CSI 11.10 "418-427" Review

                                       
A double homicide outside a grocery store leads to the kidnapping of a 3 year old girl. Plenty of suspects in this episode, but alas the main guilty parties are too obvious.

A woman attempts to pay at the check out in the grocery store, hounded by a complaining customer behind her and very nervous when she looks at a gang outside in the car.   Lots of potential suspects in the opening as to why she was so anxious.   Shots are heard and the trolley cart boy and the same woman are shot and killed.   Nick's (George Eads) first comment at the CS is that he wanted to go grocery shopping too.   Very out of character and irrelevant that two DBs could lead him to think of shopping.   Sara (Jorga Fox) replies someone had the same idea.   The DB boy, Hector has prison tattoos so could have been the intended target.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) comments on the woman being an unlucky customer, meaning her shooting could have been accidental.   However Nick comments on the GS (Gun shot) wounds and one in her left eye.   Sara thinks she was the primary target.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) tells them she had a little girl with her, so she had a car and two bags of groceries also.   Brass puts out a 418/427; Amber alert, thus the title.   Nick questions the shop assistant, (Carlson Young) who noticed she was upset and wasn't a regular.   She paid by cheque, that was hugely helpful!  Archie (Archie Kao) checks her ID and hits on Christine Moore (Nicole Cannon).   Her husband, Daniel Moore (Jason Butler Harner) has restricted access to his details.

David (David Berman) comments Hector was shot by a .22, which Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) says was the calibre preferred by gangsters.   Leading to David 'bustin' a rhyme'.   Doc Robbins: "Thanks Fifty Cents."  Moore bursts into autopsy demanding to see his wife and Doc Robbins tells him that "no one should ever see their loved one like this."  Something similar said by Flack (Eddie Cahill) in the episode Do Not Pass Go, of CSI:NY.  Moore puts his fist through the glass and hurts his hand.   Brass asks him where he was, as is routine in spouse killings.   Moore accuses Ryland Gauss (Bodhi Elfman).   There was a message left on Christine's voicemail five minutes before she was killed from Trent Moore (Patrick Stafford) his son from his first marriage.   Gauss is a serial paedophile who shot one of his Vic's mothers through the left eye.   None of the girls were ever found and his conviction was overturned on a technicality, ain't it always.

Sara, Brass and Moore enter Trent's apartment when he can't be reached and Moore proceeds to contaminate the CS.  Wondering if at that point if he suspected Trent of any involvement or was he really not thinking that far ahead; since someone trying to cover would contaminate the CS, or potential CS.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Nick (since there was no Laurence Fishburne for him to be teamed with as usual this episode!) enter Gauss's apartment .

Sara thinks Gauss obtained entry through the open window and Moore tells her the residue on the sill is corn starch from Gauss's cheap latex gloves.   Sara tells him to let her do her job.   Brass calls her a professional and that she's working as fast as she can.   In the bathroom she finds an empty pill bottle for anti-depressants belonging to Trent.   Greg describes Moore as a top paedophile hunter for the FBI, which Hodges (Wallace Langham) calls "ironic" as his own daughter, Holly, (Leela Newton)  is kidnapped now.   Greg hates it when the families of paedophiles protect them.

Catherine finds a shaped coat hanger that Nick figures out from the scratch marks on the wall, that it was used to open something.   A secret panel in the wall where he discovers children's reading books.   Greg comments, at the same time, that there was no evidence linking Gauss with the children but he took his Vics from the local park.   Catherine tells him there is a local park nearby.   Hodges says Gauss took their books.   Nick and Catherine find Moore about to shoot Gauss at the park.   Brass plays Trent's voice message to Gauss who claims to have an alibi for last night at a bar.

Office Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) tells Sara the Amber alert led to the mini-van being found, abandoned as it ran out of gas.   There's leftover food and a sandwich wrapper with a half eaten sandwich inside.   Hodges comments he doesn't know any 3 year olds but that none would like egg salad sandwiches.   He superglues the wrapping to reveal prints, but there's no match to Gauss.   Sara believes whoever ate the sandwich took Holly and she was right, obviously.

Nick doesn't find any evidence of Gauss in the books.   Brass tells Moore when he puts Gauss away he'll stay there.   Nick notices Moore wasn't upset about his wife being killed and was more concerned with catching Gauss.   That was an apparent observation too, but on the other hand it could be said he was worried for his daughter.   Then again if he was a suspect and I use 'if' loosely, then why would he choose to shoot Christine where and when he did, when she was with Holly.   Also if he was trying to frame Gauss for the murder, then why not find a time when he knows Gauss wouldn't have an alibi.   For an FBI boffin, he really wasn't that clever!  Brass tells Nick that from his experience when things go bad, then the bad guy who got away is always blamed.   Nick notices Moore was going after Gauss even when there was no evidence linking him to anything.

Doc Robbins spoke to Christine's sister and he says, "I gave her my best Quincy" to find the Moore's were divorcing and she was applying for sole custody of Holly and guardianship for Trent.   Doc referring himself to Quincy here, cos it could be said, as I did before, that Quincy could be regarded as the forerunner to CSI, decades earlier.   Catherine comments that if Moore wasn't an FBI agent then they would suspect him for Christine's murder.   That's what Nick meant when he said he wasn't angry at her killing.   Then why the show of rage in Autopsy, was this anger directed at losing Holly.

