CSI 11.14 "All That Cremains" Review

                                                                                             
The CSIs investigate the remains of a dismembered man found at a thriftstore. Putting together the pieces, they follow the evidence to someone much closer to the Vic. Ray's ex comes to town.

Two old ladies in a thrift store open boxes to reveal dismembered body parts.   Nick (George Eads) arrives on the CS with Sara (Jorga Fox) this time and not Ray, (Laurence Fishburne) as is the norm; who is busy with his own personal issues.   Det Frankie (Katee Sackoff) tells them his head and foot were found.   Sara admits to shopping at this thrift store, as they have some good things.   Sara doesn't find any leakage in the boxes and Nick believes the rest of the parts must be in the boxes.   They were dropped off by a truck on a pick-up route.   Nick wonders how much the killer thought the DB was worth, "times are tough."  That was the supposedly funny line.

Nick takes Gloria (Tracee Ellis Ross) to see Ray who's conducting an experiment with Hodges (Wallace Langham).   Nick comments he looks more like "Dr Dre than Dr Ray."  Ray can't believe she's here.   Hodges has to have his say, interrupting them to add she's got a good man here and they're all family now at the lab.   His present case could be described as fun, if the DBs are omitted.   He welcomes her and she drops a bombshell: she's getting married to Phil and she invites Ray to the wedding.   Not many people invite their exes to their wedding.  So perhaps they must have parted on good terms, but why they did isn't mentioned here.   She wants Ray to meet him.   Was that to gain Ray's approval, show off Phil, or just to show she's moved on and he should do the same.   She shows Ray her engagement ring, but she doesn't seem to notice Ray is still wearing his ring.

Nick with the DB's head in his hand when she's leaving was kind of funny.   He points Gloria out to Sara and David (David Berman).   Sara calls her pretty and David says he's been here two years and he's never met her, even Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) hasn't met Gloria and he and Ray are meant to be best buddies.   Nick thought she would be more "bookish."  Why was that, cos Ray's a doctor and more into his books and academia.   Oh the gossip in the lab!  Nick points out the Vic had dirt in his mouth.   Sara stipulates if he was buried he'd have had dirt all over him.   Nick finds there's someone else in his mouth and David indicates the presence of bone fragments.   Sara notices the ash and Nick calls it cremated human remains.   Sara: "Cremains."  Doc Robbins thinks a flexible saw was used to cut the parts.   Ray presumes it was more likely a wire.   Doc also finds the presence of contusions on his chest.   He's sent them for IR (Infra red) photos so they'll have to wait and see what they show.   Doc Robbins suggests Ray and his wife should come over for dinner and he didn't get a chance to meet her.   Ray would have introduced her, had he known she was coming.   Ray doesn't like to share his feelings so easily.   Ray says he was alive when the cremains were fed to him and the cremains were the murder weapon.

Henry (Jon Wellner) finds alcohol and sedatives in the Vic.   Ray says he was comatose when he ingested the cremains.   The killer tied him up, poured cremains in his mouth and asphyxiated him.   Hodges would prefer burial to cremation.   He wouldn't like to be a mobile urn and would like a tombstone, so people can "worship" him.   Together he and Nick find bone, a gold tooth, hip replacement and Nick comments if the crematorium were doing their job this wouldn't happen.   Ray meets Phil at the bar.   Ray calls her "fashionably late" and she walks in saying Ray almost didn't make it to their wedding, she can talk.   Didn't know what to make of her, she appeared to be rubbing it in Ray's face, the whole, she's found someone else and is getting married, thing.   Also seemed a bit scatty.   Phil notices Ray's ring and thinks he's already re-married.   Funnily enough she didn't mention his ring.   Ray's coming to the wedding.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) gets a hit on the gold tooth, belonged to a death row inmate who died two years ago.   The other DNA was from an unknown female.   Nick and his shady crematorium comment again and that it's burning more than one body at a time.   Nick and Frankie give chase at the crematorium and Greg stops them in their tracks with a plank of wood.   Frankie identifies the unknown female DNA cremains as Sabrina Pose.   The wife of the Vic, Ron Pose (Peter Smith).   They had a daughter, Camryn (Madison Davenport).

 Sara indicates the house across the street was the pick-up for the thrift store.   Nick and Sara process the Vic's house.   Nick notices the void on the mantlepiece where the urn probably was.   In the bedroom, Nick finds ash on the lampshade and Sara finds ligature marks on the bedpost.   There are cremains in the bed.   Directionality from the ash reveals Ron was dragged from the bed by his feet and they follow an ash trail to the bath, where he was dismembered.   There are fresh cut marks on the tub.  Sara finds traces of blood around the bathtub ring.

The house across the street belonged to a minister (Sean O'Bryan).   Camryn gets home from school and tells them she looks after herself.   Nick prevents her from going into the house and she's to stay with child services.   She was just feigning grief.   Greg gets a hit off the work card belonging to a dancer, Sydney (Christine Milian) Ron's ex girlfriend.   Her prints are everywhere.    Dancers clothes were found in the boxes and Greg surmises she came back to exact her revenge.   Ray comments her actions indicate "she's a monster."  Ray's usual choice of word there.   See Blood Moon episode where he said to Nick they deal with monsters all the time.  Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) tells Sydney she needs to come downtown with them.   She saw Ron two weeks ago, he cheated on her.   She didn't want to see him and that's why she didn't collect her things.   She is genuinely shocked that he's dead, and I believed her.   She was too obvious a suspect anyway.    Ray thinks she could have killed him, Sydney loved him; but he had many women and provides Ray with a list of names.   She's also sincerely concerned about Camryn and those aren't the actions of a killer, or a monster.   Ray asks for her DNA.

The minister lived there 15 years and he knows Sydney better than he knew Ron.   Camryn was always alone even when her mother was alive.   Being an only child, they had a connection to each other.   See in the flashback it's apparent Cameron's heart was broken when Sydney left.   They fought about some videos with girls.   They go over the evidence and Greg says they have plenty of it.   Nick comments they're dealing with the cleanest house in town and all the prints are explainable.   All the blood evidence belonged to the Vic and Sara adds the killer knew the house.   Nick still believes Sydney killed him.   Greg returns to the house and finds the tapes in the safe with women's names on them.   They turn out to be dance auditions.   Out of 30 tapes, number 15 is missing.   Sara questions Trufant (Ian Reed Kesler)  the name on the tapes.   He explains he made the tapes for Ron as potential women he could date.   He wasn't a club goer and he gives them the original of tape 15.

