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Wednesday 25 September 2013

CSI 11.11 "Man Up" Review

                                              
The CSIs look at a photo online of a girl whom Greg believes is dead. Nick disagrees and they bet on who is right. The girl later does turn out to have been killed after all.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) along with Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Mandy (Sheeri Rappaport) look at a photo of a girl on the web whom Greg states is a DB.   saying: "She is not merely dead, she is most sincerely dead."  (from The Wizard of Oz.)  Nick (George Eads) asks if they're having a slow night and disagrees with Greg telling him everything on the website isn't real.   Hodges explains he was trying to tell the others that.   Nick proceeds to examine the photo and remarks on her blood vessels in her arm being distended meaning she has high blood pressure.   Greg thinks the blood pooled in dexterity and lividity, i.e that she's dead.   Hodges comments it's hard to tell without a body.   Nick believes it's a waste of time and so he and Greg bet each other $100 on whether she's alive or not; which Nick doesn't even think Greg has.

At the potential CS, crowds have gathered and snap photos of the girl.   Nick comments, "She is most sincerely dead."  No one called 911 so Nick calls in the 419 himself.   They're all suspects and one tries to make a break for it, but not very far.   Well that was a short chase!  Nick: "Where you going Bud, the show's just getting started." Perhaps any CSI shows most cheesiest line in terms of groan factor!  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) asks if they had to call in their own 419 in the same way as firemen start their own fires and whether they're in need of money.   Well Greg would be with his ID being stolen and his credit card being used.   That was a reference from Nick earlier on about Greg probably not having a $100.

David (David Berman) puts the TOD between 4-6 hours ago and finds signs of peticule hemorrhaging.   Greg notices the lanyard.   The Vic is identified as Amber Roe (Lili Mirojnick) a hooker.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) finds evidence of sexual intercourse.   Nick borrows his laptop to pull up the photo and notices the position of the lanyard around her neck is different.   The ligature mark is higher and at an angle.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) points out her dress is different too.   the one in the photo had sequins along the neckline.   Catherine always stuck in the morgue with Doc lately and she didn't even get a scene with Vartann (Alex Carter) this episode.  Archie (Archie Kao) got some data from the web hosts.   The photo was taken two nights ago.   Nick asks him to zoom onto the hubcap in the photo where fireworks over the Tangier's are clearly visible in the reflection.   Meaning she was alive two nights ago.   Nick tells Greg that betting against him is "really insane."

Hodges has bought a dud motorbike and Ray (Laurence Fishburne) tells him the parts aren't all original.   Hodges got suckered.  The bike's a 'Frankenstein monster'.   Ray: "Yes Igor."  Ray spots blood on the air filter and finds some tissue.   It's the tip of a thumb.   Hodges bought himself a CS.   Also he was "bethumbed."

Nick says a friend of his in vice told him Amber cleaned up her act and he and Greg check out her apartment; to be greeted by her boyfriend, Craig (Kevin Weisman).   Amber told him she wasn't going to hook anymore and was modelling.   Saying his girlfriend doesn't support him, but he was quick to take her money at the end.   Processing the apartment, Greg collects animal hairs from the dress and analyzes it to be zebra hair.   This was on the bottom of her dress so she was seating on zebra seats.   A friend of Greg's (plenty of friends being mentioned this episode, that's handy) sent him a photo of Carot Top.   He was kidnapped and he's wearing an orange lanyard on his wrist.   Catherine: "Carot Top, a dead hooker, why am I not laughing."  Oh dear a joke.   Carot Top explains to Nick and Brass that he's usually a target.    When he saw Amber she was alive.   He took her from the strip club in his limo.   There were two men in the car taking photos.   They asked him for passes and tied him.   He asks if he gets a phonecall, but Brass replies he doesn't need a lawyer.   Carot Top: "I need my publicist."

Nick and Greg process the limo to reveal costume jewellery inside.   Greg should have been more familiar with costume jewellery as he processed a dancer's headdress in the season 1 episode Table Stakes and so could have made the connection that the costume jewellery in this case may also have been from a costume (no pun.)

Hodges wants to be field-orientated, like Wendy (Liz Vassey.)  He found the DNA and the blood on the thumb belonged to two different people.   The blood was from an unidentified Vic in a bus accident; believed to be a passenger.   Hodges thinks his body was vapourized.   As in the story about the family who were crushed in a VW Beetle by two semis and the car was found with the family inside.   Ray says he should check out the Mars brothers.   They cleared the wreckage.