Brass is called to Gauss's apartment to find Moore standing over his DB with gun in hand.   He denies shooting him, thus leaving only one more suspect.   I could've come up with an unintentional pun here by spelling more with two 'O's.   Henry (Jon Wellner) finds the pills were to treat schizophrenia; causing delusions and paranoia.  The prints on the sandwich wrapping match Trent's.  Then Greg comments that if Moore shot Gauss, then did he also shoot his wife.   Oh they were so right in this episode, that it didn't seem much forensic work was needed, when they had their hunches to go on.   But of course that wouldn't stand up in court.   Greg finds a cap on the floor of Guass's apartment which belongs to Trent.  Nick knows it wasn't here before.

Brass discusses Trent with Moore and comments that mental illness runs in the family.   Wouldn't say Moore was mentally ill but he was obsessed with Gauss and probably other paedophiles too.   A case of his work negatively impacting on his family life.   All of them were killed with a .22.   Trent was with Christine in the mini-van, so why didn't Moore see him and again he knew Holly was in the van too.   They believe Trent killed Gauss and Christine and took Holly, but Moore insists he wouldn't hurt his sister.

Sara and Officer Mitchell check out Moore's old house but it's no longer standing.  Only a shed remains where they find Trent, alone and armed.   Sara attempts to comfort him and can relate to him in that she's understanding in that way.   He tells her Gauss killed Christine and then refers to himself as Gauss.   Hodges finds bed bugs in his cap and hands them to Nick to check out, sitting in Grissom's (William Petersen) old office, and he asks if they could have come from Hodges since he's scratching himself.   Very funny Nick.   Sara didn't find any bugs at Trent's place but did see bites on him.   Yuk!

Catherine test the .22 gun.   Brass tells Moore that his obsession became his son's delusion and he should tell him the truth and "shock him into reality." Trent says he's Gauss, that he killed them all.   Moore didn't want Christine to take his children from him, so he had to have known Holly was there.   Also if he was going to kill her to keep his children, it was futile since he hasn't got either of them now and how fair was that on them, taking their mother like that.

Archie found the mini- van on the traffic cam and looks for motels with health violations in the area.   Nick and Brass check out a motel to find Holly in one of the rooms.   Sara tells Trent about Holly and Brass gives Moore her cuddly toy, cos that's all he's going to see of her.

They've got huge bed bugs in the US, they're not meant to be visible to the naked eye, but only under a microscope, at least the variety found in the UK.

CSI:NY covered schizophrenia in its first season episode, Three Generations are Enough.

CSI 11.9 "Wild Life" Review

                                              
Half the team investigates the apparent suicide of a man from a balcony and the others look into the bizarre killings of a couple, did they kill each other or was there foul play?

Some women on a night out in pursuit of a men come across a DB.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne) smells alcohol, thinking he could have fallen off the balcony.   David (David Berman) notices the back of his skull has been obliterated.   Ray surmises his injuries could have occurred by falling from any floor.   Nick (George Eads) questions the two women witnesses and one thinks he's staring at her cleavage.   Our Nicky, no way!  In actual fact he spots some brain matter in her cleavage.  "...little piece of brain."  Any old excuse.  Ha.  The other one can't help flirting with him, she does that when she's nervous and also comments she was looking for a nice man with a badge.   Which Nick takes all in his stride.  Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) identifies the Vic as Brad Malone (Brian D Johnson).   Det Vartann (Alex Carter) notices her hugging the man.   "You got all that for a hug."  Catherine tells him her father left her part of The Eclipse, which is news to him.   She didn't want everyone to know and he's "everyone." As he puts it.   Catherine putting her foot in it with her choice of words.

Catherine, Nick and Ray, respectively say, "Come to gamble; see a show; kiss your life goodbye."  Nick and Ray check out Brad's hotel room.   His clothes are neatly laid out and no note is found.   Nick comments, "There's no signs of sexual activity."  That's an understatement.   Ray notices prints on the balcony door.

In the second story, Greg (Eric Szmanda) and Sara (Jorga Fox) investigate the double homicide of a couple.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) says the wife called the police.   Sara doesn't find any blood on the phone but there is cast off.   Greg asks the parrot what happened, but "he's not talking."  Sara thinks she was killed less than an hour ago and the husband is in the bath.   Sara comments on the family photo.  Greg remarks, "there's something very wrong with that."  The cat isn't around.   They theorize/speculate what could have happened.   David arrives late to check the DBs and asks "What is the deal with glass tables today?"

The print on the balcony door in the hotel room belongs to Brad.  Nick goes onto the balcony and finds fhat he was pushed from elsewhere.   Would've thought someone would have gone out onto the balcony before then as the body is under the next balcony.   Ray, Nick and Vartann enter the room next door and assume the two women are DBs.   Ray finds the blood that they're covered in doesn't belong to them and they don't recognize Brad's photo.   Dana (Leisha Hailey) can't recall anything, they had too much to drink.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) conducts the autopsy on the DB husband in Sara's case,and says he drowned.   You can drown in so little water.   Don't know why Sara was so shocked at this.   How many years has she been a CSI.   He had scars on his upper body.   Brass questions their neighbour Dwayne (Damon Harriman) who threatened the parrot.   His alibi, he was having phone sex.   Which is exactly what  this episode is about, not phone sex but sex.   at least the first story is.   All the prints in their home belong to them and the window has been broken for weeks.   There was no intruder and Sara thinks the couple killed each other.

Catherine processes the two women and Ray and Nick check their rooms.   Nick finds blood on the pants and there's blood on the balcony  Nick also finds a feather.   Catherine questions Stacey (Jennifer Aspen) and comments she too was "married to one of those."  I.e a cheating husband.   Stacey wanted to have fun, she doesn't remember if their drinks were out of their sight at any time, well they wouldn't be if they were so busy drinking, at least Stacey was.   Dana denies knowing Brad and yet she naively doesn't realize how much forensics will reveal.   There are signs of sexual activity on her.   Catherine will help them figure this out.  
Dana claims to only have ever been with her husband.   Ray comments on alcohol affecting judgement and how you'd do things you wouldn't normally do.   Prompting Nick to recall when he got drunk once and ended up with a box of corn flakes attached to his head.   Ray: "Why am I not surprised."  Work that comment out for yourselves.   Ray finds an iron under the bed, testing positive for blood.   Nick thinks it's "probably a manage a trois - someone always gets left out."  Nick and his threesome comments, there's another funny one to come later.   They think Stacey killed Brad and Dana helped with the DB.

