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.
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