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Tuesday 11 June 2013

CSI 13.16 "Last Woman Standing" Review

A man walks into a hotel with a woman who doesn't want to come up with him, he makes a comment about how the beautiful ones always say no.  Later another woman finds the man in the lift with his throat slashed. Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) arrive and find there are no cameras around.  The Vic was Peter Coe (David Cassidy) a poker player and Greg believes he didn't suffer since he severed an artery as shown by the spatter patterns.  Leading them to ponder how the killer escaped since there aren't any marks of any sort around, perhaps though the lift hatch in the ceiling.

Doc (Robert David Hall) examines the DB with Finn (Elisabeth Shue) there again, that's three weeks in a row she's been there and later she'll tell him she's here since no one else is around.  COD is identified as exsanguination.  Coe wore a bracelet alluding to his 1997 poker game victory.  However he lost last night and his bank account is empty.  Doc also finds he got a "poker lift" where all the wrinkles etc are removed by surgery so there aren't any tell signs left on his face.  There is a white powder on his shirt which Finn thinks could be cocaine.

Nick (George Eads) and Sara (Jorga Fox) arrive at another CS (knew the two were related) where a man is tied to the bed.  Nick sees something maybe in his throat which David (David Berman) removes, it's a piece of meat.   TOD was 3 hours ago and he is identified as Trent Aldridge (Scott Hoxby).  Finn tells DB (Ted Danson) that the woman who was seen with Coe was also playing poker and is labelled the "last woman standing."  That the white powder was pollen form a lily as she was presented with a bouquet in the photo.  Her name is Ava Rendell (Becky O'Donohue) and she has her own website, hotpokerbabe.com.  She gives poker lessons.  Greg and Morgan watch her play a game where she loses $8 million.  Hey he could have been cheating with his glasses!

Sara finds out the woman with Aldridge gave a $100 poker chip as a tip and her prints are on the chip. They match Ava.  Hodges (Wallace Langham) tries to find the murder weapon since there was the presence of plastic, could be plastic cutlery or not any of the picnic type.  So he goes through various weapons with 'jelloman' and finally gives up.  Morgan thinks he lost the plot when he got to analyzing plastic boomerangs, plates etc but none of them are a match.  But he does have another theory.  Gotta love Hodges' theories since he almost always proves them right.  He thinks that the killer wasn't in the lift at all but the only other exit were the doors.  So maybe he killed through the doors.  The only other way he thinks this could be done is via a playing card, since they're made of plastic too.  Thinking the card fell through he lift shaft.  So he sent Henry (Jon Wellner) to investigate which he relished.

Henry returns and says he found the murder weapon, the Ace of Spades which is covered in blood.  A plastic card could travel at 80 miles an hour and he's seen it done before in magic tricks.  Cue woman tied to a chair with a card being thrown at her neck.  It's part of a magic trick, Dr Jimmy's (Henry Ian Cusick).  He's working on a magic trick. Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) brings along a search warrant but Jimmy burns it to ashes.  He's arrested for obstruction of justice.  Jimmy didn't kill him he says and is rather adept on using big words.  His attorney arrives and Brass tells him "don't disappear Copperfield."  Doc finds seven chicken hearts which  were lodged in Aldridge's trachea and it had to hurt but that was the intention.  Finn deduces seven hearts refers to the Seven of Hearts card.  She doesn't believe it's a coincidence and the two cases are connected.  Nick also found the card thrower's DNA matches whoever fed him the chicken hearts.

Sara and Nick look over past cases and find the case of another poker player, Ed,who was poisoned with clover.  Clover, DB knows also refers to the Four of Clubs which is the shape of a clover leaf.  He punches out the four corners of the card and matches them to the marks on the DB.  Finn believes Ava is being set up.  Ava's DB is found with her head severed from the body.  Morgan is understandably shaken at the sight.  Doc finds it was a clean cut and Finn recalls playing cards have weapons depicted on them.  The King of Diamonds has an axe.  Thus weapon of choice.  Hodges finds the axe, aka war hammer, is sixteenth century and one was bought by Jimmy.  DB thinks there might be a message on the card which the killer is trying to send them.

Hodges finds a year, 1997 and a logo which Greg identifies as the Palermo.  Using his black book of poker which Greg has on his iPad he finds a poker game from 1997 in which all three took part.  Also he believes the game was rigged since the dealer was dealing second cards and not the top one.  They cheated Bo Mattison (Kevin Scott Allen) out of his winnings.  Henry's DNA test shows Ava was the dealer's daughter.  Also Morgan notices how Bo was holding his St Catherine's necklace.  This she thinks is cos his wife died of cancer and is the patron saint of sufferers.  There must be a connection to Jimmy.  Well it wasn't that he was his son or anything and when they go for Jimmy, his assistant Katie (Natalie Hall) tells him he's gone.  The axe is there, covered in blood and is the murder weapon.  That was convenient but it wasn't difficult to figure out the killer.  Had to have been Bo's child.

DB ponders who will be next with the King of Spades and assumes Jimmy could be the next Vic and not their killer.  Jimmy helped Coe and so was a co-conspirator.  DNA from the epithelials on the axe turn up and are matched to Bo, Katie is his daughter.  Jimmy's car is found where Bo killed himself under the jungle gym in the park.  Morgan finds Katy, real name Catherine and the shovel inside the car hasn't been used.  she admits to the killing and tries to bluff Morgan by saying she's already killed him.  But Morgan can see through her.  Nick finds Jimmy back on stage and Katy throws the card at Morgan who shoots her.  She's shaken again and Greg takes her gun.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) hasn't decided on the Sheriff's job yet and DB convinces him to take it.  He's right for it, just like he brought DB here.  He and Barbara talk everyday since she didn't want to move here, but they're working their way through it.  Morgan also wants him to take the job since he's a different person now since he was back then, just like her.  She's a little older but  a lot less wiser.  Ecklie tries to comfort Morgan afterwards and she's okay especially when he tells her he's the new Sheriff and he has a table reserved to celebrate, which she's in the mood to do.

Father and daughter finally continue to make headway and she wants him to take the job, it'll be good for him and he'll be good at it.  Morgan really is a novice when she has to deal with the severed head and then has to shoot Katy too, showing no matter how many bodies she' seen, she'll never get used to it.  Nor should she.  As for firing the gun, she's a CSI not a cop and this reminded me of Nick in that season 1 ep, Crate 'N Burial when he comes face to face with a gun pointed at him for the first time.  Hey I just worked out the 'N here may stand for Nick, ha.

The card being found in the lift shaft reminded me of CSI:NY's intro ep in season 3 of CSI:Miami  MIA/NYC - NonStop where the killer dropped the button from his coat down the lift shaft which was found by Mac.  Brought in David Cassidy to lie on a slab, funny.  Well considering he used to be the heart throb of millions of girls once upon a time, barring yours truly, not many would recognize him now.  Nice touch Nick asking Sara how she was and that she actually showed up for work too.  Henry Ian Cusick just reminded me of Volker on The Mentalist again but with cockney accent this time round.  Infact this ep kind of reminded me of the Lie to Me poker episode from season 2, Fold Equity.  Morgan even says she'll be okay after this killer "folds."

Oh and we got the Givenchy ad with Simon Baker too after this ep ended!  So handsome!!

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