Doc Robbins finds non-linear clotting, blood was still flowing when he fell.   He has paint chips on him from the railing and had sex beforehand.   Also present are nailmarks on his body.   Nick and Catherine examine the bedsheet, all the blood is from an unknown male.   Nick comments the "3-way was a 4-way."  Catherine tells Vartann they found a condom with an unknown male donor and he thinks they're just making it up, that they can't remember.   Catherine is defensive as she found herself in a similar situation once.   Someone roofied her drink but she was lucky she wasn't raped.   That's another thing she never told Vartann.   She doesn't like to talk about it and he's getting used to that now.   Nick interrupts them with his findings of GHB in their system, but Dana wasn't drunk as her blood/alcohol level was too low.  

They met Kyle (Leonard Roberts) at a bar and Stacey invited him back to their room.   Dana accuses Brad of raping her, but she didn't push him.   Well that's one thing she told the truth about.   But lied about Kyle pushing him off the balcony.   Again there's one word for that Dana, forensics!  Hodges (Wallace Langham) finds the feather was synthetic and he knows it was from the bar, Pillow Club, from personal experience.   To which Ray said nothing.   As for the bar, it was more like a CSI:NY fad.   One where Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) would take Flack (Eddie Cahill) with her and she'd know all the lowdown on it too!    Nick calls it an 'adult slumber party'.   Kyle is the bartender and has a wound on his head.   Stacey asked for the GHB.   Brad came out to help Dana and she hit Kyle with an iron.

The parrot is still in the house and Greg takes him back to the lab.   Sara thinks the parrot is traumatized, which is what I said right about the same time!  Greg finds hairs and feathers in the bath trap.   There's blood on the feathers and Sara notices their CS has been contaminated by the cat, which is evidence now.   Doc Robbins concludes that the husband didn't kill his wife.  She has lacerations on her scalp, with talon marks.   Parrots are smart.   Hodges is afraid of birds after being attacked by Canadian geese, he thought they'd be friendly!    They need to process both and Hodges opts for the cat.     There's blood under the parrot's wings which explains the cast off she found.   He attacked the wife and she fell on the table, stabbing herself with the knife.   The cat was responsible for killing the husband as it saw the chance to go for the parrot in the bath.   It was a 'Psycho (as in the movie) shower cat,' in my words!  But who called 911?  Brass says "Sylvester and Tweety attacked their owners."

Greg cuts his finger with the knife and the parrot upon seeing the blood, picks up the phone and dials 911, saying, "help me, help me."

Nick says Dana lied about Kyle, he was in the ER.   They wonder how she could have pushed Brad off the balcony and engage in a '3-way' reconstruction (ha.)  Ray falls off the railing and asks them to "check out his ass."  Which Catherine calls a "work of art."  Ray explains Brad was sitting on the railing, due to the presence of lots of partials and toe prints.   Nick says Dana was sitting in his lap, which Catherine has to do since Nick won't!  Ray comments on the Karma Sutra position, as he's a doctor.   Nick: "This is my first 3-way - I'm very excited."  The blood pattern matches Brad's injuries.   It was an accident.   Dana tried to save him that's why there were scratches on him.

Dana comments on the "incredible mind-blowing sex" she had with him and Catherine suggests she leave this out when telling her husband.   Catherine confronts Vartann by telling him couples don't tell each other everything and she won't change him if he doesn't try to change her.   He can take it or leave it.   That was a bit abrupt coming from her, leaving it all on his shoulders.   What happened to compromise or does she expect him to do everything she wants.   She got her own way about not moving in together too.

An episode about relationships.   Most everyone knows about Catherine and her father by now, so why doesn't Vartann.   Trouble in paradise there.   The episodes where Catherine woke to find herself naked in a motel room, were season 7's Built to Kill Parts 1 and 2.   When she and Nick attended a John Mayer concert, Catherine was slipped a roofie in her drink.   Nick felt guilty at this happening to her as they were out together at the concert.   She also didn't want to tell anyone what happened but told Sara and then eventually everyone else found out.

Also first episode this season which had two separate stories.

Downton Abbey Series 4 Part 1 Review

                                          
The episode opens with Mary (Michelle Dockery) still mourning the loss of Matthew and is dejected from the world and her family, as well as her son George.  Though she does manage to kiss him and have motherly instincts.  It falls upon Nanny West to look after little Sibby and Master George.  It's apparent from the outset Nanny is not all she seems, especially when she tells Thomas (Rob James-Collier) to keep away from Sibby when he tells her that her mother was his friend.  Then she orders him around to pass on messages to Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichols) about Sibby's lunch and how she's not to have eggs.  She'd go herself but the children are alone.  Yes she was high and mighty was Nanny but Thomas soon put her in her place.  Knew he was going to get her fired.  She also tells him he's just a servant whereas she is part of 'upstairs.'  Some funny banter between them though like him asking what she is if he's a servant.  Of course the others agree downstairs too, that he is a servant.

