The team investigate the shredded remains of a human body and broach the subject of ID theft, when they come across a company which specializes in ID protection.
A gruesome, gut-wrenching opening (no pun) as a tortured man is fed some soup which contains shredded credit card. Ray (Laurence Fishburne), Nick (George Eads) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) are called to a CS where the truck driver reported something oozing from his truck. Ray tests the ooze which turns out to be blood. Ray comments on 666 being the call sign for suspicious ooze, the 'primordial variety' after Nick asks what the call sign is for this. Ray was also thinking of buying a cappuccino machine, which he says after the truck is opened to reveal shredded rubbish and DB parts, identified by Nick. Ray comes across a bit of a shredded credit card and Brass finds a human eye. "Here's lookin' at you kid."
The driver works for a disposal company, where the manager, Tom is questioned. The plant shreds all kinds of material, but maintains a body couldn't have been disposed or fallen in due to surveillance cameras. Greg (Eric Szmanda) corrects him by adding anyone could have disposed of the body by putting it in the shredding bins, used to dump material into the shredder itself, beforehand. Greg: "A good way to go if disposing of a dead body." Nick finds human parts inside the shredder.
Sara (Jorga Fox), Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Greg sort through the rubbish collected in the shredder truck, after an 'intense' (ha) face-off involving Rock, Paper, Scissors, which Sara loses with scissors and so has to collect the "yuck." Sara tells Hodges she knows how he feels not being able to get over Wendy (Liz Vassey) yet, "two ships passing, takes a while for the fog to clear." Greg suggests Hodges should get out more and Hodges thinks he means with him, so begins his calling Greg, 'G'.
Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) notices Catherine's (Marg Helgenberger) in a good mood and Catherine knows Hodges blabbed about her and Vartann (Alex Carter.) Doc tells her he's a good man. Doc describes the DB as a "puzzle" (groan) he'll have to put together. But he deduced from the bacterial decomposition of the DB that it was dead 36-48 hours DBS, i.e. Dead Before Shredded. The skull has a bullet fragment lodged inside, so COD was a gunshot wound to the head. Greg also found bullet fragments in the shredder waste.
Ray receives a note from Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin) saying, "Thinking of you XO Nate" and a kidney bean, which angers Ray and he throws the note away, dropping the bean to the floor. Sara tells him about the credit card Greg found and asks if he's okay, picking up the bean. Sara smells but he won't tell her that. Ray's okay. He doesn't find it easy to open up and when he eventually does, in the past, it's usually been to Nick; who seems to understand Ray, in that respects they are similar as he can tell when something's wrong with Ray and vice versa.
Greg discovers the DNA belongs to an unidentified white male. Hodges finds pieces of a credit card inside the Vic's stomach contents which consisted of a last meal of clam chowder. Greg immediately thinks of an old Bond movie, "can't pay up, eat up." He puts together pieces of the card to find the magnetic strip is still there and puts it through the card reader. Since Nick says the strip has the holder's name printed on it, several times over. It comes up with a Larry Lamotte, whom Greg recognizes as being from the ID Preserve ads. A company selling ID protection. Greg was a new subscriber, which coincidentally he had to be, otherwise no one would have known who he was, thus requiring more work from them. Nick doesn't believe Greg would go for something like that, but he tells him ID theft's a common occurrence.
Ray and Brass talk with Elaine (Ginifer King) the executive assistant to Larry and also to Julius Kaplan (Brian Markinson) head of security. Larry (Norbert Leo Butz) turns up. Brass comments on him looking younger in the ads. Since he's played by an actor, which immediately gives us a clue (for those who need it) that if he doesn't appear on his own TV ad then what's he hiding. Also in an ironic, roundabout way, that Larry's ID has been assumed on the TV by an actor and so it's the same in real life too. When Ray questions on whether his own credit cards have been stolen, thus providing him for a motive for killing whoever stole his ID, he remarks it's not conducive to waste resources on small fry. Again this was about much more than money. Larry asks Elaine for two subscription packages for Ray and Brass, discount for cops, yeah they're really gonna fall for it. Ooh, sorry Greg did.