It's Sydney's audition with her guitar and she's wearing kneepads.   Sara believes the cremains could be Sydney's way of telling Ron he belonged with his wife.   Sara doesn't find any prints on the guitar and four strings are missing.   Sydney tells Ray she didn't want anyone seeing her tape, not even them since she didn't want anyone to know she fell for it.   Ray says the guitar strings were used to tie him up and the kneepads were used to hold him down whilst he was choking.   There were two sets of DNA on the kneepads, the minor donor was Sydney but the major donor had half of Ron's DNA; meaning it was Camryn.   She claims she didn't kill him, nor did she use Cameron to do it.   She questions her.   Camryn says Ron was angry she was playing Sydney's guitar and told her to throw it out since "Sydney's dead."   She never had any parents until Sydney and she wanted him dead like her mother.   Nick has a hard time believing Camryn killed him because all the children he's come across, at least the majority of them; have been victims of crime and not killers themselves; leaving him speechless.

Camryn shows Sydney the urn as proof she killed him.   Ray tells Sydney it's hard to accept the truth about people they love and "denying it doesn't make it go away."  He's also talking about himself here too.   Camryn still loves Sydney.   Ray opens up to Nick, as I thought he would.   He and Gloria were divorced two years ago, hey that's when he got here so maybe his work was one of the reasons for their marriage breakup.   She was the best part of his life.   Nick says he thought that was being here with them.   He loved her and misses her, but she had a look in her eyes showing she's happy.   Nick believes if she's happy then Ray should be happy too and calls Ray a good guy.   He advises Ray to remove his ring before the wedding, which he does.

Good to see some more bonding on the part of Ray and Nick, even if David said earlier on that Ray and Doc Robbins are best friends.  Camryn was ruthless, she didn't even show any remorse and thought only about herself and her own happiness.   A bit of a gruesome episode showing how her grief and loneliness led to so much anger and bitterness.   The flashbacks to the killing and the dismemberment showed just how cold blooded she really was and yet after it all, she still expected Sydney to see her in the same way.

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) were missing this episode.

Also in CSI:NY Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) told Mac (Gary Sinise) he should take off his wedding ring since he'd been wearing it too long.   Ian Reed Kesler played officer Shelley in the season 7 NCIS episode Reunion.

CSI:NY 9.11 "Command +P" Review

                                           
People over the city are left brown envelopes all containing a cheque for $1 million.  As the news reports the generous act of a philanthropist.  Well if you recall Sid (Robert Joy) and his invention, there really was no mystery behind who this "guardian angel" really was.  So I don't know why they made a big deal about it. Other than for the other storyline where Jo (Sela Ward) would relentlessly pursue it until she found the ID but also to be there for Sid.

A lawyer is found dead and Lovato (Natalie Martinez) just couldn't get enough of the jokes of his being a sleazy lawyer running those commercials for business.  Yeah it was really funny wasn't it, about as funny as you not being able to utter a coherent word and no your voice isn't all husky and sexy either!  As for the comment about lip enhancements and never finding one that worked, no comment.  Quick stop me before I have a Lovato hate fest! ha. They were having one of those CSI:NY moments they used to have though, especially with Stella and one of her insensitive comments.  Hated to see Hawkes (Hill Harper) get in on it too, though cos he's better than that.
Mac: "...whatever it was though somebody clearly used it to blow the mind of Manny Hindle."
Hawkes finds some sort of residue from the CS.  Also the shot was a through and through his forehead.  Mac (Gary Sinise) pulls the bullet from the frame on the wall and finds there aren't any striations or markings.

Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) is having a quick lunch on the go and didn't wait for Lindsay (Anna Belknap) (who would?) as the news is on the TV.  Jo and Adam (AJ Buckley) also watch as Mauricio Flores (Tyson Turrou) says he's going to do everything his mother wanted him to and move from the Projects.  Jo writes his name down to run a check on him and finds out his mother was a Vic of crime.  As were all the other recipients too, each one was connected to some crime.  Adam tells her the only money he ever got was extra change from the vending machine and Jo tells him he should give it back.  As they go on a call.

Flack (Eddie Cahill) tells them of Justin (Daniel Amerman) who was shot.  Adam finds his computer is missing and there's some sort of metallic residue on the desk which forms an outline where something large has been removed.  Jo finds a memory stick/flashdrive.  Hawkes finds the residue he found tests positive for GSR.  Lindsay is unable to find any trace on the bullet.  Sid tells the others to stop watching TV and get to work.  Obviously cos he doesn't really want to hear about himself on the news!  Then conducts the autopsy on Justin.  The bullet matches Mannheim too.

Adam talks with Michelle on the phone and gets pretty cosy with her when Jo and Mac walk in.  Of course Adam would be told by Mac to get to work!  He breaks Justin's password to find he was at the Triborough club, some hip young club.  Mac wants him to see what calls were made on the phone as Flack and Lovato check out the video footage from the club.  Yeah cos it really takes two to do that!  Giving Lovato time to grill Flack on what he really likes doing cos he wouldn't be seen dead at one of these places, as we already know from past experience.  She tells him he'd rather be at an Irish pub, as opposed to Salsa dancing he tells her. So she asks what he really likes to do and he mentions ping pong.  Thus he challenges her to a game and well, winner can get to choose anything.  Oh quick pass the bucket! Another blow by blow scene with Angell, cos it was too much to ask for them to come up with anything different.  It's no wonder people lost interest and ratings fell.  Come to think of it, Angell was killed off cos of expenses, which was the CBS excuse, but by now they had enough money to bring in Lovato!!  Really?

Flack sees Jason walk in and then leave with a blond man on the video.  Adam finds Jason made calls to a man named Andy Stein (Jeff Branson).  He's questioned and says he was meant to meet Jason but he didn't show up.  Flack checks him leaving the club by himself and didn't see anymore cos a truck obstructed the camera.  Hawkes discovers what Justin was working on after finding files on his flashdrive, he was making a 3D gun.  (Already covered in CSI 13.9 Strip Maul ep).  He shows them the finished sample and Mac tells then that's why there was no striation on the bullet.

