CSI 11.17 "The List" Review

                                             
Whilst investigating the murder of an ex cop in prison, Nick finds a list in his belongings naming many of LVPD's detectives. Lots of twists in this episode which made great viewing.

A fight ensues in prison where one man is killed.   Nick (George Eads) and Ray (Laurence Fishburne) back together again.   Nick: "Hate that sound" when the prison gates close.   The Warden (Chris Ellis)  suggests they might want to turn their jackets around as half of the men were put here by them.   Maybe half of them are here because of Nick, but Ray hasn't been here that long.   Ray's unperturbed by them and Nick is ready to face them too.   "Let them take a good, long look then."  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) explains the DB was an ex cop, Vance (Bryan Friday) and he worked some cases with him in the past.   He had a short fuse.   Nick finds multiple stab wounds.   Vance killed his wife, Anne Marie (Dina Meyer) who was also a cop.   Vance was getting a new trial.   There's medical tape on the handle of the shiv so there won't be any prints from it.

Ray shouts out orders to the prisoners, demanding their clothes.   Ray: "There will be consequences - prison will not protect you."  Ray in full anger mode.   Was probably taking his anger over Haskell (Bill Irwin) out on them.   They process the prisoners and Ray ends up with the Arian, who thinks he can scare Ray.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) and David (David Berman) count 27 sharp force wounds and David says prison is an ugly place to get killed.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) comes in for her usual lowdown with Doc Robbins.   Catherine comments Vance used to be good looking and was quite the charmer.   COD was exsanguination due to sharp force injuries.   The killer had to have been covered in blood and was right handed.   Nick checks Vance's cell and finds his notebook with the list of names inside, including Brass.  Nick doesn't tell Brass what he's found and he didn't like 'lying' to Brass or keeping things from him, from the uneasy look on his face, but it really wasn't his place to tell him.   Brass describes Anne-Marie, Annie as he calls her, as sexy and wasn't the type to settle down.   He ponders why Vance has photos of her in his cell if he killed her.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) checks out the video surveillance from the prison, but can't see anything in the tussle.   The colours of their clothes are like a Redskins' game.   Ray calls it a hit.   Greg and Ray use dummies to reconstruct the fight and the stabbing, and work out the blood spatter on their clothing using lasers.   Carlos (Rey Gallegos) and Jose (Hector Atreyo Ruiz) were on the side and Tomas (Luis Jose Lopez) stabbed Vance.   Brass questions Tomas and does a 'walker' motion, indicating he'll get old in prison.   The hit was a favour for someone on the outside.   Nick tells Catherine about the list.   Vance had a case for a new trial and Annie was sleeping around.   Catherine knew Annie and she wasn't doing anything that men wouldn't do, it's double standards.   Nick comments it's cos they were doing it with her.  The list of "bedfellows" includes Brass, Ecklie and Vartann (Alec Carter).   Catherine calls it ancient history; commenting Brass was a player back in the day and had this Jack Nicholson thing going.   The killer was a cop on the list.   But you know it won't be one of their own.

Half of the list worked Annie's murder case.   Brass was the lead and Vartann was his second.   Catherine wonders why they didn't recuse themselves.   When this hits the fan, it will reflect on them.   No wonder Sara (Jorga Fox) wasn't around in this episode and neither was Hodges (Wallace Langham.)  Brass explains he met her at a homicide convention in New Orleans, she was sexy, as he told Nick already, and they hooked up, but he told his boss about it.   Ecklie (Marc Vann) describes his meeting with her as "dinner with benefits"  and he didn't handle any of the evidence personally.   This lot come across as having very loose morals don't they, anything for a pretty face.   Catherine suggests they start with the gangbangers.   Nick and Ray throw Carlos and Jose's things from their cell when searching.   Ray finds a phone belonging to Carlos.   The Warden says the visitor's log had Jody (Melinda Page Hamilton) visiting Vance.   She was Annie's sister and tells Nick Vance wrote her everyday and one day she decided to read the letter.   Notice the photos of Annie everywhere, just like Vance had photos of her in his cell too.   She tells Nick what they already know, that Vance was getting a new trial and many of them investigated her murder.   Vance believes he was set up.   Annie was in love with someone else and was leaving him for another cop.   Jody was a bit cagey, saying she believes he didn't kill her, because she just knows.   Yeah, cos she knew Annie was still alive.