The other opening event is the leaving of O'Brien as she leaves a note behind and "gone off like a thief in the night" as his Robert (Hugh Bonneville) puts it.  Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) is upset she would leave like that and Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) must dress her until a replacement can be found.  O'Brien's done a runner with Rose's mother to India and Rose (Lily James) didn't know a thing about it. Edith (Laura Carmichael) puts an ad in The Lady so it will be some time before she can be replaced but Rose puts an ad in the village shop, just to hurry along the process.  Who answers the ad but Edna Braithwaite.  The maid who Mrs Hughes wrote a reference for.  She was a maid but wants to be a lady's maid now and has studied for it. Cora accompanies Rose to meet her since she claims not to be able to come down as her aunt isn't well.  But Cora hires her after she's given Mrs Hughes' reference. Another troublemaker arrives at Downton it seems, as if Rose wasn't enough.

Carson (Jim Carter) receives a letter from one of his performing pals who's down on his luck and in the workhouse but he throws it away, so Mrs Hughes reads it and speaks with him at the workhouse.  Carson refuses to help him, more so out of snobbery I thought since he doesn't want to be associated with his past theatrical life, or anyone else to know anymore about it.  Mrs Hughes thinks Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) could help him out and he could stay with her since she needs the distraction and it's been six months since Matthew's passing.  She doesn't feel she's a mother anymore or needed but she is a grandmother as the dowager, Violet (Maggie Smith) tells her.  George needs her but she doesn't want to impose on Mary.  However when she does visit Nanny tells her she can't see him.  Which was ridiculous, why didn't she put her foot down anyway, she's not the lady of the manor!

Carson telling Mrs Hughes he thought workhouses had been closed as she describes it as something from Charles Dickens' book.  Thought Carson may have used the phrase from A Christmas Carol when Scrooge, asks, 'are there no workhouses?' ha.  That's the impression he gave when he chooses to distance himself from his friend.

Branson (Allen Leech) also wants Mary to take over from Matthew and get back into running the estate as guardian of George, she has right to do this, but Robert doesn't want her to.  Instead he wants to wrap her up and protect her from the world as he tells Violet.  See no one expressed their concerns about Robert running the estate again and running it into the ground, especially as the death duties will be large.  Also Matthew didn't leave a will cos he didn't think he needed to yet.

Edith is still running off to London to see Michael (Charles Edwards) and he thinks he could get a divorce on the grounds of lunacy if he became a German citizen and lived there.  She's impressed he'd do this for her especially since the Germans are hated people and kisses him in public at the Criterion.  Robert still has doubts about Edith seeing him cos she can do better.

Thomas expresses his doubts to Cora about the Nanny and she overhears her telling Sibby to stay in her cot and away from George as she's the "cross breed."  Which angers Cora and she dismisses her.  Then thanks Thomas the next day in front of Bates (Brendan Coyle).  Ensuring he's more smug than usual.

It's Valentine's day and the servants downstairs get cards.  It appears Bates and Anna (Joanne Froggatt) have sent each other a card and won't admit to it.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) gets one too and Ivy (Cara Theobald) thinks Jimmy (Edward Speleers) sent her one.  Of course he tells the others he didn't send it but he sent one to a Lady who is returning to England.  Albert (Matt Milne) knows he didn't send it to Ivy and just teases him in front of her.  Jimmy takes Ivy out for a drink on a work night and she comes back drunk, with Anna having to help her.  He doesn't put her straight about the card but Daisy finds out Mrs Patmore sent her one so she wouldn't feel left out.  She thanks her cos she "may not have a follower but I have a friend."  Also causing trouble downstairs is a new electric mixer which Edith has given them in the kitchen. Mrs Patmore doesn't like change but Daisy uses it and is complimented on the mousse by the Dowager. Though this doesn't reach her.

Branson gets Carson to talk to Mary about managing the affairs of the state and she loses her cool at dinner when she says everyone is nagging her to get back to the world of the living.  She storms off and the Dowager tells her she's her grandmother and loves her.  Mary apologizes to Carson and has a good cry and finally gets to take on Matthew's affairs as it's a good way to continue what he started.

Mrs Hughes is unhappy at Cora hiring Edna but there's nothing they can do about it now and even Carson won't talk Cora into firing her.  They'll have to keep a watchful eye on her.  The Dowager tries to get Molesley (Kevin Doyle) hired by Mrs Shackleton as a butler, but her own butler sabotages his chances by making him look useless and inept at the luncheon, thinking he's after his job.  Isabelle doesn't need Molesley and he has to move in with his father.

A bit slow to get started and not much happening at the moment.  Though hopefully it will get better.  Seemed to be dragging its feet at the moment and I got fed up with everyone going on about six months being enough to mourn and snap out of it.  Grief is personal and anyone can take as long as they want to "get over it!"  Then there's the usual story of the Dowager and Robert not wanting change but it will happen regardless, which she appears to have accepted.  Yet Mary is still not a woman of means and is still reliant on her husband's or late husband's wealth, which is solely in the hands of baby George now.  Such being the inequalities women faced.

Edna returns, yes Edna the downstairs servant who chased after Branson and had to go in the 2012 Christmas special!  SO they couldn't find anyone else to replace O'Brien, than someone who had stations above her grandeur.  Mary had the fitting line of, "He's not bad looking and he's still alive, which puts him two points ahead of most men of our generation.  When she mentions Edith's beau.  Then she also said what most of us were thinking, at least I said it first, ha, that Matthew survived the war, fathered a child and got killed off in a car crash!  Much like this episode, seemed like it was heading for a crashing bore!

CSI 11.8 "Fracked" Review

                                            
A body of a man appears in a spring. The CSIs are puzzled as to how he had so many diseases affecting him, for someone so young. Leading to yet another case of cost cutting, corporate greed.

