Danny Messer
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Danny Messer is a fictional character on the TV series CSI: NY. He is portrayed by actor Carmine Giovinazzo.

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, he describes it as "the quietest week ever".

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.

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").

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"). He was also once reprimanded for working to solve a case even after being ordered by Mac to move on to another one due to the victim having died a natural death (episode 119, "Crime & Misdemeanor"). 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.

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."

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.

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.

Lindsay Monroe

Danny initially indulges in some friendly hazing of 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"). Lindsay resents this incident, and over the course of the next few episodes they are both stand-offish in their interactions. Soon, though, they come to respect each other professionally and develop a friendship. 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. Lindsay's withdrawal in this and subsequent episodes is later revealed to be due to renewed grief from having been the sole survivor of an attack during which several of her friends were murdered 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 at Katums' murder trial. After Mac sends an exhausted and borderline-delirious Danny home, Danny makes a spur of the moment decision to fly to Bozeman. He 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 324 "Snow Day", Danny and Lindsay sleep together on the billiard table at Danny's after an evening of drinking and playing pool at Danny's apartment.

Danny and Lindsay's romantic relationship is not featured in the early episodes of season 4, although there are several scenes of them bantering. In 401 "Can You Hear Me Now?", Lindsay slips a can of condom spray into Danny's shirt pocket while giving him a suggestive look.

Things take a downward turn in Danny's life in 411 "Child's Play," when a child in his care is killed by a stray bullet. Danny's grief and guilt plague him over the next several episodes, causing him to withdraw from Lindsay and act to protect the boy's mother, Rikki Sandoval. In 413 "All in the Family," Lindsay covers for Danny when he skips work to search for Rikki who has stolen Danny's service revolver and gone to hunt down and kill a man she blames for her son's death. Flack and Danny intervene before she fulfills her plan. While Flack argues that Danny needs to report what happened, Danny is relunctant to cause trouble for Rikki, who is nearly crazed with grief. At the end of the episode, Rikki chooses to turn herself in to the police. In 416 "Right Next Door", Danny and Rikki are shown indulging in an affair, which they both acknowledge is a mistake. Danny blows Lindsay off when she calls him while Rikki is in his apartment.

However, in the next episode (417 "Like Water for Murder") Danny is again flirting with Lindsay in the lab and he suggests they get together to watch a movie. This upsets Lindsay, who rushes out of the lab and later, when Mac brings up the incident, tells Mac that it had been a mistake to get involved with a coworker. In one lab scene, Danny tries to get Lindsay to talk to him and she finally confronts him about his unwillingness to allow her to help him with his grief. She acknowledges that she had been falling in love with him. In 419 "Personal Foul," Danny calls Lindsay and tries to get her to come over to his apartment, admitting that he's missed her. In that same episode, Rikki tells him that she's moving away and they again acknowledge that their affair had been a mistake and won't be repeated.

Family

• unnamed mother
• unnamed father
• Louie Messer (brother)