Catherine meets with Vartann and asks about his leg, which he injured in Targets of Obsession episode.     So haven't they seen each other since then.   It's new to him seeing her out of the office, during the day, with clothes on.   Vartann met Annie at the academy and they had some good times.   Catherine asks why he didn't recuse himself from the case.   No one looked past Vance as a suspect and brings up the CSIs investigating Warrick's (Gary Dourdan) murder and how Nick nearly put a bullet in McKean (Connor Farrel).  (In For Warrick, For Gedda.) She asks what evidence they had.   Her body wasn't found (clue) the car was burnt out and had blood inside, clothes and a kitchen knife were found in a dumpster.   Catherine believes the evidence was too good and Vance was smart enough to make the evidence disappear, not leave it where it could be found.   Yes and why not leave the evidence with the body if the body would never be found!  She wants Greg to process the evidence from Annie's case again.

He finds the blood evidence had high levels of EDTA.   The time stamp on the photo was two hours after the car was found and blood clots in 20 minutes.   There was no clotting in Annie's blood.   So how come the CSIs on that case didn't find the EDTA evidence and they were part of Ecklie's team.   Nick says the anti-coagulant was added, so posits Greg, the blood was transported and planted.   Nick believes Vance was framed; by adds Greg, someone with knowledge of serology.   Nick recalls the matchbook trick: what cops know about forensics they learn from their cases.   Lucas Martin (Louis Hertum) was the investigating officer in the other matchbook case and his name isn't on the list.   He must be Annie's mystery lover.   Nick knows where to look for her DB.

Ecklie tells Catherine there was no 419/420 and asks for a full 411.   They're looking at a 10 year old CS.   Martin worked the case in the desert.   They find Jody's DB instead with 2 GS wounds to the back of her head, with a 9 mil.   Martin turns up and proceeds to tell Catherine "Screw you bitch."  Catherine: "I think you mean screw you CIS Willows."  Doc comments Ray's started without him, his wife also starts without him, dinner that is.   Jody was pistol whipped and Ray finds all the evidence points to a cop.   The 2 bullets match Martin's gun, which he doesn't have anymore and Brass charges him.   Ray subsequently finds Martin had an alibi when Jody was killed, he was at work.   They're still waiting for the epithelial results.   Ray threatens to put Carlos' sister in prison and her children removed if he doesn't tell him who ordered the hit on Vance.   She was paid $5,000.

Greg knocks everything over in his path, in his haste to get to Catherine with the epithelial results.   Catherine: "Running from another stripper."
Greg: "Burlesque dancer and that's not funny." So how many strippers do they have at the lab, aside from Catherine.   He could always have replied, it takes one to know one (stripper.) ha.   Oh someone mentioned that episode again, A Kiss Before Frying.   Thought that was forgotten.  The epithelials were female and matched Annie.   Planted to cover Annie's disappearance, they were led by love.  Martin's not helping her anymore.   Vance was innocent.   Ray thinks Annie killed Jody and Martin gave her his gun.   Annie's framing Martin now.   As they say, what goes around, comes around.   Martin told her he was about to retire and she stopped calling him.   He was sending money to an orphanage fund Mexico, which was really to her.

Nick and Greg search Jody's place, she received Annie's life insurance.   Jody knew Annie was alive and didn't want Vance to remain in prison when he was innocent.   The last transfer of funds was made after Jody was already dead and Martin was in jail.   Annie had to kill Jody before she ratted her out.   Vartann says Catherine only needs one guy to depend on.   Namely him.   He finds the connection between Annie and prison.   One man at the academy who couldn't hack it, Malone ( Max Martini) was on Vance's cell block.   Malone gave himself away when he looked behind him when making the call to Annie, meaning they probably contacted him.   Annie checks him for wires.   He doesn't trust her, she killed her sister.   Annie replies, men can't be trusted, well she was right about that.   Brass arrests her and comments she died once so not to do it for real this time.   Vartann would shoot her and says she's lost her touch cos these days the entire world is wired and they didn't need a wire on Malone.