A DB is found in a spring.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) comments they're all named 'Anthony' and in cement shoes.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne) comments on it being a sulphur spring and if bathed in, can provide a beautiful complexion.   Brass remarks that the DB's complexion has improved.   The DB has an 'L' shaped wound on his head which Ray explains means his head was hit with a pistol.   David (David Berman) says the water's nice.   Ray believes he was dead when he hit the water or afterwards.   Nick (George Eads) thinks it's a body dump.  Ray thinks the PMI was about 4-7 hours and takes a water sample.   Just as in last week's episode, Ray, Nick and Brass are called to the CS together again.   Nick spots an oil deposit on the ground, probably from the vehicle that dumped the DB.

Also like last episode, Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) and Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) are in autopsy together.   He asks what he should get for his wife's birthday.   Catherine believes diamonds, or gold with some carats.   Doc Robbins determines the COD.   The DB has no damage to his skull, but had several diseases, tissue degeneration.   COD was drowning, which caused a reflexive spasm, he couldn't breathe.   There's a sample of water trapped in his vocal folds.   Catherine believes if they can match the water sample they'll know where he drowned.   The prints match a Walter Burns.   He had a record for assault several years ago, but hasn't been in trouble since then.   conveniently, he had to be in the system and had a wife in Cable Springs; who died last year.

Greg (Eric Szmanda)  checks Walter's phone records, showing he made a dozen calls to Rosalind Johnson (Angela Bettis) a newspaper reporter in Cable Springs.   She runs the entire paper.   Walter was one of her sources.   Brass tells her she was the last one to speak to him but refuses to tell them why.   Brass can't give out details of an ongoing investigation.   She spoke to him about the ranch, his health.   Rosalind looked sick from the first time we see her but it's not until later that Ray actually asks her if she's seen a doctor.

Archie (Archie Kao) shows Nick and Greg an empty car with blood.   The navigation shows it was at Walter's ranch and a name, Richard Adams (Christopher Goodman) also comes up.   The bullet casing is in the car.   The car tests positive for blood.   The gun was fired inside, but the blood's on the outside.   Also present are amylase bubbles from saliva.   Nick determines he was shot from the inside.   Richard Adams was an engineer froma local gas company, Conservo Solutions.   Det Reed (Katee Sackoff) comments that if he drove to 'Hooker Alley' then the shooting was premeditated.   Nick finds a blood trail and follows drag marks to where the DB was dumped.

Richard's wife, Lisa (Megan Ward) tells Nick he called Rosalind.   He had been nervous for weeks.   He was a safety inspector for the ranches but she can't say anything more since she signed a non-disclosure agreement.   Doing so would cause her to lose his benefits.   Nick asks if she's been threatened and she shows him the head of a goat in the trash.   It was left on the porch, two days before Richard was killed.

Ray says the goat had been dead twenty four hours, and was dead before the head was cut.   Doc Robbins comments on the lesions being the same as Walter's.   He believes the head is a message.   He's seen The Godfather (1972) eleven times.    Greg analyzes the blood on the box which held the head and also runs a print.   Archie looks at the images from Richard's phone and Nick says that's "my goat" in the photos.   The ranch address is Gibson ranch.  The gas company is drilling nearby and there's no signs of any livestock.   Gunshots are heard.   Gibson (Henry Sanders) puts his goat out of its misery.   Walter was a friend.   The gas company paid him for his mineral rights.   His wife had cancer, like many others in Cable Springs.    He throws a match down the well and he explodes along with it.

Ray doesn't find any explosives in the well.   Nick: "I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but water just doesn't blow up."  He recalls the water in an Ohio town, which Ray says started the Clean Water Act.   Ray repeats Nick's line of not wanting to insult his intelligence, but water isn't supposed to bubble and has a chemical smell to it.   The water ignites and contains methane.   As well as other chemicals.   Ray speaks with Rosalind off the record.   She tells him the gas company knew about the water and they figured this out a year ago.   Conservo Solutions ignored safety protocols.   They tried to stop it.   Ray asks her now if she's seen a doctor.   He'll read about it in her article.   Then leaves after asking him if he's heard of "fracking." He comments that sounds like a "sci-fi expletive."   An in-joke as the term "frack" was used in the remade Battelstar Galactica also Katee Sackoff was in this episode of CSI again.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) gives his findings to Doc.   The water test results from Gibson's ranch show it contained benzene, a carcinogen.   All of the chemicals were also found in the DB, the bacterial culture from Walter's brain lesions.   He was suffering from metastatic carcinoma.   Hodges says it was due to the bad water, which contained the same toxins but in higher amounts.  Walter drowned in the source of the contamination.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) tells Catherine they can't alert the public.   Ray has looked up "fracking."  Known as "hydraulic fracking."  Where gas is extracted from shale.   The company pioneered a process whereby water is pumped into the gas, along with other chemicals, this breaks the rock and the gas escapes.   Half of the fluid escapes with the gas, whilst the other half seeps into the water table, pumped into an evaporation pool; enters the ground water, the gas mixes with the air and explodes.   No environmental impact study was ever carried out and gas companies aren't bound by any Acts.   Ray mentions the trace report on the oil which was from a diesel engine, belonging to a commercial vehicle.   The only ones in the area belong to the gas company.   Ecklie says they don't have enough for a warrant, Catherine asks for the warrant since the killer of both men is the same.

Liked the way Ray feigned the evaporation pool to be a swimming pool.   Nick checks the fleet of trucks for oil leaks and finds a scrap from Richard's shirt on the fence.   Ray knows the proof is in the evaporation pool.    The water from the pool matches the water in Walter's vocal folds, he was dumped in the spring after he was killed at the pool.   Greg informs them the truck has been found.   There's blood inside and the driver, Cody (Richard Roberts) was the victim of a hit and run: a 401.   The gun was inside the truck.   So if he was run over, why not take the gun too, obviously since all loose ends were being tied up by the gas company.

