Downton Abbey Series 4 Part 1 Review

                                          
The episode opens with Mary (Michelle Dockery) still mourning the loss of Matthew and is dejected from the world and her family, as well as her son George.  Though she does manage to kiss him and have motherly instincts.  It falls upon Nanny West to look after little Sibby and Master George.  It's apparent from the outset Nanny is not all she seems, especially when she tells Thomas (Rob James-Collier) to keep away from Sibby when he tells her that her mother was his friend.  Then she orders him around to pass on messages to Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichols) about Sibby's lunch and how she's not to have eggs.  She'd go herself but the children are alone.  Yes she was high and mighty was Nanny but Thomas soon put her in her place.  Knew he was going to get her fired.  She also tells him he's just a servant whereas she is part of 'upstairs.'  Some funny banter between them though like him asking what she is if he's a servant.  Of course the others agree downstairs too, that he is a servant.

The other opening event is the leaving of O'Brien as she leaves a note behind and "gone off like a thief in the night" as his Robert (Hugh Bonneville) puts it.  Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) is upset she would leave like that and Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) must dress her until a replacement can be found.  O'Brien's done a runner with Rose's mother to India and Rose (Lily James) didn't know a thing about it. Edith (Laura Carmichael) puts an ad in The Lady so it will be some time before she can be replaced but Rose puts an ad in the village shop, just to hurry along the process.  Who answers the ad but Edna Braithwaite.  The maid who Mrs Hughes wrote a reference for.  She was a maid but wants to be a lady's maid now and has studied for it. Cora accompanies Rose to meet her since she claims not to be able to come down as her aunt isn't well.  But Cora hires her after she's given Mrs Hughes' reference. Another troublemaker arrives at Downton it seems, as if Rose wasn't enough.

Carson (Jim Carter) receives a letter from one of his performing pals who's down on his luck and in the workhouse but he throws it away, so Mrs Hughes reads it and speaks with him at the workhouse.  Carson refuses to help him, more so out of snobbery I thought since he doesn't want to be associated with his past theatrical life, or anyone else to know anymore about it.  Mrs Hughes thinks Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) could help him out and he could stay with her since she needs the distraction and it's been six months since Matthew's passing.  She doesn't feel she's a mother anymore or needed but she is a grandmother as the dowager, Violet (Maggie Smith) tells her.  George needs her but she doesn't want to impose on Mary.  However when she does visit Nanny tells her she can't see him.  Which was ridiculous, why didn't she put her foot down anyway, she's not the lady of the manor!

Carson telling Mrs Hughes he thought workhouses had been closed as she describes it as something from Charles Dickens' book.  Thought Carson may have used the phrase from A Christmas Carol when Scrooge, asks, 'are there no workhouses?' ha.  That's the impression he gave when he chooses to distance himself from his friend.

Branson (Allen Leech) also wants Mary to take over from Matthew and get back into running the estate as guardian of George, she has right to do this, but Robert doesn't want her to.  Instead he wants to wrap her up and protect her from the world as he tells Violet.  See no one expressed their concerns about Robert running the estate again and running it into the ground, especially as the death duties will be large.  Also Matthew didn't leave a will cos he didn't think he needed to yet.

Edith is still running off to London to see Michael (Charles Edwards) and he thinks he could get a divorce on the grounds of lunacy if he became a German citizen and lived there.  She's impressed he'd do this for her especially since the Germans are hated people and kisses him in public at the Criterion.  Robert still has doubts about Edith seeing him cos she can do better.

Thomas expresses his doubts to Cora about the Nanny and she overhears her telling Sibby to stay in her cot and away from George as she's the "cross breed."  Which angers Cora and she dismisses her.  Then thanks Thomas the next day in front of Bates (Brendan Coyle).  Ensuring he's more smug than usual.

It's Valentine's day and the servants downstairs get cards.  It appears Bates and Anna (Joanne Froggatt) have sent each other a card and won't admit to it.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) gets one too and Ivy (Cara Theobald) thinks Jimmy (Edward Speleers) sent her one.  Of course he tells the others he didn't send it but he sent one to a Lady who is returning to England.  Albert (Matt Milne) knows he didn't send it to Ivy and just teases him in front of her.  Jimmy takes Ivy out for a drink on a work night and she comes back drunk, with Anna having to help her.  He doesn't put her straight about the card but Daisy finds out Mrs Patmore sent her one so she wouldn't feel left out.  She thanks her cos she "may not have a follower but I have a friend."  Also causing trouble downstairs is a new electric mixer which Edith has given them in the kitchen. Mrs Patmore doesn't like change but Daisy uses it and is complimented on the mousse by the Dowager. Though this doesn't reach her.

Branson gets Carson to talk to Mary about managing the affairs of the state and she loses her cool at dinner when she says everyone is nagging her to get back to the world of the living.  She storms off and the Dowager tells her she's her grandmother and loves her.  Mary apologizes to Carson and has a good cry and finally gets to take on Matthew's affairs as it's a good way to continue what he started.

Mrs Hughes is unhappy at Cora hiring Edna but there's nothing they can do about it now and even Carson won't talk Cora into firing her.  They'll have to keep a watchful eye on her.  The Dowager tries to get Molesley (Kevin Doyle) hired by Mrs Shackleton as a butler, but her own butler sabotages his chances by making him look useless and inept at the luncheon, thinking he's after his job.  Isabelle doesn't need Molesley and he has to move in with his father.

A bit slow to get started and not much happening at the moment.  Though hopefully it will get better.  Seemed to be dragging its feet at the moment and I got fed up with everyone going on about six months being enough to mourn and snap out of it.  Grief is personal and anyone can take as long as they want to "get over it!"  Then there's the usual story of the Dowager and Robert not wanting change but it will happen regardless, which she appears to have accepted.  Yet Mary is still not a woman of means and is still reliant on her husband's or late husband's wealth, which is solely in the hands of baby George now.  Such being the inequalities women faced.

Edna returns, yes Edna the downstairs servant who chased after Branson and had to go in the 2012 Christmas special!  SO they couldn't find anyone else to replace O'Brien, than someone who had stations above her grandeur.  Mary had the fitting line of, "He's not bad looking and he's still alive, which puts him two points ahead of most men of our generation.  When she mentions Edith's beau.  Then she also said what most of us were thinking, at least I said it first, ha, that Matthew survived the war, fathered a child and got killed off in a car crash!  Much like this episode, seemed like it was heading for a crashing bore!

CSI 11.8 "Fracked" Review

                                            
A body of a man appears in a spring. The CSIs are puzzled as to how he had so many diseases affecting him, for someone so young. Leading to yet another case of cost cutting, corporate greed.

A DB is found in a spring.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) comments they're all named 'Anthony' and in cement shoes.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne) comments on it being a sulphur spring and if bathed in, can provide a beautiful complexion.   Brass remarks that the DB's complexion has improved.   The DB has an 'L' shaped wound on his head which Ray explains means his head was hit with a pistol.   David (David Berman) says the water's nice.   Ray believes he was dead when he hit the water or afterwards.   Nick (George Eads) thinks it's a body dump.  Ray thinks the PMI was about 4-7 hours and takes a water sample.   Just as in last week's episode, Ray, Nick and Brass are called to the CS together again.   Nick spots an oil deposit on the ground, probably from the vehicle that dumped the DB.