Jo watches the news again and a man named Richard Kemp (Bill A Jones) comes forward as the anonymous guardian angel.  Jo doesn't buy it since he's just cashing in on the publicity.  Jo receives the envelope Rhonda (Nicole J Butler) was given and checks it for prints.  Of course no surprise they would come up as Sid's. Lindsay tests the gun and finds when the gun is fired the second time it explodes, that's why there was residue at the second CS.  Thus the killer would have injured himself.  Danny and Lindsay ring round hospitals and find one man, Andy Lewis (Stephen Snedden) who has priors.  Danny and Mac arrive to arrest him and find he's printing a gun.  He tells them Justin talked with him and told him about the gun.  He took him back to his place and printed one out for him.  He killed him and then killed Mannheim cos he slept with his wife when she saw him for a divorce.

Mac tells Jo they'll give the printer to the Brooklyn Museum of Science and will keep the software under warps.  Inevitably someone will find a way to print the gun but no one needs to know yet.  She tells him she may have found the ID of the guardian angel but won't reveal it.  That's cos it's Sid following on from his patent story in The Ripple Effect.  He wanted to leave something behind and help those Vics who just stood out for him.  He tells her he has Hodgkins lymphoma and is dying.  He wants to see what people would do with an inheritance.  Jo will be there for him and he promises he won't say goodbye just yet. Ahh so sad, so it's just as well that this was the final season.  Enjoyed watching Sid.  Robert Joy was one of the better cast additions.

As for Flack and Lovato well he wins the game and then kiss outside, just like he kissed Angell outside and walked away from her but this time they drive away together!   Their line about enough done playing ping pong, should have added now let's go shoot some pool! ha.  For obvious reasons!
Danny had precious little to do again, aside from his "50 Shades of Manny" line.  Jo mentions North by Northwest a great Hitchcock film with Cary Grant.

CSI 11.13 "The Two Mrs Grissoms" Review

                                            
Sara turns up to an event that Grissom can't make and his mother introduces Sara to his ex. She later turns out to be a suspect in a murder investigation and wants Sara removed from the case.

Taiko drums play at the Gilbert Foundation for the deaf and Sara (Jorga Fox) receives a text from Gil (William Petersen) saying he's needed in Peru on an investigation.   Sara notices some shadows going at it in the bathroom.   Gil tells her that the deaf love the vibrations from the drums.   Julia (Marlee Maitlin) is the Head of the Department of Deaf Cultural studies and comments Sara must be 'The Other Mrs Grissom'.   However, Gil's mother, Betty Grissom (Phyllis Frelich) replies that Sara kept her own name.   Betty's proud of Julia and thinks of her as a daughter.   She was Gil's ex.   Dr Lambert (Anthony Natale) is the Director of the Foundation.   Betty can't help sticking the boot in saying Gil's away a lot.   Which Sara finds annoying to say the least.   Dare I ask, was the Gilbert Foundation named for Gil.

Outside Sara hears an explosion in the distance and leads Julia away from the car which explodes with Lambert still inside.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne) comments he didn't recognize Sara in a dress and Nick (George Eads) asks what she's done with her hair.   They brought her work clothes.   Nick asks if there was an open bar, as Ray believes he could have been drinking and driving.   Sara attempts to question Julia but needs an interpreter, cue Dennis (Matthew Jaeger) standing non chalantly behind the yellow CS tape, as if he was just waiting to be asked.   Knew he was a suspect as soon as I saw him there in the crowd, as it's commonplace, whenever the perp is guilty, just like arsonists, they like to return to the scene the crime, behind the yellow line.  Hey, he could have interpreted whatever he wanted, so it's good that they got their own interpreters in.    Ray watches David (David Berman) take the body away and says, "Reminds me of my first case."

Julia supposedly felt the explosion when she was in her office.   Ray theorizes since the car was sliding downhill, the tank could have been ruptured if there was any metal nearby.   Sara thinks if the car blew up where it was, then the shock waves would have been absorbed by the hill.   Nick doesn't find any skid marks, so the car went straight over.   Nick finds a gas line on the ground and a trail of debris.   Ray spots a piece of a detonator.   The explosion killed Lambert outright.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) no autopsy is shown this episode, but he still gives Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) the results as per usual.   Sara explains to Catherine that it's not the language barrier she's having problems with but Betty's "hard to get close to, she questions everything and is emotionally unavailable."   Catherine says she's "just described Gil; "like mother, like son."  Greg (Eric Szmanda) generates a 3D simulation of the explosion on the computer.   Shock waves show that they didn't reach the building so Julia couldn't have felt the explosion.   She lied.

Nick doesn't find any signs of nitrates in her office and Betty prefers to talk to Nick, who says someone planted the bomb in Lambert's car.   Sara tells Julia she hasn't been honest with them.   Nick comments how Sara hasn't won any points with Betty, "She really seems to like me though."  Betty would like Nick, a bit of the ol' Gil in her there, cos he wanted Nick to be good at his work, though Warrick (Gary Dourdan) was Gil's favourite, Nick saw Gil more as his mentor.   Sara finds a message from Julia's voicemail stating the relationship must end as there's a risk to the school.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) questions Julia and accuses her of blowing up Lambert.   Julia denies killing him, but instead refers to the apparent conflict of interest with Sara being on the case, as Julia was intimate with Gil.   Sara replies she didn't know and that her marriage is irrelevant to the case.

Sara looks at the blue marble given to her by Gil (just as Nick did in the House of Hoarders episode, which is why it was mentioned then, as a timely reminder.   Julia gave a DNA sample.   Sara vents to Catherine that Julia played her and she knew exactly who Sara was.   Brass wants Sara off the case but Catherine spoke up for her and told him she's a professional and capable of being objective.   Nick and Ray (together again, ha, I just had to get that in) process the car.   Ray's torch is attracted to the industrial strength magnet.   Nick: "You're losing your superpowers there, Dr Ray."  Nick doesn't find any timer.  Greg checks out the fragments in trace and Hodges (Wallace Langham) reports that the nitrates found were consistent with the smokeless gunpowder.   Greg comments the last time they found smokeless gunpowder was in the police bomb in the season opener.   (Just to prepare us for another episode with the bomber again soon.)  Greg finds scorch marks on the curved shape of the fragment; helpful in holding the explosives.   He matched the partial serial number to a company selling consumer products for the deaf.   It's a deaf fire alarm as Hodges tells him, a Shake Alert, he has one as his mother snores so if there's a fire it will shake his bed and wake him up.   He uses earplugs.   Greg and Hodges having a bit of a tete-a-tete once again, with Hodges sharing some personal info with his best bud.   That was shortlived.   Good to see Greg's moved on past last episode's fiasco.