Nick test fires the gun, the back spatter matches, as well as the bullets and casings.   There's the presence of blood and hair on the magazine.   Ray explains Walter wanted a sample from the pool, was hit on the head with the gun and drowned in the pool, dumped by Cody.   Ecklie declares the case closed, since they have the evidence and the killer.   There'll be no trial.   Catherine insists they need a water sample from the pool.   He tells Catherine she's a CSI, not Erin Brokovich (2000).   But the case on the hit and run can remain open.

Ray tells Rosalind what fracking is.   She believed that "one person can change the world."   She's not afraid to publish her story even if she doesn't have solid evidence and her paper would be closed.   He tells her of a friend running clinical trials and he got her a place.   It was "the least I could do."  As is in his nature to help, he is a doctor after all.

CSI's turn to get on the 'bleeding heart' band wagon and the corporate greed crusade, seeing as CSI:Miami  had two episodes about corporate greed in  season 8.

Sara (Jorga Fox) was missing again.   The comments and laughs were pretty low key to non-existent this episode.   Once again showing companies can and do get away with murder.   This episode was all about the little people as opposed to actually concentrating on the gas company, since that would have been too similar to CSI:Miami's Bad Seed episode.   At the end of the day, the company would get off scot free as all tracks would be covered.   But what about the hit and run driver, he's as much of a liability as Cody was.

Ecklie referring to Catherine not being Erin Brokovich, well she wasn't, although she did appear in that movie as Donna Jensen.  So this wasn't a roundabout, general comment from him.

A topical ep as fracking is always in the news and is a serious subject.

Extracts from "Leaping to Infinity Unofficial and Unauthorized Articles and Essays on Quantum Leap" Book

                                         
Below are some extracts from my Leaping to Infinity Unofficial and Unauthorized Articles and Essays on Quantum Leap book which some of you may find interesting, or not.  Thought it was about time someone recalled the show especially since it has been 20 years since it ended and was given some more coverage!  I loved the show and I'm sure many of you out there did too and still do.

Sam As Hero

Sam gave up his own life and in the process ended up having to save others.  Emphasis on ‘having to’ since this wasn’t his dream.  Unlike HG Wells’ character of the Time Traveller in The Time Machine who was able to return to his own time, he saw the best and worst of humanity but not change it.  Sam could not return.  As Sam tells Al in Catch A Falling Star he has a life; so what about his life?  He can’t live it but has to live for others; through others, vicariously.  This could be deemed his sacrifice.  He’s doomed to travel throughout time and never have his own existence.

Would this confer him as a hero figure much unlike Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, which begins: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” and ends on a completely different note.  As if the “worst of times” was a foreboding of the bad that was to come.  The book ends with “It’s a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done…”
To carry on helping people takes a certain strength of character when Sam could have given up so many times and he displayed this in many of his leaps Including Watts Riots ep, Black On White On Fire.
Though in Revenge of the Evil Leaper and Killin’ Time, Sam attempts to tell people who he really is which is a mammoth task initself, except for the psychic who already knows in Leaping in Without A Net episode.  He tries to change his family’s life in The Leap Home Part 1 but fails miserably as Al tells him, he’s making their lives miserable.  He’s forced to say he made everything up, i.e. the future and being able to see it.  Leap Home Part 2 Vietnam.

Sam as hero is compassionate and supportive.  Independent as far as he could be within the tasks he was given.  But was independent in terms of free will and free spirit.  That independence could to an extent signify this drive, to do right, obsessed to a certain degree with the need to make the world better.  Emphasis on world and not just one person at a time.  Sam is perfect and had what is known as character flaws.  Anger at the cards fate has dealt him, where his own life and family were concerned.  Yet also for those he had to save and some he couldn’t.
Reluctant hero?  No.  Rebellious nature? Yes and maybe sometimes stubborn in that he will cling to what he feels is right and the best thing to do, even though that’s not in the ‘future’ or history.  Nothing is set in stone, least of all character traits, which are always changing and evolving...


Sam As Our Mirror Image

Scott: “Sam’s still out there doing good deeds…we all have a chance to live in everybody else’s shoes everyday and experience and offer everybody a hand everyday – that’s why the show still resonates with people.”

Thus the idea that Sam is in all of us.

His purpose was to prove Time Travel theory and in doing so created an experiment which remains top secret.  Not intended to save the world – Sam ended up doing exactly that.  Well not really the world as Al tells him in the Dr Ruth episode, only to make a difference; an impact in peoples’ lives.  (So maybe they can go on to save the world.)

Sam is the cute guy from all our dreams with gorgeous green eyes and great hair.  Like a character from a comic book, a superhero.  A loner as he’s often described.  Sam is noble, heroic, the do-gooder we all want to have on our side – rooting for us in our corner.

He’s the perfect son who was there for his family but not when his father lost the farm, but that wasn’t his fault.  He wasn’t a brat, but a great brother who wanted to save his brother, Tom. Which he did? And he carries the guilt around for not being able to save his sister, Katie from the abusive husband she marries.  In that sense, Sam is the prodigal son.  Brought up to care.  He’s the genius, the doctor with so many degrees and expert on foreign languages.

You could call him the poster boy of science as he reminds Al several times he’s a scientist.  Sam is a geek, has a photographic memory.  For all his nerd-y-ness and that’s a plus, he’s also a rebel with a cause.  It’s the leap that’s of concern.

His memory ironically turns to Swiss cheese when he leaps.  Sam is a sinner, a scoundrel, a saint.  Each one of his leaps is when he encounters some aspect of these traits on every new journey.