Also like last episode, Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) and Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) are in autopsy together.   He asks what he should get for his wife's birthday.   Catherine believes diamonds, or gold with some carats.   Doc Robbins determines the COD.   The DB has no damage to his skull, but had several diseases, tissue degeneration.   COD was drowning, which caused a reflexive spasm, he couldn't breathe.   There's a sample of water trapped in his vocal folds.   Catherine believes if they can match the water sample they'll know where he drowned.   The prints match a Walter Burns.   He had a record for assault several years ago, but hasn't been in trouble since then.   conveniently, he had to be in the system and had a wife in Cable Springs; who died last year.

Greg (Eric Szmanda)  checks Walter's phone records, showing he made a dozen calls to Rosalind Johnson (Angela Bettis) a newspaper reporter in Cable Springs.   She runs the entire paper.   Walter was one of her sources.   Brass tells her she was the last one to speak to him but refuses to tell them why.   Brass can't give out details of an ongoing investigation.   She spoke to him about the ranch, his health.   Rosalind looked sick from the first time we see her but it's not until later that Ray actually asks her if she's seen a doctor.

Archie (Archie Kao) shows Nick and Greg an empty car with blood.   The navigation shows it was at Walter's ranch and a name, Richard Adams (Christopher Goodman) also comes up.   The bullet casing is in the car.   The car tests positive for blood.   The gun was fired inside, but the blood's on the outside.   Also present are amylase bubbles from saliva.   Nick determines he was shot from the inside.   Richard Adams was an engineer froma local gas company, Conservo Solutions.   Det Reed (Katee Sackoff) comments that if he drove to 'Hooker Alley' then the shooting was premeditated.   Nick finds a blood trail and follows drag marks to where the DB was dumped.

Richard's wife, Lisa (Megan Ward) tells Nick he called Rosalind.   He had been nervous for weeks.   He was a safety inspector for the ranches but she can't say anything more since she signed a non-disclosure agreement.   Doing so would cause her to lose his benefits.   Nick asks if she's been threatened and she shows him the head of a goat in the trash.   It was left on the porch, two days before Richard was killed.

Ray says the goat had been dead twenty four hours, and was dead before the head was cut.   Doc Robbins comments on the lesions being the same as Walter's.   He believes the head is a message.   He's seen The Godfather (1972) eleven times.    Greg analyzes the blood on the box which held the head and also runs a print.   Archie looks at the images from Richard's phone and Nick says that's "my goat" in the photos.   The ranch address is Gibson ranch.  The gas company is drilling nearby and there's no signs of any livestock.   Gunshots are heard.   Gibson (Henry Sanders) puts his goat out of its misery.   Walter was a friend.   The gas company paid him for his mineral rights.   His wife had cancer, like many others in Cable Springs.    He throws a match down the well and he explodes along with it.

Ray doesn't find any explosives in the well.   Nick: "I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but water just doesn't blow up."  He recalls the water in an Ohio town, which Ray says started the Clean Water Act.   Ray repeats Nick's line of not wanting to insult his intelligence, but water isn't supposed to bubble and has a chemical smell to it.   The water ignites and contains methane.   As well as other chemicals.   Ray speaks with Rosalind off the record.   She tells him the gas company knew about the water and they figured this out a year ago.   Conservo Solutions ignored safety protocols.   They tried to stop it.   Ray asks her now if she's seen a doctor.   He'll read about it in her article.   Then leaves after asking him if he's heard of "fracking." He comments that sounds like a "sci-fi expletive."   An in-joke as the term "frack" was used in the remade Battelstar Galactica also Katee Sackoff was in this episode of CSI again.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) gives his findings to Doc.   The water test results from Gibson's ranch show it contained benzene, a carcinogen.   All of the chemicals were also found in the DB, the bacterial culture from Walter's brain lesions.   He was suffering from metastatic carcinoma.   Hodges says it was due to the bad water, which contained the same toxins but in higher amounts.  Walter drowned in the source of the contamination.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) tells Catherine they can't alert the public.   Ray has looked up "fracking."  Known as "hydraulic fracking."  Where gas is extracted from shale.   The company pioneered a process whereby water is pumped into the gas, along with other chemicals, this breaks the rock and the gas escapes.   Half of the fluid escapes with the gas, whilst the other half seeps into the water table, pumped into an evaporation pool; enters the ground water, the gas mixes with the air and explodes.   No environmental impact study was ever carried out and gas companies aren't bound by any Acts.   Ray mentions the trace report on the oil which was from a diesel engine, belonging to a commercial vehicle.   The only ones in the area belong to the gas company.   Ecklie says they don't have enough for a warrant, Catherine asks for the warrant since the killer of both men is the same.

Liked the way Ray feigned the evaporation pool to be a swimming pool.   Nick checks the fleet of trucks for oil leaks and finds a scrap from Richard's shirt on the fence.   Ray knows the proof is in the evaporation pool.    The water from the pool matches the water in Walter's vocal folds, he was dumped in the spring after he was killed at the pool.   Greg informs them the truck has been found.   There's blood inside and the driver, Cody (Richard Roberts) was the victim of a hit and run: a 401.   The gun was inside the truck.   So if he was run over, why not take the gun too, obviously since all loose ends were being tied up by the gas company.

Nick test fires the gun, the back spatter matches, as well as the bullets and casings.   There's the presence of blood and hair on the magazine.   Ray explains Walter wanted a sample from the pool, was hit on the head with the gun and drowned in the pool, dumped by Cody.   Ecklie declares the case closed, since they have the evidence and the killer.   There'll be no trial.   Catherine insists they need a water sample from the pool.   He tells Catherine she's a CSI, not Erin Brokovich (2000).   But the case on the hit and run can remain open.

Ray tells Rosalind what fracking is.   She believed that "one person can change the world."   She's not afraid to publish her story even if she doesn't have solid evidence and her paper would be closed.   He tells her of a friend running clinical trials and he got her a place.   It was "the least I could do."  As is in his nature to help, he is a doctor after all.

CSI's turn to get on the 'bleeding heart' band wagon and the corporate greed crusade, seeing as CSI:Miami  had two episodes about corporate greed in  season 8.

Sara (Jorga Fox) was missing again.   The comments and laughs were pretty low key to non-existent this episode.   Once again showing companies can and do get away with murder.   This episode was all about the little people as opposed to actually concentrating on the gas company, since that would have been too similar to CSI:Miami's Bad Seed episode.   At the end of the day, the company would get off scot free as all tracks would be covered.   But what about the hit and run driver, he's as much of a liability as Cody was.

Ecklie referring to Catherine not being Erin Brokovich, well she wasn't, although she did appear in that movie as Donna Jensen.  So this wasn't a roundabout, general comment from him.

A topical ep as fracking is always in the news and is a serious subject.

Extracts from "Leaping to Infinity Unofficial and Unauthorized Articles and Essays on Quantum Leap" Book

                                         
Below are some extracts from my Leaping to Infinity Unofficial and Unauthorized Articles and Essays on Quantum Leap book which some of you may find interesting, or not.  Thought it was about time someone recalled the show especially since it has been 20 years since it ended and was given some more coverage!  I loved the show and I'm sure many of you out there did too and still do.

