CSI: Miami - 8.4: "In Plane Sight" Review

A body is found on a plane, leaving the CSIs to piece together the clues to find the killer. a bit of a routine episode, but a few more pieces are added to Jesse's personal background.

A professional asset seizer, Tom Connor (Patrick Kilpatrick) is arrested by airport security before he can fly off with the plane, belonging to Howard Burgess (Nicholas Guest).   One of the security men notices a smell from inside the plane and finds a DB in the toilet.   Tripp (Rex Linn) admits to Horatio he also lost money from his investment.  Horatio (David Caruso) asks if they were trying to "break him out or set him up for murder."  Horatio gets his one-liners back, but not as good as the ones before.   Jesse (Eddie Cibrian) has to get him out of the toilet, but he plays 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' with Ryan (Jonathan Togo).   Ryan tells Jesse to "have fun with the potty party."  Jesse comments he wouldn't want to get his sweater vest dirty!  Walter (Omar Benson Miller) is roped in to do the dirty deed instead, as Jesse puts it, "the Miami way." Repeating what Ryan said to him.   Jesse would get his white shirt dirty!

Walter finds a rolled up Marijuana cigarette on the plane.   Tripp says they should be able to get the coordinates of Burgess' ankle monitor as the red dot is still on and is moving.   At the Burgess mansion, the monitor is found on the dog and Jesse notices blood.  His son, Daniel (Shawn Pyfrom) was at home.   The cigarette must have been from a party on the plane.   He states he wouldn't hurt his father (clue there then.)  He hurt his hand when he removed his father's ankle monitor.   He says he wasn't a bad man and was going to give the money back to the investors.   Horatio asks what he would have paid them with, but Daniel doesn't know where the money is.   Yeah that's what they all say.

His mother, Allison Burgess (Andrea Parker) (she's not been around much since after her JAG and The Pretender days.   She was in an episode of The Mentalist.)  Anyway, Allison is working in the mall and Horatio had to say her name loud so people heard and starts a riot, practically.   She is almost attacked by one of the men who lost his investment too.  They were living in separate wings of the house, oh the luxury and she didn't know he was cheating the investors.   He is arrested all so that Jesse can help him out.   The man is a diabetic and Calleigh (Emily Procter) asks for a drink for him with sugar.   What did she go into the room for, if she wasn't there to question him.

 The man's name is Carlos (Lombardo Boyar) and Burgess stole everything from him.   Jesse takes an interest in him and hopes he gets a second chance.   Then makes a phonecall to someone he knows, but we don't know what it's for until the end, but we do know it was to help him out.   Yes it's that obvious.   Jesse: "Everyone deserves a second chance."  Speaking from experience no doubt, but not that we'd know, since his character wouldn't be around long enough for us to find out.   Walter wonders if Jesse's calling a girlfriend.

Ryan accompanies Horatio to the Burgess house in the hopes of finding his ledgers, where Horatio notices creaking in the floorboard, lifted up to reveal exactly what they came for.   That was convenient.   Horatio says they may help find who killed him.  Ryan comes up with the word 'noise' in the ledgers.   Calleigh thinks it could be a password.

ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) determines the COD to be strangulation and the DB has a clue regarding the murder weapon: which was a chain.   An exciting moment for him was the demo with a banana, squashed until nothing is noticeable on the outside, but inside it's mushy.   That's what the DB's vertebrae were like.   They were separated when he was strangled indicating sheer force, so a machine was used.   Jesse and Calleigh check out the hanger and he comments that rubber chock blocks would be more appropriate for the type of plane Burgess has and we discover Jesse has his pilot's licence.   Burgess was killed with the winch, which Jesse had to notice again.   Really where would they be without him.   Another repossession man attempts to take the plane, he just happened to be there at the same time.  

The plane is actually owned by Gary Archer (Andy Buckley) and Horatio tells him he should have come to him first about the plane.   He didn't hire the first repo man and a signature on the letter is identified as Allison's.   She sent the first man, Tom Connor to retrieve the plane because she believed it was hers.   However, Burgess hadn't paid for it..   Jesse analyzes the chain and Calleigh says the blood and soft tissue match the Vic.   She's so excited this is her first "death by winch" case.   Yeah that's something to be really happy about!  Jesse remarks she hasn't changed since the day he left and she recalls that was her first day here, when she was all gung ho and rearing to go.   She asks why he left and he said part of it was personal.   Jesse gets back to the case, lest the writers give away too much about him, ha, and tells her they missed part of the toilet: the septic tank.  

Another job for Walter.   See he always comes up with the clues and solves the case!  They find a contact lens in the filter and Jesse (again) suggests they can get a Lensometer and measure the prescription.   Walter assumes it could be Carlos.   Jesse checks his glasses but they're not a match.   Contact lenses cost more than glasses, so how could Carlos have afforded them anyway.   Jesse even offers to walk him out, showing how much he really cares about his job and the people he meets along the way whilst doing it.   It's more than just a job to him.

Burgess' car is found and Horatio notices the slashed tyre, with a motorbike tread nearby.   Daniel drives a motorbike.   He ran him off the road because instead of paying back the investors, he was going to leave his family behind.   Wasn't fooled by his son claiming to care about the investors and how his father should do the right thing in paying them back.   He's been raised with the rich spoils so naturally he'd want the same lifestyle now.   Daniel asks Horatio how he can fix this and he replies, he shouldn't grow up to be like him.

Ryan is still stuck with the books in the lab and finds Archer invested with Burgess too, which Calleigh points out,  he never mentioned.   Jesse checks Archer's contacts, which match the lens they found.   He was hiding the DB and the lens fell out.   His whole family invested with Burgess and lost everything.   He wanted his plane back, they fought and he lost his temper to the point of winching him by the neck.   In which case why didn't Archer just take the plane then, did it matter he didn't have his licence, he'd just killed the guy!  So breaking the law didn't matter to him.

Calleigh shows Horatio the plane photo and he notices that the word noise isn't a word, but "NO153."   The money's on the plane, but he's beaten there by Daniel, who's taking what he claims is his.   But the money isn't his.   Horatio: "In my experience, the truth comes out - it always does."  Daniel is like his father and so much for Horatio telling him not to be like him, he already is.   Horatio's blind faith in Daniel was clearly put to the test and he proved Horatio wrong this time round.   It's not very often, if at all, suspects or their families lie to Horatio and are able to mask their true nature.  But this was covered nicely by the writer having Horatio tell him that the truth can never stay hidden.

Jesse, Ryan and Walter joke about working the case.   Carlos gives Jesse the news that he's been hired to manage an apartment building.   This is his second chance.   Walter comments that's the call Jesse made earlier.   Jesse wouldn't admit to it of course, being modest, "What call?"  Or as the five announcer said in the UK, "Wish he'd call me!"

The episode title, not only about the plane - but the money being hidden on it too and thus in plane (plain) sight, as such things always are in CSI shows.

CSI: NY - 1.1: "Blink" Review

Mac and the CSIs get a very disturbing case to open the new CSI strand, with some very painful memories for Mac. Also we get the introduction of our new dishy NYPD resident, Flack!

As most of us wait until next year for season 8 of CSI:NY, (at the time I wrote this, now it's waiting for season 9) thought some of us would love a look back on how it all began, especially since a lot of what happens in this opening episode bears a lot on the personal life of Mac in the season 8 opener, as regards his wife Claire, who as we now know will be played by Jamie Ray Newman.   For the rest, it's a nostalgic look back at our fave show and characters, how they were and what made this season great was no Lindsay!  Okay that's just one reason for me!

The scene opens with Mac (Gary Sinise) praying in church and is interrupted by a beep, he's needed on a case.   Cue CS and our first introduction of Det Don Flack Jr (Eddie Cahill) as he wasn't featured in the CSI:Miami/CSI:NY crossover, intro episode.   He identifies the Vic as a female in her late '20's with no ID.   Mac explains her DB is in a characteristic position: arms flailed, legs crossed, an indication of being dumped there.   She was redressed by the killer as her belt is two notches off.   She wears a wedding ring.   Mac notices  and comments; "someone out there is missing a wife."  (Also referring to himself, though we don't really know this yet.)  As he looks across towards the NY skyline.

Danny's (Carmine Giovinazzo) first scene with a funny line, aimed at Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) who is not amused when he says, "Good morning dear."

Stella: "Do I look like I have a tail back there?"  She takes a different tone with Mac however.   Saying the "job never stops."  Mac didn't go home and asks "what's sleep?" Something that will be oft repeated with him.    He doesn't really have anyone waiting for him at home, as don't many of the CSIs early on.  Stella would like a good morning, unless she's in  a bad mood!  ME Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) sleeps at the morgue as we get to see his bed and everything there.   That was a quirk they went and changed when he decided he wanted to become a CSI instead.

He found contusions around her neck, lividity slats along her back, bed sores and determines COD to be a hemorrhagic stroke; and that her blood was cut off from her cerebellum, therefore the blood vessels were damaged .   She also inhaled a substance she had a reaction to.   This comments Mac was done perimortum so she inhaled the smoke before she died.  Her husband, Tim (Michael Hagerty III) IDs her as LeAnn Goodman ( Jennifer jackson) from Pelham.   Her husband finds it difficult to accept it's her.   That was horrible, the way the gurney was brought up on the squeaky lift so he could ID her.   That was one noticeable aspect that was changed for the better in later seasons.   But to think loved ones would actually ID their family members in that way had to be so harrowing, just waiting from them to be shown.   He had lunch with her and she left in a taxi.

Danny gives the findings of the Tox screen as firesticks, which is what she inhaled.   Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) says she had cough syrup in her lungs and nicotine bubbles.   She smoked laced cigarettes.   Danny comments that firesticks are the new date rape drugs of New York.   But she wasn't raped.   LeAnn's DB was found on a litter barge and she too had the same lividity slats etc.  Thus they're looking for a serial killer.   Mac 'orders' Danny and Aiden to sift and isolate the rubbish for evidence.   As we'll see they'll get all the dirty jobs.   Ooh we catch a glimpse of Carmine's tattoo.

