CSI 11.11 "Man Up" Review

                                              
The CSIs look at a photo online of a girl whom Greg believes is dead. Nick disagrees and they bet on who is right. The girl later does turn out to have been killed after all.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) along with Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Mandy (Sheeri Rappaport) look at a photo of a girl on the web whom Greg states is a DB.   saying: "She is not merely dead, she is most sincerely dead."  (from The Wizard of Oz.)  Nick (George Eads) asks if they're having a slow night and disagrees with Greg telling him everything on the website isn't real.   Hodges explains he was trying to tell the others that.   Nick proceeds to examine the photo and remarks on her blood vessels in her arm being distended meaning she has high blood pressure.   Greg thinks the blood pooled in dexterity and lividity, i.e that she's dead.   Hodges comments it's hard to tell without a body.   Nick believes it's a waste of time and so he and Greg bet each other $100 on whether she's alive or not; which Nick doesn't even think Greg has.

At the potential CS, crowds have gathered and snap photos of the girl.   Nick comments, "She is most sincerely dead."  No one called 911 so Nick calls in the 419 himself.   They're all suspects and one tries to make a break for it, but not very far.   Well that was a short chase!  Nick: "Where you going Bud, the show's just getting started." Perhaps any CSI shows most cheesiest line in terms of groan factor!  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) asks if they had to call in their own 419 in the same way as firemen start their own fires and whether they're in need of money.   Well Greg would be with his ID being stolen and his credit card being used.   That was a reference from Nick earlier on about Greg probably not having a $100.

David (David Berman) puts the TOD between 4-6 hours ago and finds signs of peticule hemorrhaging.   Greg notices the lanyard.   The Vic is identified as Amber Roe (Lili Mirojnick) a hooker.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) finds evidence of sexual intercourse.   Nick borrows his laptop to pull up the photo and notices the position of the lanyard around her neck is different.   The ligature mark is higher and at an angle.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) points out her dress is different too.   the one in the photo had sequins along the neckline.   Catherine always stuck in the morgue with Doc lately and she didn't even get a scene with Vartann (Alex Carter) this episode.  Archie (Archie Kao) got some data from the web hosts.   The photo was taken two nights ago.   Nick asks him to zoom onto the hubcap in the photo where fireworks over the Tangier's are clearly visible in the reflection.   Meaning she was alive two nights ago.   Nick tells Greg that betting against him is "really insane."

Hodges has bought a dud motorbike and Ray (Laurence Fishburne) tells him the parts aren't all original.   Hodges got suckered.  The bike's a 'Frankenstein monster'.   Ray: "Yes Igor."  Ray spots blood on the air filter and finds some tissue.   It's the tip of a thumb.   Hodges bought himself a CS.   Also he was "bethumbed."

Nick says a friend of his in vice told him Amber cleaned up her act and he and Greg check out her apartment; to be greeted by her boyfriend, Craig (Kevin Weisman).   Amber told him she wasn't going to hook anymore and was modelling.   Saying his girlfriend doesn't support him, but he was quick to take her money at the end.   Processing the apartment, Greg collects animal hairs from the dress and analyzes it to be zebra hair.   This was on the bottom of her dress so she was seating on zebra seats.   A friend of Greg's (plenty of friends being mentioned this episode, that's handy) sent him a photo of Carot Top.   He was kidnapped and he's wearing an orange lanyard on his wrist.   Catherine: "Carot Top, a dead hooker, why am I not laughing."  Oh dear a joke.   Carot Top explains to Nick and Brass that he's usually a target.    When he saw Amber she was alive.   He took her from the strip club in his limo.   There were two men in the car taking photos.   They asked him for passes and tied him.   He asks if he gets a phonecall, but Brass replies he doesn't need a lawyer.   Carot Top: "I need my publicist."