Sam As Hero

Sam gave up his own life and in the process ended up having to save others.  Emphasis on ‘having to’ since this wasn’t his dream.  Unlike HG Wells’ character of the Time Traveller in The Time Machine who was able to return to his own time, he saw the best and worst of humanity but not change it.  Sam could not return.  As Sam tells Al in Catch A Falling Star he has a life; so what about his life?  He can’t live it but has to live for others; through others, vicariously.  This could be deemed his sacrifice.  He’s doomed to travel throughout time and never have his own existence.

Would this confer him as a hero figure much unlike Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, which begins: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” and ends on a completely different note.  As if the “worst of times” was a foreboding of the bad that was to come.  The book ends with “It’s a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done…”
To carry on helping people takes a certain strength of character when Sam could have given up so many times and he displayed this in many of his leaps Including Watts Riots ep, Black On White On Fire.
Though in Revenge of the Evil Leaper and Killin’ Time, Sam attempts to tell people who he really is which is a mammoth task initself, except for the psychic who already knows in Leaping in Without A Net episode.  He tries to change his family’s life in The Leap Home Part 1 but fails miserably as Al tells him, he’s making their lives miserable.  He’s forced to say he made everything up, i.e. the future and being able to see it.  Leap Home Part 2 Vietnam.

Sam as hero is compassionate and supportive.  Independent as far as he could be within the tasks he was given.  But was independent in terms of free will and free spirit.  That independence could to an extent signify this drive, to do right, obsessed to a certain degree with the need to make the world better.  Emphasis on world and not just one person at a time.  Sam is perfect and had what is known as character flaws.  Anger at the cards fate has dealt him, where his own life and family were concerned.  Yet also for those he had to save and some he couldn’t.
Reluctant hero?  No.  Rebellious nature? Yes and maybe sometimes stubborn in that he will cling to what he feels is right and the best thing to do, even though that’s not in the ‘future’ or history.  Nothing is set in stone, least of all character traits, which are always changing and evolving...


Sam As Our Mirror Image

Scott: “Sam’s still out there doing good deeds…we all have a chance to live in everybody else’s shoes everyday and experience and offer everybody a hand everyday – that’s why the show still resonates with people.”

Thus the idea that Sam is in all of us.

His purpose was to prove Time Travel theory and in doing so created an experiment which remains top secret.  Not intended to save the world – Sam ended up doing exactly that.  Well not really the world as Al tells him in the Dr Ruth episode, only to make a difference; an impact in peoples’ lives.  (So maybe they can go on to save the world.)

Sam is the cute guy from all our dreams with gorgeous green eyes and great hair.  Like a character from a comic book, a superhero.  A loner as he’s often described.  Sam is noble, heroic, the do-gooder we all want to have on our side – rooting for us in our corner.

He’s the perfect son who was there for his family but not when his father lost the farm, but that wasn’t his fault.  He wasn’t a brat, but a great brother who wanted to save his brother, Tom. Which he did? And he carries the guilt around for not being able to save his sister, Katie from the abusive husband she marries.  In that sense, Sam is the prodigal son.  Brought up to care.  He’s the genius, the doctor with so many degrees and expert on foreign languages.

You could call him the poster boy of science as he reminds Al several times he’s a scientist.  Sam is a geek, has a photographic memory.  For all his nerd-y-ness and that’s a plus, he’s also a rebel with a cause.  It’s the leap that’s of concern.

His memory ironically turns to Swiss cheese when he leaps.  Sam is a sinner, a scoundrel, a saint.  Each one of his leaps is when he encounters some aspect of these traits on every new journey.

Sam is careful, way smarter than average and the vain jock and jerks at college.  He’s lonely and alone; afraid yet brave.  Some of the time he needs saving, guidance in the right direction from Al.  Sam is the son who left home early, went to college, made an impact.  Fell in love with Donna at college, but couldn’t have her even after he met up with her in a leap.  He sometimes finds life...

Alice in Wonderland In QL

In Starlight Starbright, Meadows says, “Alice in wonderland’s coherent too, but that doesn’t mean I believe in grinning cats who disappear.”  Reference was made to this in the show.  Alice’s journey in Wonderland is akin, almost parallel to Sam and his leaping.

Alice follows the White Rabbit and this is seen as a guide who appears several times to explain the story when things seem to slow down or when not much is happening.  Alluded to Al - he's a "guide" - an observer.  Someone who is there to offer Sam not only guidance, but tell him what he has to do to save the leapee; as well as what the story or the plot for that particularly episode involves.  The flaw is that the white Rabbit keeps looking at his clock and can't provide much help or guidance.  He's only concerned with himself, about himself.  Al has his handlink and communicates with Ziggy but his entire purpose is there to help Sam, never mind getting bogged down in his own life or personal machinations.  Though he does offer his viewpoint irrespective of whether or not Sam wants it.  Especially if it involves a lustful comment about a beautiful woman with a pair of...lovely eyes!  Also Al does mention his own personal woes and dilemmas sometimes.  Such as MIA where the leap was not about him, contrary to him wanting it to be and ensuring he might be able to make it all about himself...

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde In QL

Again in Starlight Starbright, Al once again refers to Hardy and Meadows as “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.”
Though this may not exactly appeal to many, after recently reading The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, I found there were many allusions to Quantum Leap.  Manifesting themselves most apparently in the character of Dr Henry Jekyll.  He is by nature a good man, a scientist and a doctor.  Remind you of Sam?  Thus far, yes. He has friends who he invites to dinner where they converse about science, religion and literature.  However, Jekyll harbours a dark secret of wanting to be 'evil’ and dark in his character and nature.  This is where the similarity ends, but Sam wanted to use his scientific knowledge for time travel and he wanted to do good.

When Sam leaps, he does so into many different, varied and obscure people: some good, some bad.  Yet he comes across both good and evil in most all of his leaps.  God is good.  Sam believes in God, but not in the devil, even though evil exists.  Even after Al tells him the devil is real: look what happened to Al and Beth, for starters.  Also Sam's own encounter with the devil.  Men are both good and evil...

SO if any of this has whetted your appetite then you can get the book here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leaping-infinity-Unofficial-unauthorized-articles/dp/1291438289/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_C6DD

CSI 11.7 "Bump and Grind" Review

                                                
The team investigate the shredded remains of a human body and broach the subject of ID theft, when they come across a company which specializes in ID protection.

A gruesome, gut-wrenching opening (no pun) as a tortured man is fed some soup which contains shredded credit card.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne), Nick (George Eads) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) are called to a CS where the truck driver reported something oozing from his truck.   Ray tests the ooze which turns out to be blood.   Ray comments on 666 being the call sign for suspicious ooze, the 'primordial variety' after Nick asks what the call sign is for this.   Ray was also thinking of buying a cappuccino machine, which he says after the truck is opened to reveal shredded rubbish and DB parts, identified by Nick.   Ray comes across a bit of a shredded credit card and Brass finds a human eye.  "Here's lookin' at you kid."

The driver works for a disposal company, where the manager, Tom is questioned.   The plant shreds all kinds of material, but maintains a body couldn't have been disposed or fallen in due to surveillance cameras.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) corrects him by adding anyone could have disposed of the body by putting it in the shredding bins, used to dump material into the shredder itself, beforehand.   Greg: "A good way to go if disposing of a dead body."  Nick finds human parts inside the shredder.

