A singer performs at a club whilst a woman is beaten and killed. Silvana (Sandra Vergara) and Antonio Jaramillo) find her DB in Silvana's dressing room. Nick (George Eads) confirms this isn't the primary CS as there isn't any blood here. Also Marta (Alexandra Manea) has been dressed in an outfit from Silvana's wardrobe. David (David Berman) finds evidence of blunt force trauma and TOD is about six hours ago. Marta was Silvana's sister so DB (Ted Danson) wants to know why Marta was dressed in Silvana's clothes and made to look in her mirror. He sees a photo on the wall with blood and behind it is a message in Spanish reading , "Silvana eres la proxima," that Silvan is next, well Nick has to translate it. Silvana tells DB that Marta went shopping and designed her costumes.
Greg (Eric Szmanda) and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) arrive at the scene where protesters stand outside protesting about Cuba. Greg says she's a famous singer in Cuba and Morgan wonders why she hasn't heard of her. Well Greg is a bit of an afficianado on music, all kinds. Their manager, Antonio tells Officer Crawford (Alimi Ballard) wait he's a detective now as he's no longer in uniform; that they both received death threats. So he was their security. Crawford also noticed that he had a government official stamp on his passport. So he was here to ensure they returned back to Cuba and was their handler. Antonio talks about Eddie Santos (Castulo Guerro) and how he's been following them all round Vegas.
Morgan finds traces of a black substance on the floor, there's also a fibre near the chair and more that lead to the back door of the alley where outside there's a trash disposal and inside Morgan finds the sack that was used to move Marta's DB. Yes, but why dump it there and not take it to dump elsewhere. Okay jumping the gun here, but I suspected Silvana already. Just wanted to make that clear.
Sara (Jorga Fox) questions Estefan (Ignacio Serricchio) who owns the club and he has no security cameras working except the one at the cash register. Sara reprimanding him for this as he thinks money is more important than the people. He doesn't like the protesters and he's Cuban American. His parents came here when he was 11. Sara tells him to fix the cameras or he won't be going on with the show.
Doc (Robert David Hall) calls Finn (Elisabeth Shue) to autopsy and she asks him about the music he's paying. He went to Cuba 15 years ago for a forensics symposium and he could tell her a story or two but tells her about Marta. She has signs of torture where the hands and feet are tied, he calls it hog tying, then made to sit on a chair and beaten. When in Cuba he was told this technique is used by the police. There are signs Marta had sex and he finds a piece of metal embedded in her foot.
Ecklie (Marc Vann) waits for Hodges (Wallace Langham) to confront him about Morgan writing a deposition for his immigration approval and hopes that he doesn't let her down. As his supervisor he should have come to him and even his mother is angry about him not telling her. SO they're still dating then. Hodges tells DB the black residue is oil and the metal is coated in chrome, both leading to an auto shop. There's only three places that do this and one is near to the club. Here Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) and Nick find the shop open and inside is evidence of Marta being tortured here. Eddie arrives and is arrested.
Eddie is known as the face of the Cuban exiles and he was following them around, as he says it's a free country but he didn't kill her or rape her. He freely gives his DNA. Thought Nick and Brass were a bit heavy handed in their interrogation, sure he's a suspect but he's old and may not be guilty after all. Henry (Jon Wellner) finds his DNA doesn't match to the rape kit but there's a secondary match, either to a sibling or to someone like a nephew. DB thinks if Greg's friend Diane was here she could have looked up the family history but Greg knows enough to do that for himself.
Doc finds Marta's lungs were cherry red inside thus meaning she was poisoned and then beaten up at the same time. Sara looks at her phonebills and finds three calls made to a number in Washington DC. She's thinking CIA when access is denied to the caller. Nick still has his dog and has to bring him to work. Hodges tells him about Elisabetta and Morgan's deposition. Nick is looking forward to meeting her. He says he would have agreed to vouch for him. Hodges finds Marta was fed cassava leaves. They're used for medicinal purposes when handled correctly otherwise they can release cyanide into the bloodstream.
Greg finds out about the Santos family tree, finding an army photo from 1973, showing that Eddie was in the army under a General Cuerto, he was Silvana's and Marta's grandfather. Eddie and some other man made a remark about the general having black market connections and found themselves in prison where they were tortured for six years by him. So they think this is a feud between the two families. Eddie's sister married and had a son called Estefan who is Eddie's nephew. Morgan and Greg tell him about finding his DNA on Eddie's couch where he assaulted Marta when Silvana is rehearsing and she collapses.
Silvana ends up in hospital, this is where Silvana was confirmed as the killer for me. She also has the same symptoms of cyanide poisoning but in her case the method of ingestion was different. Hodges finds she was given capsules or took them inadvertently without realizing they were poisoned. Greg found a bottle of Tilo and so the prints on the bottle and capsules are checked. They match Antonio. He of course was the 'patsy' as they say and set up by Silvana to take the fall. Estefan says he loved Marta and couldn't hurt her. He knew the sisters when he was younger and they were friends. Eddie's place was where they could meet in secret. Silvana tells DB she shouldn't have come here and none of this would have happened but she wanted to be a star here. Also that he should find who killed Marta. Another giveaway she was behind the murder. Marta dies and she survives. Don't think so.
Morgan gives Hodges Silvana's stomach contents and he gets a call from immigration confirming the approval of the Green card. He has ninety days within which to get married. Morgan wishes him well but clearly she's not happy to hear that and walks off in a bit of a huff. Ecklie spoke to the State Department and was told the sisters were defecting to the US, giving more motive for Antonio to be behind the killing. Crawford tells them Antonio took Silvana from the hospital and they're at the hotel room. When he arrives a gunshot is heard and they see Antonio standing over Estefan with a gun. With Silvana in the bathroom saying Antonio tried to kill her.
Antonio claims self defence. Estefan had the gun and did you see how fast Silvana ran into the bathroom and closed the door! Greg finds another fibre on the floor and on the air conditioning vent. Inside is a bag with blood, the leaves and the rope used to tie Marta. The blood matches Marta and the bag belongs to Antonio. So why would he keep the evidence anyway if he was the killer. Antonio admits the Tilo was his but he's being framed. Hodges double checks all the evidence and then tells DB he found some evidence which belongs to an old Chevy. They immediately think Eddie since he was driving an old car but his car hasn't been cleaned. DB them notices the photo with Silvana, behind her is a car. The assistant told them he hadn't seen anyone return such a clean hire car before.
DB confronts Silvana who confesses she was in love with Estefan but Marta took him from her. She'd kill her again is only she could bring Estefan back. DB plays song lyrics to her about love for Estefan. Also how she would get redemption, but DB tells her there wont be any redemption for her here.
I'm sure that part about the song lyrics being a giveaway has been done before but at the moment I can't recall where I've seen it before. Probably another CSI episode of one of the shows. This one was a little lacklustre of an episode in that it wasn't too original. It's not the first time a sibling has killed another over love. Was it me or did Hodges look as though he may be having second thoughts about the marriage, especially since the language barrier is one aspect, but everyone also keeps bringing up the marriage as does Morgan, who really isn't as happy for him as she makes out to be.
Nice continuity there with Greg twice over, first with his knowing about music and having heard of Silvana too. Then with the knowledge he's acquired from seeing Diane at work with family trees. Perhaps an episode which would have been more at home in CSI:Miami and one where Det Carlos Moreno (Enrique Murciano) would have been good in.
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