Nick informs Catherine of numerous people accusing ID Preserve of having their IDs stolen after they subscribed and ended up in Nigeria. One such Vic was Lee Devries (Karl Herlinger) who drove his truck through the company's window and brandished a gun. He works for a Temp agency which provides workers for the shredding company. Catherine is more interested in confronting Nick as to why he's not attending anymore therapy sessions. He attended the mandatory two, but he's not comfortable talking about his feelings. He's exercising and eating healthily, had to get in a food comment from Nick, following on from Greg saying he's always eating in the Blood Moon episode. Does this mean he's given up his red meat and burgers! It's not his 'thing' talking about himself. Catherine would prefer he still went. Seems strange for Nick, since he's not one to bottle up his feelings - as we've seen from past experience. He always confronts them and does talk to his colleagues. Perhaps he's just not happy sharing with a complete stranger. Maybe we won't be getting anymore displays of feelings on Nick's part, which is a shame, cos George portrays Nick so excellently.
Brass questions Devries, did I say questions, I meant interrogates, and he claims he doesn't know what Brass is asking him. He has debts he can't pay off because his ID was stolen and he has an alibi, all six "people who are claiming to be me." Greg goes over his own credit card record and rues signing up with ID Preserve. Hodges tells him about science camp and his friend not being the person he thought he was, when he gave him a haircut. Greg interjects this isn't the same thing. Greg finds another fragment in the mix, a tarnished old bullet. As Hodges puts it, 'an older fragment from a different gun but found in the same Vic'. Greg explains the "body's defensive mechanism encapsulates the fragment tissue to protect from infection." But there's nothing to identify the Vic, aka Shredder guy.
All of the waste has been traced back to ID Preserve by Sara, who use a sub-contractor to supply the bins used for shredding and that company is run by Kaplan. Blood traces are found in one of the shredder bins, placing Kaplan as a suspect. Greg informs Catherine of the credit card being mailed to New Mexico, records showing a ticket was bought to Reno and finds a man on the surveillance camera, running him through facial recognition. Sara and Nick arrive at Kaplan's and have to gain entry. Nick finds cans of clam chowder as well as a gun. Sara finds Kaplan shot out the back. David (David Berman) says he was shot back to front, the round exited out the front and Sara finds part of it on the ground. Mentioning some baseball terminology which she attributes to Grissom (William Petersen) again he has to be mentioned for his upcoming episode. There's also an odd void which turns out to be his beer bottle which fell into the pool when he was shot. His neighbour had a surveillance camera across the street.
Brass ran prints from the bottle and they hit on a Julian Kirsch, Kaplan's real name. He was a mob killer who made dinner for his Vics with ground up casino chips. Elaine was there, cool as a cucumber! Larry comments that "assuming someone's name is easy, assuming control of your life - that's hard." Again another clue shouting out that Larry isn't Larry. Nick says the gun he found, the Glock, killed Shredder guy and it has a history of being used in a shooting in Reno, six years ago. The shot man walked out of the hospital and Nick has the cold case file. The good thing about a cold case, as he says, 'technology catches up'. Greg examines the fragments.
Catherine surmises Shredder guy is the same man who was shot and survived six years ago, returned here and met Kaplan who killed him. Then Kaplan is killed. Sara says Shredder guy was recognized by facial recognition as Larry Lamotte. Recall his comment about taking over someone's life. The prints on the cartridge Nick examined ID him as Arlo. He wanted five million and so he paid Larry off. Nick confirms Arlo's story about making a withdrawal. Archie (Archie Kao) hits on the partial licence number spotted on the neighbour's footage, belonging to a car rented by Devries. That would've been too easy, though he could've done with the money. The car is found and stopped and is being driven by Elaine. Not a big shock, she was the only one with access to info on everyone and privy to everything happening. She doesn't care what she did, it was all about the money for her, for working and getting nothing in return, same old story then.
Hodges tells Catherine his 'mandate' was postponed and she asks if he got a haircut, Greg telling her everything he said, after he finds his card's been used in Nigeria. Ray looks at his scar and opens up to Sara cos Nick went off for a drink without asking Ray! She tells him not to let Nate get into his head, but too late, he's already there. It took her a while to realize they should "not define who we are, we get to decide." Words of wisdom from Sara, but she should know after what she's been through.
A bit of a mish-mash of an episode in terms of the storyline, though ID theft is a common problem in this day and age, the lengths that people went to cover it up was extreme, even for a CSI episode.
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