Sara (Jorga Fox), Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Greg sort through the rubbish collected in the shredder truck, after an 'intense' (ha) face-off involving Rock, Paper, Scissors, which Sara loses with scissors and so has to collect the "yuck."  Sara tells Hodges she knows how he feels not being able to get over Wendy (Liz Vassey) yet, "two ships passing, takes a while for the fog to clear." Greg suggests Hodges should get out more and Hodges thinks he means with him, so begins his calling Greg, 'G'.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) notices Catherine's (Marg Helgenberger) in a good mood and Catherine knows Hodges blabbed about her and Vartann (Alex Carter.)  Doc tells her he's a good man.   Doc describes the DB as a "puzzle" (groan) he'll have to put together.   But he deduced from the bacterial decomposition of the DB that it was dead 36-48 hours DBS, i.e.  Dead Before Shredded.   The skull has a bullet fragment lodged inside, so COD was a gunshot wound to the head.   Greg also found bullet fragments in the shredder waste.

Ray receives a note from Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin) saying, "Thinking of you  XO Nate" and a kidney bean, which angers Ray and he throws the note away, dropping the bean to the floor.   Sara tells him about the credit card Greg found and asks if he's okay, picking up the bean.   Sara smells but he won't tell her that.   Ray's okay.   He doesn't find it easy to open up and when he eventually does, in the past, it's usually been to Nick; who seems to understand Ray, in that respects they are similar as he can tell when something's wrong with Ray and vice versa.

Greg discovers the DNA belongs to an unidentified white male.   Hodges finds pieces of a credit card inside the Vic's stomach contents which consisted of a last meal of clam chowder.   Greg immediately thinks of an old Bond movie, "can't pay up, eat up." He puts together pieces of the card to find the magnetic strip is still there and puts it through the card reader.   Since Nick says the strip has the holder's name printed on it, several times over.   It comes up with a Larry Lamotte, whom Greg recognizes as being from the  ID Preserve ads.   A company selling ID protection.   Greg was a new subscriber, which coincidentally he had to be, otherwise no one would have known who he was, thus requiring more work from them.   Nick doesn't believe Greg would go for something like that, but he tells him ID theft's a common occurrence.

Ray and Brass talk with Elaine (Ginifer King) the executive assistant to Larry and also to Julius Kaplan (Brian Markinson) head of security.   Larry (Norbert Leo Butz) turns up.   Brass comments on him looking younger in the ads.  Since he's played by an actor, which immediately gives us a clue (for those who need it) that if he doesn't appear on his own TV ad then what's he hiding.   Also in an ironic, roundabout way, that Larry's ID has been assumed on the TV by an actor and so it's the same in real life too.   When Ray questions on whether his own credit cards have been stolen, thus providing him for a motive for killing whoever stole his ID, he remarks it's not conducive to waste resources on small fry.   Again this was about much more than money.   Larry asks Elaine for two subscription packages for Ray and Brass, discount for cops, yeah they're really gonna fall for it.   Ooh, sorry Greg did.

Nick informs Catherine of numerous  people accusing ID Preserve of having their IDs stolen after they subscribed and ended up in Nigeria.   One such Vic was Lee Devries (Karl Herlinger) who drove his truck through the company's window and brandished a gun.   He works for a Temp agency which provides workers for the shredding company.   Catherine is more interested in confronting Nick as to why he's not attending anymore therapy sessions.   He attended the mandatory two, but he's not comfortable talking about his feelings.   He's exercising and eating healthily, had to get in a food comment from Nick, following on from Greg saying he's always eating in the Blood Moon episode.   Does this mean he's given up his red meat and burgers!  It's not his 'thing' talking about himself.   Catherine would prefer he still went.   Seems strange for Nick, since he's not one to bottle up his feelings - as we've seen from past experience.   He always confronts them and does talk to his colleagues.   Perhaps he's just not happy sharing with a complete stranger.   Maybe we won't be getting anymore displays of feelings on Nick's part, which is a shame, cos George portrays Nick so excellently.

Brass questions Devries, did I  say questions, I meant interrogates, and he claims he doesn't know what Brass is asking him.  He has debts he can't pay off because his ID was stolen and he has an alibi, all six "people who are claiming to be me."  Greg goes over his own credit card record and rues signing up with ID Preserve.   Hodges tells him about science camp and his friend not being the person he thought he was, when he gave him a haircut.   Greg interjects this isn't the same thing.   Greg finds another fragment in the mix, a tarnished old bullet.   As Hodges puts it, 'an older fragment from a different gun  but found in the same Vic'.   Greg explains the "body's defensive mechanism encapsulates the fragment tissue to protect from infection."  But there's nothing to identify the Vic, aka Shredder guy.

All of the waste has been traced back to ID Preserve by Sara, who use a sub-contractor to supply the bins used for shredding and that company is run by Kaplan.   Blood traces are found in one of the shredder bins, placing Kaplan as a suspect.   Greg informs Catherine of the credit card being mailed to New Mexico, records showing a ticket was bought to Reno and finds a man on the surveillance camera, running him through facial recognition.   Sara and Nick arrive at Kaplan's and have to gain entry.   Nick finds cans of clam chowder as well as a gun.   Sara finds Kaplan shot out the back.   David (David Berman) says he was shot  back to front, the round exited out the front and Sara finds part of it on the ground.   Mentioning some baseball terminology which she attributes to Grissom (William Petersen) again he has to be mentioned for his upcoming episode.   There's also an odd void which turns out to be his beer bottle which fell into the pool when he was shot.   His neighbour had a surveillance camera across the street.

Brass ran prints from the bottle and they hit on a Julian Kirsch, Kaplan's real name.   He was a mob killer who made dinner for his Vics with ground up casino chips.   Elaine was there, cool as a cucumber!  Larry comments that "assuming someone's name is easy, assuming control of your life - that's hard."  Again another clue shouting out that Larry isn't Larry.   Nick says the gun he found, the Glock, killed Shredder guy and it has a history of being used in a shooting in Reno, six years ago.   The shot man walked out of the hospital and Nick has the cold case file.   The good thing about a cold case, as he says, 'technology catches up'.  Greg examines the fragments.

Catherine surmises Shredder guy is the same man who was shot and survived six years ago, returned here and met Kaplan who killed him.   Then Kaplan is killed.   Sara says Shredder guy was recognized by facial recognition as Larry Lamotte.   Recall his comment about taking over someone's life.   The prints on the cartridge Nick examined ID him as Arlo.   He wanted five million and so he paid Larry off.   Nick confirms Arlo's story about making a withdrawal.   Archie (Archie Kao) hits on the partial licence number spotted on the neighbour's footage, belonging to a car rented by Devries.   That would've been too easy, though he could've done with the money.   The car is found and stopped and is being driven by Elaine.   Not a big shock, she was the only one with access to info on everyone and privy to everything happening.   She doesn't care what she did, it was all about the money for her, for working and getting nothing in return, same old story then.

Hodges tells Catherine his 'mandate' was postponed and she asks if he got a haircut, Greg telling her everything he said, after he finds his card's been used in Nigeria.   Ray looks at his scar and opens up to Sara cos Nick went off for a drink without asking Ray!  She tells him not to let Nate get into his head, but too late, he's already there.   It took her a while to realize they should "not define who we are, we get to decide." Words of wisdom from Sara, but she should know after what she's been through.