The last scene where Brass and Vartann make the arrest was good to see for a change, since it's usually the CSIs present at the final scene too.   Since it was an episode about the cops more than the CSIs.  Dina Meyer in convincing bad role, she knows how to play those.   Pity her appearance was so short.

Haven't seen a CSI episode this good in ages, even if you hadn't worked out Annie was still alive, it would've kept you guessing til the end.   Also what  gave it away was that Dina Meyer had to get some screen time, otherwise it would have been pointless having her in there just for photos.  I Iike Dina, she's always worth watching;  been in quite a lot from NCIS, to the Mentalist lately.  Of course none of the Vegas PD would be involved since their "relationships" with Annie were all in the past and besides they wouldn't keep it to themselves if she had been in touch with any of them.   As Catherine rightly tells Nick  - it's in the past, referring to Vartann and Annie.   Also good for her referring to double standards, men can play the field but when women do the same, it's frowned upon.   Even though Annie used her feminine wiles to make men do whatever she wanted, men have other means to get what they want, ranging from threats, etc.   She just used what she was born with, rightly or wrongly, in this case wrongly, and more fool the men for falling for her.

Ray and his tough guy portrayal in front of the prisoners, to show he's not afraid of the monsters behind bars and in a way to reinforce his toughness on the dregs of society, now that Haskell is at large.   It was great to see Ray show exactly who was in charge and order the prisoners around, not being intimidated either.   Though I have to say, the opening scene was more like that of a CSI:Miami episode.

In CSI episode 7.13 Redrum, blood found in the car had high levels of EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-acetic Acid) .   The car was sprayed with blood from an officer when Catherine and Keppler (Liev Schrieber) faked a crime scene to catch the killer.   In the same way EDTA was also used on the blood in Annie's car, which also turned out to be a faked CS.   CSI episode Ch-Ch Changes again mentioned EDTA, as did CSI:Miami episode Camp Fear.

Downton Abbey Series 4 Part 2 Review

                                             
A parcel is delivered for Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) thinks it would be better if they let Robert (Hugh Bonneville) have a look at it beforehand incase there's something in it to upset her. On the contrary it was upsetting but not for Mary.  Robert looks through the box, Matthew's belongings from his office and a letter falls out.  A letter to Mary with Matthew's intention to have her as his sole heir. Robert shows it to Dowager Violet (Maggie Smith) who thinks eh should show it to Mary.  Naturally he's upset as it will mean he can't run the estate anymore, though he seems to be more worried about paying death duties twice over, as they have nowhere to do this from.  He thinks perhaps by selling off some land and paying it off in one go is a good idea.

Robert tells Mary about the letter and that she should read it but she insists he read it to everyone.  He wants to send it to Murray to ensure its legality and whether it can be used as a will.  Matthew wrote it when they went to Scotland and knows he needs to make a will at least for the baby, which the Dowager agrees with. Isobel (Penelope Wilton) is happy to hear of it cos it means Matthew can now have his say.

Anna (Joanne Froggatt) tells Edna (Myanna Buring) to be weary of Thomas (Rob James-Collier).  He didn't speak to her before but he will now cos she's a lady's maid and she messes up a dress of Cora's (Elizabeth McGovern) and Thomas says she shouldn't come clean about it.  Though she shows it to Cora, she doesn't want to turn the culprit in, as Thomas also tells Cora.  Of course they blame Anna.  Don't know why Cora was fooled by that cos she's known Anna longer and I didn't know she'd do something like that and hide it. Robert has words to Bates (Brendan Coyle) about it later and that Anna should be less angry about it and more understanding in future.  Bates doesn't know what he's talking about.