Nick and Sara check out the dorm for fire alarms and Nick finds one white one, the others were all black.   The room belongs to Michael (Tyrone Giordano) Julia's TA and he was in his room alone.   His research project was rejected for a grant.   He directs them to Sean (Sean McGowan) from England and calls him Julia's pet.   Sean argued with Lambert who told him to fix the problem or he would.   Nick finds traces of nitrates in Sean's room.   Nick asks if Sara  thinks Julia's still guilty.   Sara says it's not personal.   Nick comments that Julia is really pretty.   Sara and Nick getting on better now after their little fall out in the earlier House of Hoarders episode.    When Nick said he thought Julia was really pretty, thought Sara was waiting for him to add, "but not as pretty as you" - which he didn't.    Betty's adamant Julia didn't hurt anyone and Sara thanks her for the heads up about Julia and Gil.   Betty thought Sara knew.   She takes the opportunity to berate Sara that if she saw Gil more often, then she'd know more about him.   She did see him more; all the time at work and he didn't exactly share about his personal life, not his love life at any rate.   Lambert obeyed the rules but she saw Julia was distracted.

Hodges checked the nitrates trace from Sean's room and says he must have had a plant since the nitrates are found in fertilizer.  Hodges goes on to mention Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke) and Grissom's yen for sexually adventurous women, until he realized he was open to "spirited, intellectual stimulation."   Catherine tells him he's phone's ringing to make him stop.   Sara justifies they have great sex together.   Catherine is sure they do.   They go over the message from Lambert's phone and so Sara thinks Sean killed for money and love.   Brass questions Sean about his affair and how it could be viewed as favourtism for him to get the grant.   He claims to love Julia and puts Julia right in it by saying they left together and she was in his dorm until just before the explosion.   So much for loving her.   Well he didn't kill Lambert as he had an accomplice.

Michael leaves a box for Julia on her desk.   So obvious there was a bomb in it.   Ray and Sara want to take Julia in for questioning and as she turns to call her lawyer in her office, the bomb explodes.   Nick runs in concerned about them.   Ray says they can collect more evidence now as there wasn't a fire.   Sara notices a piece of the box and Nick surmises the box was rigged to explode when opened.   Nick finds a resistor with a delay, like a timer.   Sara points out to Michael that his computer has a stalker wall.   He explains he was angry and should have had a chance to get the grant, but he didn't bomb anyone.   Even when Sara tells him that he's skilled enough to have made the bomb and the batch of resistors were ones he ordered.   He claims they were stolen and he reported the theft to campus police; however he thinks there's something strange about Sean.   Well he was right.

At the hospital, Sara notices Sean use unusual sign language she doesn't recognize and neither does the interpreter.   Betty tells her in Quebec sign language Sean signed 'Sweet Pea'.   She asks Sara what sort of marriage she and Gil have.   Oh stop with the marriage third degree already.   She lost her husband early but they were never apart.   Sara replies, angrily, they love each other and are a family, but if Betty doesn't want any part of it, then that's up to her.   Nick puts together the fragments from the detonator.   The bomb contained the same smokeless gunpowder.   The resistor gave the bomber ten minutes to put it in place before it exploded , so a  remote was used and when it was, it sent a signal to the receiver and a beep was heard.   Thus the bomber could hear, ruling out Michael.

Catherine and Sara give Sean a test which he thinks is a polygraph.   See Sean sneak in a rye smile there when he thinks he's passed.   He faked his test as the brainwaves indicate he can hear.   He faked being deaf for the half a million dollar grant.   Sara runs a check on him through Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) and turns up Sean Leblanc from Montreal.   Julia can't believe it.   He was already a student when they met and she fell for his compliments.   Sara found the one person to connect with and she wanted someone of her own.   She was lonely and he used her.   (Echoes from last weeks episode; A Kiss Before Frying with Greg.)  Julia found an e-mail address of his in french and she recalls it.   Ray finds the e-mail was a blueprint for the grant scam and is connected to Dennis.    He's Sean's cousin.   Brass tells him he had access to all the buildings on campus and used Julia's key card.   They found receipts for the pipes and gunpowder.   It was Dennis' idea.   Sean's mother was deaf.   Nick can't believe he listened to Dennis when he said he wouldn't hurt Julia.   Brass tells Dennis he got greedy and he wanted to make Michael a suspect.   Sara holds Julia's hand as a sign of comfort and reaching out friendship.

She speaks with Gil on the Internet and he asks how her week was.  She mentions his ex, but he doesn't say anything about her.  Gil tells Betty she didn't come to the office when he was there.   She gives Sara African Violets as he told her Sara likes vegetation.  Sara would like her and Betty to start over.   He suggests dinner when he gets back.   Then talks about 'sex pots' in Inca society, talking about sex with his mother around!!  Why's she so into it?

Catherine doesn't do much anymore now as supervisor, except, supervize.   She didn't even get a scene in autopsy this week with Doc Robbins.   It's as though she's just waiting to bow out of the show.    True to form, Nick arriving at the CS with Ray.   Sara in a dress, which we haven't seen her in before.   Nick not noticing she's wearing a dress, but that her hair looks different.   Ray not recognizing her in a dress.   Typical men, ha, I could say!  Like my friend said to me once, didn't know I had legs, cos I always wore trousers.

Expected to see Gil in person, not stuck  behind a computer, or should that  be stuck inside a computer screen.   Thought they would have made more of his appearance.   Still it was good to see their marriage under the spotlight since we don't get too many episodes concentrating on their personal lives.   As far as Gil and Sara go, we haven't seen anything of their lives at all since they got married and he left.   Then everyone talking about Gil and Sara's sex life, well practically everyone and Sara being so candid about it to Catherine and the scene with Hodges when he didn't know when to quit talking or how to get himself out of the hole he kept digging for himself, but that's Hodges and what makes his character so fun.   Have to ask though, why was Betty so interested in their marriage and Gil so openly talking about "sex pots."