A bit of a mish-mash of an episode in terms of the storyline, though ID theft is a common  problem in this day and age, the lengths that people went to cover it up was extreme, even for a CSI episode.

Scandal 2.12 "Truth or Consequences" Review

Two Years Ago it's election time and a man shows people how to use the touch screen voting machines in Ohio.  These being manufactured by Cytron.  He then replaces a machine with another.  This is Quinn's (Katie Lowes) dead boyfriend, Jesse (Adam Shapiro) aka Katie's real husband.  David (Joshua Malina) speaks with Hollis (Gregg Henry) and tells him he knows Hollis is part of the election rigging.  David will make a deal with him if he wants to save his neck but he leaves.
Two years ago Jesse asks Hollis for more money after finding out how much he will make billions in an oil pipeline deal.

Everything seems to come toppling down for Olivia (Kerry Washington) as the past catches up with her and the others involved in the vote rigging scandal.  Mellie )Bellamy Young) tries to get Cyrus (Jeff Perry) to make Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) change his mind about the divorce cos she made him who he is.  She rescued him from what his father did to Fitz and restored his spirit and she won't have Olivia taking that away from her.  Cyrus tells her he will handle it like he tells Olivia he will handle Hollis.  Olivia doesn't want to see Edison (Norm Lewis) cos she's despondent. Edison appeals to her "gladiators" to help her cos they know her better than him.  Olivia feels too overcome by the guilt of the past now, yeah only now when things seem to be out of her control and after Fitz recovers from being shot.

Fitz wants Cyrus into looking into the divorce and Fitz calls Olivia telling her to wait in accepting Edison as he's getting a divorce.  Cyrus warns him about how destructive that will be for him and the Presidency, since the Republicans will not accept someone with Olivia's "hue."   That's putting it subtly.

Quinn Says they've found their next client and decides they should come clean about everything they know without judging and she tells them how Huck (Guillermo Diaz) brought her to DC after drugging her since Olivia wanted him to help her.  Abby (Darby Stanchfield) tells them she was seeing David and two years ago Kate (Susan Pourfar) plants a bomb in a package and sends it to Jesse at Cytron.  She also makes sure Quinn knows he cheated on her with another woman and Quinn tells him he's dead.
Abby knows about the vote rigging and Harrison (Columbus Short) says this wasn't about Hollis and the pipeline and figures out it was about rigging the election.  Huck knew everything as he coughs and then sees Olivia.  Olivia tells him "it's being handled" in her usual way and Huck tells her Cyrus will handle it by getting Charlie (George Newbern) to kill Hollis.

Olivia tells Cyrus about coming clean and if they get caught out they will cos it's about justice.  Wherein Cyrus gives her some speech about them being magical and how as Santa they make people believe in them but if they find out the truth and the Republic is brought down they'll be crushing the people by telling them there's no Santa, or Easter bunny or tooth fairy.  Olivia needs to do this.

Olivia turns Hollis in and his office is raided but the only thing they find is the phone he used to call Kate. Olivia thinks if they can find the money trail where he used to pay off Kate for the shooting then they will have concrete proof.  Quinn thinks they can get Hollis's financial records from the computer that Jesse used, the one she spilled coffee on and had to get fixed.  Two years later it's still there.  Huck manages to find an offshore account and trace the payment he made to Jesse a day after the election.  To find if he paid off Kate they'll need her bank details.  So Huck and Harrison pretend to be her attorneys and Huck convinces her to reveal her bank account after he gives her his real name.  He says with the money he will hire a good lawyer so he'll be able to see her.

Huck traces the account but finds it wasn't Hollis who paid her to have Fitz shot.  Olivia tells David it wasn't him but he's already been released as he gets into a lift with Charlie.  Charlie just loves his lifts!  As he did in the season 1 finale when Billy Chambers was killed.  Cyrus shows Fitz his popularity will be down to 10 percent if he divorces Mellie especially now that she's having the baby. He tells Mellie to hatch a plan to keep him from divorcing her and she goes into premature labour with Fitz being called to her side to help deliver the baby.  Well that's one ploy that'll work.

Harrison tells Olivia he's there for her when she talks about her white hat being gone, but she's always had her white hat.  Knew the Hollis story had to have been too easy and someone else must have been behind the shooting.  Darn that's our suspect out the window then and he had a good motive too.  Guess they had to get to the bottom of this vote rigging scandal by now since we're over halfway through, just about and couldn't leave it hanging for much longer.  So starts the shooting storyline again just when we thought the killer was in the bag.

CSI 11.6 "Cold Blooded" Review

                                               
Nick and Greg look into the murder of a father, whose daughter went missing 5 years ago and Ray investigates a dead body found in the desert, with a little help from Hodges.
Ray (Laurence Fishburne) and David (David Berman) are called in after a DB is found in the desert.  Along with a nylon bag, containing styrofoam.   David finds a key chain on the Vic; who appears to have puncture marks on his back, which Ray points out are uniform in pattern, resembling bite marks.   Ray supposes the bitemarks are from "Godzilla."  Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) comments on the monster on the loose.   COD is brain injury caused by sudden deceleration, such as a car accident.   There is perforated skin, muscle.  Hodges (Wallace Langham) can't resist getting involved in the investigation, after his analysis on the bag reveals what was found inside is used to construct simulated muscle.   Thus there are dinosaurs in town! Hodges wants to "go now, go now" in the words of the song.

For the first time, this season, CSI delves into two separate cases.  Nick (George Eads) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) investigate the death of the father, Phil Kohler (William R Moses) whose daughter was abducted and killed 5 years ago.   Det Reed (Katee Sackoff) surmises that the TOD was last night.   Nick tells her about his daughter being murdered 5 years ago.   Along with her friend Rachel.   Their bodies were never found.   Nick met Phil and his wife, Sharon (Marta Martin) who were divorcing now.   Greg finds no tearing around the wound, there are random powder burns around his face and the gun must have been held away from his head, which is strange for a suicide.   Also there's the presence of brunette hair.   His gold watch is missing.  (No, this isn't a case covered in  earlier seasons, as I remember them all, no really I do, all the episodes that is.)

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) questions Sharon, who was the one who gave him the watch.   Coincidentally, she bought the watch as he was going to become a father, so the significance is obvious and poignant at the same time, especially in the flashback to come where he gives it to Carly.   Showing not only he's given up on finding Witney and therefore on closure, but that it might help Carly come to some closure in her life.   Also signifying his end was nigh.  That's a bit of a morbid thought.

Phil had an affair with Carly Beck (Jessica Hect) Rachel's mother, calling it "shared grief."  Greg conducts a 'distance determination' pattern, showing the gun was 36-48 inches from Phil's head when it was fired.   Phil's arm is 30 inches long.   Nick: "that's murder."  The hair is a match to Carly.   Reed apologizes for the remark she made at the house earlier on, as she's been working on her 'sensitivity ' before proceeding to break down the front door to Carly's house.   Yeah, that's sensitive.    Nick sees there are items missing from Rachel's room, as well as a computer and printer.   He finds a photo on the floor of a decomposed body.   Rachel had a grey sweatshirt on and Witney Kohler was wearing purple.   The photo is of Witney's remains.
Kyle (Brett Tucker) hot on the heels of his appearance in the opening episode of season 7 CSI:NY was rather over-doing his Aussie accent here!  Also he didn't turn out to be the killer again.   Hodges comments that one of the dinosaurs ate a man.   He also says they need to see some dinosaurs fight each other, to which Ray replies, no they don't.   Ray finds one dinosaur with blood on its teeth.   Henry (Jon Wellner) identified the logo on the Vic's keychain as being from the university's Paleontology programme.   The Vic's name was Brian ( Nate Hartley).  His fiance was also a student too.   Henry asks Ray to call if he needs help since Hodges called in sick, as we know to take photos with a dinosaur, on the sly!

