Unprocessed Evidence
1x10 - A Horrible Mind
by Bookwormdragon
Disclaimer: Neither the CSI: Miami Universe nor any of the Characters in the CSI: Miami Universe belongs to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.
Listening to Ned, Ginny, Teresa, and the other students during the interviews; seeing their pain and confusion, his heart went out to them. He wanted to gather them up and comfort them, to protect and shield them from the influence of men like Metzger - men who would destroy their fragile souls without a care for the consequences.
That Metzger, a professor, someone in a position of trust, could so twist the minds of his students that they couldn't even tell right from wrong anymore: that was the most horrific crime of all in this case. It was hardly surprising that one of his victims had finally snapped under the pressure. In true fairy-tale fashion, he had been killed by his own teachings, by the tool that he himself had shaped. In a strange way, Justice had been served - a primal and harsh type of Justice, at least. You reap what you sow.
Unfortunately, his death did not end the impact of his false teachings; the emotional scars he had left on his students would never fade. At least thirteen bright young people would never be the same again: their trust in Society and their fellow man had been utterly destroyed.
And who knew how many other lives Metzger had poisoned and destroyed in the course of his career? How many children he had twisted and exploited? For they were children. Yes, they were legally adults, but they were still young and naive and vulnerable to men like him. The very Institution that should have protected and nurtured them on their journey to maturity had instead exposed them to a monster.
And Teresa - a young woman who had been broken beyond endurance - would now have to pay the price for his teachings. It was possible that she could successfully plead insanity, but there was still a good chance that she would serve time for murder. Even if she didn't, her actions would follow her for the rest of her life. And all because she had given her respect and loyalty to the wrong man.
But the saddest part of all was that everything Metzger had taught had been nothing but clever lies. Yes, hatred and violence were natural parts of the human psyche. But they had little to do with Humanity's survival as a species. Rather, it was the ability to work cooperatively, to overcome instinctive responses such as hatred, that had allowed the Human Species to survive and flourish. Not hatred, not violence. Cooperation.
Pain for pain's sake did not make you whole, did not lead to balance or survival or anything else that Metzger had espoused. Torture was not something to be admired, hatred was not something to be embraced.
Personally, Horatio agreed with Teresa: he was glad that Metzger was dead. He just wished the cost hadn't been so high.
Author's Note: I found this episode, and Metzger, to be extremely, extremely disturbing. What he did to his students was vile and unforgivable. His research methods were immoral and unethical; they would never have stood up under proper peer review: he must have falsified his methods in order to get published.
Furthermore, the teachings that he espoused were completely and totally erroneous. In fact, current anthropological thought, based on evidence, supports the theory that early hunter-gatherer societies were not nearly as harsh or brutal or devoid of civility as we once thought. Cooperation, not violence, was the key to our survival as a species. Our ability to compensate for our weaknesses by making tools and altering our environments, our ability to work together to accomplish tasks to the benefit of all: these are what gave us the advantage. Not unreasoning violence and hatred and cruelty.