Marlee Maitlin was also in the CSI:NY episode Silent Night, where she played a deaf mother who felt vibrations in her house, after a gun had been fired.   Ray commenting to David that the charred DB of Lambert reminds him of his first case, refers to the season 10 episode, Death and the Maiden, which indeed was Ray's first ever case on CSI, where he investigated the death of a  DB in a murder/arson case.

Scandal 2.13 "Nobody Likes Babies" Review

                                                     
Another explosive episode where lives still hang in the balance at least of the major players.  Huck Guillermo Diaz) enters the lift with Charlie (George Newbern) and Hollis (Gregg Henry) and Huck tells Hollis that Charlie is here to kill him unless Huck kills him first.  That is if Hollis accepts David's (Joshua Malina) offer then he will kill him.  Hollis agrees to remains quiet.  Olivia (Kerry Washington) tells Cyrus (Jeff Perry) Hollis didn't shoot Fitz (Tony Goldwyn).  Who is having a photoshoot with his son and Mellie (Bellamy Young) at the Whitehouse.  He tells Mellie he wants a divorce and still wants to visit his son afterwards.  He thinks of calling his son Wallis but she thinks he'll be bullied.  The name has family connections.

Fitz tells Olivia he's getting a divorce and doesn't want her marrying Edison (Norm Lewis). Yes Fitz get things your own way until you change your mind.  Olivia and her gladiators try to work out who really had Fitz shot which leads her to Verna (Debra Mooney).  Well it had to be one of them, obvious suspects aside since only they knew of the vote rigging and well it had to be about clearing house and conscience and who had the most to lose, Verna.  She came across as self righteous as if she would get off easily.  Verna is shown watching Fitz and Olivia kissing and tells Olivia it was for the love of her country and how she wants , well, absolution.  Which she ain't getting!  If it was about country she would come clean and admit her own part in it but she doesn't.  Verna wanted her legacy to live on and that she'd be remembered for what she did.

Olivia refuses to turn her in and confess since it will do more harm than good.  Up until now Fitz was the innocent party in all of this but not anymore showing he's his father's son after all and as I said in one of my previous reviews, here he really shows the apple didn't fall far from the tree.  Verna calls David and Fitz also comes to see her.  As for his timing who called him or did he just happen by in the midst of all this turmoil? David isn't allowed in but sees Fitz there when he comes out wanting help with Verna.

David subpoenas James (Dan Bucatinsky) to appear at the Grand Jury trial for the vote rigging and he needs the memory card for this.  Olivia and her team listen to the tapes they made of Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and David cos Huck was being interrogated and couldn't turn them off but Abby insists they listen to nothing about her.  Abby listens to David telling her he loves her over and over.  Also they find out about the card from Cytron.  Abby agrees she should be the one to steal the card from his apartment.  Then confronts Olivia about getting paid off to tell her David abused her.

James tells Cyrus about the subpoena and Cyrus makes him strip so he realizes he's not wearing a wire, as he does the same.  Cyrus tells him he wanted to run for President but he wasn't tall or pretty enough and so all he ever could be was chief of staff and then retire one day and go teach.  James is more worried about being a father and looking after their daughter.

Then we see how far Cyrus will go to protect his investment as he gets Charlie to kill James.  That's so absurd going on about how he loves him and he's his husband but the next minute he's just treating him like any other liability to save his own neck.  At the last minute he tells Charlie to abort and calls Olivia.  She asks Harrison (Columbus Short) to drink with her at 9am in the morning.  James lies on the stand and tells David he didn't have a card and told him nothing about vote rigging.  Abby arrives with the card as does David who knows she took it but she denies it.  How could you be so stupid considering no one else knows about it. Abby gives them the card when David walks out on her.  Harrison all the time telling her that he did this cos of Olivia and she's helped all of them and they're her gladiators.  Oh stop with the gladiator line, seems he gets that every week!

Olivia refuses Edison and gives him back the engagement ring. She tells him love must be painful and hurt and that's what she wants.  He tells her that's what love isn't.  He must be thinking she's delusional or something cos instead of finding happiness, she wants pain.

At the funeral Olivia tells Fitz she'll wait for him for however long it takes but he tells her he's not divorcing, "it's political suicide" especially since screwing your mistress is one thing, but marrying her is another.  Oh drive the knife in further.  That was a turn up for the books and really no better than what Edison said to her two episodes ago, you know, "whore, criminal, liar, cheat."   Fitz really implied much the same in that Olivia is really nothing and a nobody.  He gives his eulogy on Verna saying everything she wasn't as we see Verna confess to him that she tried to kill him.  He wonders why she didn't just expose him and why kill an innocent woman.  She tells him about the vote rigging which would really have irked his manhood.  I mean that his father was right and he couldn't win this election on merits alone!  So he ensures nothing gets out and his Presidency and in fact his own legacy survives.  He removes her oxygen as she dies.

Ooh Fitz didn't think you had it in you.  SO this reinforcing that Fitz is now like everyone else and has his hands dirty.  For now all he was guilty of was having a mistress but murder to save himself is something completely different, suppose he believes in an eye for an eye and wanted nothing more but to prove them right.  That they drove him to this.  He asks Mellie if he can trust her cos there's no one else and he thought she tried to have him killed.  Which she'd never do.  So they get back together now!  Have to say didn't see that coming: all this talk of killing this ep.  No tot mention Quinn (Katie Loewes) wanting Huck to kill Doyle. He talks her round cos she's better off living as Quinn and putting Lindsay behind her.

Seems like no one is clean in this world of politics and they just seem to be getting deeper and deeper into the mess of their own doing.  Who's to say this vote rigging story won't surface again and true to life we're shown how this administration, and now even Fitz himself is no longer worthy of office.  Or it could be said he's just reinforcing what the others made him out to be by tarnishing his election even before he had won or lost.  Thus effectively making him who he is.  So they have none but themselves to blame.