In contrast to last week's episode, Nick here bats for Carly telling Catherine they don't know that she killed Phil and she couldn't have done it; when Catherine says she could have tried to extort money from Phil, or confronted him about the DB in the photo.  Nick believes Holt  killed the girls.   Nick tells Carly in a flashback to 5 years ago, that he goes out "110% on every case and only work with the evidence, and the evidence tells him only Witney was in the van."  He promises to do everything to help.

Doc's studied the photo and finds that she was probably killed 5 years ago but there's no way to tell how long the DB has been there.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) informs Nick that Holt's been in a coma after a suicide attempt.  Carly wrote him letters begging for him to tell her where Rachel is.   Greg enhanced the photo of Witney and saw billboards in the background.   Identifying these he was able to ascertain where that particular billboard is located.   Nick and Greg find Witney nearby.   COD was strangulation, 2 fingers were severed and an attempt was made to sever the third finger also.   The likely tool is a bandsaw.

Reed interviewed Holt's cousins to find his uncle had a place where Holt used to spend time.   Greg recalls how this case was his first week in the field and feels he should've done more to help.   Nick agrees that sometimes with certain cases you don't feel you are doing enough.   Nick spots a new shovel with a fibreglass handle amongst the old tools.   Greg finds a bag with the initial 'R' on the front.

Jane, (Nora Kirkpatrick) Brian's fiance tells Ray she went back to her dorm, Ray shows her footage of her pashing (to use the Aussie term for making out!) another boy, Travis (James Immekus).   The dinosaurs made her hot under the collar to put it mildly.  Ray conducts a test on Jelloman, by placing him in the mouth of a dinosaur's head, on loan from a colleague at university.   The bite from the T-Rex didn't cause Brian's wounds.   His injuries are more indicative of a fall, so he fell onto the lower teeth from a height.  Ray goes up on the lift and finds blue and yellow fibres in the dinosaur's mouth, similar to those from Brian's clothing.

Reed shows Catherine items Carly pawned for money and the watch.   She is chased and arrested when it's found Carly sold her car.   Nick finds a note in her bag from Holt.   He demanded $5,00 for a map for each girl, showing where he buried their bodies.  She was given the wrong map.   Brass rebukes her for leaving Witney in the desert without telling anyone.   She told Phil, but he wasn't interested and was about to call the police.   He gave her the watch to sell.   She got a call from a friend of Holt's asking for more money for the other map.   The map was sent to her 3 days ago.   Brass tells her Holt has been in a coma for 10 days.

Ray tells Travis he used his credit card to pay for tickets which wasn't very clever.   He knew Jane from before.   There was dirt on his tyres, prints on the control of the lift and blood in his car.   Travis admits it was an accident, Brian wanted a photo with the dinosaur, Jane knocked him off the lift and he fell into the mouth of the dinosaur before falling onto the floor.   All very convenient for Jane.   Ray asks what I was thinking, if it really was an accident, or she just didn't want Brian anymore.   (Remember the fiance is almost always guilty, like the one in the Blood Moon episode.)  She craved red meat and so got a burger on the way home.  She pretty much confirmed she killed him, when she lawyer-ed up.   The red meat being an analogy for Travis, since Brian was a herbivore and she didn't want him anymore.

Nick and Brass find the letter was sent from outside of prison.   Holt got a notepad and wrote to Carly and drew 2 maps.  Richter (Michael Bowman) found Holt and said there was no suicide note.   Nick, Greg and Reed go to Richter's house and Nick recovers part of the map before it's completely burned.   Richter wanted money, he watched Holt hang himself and killed Phil since he'd call the police.   Brass says he should have burned his shirt instead, since they found Phil's blood on it.   Hodges analyzed the shovel, so he got back in time to actually do some lab work!  To find evidence of seeds, soil,  which Greg followed up to a company who specifically used those in a specific area and finds the map led to an intersection.   Here they recover Rachel's remains and Nick has the unenviable task of informing Carly.

Such a different episode to last weeks as far as the Nick/Greg storyline went.   Nick had no compassion for the hoarder in last week's episode, even though she had also lost her daughter.   Infact, she lost 2 daughters, as one was a serial killer.  Yet he showed so much feeling and sympathy towards Carly now and 5 years ago.   Similar to Greg, who last week told Ray he couldn't stand the DBs, but this week he was okay.   Even though he did feel he should have done more back then.   Nick was right when he said he gave more than a 100% on each case, since it's in his nature to go the whole 9 yards, as shown by his meticulous dedication working on the map to finally give Carly closure.

Sara's (Jorga Fox) turn to be absent this week.   Catherine had very little to do for someone who is meant to be leaving soon.

Also why the addition of Katee Sackhoff (that's Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica to most people) when they've got Brass in the show, as it relegates the permanent cast members to bit parts when this happens.   It's okay when there are more cops needed, but Ray didn't have anyone helping him, other than Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) and that was only in the beginning, so Brass wasn't being utilized anywhere else.

Supernatural 6.22 "The Man Who Knew Too Much" Review

                                             
Sam wakes having lost his memory and tries to avoid the police. Apparently his wall breaks and he comes across other versions of himself. Cas is on track with his plans to take the souls.

 Sam (Jared Padalecki) is being chased by the police and runs into an alley and a bar where he meets a bartender - Robin.  (Erica Cerra)  He can't recall his name.  "I don't remember anything."  He woke on the park bench and doesn't have time for a doctor as he needs to be somewhere to stop something important.   Sam's wall breaks as was expected since he got his soul back and now that finally happens.   Maybe that shouldn't be wall but levee.   Sam finds an HP Lovecraft book on the shelf.   Then has flashes where he he finds a hotel on a computer - where he's staying.

Robin goes with him.   Sam: "I could be anybody."  Ooh eerie echo of Meg's words from season 1 ep Scarecrow when she met Sam hitchhiking and said she could be some dangerous "freak." He had the room with the fire escape cos it's the quickest route for a getaway.   Room number 07, heading for season 7 of the show perhaps?  His room is filled with clippings, just like Dad used to do.  Jimmy Page is his fake ID, Angus Young, Neil Pert.  Ellie (Kim Johnston Ulrich) is found in an alley after she went missing, where she's dying.

Ellie could have handled the demon (Crowley) not the angel, Cas (Misha Collins).   She told the two about purgatory and they needed the blood of a purgatory native.   The moon and eclipse are tomorrow when purgatory can be opened.   Bobby (Jim Beaver) loses someone close again.  Cas apologizes.   Dean (Jensen Ackles) tells him he's lost the plot but he needs to stop Raphael.  Cas can save Sam when it's all over and only if they stand down.