Hawkes finds this DB doesn't have any bed sores, COD was asphyxiation, she was strangled.   TOD was the same, as were the other features.   She had gold, copper impurities in her teeth which are attributable to Russian dentistry, which  Mac saw in the marines.   Mac looks at a medical bust and puts his hands where they were strangled.   Danny finds a camera with the film still inside, Aiden: "black and white film, you seeing red."  As in getting the photo developed you need a red light, or as in blood, or as in the red flashing record light.  Aiden finds an empty bag.

The photos are locations of NYC with a woman in them.   There's a missing person's report on Zoya (Ana K Alexander) and she  had a boyfriend and a sponsor, Ivanov (Vitali Baganov).   Jason, ( Conor Michael Dubin) her boyfriend is a street vendor giving Stella a chance to show off her heavy handedness when they question him.   Flack: "let me arrest him for swearing on his grandmother." The photo is triangulated using three visible points in the photo and leads them to Queens.   Opera music can be heard and they find a half-dressed woman on life support.   Danny and Aiden process the bedroom and Stella the basement.  

Mac accompanies her to the hospital, he rests when he tires.   Mac processes her and apologizes to her.   She blinks.   Flack questions the rental home owner, Andy (Carson Silo) but he doesn't know who rented it.   Danny forcibly takes a swab of his DNA from his mouth and the man calls it coercion.   A scene which saw many complaints being levelled against these two for crossing the line.

Professor Giles (Grant Albrecht)  tells Mac Jane Doe (Jewel Christian) has "locked-in syndrome."   She was the Vic of a science experiment.   All the voluntary muscles in her body were paralyzed except her eyes.   She's "locked inside her own body" and it can't be reversed.   Mac realizes he was improving on his technique.   LeAnn was found first, she had bedsores.   Zoya died first  as she didn't have bedsores.   The first two were failures and so were just discarded.   The third one was kept since it was a success and she's seen the killer.   Mac shows her photos of suspects and she blinks on the rental man.   She suffers a stroke from which she's not likely to recover and is diagnosed as brain dead.   Mac talks with Stella about the Vic.   They wonder what the connection is and why he locks bodies inside themselves.

Mac ponders how he removed himself from the house but perhaps the medical equipment can provide a clue.   Stella notices writing on the equipment is Cyrillic, standing for the initials 'B I.'  Bogdan Ivanov, who was a doctor in Russia and was imprisoned for treason.   His DNA matches Zoya, found on the sheets.   He loved her and took her photo.   Mac doesn't call him a doctor but a "murderer with a medical degree."  He drives a taxi and picked up his Vics.   Mac asks why they were "locked in."  He says Bogdan means "gift from God" in Russian.   They would be in a "cerebral utopia" and live free.   Mac posits it was about controlling them and he lost control.   They died since he didn't know when to let go.

Mac sits with Jane Doe and tells her about his wife Claire.   She died on 9/11. "Nobody saw it coming."  Just like those three Vics didn't see it coming for themselves either.   He found a beachball in the closet which Claire blew up and he kept it because "her breath is still in there."  Just as he didn't take off his wedding ring either.   Mac stands at Ground Zero...as the camera shows the view of where the WTC stood up to the sky...

Well that was a sad and at the same time, powerful first episode.   Not only do we get to see Mac in church, showing his religiousness, but also the pain he still carries after losing his wife, something he, like many others will never forget.   Though this was a TV show, the poignancy was so very vivid and real.   Empathizing with the loss and the injustice of that day.   It is understandable why Anthony Zuiker wanted the first episode of the season to be so memorable, in something that should never be forgotten and the fallen should never be forgotten either.

Mac keeping the beachball is something you would do and this episode was moving.   The scene where he looks out towards the empty skyline in the beginning is sad.   There are no words for what he must be feeling and for what Gary must really be feeling too.   Gary did a superb job in portraying Mac with such sorrow in his heart still and having to carry on with the job.   Is it any wonder Mac doesn't, can't sleep.

Tying in with the futility of this murdering man's actions.   That he believed he was doing an 'act of God' was despicable and though I do not condone the death penalty, Bogdan was one who clearly deserved it.   But then that would have been too easy since he would not live with the pain of what he did, yet he showed no remorse.

Personally I liked that season 1 of the show was so dark.   The urban-esque nature of the city since New York is like no other city.   The greyness representative of the skyscrapers and high rises.   Personally I liked Flack and Danny being heavy handed in a world obsessed with being PC, which is fine to a point cos hey, we're meant  to be on the side of our CSIs  (well some of them.)  Personally I liked Danny and Aiden, I liked Hawkes hanging out in the morgue, bed in tow, since no other character was like him.   But that wasn't to last cos CBS ordered more light, less darkness and that's what it got.   Personally I liked we got Flack!

Certain similarities to past CSI episodes such as Mac sympathizing with the Vic, she was never named, testament to the many who were never found after 9/11.   Sara (Jorga Fox) in CSI season 1 episode Too Tough to Die where she also does a rape kit on  a Vic and Sara promises to find her attacker.   Mac attending church, issues of the church rose for Gil Grissom (William Petersen) too in CSI.

The Closer - 6.6: "Off the Hook" Review

Brenda investigates the murder of a parole board member, who was stalked and called for help from a detective, but dialled Gabriel's number instead.

Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) receives a call  from a woman asking for a 'Detectiv...errico' as there's an intruder in the house.   Her gun is missing.  Taylor (Robert Gossett) wants the names of all detectives handling stalker cases, leading to a Det Verico, (Jon Seda) she mixed his name up, and when attempting to call him dialled the wrong number and got through to Gabriel instead.  Ross was shot and killed.   Pope (JK Simmons) sets up 'Operation Swift Justice' coordinating with other forces.  

As Ross (Jossie Thacker) was on the parole board,  Medina (Rolando Molina) was a prisoner who could have hired someone to kill Danielle Ross as he did with his wife.   Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) refuses to interview him as she doesn't know anything about him.  

Visiting Ross' s house they find security bars everywhere and she was being stalked, but there's no gun anywhere and in her bedroom they smell the lingering scent of gardenias.   A box cutter was found and was used on her after she was already dead, having been shot with her own gun.    Det Verico arrives at her house and regrets not being here sooner.   She was being stalked and her car was broken into, nothing was taken.   She had refused police protection.   Pope berates Verico for not doing his job and letting this happen, before suspending him.  So if she was in contact with Verico, why didn't she have his home number or his cell number, instead of reaching him at the PD.

At her home, she and the team meet with Verico, he used to check up on Ross but he was working seven days off and one week on and this was his week off.   That wouldn't have stopped him checking on her, if he was really that worried about her.   Brenda warns Tao (Michael Paul Chan) off feeding her cat at the table, yet she did the same thing in the previous episode.

During the interrogation, Medina keeps calling Gabriel "boy" and refers to Ross as a "black bitch."   Brenda has to control Gabriel, not that he would have lost his temper at Medina, though he should have.   Pope's in her ear telling her to ask all sorts of silly and irrelevant questions.

Brenda uses Flynn's (Tony Denison) card to swipe into Pope's office so they can use the conference room as an HQ away from the others, thus giving Brenda an idea as to how Ross's killer got into her house unnoticed.   Conway (Falk Hentschel)  was a prisoner who got out early as part of the Early Release Programme and was a drug addict.   He killed a man for cash.   The CS photos from that murder are similar to the photos concerning Ross's shooting.   Verico thinks Ross's stalker was a woman, so Gabriel suggest the killer may have a wife or girlfriend.   Conway doesn't have a wife or girlfriend.   Ross released him as part of the programme but he wanted to stay in jail.   He found the box cutters in the Vic's toolbox and a set of box cutters was found in Ross's house.   He wants them to tell the Vic's  wife he's sorry.

An episode where you can't immediately tell who the killer actually is, cos the gardenia scent could just be a red herring, and also since the Vic's wife, Ann (Olivia Burnette) wasn't mentioned until near the end.   That made a change since the rest of the time the suspects are glaringly obvious and I always work out who did it.

Ann is brought in and Gabriel informs her they arrested the wrong man for her husband's murder.   She's wearing gardenia perfume, the scent lingering in Ross's house.   She seems to be genuinely upset so they offer to drive her home, but as with Brenda you know it's just an elaborate plan on her part to catch her out.   Setting up plenty of police roadblocks so they can drive to Ross's house and stop in front.   Brenda grabs hold of Ann's garage remote and opens the door to Ross's garage with it.   Ann modified it when she stole it from Ross's car when she broke into it.   She blamed Ross for releasing Conway early.   Well it was too late now to get her revenge, it wasn't going to bring her husband back.

Pope tells Verico he's back at work but tells him he was unfortunate in responding in the way he did for holding him responsible for Ross's death, but doesn't apologize.   Then he makes excuses to Brenda about needing  to put the LAPD officers in a good light and says he's doing the best to protect LAPD officers.   Brenda adds there's still no apology.   Pope shouldn't have this job and she tells him she'd be disappointed if she couldn't do better than him as Chief.

Brenda: "This whole Chief selection process, it has not brought out the best in you and if this is how you intend to run the Department, I'm not even sure it's a job you should have."
Pope: "Do you think you could do better?"
Brenda: "I'd be really disappointed if I couldn't." And so would we. Of course she can do better, since she sees more than red tape and bureaucracy, she sees the human side and has far more compassion to get the job done, irrespective of whether the Vics are ordinary people or even criminals themselves.   See next episode where the Department agrees.

Supernatural - 6.11: "Appointment in Samarra" Review

Dean takes steps to get back Sam's soul, even if Sam's decided against wanting it back and has to play death for a day. Naturally, or unnaturally, it all goes awry.

Dean (Jensen Ackles) enters a Chinese butcher's to find Doctor Robert (Robert Englund) who used to fix Dad.   He had his medical licence back then.   Dean wants to flatline so he can meet with the reaper, Tessa (Lindsey McKeon) and subsequently converse with Death (Julian Richings).   He gives the doctor a letter for Ben incase something happens to him.   Then calls for Tessa in Latin and needs Death, who comes anyway.   He only loaned Dean the ring and he knows where Dean's stashed it.   Death can break into Lucifer's cage, where both Sam's (Jared Padalecki) and Adam's souls are.   Dean wants them both and he can only pick one.   No contest as to who he was going to choose.

