CSI:NY 9.13 "Nine Thirteen" Review

                                                   
A man chases another man on the street and catches up to him as he pushes him onto a taxi, just then a body falls from the top of a building and lands on the taxi.  Sid (Robert Joy) arrives at the scene and Flack (Eddie Cahill) asks why they let him out on the weird cases.  Sid says he asked for this one and came by himself. Mac (Gary Sinise) recalls the story of Wentworh who was a recluse and had an illness to the sun, thus he wore a leather mask to hide his face and this DB is wearing something similar.  His girlfriend, Wilma killed herself shortly after his death.  There are claims of a blonde woman mysteriously walking the building.  Flack doesn't really believe in urban legends but he does in this one.  The DB is the 37th person to have 'jumped' from the building after the first death in 1929.  Sid finds a laceration to the DB's neck and believes it to be murder.  Mac tells Flack he shouldn't give up the search for the blonde woman.

Lindsay (Anna Belknap) arrives to process the CS, regular as clockwork she's become so predictable you just know she'll be first on the scene.  Sid tells her about a woman who jumped from the observation deck of the Empire State building.  She landed on a limousine and they found her clutching her pearls.  Lindsay recalls it as "the beautiful suicide" coined by Life Magazine.  Flack is unable to find any ID on the DB, some people knew him as Jason or Jake.  He used to work the floors and take photos with tourists.  The lipstick mark on his face could be from the killer and Sid also theorizes that the DB could have lost his bearings after being attacked and fell from the top.  Which turned out to be the correct theory.  He asks Lindsay why she looks so piqued and obviously it's cos she's preggers.

Sid examines his DB and finds black trace in the wound as well as some black flecks.  Adam (AJ Buckley) processed his jacket and found a whole stash of valuables and jewels.  Adam vents to Mac about the Vic even though he's not meant to about how he stole from unsuspecting tourists.  Mac wants him to ID who the phones belong to since one of them could be the killer and specially a text from someone who says he will find him and get him back.  Mac being terse with Adam as usual as if he doesn't do his job.

Jo (Sela Ward) picks up some clothes for her son from a store and notices a man picking out ties who seems to ask for help in choosing one.   She comes over and tells him he needs to try one on and pulls it tight at his throat.  She knows he's been following her and wants to know why.  She tells him she's a Marshall, an FBI agent and carries a gun.  He wants to talk with her in private but in a public place to explain.  His name is Grant (Johann Urb) and finally tells her he was suffering from a heart condition and needed a transplant.  He got her sister, Leanne's heart.  After he tells Jo they're from the same place, Alabama.  He looked for her but took him this long to tell her, cos he didn't know how to bring it up.  Jo recalls the drunk driver and how her sister was dead before she even left the drive.  She was so caught up in the driver that she didn't find out who the recipient was.

Jo is overwhelmed and has to leave.  He follows her later and gives her the bag she left.  Leanne wasn't married either, just like him but they both came close.  He's a professor and Jo asks him if he's a good man. He thinks he is.  She's glad he found her and he recalls September 13th was the date of his transplant and that it was a Friday.  Just like 2013 had a Friday September 13th too.  Not to mention the building number was also 913, the supposedly cursed building and this ep is 9.13.  Jo asks him what he saw when he woke up and he tells her a woman.  Seeing Jo he now realizes it was her sister.  Jo wants to listen to his heart, as it beats strong.

Sid found a screwed up piece of newspaper from the Vic's mouth and also he was stabbed by some bent weapon.  Lindsay is unable to get any results on the paper and is flustered.  She returns form the toilet and has to count on her fingers, what how late she is or the number of testes she's done! Ha.  Why was she acting so confused anyway after all it's not her first baby.  Mac talks with her and he's so nice to her, as usual, even when she tells him she's come up blank on the paper.  Mac calls Christine and tells her he's won the bet and she owes him $10.  He will get proof.

Hawkes (Hill Harper) finds the black fleck were sequins.  Wentworth would allow women to the building if they wore sparkly clothes so they would bring him some light.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) questions the man who left the text, Calvin (Robert Baker) and he claims he was looking for a woman but she probably stood him up cos he didn't have his phone with him.  He has a right to be 'peeved', which Danny and Lovato (Natalie Martinez) find so funny.  Did it really take two to question him, more like they were ganging up on him, which required the useless effort of Lovato.  Really don't know why she was needed in this ep.  Danny shows him the footage from the lift when he went to the nightclub and also the one from the street when he accosted the DB.

Danny and Adam go to building and Danny tells Adam they don't need to search the entire floors but between the 6th and 10th floors, as he read Sid's autopsy report.  Adam doesn't think he read the report and he replies, Mac told him.  They find the primary CS and Adam notices the blood spatter on the wall, which means the killer was facing the Vic and was the same height.  He also finds a void in the spatter.  Also Danny finds the blood pool showing the Vic bleed out in a spot away from the edge but the killer left behind footprints so came back to the Vic to put the paper in his mouth.  Danny believes he tried to get up and was disorientated and fell over the edge when he walked in the wrong direction, which is what Sid said.