Cas made Sam forget.   He remembers his name is Sam.   He was with two men and one was "a male model type" obviously another reference to Dean, his looks and Jensen's days as a model.   Sam has an address for Bobby in his diary - why would he have an address for him written down; when he knows the place and location.   He also has Dean's Impala.   Someone fires shots at them outside, it's Sam.

Dean meanwhile sits by Sam's side again as in 2.21/22, All Hell Breaks Loose, when Sam died and he was conflicted over what to do.   Here we now see that Sam's wall has definitely broken and he's in agony.   Dean's desperate to help him Bobby says they don't know what's happening in Sam's head and they can't afford to lose another man if Dean falls apart.   Sam smells whiskey.   Sam's locked inside his head.   Dean shines a light into Sam's eyes and it's day in his mind.   Great effect.

Sam finds weapons in the car and Sam wouldn't really be driving the Impala.   He goes in search of the Sam who fired at them.   That's soulless Sam.   "Am I really that gawky?"  He's dreaming.  Cas brought his wall down and Sam the "pathetic infant" shattered.   Hey he got that line from Dean when he called Cas a child.   He was strong without a soul.   "Souls are weak," says soulless Sam, who is shot by Sam.   There's another Sam.   The real one has a fit and recalls everything he did over the lat year.   Sam recalls Robin being held by a demon and he shot her to get the demon.   He's sorry, he was meant to care.

Balthazar (Sebastian Roche) turns up and calls them "mudfish."  Giving them Cas's location and he's decided to help them.   In the process he's betraying "a very powerful friend."  Who has lost his scruples and his marbles.   Anyway Cas has betrayed them too and he made the first move.   He needs half monster and half virgin blood and Crowley (Mark Sheppard) comments Cas looks "more constipated than usual."  Going back to what Dean said to him when he attempted to vanish in the episode when they were after Eve, Mommie Dearest, and he couldn't do it.    Cas is going back on the agreement - by demanding all the souls.   Crowley can leave or die.

Sam finds another one of himself in Bobby's kitchen.  the one from the cage.  "The one that remembers hell."  Dean leaves the address behind for Sam if he wakes up.   Sam knows he's at Bobby's and smells whiskey again and old spice.   Sam needs to know everything he did.   He can't leave Dean alone since it all comes down to family as always.   Sam is given a knife to end it all and his memories return.

Cas knows Dean's here, there's a Judas among them and he kills Balthazar.   So much for friendship in his blind quest, he didn't even blink.   As Dean said he's off the rails.   (Similar to what Dean said to Sam in season 4.19 Jump the Shark; "he's so far off the reservation" with his demon blood fest.)   Demon smoke attacks and Dean likens them to a T-Rex.   Courtesy of Crowley.   Cas's power doesn't work on him and he has a new partner, Raphael, (Lanette Ware) in a woman's body.   His new meat suit from season 6.15 The French Mistake.   Crowley says he's got "sweaty hands."

Cas will destroy him, obviously.   It's not real blood they have.   Raphael wants to be the new 'god.' Crowley repeats Cas's line of "flee or die."  Didn't they think of that.   The car's overturned outside and and nothing happens when Crowley chants.   Raphael catches Dean's knife.   Sam got here quickly and he has flashes of being tortured.

Cas returns with the proper blood and goes nuclear.   All that power - all in him.   Crowley "sounds sexy." Crowley makes a hasty exit since Cas has plans for him and Raphael is killed by Cas.  So just how many angels were left after this killing spree.

Cas is arrogant and he saved them.   They doubted him, fought him but he was right.   Dean wants him to return the souls where they belong before the eclipse ends.   They were family once.  "Before I'd have died for you - I did a few times."  Dean doesn't want to lose Cas and Cas thinks he's only saying that cos he won.  Sam stabs Cas but nothing happens - he's not an angel.   Cas: "I'm your new god."  He demands they bow before him or he'll destroy them.   - Er don't think so!

Parts of this episode was an anti-climax to the season which had its share of ups and downs as far as episodes were concerned.   It wasn't consistent as past seasons of the show.   We know Cas was going to succeed with opening purgatory one way or another  and that Crowley and Raphael were going to be powerless against him.   Cas has become even more arrogant of late so with that purgatory power trip, there was nothing else left left for him but to proclaim himself god.   He thinks no one can fight, challenge or destroy him now.   There's a danger in becoming too familiar and caught up in one's own greatness.   There'll always be someone out there who's better and more powerful

Sam's wall breaking was to be expected but  Cas's part in helping it along the way wasn't.   What's more  is Cas believes this would be a distraction for Dean, leaving  him free to charge ahead full speed with his plans.  His arrogance and paranoia (delusions of grandeur) is further shown by demanding all three kneel before him.   Had a flashback moment to Zod in Smallville  and his line of "kneel before Zod."  Sorry

As an avid fan  (who wrote a book on the show, not plugging here) but Supernatural did far better season finales than this and was a big letdown in terms of plot and cliffhanger, what cliffhanger? To think that the brothers and Bobby fought off every kind of monster and demon conceivable and possible, Azazel, Eve even, without any outside help and now they were stymied when it came to Cas.   A friend/ frenemy now and they knew all Cas's moves.   Especially since Dean taught  him how to be who he is, so he took this freedom way too far.

This episode's saving grace had to be the scenes with Sam, in my opinion.   Working out who he is with his memory loss; finding out he killed Robin in order to kill a demon when he was soulless and repenting for his past actions was the highlight.   Giving Jared a chance to play soulless, vindictive, guilty, sorrowful Sam and redeemed Sam all in one.   Finally meeting his dejected self from hell and the cruelty inflicted upon him by Lucifer and Michael was truly breathtaking and sad.   With Dean being helpless and unable to help once more.

Dean had his hellish moments as well in season 4 as he was made to torture in hell, which don't compare to Sam's ordeal (not to belittle Dean's experiences of hell) Sam's were of a different making and what made it worse was he had no soul when he returned and couldn't remember all of it, whereas Dean did.   At least Sam came to join in the fight at the end, not that there was much of a fight.

CSI 11.5 "House of Hoarders" Review

                                              
Nick, Sara and Greg discover bodies in a house where the owner hoards every item she ever came across, as a piece of her life. They believe her to be responsible for the murders of several boys, all buried in the garden.

Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) and his partner are on a call out.   When they try to get into the house, they need to break the door down.   After several attempts, the door gives way to reveal the house if brim full of clutter and junk.   The owner, Marta Santiago (Bertila Damas) suffers from a hoarding obsession/disorder.   She was ordered by the court to clean out her house.   Nick (George Eads) asks Sara (Jorga Fox) how people can live like this.   Sara replies it's more like "somebody died like that."  Nick manages to find a DB when he puts his foot into the remains.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) jokes about Nick "stepping in it."   The body can't be moved until they clear a way for David (David Berman) to get in.   Marta is helped out of the room by Sara.   Marta's whole life is in this house as she tells Sara.   Also that she's living with 'ghosts'.   Marta notices Nick going through her things and loses her temper at him.

Greg is tasked with helping David remove the body from the house.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) describes the Vic as being in her '20's.   COD was an epidural haematoma (blow to the head.)  Ray (Laurence Fishburne) comments her wound is akin to a barcode and if she was killed with something from the house, then it's still there.