Sam's soul has been there for a year and is damaged.   Death offers to put up a wall in Sam's mind so he won't recall anything.  Tessa says it's not permanent.   Only Death lasts forever.   Dean agrees and the prize is his if Dean wins the bet.   To put his ring on and be Death for a day, but there's a provision which Dean doesn't get to hear as he's revived before he can.   He was gone 7 minutes.   Sam heard Cas (Misha Collins) talking about his soul.   Dean says it's not a cure but could last a lifetime.   It's Sam's life and soul.   Bobby (Jim Beaver) is curious to know what Dean's deal consists of and he replies, to be Death for a day.

Sam goes outside and Dean asks if he's looking for Death's ring.   He's his brother and he won't let him get hurt or anything go wrong.   Bobby is left to mind Sam.   He should have locked Sam in the panic room, since he can't be trusted, no soul remember, ha and saved himself the trouble.   Dean wears the ring and Tessa doesn't like this.   It wasn't Dean's idea.   Dean must kill everyone on the list.   If he hesitates and removes the ring, then he'll lose and that's what will happen.   Well you don't have to be a mindreader.

Sam summons Balthazar (Sebastian Roche) for angel advice since Cas can't help him.   Sam asks if there's anything that will keep his soul out of his body forever and Balthazar obliges after asking why.   He asks where Sam's soul is, why doesn't he know.  Sam doesn't want it and Balthazar calls Lucifer, Luci, hey I do that.   He has a spell where he has to scar his vessel: pollute it by committing patricide.   Requiring the blood of his father, "But your father needn't be your blood."  I.e Bobby.

Tessa warns Dean one question people will ask is 'why'.   There's a robbery in the store and it's the robber who is shot and killed.   But Dean lets him suffer in agony a little before ending his life.   Dean: "That wasn't so hard." Cos he was bad and it won't be easy when he gets to the good or the innocent children.   One man (Norman Misura) suffers a heart attack and asks why.   Dean sarcastically answers the extra cheese and asks if it's from a local pizza place.   Oh Dean with thoughts of food again.    He tells him he's "dust in the wind."  Like the Kansas song.

Dean must end a girl's life at the hospital and he refuses.   Tess tells him he must take Hilary (Michelle Creber).  "It's destiny." Dean: "Spent my whole life fighting that crap."  Like there was no apocalypse.   Dean is Death and she's not dying.   Hilary recovers and the next Vic is the nurse, Jolene (Alison Araya) who wasn't meant to die but Dean changed everything.   Besides she walked through Tess so she had to be next.   Bobby and Sam in a game of cat and mouse, he gets Sam before Sam can get him.   Bobby: "I may have been born at night but I wasn't born last night."  Sam disappears and Bobby hides in the closet where he was meant to be all along and opens a trap door under Sam.   He doesn't want Sam to say, "here's Johnny."  Someone on this show is obsessed with that movie, The Shining and Jack Nicholson.  And it ain't Dean, ha.  

Sam needs to do this and what if it doesn't work?   Dean cares about Sammy burning in hell. It's not about him and what's Sam without a soul.   Sam escapes.  Jo had a heart attack caused by the accident and the heart surgeon, Dr Owens (Bruce Dawson) isn't here.   He would have been here for Hilary.   Dean must take her so he doesn't set off another reaction.   Jolene's husband, Scott arrives.   Dean messed up, like we knew he would and he must take Hilary.   Scott tries to end his life and drinks and drives.   Dean tries to make him stop but he can't until Dean removes the ring and becomes visible, making the car swerve.

Sam gets Bobby and Sam loves using those metal pipes and pokers.   Dean lost the bet or so he thinks.   Sam would kill Bobby even though he's been like a father to him, which is exactly why, he has no soul.   Dean returns in the nick and Sam finds himself back in the panic room again, which is what I said.   Dean can't keep doing this everytime Sam tries to kill.   Dean asks what he's meant to do like he did in the season 2 finale, All Hell Breaks Loose, when Sam was killed and he was contemplating how to bring him back.

Death waits for no one, ha, yet he waits for Dean with a hot dog.   Dean doesn't have an appetite now.   Dean: "What's with you and cheap food?"  Death: "I could ask you the same thing."  He failed but with hindsight, Dean would kill Hilary now.   He's surprised and glad.   Wrecking the natural order isn't fun when Death has to clear up.   Dean goes "around throwing away his life thinking he'll get it back."  Don't think Dean's learned his lesson though.   Dean knew he wouldn't last and Sam gets his soul back anyway.  Sam and Dean keep coming back (like the show which is great!)  Death wants Dean to keep digging further about the souls and about Purgatory.   Sam got his comeuppance for being a naughty, soulless dude by getting his soul back anyway.   That was kind of funny.   He can protest all he likes but big bro will always get his way in the end and he should know that by now.

Dean was not going to let Sam live without his soul, that didn't come out right, live soulless.   He's not selling his own soul this time, not in that way, so he comes up with this plan; undergoing death, to meet with Death; since he's decided this can be the only way to retrieve Sam's soul - How'd he come to that conclusion since only last episode he told Gramps Campbell he shouldn't interfere in things like that?   Wasn't he doing the same thing - doing anything to help Sam, even if it meant having to be Death for a day?   Easier said than done.

The dice was loaded against Dean even before the deal was made; As 5 seasons on, we all know Dean by now (and not in the Biblical sense as Crowley would say) that he'd do anything to not see people suffer, although they may be complete strangers to him.   Yet Sam is his Achilles heel (last episode) and vice versa as he said in 6.10 and he won't ever stop helping Sam.   Sam doesn't turn to Cas now but to Balthazar and what made Sam call him since he threatened to kill him not so long ago.   Well he's the less scrupulous angel (though this day you could have have doubts about Cas and the whole lot of them too.)  Besides Sam wouldn't be feeling any remorse over killing Bobby to get his own way.   He's resigned to the fact of not being a veggie so it's easier to kill Bobby and "scar his vessel."  He didn't think about what Dean would do to Sam if his plan had worked.   That's a question, what would Dean have done?  Ungrateful Sam, there Dean was killing himself - again - to get Sam's soul back and make him whole again.

References to earlier seasons with Sam and Dean always ending up sacrificing themselves and somehow would always come back or be brought back.   Dean referring to destiny once more and fighting it all his life.   Lots of exposition on fate and destiny in season 2 when Sam was fighting his destiny in the hopes of not going darkside.

Question of the day: Why would Death want Dean to continue on his quest to find purgatory?  Other than having more souls for him, but they're dead already even if in limbo.   So he can't have any advantage or benefit with purgatory.   Unless Death was hinting everything was about souls for the remainder of the season.  

This episode served to show the inconsistencies between the two : Dean having to take lives as Death, part of being Death and Sam was willing to take Bobby's life to in an attempt to remain soulless.   What if Sam had gone through with it and Dean as Death had to deal with Bobby? It's only a dark thought but...

Should Dean have learned his lesson from season 4's Death Takes A Holiday where Alastair stopped people from dying in a small town?   There Dean let the boy who was a ghost go off with Tessa, calling it a miracle and he said the same thing to Pamela, cos he knew that if they stayed around they would live with the thought of watching a loved one enduring pain and loss.  Here he didn't think in that way when he put his foot down to save Hilary.   In 2.1 In My Time of Dying, Dean tells Tessa you always have a choice before he realized she was a reaper.   Tessa wanted him to accept his fate or else he'd become a malevolent spirit himself.   Something not discussed here and Dean didn't remember all this when he wanted Hilary to live.

Dean already flatlined in 2.1.   Here the doctor says an angel must be watching out for Dean.  How true did that statement become in season 4?

When Sam summons Balthazar he uses Dean's phrase of "desperate times." Thus he must call on him.   Bobby telling Sam not to say, "Here's Johnny" cos it's Dean's line, kind of.   Dean knocking Sam out and finding himself back in the panic room.   Dean making a deal - again - to get Sam's soul back - again.   This episode, similar to Charmed 7.5 Styx Feet Under where Paige had to cast a spell to save some people and as a consequence no one dies anymore.   The angel of Death wants this fixed and Piper is enlisted to help with this, to help him kill those who were meant to have died.   Phoebe attempts to sacrifice herself (Sam and Dean) and Paige is the one who ends up dying, with Piper having to deal with her in death.

This episode title alludes to an old Arabic fable mentioned in W Somerset Maugham's play Sheppy.   In Baghdad a master sends his servant to the market whereupon he sees Death.   He takes his master's horse and rides to Samarra where he believes he'll be safe.   His master goes to the market and asks Death about the 'gesture' she made to his servant.   She replies, "I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."  Hence you can't cheat death, which Dean kind of attempted to do, even if not in the same sense of cheating; by refusing to stick to his bargain as far as Hilary was concerned.   An apt title for this episode, cos in some respects Sam attempted to cheat his 'soul' by not wanting it back, but no matter what he did or attempted to do, he got it back regardless and was made whole again.

Smallville - 10.8: "Abandoned" Review

Lois visits the fortress of Solitude so Jor-El can make peace with Clark and Tess asks Clark for help when she relives a moment from her childhood, Tess's ancestry is revealed.

Tess (Cassidy Freeman) has a nightmare and sees herself as a girl walking with a woman.  She drops a music box behind playing the Dance of the Sugarplum fairy.   She hides a key under her floorboards which she uses to get out of her room.   So Tess was sneaky even as a child.   She wakes to hear the music box playing in the mansion.   Lois (Erica Durance) unpacks some of her mother's things from a box she's been "avoiding for 15 years."  The General gave them to her: her mother's keepsakes.   She looks at the Old Blue glass bird which was kept in the kitchen window. Lois never visited her in hospital.   Clark (Tom Welling) thinks she was a scared child.   Lois didn't get to say goodbye, but her mother did, leaving video tapes for her.   Clark tells her she should "not feel guilty for not wanting to open up old wounds."  Cos that's what he's done.   Jor-El wasn't his father but just a machine.