Strange how Fitz would confide in Mellie though, not about what he did to Verna but wanting her by his side. The lesser of two evils or was he ensuring he can stand up on his own two feet now.  We'll have to wait and see.
Verna: "You are not the President...you're naive, you're pampered, you sail through life clueless as a child. But you are not stupid."  So the penny drops as he finds out he can rely on no one.

Fitz: "You believe that my Presidency is so important than anything else right. You must.  You've worked so hard to get me here."  That's one thing Olivia should have been more aware of.  After all the work they did, the lies they told, how did she think he would or she could just throw it all away for her of all people. Perhaps the title should read, nobody likes a cry baby, ha!   Well that's sort of the implication.

CSI 11.12 "A Kiss Before Frying" Review

                                              
A series of body dumps lead the CSIs to believe they are dealing with a serial killer, which has personal consequences for Greg, when he falls for a woman he believes to be a teacher.

An opening teaser in black and white showing a woman being dragged away.   The CSIs attend a CS where a DB has been dumped in a ditch.   No vehicles around and Greg (Eric Szmanda) asks the officer to tape off the CS.   David, (David Berman) at the prospect of having to go down to examine the DB, asks "Why can't people die closer to the road?"  The DB is still smoking on the wet ground, covered with gravel.   Hey Nick (George Eads) didn't arrive at the CS with Ray (Laurence Fishburne) like he usually does.   The DB is rolled over, revealing his burnt face.   His teeth are clenched and his tongue is burnt and black.   Greg notices the singeing on his collar.   When David attempts to cut the DB to determine TOD, he wakes up.   David: "Call me if his condition worsens" has the last word before the opening credits this episode.

Nick notices 4 wheel tracks on the ground.   Ray accompanies the Vic to hospital and takes photos whilst he's in the ER, along with evidence from the Vic.   He suffered third degree burns, 90% to his head and face - ligature marks at the wrists and ankles.  Nick notices his chest was restrained by straps.   Ray points out the intense, circular burn to his head.   Nick wonders "What turned him into a Roman candle?"  That's not nice to say and referring to him as a SOB too.   Ray theorizes he was executed by electric chair.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) brings a group of people to the Layout Room and tells the visitors the CSIs are cooking up a mystery today.   Nick says that Greg is the lead CSI on the case.   A woman refers to Hodges as Lodges.   Greg can't discuss the case.   Nick and Ray notice Greg's obvious attraction to her.   Her name is Ellen (Dita Von Teese) and she teaches fourth grade science and Greg thinks a toned down tour could be arranged for her pupils.   Ray gives Hodges evidence to run for trace.   Nick encourages Greg to get her number, but Greg is hesitant as "she didn't come here to be hit on."   Yeah she did, accidentally on purpose!  She also gives her number to him as we know she's got ulterior motives for doing so.

Ray attempts to electrocute Jelloman.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) asks what Jelloman did to him.   Ray: "Some men were just born to suffer."  If I'm not mistaken, that was a direct reference to Greg in this episode!  Before electrocuting Jelloman Ray determines that electrical current enters through the head, is drawn through the body by a wire, long enough for the heart to arrest.   But he doesn't achieve the results he expected.   His theory is wrong or he missed a variable.   Hodges to the rescue.   The trace he analyzed was a synthetic sponge dipped in saline solution.   This is used to conduct electricity.   The sponge must be natural, or the charge doesn't work.   The synthetic sponge increased resistance and the electricity turned to heat, setting the Vic's head on fire.

Ray tells Catherine it's all about amp-age.   If the current is strong enough then electrocution can take place anywhere, in a house or truck.   The Vic was thrown from the vehicle in this instance.   Greg finds the tyre tracks match to a specific truck and gets a hit on the Vic's ID: Carlton Doreen.   Catherine tells Greg to go home now.   He's "burnt out" and Greg apologizes for the pun.   Nick eggs him on to call Ellen and he meets her for a drink, well several drinks.   She likes to use the bus, just like her pupils.   (A clue for the end.)  Greg would love to give a talk at her school.   She's just flattering him.   Greg watches her through the glass as she stretches, or should I say, strikes a distinct pose!

Greg tells Nick about how amazing and smart she is.   Nick takes the credit for steering him towards her.   She smelt of peaches.  They find more tyre tracks at a similar CS.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) comments on the absence of collateral burns to the head like the first Vic, but has the same wounds and scarring.   Another uncouth comment from Nick, "Looks like somebody else got the chair."  A storage facility nearby may have surveillance cameras.   Nick asks Doc Robbins if he actually wants to cut into him, he may wake up.   But this one is really dead.

Greg and Catherine go over the evidence they have.   Catherine says there are two Vics.   Greg says the first Vic didn't die and identifies the second Vic as Neublume.   There's no apparent connection but roads were named after them, intersecting at Doreen Blvd and Neublume Ave.   Hodges finds some chemicals allowing Catherine to recall the explosion in 1988, where the ground was contaminated.   Archie (Archie Kao) found the truck from the surveillance cameras and it was moving at 2.30am.  Johannes Desmoot (Andrew Howard) is the owner.  Ellen calls Greg but he has to work late.   Providing her with the excuse she needs to turn up at the lab.   Hodges: "Don't let us interrupt your personal life."

Desmoot used to work for the secret police in South Africa.   Wonder how many people actually understood his accent and what he was saying without subtitles (Closed Captions), he was bunging it on rather strongly.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) questions why he doesn't recall his handle.   If Desmoot was lying he would have made up a name for Brass.   Who tells him it's not good insulting the man who holds his future in his hands and threatens to return him to South Africa .

Ellen arrives and calls him Lodges again.   So not funny and it wasn't funny the first time either.   Pondering the question of did they spend the night together as she says she didn't want him to think she's the type to fall into bed on the first date and Nick also said he didn't want the intimate details from Greg, which he kept to himself.    She wonders if the killer's been identified yet and that explains her interest in the case.   Which is the only reason she was here and we saw that coming a mile off in the beginning.  Henry (Jon Wellner) found chloroform in both of the Vic's systems and calls her cute.   Why did Greg leaver her alone with the evidence , which she looks at on his desk.   Didn't she just destroy the chain of custody and all that.   She conveniently leaves now as he's got to work.   Greg notices the photo of the truck in the file has been moved.