Rose (Lily James) wants to go to a tea dance in York but it's for servants and 'commoners'.  She thinks Anna can chaperon her and Mary might let her go, but Anna has to ask Mary's permission who tells her to take her.  Jimmy (Ed Speleers) is also there cos he talks Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) into getting permission from Carson (Jim Carter) to pick up some fish for her and follows them in.  Rose wants to dance the one step as she's been practising and talks Anna round as Bates isn't really into dancing.  Jimmy dances with Anna and Rose pretends to be a lady's maid and tells Sam she's from Downtown.  There's a scuffle and a fight breaks out when Rose refuses to dance with someone else and they must leave before the police arrive.  In the trailer for this week's ep it looked as if there was going to be more trouble than that, which seemed to fizzle out.  Guess they had to make people tune in on that basis, ha.

Edith (Laura Carmichael) wants Michael (Charles Edwards) to come to Downton and meet the family but he's reluctant to do so and at any rate, a divorce will take a long time yet.  She tells him she's surprised he can boil a kettle cos Robert can't and he'd probably be sprawled dead on his way to looking for the kitchen if he had to fend for himself.  Cora's throwing a party soon so she tells him to come and he can just blend in without questions being asked.  Cora likes him but Robert doesn't, which isn't surprising since he doesn't really like any of his daughter's beaus or suitors.  Edith telling him it's getting harder for her to keep her hands off him!  Though she does arrive back late to dinner.

Anna finds Molesley (Kevin Doyle) working the roads and he owes money.  She can lend him some but he won't be able to pay it back yet and he won't take it outright either.  Anna tells Bates about this and she's upset by it.  Bates comes up with a plan cos he doesn't want to see her upset and forges Molesley's signature on a promissory note he owes him. Then invites him for tea.  Molesley can't recall lending Bates £30 when he first arrived and Bates tells Anna, she's done so much for him that it's about time he did something to make her happy.  Prison was an education he tells Anna when she asks him how he managed that.

Bates tells Anna about Edna and she's surprised since she wasn't harsh to her.  They then see Thomas and Edna together and having a laugh.  Well it wouldn't be hard to tell they're in collusion together now that O'Brien is gone, Thomas needs someone else to make mischief with, another partner in crime.   Jimmy gets permission to take Ivy (Cara Theobold) to the theatre and Alfred (Matt Milne) mopes around cos he thinks he's just doing that to get back at him.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) doesn't understand men.

Isobel finds a job for Grieg at the theatre in Belfast and Carson is convinced to see him off before he leaves as he tells Mrs Hughes about his lost love Alice.  Alice chose him and not Carson and regretted it, before she died she wanted things to be put right and wanted Carson to know she should have chosen him.  They shake hands and part as friends and Carson wants to repay Isobel for what she spent on him.

The Dowager also suggests Branson (Allen Leech) whom she must call Tom, show Mary the workings of the estate and take her on his rounds.  The letter is attested to as Matthew's last will and so Mary owns half of Downton, much to Robert's chagrin.  He shows this by bombarding Mary with questions at dinner about how she'd handle the problems, trying to put her off.  He says it's to show he the hardships of running an estate.  So she's convinced she won't be able to do the same.  More like Robert seems to get a perverse sense of pleasure or relishes in putting his daughters down, as well as Cora on occasions!  But Granny, I mean the Dowager is having none of it.

Pretty convenient a letter turning up from Matthew just when everyone was despondent he hadn't left a last word or something from beyond which would give everyone encouragement.  So lo and behold a letter is found, by none other than Robert which gives him more cause for concern.  A recycled plot point in that Lavinia Swire, Matthew's fiance also sent a letter to Matthew after she passed telling him to move on and be happy with Mary.  Seems everyone leaves these behind.  Which is funny, cos only last ep it was said Matthew didn't believe in writing a will so soon and now here's a letter which is just as good as.  Of course he wouldn't be around to go through with the formalities.  Though he did add in the letter, "I shall sign this and get off home for dinner with you.  What a lovely, lovely thought."  Dinner was more important it seemed. Yes he was right, for a lawyer he didn't come across as very bright as far as making his family's future secure was concerned.