Clark meets Tess at Watchtower, she needs his help with a music box.   He looks under the box and peels away the 'happy birthday' label revealing the name of St Louisa's orphanage.   She didn't think to look under it.   There's no picture of the box in her photo album.  That's why she doesn't like to go home for Christmas, what home?  The orphanage, finding that was easy, is run by Granny Goodness (Christine Willes) cos she's too good to be true!  As she removes memories of young girls to build her own formidable army.

Lois plays the tape and her mother, Ella (Teri Hatcher) says she didn't want to the girls to see her at hospital.   The General gave her Blue when she was pregnant with Lois and it's a symbol of hope (as is the Blur/Superman.)  Girls need their mothers sometimes, the tape is for when she needs to be there for her and she won't be.   Losing a parent can create a hole in a child's life.   This conversation seems to be directed at Clark mostly, as well as Tess and Lois.   She knew Lois will one day meet someone special, knowing her he'll be "tall, dark and handsome."   She won't be able to commit if she's missing a love from an old memory - like her mother.

Clark notices Tess is standing on the building steps 20 years ago and they turn up at the orphanage using their reporter IDs.  Clark hears a girl crying and he claims he's forgetten his notebook so he can rescue her, but ends up falling prey himself when he checks out the fencing girls.   Well he took his time getting the notebook.   Granny wants to make the girl forget her parents.  The fencing girls explain why Tess also fences.   He's weakened by green Kryptonite fire and he's overpowered.   Oh Clarkie this has got to stop.   Granny takes Tess to her gallery of girls on the walls and she stands in front of the photo of Tess.   She's been training girls to "conquer society here and around the world." Tess finds the scratches she made on the wall when she was little.  She knew the music box would bring Tess back to Granny.

Lois reads Clark's journal and gets a brainwave - can't move forward "until he deals with  the super-sized hole his dad left in his heart." Not the one left by Jonathan either but Jor-El.   She finds the map showing the location to the Fortress and also the key.  Why is Clark leaving his things lying around so casually, behind the book shelf wasn't much of a hiding place for the key and he took that back from Kara too.   Granny took Tess in after she was 5.   Her birth parents found her a home and sent her away.   They were powerful; hinting at the Luthors, since no one else would be so powerful in these parts.   Granny took her to Cadmus Labs and got her face healed.   Tess is stronger than anyone and her favourite.  Lines are being drawn soon and Tess would be wise to have Granny on her side.   Tess demands to know where Clark is and Granny strikes her down, locking her in her old room.

Clark is stripped to be tortured, killed more like. "Someone who loves you doesn't make you forget who you are and where you came from!" Again a comment about himself, though perhaps subconsciously.  Harriet ( Lindsay Hartley) was meant to look after Clark for Granny and she's about to remove his memories.  He freezes the chain holding the damper of the fire and gets his strength back.   Life can't be better without  a painful past, Granny tells him, but it can.   Tess finds her key in the room  and fights the girls, showing she is strong but is no match for the power fo the whip, in the form of Lashina.

Lois at the Fortress attempts to speak with Jor-El.   Her mother was wrong to try and protect her.   Jor-El can be there for Kal-El and he "needs a father who believes in him."  Her loving Clark isn't enough and Jor-El's ghost is preventing Clark from reaching his potential.   Lois appears to be suspended in a blue coloured light, resembling ice.  Granny sees Clark as an abandoned soul.   Clark: "Challenges are what makes us who we are."  Then escapes and rescues Tess from the rope around her neck and takes care of Lashina too.  Tess is part of his team and he won't abandon her.  Clark also realizes Lois is at the Fortress and rescues her too.  He's through with Jor-El after what he did to her.   Jor-El (Julian Sands) and Clark's mother (Helen Slater) appear as holograms.   Their love will be with them.   He carries his father's strength and his mother's bravery.   He will live a full life "born of a great love."  Jor-El tells him he has a potential so unlike him and Clark had to come here alone so he wouldn't be burdened with his failures.   All of his father's knowledge but not his "ego or regrets...I will never lose faith in you...Earth's greatest saviour.  We will always be part of you."

Granny is introduced to Godfrey (Michael Daingerfield) by Desaad (Steve Byers).   Godfrey is the chosen.   The Dark Lord has made him like them, "Darkseid's minion." Godfrey's voice is heard around the world.   Desaad finds the bodies, Godfrey breaks their spirits and Granny cleans their minds.   Granny also being one of Darkseid's minions.   Lois places Blue in the kitchen window.   Her mother didn't want to see her cos she'd look weak and failed her by leaving, but she's brave.   Clark is a part of Jor-El that's human.   He was carrying the heavy burden of losing their home, much heavier than Clark's weight.   Lois is moving in and finds an envelope  for her wedding left for her by her mother.   Whilst Clark hides the engagement ring.

Tess was left at the orphanage by a man with long hair who can only be Lionel Luthor as the name on the number plate is shown.   She reads her birth certificate: Lutessa Lena Luthor.   Then wishes Lutessa a happy birthday.   Tess has come home then what with taking over the company and staying at the mansion and clearly, she's been home a long time.   No wonder she had such an affinity towards Alexander as he's her brother.   So is she better than the Luthor's or is she just as evil.   An episode all about parents and their children, in Lois, Clark and Tess and in coming to terms with who they are in some respects.   Tess appears to be dubious, since you never could tell who's side she was on in the past; she kept chopping and changing her loyalties.   But Tess being related to the Luthors should have been obvious cos of her red hair.   Why has her birth certificate only just come to her attention.

Just as Lois had her mother's videos, Clark had his parents recordings with them in holographic form too, before they also died.  Parallels running here for both and Tess was looking through her photo album.   Lois and Clark are going to sing karaoke at the Ace of Clubs which is another allusion to the comics.   As was whip girl's name of Lashina (whip, lashes, hence her name.)  Jack Kirby created their names in the 1970's for 'Fourth World' comics.  

Doctor Who - 5.6: "The Vampires of Venice" Review

Great atmospheric episode combining a nice twist in that the vampires are really another alien race dying out, the Doctor having yet more choices to make between humans and aliens. Rory joins them in the TARDIS.

Venice 1580.   Guido ( Lucian Msamati) gives Rosanna Calviari (Helen McCrory) his daughter Isabella (Alisha Bailey) who's just the daughter of a boat builder, so there's no future for her.   Calviari accepts her, and her son, Francesco (Alex Price) reveals his sharp teeth, pointy much.   Rory (Arthur Darvill) calls Amy (Karen Gillan) and leaves a message on her machine.   The Doctor (Matt Smith) surprises him at his stag do by coming out of the cake, instead of a stripper.   The Doctor confesses to Rory that Amy tried to kiss him, he's lucky, "she's a great kisser."  Then realizes what he just said sounded better in his head.   The doctor wants to send the two wherever they want to go, as a wedding present.  

Rory notices the size of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, he's been reading up on it, the latest dimension, since Prisoner Zero mentioned it in episode 5.1 (the last time we saw Rory.) Doctor: "I like the bit when someone says 'it's bigger on the inside' - I always look forward to it."  Venice is romantic.   (The Doctor wears a gold wrist watch here, for future reference.)  The man asks for papers before he lets them into the city, they're checking for aliens now and calls the Doctor, "his Holiness."  The Viscountess Rosanna Calivari has seen the streets full of bodies.   Rory is the 'eunuch.'  Which he's not pleased about.  Guido searches for Isabella amongst all the 'maidens.'  They're from the Calviari School.  He tells them evil goes on there as his daughter didn't even recognize him.   He describes the girl's face as that of an animal's.

Francesco fears they will be discovered if they wait to long to introduce the maidens to his brothers.   Francesco watches Rory and Amy and then goes for the flower girl, and Amy can't help finding out what is happening, on her own.  The Doctor gets in for an audience with Calviari and looks at himself in the mirror, "Hello handsome."  He doesn't notice the maidens in the mirror as they don't have a reflection.   He shows his library card and asks if he's thinking what he thinks he's thinking?  The Doctor and Amy are excited at the prospect of vampires.  Guido says there's no way in, but there's an underground tunnel.   Amy suggests they need someone on the inside, but Rory wants the Doctor to reject that idea.

The Doctor could say Amy is his daughter, no brother.   Amy would prefer fiance.   Rory should be Amy's brother and the Doctor her fiance.   Guido says he thought the Doctor was really Amy's fiance.   At court, doesn't Francesco recognize Amy especially, since he saw them both.   Maybe it's the clothes.  But he does ask if they've met.  They have references from the King of Sweden.  Francesco likes Amy and Isabella takes her to the room with the green light and the chair.   The sun burns Isabella's skin.

Rory questions the Doctor about Amy's kiss, he has a right to know as he's getting married in 430 years.   She kissed him in the relief of surviving, he didn't kiss her back, but Amy would have kissed Rory if he was there.  Calviari claims the Psychic Paper doesn't work on her and Amy is caught.   Doctor brought his UV light.   Rory: "Yours is bigger than mine."  Doctor: "Let's not go there."  Amy jokes she's from OFSTED.  (The UK body which has responsibility to ensure schools maintain their standards.) Rory and the Doctor find DBs in the chest with moisture removed from their bodies and not just blood.  The maidens give chase.  If Amy survives there are 10,000 husbands waiting for her in the water.   Calviari changes into her true form, that of a fishy creature.   Doctor: "Cab for Amy Pond."  Amy says they're aliens not vampires, which the Doctor prefers.

Isabella lets them out, but she doesn't manage to get out herself.   The Doctor gets electrocuted by the door.   Isabella is sacrificed to the brothers in the water.  The Doctor sits on Calviari's throne and he knows she's using a perception filter, he's seen her in the mirror for the first time, the "brain can't fill in the blanks and leaves it blank."  Thus their reflection can't be seen.   Calviari thinks he should be in a museum or mausoleum (hey River (Alex Kingston) said that in 5.4, but she's allowed.)  Calviari ran from "the silence." (See season 6.)  There were cracks, small and large and she saw "the silence through others and the end of all things." Not if he can help it!