Greg follows her to a club, and we all noticed the name of 'Rita Von Squeeze'.  How unoriginal!  She's dragged into the club by a man and Greg asks the bartender (Steven Jotiner) who the man is.   After Greg pays him, he replies he doesn't know.   Greg takes his glass for prints.   We were waiting for Greg to actually see her and finally he turns to see her in the cocktail glass.   As I said, just like he was watching her through the glass when they were having drinks earlier on; repeated here again but without clothes.   The prints from the glass match a Roderick Hammerbacher (Jim Pirri).   Greg looks Ellen up on the Net and accesses her profile as a respected member of the community.  Nick tells Greg in no uncertain terms that he's got to leave her, she lied to him.   Well Nick does have the tarnished reputation of spending time with a hooker (no one remembers that anymore) but he warns Greg now probably due to his own past circumstances and experience.

Hammerbacher is Ellen's manager and has a history of psychological incarceration.   Nick notices more tyre tracks and Ray officially determines they have a serial killer on the loose.   Greg calls Ellen at school and leaves his number again, for the purposes of the storyline, so that was convenient.   Ray notices the burn is narrower and the kill was cleaner this time.   Nick says the ligature marks are less distinct and this time conducting gel was also used.   Ray calls him a 'perfectionist' and that the DBs were left out "like little presents."  This rules out Desmoot as a killer since he's still in custody.   Greg receives a call informing him of Doreen's death.   he thought it was Ellen.   Lots of calls for Greg this week.

The prints match to a Hammish Hershkowitz..   Nick to Ray: "So much for your theory about pulling names off a map."  This was actually Catherine's theory as Nick and Ray were both absent when she and Greg were going over the names of the Vics in an earlier scene.

Greg immediately thinks of  "The Rat."  Looking up old clippings etc, Greg tells the story of Herzog Hershkowitz.   Before the end of the Second World War, Bugsy Siegel brought a woman named Agnes to the US.   She lost her true love, Kuchkow, a Russian ballet dancer.   Unknown to her, he survived and they were reunited in 1946 in Vegas.   They had an illegitimate daughter.   Sam Braun told Catherine this story.   They had to hide their love from Bugsy and fled to Santa Fe to escape him.   But he found them and took Agnes away where she was decapitated and posed in a ballet position, implicating Kuchkow in her killing.   Herzog 'The Rat' is the third Vic's grandfather.   The defence attorney, Doreen and prosecutor Neublume, were both loyal to Bugsy and threw the trial.   Kuchkow was innocent but was executed.   Ray believes this to be ironic as the two survivors died because they ran into Bugsy, a psycho Jewish mobster.   Which is also ironic since Ellen has been using Hammerbacher, who is a psycho himself, to avenge the killings for her.   Greg shows them Agnes' photo and she is the splitting image of Ellen, her granddaughter.   Greg is still adamant she couldn't kill anyone.   Oh so naive still Greg.

Ray says Greg is in over his head.   Ellen calls again and asks Greg to meet her at a diner, where he's shot at when he arrives.  Ellen disappears leaving behind a bus time table.   That was her earlier comment of using the bus.   The real Ellen calls Greg and he realizes his Ellen isn't who she claims to be and that the others were right.   Hodges finds traces of magnesium oxide on the third Vic.   Leading to the contaminated site.   Brass and Nick check it out, chancing upon Hammerbacher who electrocutes himself, partly for the love of Ellen, who was also using him and partly cos he's a psycho.

Ellen was meant to be a femme fatale, but a killer and not as good as you'd find in a film noir either!  Greg claims she used him, but she blames Hammerbacher.   They "fell for each other hard..."  A line definitely from an old black and white movie!  Hey the dialogue in this scene turned into an old movie too.   With Greg telling her she played him from the start and his long explanation.  She doesn't know "where the truth ends and your own lies begin...crazy's right."  She set Greg up to die.   They'll find her prints in the truck.   She calls him "Greg baby."  That they can be together, what, like Hammerbacher.   Greg has her arrested.   Loved the way the camera panned into him when she was led away.   Ellen: "For what it's worth, I've loved you since Tuesday."  (Hey we get the show on Tuesday in the UK, the first showing anyway!)

Catherine understands what Greg went through as she's been blinded by lust too and that he should come to her next time to check out anyone he meets, as she's "got an eye for the rotten ones."  To which Greg replies,

"Why do the rotten ones smell so good?"  This ending was like a film noir too where the hero realizes he was used.   Oh man, some classic B movie lines in this.   Started off a routine CSI episode, interjected with some Hitchcock and ended a full-blown, classic film noir.   That was really different.   Nice opening teaser too leaving you wondering how it was connected to the case, but it wasn't that hard to figure out, since Ellen was the one shown (as Agnes).   Yes, it started out in black and white and ended in colour, but with an ending you'll find in a black and white film.

The cocktail glass was nicked from CSI:NY season 4 episode Buzzkill.   This was a gangster episode and had to be associated with Greg and his love of Vegas history.   What happened to the book he was writing when Grissom (William Petersen) was around.   Mentioned in the season 8 episode The Case of the Cross Dressing Carp.   In season 6's Kiss-Kiss Bye-Bye and in Cockroaches, where Greg was researching mob bosses from the Vegas past.   In this episode a garbage truck was used in a mob murder case and here trucks were also used .   With his extensive knowledge of mob history it was no coincidence Greg clicked onto The Rat.   In the episode, For Gedda and For Warrick, Greg has completed his book.   He had interviews with three publishing companies, but due to Warrick's (Gary Dourdan) death, he misses them.  His book was never mentioned again and this would have made for an interesting chapter.

Nick encouraging him to ask her out, cos he'd know all about falling for the wrong type of woman and great to see Catherine on Greg's side even if he went AWOL for a bit.   News about Greg travelled fast.   This storyline about Greg was a long time coming; demonstrating his vulnerability and how their work interferes and crosses over into their personal lives, since the younger CSIs don't really have much of a personal life.   Finding it difficult to meet someone cos as we know the course of true love never runs smoothly and anyone they fall for ends up dead, or the suspect or the killer.

