes off her concern. Noticing something is wrong, Lindsay finally gives up and delivers a monologue to Danny about how she has felt like she 'lost her best friend' since Ruben died. She admits to falling in love with him, and then says she'll have to find a way to fall out of love with him also. It is unclear as to whether this was intended as a break up or not, but Danny later on attempts to talk to her, only to be called away.
In the episode "Like Water For Murder" (417) Danny and Lindsay share a moment over references to Jaws, and Danny suggests that they rent it some time, causing Lindsay obvious discomfort. That discomfort causes her to leave a piece of evidence unattended, which does not go unnoticed by the Inspector that is accrediting the lab.
The episode Personal Foul (418) had Danny showing a great deal of remorse when he called Lindsay and apologized for pushing her away. He promised not to do it again, and asked her to come over so that they could talk. She declined, but seemed to accept his apology. Shortly thereafter, Ricki appears at Danny's door, and after he tells her that they can no longer see each other, she admits that she's moving to start fresh.
[edit] Family
- unnamed mother
- unnamed father
- Louie Messer (brother)
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