Another alien species running from the Crack.   He's a Time Lord and she demands a partnership.   The Doctor threatens to tear down her house because she didn't know Isabella's name.   She lets him go and that was a mistake.   Calviari's filter is damaged.  Back at the house, the Doctor asks for silence (ha.)  "Brain thinking, hush." Calviari's meddling with the environment, she'll sink Venice and repopulate it with the maidens.   The Doctor's been around but he finds that repulsive, eeww, I.e.  Mum finding them compatible girlfriends. "Fish from space...not vampires." Then he sees the maidens at the window, "Blimey fish from space have never been so buxom!"  They're attacked by the maidens and Guido explodes the gunpowder, taking himself with them.

Another episode where the Doctor has to climb the tower to the top to stop the energy lightning.   The Doctor says when he tells Amy to do something she should do it.  Rory thanks him for being so abrupt and direct. "Sky's boiling." The maidens are gone and he should be dead.   Rory and Amy encounter Francesco again and Rory forms a makeshift cross and calls him "the Sponge Bob." Francesco goes for Amy, Rory insults his mother and Francesco draws his sword.    Amy to the rescue as usual and burns him.   Amy asks why Rory made the sign of the cross.  The Doctor has to stabilize the storm, they need to shutdown the throne and the generator.   Calviari asks if it's too much for one city to be destroyed to save an entire species.   The Doctor should remember them.   Doctor: "can't go back to change time." But he said it can be re-written.   Calviari's perception filter fails and she jumps into the water, where she's devoured by her children.

The Doctor wants to give them away and they say Rory should come with them on the TARDIS.   They're Amy's boys.   The Doctor tells Rory to listen and he replies, "All I can hear is silence."  Yes, The silence.

Another episode with the Doctor having to choose between Earth or aliens invading Earth and this was just moot after all; since humans will always inevitably win, other species be damned.   The Doctor using his library card as ID, has a photo of the first Doctor.   Alex price narrated the season 5 series of Doctor Who Confidential.   This episode was filmed at St Donal's Castle, Wales and in Croatia, giving the episode an exciting, horror, gothic feel.   Even if the vampires turned out to be fishy aliens and where better to have vampires, or would-be vampires than in Venice.

The Silence being alluded to again as this is the main arc of this season and that's what the Crack will lead to eventually, as they say, "the rest is silence."

CSI: Miami - 8.3: "Bolt Action" Review

Volleyball players are mysteriously electrocuted at the beach, leading to an investigation involving cubs and cougars and the inevitable: 'the man can do no wrong and is always right' battle of the sexes scenario.

Volleyball players are simultaneously electrocuted on the beach during a fundraiser and the CSIs must probe the questions of how, why and by whom?  Strange how whenever someone needs help how people can only stand around and watch for ages, until someone shouts the "Call 911" for help.   Jesse (Eddie Cibrian) informs Horatio (David Caruso) they can't investigate until Hazmet gives the all-clear for the bodies to be removed.   They suspect bio or chemical terrorism.   Horatio is right when he comments they're dealing with something more personal.   Trace collection reveals some blue crystals in the sand, which Ryan (Jonathan Togo) thinks being corrosion, only there's no pipe.   The crystals appear to be copper sulphate and they shouldn't be there, since Ryan tells us they're found in dyes and pigments.   Thus more puzzles for the case.

Dean Collins (John Terry) owns the property and his wife, Amanda (Cheryl Ladd) organizes the charity fundraiser.  Horatio isn't certain their deaths were accidental and he's more concerned with the men's deaths than with Collins not being insured.   Amanda says the men were all State volleyball champions when Hailey (Kate Lang Johnson) their daughter was in high school.   She was at the golf club.

ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) tells Horatio the CODs (Cause of death) will take time, but he's noticed some peticule hemorrhaging in Troy so he dies of asphyxiation.   One had signs of subdural haematoma , his ears hemorrhaged.   The third Vic had a heart attack, but he was only 21.   Horatio notices the burn marks on all of their feet and spills out they were electrocuted.

Jesse has to dig in the sand and Calleigh (Emily Procter) gets the easy task of snapping photos.   He finds the cable was cut so the electrical charge would be distributed.   They follow the cable but it leads nowhere.  Natalia (Eva LaRue) hasn't dealt with electrocution CODs before.   Troy (Blair Redford) had a bite mark on his chest, but the skin wasn't broken.   Horatio surmises the teeth marks were caused by invisible braces and thus it was Hailey.

Natalia has to spell put to Ryan that Hailey and Troy were 'together, together'.   He was having an affair with Amanda and Hailey refers to her as a cougar.   Which Natalia has to explain to Ryan also.   You see it's okay for men to be with younger girls or any aged women, but if a woman is seen with a younger man, she's labelled a "cradle snatcher or cougar." But mothers stealing their daughter's boyfriends is nothing new.   It's just the cougar term which has become synonymous with this that makes it sound so vulgar, even.

Delko (Adam Rodriguez) tells Ryan he's still suffering from headaches and is on administrative leave.   Even if Calleigh can't speak to him, she didn't have to give him the cold shoulder treatment, she's meant to have feelings for the guy.  So a smile wouldn't have gone astray.   No need to stand there looking like a cold, stuffed dummy.   Ryan suggests they could lose their jobs over this and she tells him that's not very positive and walks away.   Well didn't seem she was concerned about her job either.   Delko tells Rick (David Lee Smith) he was going to turn his father in.   Calleigh shot at the car since she saw it as a threat and their on the speed of the car vary too.   Obviously we're meant to put that down to Delko's amnesia.   Rick is as devious as ever and that's always entertaining.   How he tries to get them to open up by calling Delko her 'former boyfriend) because that's what he told Rick.   (He didn't really.)  No matter how hard he always tries to pin something on Horatio's team, he doesn't succeed.   But he's good to watch.

ME Tom discovers an oversight in the bodies and can only apologize to Horatio.  Relating to the burn marks on the feet, the burn marks on Peter (Jason Hastings) were made when the electricity left his body.   Horatio also notices the burn mark on his chest, which was the point of entry, but he wasn't wearing any metal.   There's a black substance around the burn which Jesse attempts to analyze and is helped by newcomer Walter (Omar Benson Miller) .   He calls Jesse "Die-hard" because of what he did during the hostage takeover.   Walter's "a man of many talents" and asks for some breathing room from 'John McClain'.   The black substance is carbon from body paint that can conduct electricity.   The charge went straight to the heart.   Walter and Jesse check out the various videos etc from the fundraiser and Walter calls it foreplay and not a fundraiser.   Jesse probes him on his knowledge about cougars.

The paint on Peter's body spells out 'propertaire of JP' don't need to know French to translate that!  Jacqueline Parsons (Tia Carrere) didn't know what the paint was capable of doing.   They were experimenting in bed and she "marked her territory" as Tripp (Rex Linn) puts it.   Amanda didn't know her 'boundaries'.   She resents being called cougar/cub as offensive and being labelled a "sexual carnivore."   If she was a real cougar she wouldn't care about him, but she did.   Unlike Amanda who went through men like dirty undies.

Horatio in the lab, he doesn't venture in there often enough these days!  The killer tapped into the powerline in the sand and petrified lightning turns sand into glass.   They were hit by lightning and were electrocuted.   Natalia asking the silly question of how it was harnessed.   (Learned all about lightning, conductivity in school science, geography, so where's she been?)  Horatio: "We look to the sky."  Jesse tells her they were struck by lightning, in a clear sky, which travelled from 30 miles away.   The cable was on the lifeguard tower and Natalia can only think of a ladder whilst Jesse's already climbed up.   He also has to educate her on how  lightning strikes around Miami everyday.   She finds a bit of jewellery in the sand.   It's from Amanda's necklace.   Natalia asks if he's "feeling young and hot?"  She was so flirting with Jesse!  Even called him Tarzan.

Jesse reminds Amanda of a quarterback she used to date in college, but she has nothing to say to Walter.   Wonder why Natalie sent Jesse to the bar when she knows Amanda would make a play for him, Jesse needing a bodyguard, of sorts in Walter.  She lost it a few days ago when she was with Peter.   Jesse mentions the CS but how does Amanda realize where she lost it or where the CS was located, he didn't tell her.   Jesse takes Ryan to the boat, but not to the cougar bar!  Collins is with a younger girl, so that was perfectly acceptable.   Tripp locates the rod, from under a lawnmower.   It's a converted golfclub.   obviously to put the suspicion back onto Hailey, but I knew it wasn't her.   (It's not my fault, I always get my killer! in TV shows.)

 Ryan finds the rod is magnetic since it was struck by lightning, it was magnetized.   When they showed Amanda at the bar with the necklace, it was either a different view of her necklace, or it was twisted round, but now she's wearing the same necklace Natalia found a piece of.   Horatio will find Hailey.   The steel in the club isn't a match.   Jesse asks Calleigh how the IA interview went, but she's staying quiet.   He comments how all IA folk have "square jaws." Calleigh examines the clothes and finds there's blood on one of the trousers belonging to Collins.  Jesse finds metal shavings from his shoe, when he shaved the heads off the clubs.   He's still wearing the same shoes, that's rich people for you.   Just as Amanda was wearing the same necklace.  His motive: Amanda was embarrassing him with her younger men and it was shameful for a man "of his stature" and murder isn't! Jesse tells him he can't control the power of mother nature, mother being the operative word.

Jesse settled in nicely, he doesn't take any stick from the rest of the team,even when they're teasing.   He's not judgemental  either, to the point of saying sorry to Amanda when she finds out her husband is the killer.   Not many CSIs would do that.

Horatio attempts to convince Hailey to return home and even she accuses her mother of causing the killings.   It's up to Horatio to bring families together.   See Calleigh's reaction here when Delko tells her they can talk again, she's so different to how she was earlier on.   Delko wasn't even going into the building, since he walks the other way, so what's the point of saying 'after you'.   They exchange parting glances, but the parting wasn't for long!