Sam arrives looking for Rose whom Anna dresses in maid's outfit and she tells him she's promised to a farmer. As if she didn't know that was going to happen.

Funny scene when the Dowager threatened to send for nanny and have Robert sent to his room without any supper, cos he was behaving that childish!  Oh you know women's rights are non-existant so he'll hold onto his position as lord and master for as long as possible!  So if we're talking recyclable plots let's also mention the fracas caused when Sybil attended that political meeting with Branson where there was, let's see, a fight and he had to take her away.  Just as at the The Dansant.  That'd be tea dance to us.

Since I'm mentioning funny scenes, another was Carson turning up at ye olde steam train station to make amends with Grigg, emerging from the steam, like a reenactment of The Railway Children, or some romantic black and white flick! Ha. That and Mary's line of her room smelling like that of a tart after she drops the perfume bottle.  is she reminiscing about her one night with the Turkish gent in series 1 one might ask! ha.

Judging from next week's trailer, they're in danger of turning Bates into a possible Norman Bates when he gets jealous over Anna and another man.  It's that "prison education" he's gleaned, you know.  Well at least it'd make the show a little more exciting.

CSI 11.16 "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead" Review

The CSIs investigate the reports of possible zombies, when two men reportedly presumed dead, turn up alive. Ray still deals with the fall out from Nate Haskell's escape.

Ray (Laurence Fishburne) still having to battle his demons with Haskell (Bill Irwin) being on the loose.   News reports of Haskell's escape and Ray doesn't want Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) turning off the TV due to him.   Brass can't report there have been any sightings of him.   Ray explains Haskell isn't any ordinary criminal and so the search for him, that should be manhunt, should also be different.  Ray: "Until he makes a mistake, we just satisfy ourselves picking up bodies."  Well, like it or not, it's what they do; unfortunately.

 A man presumed a DB is picked up and brought to autopsy.   Before David (David Berman) can cut him open, he gets up and walks out of the morgue.   David faints.   Lucky for the DB, David got a call otherwise he'd be cut open; but he turns out to be not so luck after all.   CSI delving into zombies for the twenty-first century.   No wonder the scene was shown from the 'DB's' point of view, as he wasn't really dead.   David only took photos and made an incision to determine the liver temp.   David's line of having "a customer waiting" was funny since he's not expecting his customer to walk out of there.   Like he's got a conveyor belt of DBs to handle.

Brass asks if the DB just left and David replies he had to "defend my domain."  So who found him passed out, or did he recover and get help.   Brass: "suspect has left the building."  Prompting Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) to add the funny line: "Dead man walking.2 The EMT declared him dead and Catherine surmises dead men don't sweat.   Ray replies, as often as they get up and walk away.   Ray looks at an old notebook, which refers to 'Stonewall' and is full of data.   There's different writing on the last pages.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) looks over the surveillance footage of the 'DB' and comments they're looking for the Anti-Christ to make an appearance.  To Ray, Haskell being on the loose is enough to fill that void.

Sara (Jorga Fox) is called out to another CS with Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) but he too turns up missing.   There's a blood pool on the ground and Sara thinks he could have hit his head on the gutter.   There's surveillance footage of him walking away too.   Brass appears to be holding Officer Mitchell responsible for the disappearance of this body and asks how he would explain that.   Officer Mitchell: "Zombie epidemic."  Police officers mimic zombies behind him.   Nick (George Eads) checks the first 'DB' using the facial recognition software of the DMV and comments half the people who work there are the walking dead anyway.   Henry (Jon Wellner) brings in some results Hodges (Wallace Langham) was meant to have analyzed and relays his message that they should refer to CODIS as 'ZODIS', Zombie DNA Index system.   Hodges determined the blood was consistent with normal human blood.    Nick jokingly says that brain hungry zombies can say the same thing about Hodges: "minimal sample."  Adds Henry: "fairly useless."  Hey Hodges wasn't there to hear that!  No fair making jokes behind his back, ha.   Pity he wasn't in this episode as this would have been right up his street.