Sam is careful, way smarter than average and the vain jock and jerks at college.  He’s lonely and alone; afraid yet brave.  Some of the time he needs saving, guidance in the right direction from Al.  Sam is the son who left home early, went to college, made an impact.  Fell in love with Donna at college, but couldn’t have her even after he met up with her in a leap.  He sometimes finds life...

Alice in Wonderland In QL

In Starlight Starbright, Meadows says, “Alice in wonderland’s coherent too, but that doesn’t mean I believe in grinning cats who disappear.”  Reference was made to this in the show.  Alice’s journey in Wonderland is akin, almost parallel to Sam and his leaping.

Alice follows the White Rabbit and this is seen as a guide who appears several times to explain the story when things seem to slow down or when not much is happening.  Alluded to Al - he's a "guide" - an observer.  Someone who is there to offer Sam not only guidance, but tell him what he has to do to save the leapee; as well as what the story or the plot for that particularly episode involves.  The flaw is that the white Rabbit keeps looking at his clock and can't provide much help or guidance.  He's only concerned with himself, about himself.  Al has his handlink and communicates with Ziggy but his entire purpose is there to help Sam, never mind getting bogged down in his own life or personal machinations.  Though he does offer his viewpoint irrespective of whether or not Sam wants it.  Especially if it involves a lustful comment about a beautiful woman with a pair of...lovely eyes!  Also Al does mention his own personal woes and dilemmas sometimes.  Such as MIA where the leap was not about him, contrary to him wanting it to be and ensuring he might be able to make it all about himself...

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde In QL

Again in Starlight Starbright, Al once again refers to Hardy and Meadows as “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.”
Though this may not exactly appeal to many, after recently reading The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, I found there were many allusions to Quantum Leap.  Manifesting themselves most apparently in the character of Dr Henry Jekyll.  He is by nature a good man, a scientist and a doctor.  Remind you of Sam?  Thus far, yes. He has friends who he invites to dinner where they converse about science, religion and literature.  However, Jekyll harbours a dark secret of wanting to be 'evil’ and dark in his character and nature.  This is where the similarity ends, but Sam wanted to use his scientific knowledge for time travel and he wanted to do good.

When Sam leaps, he does so into many different, varied and obscure people: some good, some bad.  Yet he comes across both good and evil in most all of his leaps.  God is good.  Sam believes in God, but not in the devil, even though evil exists.  Even after Al tells him the devil is real: look what happened to Al and Beth, for starters.  Also Sam's own encounter with the devil.  Men are both good and evil...

SO if any of this has whetted your appetite then you can get the book here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leaping-infinity-Unofficial-unauthorized-articles/dp/1291438289/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_C6DD

CSI 11.7 "Bump and Grind" Review

                                                
The team investigate the shredded remains of a human body and broach the subject of ID theft, when they come across a company which specializes in ID protection.

A gruesome, gut-wrenching opening (no pun) as a tortured man is fed some soup which contains shredded credit card.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne), Nick (George Eads) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) are called to a CS where the truck driver reported something oozing from his truck.   Ray tests the ooze which turns out to be blood.   Ray comments on 666 being the call sign for suspicious ooze, the 'primordial variety' after Nick asks what the call sign is for this.   Ray was also thinking of buying a cappuccino machine, which he says after the truck is opened to reveal shredded rubbish and DB parts, identified by Nick.   Ray comes across a bit of a shredded credit card and Brass finds a human eye.  "Here's lookin' at you kid."

The driver works for a disposal company, where the manager, Tom is questioned.   The plant shreds all kinds of material, but maintains a body couldn't have been disposed or fallen in due to surveillance cameras.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) corrects him by adding anyone could have disposed of the body by putting it in the shredding bins, used to dump material into the shredder itself, beforehand.   Greg: "A good way to go if disposing of a dead body."  Nick finds human parts inside the shredder.

Sara (Jorga Fox), Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Greg sort through the rubbish collected in the shredder truck, after an 'intense' (ha) face-off involving Rock, Paper, Scissors, which Sara loses with scissors and so has to collect the "yuck."  Sara tells Hodges she knows how he feels not being able to get over Wendy (Liz Vassey) yet, "two ships passing, takes a while for the fog to clear." Greg suggests Hodges should get out more and Hodges thinks he means with him, so begins his calling Greg, 'G'.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) notices Catherine's (Marg Helgenberger) in a good mood and Catherine knows Hodges blabbed about her and Vartann (Alex Carter.)  Doc tells her he's a good man.   Doc describes the DB as a "puzzle" (groan) he'll have to put together.   But he deduced from the bacterial decomposition of the DB that it was dead 36-48 hours DBS, i.e.  Dead Before Shredded.   The skull has a bullet fragment lodged inside, so COD was a gunshot wound to the head.   Greg also found bullet fragments in the shredder waste.

Ray receives a note from Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin) saying, "Thinking of you  XO Nate" and a kidney bean, which angers Ray and he throws the note away, dropping the bean to the floor.   Sara tells him about the credit card Greg found and asks if he's okay, picking up the bean.   Sara smells but he won't tell her that.   Ray's okay.   He doesn't find it easy to open up and when he eventually does, in the past, it's usually been to Nick; who seems to understand Ray, in that respects they are similar as he can tell when something's wrong with Ray and vice versa.

Greg discovers the DNA belongs to an unidentified white male.   Hodges finds pieces of a credit card inside the Vic's stomach contents which consisted of a last meal of clam chowder.   Greg immediately thinks of an old Bond movie, "can't pay up, eat up." He puts together pieces of the card to find the magnetic strip is still there and puts it through the card reader.   Since Nick says the strip has the holder's name printed on it, several times over.   It comes up with a Larry Lamotte, whom Greg recognizes as being from the  ID Preserve ads.   A company selling ID protection.   Greg was a new subscriber, which coincidentally he had to be, otherwise no one would have known who he was, thus requiring more work from them.   Nick doesn't believe Greg would go for something like that, but he tells him ID theft's a common occurrence.