Nick, Sara and Greg sift through the contents of the house.   Brass (Paul guilfoyle) attempts to track down other family members.   Sara notices blood drops and follows the trail.   Luminol won't show up so Sara suggests they use hydrogen peroxide, which will foam wherever there is any blood.   Nick thinks Marta killed Diana because she tried to clear the house and her mother hit her.   In much the same way as she got angry with Nick.   The blood trail leads to a grandfather clock.

 Sara talks to Julian (Ramon Ocampo) her son, telling him they're investigating a homicide.   Tears well in his eyes when she tells him it's his sister, Diana.   He's not aware of the whereabouts of his other sister, Alisa (Georgie Flores) but tells Sara how hard it was for them growing up in this house.

Dr Prescott (Annie Wersching) informs Ray that Marta doesn't have it in her to be violent.   She's a hoarder and hoards everything family orientated.   She didn't know about Diana and kept her body there for so long because she suffers from "clutter blindness." Marta's  level 5 on the scale of hoarding and so it's likely she would never have found her body.   Marta claims to have a bad memory, but when Dr Prescott tries to throw away her pen, Marta wants it since Diana used it.   Ray comments her memory is good for her to recall this.   He shows Marta the photos of the grandfather clock, which is an heirloom.   The blood belongs to Diana.   The blood trail goes on and leads to a pile of magazines and Greg identifies the barcode pattern on Diana's wound.

Marta tells them Diana found something when she was clearing up and things fell down.   She doesn't tell Ray what Diana found.  Presumably that was a DB then.   Greg accidentally knocks a gun which goes off, causing Nick and Sara to burst into laughter.  Nick commenting he's the one who stepped in it now.   The skeleton is that of a male - his hands were tied in front of him with a red coloured ribbon.   Nick and Sara have an altercation as to what Marta thought was more important - her home and not her family.   Sara believes she suffered a trauma.   Nick: "You can be traumatized, but still take out the damn trash." Very judgemental on Nick's part in not even attempting to understand Marta's compulsive hoarding and what could have caused it.   He's prejudicial to an extent, if her house had been spotless, he'd be more inclined to agree with Sara.   Since Marta's a hoarder, it automatically means she's a killer and it's much easier to hide the body.   As Sara tells him, he's getting too far ahead of the evidence.   Sara offers to process Marta, as they had an understanding, probably in an attempt to get away from Nick and his blind attitude too.

The male DB is described as being between 15-17 so it can't be Marta's husband, unless she married young.   Doc allows Ray to take a bone marrow sample for analysis.   Sara finds it difficult in having to fingerprint Marta.   Henry (Jon Wellner) finds the Vic died of acute arsenic poisoning.

Sara tells Greg that Nick's not in touch with the case.   Ray takes Dr Prescott to the house and she also tells Nick Marta isn't a killer.   She organizes her house visually.   Nick wonders if they're "trash whispering" and Ray replies if they listen very carefully, they may find something and they did.

Marta's organized some storage boxes on a different side of the house and Dr Prescott thinks they're time capsules, containing Alisa's items, such as her prom dress.   They come across Alisa's room which is completely empty.   Sara calls them to the garden, where three DBs have been discovered, bound in the same way as the second DB.   All the Vics died from acute arsenic poisoning.   Three are identified as runaways from a halfway house where Julian worked.   He also got Alisa a job there.   One Vic, Matthew, had been seeing Alisa.   Brass believes they were all potential boyfriends of Alisa's and Julian killed them.   He lawyers up.

From the storage boxes, Ray believes Marta was regressing and attempting to put Alisa back into her womb.   They find another door and inside they find Alisa, handcuffed to her bed.   Nick talks with her in hospital, removing his cap, so she'll recognize him.  Yeah Nick, she'll remember your hair or lack of, ha.   He asks who did this to her and that he can protect her; she replies it was her mother.   Well that's all he wanted to hear.

Greg tells Ray he could handle the trash but not the bodies.  This is unusual for such a comment coming from Greggie too, since he has been surrounded by plenty of DBs in his time in the field.   Also in last weeks episode where he was confronted by more blood and gore, such as the Vic killed in the carwash, he wasn't affected by it in the same way as here.   Some strange thinking and writing going on from the writers in this episode where Greggie and Nicky are concerned.

Sara believes something isn't quite right.   Greg analyzes the handcuffs and the scratches where someone tried to remove the serial number.   They were purchased from a local gun store by Julian.   Nick wants to know why Sara can't see past Marta's guilt.  Sara thinks Julian killed the boys and hid them there; having some sort of a hold over his mother.   Ray tells them they have to look at the evidence, being the voice of reason and attempting to tell Sara she needs to walk away, which is what she does before he's finished his sentence.   Nick wants to speak to Marta, but before he can do so, Julian has a lawyer for his mother.

Ray and Nick find the ribbon ends can provide them with a time-line for when the Vics were killed.   The ribbon was torn using teeth and this will give them DNA.   Dr Prescott tels Sara and Greg where to look for the ribbon, in its original packet.   Sara finds a box of rat poison, in it's original box, and the ribbon too.   The poison contains arsenic.   Ray tells Alisa they have her DNA as she killed the boys.   Her mother handcuffed her attempting to stop her from killing.   She blames her mother and that she made everyone leave.   Julian also blames their mother for Alisa's condition, but Sara tells him Alisa is more disturbed than anything her mother did to her.

Sara relays the story of her schizophrenic mother stabbing her father in the heart one night.   Sara survived her traumatic childhood, as did Julian.   Marta won't be prosecuted if she helps with the case and the rest is up to her and Julian.   Ray and Nick in yet another discussion (in Blood Moon they talked of the monsters they come across in their work) and here Ray tells him about consumption and hoarding - that in the '60's people had less in their houses, whereas today, it's all about having.

Nick cleans out his desk and he and Sara have another chat about Gil (William Petersen) since we know he makes an appearance soon.   He finds the blue marble Gil gave him and Sara has one too.   They got back to being on speaking terms very quickly and without any apologies either, suppose they don't need to apologize having known each other for ages.   Nick realizing he was wrong about Marta, but he didn't admit as much.   It was good to see some tension between the two, they haven't had an argument like that before.   Nick not understanding how Sara could bond with Marta in the way that she did.   Or that Sara was blinkered when it came to Marta being guilty.   But Sara was right, she didn't kill anyone and wasn't responsible for Alisa's affliction either.   She was just a cold-blooded serial killer, who thought she could use her mother as justification for killing those boys.   No one drove her to murder except Alisa herself.

Nick and Sara have a brother/sister relationship in a way,  but after knowing her for so long, he still doesn't really know her.   She also told Julian about her mother and not anyone that she works with, having more of an affinity with what they both went through as children.   She also believes telling Julian about her own mother will help him deal with his, since in the beginning he wasn't moved or emotional when he asked if his mother was dead when Sara told him about the homicide.   His reaction upon hearing it was Diana was more emotional.

Nick was rather out of character this episode, as he's the last one to make such insensitive comments and strange the writers having Nick being the one to talk and act like he did.   Ray, as usual is the voice of reason, this time between Nick and Sara, but she's not listening when she walks out the lab.

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) was missing this time round.

This episode of the show embarked upon a topical issue as hoarding is in the news at the moment, but not so in the UK, though lately the UK is getting its own epidemic of hoarders.   The US seems to be affected by it in a big way.   CSI choosing to shed light on such a major disorder.