Nick and Greg process the limo to reveal costume jewellery inside.   Greg should have been more familiar with costume jewellery as he processed a dancer's headdress in the season 1 episode Table Stakes and so could have made the connection that the costume jewellery in this case may also have been from a costume (no pun.)

Hodges wants to be field-orientated, like Wendy (Liz Vassey.)  He found the DNA and the blood on the thumb belonged to two different people.   The blood was from an unidentified Vic in a bus accident; believed to be a passenger.   Hodges thinks his body was vapourized.   As in the story about the family who were crushed in a VW Beetle by two semis and the car was found with the family inside.   Ray says he should check out the Mars brothers.   They cleared the wreckage.

Catherine identifies the jewellery from the Mediterranean, and asks Greg to find the photos from the casino.   She helped Sam (Scott Wilson) pick out the costumes, one was a Spartan.   She loved Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960).   So the Spartan (Trevor Donovan) had to be in the limo.   However, he tells Greg he had his sword stolen when he was in the toilet.

Hodges and Vartann visit the salvage yard, where Doyle (Blake Gibbons) says that his brother Denny (Scott Anthony Lee) keeps the records as he has a "photogenic memory." To which Hodges replies, "I too am blessed with a photogenic memory."  He photographs the bus wreckage; recovering part of the bike from the bus and traces its serial number to a Peter Farmer.   His girlfriend, Sandy (Amy Acker) in her only scene of the show.   She was wasted in here, really sometimes they give people you don't want to see such long parts, whereas those you do want to see end up with cameos, barely.   She broke up with him and made him lunch the last time she saw him.   Egg salad sandwiches.   That's all anyone eats in this show.   Egg salad in last week's episode too and Hodges was involved.  But he only said he likes that in this episode.   Also the fact Peter lived with his mother, as does Hodges.   He bought the bike after they parted and he was lost.   Peter reminded her of Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953).   Hodges can relate to all this since that's him she could be describing.   She has another boyfriend now, but Hodges reminds Sandy of Peter.

Archie traced the photo of Amber to a social network site, posted the night before Amber was killed.   One of the posts said, '4.  Kill a hooker'.   Nick: "Let's hope the list ends here."  Archie got the numbers of the prepaid phones sharing the photos.   All the numbers are in Chicago.   Mandy traces the prints from the toilet door to a Scott Horan (Rick Summer) who has a record for racing a chariot down the Strip ten years ago.   Brass checks the credit card receipts showing he bought three tickets to Vegas.   Hunter (James Snyder) denies doing anything.   They were only playing a game.   Brass: "golf is a game." Nick asks if killing a hooker is how they celebrate and it's not  a joke.   Amber's "as dead as it gets."  They claimed to have a dare list from last time and Hunter added what to do to the list this time round.   They both wanted a free weekend in Vegas.   Describing Scott as a loser.   There was an argument over the rules and Amber told Scott his friends had won.   They only made her look dead and Hunter emailed the photo to Craig.   Craig was only with Amber for the money.   Just like Hunter and Jeff.   Nick gives the other players Craig's chips.

Hodges brings the bike back to the yard for a refund.   Doyle sold the parts and knew the biker was dead, but no one else knew of Peter's death and he offers Hodges a bribe.   Vartann arrests them for obstruction of justice and Hodges says he followed the evidence, just like Ray told him to do in the beginning.  Denny gave him the "tip" (of his thumb).   Hodges doesn't want to ride anymore and the bike is evidence.

Craig explains rather coldly Amber wanted to hook to help him out, saying, "Once a whore, always a whore."  She put money into their account and called to tell him.   ATMs scan cash.   The last cash deposit was for $1,200.   Adding all the deposits up, they total $5,000.   Mandy processes the money, revealing Scott's prints.   His friends treated him like a loser and he wanted to get them back.   He was an accessory to her murder and thought about calling the police and then as luck would have it, but not lucky for her, he saw her in the bar.   She laughed at him and his stupidity and he couldn't stand a whore laughing at him.   He killed her.   Scott: "I was the man." Nick asks him what that's like?  Brass informs Scott his friends are going to jail for a misdemeanour and he's going down for murder 1.   Brass: "I guess that's a win!"

