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Tuesday 28 October 2014

CSI 14.22 "Dead in his Tracks" aka "Last Days of Jim Brass" Review

                                                 
1989 Three boys come to their hideout and discover a wounded man inside who's been shot and some loot from a robbery.  The man points his gun at them, but dies before he can shoot.  The boys find money in the bags as well as a lion statue.  The CSIs are called to a nearby CS present day and Nick (George Eads) tells David (David Berman) how the DB won't be making the 3:10 to Yuma.  The man was shot and is IDed as Ben O'Malley.  Sheriff Combs (Grainger Hines) tells them that he used to know the boy when he was little and he had two other friends.  Nick and Sara (Jorga Fox) also find a torn piece of a map which she thinks could be a treasure map.  As well as finding a partial print on the map which Sara finds had a tented arch.  Nick commenting on how when he was young it was all about oil in Texas, not solar power.

Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) gets a call informing him Ellie (Teal Redmann) has tried to kill herself and he heads to the hospital to see her.  He's left waiting outside and thinks it may have been an attempt for her to get a reduced sentence claiming insanity.  As he later tells Sara, maybe it would have been better if she just passed.  Sara saying he's not responsible for anything that she did and he shouldn't blame himself.

The robbery took place at a house of a mob boss and Greg (Eric Szmanda) recalls mob boss Michael Scarno when he was writing his book on Vegas mobsters, there's Greg's book mentioned again, they like to bring it up now and then, after they left us hanging for a long while as to whether he had actually published it or not.  Ben and his brother, Paul carried out the heist and Paul died in his cell after he was arrested. Scotty's (Justin Ellings) glasses are found and they match the partial print that Sara also found. Leading to Sam Bishop (Treat Williams).  He was a deputy who worked with the sheriff and he was fired from his job.  Nick and Greg go to his house to arrest him and find all sorts of files and forensics items in his basement.  The photo was taken by Sam with a weather balloon, even before the use of drones as DB  (Ted Danson) tells him.  He wishes he could have fund Scotty and DB knows he was paid by Scarno to find his money.  But Sam claims he was always looking for Scotty and he needed the money to support Karen (Gina Holden).

Morgan (Elizabeth Harnois) and Hodges (Wallace Langham)  use the photo which Sam had a negative of and she uses GPS satellite map to find the exact location on the map now.  Greg and Sara find the imprint of the statue in the funny shaped crater and also a bone in a tennis shoe, which Sara posits could be Scotty.  The sheriff arrives and is perturbed that they're stealing his thunder and it's still his case.  Sara tells him that it's their case and they'll keep him informed, taking the evidence with them.  Sam says Scotty's mother knew he was dead already but she couldn't grieve without knowing the truth as DB tells Sam.  Doc (Robert David Hall) finds dental records confirms the remains are Scotty's.  He saw fractures and indents and impact compressions, Scotty was struck or fell.   Sam says the imprint matches the base of the statue.  DB inferring they were hiding their murder weapon.

Brass wonders how he and Ellie "got here, to this place" and ponders whether it was cos he wasn't her real father and she resented him for that, since they didn't share that natural bond.  Maybe cos they didn't love each other, but he loved her and helped her out everytime she was in trouble.

Hodges has discovered a secret between the most beautiful woman in history, Cleopatra, not Kate Upton as Henry thinks.  13 minerals from the Dead Sea not found anywhere in the world, the sample for Dead Sea minerals and that's why Henry's DNA extraction failed.  That's the lotion that Karen wears.  Nick thinks she dug up Scotty's grave for that treasure and she tells Nick she was only looking for the statue with Roger (Alex Mendoza).  They would share it and he was looking for her father's aerial photo.  It was worth something.  She thought she was owed after everything her father went through with this case.  She claims that the statue was already gone, inferring someone else killed Scotty, but obviously you can tell she was lying.  She claims she left Roger there with the shovel too.

Sam makes a replica of a statue and wants to test his theory that the sheriff killed Scotty, so using his weight and build he can see if he struck the fatal blow.  DB thinks they can do better in the lab.  So Greg and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) use some sort of covering on the skull so that they can use the same one over and over and the trauma would be simulated by the computer. The height is more than 5' and doesn't match the sheriff at all and the killer was left handed.  Well obviously he didn't do it.  Sam recalls there was a pitcher he used to coach, Tyson (Kiko Ellsworth). Lo and behold, he crushes a can with his left hand and throws it in the trash when Nick arrives.  

Ben was dead and Tyson decided they wanted the money, and Roger went along with it, but Scotty wanted to do the right thing.  Tyson pushes him and outside they have another altercation and Tyson hits him with the statue, but tells Nick he wasn't dead.  Karen turned up and told them a car was coming, it was Paul.  He lost his temper, he was only a child but the money was so much.  Karen put her hand over his mouth to muffle his sounds and he couldn't breathe, so she smothered him.  Nick tells Karen she killed Scotty and she doesn't have an ounce of remorse, it was them or him and it was better that Scotty died.  They hid the money under Roger's grandmother's porch but the house burnt down.  That's what's known as karma.  So it was for nothing.  Nick tells her she lied about this and about before.  She's not a child anymore, but a liar.  She wanted a 50/50 cut of the statue but Roger didn't want to give her an even share.  She shot Roger and wanted it all.

Finn says she was 11 but they can't get her for Scotty's murder.  DB says they have to get her for Roger's murder.  Sam brings them the gun she used on Roger.  She hid it in her secret hiding place which she didn't think he knew about.  Sam talks about Karen in the same way Brass would about Ellie.  The statue is also there.  He thought he knew her and they didn't have any secrets but she was hiding the truth from him for 25 years.  "You do everything you can for your kid,...including the part where they break your heart."

The swelling in Ellie's brain is reduced and she's not alright cos it's "not possible" as she shows him the handcuffs.  He's not prepared to give up on her.  There's always been something wrong with her she tells him.  He's tried to let her go, but can't.  She's all he has.  Brass and DB share a drink in his office, he spoke to Ellie for four hours, the first time in 15 years.  They need each other.  He must trust her cos she's got no one else.  He wants to be there for her.  Brass wants to figure some things out, in other words his resignation!  Not that we're told this in so many words.
                                              
So this marked the exit of Brass and actually, he deserved a much better send off than this, I mean he didn't even feature in the episode.  'Oh let's leave him hanging out at the hospital' for an entire episode and not let him go out in a blaze of glory after 14 years on the show, or give him his key note character one liners!  Which were excellent. It would seem that even if he really loves Ellie deep down, she did kill his wife, her mother and she still has no remorse or regrets for what she did.  She was family, but would he really forgive her so easily.

As for this ep, once again it felt like it was all done before.  Childhood friends turning on one another all for money and greed.  When at the end of the day they didn't even get to spend the money, let alone keep it.  Where did Karen come from, out of nowhere when she was warning them about the car.  Finn's blooper, she calls the boy Scotty Gates but in the newspaper article she shows DB, he's actually named Scotty Pope.

It appears Sam was just written in to show his dedication to the job, just as Brass was, then how his daughter betrayed him too and didn't live up to his expectations for her.  He really was a mirror image of Brass, as were Karen and Ellie of each other. Two sides of the same coin.  Only difference being Karen was Sam's flesh and blood and Ellie was adopted, so it really doesn't matter when it comes down to it, if someone is bad, they will be bad, irrespective of nature or nurture. Gonna miss Brass and Paul!

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