Ray and Brass talk with Elaine (Ginifer King) the executive assistant to Larry and also to Julius Kaplan (Brian Markinson) head of security.   Larry (Norbert Leo Butz) turns up.   Brass comments on him looking younger in the ads.  Since he's played by an actor, which immediately gives us a clue (for those who need it) that if he doesn't appear on his own TV ad then what's he hiding.   Also in an ironic, roundabout way, that Larry's ID has been assumed on the TV by an actor and so it's the same in real life too.   When Ray questions on whether his own credit cards have been stolen, thus providing him for a motive for killing whoever stole his ID, he remarks it's not conducive to waste resources on small fry.   Again this was about much more than money.   Larry asks Elaine for two subscription packages for Ray and Brass, discount for cops, yeah they're really gonna fall for it.   Ooh, sorry Greg did.

Nick informs Catherine of numerous  people accusing ID Preserve of having their IDs stolen after they subscribed and ended up in Nigeria.   One such Vic was Lee Devries (Karl Herlinger) who drove his truck through the company's window and brandished a gun.   He works for a Temp agency which provides workers for the shredding company.   Catherine is more interested in confronting Nick as to why he's not attending anymore therapy sessions.   He attended the mandatory two, but he's not comfortable talking about his feelings.   He's exercising and eating healthily, had to get in a food comment from Nick, following on from Greg saying he's always eating in the Blood Moon episode.   Does this mean he's given up his red meat and burgers!  It's not his 'thing' talking about himself.   Catherine would prefer he still went.   Seems strange for Nick, since he's not one to bottle up his feelings - as we've seen from past experience.   He always confronts them and does talk to his colleagues.   Perhaps he's just not happy sharing with a complete stranger.   Maybe we won't be getting anymore displays of feelings on Nick's part, which is a shame, cos George portrays Nick so excellently.

Brass questions Devries, did I  say questions, I meant interrogates, and he claims he doesn't know what Brass is asking him.  He has debts he can't pay off because his ID was stolen and he has an alibi, all six "people who are claiming to be me."  Greg goes over his own credit card record and rues signing up with ID Preserve.   Hodges tells him about science camp and his friend not being the person he thought he was, when he gave him a haircut.   Greg interjects this isn't the same thing.   Greg finds another fragment in the mix, a tarnished old bullet.   As Hodges puts it, 'an older fragment from a different gun  but found in the same Vic'.   Greg explains the "body's defensive mechanism encapsulates the fragment tissue to protect from infection."  But there's nothing to identify the Vic, aka Shredder guy.

All of the waste has been traced back to ID Preserve by Sara, who use a sub-contractor to supply the bins used for shredding and that company is run by Kaplan.   Blood traces are found in one of the shredder bins, placing Kaplan as a suspect.   Greg informs Catherine of the credit card being mailed to New Mexico, records showing a ticket was bought to Reno and finds a man on the surveillance camera, running him through facial recognition.   Sara and Nick arrive at Kaplan's and have to gain entry.   Nick finds cans of clam chowder as well as a gun.   Sara finds Kaplan shot out the back.   David (David Berman) says he was shot  back to front, the round exited out the front and Sara finds part of it on the ground.   Mentioning some baseball terminology which she attributes to Grissom (William Petersen) again he has to be mentioned for his upcoming episode.   There's also an odd void which turns out to be his beer bottle which fell into the pool when he was shot.   His neighbour had a surveillance camera across the street.

Brass ran prints from the bottle and they hit on a Julian Kirsch, Kaplan's real name.   He was a mob killer who made dinner for his Vics with ground up casino chips.   Elaine was there, cool as a cucumber!  Larry comments that "assuming someone's name is easy, assuming control of your life - that's hard."  Again another clue shouting out that Larry isn't Larry.   Nick says the gun he found, the Glock, killed Shredder guy and it has a history of being used in a shooting in Reno, six years ago.   The shot man walked out of the hospital and Nick has the cold case file.   The good thing about a cold case, as he says, 'technology catches up'.  Greg examines the fragments.

Catherine surmises Shredder guy is the same man who was shot and survived six years ago, returned here and met Kaplan who killed him.   Then Kaplan is killed.   Sara says Shredder guy was recognized by facial recognition as Larry Lamotte.   Recall his comment about taking over someone's life.   The prints on the cartridge Nick examined ID him as Arlo.   He wanted five million and so he paid Larry off.   Nick confirms Arlo's story about making a withdrawal.   Archie (Archie Kao) hits on the partial licence number spotted on the neighbour's footage, belonging to a car rented by Devries.   That would've been too easy, though he could've done with the money.   The car is found and stopped and is being driven by Elaine.   Not a big shock, she was the only one with access to info on everyone and privy to everything happening.   She doesn't care what she did, it was all about the money for her, for working and getting nothing in return, same old story then.

Hodges tells Catherine his 'mandate' was postponed and she asks if he got a haircut, Greg telling her everything he said, after he finds his card's been used in Nigeria.   Ray looks at his scar and opens up to Sara cos Nick went off for a drink without asking Ray!  She tells him not to let Nate get into his head, but too late, he's already there.   It took her a while to realize they should "not define who we are, we get to decide." Words of wisdom from Sara, but she should know after what she's been through.

A bit of a mish-mash of an episode in terms of the storyline, though ID theft is a common  problem in this day and age, the lengths that people went to cover it up was extreme, even for a CSI episode.