Electrocutions have been the subject of quite a few CSI:Miami episodes.

NCIS - 7.3: "The Inside Man" Review

The NCIS team investigate when a reporter is killed, after writing a story about an earlier NCIS investigation. Whilst Ziva has yet to be approved for field work.

A reporter waiting for a meeting at  a construction site is found dead.   McGee (Sean Murray) has to take another polygraph test.  Tony (Michael Weatherly) asks him why and here comes the oft used phrase again, "Don't ask, don't tell."  Need to have that included at least a few times a season.   Tony being funny as per usual, comments, "You didn't make a mistake about coming out did you?"  How many times has Tony mentioned that about McGee now.

McGee replies, "I don't have anything to come out about."  Tony calls him "McQueen" and that this could end McGee's career.  Always a scaremonger, our Tony.   Gibbs (Mark Harmon) on the other hand, never took a polygraph.   Just a thought what happened to the polygraphs the team were meant to be subjected to in season 4 finale Angel of Death.   We didn't hear anything more about that.   The dead Vic was Matt Burns (Julian Acosta) a blogger, who Tony comments was kicking NCIS butt in his stories.   Ducky (David McCallum) talks with Ziva (Cote de Pablo) when the others are out in the field.   She hasn't been cleared for fieldwork yet.

At the CS, McGee finds a shoeprint on the ground.   Tony hones on the female police officer of course and comments on her scarf bringing out the colour of her eyes but advises her not to wear it at a CS as the loose fibres can contaminate.   She's Megan Hanley (Kelly Overton).  Gibbs questions whether Burns was pushed or did he jump.   Sportelli (Jack Conley ) from Metro PD thinks the case will be awkward for NCIS since Burns was "trashing" them as being involved in the cover-up of a marine's death.  Nah, our NCIS team, never!  Sportelli expects them to cooperate fully.   Burns was looking into the death of Lt Rod Arnett after he died in a car crash at Pax Naval Base.   Tony calls it an accident.   Burns had a source who accused NCIS of the cover-up.   Tony, Gibbs and Sportelli come to blows, not physically, and he's referred to as the "police detective who made the mistake of tugging on Superman's cape."  Gibbs being Superman of course.

McGee looks for the source.   A chief suspect is Thomas Victor (H Richard Greene) a judge whose reputation was destroyed by Burns.   McGee says they're only investigating Arnett as Burns is not within the "purview" of their case.   Tony has to hold onto the "Ooh, purview."  A big word for Tony.  Ha.   Tony clearly doesn't like it when his investigating skills are questioned and rightly so.   Gibbs asks Ducky if he's got a new toy; his portable X-ray machine.   Ducky brings up Ziva and how she's been through so much but doesn't talk about it.   Gibbs says she'll talk when she's ready, well she's already talked to Gibbs, last episode.

Ducky reviews the autopsy file on Arnett and Abby (Pauley Perrette) goes over the physical evidence.   The Judge tells Tony he's glad Burns is dead.   Burns accused him of plagiarizing when he borrowed phrases from a book he read, he was stupid but he only wanted a name for himself.   (Last time I checked, you are allowed to quote as long as you state your source.)  Tony runs off when he sees Sportelli.   Arnett's company showed no signs of insider dealing.   They question Lt Jessica Summers (Erin Cahill) who says she rode once in Arnett's car and he drove fast.   He received job offers.   Abby carried out an accident reconstruction on the computer and concludes it was an accident.   Abby tells McGee the polygraph test is nothing and that Kirschner had to retake a test, but he left before McGee got here.   That would only make McGee more worried.

Lt Summers called Arnett, more ammo for Tony: "Fraternization in the workplace - not a good idea."  (For all sorts of reasons which is why it wouldn't work between Tony and Ziva either and besides we don't want them fraternizing!  Also Gibbs' one of rules.)  Tony looks right over at Ziva when he says this.   Ziva went through Burns' articles and says he made up facts and figures in them.   Ziva: calls them "Salami" in one of her Ziva-isms.   Tony corrects her, it's "Baloney."  Salami, baloney, pastrami, Tony knows all about food.   There's nothing unusual in Arnett's finances.    Summers says she broke it off with him since he was seeing another woman.   Tony comments they're not through with 'Honey Bunny' and Gibbs will lead in with the "creepy uncle"  scenario when questioning her and end with the "father figure you can trust."  Which is exactly what Ziva called him last episode.   That's how Gibbs will break Summers.  

McGee calls it "intimidation, classic in yer face Gibbs." Ziva disagrees.  Gibbs goes for the, in Tony's words,  "Old lie to me, I'll lie to you - never saw that coming.   I like it."   Summers is Burns' source, that was obvious and Gibbs loses his temper with her.   McAllister Industries contract made money and Ziva says the two cases are connected.   McGee adds they messed up the investigation.

Ducky reviewed the autopsy and concludes Arnett's death was an accident.   Ducky talks to the Metro ME on the case and has to fob him off, "I have to say that or he'll talk my ears off."  Like someone else we know 'ey Ducky and that's meant in a nice way! Ducky's stories are intriguing most of the time, even though people will disagree, that's the charm of his character.     Gibbs asks if Ducky lies like that to him and responds, "Never!"  He says the tissue had to be prepared for tests on Arnett, however his family wanted him buried.   Benjamin Franklin (Clyde Kusatsu) from the Securities Exchanges Commission pays a visit and claims to have heard all the jokes in relation to his name.   Before Tony can get one in.   There's no evidence of insider trading on Arnett's part.   So instead Tony focuses on his bifocals, no pun!  A Will Sutton (Kevin Will) made two million on McAllister stock.

Meanwhile Abby has to contend with Sportelli and tells him she only takes orders from Gibbs, she wants Gibbs to make him go away.   He has a court order for their evidence and Sportelli hopes Gibbs can tell his boss he didn't blow the investigation.   Tony questions Sutton with a toothpick in his mouth, like Vance (Rocky Carroll) but he only has eyes for the pastrami.   Then proceeds to scoff the whole lot back at his desk, without giving any to McGee.   He offers him the pickle though, which McGee doesn't like.  Arnett and Sutton don't have anything in common.   Arnett's body is exhumed and Ducky tells Abby how in South China they open graves after one year and rebury in a vase.   The coffin is empty.   Tony wonders who would steal the body.

McGee and Tony go the funeral home where Tony can't help checking out the caskets and suggests McGee should get inside one so he can send the photo to McGrady (Jackie Geary) and she'll think he's dead.   How nice Tony!  The security alarm went off at the home that's when his body was stolen.   Abby comments her coffin was handcrafted by an artisan, and provides "hours of restful sleep and pleasure." Ducky and Gibbs had the same thought about the casket.   Ziva thinks Burns stole Arnett's body.  Tony likes that theory and wants to know how they can prove it.     He and McGee check out Burns' car in police impound and McGee downloads data from his navigation system onto his laptop; before they're chased by dogs and arrested.   McGee could've just scaled the fence at the side instead of running towards the fence they climbed over to get in.   Liked their mugshots.   Abby comments on how scared McGee looks.  Vance got them released.

Burns parked outside the mortuary.   Ziva begins writing a letter to her father on the computer.  Abby tells her the theory was right, but she refuses to celebrate on a girl's night out with Abby.   Grady just wanted to see McGee again and used the polygraph as a ploy.   She takes the same train every morning which provides McGee with a clue to solving the case and getting the proof that Tony wants.   (Should that be 'McProof' as Tony referred to him last episode.)  Abby finds the fibres on Arnett's uniform are consistent with a car.   McGee discovers Arnett had a rail pass.   Sutton drives to the station to take the train and Arnett took the train to the Pentagon.   Tony asks if Sutton is a Hitchcock fan as the film Strangers on a Train (1951) comes to mind.   Since if there was an SEC investigation there would be no obvious connection between Sutton and Arnett.   Sutton says he wants a lawyer and Tony comments innocent guys always say they want a lawyer.   Isn't that a bit of a contradiction, since it's not only the bad guys who ask for lawyers but the innocent too.  They met at the bridge and Sutton killed Burns.   Gibbs offers to give Sportelli the killer for dropping all charges against Tony and McGee.

Gibbs spells out for McGee that Grady just wants to see him since she likes him, "draw you a picture?"  It doesn't matter what Ziva's father thinks.   She says it's wrong for her to be a visitor here, she wants to be an agent.   Gibbs doesn't know if she can, she has to resign from Mossad first.

Didn't know what to make of this episode, it had all the jokes and the fun bits, but didn't seem that interesting.  Just routine.  Not one of my favourite episodes of season 7 and I like them all.

 Jack Conley appeared twice in JAG and always as a bad guy.

Supernatural - 6.10: "Caged Heat" Review

The one where they find out just how much of a ratbag their grandfather really is. So much for family and Crowley is despatched. Sam no longer wants his soul back.

Crowley (Mark Sheppard) tortures his own shifter look-alike for info on purgatory.   He threatens the shifter's babies with an iridium knife.   When that has no effect, he just kills him. Lots of head lopping this season - something for Crowley to look forward to.   Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) hand over their latest catch a rougarou to Crowley's lackey.   The demon (Conrad Coates) tries to be funny.   Dean hates what they have been resorted  to doing and asks, "Remember when we used to gank demons?"  Yeah we do, a reference to earlier seasons of the show since that's all they used to do most of the time.   Dean now feels like he needs a "daily rape shower."   Sam knows to get his soul back that's what they have to do.   One thing before I forget, how can they be so sure Crowley can deliver on his promise of getting Sam his soul back?   They rely too much on what he says and especially since over the past seasons their motto, has been "demon's lie."

Dean again has to ask Sam if he really wants his soul back.   Sam replies he's working for Crowley, which should be confirmation enough, but again have to question his response, especially since Sam doesn't feel, either way, anything about what he has to do for Crowley.  It's not like he can be disgusted or repelled by it.   Sam is taken from their room and so is Dean.   That was too quick and easy.   It's Meg (Rachel Miner) again.   Dean wants to rip her to shreds and she demands info on Crowley.   It used to be Meg who was tied up in chairs.  These days it's our dudes.   Sam laughs at her.   She's angry but she can't kill them cos she's running as Crowley's on the hunt for Lucifer's supporters, or as he puts it, "Lucifer's loyalists."  She needs them.

