Greg (Eric Szmanda) Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) DB (Ted Danson) and Ecklie (Marc Vann) attend the opening of the Mob museum, officially opened by former Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman (Oscar Goodman). DB does the rounds with Ecklie and then talks to Catherine and Greg about the two wives standing with the wife Joanna (Frances Fisher) of the hitman, Vinny Sapphire who killed their husbands. As the Mayor toasts all hell breaks loose as shots are fired shattering his martini glass and hitting him three times. Sheriff Liston (Barbara Eve Harris) also at the event wants Ecklie and DB to get to the bottom of this pronto.
The CSIs compare notes and find shots were fired from two different areas of the room. DB finds the gun behind one of the dummies, a .38, as is the weapon of choice in a mob hit and the shooter would always characteristically dump the gun at the scene. DB leaves Greg to process as he and Catherine check outside, where someone by the door would have seen what happened. The security guard's DB is found shot in the face, Catherine replies he "snorted a bullet."
Inside Greg tells DB there's no blood on the floor so DB has to do his usual act and play a DB again, spotting a mushroomed bullet. At the hospital Oscar is fine as his jacket took the brunt of the bullets and he's had his fair share of enemies as a mayor and lawyer before that. DB finds another mushroomed bullet in his jacket. The security guard was killed with a .44 which Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) removed from his brain (lots of slicing action on show in autopsy). He voted for Oscar three times in the past and once for his wife, as he's done a lot of good for Vegas. Catherine agrees. They're on the search for three shooters.
One of the guns is traced to Vinny Sapphire, missing since the 1980's and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) questions his wife, Joanna. She claims not to have seen him in years but Brass obviously has a soft spot for her and she tells him to come down and she'll fill his whiskey bottle he keeps in his desk. Well, she can't do that from prison. Not many suspects to go on but as is always the case it's apparent who the killer is and she even gives herself away later when DB and Greg go to the crematorium to find out where the elusive Cesare Mastrantonio is located.
DB calls upon Greg to utilize his knowledge on mobsters. Still no mention of Greg's elusive mobster book he was writing some seasons ago - which it appears he's shelved for good! DB calls him twice by yelling for him instead of using the phone. Take it that's his MO at home with his children and his wife! ha. Oh and no mention of Sara (Jorga Fox) this episode.
Also new ballistics expert Xiomara (Monique Gabriela Curnen) was used in two scenes; but DB didn't want to listen to her stories - he wanted to tell his own and hog the limelight. Hodges (Wallace Langham) has discovered footage from the street cameras of a 1979 Cadillac Coup de Ville which circled the museum. Catherine states Sam Braun had one too and Hodges delves into another personal tidbit about failing his driving test. The plates match Vinny's car and there's an unidentified driver inside wearing Vinny's hat.
Greg is unable to find any bullets outside the museum and DB gets Greg to "shoot" him with a fake finger gun, but shoots off bullets with his own finger gun before Greg barely manages to point to him. Thus he won't find any bullets and DB posits the security guard was involved. He fired through the glass case and through Gedda's head (a statue of him had to be included). He was the thorn in Warrick's (Gary Dourdan) side and he was one of the last cases he worked on. Catherine commenting Gedda was shot - again. Inside they discover something is missing from the display case. Photos reveal it was Gedda's journal and one page had a list of mob hits, including Cesare, who never existed. The security guard was thus shot after he stole the journal.
Vinny's Cadillac is found at a motel and inside a female DB lies shot on the bed, a hat next to her. A cushion was used and feathers can be seen. Brass saying "a hat on the bed is bad luck." Catherine recognizes the woman as a friend of Sam's, Monique (Joyce Hyser).
DB asks Greg if he checked on a death certificate for Cesare, which leads them to Joanna, feather in hair from the cushion at the motel. Gedda's stash of cash was meant to be in Cesare's memorial and Vinny left her to run away with Monique. The two women got together after Monique contacted her about Vinny's death and they were meant to get the money. Monique dumped Vinny in Lake Mead.
Greg tells DB about Catherine's past and her history with Sam, including leaving her a casino. DB saying he's here with his 'work wife,' i.e. Ecklie.
Nick (George Eads) and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) investigate the death of a maid at the Eclipse Hotel, found in the room of a Prince Jalal Najib. This is a first for David (David Berman) as Maria (Ana Isabel Mercado) was stabbed in the eye with a swizzle stick. Morgan thinks the Prince refers to a rapper when Brass tells her the name. The room is in disarray. Nick processes whilst Morgan questions another maid, Paulette (Karen Bethzabe). She tries to make it appear the Prince was behind this as he always requested Maria, implying there was something sexual in it, yet Morgan didn't notice her nervousness and she kept looking left and down.
Nick spots a hidden lipstick camera pointed towards the direction of the bed so there could be sex tapes. He thinks they could see who bought it with the serial number. He also collects towels as evidence, along with the Prince's clothes. Prints from the camera belong to Matthew Lapaz - a former hotel valet, who has priors for drug possession. The camera was directed towards a safe so it was safe tapes they were after! A woman's hand is seen to switch the Prince's watch and jewelley for fakes. Morgan takes DNA and the Prince's jewellery. He is brash and arrogant, showing contempt for the hired help, as well as Morgan. He asks for a male CSI. Morgan takes no prisoners and tells him he can pay her $1,000 afterwards and that she's paid by the hour so she's got all the time in the world.
Nick notices the towels, the one from Paulette's trolley were new and the ones he collected had been used as they have the Eclipse's name on it for laundry purposes leading to Paulette. Obviously it wasn't Maria and it was Paulette's hand in the footage. She tried to stop Maria and she wouldn't agree to a cut, opting to report her instead. Morgan returns the Prince his possessions and he can't believe Maria died for saving his things. He leaves her a cheque for $100,000 for Maria's family. So Morgan has a change of heart about him. Loving Morgan - she's great and it's nice to see a CSI who isn't smug and can admit when she's wrong.
Mandy (Sheeri Rappaport) saying she hates it when Nick is sweet whilst waiting for a print after he comments they're both wearing purple. Morgan: "I'm not sweet." She likes Morgan.
The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement opened in Las Vegas in February 2012. Sam wasn't a 'goodfella' as DB assumes but he wasn't a mobster either, more a 'go-to' man. Greg commenting on the three mob wives who lost their husbands cos of Vinny, who was Gedda's hitman. He was shot in season 8 and in the finale Warrick was shot, yet there's no mention of this, or any mention of Warrick even by Catherine or Greg since he was saying plenty. Would have been good to get a mention.
Xiomara has to tell DB what her name is again, more like how to pronounce it. Her story was that the gun was associated with unsolved murders from the 1980's. This episode was Greg's turn to put up with DB as Nick had to "endure" him in the season opener. So it was only fair we got to see Greg having this interaction as all of the team, barring Nick, had already worked with him. Thus we the audience got to see this in action too.
Oscar deciding to represent Joanna and Ecklie commenting if he gets into trouble, he wants Oscar defending. DB says if he gets into trouble, he wants Oscar's jacket. Yes, but what about the head? No guarantee shooters will shoot at the body.
The Prince asking Morgan if he saw her topless at the club. Nick attempting to ensure Morgan sees all sides of the story and not become 'fixated' on the Prince as a suspect. Also she got to work with Nicky alone this ep - but no repeat mention of any events from last episode when she asked Greg about Nick's personal life.
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