Mac Taylor

Template:CSI character Mac Taylor is a fictional character featured in the TV series CSI: NY. He is played by Gary Sinise.Andy Garcia was originally offered the lead role, a character who would have been named Detective Rick Calucci. He declined, as did Ray Liotta, who later accepted a lead role in another CBS series, Smith, which only lasted 3 episodes.

Mac Taylor shares the same last name with the other character for which Sinise is best known for, namely Lieutenant Dan Taylor from Forrest Gump. In Forrest Gump, Lt. Dan and Forrest invest in Apple Inc.'s Macintosh, commonly called a Mac.

Background

In CSI:NY, Mac Taylor is the Head Investigator of the New York Police Department's CSI team. Originally from Chicago, he moved to New York after his discharge from the United States Marine Corps. He now considers New York home and once told a colleague that they were working for the finest city in the finest country in the world. Throughout the series, Mac has shown that he will protect three things at any cost: the honor of his country (through his military service), the safety of his city (through his work at CSI), and the integrity of his lab (through his decision to fire Aiden Burn in Season 2).

Mac believes in following the evidence, not trusting to intuition. He looks at a crime scene (and often the world) with Veneziano’s theory of quantum physics in mind - everything is connected. In Mac's mind, if he and his team can just figure out the connections, then they can solve the crime.

Early Life

Mac's father died of small-cell lung cancer and spent the last eight months of his life in bed on a feeding tube. As a result, Mac has come to believe strongly in a person’s right to a dignified death. However, when his father begged him to pull the plug, Mac couldn’t do it (episode 309, "And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael").

Mac was married to Claire Conrad. They had no children together, though Claire had a child (Reed Garrett) from a previous relationship, who she had since given up for adoption. Mac once described Claire as athletic, with curly brown hair and big blue eyes. Claire was killed in the 9/11 attacks and her death troubles him to this day, causing chronic insomnia. After her death, Mac got rid of everything that reminded him of her, except pictures and a beach ball she had blown up, saying, "Her breath is still in there" (episode 101, "Blink"). Her remains were never recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center (episode 315, "Some Buried Bones").

Military Service

Mac once said that he had wanted to serve his country more than anything else in the world. Even as a child, he dressed up in fatigues and pretended to be a soldier rather than a superhero. He served with the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (known today as "The Beirut Battalion") in Beirut, and was injured in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, from which he still bears a scar over his heart. A young Marine died in his arms from shrapnel wounds in the attack (episodes 224, "Charge of this Post;" 301, "People With Money"). The 1/8 also served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. According to episode 224, "Charge of this Post," Mac was discharged in March of 1992, so he probably also served in these operations in some capacity, but so far there hasn't been a mention of them.

Thanks to his Marine training, he is skilled in unarmed defense (episode 223, "Heroes") and seems to have an intimate knowledge of a wide range of weaponry, from bows (episode 214, "Stuck on You") to East Asian weaponry (episode 204, "Corporate Warriors") to the more everyday guns and knives. To Mac, the type of weapon used is as revealing as anything else at the scene of the crime.

Mac holds members of the armed forces in high esteem and to an even higher standard. He considers a uniform a "badge of honor," and his disgust with the killer in "Officer Blue" (episode 109) is all the deeper because of the murderer's military background. That a former member of the armed services would use his military training to take lives rather than protect lives obviously wounds him. As Det. Don Flack once said, "Once a Marine, always a Marine" (episode 223, "Heroes"). In the same episode, a murder victim turns out to be a Marine recently returned from Iraq, who was trying to deliver his dead comrade's watch to the man's fiancee; Mac takes it upon himself to complete the young corporal's mission.

Relationships and personality

While Mac typically displays a somber and serious demeanor, he does have a lighter side; he teases Sheldon Hawkes during a quick meal break in episode 202, "Grand Murder at Central Station," by telling the young CSI that "eating is frowned upon", and in the second season it is revealed that he plays bass guitar in a jazz club when he is off-duty.