Greg researches the notebook entries and finds a Defence Department programme from the 1970's being conducted at the university, entitled 'Stonewall'.   Relating to ESP, out of body experiments, which Ray denotes as science fiction.   Dr Aden (Howard Hesseman) was the doctor involved, a psychoanalyst, who fell down the "rabbit hole of psychedelic drugs."  Ray works with Sara this time round and not Nick.   Dr Aden doesn't recognize the first 'DB' and refers to reanimation, it's not easy bringing back the dead.   Aden asks Sara; "What's your clearance?"  To which she replies, "About 5' 9."  Hey a funny line from Sara, he wasn't referring to her height but whether she's been cleared to talk about the research!  He didn't ask Ray this question for some reason.   He says he has the "Ithaca of mystery" in his sights.   Sara never saw The Dead perform in San Francisco, she was too busy  with the dead everywhere else.

Catherine talks with Ecklie (Marc Vann) over the phone and suggests they come up with a new name for this, "DAWOL" which was a joke.   Nick matches a DMV facial recognition of the first 'DB' to Max (Keegan Allen) a psychology grad student.   Aden discovers someone's been using his office.   His research subject was death.   So of course there's more going on than he's letting on and he would have had to have been involved in these experiments since he wouldn't just give up on them; when he had such an active role in the 1970's.   Ray feels they were going on hallucinogenic trips and weren't zombies.   A junkie (Joe Hursley) is arrested with Max's credit card and a "phone thing." Which Archie (Archie Kao) identifies as a camcorder.   Footage from this shows three of them were experimenting, one was a woman and the second 'DB' , Kurt (Christoph Sanders) from the alley is also on there.   Max didn't tell them what pills they were taking.  He calls her Alice (Camille Chen).   Aden has poisonous fish in the tank and they're still being fed.   Another clue connecting Aden.   Aden locates his sensory deprivation tank and Kurt is dead inside.  Ray: he got "de-animated."

Sara's mother took her to see the movie Altered States (1980) and Ray went with some good friends of his.   Ray: "I know I only talk like a square." Sara adds, in the movie, William Hurt was in the tank, naked.   Maybe the tank wasn't Kurt's idea.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) finds some bruising on Kurt's back so he took some infra red photos, revealing a  handprint.   Meaning he was held down in the tank.   COD was drowning.   Henry comments chaining them down should help ensure they didn't get up, but cutting them will also do this.  He found traces of Tetrodotoxin in his system; found in sea creatures.   That was obvious from the fish, even though the poison itself wasn't obtained from them.   Doc Robbins posits this poison would cause paralysis and they would be mistaken for being dead.   There was also LSD and cannabis in his system.   Doc refers to "the body was frozen, mind was ablaze.   I've been there."  Doc tells the EMT in no uncertain terms that she had the EKG calibrated to the wrong setting; that's why she didn't pick up their heartbeats.   Meaning if she had done her job right, then Kurt would be alive now and so would Max.

Nick notices saltwater footprints leading away from the tank, so Max came back first and finds blue fibres from his shirt.   He was decompressing in the tank, they fight and he drowned Kurt.   Nick finds Kurt's camera.  Aden tells Ray designer drugs don't produce the same results in everyone and Ray shows him footage from the camcorder.  Aden believes Max didn't tell the others the effects of the pills.   Nick and Sara just deduced that already; that Max killed Kurt.   Ray says Max was working like Aden.

Greg finds Kurt's e-mails to Max and Alice.   Catherine must find her.   Alice's brother saw her three days ago.   Sara notices a Shinto shrine dedicated to her mother in her room and photos of her grave on her computer.   Aden's notebook is also in her room and she appears to be travelling in search of someone.   Catherine thinks they'll find her at the grave, but they find Max instead who runs when he sees them and is run over - knew that was coming.   Officer Mitchell decides to handcuff him anyway, just incase.   Like Henry saying they should chain Kurt down!  Catherine analyzes the ink from the notebook in Alice's room.   It was manufactured from 2008-present and the writing matches Aden's.  Nick discovers Aden and Alice e-mailed each other.   Alice was the one who found the others for their experiments.   From Kurt's video, Archie  finds Kurt picked up Alice's signal and they see Aden's car on campus.