Catherine identifies the jewellery from the Mediterranean, and asks Greg to find the photos from the casino.   She helped Sam (Scott Wilson) pick out the costumes, one was a Spartan.   She loved Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960).   So the Spartan (Trevor Donovan) had to be in the limo.   However, he tells Greg he had his sword stolen when he was in the toilet.

Hodges and Vartann visit the salvage yard, where Doyle (Blake Gibbons) says that his brother Denny (Scott Anthony Lee) keeps the records as he has a "photogenic memory." To which Hodges replies, "I too am blessed with a photogenic memory."  He photographs the bus wreckage; recovering part of the bike from the bus and traces its serial number to a Peter Farmer.   His girlfriend, Sandy (Amy Acker) in her only scene of the show.   She was wasted in here, really sometimes they give people you don't want to see such long parts, whereas those you do want to see end up with cameos, barely.   She broke up with him and made him lunch the last time she saw him.   Egg salad sandwiches.   That's all anyone eats in this show.   Egg salad in last week's episode too and Hodges was involved.  But he only said he likes that in this episode.   Also the fact Peter lived with his mother, as does Hodges.   He bought the bike after they parted and he was lost.   Peter reminded her of Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953).   Hodges can relate to all this since that's him she could be describing.   She has another boyfriend now, but Hodges reminds Sandy of Peter.

Archie traced the photo of Amber to a social network site, posted the night before Amber was killed.   One of the posts said, '4.  Kill a hooker'.   Nick: "Let's hope the list ends here."  Archie got the numbers of the prepaid phones sharing the photos.   All the numbers are in Chicago.   Mandy traces the prints from the toilet door to a Scott Horan (Rick Summer) who has a record for racing a chariot down the Strip ten years ago.   Brass checks the credit card receipts showing he bought three tickets to Vegas.   Hunter (James Snyder) denies doing anything.   They were only playing a game.   Brass: "golf is a game." Nick asks if killing a hooker is how they celebrate and it's not  a joke.   Amber's "as dead as it gets."  They claimed to have a dare list from last time and Hunter added what to do to the list this time round.   They both wanted a free weekend in Vegas.   Describing Scott as a loser.   There was an argument over the rules and Amber told Scott his friends had won.   They only made her look dead and Hunter emailed the photo to Craig.   Craig was only with Amber for the money.   Just like Hunter and Jeff.   Nick gives the other players Craig's chips.

Hodges brings the bike back to the yard for a refund.   Doyle sold the parts and knew the biker was dead, but no one else knew of Peter's death and he offers Hodges a bribe.   Vartann arrests them for obstruction of justice and Hodges says he followed the evidence, just like Ray told him to do in the beginning.  Denny gave him the "tip" (of his thumb).   Hodges doesn't want to ride anymore and the bike is evidence.

Craig explains rather coldly Amber wanted to hook to help him out, saying, "Once a whore, always a whore."  She put money into their account and called to tell him.   ATMs scan cash.   The last cash deposit was for $1,200.   Adding all the deposits up, they total $5,000.   Mandy processes the money, revealing Scott's prints.   His friends treated him like a loser and he wanted to get them back.   He was an accessory to her murder and thought about calling the police and then as luck would have it, but not lucky for her, he saw her in the bar.   She laughed at him and his stupidity and he couldn't stand a whore laughing at him.   He killed her.   Scott: "I was the man." Nick asks him what that's like?  Brass informs Scott his friends are going to jail for a misdemeanour and he's going down for murder 1.   Brass: "I guess that's a win!"

Nick returns Greg his money as "nobody wins here." Showing Nick's the one who cares about the Vics and he's the gentlemen here, irrespective of who or what the Vic's past was or their occupation etc, you have to always remain objective.   After all, it's not in him to profit at the expense of others and definitely not over a murder.   Also Nick would know all about hookers, as you will recall Kristy Hopkins (Krista Allen) from season 1 Pilot and treating her as a gentlemen would.   When he helped her out against the security guard who spat on her in Fahrenheit 932 and subsequently slept with her in Boom.  She ended up murdered too.

Also Hodges thinking about the Vic here, "I saw a man who needed to be spoken for."  Which is what they do, give the Vics a voice and justice, but particularly good coming from him as he's more a lab tech than a field guy or a CSI.

This episode seemed more like one for CSI:Miami; as people leave home, come there to party, vacation etc, which is the case with Vegas too, just to commit crimes, which they wouldn't ordinarily do back home.

Sara (Jorga Fox) was absent this episode, this is becoming routine now this season and I don't like when they do that with the cast.

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