Nick returns Greg his money as "nobody wins here." Showing Nick's the one who cares about the Vics and he's the gentlemen here, irrespective of who or what the Vic's past was or their occupation etc, you have to always remain objective.   After all, it's not in him to profit at the expense of others and definitely not over a murder.   Also Nick would know all about hookers, as you will recall Kristy Hopkins (Krista Allen) from season 1 Pilot and treating her as a gentlemen would.   When he helped her out against the security guard who spat on her in Fahrenheit 932 and subsequently slept with her in Boom.  She ended up murdered too.

Also Hodges thinking about the Vic here, "I saw a man who needed to be spoken for."  Which is what they do, give the Vics a voice and justice, but particularly good coming from him as he's more a lab tech than a field guy or a CSI.

This episode seemed more like one for CSI:Miami; as people leave home, come there to party, vacation etc, which is the case with Vegas too, just to commit crimes, which they wouldn't ordinarily do back home.

Sara (Jorga Fox) was absent this episode, this is becoming routine now this season and I don't like when they do that with the cast.

CSI:NY 9.9 "Blood Out" Review

The episode open with Lovato (Natalie Martinez) on a bus where two men make trouble and one pulls out a knife.  A woman watches her on the bus and she must ID herself as NYPD.  The woman leaves and the man is stabbed.  What were the odds of Lovato getting the bus and meeting the woman, Carmen (Sy Franco) whom she knows from being undercover! Must live in some crappy neighbourhood! ha

Flack (Eddie Cahill) calls in Mac (Gary Sinise) and Jo (Sela Ward) to a warehouse where the torso of a man is found cut into half, with plenty of blood spatter about.  Jo IDs gang markings after Flack finds his tattoo, from a Dominican street gang, the Trinitarios, DPL.  His phone rings and Flack gets it from the DB's pocket, he answers and it's Lovato on the other end who just hangs up.  Oh man, didn't she think he would know the number.  More fool her for using the same number too!  He later confronts her cos he knows it's her number and how irritating was she.  Scratch that not a question.  She tells him the story of being undercover and how fast was she relaying that, to get it all out in one go, not to mention her irritating voice too!  Time was when you'd get an actor who could actually speak their lines coherently!  His name was Benny (David Fumero) and she knew him from a drug case she was working undercover.  Her cover was blown so she had to leave and ended up here.  Worst luck for us!
Anyway why give such exposure to an ancillary character, a guest star and a boring one at that too.  Yes I keep repeating myself but it's true.  Whilst the regulars get precious little screen time, especially Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo)  thought he wasn't going to turn up this ep!

Anyhoo, she tells Flack she told her supervisor, Robert Hicks (Bill Smitrovich) about Benny and that Flack shouldn't jump to conclusions about her actions.  Boring! When the woman saw her on the bus and she was a cop, she had to warn Benny his life was in danger.  Well she was slow off the mark, not like she didn't have her phone with her on the bus.  She worked undercover for 17 months and Benny took her under his wings when she impressed him at a game of pool where she again beat up on the hustler!  So what's new?  She blames herself for Benny being killed since he was in league with an undercover narcotics cop.

Lindsay (Anna Belknap) walks in with her usual interruptions and tells them the bus was impounded cos of the knife attack and Adam (AJ Buckley) processes the bus where he finds the Carman's disgarded drink cup and lipstick on it so he can get DNA from it.   Hawkes (Hill Harper) and Lindsay processed the CS as Sid (Robert Joy) and Hawkes now work the DB.  Sid IDs marks from a saw narrowing it down to a chainsaw.   He was in a kneeling position as he was tortured several times.   Hawkes finds flecks of trace inside Benny's wound where he was tortured. So he was still alive when he was sawn in half.  Adam calls Jo on the video monitor and sees the half torso on the table.  He exclaims she could have warned him of the slasher flick.  He matched the DNA to a Carmen.