At Aden's house, Ray finds recent video tapes with Alice.   Sara finds the Tetrodotoxin pills he supplied them.   Ray notices the camcorder and finds a tape inside with Aden taking the pill himself, he's found outside.   He deprived his brain of oxygen for too long, he's inside, but he won't be coming out.   Sara mentions Alice in the rabbit hole, Alice and the rabbit hole are often used as references to psychedelic drug culture and Greg mentioned the rabbit hole earlier on too.   Probably no coincidence for the purposes of this episode that she was called Alice.   Nick finds Alice at Aden's office and she's found what she was looking for, her mother, who told her to go back.  

Ray concludes they were inducing chemical dreams.   To Doc Robbins, all visions can be explained by neuroscience.   He sees life as part of death and it's meant to be a mystery.  "I see people on the last worst day of their lives." He believes they go on to a better place.   Doc was taught that in Sunday school, before he went to medical school.   Ray believes that people who bring suffering and pain in the world, "should have it repaid to them, either in this world or the next."
Doc warns Ray to be careful as "evil has  a way of making friends with the good and dragging them into darkness."  That is true, since Ray will go on in his quest to bring Haskell to justice and enter into a spiral of darkness, which won't be so easy for him to leave behind.   He already has begun this descent.   It's a case of evil preying on good.   Would their conversation have been so philosophical if Haskell wasn't on the loose.  also an allusion back to Greg's comment and reference to the anti-Christ earlier on.   This conversation was one you'd expect  Gil (William Petersen) to be having about science and evil and religious beliefs.   In Alter Boys, Gil said, "I believe in God.   In science..."

Doc Robbins mentions here, meeting people on the last worst day of their lives now applied to those who have passed on.   Usually the phrase is the CSIs "meet people on the worst day of their lives" as it refers to the Vics and their families.   Just said by Jo (Sela Ward)  in episode 7.15 Vigilante of CSI:NY.   Ahh Tetrodotoxin takes me back all the way to season 1 of CSI:NY and the episode, Grand Master, haven't heard that poison in a long time.

I would've thought Ray would be motivated to conduct the hunt for Haskell, his own private search since he knows him better than anyone else, so any input he could give would be helpful in locating him; just a thought as he's so involved and so angry at the same time with the thought of Haskell running amok, potentially.

CSI:NY 9.12 "Civilized Lies" Review

A man locks up a cash place and is called by his son.  He agrees to meet for dinner as a car drives past and stops.  Three men get out and attack him.  One takes his gun but he pulls out another one and fires.  He is shot and left for dead.  The man is a policeman, Mark Riley (Gary Kraus) who moonlighted at the shop as a cashier.  Flack (Eddie Cahill) and Mac (Gary Sinise) question a suspect at the hospital who was shot and Hawkes (Hill Harper) tells Mac he was shot from six feet away so he was standing right on top of the policeman.  He says he was on the other side of the road but the evidence doesn't show that. Mac is angry he didn't return to help the policeman but he says he was shot too.  Flack tells him they wouldn't have known about him unless the hospital called them due to the gunshot.  Mac arrests him.

Adam (AJ Buckley) checks the security footage and finds three black men as were described by witnesses but nobody can place Anthony (Kris Lemche) at the CS.  So the CSIs plan an elaborate rouse whereby they use interrogation to break him into confessing and giving up the other suspects.  Flack brings him into the station where the others are watching a news report which says the policeman is stable.  Of course we know that's not true since we were just shown him being killed off at the hospital.  As Jo (Sela Ward) and Lindsay (Anna Belknap) waited to process his clothes.  Lindsay of course knew him, cos she knows everyone and feels particularly sad.  As they speak with his son, Jason (Chris Brochu).  He's at the academy and following in his father's footsteps.

