Stella Bonasera

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CSI: NY character
Stella in Officer Blue
Stella Bonasera
Gender	Female
Hair color	Brown
City	New York City
Job	CSI
Rank	Detective 1st Grade
Position	CSI
Current status	Alive
Portrayed by	Melina Kanakaredes
First appearance	MIA/NYC NonStop

Stella Bonasera is a fictional character from the TV series CSI: NY, played by Melina Kanakaredes. Her name was derived from Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amerigo Bonasera in The Godfather.

Contents 1 Background 2 Early Life 3 Relationships 4 In the Line of Duty

[edit] Background

Stella Bonasera is Mac Taylor's second-in-command and right-hand woman in the New York Police Department's crime lab. She began her career working as a patrol officer and once worked Narcotics out of Brooklyn North. She has a strong personality and her determination to solve a crime and help victims sometimes leads her to step on the toes of those who get in her way. She has at least four complaints on her record as a result. Stella is often referred to as the 'Statue of Liberty', due to her strong personality, determination and intelligence.

Due to events in "Heart of Glass", it is suggested that she may be HIV-positive.

[edit] Early Life

Stella is a half-Greek, half-Italian orphan (yet identifies more with being Greek than Italian) who grew up at St. Basil's Orphanage. She left when she was eighteen (episode 115, "Til Death Do We Part"). Her parents remain unknown at this time. Mac teases her about just "know[ing] all that stuff," but most of what she knows about her Greek heritage she learned from a book.

[edit] Relationships

Stella's most recent romantic relationship was with Frankie Mala, an artist. Frankie first appeared in the second episode of season two, "Grand Murder at Central Station," and he appeared occasionally throughout the rest of the season. In episode 221, "All Access," after discovering that Frankie had secretly taped them making love and uploaded the footage to the Internet, Stella broke off their relationship. Frankie breaks into her apartment shortly after and holds her hostage. Stella manages to free herself and, fearing for her life, is forced to kill Frankie with her service weapon.

Stella cares deeply for all the members of her team. She is very close to Mac Taylor and constantly worries about his physical and mental well-being. She and Mac have one of the noticably closest relationships on the show. Stella acts as his right hand, the most senior member of his team aside from himself. They are so close that, in preparation for a date with a woman he met in a coffee shop, Mac allows Stella to remove his tie at the end of episode 123 ("What You See Is What You See"). Considering how uptight Mac had been during the course of the first season, this can be seen as a very trusting, if not intimate, gesture.

Stella is also protective of the rest of her colleagues. During "Raising Shane," a police captain who dislikes Danny Messer harasses him at a crime scene, calling Danny a felon and hinting that he would have Danny dismissed. Stella steps in and tells the captain to back off Danny or the captain would have to answer to her. After Sheldon Hawkes is cleared of the crime that he was framed for, Stella is the first person to greet him when he is released, enveloping him in a warm hug.

Stella has also built a strong friendship with the newest member of the team Lindsay Monroe. She is hurt when Lindsay refuses to share her troubles in "Silent Night," but when Lindsay later comes to her and asks for a friend, Stella responds immediately, "You've got one." Stella often calls Lindsay "kiddo," which indicates how close the two have become since Lindsay came to New York. When Lindsay must return to Montana to testify in a murder trial, Stella, not Mac, is the one she informs first. Just a few minutes before the trial begins, Lindsay calls her to talk to her and Stella comforts her.

Stella is also good friends with Det. Don Flack. They often work cases together and she appreciates his sense of humor. In "All Access," Flack is especially gentle with Stella when he comes to take her statement following her ordeal. He tells her she's a friend and she responds that he is a "very good friend." In "Charge of this Post," she takes turns with the other team members staying at Flack's bedside as he recovers from his near-fatal injuries from a bomb blast.

[edit] In the Line of Duty

Of the four complaints on her record, two are from felons subsequently imprisoned, one is from a murder suspect released because of an error by an ADA, and the fourth is filed in "Supply and Demand" by the father of a college student suspected of selling drugs that had already killed a fellow student. The insinuation is that Stella is willing to push a suspect's buttons in an effort to get a confession or information.

Stella does not suffer fools gladly. During "Open And Shut," she initially feels sympathy for a woman who has appeared to be the only survivor of a multiple murder in her home. After further investigation reveals that the woman is not the victim, but the mastermind of the crime, Stella is furious and confronts the woman in the interrogation room. When the woman smugly compares her situation to Stella's with Frankie, Stella counters that their situations were nothing alike; Stella had been a victim who acted out of self-defense, while the woman was a cold-blooded murderer who wanted to escape what she hinted was a bad marriage. In "Grand Murder at Central Station," she is plainly disgusted by the murder suspect's belittling of his blind victim.

In "Heart of Glass," Stella accidentally cuts herself on a piece of glass while processing a crime scene, potentially exposing herself to the victim's HIV-positive blood. Though she immediately cleans and bandanges the wound, as well as starting an anti-viral regimen, she cannot know for several months whether she has contracted HIV. The uncertainty has already interfered with her life, as when she refuses to let Hawkes touch her after a suspect smashes the one-way mirror in the interrogation room and Stella is cut on the cheek by a shard of the broken mirror.

Stella's timely arrival in the autopsy room, as well as her administration of epinephrine, is critical in saving the life of coroner Sid Hammerback, who suffers a severe allergic reaction to a sandwich he had eaten earlier. Later, Stella expresses her concern to Hammerback that she may have exposed him to HIV when she administered CPR, but he is simply grateful to her and happy to be alive (episode 317, "The Ride In").

CSI: NY
Episodes | Quotes | Official Website
Characters	Mac Taylor | Stella Bonasera | Danny Messer | Sheldon Hawkes | Donald Flack, Jr. | Lindsay Monroe | Aiden Burn
Creator(s)	Anthony E. Zuiker | Carol Mendelsohn | Ann Donahue
Related Series	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | CSI: Miami