As Flack and Mac approach to arrest her, she climbs to the roof and thinks she can scale the roof to the next building.  Of course she slides off it.  Jo and Mac meet with Hicks who tells them she probably killed herself cos she was involved in Benny's murder, or even killed him.  He's been working this case and arrests are almost imminent when they go in front of the Grand Jury.  Hicks has a CI, Raymond (Juan Gabriel Pareja) who meets with Mac and tells him he heard Hector 'Toasty' (Jorge-Luis Pallo) was responsible for Benny's murder.  Hawkes finds the flecks of green belong to a car and Mac asks if Toasty owns a green car. Raymond tells him he has a '72 Buick. So helpful so obviously he knows more than he's letting on and is probably a suspect.

Flack and Lovato stake out a bar in wait for Toasty and she talks of how she could have ended up on the other side of the law.  That the children are recruited as young as 9 to find meaning and somewhere to belong.  Flack saying they do wrong and so have to be punished.  Lovato taking a long look at him.  Oh give it up woman, you can't have him!!  Toasty shows up and he arrives ditching the drugs as he runs.  Flack arrests him and he tells Mac he didn't kill Benny.  Carmen borrowed the car.  Mac tells him the car was found but cos it's not all made of plastic then the fire was put out before all the evidence was burned.  Lovato walks out and Flack thinks it's cos she had feelings for Benny and wasn't professional.  She replies he saved her life and told her to leave when he found out she was a cop.  Umm, how was that saving her life, when she could have just walked out of there anyway.

Adam finds a print on the door of the car and Danny finds the chainsaw handles were plastic so there's no prints.  He also finds jump cables with blood which were used to torture Benny.  He finds a wad of melted looking plastic and analyzes it and find a glove inside, as well as a rag and on the rag he finds an eyelash.  This matched to Raymond!  Obviously.  Lindsay also found whoever used the saw was left handed and used it straight in front of him so would have to be of a specific height. Raymond  tells Jo Benny betrayed him and he had to become an informant but Jo tells him he was the only one who betrayed the gang, not Benny. Hicks doesn't want Mac to arrest Raymond as he's the star witness but Mac tells him he must do the right thing.  Especially since Hicks knew about Raymond and killing Benny since that night, when Raymond was driving the green car which Hicks got into.  Hicks's print was found by Adam.

Flack buys Chinese for Lovato and waits outside her apartment (how romantic, not for her though!)  She tells him he really wants to know if she slept with Benny and she replies no and tries to get really close to him!  He leaves, good, cos we don't want them down that road.  Flack can do so much better!! So they tried to make Lovato different from Angell in that Angell hailed from a cop background, as did Flack, which made them really understand each other and gel, whereas Lovato has a more hard done by story, doesn't make her any the more interesting.
Lovato: "I think you're jealous."
Flack: "I think you're delusional."  Yes isn't she, ha!

I like how Flack's character has really changed and evolved especially since he thinks everyone should be punished if they do wrong and he's changed quite a bit since 3.8 Consequences, where he thought Truby should be given a 'pass' of some sort for wrongdoing (though he was a cop) since his convictions would be called to question.  But Mac wasn't taking any prisoners then and he isn't now either, when he tells Hicks Raymond is a cold blooded killer and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.   No passes for him even if he is a witness, or would have been.  Shows how much Mac is and always will be a stickler for the law and doing the right thing.  It's his job and he doesn't forget that or draw the line anywhere other than doing right and getting justice for Vics irrespective if they're good guys or bad.

As for Lindsay did we need another Montana reminder since she was there last ep, when she tells Mac she could have been a lumberjack, we wish!  Funny Mac always manages a smile for her or her comments, whereas someone like Adam is treated like a nobody!  Hate that!

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.