DB (Ted Danson) arrives and takes over the CS. Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) it appears had another axe to grind with her heavy handedness and has she taken a leaf out of Stella's book when it comes to treating suspects in such a hostile way. He was a paedophile - yes - but there was an easy solution to that if the parents of Fiona had taken care of their daughter and reported him. Then she changed her tune when she needed the same suspect, John Lee's (James Harvy Ward) help in identifying the other suspects who came and went at the house. Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) also showing the Vegas brass (!) can be as humiliating and cold as the CSI:NY lot used to be. They've come a long way as far as the treatment of suspects harshly is concerned but the Vegas team appear to have gone back to the older NY ways, at least some of them.
The CSIs investigate the murders of an entire family in an environmentally friendly house after blood spurts out from sprinklers onto a couple making out in a car outside. The blood was draining out of a DB in the shower, who had been stabbed with a towel bar. The husband, Cal was shot twice and the grandmother was also stabbed. Their four year old, Fiona (Kyla Kennedy White) was shot once. Catherine notices she was redressed and cleaned up, showing someone cared about her. That was the first clue. The case is so serious even Under Sheriff Ecklie (Marc Vann) is at the scene. Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) arrives after getting lost and Nick (George Eads) comments on Ecklie being at the scene too should be fun for her.
Fiona's bedroom window was broken from the outside in and DB notices blood on the glass. A blood trail leads to across the street and there's blood on the front door. Brass tells them to wait outside, until he gives them a Code 4. DB hears him arresting a suspect and assumes that's the Code 4. John Lee has Fiona's clothes. Everything in his room is identically arranged to that of Fiona's even down to a dollshouse by the window, but Catherine spots the dollshouse is different. On the roof are photos of her as a baby and older, so he's been watching her for years.
John claims he didn't kill them and he cleaned her up. Catherine processes him instead of a male CSI and he is embarrassed. Brass resorts to turning down the thermostat and opens the blinds more. He's left to shiver and remains naked whilst they question him. He confesses to the killings when Brass frightens him with what will happen in prison. Morgan finds boot prints outside Fiona's widow which are deep impressions. Greg (Eric Szmanda) processes her bedroom.
Leslie Gitig (Amy Davidson) walks into the station and confesses to the killings of the Chambliss family, cos Cal didn't leave his wife. She even tells them where she dumped the gun and wants to be video taped. She's a legal secretary so she knows the procedure. Greg finds a vast amount of baking soda in their house; so Morgan thinks they were dealing drugs. Sara (Jorga Fox) posits they didn't find any cos they weren't looking and they return to the house. Sara's driving as she knows the way. Sara discovers a hidden panel in Fiona's room, where John used to see people coming and going. His confession is in doubt since he admits he loved her and so he wouldn't turn around and shoot her.
Leslie claims to have used a knife on the mother when she was actually stabbed 24 times by a towel rail. The family was dealing to make ends meet. In the panel where the drugs were stashed, they locate a print belonging to Lonny Gallows, a former drug user with a record. At the construction site where he works, Nick finds bloody boots inside his truck, and a gun, which his father, maurice (Chris Mulkey) claims are his. He admits to killing them cos his son was in rehab but when he met Cal he began using again. That doesn't explain why he would kill the whole family though. Since his beef was with Cal. Maurice's confession results in Leslie being freed and John released on bail.
DB goes over their confessions and finds they're identical. "I did it. I killed the Chambliss family." Remindig him of "I killed Cock Robin," which Nick, Brass and Ecklie don't get. So he clarifies with his explanation of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train. They all got together. Catherine finds the connection: Leslie had a car accident and met up with John and Maurice when she'd sit outside and watch Cal. She killed the grandmother, the mother and shot Fiona cos John couldn't do it. Maurice killed Cal. Catherine wants to talk to DB but he's interrupted and she decides not to go through with it.
DB: "There is no perfect crime, but if you create enough reasonable doubt, you might just have the perfect defence."
DB mentions his family a lot and seems his world revolves around them. Even pointing out John has the mind of a child cos of the food he kept in his freezer and thus his reasons for liking Fiona. Being family orientated, he has a "family meeting" with Greg, Nick and Morgan, where he asks them to put their hands up if they agree or disagree with a certain scenario. Greg changes his mind at one point.
Hodges (Wallace Langham) in another funny mishap scene burned his hand when he put it in battery acid, leaving Nick with another antic to laugh over. It's just so Hodges to do something like that. Also Brass telling Maurice he can relate to a child being addicted as his own daughter, Ellie, went through the same. DB looks at Brass wondering how he could relate to him. It was good to see Brass in a humanizing moment after his earlier taunts.
A dark episode for CSI and this was reflected in the film quality and events taking place at night, in contrast to the first episode of the season which was much lighter in terms of the filming.
Morgan is fitting in really great and she's one character I really like as a newcomer. She's young and brings a different approach to the show, also bringing in fresh eyes, but she's got talent and experience. "I love it when I'm right," she says when they find the drugs. So do I! ha. Greg calling Morgan 'Hollywood' was sweet and she didn't seem to mind either.
New ballistics expert, Xiomara Garcia (Monique Gabriela Curnen) is recruited. The thing with them is they don't last long. She also didn't do anything any of the CSIs couldn't have done.
There were variables in the suspects' plans which could have gone wrong and there was no way they could have accounted for these. The most obvious one: human nature. When John turns around and kills Leslie cos she shot Fiona - he couldn't do it himself. The other one was Maurice and his son and Leslie probably counted on him taking the blame, but then she went free. Leslie as a legal secretary didn't realize what could go wrong - which is why she was just a secretary and not a lawyer. Aiming for reasonable doubt would not have worked since one of them would be caught and accused of the killings. So why go along with it? If John didn't want to shoot Fiona he had the gun, he could have shot Leslie instead and saved Fiona since he shoots her in the end anyway and then shoots himself.
Larry Mitchell who plays Det Mitchell wrote the story for this episode. Jaime Gomez, Officer Cantelvo was last seen in CSI:Miami season 9 ep On the Hook as the parole officer, Neil Perkins Horatio threw out of the window. CSI has already delved into Strangers on a Train in the episode A Night at the Movies where ironically the film being screened was Strangers on a Train and CSI:NY had a go with Commuted Sentences. In CSI:Miami Slaughterhouse, the murder of an entire family was investigated, the only survivors of which were the baby and father. Season 1 CSI Blood Drops involved the investigation of a quadruple murder of a mother and father and two teen sons. The survivors were two daughters. Also the season 6 episode Gum Drops where they suspected the murder of a whole family but needed the DBs to actually prove this. The evidence showed three were killed but Nick believed the daughter was still alive.
The title Tell Tale Hearts made me ponder over why the episode was called this and I keep coming back to Edgar Allan Poe's short story, the Tell Tale Heart. Probably nothing in it, but it's just in this story the narrator killed the old man he lived with cos of his eye he believed kept watching him. After burying the old man he gives himself away to the police as he can still hear his heart beating underneath the floorboards. Here the only suspects the CSIs had was John. No one even knew about Leslie or even Maurice until Leslie walked in with a confession. So these two might have gotten away with the murders and were home free with John's confession. So why bother making herself a suspect?
In attempting to set up reasonable doubt, they all end up being caught and guilty of murder. Just as in Poe's story, the narrator in trying to show he is sane leads himself to admit he committed the murder.
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