With other NYPD staff

Mac has a close friendship with fellow detective Stella Bonasera and was suitably concerned when she was held hostage in her own apartment by her deranged boyfriend, Frankie Mala, in "All Access" (episode 221) and eventually forced to kill him. He once tells Stella he wouldn't do this job without her (episode 109, "Officer Blue"). The two exchange Christmas and birthday presents, and because of this, Stella is mistaken to be Claire Conrad by Reed Garrett when she leaves Mac's home after giving him his birthday present (episode 308, "Consequences"). Mac is also the first person Stella tells about the possibility that she may be infected with HIV (episode 317, "The Ride In").

Danny Messer has developed a deep trust in him over the following months; Mac is there for him without reservations in episode 220 ("Run Silent, Run Deep"), telling him, "I believe you." It is with Mac that Danny breaks down after his brother Louie is beaten so badly he ends up in a coma, a sign that he considers Mac a true friend. Danny, however, is somewhat annoyed to discover he is the last to find out about the romance between Mac and Peyton (episode 316, "Heart of Glass").

In season three, he is revealed to have been dating Dr. Peyton Driscoll, one of the medical examiners. His relationship with Peyton has not been easy; his insistence that they keep their relationship under wraps at the lab conflicts with her desire to be less secretive about them. A particularly tense moment occurs during episode 311 ("Raising Shane") when, during a debate about the state of their relationship, Mac accidentally calls Peyton "Claire," which causes her to walk out on him (somewhat ironic in light of Peyton being played by actress Claire Forlani). The two reconcile with a hug in the lab in the next episode (312, "Silent Night"). Later, by episode 316 ("Heart of Glass"), Mac and Peyton have evidently openly acknowledged their relationship, and no one at the lab has expressed any reservations about it. In season 3, episode 24 ("Snow Day"), Peyton invited Mac to go with her to England while she's there for a medical examiners conference. She wants him to use 10 day of the seven weeks of vacation time he has accumulated. At first Mac is uncertain if he wants to go but after the events in the episode take place, he informs his team mates that he is going to England with Peyton.

Mac's relationship with former M.E. and junior detective Sheldon Hawkes is amicable for the first two seasons. However, in episode 307, "Murder Sings the Blues", Hawkes tries to make sure he stays on a case by not informing Mac of his relationship to the victim in one of their cases; however, Mac feels betrayed when Peyton inadvertantly reveals Hawkes's secret, and Mac dresses him down in front of the entire lab and pulls him from the case. They reconciled in episode 309, "Here's to you, Mrs Azrael", when Mac confides to Hawkes about his father's final agonizing months dying from cancer. When Hawkes is falsely accused in a robbery-homicide, Mac puts his career on the line to help his friend, locking himself in the interrogation room with Sheldon to question him, even though his team had been removed from the case (episode 311, "Raising Shane").

Mac and NYPD Detective Don Flack share a deep mutual respect and friendship, despite their very different temperaments. This trust becomes strained when Mac discovers that one of Flack's detectives is dirty. Mac asks for Flack's memo book to determine which officer was the culprit. Despite Flack's unwillingness to believe that one of his men is corrupt, he eventually capitulates and turns over the notebook (episode 308, "Consequences"). Their relationship remains tense for several episodes until they confront the issue in episode 310, "Sweet 16". When Mac locks himself in the interrogation room to talk freely with wrongly-accused Sheldon Hawkes, Flack defends Mac to the detective investigating the case, saying that they'd do the same for each other (episode 311, "Raising Shane"). Flack and Mac argue again briefly when a serial killer is released from prison thanks to the aforementioned arrest of the detective, but they quickly put aside their differences to catch the murderer and put him away for good (episode 321, "Past Imperfect").

Outside the lab

In the first half of season 3, Mac met Reed Garrett, the child that Claire she gave up for adoption before she met Mac. They met when Mac caught him following Stella, who Reed mistakenly believed to be his mother. Mac offers him his business card and asks for a chance to get to know him, but is initially turned down. In spite of Reed's reluctance to keep in touch with Mac, Mac still reaches out to him. At Thanksgiving, Mac visits Reed at his adoptive parents' home and gives him photos of Claire. Later, Reed turns to Mac after the young man is brutally beaten because of an article he is writing for the college newspaper (episode 315, "Some Buried Bones").

In the Line of Duty

Mac Taylor keeps a pile of unsolved cases on the corner of his desk. Rapist/murderer DJ Pratt's file remains there for for some time, until the CSIs close it with the posthumous assistance of former colleague Aiden Burn (episodes 202, "Grand Murder At Central Station;" 223, "Heroes").