Sara (Jorga Fox) missing two episodes in a row now.   Jim Pirri makes his third appearance, that's one in each CSI show.  Just as Carmine Giovinazzo was the first regular cast member to star in all three shows and Brian Bloom was the first guest star to appear in all three.

Here this show was heavily advertized due to the appearance of Dita Von Teese (no comment) and next week's episode with William Petersen is also being advertized.

CSI:NY 9.10 "The Real McCoy" Review

                                              
Adam (AJ Buckley) sits next to his girlfriend Michelle (Melissa Fumero) and he's going to the hospital.  She thinks he should spend longer in bed.  She thinks he's volunteering there and he doesn't put her right.  Mac (Gary Sinise) sits in the park with Christine (Megan Dodds) and tells her his condition is improving as we've seen thus far as he hasn't had any momentary lapses of memory, as his phone rings.  A woman walks into a Speakeasy bar and later the owner tells the bartender business is great and is later found dead at a Christmas  tree shop.  Flack (Eddie Cahill) says some money is left behind and Jason Black's (Jake Sandvig) credit card and wallet, he appears to have been impaled on the back of a protrusion on a fence.  Mac wonders why kill and leave most of the money behind.
Flack: "If a body falls in a fake forest, does it make a noise?  Apparently not.  Canvass of the area turned up zilch."  Another line from Flack, ha. Recall those canvasses they used to show with him from past seasons, were funny!  But we don't get them anymore.  Also how he'd rather buy a beer than go to a fancy joint!

Mac speaks with Courtney (Christine Lakin) the exotic dancer who was also Jason's girlfriend who tells him there was nothing wrong. Eli (TJ Linnard) part owner, tells Flack they were good friends and decided to open up the place after Jason's grandfather told them stories about the old speakeasy bars.  They like the nostalgia.  Sid (Robert Joy) tells Jo (Sela Ward) that COD is exsanguination and he was hit by a gun.  Jo notices a mark on his neck which Sid doesn't know the cause of.

Adam visits his father Charlie (James Handy) and he wonders why his son never comes to see him.  We can see he has Alzheimer's and Adam is frustrated by him not being able to be recognized.  He accuses a woman of stealing his money and Michelle shows up with coffee for him.  She wanted to see where he works and help out.  Just then Charlie vanishes.

Hawkes (Hill Harper) found blood on Jason's watch but his gloves and coat were covering his watch.  A test reveals it belongs to Nathan Brody (Mac Brandt) who had a record for theft.  Flack and Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) go to arrest him and we didn't get much of a chase this time! Darn, seeing as the show is almost over for us.  As Danny just manages to knock him down, "catch of the day."  He was just released from prison but was looking for a drink but he wouldn't be served by Jason.  Flack wonders if that was all, and why out of "all the watering holes in New York, he walked into this one."  Way to go Flack, paraphrasing Casablanca!

Adam arrives at the station to find his father there who is agitated and Adam tries to talk to him.  Mac notices Adam going into the room with a drink as he talks with Flack.  Mac tells him about the formic acid in Jason's stomach.  Methanol converts into formaldehyde, which gets converted formic acid.  Funny Mac giving Flack a science lesson, ha! Of course Mac would see Adam.  Hawkes tells Jo the mark on Jason's face was an insignia for a ballistics company who manufacture starting pistols which only fires blanks. Maybe the suspect was only trying to scare Jason.  Whereas Jo wonders what indigo, denim and boric acid all have in common.  Jo throws the rag at the computer screen, "I was expecting more from you."
Danny: ""I love it when you talk science-y to me, baby."  Something which Mac just did to Flack.  Would've been funny if Flack had said this to Danny! ha.

Adam tells his father this is his son Adam when he gives him a chocolate milkshake, his favourite.  Lindsay (Anna Belknap) tests the bottles at the bar and finds the vodka contains methanol.  Oh not you again Lindsay, may as well finish the entire ep on her!  Danny was  a loose end again in this episode!  As Lindsay accompanies Flack to the vodka supplier who tells them that's what they bought from him, cheap, fake vodka.  But Jason wouldn't accept it anymore but it was the manager who ordered it.  Courtney tells Mac and Lindsay (agh) Jason wasn't good at money and Eli told her they needed a way to save.  Jason was just for the rewards.

Charlie tells Adam how their father had broken his arm when he was fifteen after they stole some beers o impress some girls, but Adam tells him that was him, his son, not his brother Brian.  He recalled how his father would hit him and put him down.  Hawkes tells Jo the trace is all found in denim insulation.  So he narrowed down all the workers and associates leaving Brody with a connection.  He admits he confronted Jason after he found the money hidden in his grandmother's house had been stolen.  Jason fought him back and he was pushed against the fence.  He wanted to start over for his son.  Which doesn't impress Flack as to how he wanted to start over with stolen money, quoting, "the sins of the father are the shackles worn by their children."  Ooh Flack!   Mac hopes his son can break free of the shackles.  What this episode was about really, Brody wanted a good start for his son whereas Adam tries to come to terns with his father and the sort of bully that he was.  He wore his father's shackles cos Charles's own father used to beat him too and he just continued this shameful behaviour with Adam.

Mac waits for Adam outside his house and they have a talk. Mac tell him he should forgive so he can move on.  Adam tells him he stood up to his father once when he pushed his mother against the wall.  He picked up a piece of glass and threatened to kill him if he didn't stop.  Flack returns Jason's hat to the bar and mentions the $10.000, just then Courtney tells Eli he lied about where he got the start-up money.  Eli stole it from the roof job, so Courtney blames him for Jason being dead.  So you can get away with stealing and keeping stolen money.  Guess the statute of limitations had passed.

Adam tells Michelle she can leave him if she doesn't want the baggage but she's in for the long term.  He plays her some music which his father used to play, the 1966 The Troggs, With a Girl Like You  and they dance.  A great Adam episode and he really hasn't had nay of those in  along time.  A follow up to Some Buried Bones where he talked of his father being a bully.  The emotional tugging was apparent as he changes from one minute to the next when all Adam wants is some acknowledgement that he's his son and to call him by name.  Even when he's the sorry excuse for a man in front of him, Adam still can't forget that he's his son but it all gets too much for him.  Nice to see Mac actually being there for Adam for once with some words of wisdom showing he does mean something to him after all, more than just a nerdy, talkative lab tech!