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Tuesday 2 July 2013

CSI 13.19 "Backfire" Review

                                         
A girl makes herself breakfast with blood spatter everywhere and walks through blood on the floor as well as past some DBs to get her book from the shelve.  The police arrive and she sits with Doc (Robert David Hall) telling him her name is Molly Goodwin (Kylie Rogers).  She lived with her mother, Grace, uncle Steve.  There are two DBs which appear to be Steve's friends.  Her mother is missing.  Molly woke up and called 911.  Most of the electrical appliances are missing and it looks to be a home invasion.  Finn (Elisabeth Shue) working on the blood spatter tells DB (Ted Danson) the scene in the kitchen is much different to the front room.  DB looks at Grace's bag and finds her ID inside, but her keys are missing.

Molly's great grandmother, Agnes (Dey Young) arrives and tells Mitch (Larry Mitchell) this is her house.  She was letting them rent it out and wants to get in.  Knew she was suspicious the way she spoke to Mitch with her telling him not to touch her!  She was overdoing the dramatics and didn't really ask what happened to her grandchildren and wasn't that interested in Molly either.  Finn tells Nick (George Eads) that the three men were on their knees and were brutally beaten.  Nick is certain the MO of these beatings resembles a case that dayshift is working on relating to similar home invasions.  An abduction is involved whereby they rape the woman and then release her.  But no one is killed.

All the home invasions were witnessed but this one wasn't, however Finn shows him the blood drops.  They are gravitational and directional showing where Grace ran towards Molly's room.  Signalling Molly to stay inside though she said she was asleep.  There's more going on than Molly told them.  DB talks with Molly and she shows him the book, her mother's favourite story and asks him to read to her.  DB is sent a message that Grace's car has been found.

The car however doesn't belong to Grace but to a Burt, it's the same make and model, that was coincidental.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) opens the boot and inside is the charred corpse and a burnt out gas can.  Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) notices the hole in the head and thinks he was shot.  David (David Berman) tells Greg that Burt was hit over the head and not shot.  From his trachea it's apparent Burt inhaled fire.

Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) talks with Bruce (James McCauley) Grace and Steve's father with Agnes present and he tells him he didn't know Steve's friends, nor that Steve was involved with drugs.  Agnes corrects him by saying he had trouble a while ago but was working through it.  Henry (Jon Wellner) finds that two of the DBs were infact the actual home invaders, Givens and Keysey.  Nick thinking it could be payback.  He's called by Brass as Grace's DB has been found dumped.  Nick reassuring Mitch they'll hunt these animals down.  Finn finds that one of the Vics from the home invasion Allison Lis was not raped by Steve so he wasn't one of the home invaders.  Doc tells Nick that Grace wasn't sexually assaulted and Nick is upset over what he's seen, no matter how long he's been doing this he just won't get used to it.  Doc tells him he should worry when he doesn't feel concerned anymore.

Nick processes the tarp Grace's DB was found in and finds some prints, matching a Connor Durman (Vincent Ventresca).  Nick also sees DB doesn't pick up Barbara's call.  His granddaughters Katie is suffering from nightmares again and he 's worried.  Durman works at the Spearmint Rhino and Alison is Tony Lash's (Wings Hauser) niece, Lash owns the club.  Brass arrests Durman telling him he's his "new dance partner."  Durman confesses he was hired by someone to carry out the killings and he also raped Allison.  Brass tells Lash this and he has Lash's phone tapped to see who he'd call.  Well really there wasn't anyone else left to be the suspect aside from Agnes.

Molly gives DB the book cos her mother told her to give it to someone good and inside is a CD.  Nick and DB listen to this and it's Bruce's confession on how he molested Grace and Steve. Nick questions Bruce and finds that he didn't know anything about the murders.  Finn tells DB Lash and Agnes were high school sweethearts and were having an affair.  They have Agnes's confession that she wanted Lash to kill her grandchildren over the recording Grace made.  Agnes would do anything to protect Bruce but didn't see Grace or Steve as her flesh and blood cos she didn't give birth to them!

Molly is sent to live with cousins in Virginia and DB ensures she still has his card with his number on it.  Looked like that card was going to fall out of her pocket at the end.  An episode which in some respects has been done before on CSI.  The ep with Gil when the entire family was slaughtered except the two girls all amounted to abuse as a motive for the killings in season 1's Blood Drops.  Then it's always a girl who ends up being the witness or being involved.  There was Gumdrops, when Nick was sure the missing girl was still alive.  4.3 Home Bodies which involved the rape of a teenage girl and the parents couldn't helped cos they were locked up.

In Greg's and Morgan's case, Morgan finds a burnt out ID in the car which Greg says belongs to a Palermo employee.  She also notices crystals inside the car and the smell of garlic.  Morgan IDs the owner as Sandy Larkin (Amy Acker).  A name which rings a bell with Hodges (Wallace Langham) as he investigated the strange death of her boyfriend, from Man Up when he was crushed between two buses whilst on a motorbike.  Hodges wants in.  She questions Sandy who can't place Hodges until Morgan mentions his name. He can't help interfering.  Sandy worked with Burt and they went out together but she broke up with him.  Hodge's tells Morgan the crystals were phosphine but don't know how they could have got there.

Cue Greg with his theory this time round, referring to Caddyshack.  Burt poisoned himself with mole poison. When the crystals come into contact with oxygen they form phosphine gas.  The stomach contents reacted with the zinc in his body which made him belch.   He went to refuel his car and belched onto the gas can which caught fire.  He fell into the boot and hit his head, when he belched again the entire car exploded.  He was on his way to the hospital to get his stomach pumped cos he received a text from her about a dinner date.  She says it was meant for Tad.    Sandy's not as sad she she claims to be.  Hodges swears one day he will prove her a black widow.  Sara (Jorga Fox) was missing again.

James McCauley was in season 6's The Unusual Suspect.  Vincent Ventresca has also appeared in CSI:Miami ep Invasion and CSI:NY ep Who's There?  Wings Hauser has been in the Grand Prix ep of CSI:Miami.

Hey was watching the episode of TV show Booker (Richard Grieco) last night and it was the one entitled Molly and Eddie about the little girl he has to look after when her father goes missing.  Just made me think of that here cos both the girls were named Molly.

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