Sam tells her to work with them and they need info from Crowley before she kills him.   She leaves them tied up.   Dean riles up the bald demon when he comes close to him, "You gonna kiss me"  He was shifty, even for a demon.   Dean is angry at having to work with Meg, she killed Ellen and Jo.   Sam says they have insurance, as in Castiel (Misha Collins).   He arrives when Sam tricks Cas into thinking they found the Ark of the Covenant, but actually recounts the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark.   Ordinarily Sam wouldn't have pulled something like that.   Sam says Cas owes him and he'll hunt Cas and kill him if he doesn't help.   Cas asks how.  

Sam reminds him it's what friends do - forget that he threatened an angel.   Cas can't locate Crowley and they search Samuel's (Mitch Pileggi) office.   Sam is getting his soul back.   Dean emphasizes it's his grandson's soul, but Samuel can't help.   Dean protests they're his blood.   He can't help but why does he refuse.   It's obvious he wants Mary back but again will Crowley even deliver: the double crossing backstabber that he is.  They know how to live without her.   Dean: "Don't go down that road."  Dean again talks about being his grandson and it's wrong.   He should learn from their mistakes.   It's their Achilles Heel and "runs in the family."  Wanting a loved one back and saving them over and over, which we know Sam and Dean have endured through the years.   Sam was quiet on this one.   Dean asks what Samuel will ask her when he brings Mom back, that he didn't help her son.

Cas watches porn!  Really can't take him anywhere.   That's how much Dean has rubbed off on him.   Dean berates him he's meant to watch it alone and not talk about it.  Samuel agrees to help but they don't trust him.   He's probably made another deal with Crowley.   Cas tells Samuel when he comments on what he's watching, "We're not supposed to talk about it."  Samuel shows them where Crowley is torturing his monsters.   Sam asks Cas to come and Meg calls him Clarence (from It's a Wonderful Life.  The guardian angel who helped George and finally got his wings, our Cas already has wings, massive Chrysler Building-sized ones!)  Sam says they'll all go together.   He asks for her knife and kills the shifty bald demon.   He did them a favour and keeps the knife since Meg took it from them.

Cas doesn't think it's wise to get Sam's soul as it's been locked in the cage with Michael and Lucifer and they take his anger out on his soul.   If they force his soul into Sam, he doesn't know what may happen and it could lock Sam inside forever. Or he could die.   Dean knows they can fix him but Cas doesn't know how.   Cas: "We fail and Sam suffers horrifically."  Sam had to be listening of course...

Cas lets them into the building and the Djinn (Laura Mennell) the one from 6.1, asks them for help.   They sense hellhounds and think the salt will hold them but not for Long.   Meg can't demon smoke out.   Cas realizes Crowley has cast a spell and Sam gives Meg the knife but she doesn't want it.   She and Cas kiss and she takes his knife.   Cas: "I learned that from the pizza man." The porn he watched.   Cas disappears cos of Samuel.  Knew he'd sell them out cos his blood is thicker than that of his grandsons.  Meg's caught by Christian (Corin Nemec).

Dean: "You want forgiveness, find a priest."  Dad put his blood first, unlike Samuel who chose a demon over his own grandsons.  Samuel doesn't know what Sam is and he wants to protect him.   Dean's a stranger.   Dean never wants to see him again cos he'll kill him.   That's what Dean said to him when they met; that he doesn't trust him but Sam wouldn't let it go just cos he'd been working with them.   Also so much for Samuel not knowing what Sam is.  The same can be said about Samuel. They don't know who he is, let alone what he is, cos he certainly ain't' family.

Christian tortures Meg for info.   Sam bites his arm and Dean must fight ghouls yet again.   He comments Shawshank was a great film but he doesn't want the shower scene relived.   Or lived even.  Sam made a demon trap on the ceiling with his blood.   Sam actually came to rescue Dean this time like he cared, with his trusty pipe.   Christian still engaged in torture tactics doesn't see them and Meg laughs at Dean behind him.   Bet Dean enjoyed killing Christian and unties her.   They trap Crowley too and Meg tortures him.

Sam asks for his soul but Crowley can't deliver.   He was lucky to get Sam out and his soul is keeping them entertained down there.   Sam wants it.   Crowley's useless.   Crowley pins them against the wall and Cas returns.   Crowley: "Haven't seen you all season." Cas has Crowley's remains and asks if he can restore Sam's soul or not.   He answers no. Didn't he want to lie to save himself?  Is he finally gone for good? Highly unlikely in this show.   Meg escapes as per usual.   Dean was going to kill her.   Cas says it's not good for him up there, he'd prefer to be here and they will find another way to help Sam.  Cas takes care of all the monsters there.   Sam tells Dean he heard Cas and he listens when demons and angels agree.   He doesn't want his soul back and he's better off without it.   Sam walks away.

So first he was without his soul for a year and then he wanted it and now he's resigned to not getting it and then not wanting it in the end.   Dean's determined to find a way and once he sets his mind on doing something; he does exactly that.   No surprise Samuel didn't really care or want anything to do with them.   He doesn't know what Sam is yet, yet he let him muck in for a year not cos he saw him as family; but he wanted Mary back.   Had an idea that's why he was working for Crowley.   Again Crowley couldn't return Sam's soul and lied about it so probably he lied about Mary too.   At least Dean had the right idea about family and the 'cousins' from the start.  - he didn't trust them or want anything from them.   Each having their own idea of family.

Dean's line of needing a "rape shower" was insensitive and uncalled for - especially since it's not the same thing as handing over a bunch of monsters to demons.   Could have come up with something different, cos it sure wasn't funny.

Referring back to season 2 when Dean didn't know how Sam would come back after he died and was brought back.   All the time he worried if Sam was really Sam and now in season 6, we get an answer to that.   At least one possible outcome.   Sam did return but not as 'complete' Sam.   Who's to say Crowley didn't bring him back in one piece, soul intact cos he didn't want to.   Then again Crowley just demonstrated he's not good at much of anything, couldn't bring back Sam's soul so how could he possibly have managed to bring back Sam from the cage?   This is proving to be highly unlikely it was him to begin with now.   Seeing as Sam was more effective as a hunter without his soul, which was the same reason Samuel wanted him around. He was an effective hunting machine.   And in his plan to get Mary back, he got Sam to hunt as many monsters as he could, but it all backfired on him.   Thus the lesson, he should have listened to Dean when he said they've been through all that and made their mistakes.

Sam biting his arm in that way was a hark back to seasons 4 and 5 mostly - when Sam was drawn into demon blood drinking and that look on his face, seemed almost a smirk, juts as when he let Dean be bitten by the vampire in 6.5.  If Sam had a soul he probably wouldn't have done that let alone think about biting his arm.   Then again in past seasons, he did have a soul and still did that.   Dean reminding us how Sam and dean both made deals in the past and how they'd always come back to bite them (no pun.)

As for Sam making threats to Cas, would he really be able to kill an angel - his soulless hunting prowess aside?   Crowley saying how he hasn't seen Cas all season was true. He hasn't had much to do yet.   Lots of references to past demons and monsters they've hunted, such as rougarou, Djinn, hellhounds, ghouls, Meg turning up, Devil's trap, constantly dying for one another.   Dean's suggestion Samuel should seek a priest for forgiveness. Sam and Dean played (hot) priests in season 1.

Lie To Me - 1.4: "Love Always" Review

Cal and the team are called in to help protect the Korean Ambassador against threats from an assassin at the wedding of his son. Finding more evidence of lies.

Cal (Tim Roth) and the team are hired by the Korean Embassy to protect the Ambassador, Park Jung Soo (Kelvin Han Yee) from an assassination attempt at his son, Won He's wedding.   Cal shows the staff at the Embassy  a video of the assassination of a Colombian mayor, demonstrating the signs on a person's face they need to be aware of.   Secret Service Agent Paul Aronson (Tom Verica) has been assigned to protect the ambassador.   Koreans are not known for displaying emotions, as this is not viewed as acceptable in their culture.  Gillian (Kelli Williams) explains they think it disrespectful to look into someone's eyes during a conversation.   Also that the expressions exhibited by someone has no bearing in culture.   I.e emotions transcend cultural nuances.

Cal explains when the staff see a person displaying the same expressions as the killer on the video, they must respond to this as hostile.   Gillian's husband, Alec (Tim Guinee) also shows up at the embassy and tells her he must leave after the wedding for a meeting.   Cal puts Ria (Monica Raymund) and Eli (Brendan Hines) on metal detector duty, where Ria once again tells Cal that Alec just lied to Gillian.   He tells her it's none of her concern.   Ria: "You saw that he lied to her - right?"  Cal: "it's none of your business."

Cal explains to Park that to be certain of finding the assassin means the wedding has to be cancelled and this is the only way; which he declines and Cal notices the unease with which Park talks about Han Yong Dae (Brian Tee) has to carry a gun.   Park isn't worried about himself, but only wants his wife and Won He to be safe.   Immediately we're meant to think Han is somehow involved as Park's reaction has shown.

Ria and Eli stop a man at the metal detector, who has raised his eyebrows, they ask what he's hiding and he refuses to empty his pockets until Secret Service Agent Karl Dupree (Sean Patrick Thomas) demands he does so.   He was hiding drugs and Ria tells Dupree they didn't need his help.  As they patrol inside at the reception, Gillian notices Han bow to Won He, but at the time doesn't make anything of it.   Cal spots a man look into his pocket and suspects he's the assassin.   A shot is fired and Won He is hit.   The man claims to be a political activist, Cal doesn't believe he's the assassin.   Paul hasn't found any weapon yet and Gillian finds a lighter and that he was running away with  a bottle of water.   This turns out to contain gasoline and he was going to set himself alight as a political protest.   Why wasn't he noticed at the metal detector.  

Gillian: "I could dive into that cake fully clothed."
Cal: "There's an image."

