The episode opens with a woman reading about the Lost Reindeer, sounded like Finn (Elisabeth Shue) to me. Then a Santa's DB is shown in the snow as DB (Ted Danson) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) talk about what happened. Brad Scott Zeller) from the realtor company played the Santa and DB comments on the snow and Brass tells him it's real. Apparently the sleigh on show cut through his legs. David (David Berman) however finds that he was stabbed five times in the back. The owner of the house, Ryan Bonham (David Alpay) where the party took place tells DB he left round 9, to put his son, Blake (Jadon Wells) to bed. His wife, Eva (Rachelle Wells) was killed on Christmas Eve in a bank. Greg (Eric Szmanda) takes a sample of blood from the reindeer in case the blood could be from the killer and Jayson (David Ury) is possessive and obsessive about Dancer.
Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) tells Greg she's never worked a CS with snow before and he says the blood spatters are difficult to tell. Later Hodges (Wallace Langham) points out Blake in the window and Morgan thinks he may have seen something. They speak with him and he watches his mother read the story of the reindeer, but stops before she gets to the end. Morgan asks him if he saw anything and he says he saw a reindeer by the stairs and hid in his room. Hodges replies he was probably dreaming, using big words about science. Morgan and Greg collect samples of the snow and the blood around it. Blakee asks if Santa is real and Morgan quickly replies he is.
Greg watches the ice samples melt and notices a chunk of meat in there which was probably frozen in the snow. Finn thinks it could've come from the DB's intestine. Nick (George Eads) speaks with Doc(Robert David Hall) about the autopsy and offers to open his Secret Santa present, herbal tea, Nick guessing it's from DB, who else. Hodges also finds that the DB was punched before he was stabbed, with a reindeer suit glove. "If the glove fits you must not acquit." Hated that saying, even the paraphrases of it! Since a fibre was found in the wounds, which matched the reindeer outfit. Nick finds footage from the party showing that there were actually two Santa's. One was drinking wine and the other had milk and cookies in his stomach contents as Doc told him he was teetotal. He also shows DB the stain on the Santa Suit sleeve showing there were two wearing the same suit and their watches were different. Thus it was a case of mistaken identity and the wrong Santa was killed.
Brass interviews Rachel (Alexis Krause) who was in the reindeer suit as Morgan found she works as a stripper, after finding her contact lens on the step, which is what she was looking for when Blake saw her. She was filming with the Santa but he wanted to go further than that, that's when she punched him. She left with Fred (Joshua Kwak) the video guy, but swears he was alive and footage from a diner shows they had breakfast there. Greg sees Morgan open her present which is red nail polish for her "mistle-toes," that could only have been Greg who'd know she'd love that gift.
Greg finds the piece of meat was actually Pacific bonito fish, used in sushi and there wasn't any served at the party, but traces of cocaine are also found on it. This leads him to check out the Winter Wonderland Company, which shows Jayson makes trips to Mexico and smuggles drugs inside the fish. Finding out Jayson was wearing the Santa suit earlier on, they realize he was the intended target. Meanwhile DB notices the expensive bracelet Finn is wearing and she thinks it's from DB, but he says it's not him. Meaning he'll miss out on the expensive gift she had in store for him.
Greg realizes Jayson was in contact with his brother, Gary (Patrick Kilpatrick) at the prison and has his texts and from the court transcript he finds that he's in the hospital now as he needs a kidney. Jayson turned State's evidence against Gary and they think Gary wanted revenge on him for this. Visiting Gary in hospital, Nick finds he made a deal with Jayson and they agreed he'd donate a kidney to him, thus he would want to keep Jayson alive. He was also going to testify that he made up his testimony. Nick posits that the killer stabbed him from the back, so he was ensuring that his kidneys would be damaged. Also that Ryan's wife was collateral damage in the bank as Gary used it to launder his drug money, thus Ryan was the killer. Well took them long enough! Ha.
Ryan wanted to make sure that Gary wouldn't be saved and thus he killed Brad, assuming it was Jayson. When Brass arrives at his house, he finds Ryan gone and Blake hiding out in the closet. Ryan is kidnapped by Jayson. Blake only wants to speak with the "funny science man." Morgan suggests a bar of chocolate to break the ice (no pun!) and he's allergic. Hodges adds he is too, already thought that. Blake likes him using big words and said someone was talking about the compressor not working.
The truck is spotted heading out on the highway and Brass arrives just in time to save Ryan. He wants Jayson to drop the gun but he doesn't do it, with Ryan wanting him to shoot him. Brass tells him he'll drop one in his kidneys if he doesn't comply. Then arrests Ryan. So now his son has lost both parents, so was it really worth in the end. Hodges explains that Blake will be taken to his grandparents. Well at least he had family. Small comfort.
At the office party everyone finds out their secret Santa's, Doc and DB share a herbal tea. Nick was Finn's Santa, Greg was Morgan's and she was Hodges, she gives him a Las Vegas snowglobe. A happy ending for them but Sara was missing again this ep, as was Henry, spending Christmas together, ha. No, not like that! A bit of a seasonal ep, who would've guessed, especially with all those Christmas jokes and one liners coming in thick and fast, like the non existent snow in Vegas. Liked David's corker as some may say, about grandma getting run over by a reindeer, but "Santa got sleighed!" (Or slayed.)
Ryan (AKA Silas from The Vampire Diaries) though revenge would set his mind at ease for the murder of his wife, but in the long run, it was always going to be Blake who would suffer. This was like a CSI:NY ep where Mac (Gary Sinese) or one of the team would always ask the question of whether it was worth it in the end. It's always the children who miss out.
Secondly, Brass tells DB that Jayson got lost it the system and is probably in Buffalo by now, so he won't make the surgery tomorrow. Knowing that this will impact on Ryan and in the end, revenge is sweet, but only if it doesn't involve killing. Recalling how Brass understands what happened to his wife. He's been through it too, DB not knowing what to say to him. Hey, didn't Brass get a Secret Santa, that wasn't fair. Hodges explanation of REM sleep to Blake was sweet, especially in comparison to how his science father ruined his Christmas for him. Thus it's touching when Morgan gives him the snowglobe as a gift and calling him her hero too on the card she gives him. Most definitely a Hodges' ep. Hodges gets to hear the end of the story as Blake reads to him.
Snow episodes in CSI:NY such as Tanglewood in season 1 and Sanguine Love in season 6, shows how evidence is collected in the snow.
Hodges: "I wish. Instead of regaling me with stories of Santa, my scientist father lectured me on the implausibility of the whole thing."
Morgan: "What, he didn't think a fat man in a sled could make it around the world in one night?"
Hodges: "He also had a problem with the climate damage caused by toy factories in the North Pole."
Morgan: "God, I hope I don't have you as my Secret Santa."
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