When Miami CSI Lieutenant Horatio Caine comes to New York in pursuit of a murder suspect, Mac and his team help him discover the real killer and apprehend him (CSI: Miami episode 223, "MIA/NYC Nonstop"). Mac later flies down to Miami to assist Caine recapture escaped murderer Henry Darius, who eventually heads back to New York. Together, the CSI detectives successfully apprehend Darius and extradite him to Florida (CSI: Miami episode 407, "Felony Flight," CSI: NY episode 207, "Manhattan Manhunt").

Mac and Flack are in one episode caught in a bomb blast in a building while trying to evacuate it (episode 224, "Charge of this Post). Though he himself is wounded in the neck, Mac is able to stabilize a critically injured Flack long enough for help to arrive, thanks to his previous traumatic experience in the Beirut barracks bombing. Mac and his team discover the NYC bomber to be a schizophrenic would-be Marine out to prove the vulnerability of the city to terrorist attack. By appealing to the man's sense of military duty, Mac is able to get him to surrender. The detective privately acknowledges to Stella that, while the bomber's methods may have been flawed, Mac could not argue against the principle of protecting his city and country. After the resolution of the crisis, Mac and the other CSIs stay by Flack's hospital bedside in shifts until he recovers.

Mac and Flack are also instrumental in ending a hostage situation involving a deaf young man holding his baby daughter and his murdered girlfriend's mother at gunpoint in their car. While Mac talks to the young man, Flack sneaks up on the other side of the car and slips the baby out of the vehicle through the driver's side window. As soon as the child is secure, Mac is able to safely disarm the young man without anyone getting injured. The baby is then returned to the custody of her grateful grandparents (episode 312, "Silent Night").

One of Mac's most difficult situations on the job involves the discovery of Aiden Burn's questionable behavior (episode 202, "Grand Murder At Central Station"). Aiden had been sorely tempted to tamper with evidence in order to to implicate a rape suspect whose victim decided to press charges against him after he raped her a second time (the victim declined to press charges after the first assault). Though Aiden eventually does not follow through, she had broken the seal on the evidence and Mac, insistent on preserving the integrity of the lab, feels that his only option is to fire her. Nevertheless, he promises Aiden that he will bring the rapist to justice, a promise that he makes good on (with Aiden's help in a sad irony) in episode 223, "Heroes."

A serial killer, Clay Dobson, whom Mac helped put away five years previously, comes back to haunt him after the man is released, thanks to Mac's arrest of the detective (Dean Truby) who took his confession. Mac's single-minded intensity in his renewed pursuit of this killer makes him short-tempered with his concerned coworkers. After the CSIs discover one of the Dobson's victims still alive, Mac charges after him, alone, cornering him on a roof of a tall building. Dobson comes crashing to earth moments later, fatalling impacting on the hood of a police cruiser, only feet away from Flack and some uniformed officers arriving as backup. His hands are cuffed, and Mac gazes down from the roof in horror (episode 321, "Past Imperfect"). Flashbacks in the following episode reveal that Dobson intentionally fell from the roof, telling Mac that if he went down, he would take the detective with him. The chief of detectives, Brigham Sinclair, in a bid to remove Mac from his position at the lab (for political reasons, as Mac believes), initiates an Internal Affairs investigation even though the district attorney did not find enough evidence to charge Mac (episode 322, "Cold Reveal"). The prosecutor, during the hearing, appears to be determined to destroy Mac's career, despite attempts by his colleagues to aid him in their testimony. Former Detective Truby calls Taylor from jail, desiring to meet him in person. During the visit, Truby, guilty over Dobson's release, offers Mac a trump card to play against Deputy Inspector Gerrard and Sinclair: when Dobson had originally been arrested several years previously, Gerrard, then a lieutenant, failed to remove Dobson's belt. Dobson used the belt in a suicide attempt in his cell. Gerrard and Sinclair, the precinct captain, covered up the suicide attempt as well as Gerrard's lapse in procedure. Mac confronts the two and threatens to take his evidence to the media, thereby ruining both their political aspirations. Sinclair decides to have Mac cleared of all charges and the Internal Affairs investigation discontinued, and Mac remains quiet about his knowledge (episode 323, "...Comes Around").