Dupree works with Ria under the guise of being assigned by Paul, but Ria reads his lies, he suggested he should work with her.  At the hospital, Won He's wife, Phoebe (Amanda Schull) doesn't know if anyone wanted to hurt her husband and Cal watches her eyes flutter showing she's not being honest.   Gillian thinks it could be a reaction to her husband being shot.   Gillian always has something like that to say.   Probably why she hasn't noticed Alec's lies.   She always manages to find some other reason for someone's behaviour or reaction .

Eli asks for the videos from the photographers and one of them refuses.   He doesn't want anything being stolen and put onto the Net, without him being paid for it.   One of the others tells them to comply, since they need to find who did this to Won He.   See the "ol' be helpful when you've got something to hide'" ploy.     The team analyze the footage for reactions of fear, anger, contempt.  Ria questions the best man, Garret (Patrick Cavanaugh) as he's hiding something.   Alec wants Gillian to walk him out as he's got an important meeting, yeah floozing with some bimbo is urgent.   She can't do him any favours.

During the video of the rehearsal dinner Cal sees Garret scratch his nose with his middle finger whilst making a speech about Won He.   This explains Gillian, is  "a gestural emblem, an unconscious gesture with a specific meaning."  Cal equates this as being a hostile gesture.   Garret admits Won He has a gambling addiction and he borrowed money from him to pay his debt, but ended up placing another bet.   Phoebe is oblivious to his gambling and thinks he gave it up.   Park tells her he paid off Won He's debts.

Gillian only now tells Cal about Han's low bow towards Won He, which shows disrespect as he's only a servant.   Alec also tells Cal of his need to leave and Cal doesn't believe him.   Cal shoots a gun and Park immediately stands in front of Han to protect him, confirming Han is his son.   Han didn't shoot Won he but took Phoebe to meet some man.   They watch the video of the wedding again, Cal forgets Dupree's name, which is a bit strange as he seems to recall everything else.   Phoebe shrugs her shoulder when she says her name, meaning she's lying about her name.

It's decided the shooter isn't on the footage as the shooter was filming the footage.   That was apparent since he was the one who wanted to be helpful, as said before.   Phoebe was married to Howard ( Jake M Johnson) and he thought it was for life.   Perhaps Gillian also believes this and is in denial of her own marriage and Alec's constant lies to her.   Dupree asks Ria for a drink but she can read every lie he'll tell her.   It's not just about a drink, it'll get complicated cos she likes him, but he's willing to risk it.   Gillian tells Cal she has to make it up to Alec.

There I asked for an episode where they only had one case to deal with and I got my wish, thus far, but have to say it wasn't that interesting an episode.   So if the guests were checked for reactions at the metal detector and during the ceremony, why were all of them kept behind when Won He was shot.   Maybe two reasons: Ria and Eli and the rest didn't do a good job or secondly,  the assassin was good at hiding emotions.   Also no one checked the reactions of the staff hired for the wedding.   Which makes it seem a bit unbelievable that only one of the guests would be the killer.   Gillian: "I love weddings, such a beautiful celebration of love and hope.   Plus there's cake."  One reason why Gillian may be in denial about her own marriage.   Suggesting she's naive.  Cal on weddings, "Don't trust them, lead to marriage."

There was quite a bit of eye contact  from Park and Han when they spoke with Gillian and Cal.   So much for not maintaining any. The Korean Embassy was the same building used for JAG HQ in JAG.

CSI - 12.1: "73 Seconds" Review

The team already are working for DB Russell, the new guy and Nick gets a bit of a rude awakening to his presence. He's also the one who's left to work with him the most.

An unexplained series of events occur on a Vegas tram; unexplained until the CSIs are on the case, that is.   Nick (George Eads) returns from Hawaii after a seminar to find the joke's on him.   The new boss, DB Russell (Ted Danson) lies on the tram floor and Nick thinks he's just a DB, which he is.   DB by name, but not a real DB!  Nick's reaction to his name, his initials is exactly what I thought when it was revealed who Ted was going to play in the show.   DB as many know stands for 'dead body.'  The others can only laugh and disappear.   Nick isn't too happy to be the butt of their joke and he and DB don't really seem to hit it off - not like Nick and Ray (Laurence Fishburne).

Two people were killed on the tram and three were injured.   One Vic, Tom (Nathan Anderson) was stabbed.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) determines he was already dying and had a few months left.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) also calls on Doc to the hospital so he can take a look at one of the survivor's.   Sometimes he likes to attend to the living.   He finds a large, swollen protrusion on Nancy's (Heather Prete) leg but is unsure of what caused it.

Tom was in Vegas with his brother Jimmy (Chad Faust) and they were both on the tram.   However Tom was stabbed before boarding and Jimmy when he saw him, attempted to pull out the knife.   This led to the cowboy drawing his gun and firing, leading the off duty security guard, AJ (Stephen Amell) to fire too.   The cowboy must have thought Jimmy stabbed Tom.   Nancy was collateral damage and was traveling with her son, Emmet; (Skylar Gaertner) who is the only witness they have.

Jim is found in a hotel room attempting suicide with a bag over his head and is shocked to see he's still alive, maintaining he didn't kill his brother.   Nick and DB question Emmett but Nick doesn't get anywhere with him, cos the scene belongs to DB and his 'magic bag of tricks' an invisible tennis ball which he throws in the air and catches in a paper bag.  This catches Emmet's attention.   Though Nick is great with children and most everyone, DB is good with Emmett cos he has a son of his own.   Emmett found $100 on the platform outside the tram, which was covered in blood.   DB promises a replacement note as a reward for this.  The money on the blood proves Tom was already bleeding when he boarded the tram and DB heads to the one place where there aren't any surveillance cameras; the toilets.   Here more blood is found.   Prints are matched to Allen (David Tom) who was on the next tram and was also in prison cos of Jimmy.   Tom tried to protect Jimmy by paying off Allen, but he stabbed him instead.  If he didn't want money, why did he grab some from the floor.

Sara (Jorga Fox) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) work on a case in Brime County, with Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) having some fun with DB over the pronunciation of 'Brime,' which Sara goes and spoils for her.   Dale, the DB's chest is old and sagging in comparison to his face, which is younger in appearance.   An air compressor nozzle was inserted into his chest where he was stabbed by deer horns, when they attempted to skin it.   Ross (Clay Wilcox) explains it was an accident.   Greg watches one of his Norwegian relatives use an air compressor to skin deer which gave them the clue as to what happened to Dale.

This season of CSI aims to get past the previous ones with Ray and return to a more subdued approach of Gil Grissom (William Petersen); only DB is far from laid back (not that Gil was either he just had a different approach.)  Perhaps I should have said easy going.   DB demands excellence and has plenty to say about his team, well nits to pick.   Like commenting on Nick's approach to questioning Jimmy, when he alludes to his own time playing baseball at college but he wasn't good at it.   Ecklie agrees with DB on them "acting like social workers."  DB would hate to lose Nick.   Sorry is Nick going somewhere, he likes him.  (George did take some time away from the show to be with his ill father, who sadly passed away and George was grateful to the show for letting him have the time away.   So maybe his 'leaving' is a reference to that.)

There really isn't anything wrong with the CSI's approach to their work, suspects, Vics etc; it's what they're used to and everyone has their own methods, as DB has his.   It's just an attempt for the show to undergo a shake-up and keep it fresh after 12 seasons.

As DB tells Nick when he asks for something he expects it done and doesn't want to chase up on receiving reports.   Then he proceeds to change the subject and mention Nick not being good at baseball.   Well, Nick found the blood on the tram door, another clue.    He also IDs the ants from the ant farm, in his continuing new found role of insect man, following Gil's departure.

Whereas Ray was new to forensics and his approach was different, he wasn't in charge either; DB is a seasoned CSI.   Ecklie on the other hand would be in favour of the shake up of the CSIs probably one reason why he brought in someone like DB.  Particularly after the CSIs kind of went rogue last season in their attempts to help Ray.   He's always been a stickler for the rules and being efficient, like breaking up the team into dayshift and nightshift some seasons ago.   Let's hope he's moved by the arrival of his estranged daughter, Morgan Brody (Elisabeth Harnois) .  Think he deserves a little of his own medicine.  Morgan wants a permanent post and Nick introduces her to Greg and warns him off Ecklie's daughter.

Catherine it seems has her own axe to grind and didn't do much this episode - she hasn't left yet, but you can see where her decision to leave will probably stem from.   She's outraged she's been demoted and she takes it out on Nick.   Well she gave DB Nick's office without so much as telling him.   Seems the new boss has everyone on edge instead of being relaxed and they have had more time to get used to him than Nick.   Catherine brews up a storm cos Nick wanted some leniency towards Jimmy from his parole officer and wants Nick to call him back to undo this.   Also recalling LA and how he dropped everything to help Ray.  They all did and she believes they can't do that anymore and thus her demotion.

Ray is happy with Gloria in Baltimore and Doc and Brass think that's a good thing.   Brass comments on Ray being "railroaded by IA."  Brass can see that Ray did the right thing in protecting himself.

Somehow didn't think DB would be shocked at Hodge's (Wallace Langham) when he arrives to comment on the autopsy of the octopus David (David Berman) carries out.   Or his remark of "shokushu goukan," meaning "tentacle erotica."  Only in Vegas and only in CSI.   As there's evidence an octopus was also on the tram.   Thus the bite mark on Nancy's leg.   Funny Hodges should know of this - though having sex with an octopus gave this episode of CSI it's unusual edge.   Hodges noticed the woman in the tram, Shizu (Elaine Tan) had a diver's helmet tattoo on her arm from the CCTV.   So the slimy trail on the tram floor came from an octopus.

This episode also featured Carrot Top in videos streamed across the city.   He was featured in last season's episode, Man Up.

Many have commented on the positive aspects of Ted joining the show and though it does seem to be keeping the momentum of keeping the show new and different going, not being a big fan of Ted's, I shall save my opinion until I've seen some more episodes.   Still he adds some friction between the characters which can only be a good thing.