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Saturday 25 April 2015

CSI 15.14 "Merchants of Menace" Review

                                                 Image result for csi merchants-of-menace photos
A serial killer's car is being auctioned off at a serial killer's convention, as we see macabre buyers attending the event.  The car is unveiled, belonging to serial killer, Lucas Reem, the 'Sin City Slasher' and there's a DB inside it.  It's Damon (Bobby Campo) who also runs the convention with the auctioneer/partner.  DB (Ted Danson) and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) attend the CS and mention how Lucas was executed for the killings recently.  Morgan recalls he was running around the city when she was 12, her parents were together and they were living in Vegas.  Her mother double checked all the doors and windows.  DB says it wasn't that different up North.  David (David Berman) finds he was killed around 10 hours ago and the COD are numerous stab wounds.  Damon's partner tells DB that he hasn't spoken to him since last night.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) arrives at the CS and stops two fans of Lucas's from taking selfies with Damon in the car.  He tells them there must be something better to do at Dead Owl Creek, as Mitch (Larry Mitchell) runs their licences for criminal records.  They come back clean and Greg says they should let them go if they promise not to come here anymore.  Well that was a little premature of him.  Don't know why they wrote this into Greg's storyline, cos thinking about the ending it was like he was partially to blame for what happened, but that was far from the case.  Oh and they had to mention Nate Haskill too and his face on a T-shirt!  Going back to S11 of the show and Ray's nemesis. Morgan found prints in the car belonging to Nora Waters (Mekenna Melvin)  who was the sister of one of Lucas's Vics.  As well as finding unusual blood spatter pattern on the car, as if something had brushed inside the blood.

Nora tells Sara(Jorga Fox) that her sister Rachel hid her in the closet and she watched her being killed by Lucas.  But that she was in love with Damon and didn't kill him.  She wrote him nasty e-mails about dealing in this kind of memorabilia and then met for coffee.  He explained he was studying such killers.  She sat in the car with him and it gave her a strange, emotional feeling.  DB questions Bruce Waters (Greg Evigan) her father. He asks if Db was here back then twenty years ago, but he wasn't and adds that Nora is not strong cos she makes such decision, such as dating Damon.

Doc (Robert David Hall) tells Nick (George Eads) Damon was stabbed eleven times with a large blade, similar to the one used by Lucas. As well as finding a bone fragment inside him.  Henry (Jon Wellner) runs DNA and finds it comes back to Lucas.  Morgan finds Damon was selling a knife made out of Lucas's bone, so he was killed by his memorabilia, as Nick points out.  They head back to the convention and find that someone had stolen the knife right off the table.  The coroner says that Lucas's DB was attached after the execution, so he must've had the bones removed after.  The mortician, Roy (Dominic Hoffman) was meant to cremate his DB and give closure to the Vic's families admits someone stole his DB from the table.  He didn't report it for this reason and also cos he offered his services for free and his business would've suffered.  He did however find a discarded bottle of bourbon there, which he kept cos he had every intention of reporting the theft.

The prints match a Todd Spanna (Rod Estes) and he wrote a book saying he brought down the serial killer, Lucas Reem.  He also deals in such memorabilia and has a website.  Nick tells Finn (Elisabeth Shue) he knows of him.  He called the police when he saw Lucas washing his bloody hands with a hose.  He says he didn't steal his DB and he didn't kill Damon.  There are followers of Lucas who hated him for turning him in and could've planted it.  Also he knows there's a 'blood market' out there of people who collect such memorabilia.  They sell the illegal items and he can give him user names. This comes back to Bruce.  Morgan also finds his prints on the table where the knife was taken. Bruce has gone missing and Sara speaks with Nora again.  She is adamant he didn't kill anyone and Damon was helping him get back the knives so that he could destroy them.  The deal was meant to happen tonight.

Nick and Sara arrive and find Bruce's DB.  Sara notices the Beretta doesn't have any bullets in it, so Nick surmizes he didn't have the $20,000 to pay for the knives and was killed.  Sara notice she has something in his mouth.  Back at the lab she finds it's apiece of suede from a jacket.  Morgan shows her the photos of the unusual pattern and thinks the jacket could've rubbed in the blood.  It has Lucas's DNA on it and resembles the same jacket he used to wear.  Nick asks Todd who bought his jacket, but he says that'd be worth plenty.  Todd tells him he knows where the blood market people hang out and gives them the address.  Nick goes undercover as a dealer and is let to Gunnar (Christopher Kerson).   He shows them what he has to offer and it's a miniature from the Miniature Killer case.  Well it had to be one of their past cases and this was a good one to go back to.  He's looking for the knives and Gunnar calls out Jacob (Rodney Eastman).  Nick also wants that jacket, but he refuses.  He says there's a vein in Nick's neck which is working overtime, so he thinks he's hiding something.  Nick tells him to move the knife away and then grabs it from him.  The police raid the place.

Jacob tells Finn Lucas's spirit has taken him over.  Hodges (Wallace Langham) texts Finn that the jacket is a cheap knock off.  Finn tells him he's going down for obstruction.  She couldn't say 'Waters' calling him 'Watters' everytime.  The knives were fake, except for one, which was made from the bones of serial Killer Gerald Palmer.  His DB was handled by Roy and he says he is innocent and has an alibi.  In exchange for his freedom he'll give them his client list.  Morgan finds nothing on the list, except Greg notices the address of Dead Owl Creek.  Putting the clues together leading back to Kyle (Richard Harmon) one of the boys from the beginning.

He's back at the convention, he wanted to keep all of Lucas's parts together and he's the one who thinks he's been taken over by Lucas.  He felt no remorse in taking their lives, to be just like him.  As he's lead away with Greg by his side and the rampant crowd snaps shots of him, he revels in the limelight.  DB tells Nora they caught the and he 'll be put away.  Nora says that's what her father used to say but it didn't help.  DB thinks he was trying to put everything behind him by doing this.

So another serial killer ep following go the heels of the Gig Harbour ep.  Funny they had Sara questioning Nora again, not a Vic per se, but the sister of one who's still suffering the nightmares from this.  Rather straightforward in terms of the suspect list being large as usual.  They seem to be doing that quite a bit this season.  It was sort of implied that if Greg hadn't let Kyle go, Bruce would've still been alive, then again they wouldn't have closed down that blood market.  Did get to mention Ed Gein, the territory of Criminal Minds.


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