Jo and Lindsay process the policeman and Lindsay forgot to take her silver case back with her.  No all she did was carry out a cardboard box.  Mac loses his cool with Anthony even pushing the chair back and telling him to give him a reason.  Clearly Anthony is upset and scared and then Flack is left alone with him.  Anthony thinks Flack will play good cop, but Flack doesn't know how to behave.  Since Mac's the good cop and he isn't usually.  Lovato (Natalie Martinez) watches with Mac from the window and boy was she excess baggage for no reason.  Talk about not doing anything!  She wasn't even needed in this episode, or any episode.

Flack tells him his boss is looking to pin this on him and Anthony had to be standing right over the policeman but his story doesn't make sense.  He finally admits he was standing over him but wasn't part of the shooting and doesn't know the killers.  Flack wants him to write it down even though he says he's not good at spelling, Flack adds he isn't either.  He's pissed Anthony didn't tell him this sooner and they wasted time.
Anthony: "Spelling's pretty bad, right?"  He's worried  about spelling at a time like this.
Flack: " It's terrible.  There's no such word as 'runned.'  It's ran."

Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Jo process the evidence from the CS as Danny retrieved the bullet and Danny bets Jo lunch his results will show up sooner, she bets him dinner and her computer pings.  She finds latex and silicone from under Mark's nails and Danny finds the same from the bullet.  Mac brings in a box from Anthony's apartment after they issued a search warrant and this contains latex masks.  There were no black men involved.   Flack acts disappointed and adds his daughter will most likely grow up without him and forget him as he's looking at 15 years.  Mac knows he's covering for someone cos he's afraid.

Jason wants to know how his father was shot and Sid explains how the first shot wasn't fatal, one went through his ribs, shattering some of them and the mark on his face was where the gun was pressed up against him.  Jason says he was executed.  Jo checks Anthony's associates and thinks the shooting was out of character for Anthony.  They also used pepper spray which means they weren't intending on shooting him. Danny says they've found the car which is processed by Adam and Hawkes.

Mac tells him Mark is dead and when they catch his accomplices they'll be dealing and then Anthony won't have a chance to deal.  Jo walks in with a camera as a man in a red hoodie walks in with walking sticks. He's Ided as Benitez (Riccardo Lebron).  Of course that was a plant.  Flack tells him he's making a deal right now and shows him to Anthony.  Of course we're then shown Adam being Benitez and manipulating his image over an old recording of Benitez.  Flack walks in with his confession and Anthony wants protection for his family.  Anthony worked with Mark at Brigstar and decided on the robbery since Benitez owed drug money to the third man, Eric (Grant Harvey).  He's afraid of him and says he didn't know Mark carried another gun.
Danny, Lindsay and Lovato arrest Eric after he fires on Lindsay and Lovato.  They lock him up and he lawyers up.  Mac says they may not be able to get a confession from him but Anthony can and so he's locked in the same cell.  Not realizing there are cameras there, Eric tells him Benitez is dead and he left him in the trunk.  He then says Anthony told them he killed the policeman and realizes his mistake.  The camera sees it all and they have their case.  As Mac thanks God for "civilized lies."  Don't know what Lovato was so happy about, she did nothing.
Flack: "In the boat, filleted, pan fried, on the plate."

Lindsay takes Danny to Jason's and gives him his father's shield, he was proud of him.  The date Adam has on screen is the actual airdate for this ep, 11th January 2013.  An episode where they don't really get out as much as possible and need to find other evidence or methods for proving the crime and the presence of the suspects at the CS when forensics draws a blank.  Thus resorting to confession evidence and tricking the suspect into confessing.  As you will recall from CSI:NY season 1.9 Officer Blue episode, the NYPD is legally allowed to lie to suspects during questioning.

Enjoyed watching the scenes with Flack as he actually got more to do than usual.  So much for Lovato telling Mac Flack was being too soft when questioning Anthony.  Of course she expects everyone to go in with both barrels blazing like her and kick the crap out of them!
Mac: "He's being patient.  I can't think of anybody I'd rather have in that room."  Yeah certainly not you Lovato!

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.