Hawkes finds the blade was probably made in prison.  The killer took a gum wrapper foil and placed it against the two ends of the battery thus getting a flame.  Then lit up some corn chips to prolong the burning of the flame as the fat ignited, whilst getting some plastic, such as a toothbrush or a fork and melted it down. This formed a long object and then was placed into water to harden it.  Filed and then repeated.  Thus the killer made a shank.  Lindsay still gets nowhere with the paper and gives up.  Adam tells them the Vic's name was Alex (Moneer Yaqubi) since one phone he found actually belonged to him.  Mac thinks the date is relevant to the killer and a number of suspects who had cases with that date are found.   Just then Danny notices the blonde woman in the mugshot and recalls she's the same one in the footage from the lift, Macy (Laura Vandervoort).

Flack and Lovato find her apartment empty but he finds the bloodied scarf and she sees her dyed hair in the sink, using a fork to pick it up, how ridiculous, what she didn't have a pen like Flack.  She's reported to be seen at the station and after a brief chase where she has a leaflet stand fall on her she's arrested.  She tells Mac she was innocent but no one believed her.  Alex called her and told her to bring a bag from their apartment and she got run over, all the stolen items came out of the bag.  Mac tells her she was an accessory but insists she had no part in the theft.  She thought they just took photos and made money. She got him back for what he did to her and she's not remorseful since she was after revenge even if it means ending up back inside.

Jo arrives to find Sid winning his bet when Lindsay tells Danny she's pregnant.  Took her long enough.  Danny shouts it to the entire lab and it was funny Sid getting the bet money considering only last ep he'd given away millions.   An episode which was clearly a bit of a mish mash with elements that were already done before in past episodes.  The urban legend areas were already done in eps such as the eyeball in Stella's coffee in No Good Deed, the building where people were still stuck in, in Death House Flack's urban legends ep from season 1.15 'Til Death Do Us Part when Aiden and Stella tried to scare him with the ghost story about the haunted monastery.  Also the ep where the money jewels fell from the sky and the woman became an accomplice in 7.5 Out of the Sky.  Suppose there are a lot more eps but these were just from the top of my head.

This episode also had a little bit about Jo's past since everyone was getting personal stories this final season. Except we haven't had any for Danny or Hawkes yet.

Sid's story of Evelyn McHale clutching her pearls when they found her was reported in Life Magazine from the 12th May 1947 issue.  A patrolman saw a white scarf float from the building and then moments later, Evelyn's body came down.  Strange that a sequin scarf should be used here to give away Macy as the killer.

CSI 11.17 "The List" Review

                                             
Whilst investigating the murder of an ex cop in prison, Nick finds a list in his belongings naming many of LVPD's detectives. Lots of twists in this episode which made great viewing.

A fight ensues in prison where one man is killed.   Nick (George Eads) and Ray (Laurence Fishburne) back together again.   Nick: "Hate that sound" when the prison gates close.   The Warden (Chris Ellis)  suggests they might want to turn their jackets around as half of the men were put here by them.   Maybe half of them are here because of Nick, but Ray hasn't been here that long.   Ray's unperturbed by them and Nick is ready to face them too.   "Let them take a good, long look then."  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) explains the DB was an ex cop, Vance (Bryan Friday) and he worked some cases with him in the past.   He had a short fuse.   Nick finds multiple stab wounds.   Vance killed his wife, Anne Marie (Dina Meyer) who was also a cop.   Vance was getting a new trial.   There's medical tape on the handle of the shiv so there won't be any prints from it.

Ray shouts out orders to the prisoners, demanding their clothes.   Ray: "There will be consequences - prison will not protect you."  Ray in full anger mode.   Was probably taking his anger over Haskell (Bill Irwin) out on them.   They process the prisoners and Ray ends up with the Arian, who thinks he can scare Ray.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) and David (David Berman) count 27 sharp force wounds and David says prison is an ugly place to get killed.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) comes in for her usual lowdown with Doc Robbins.   Catherine comments Vance used to be good looking and was quite the charmer.   COD was exsanguination due to sharp force injuries.   The killer had to have been covered in blood and was right handed.   Nick checks Vance's cell and finds his notebook with the list of names inside, including Brass.  Nick doesn't tell Brass what he's found and he didn't like 'lying' to Brass or keeping things from him, from the uneasy look on his face, but it really wasn't his place to tell him.   Brass describes Anne-Marie, Annie as he calls her, as sexy and wasn't the type to settle down.   He ponders why Vance has photos of her in his cell if he killed her.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) checks out the video surveillance from the prison, but can't see anything in the tussle.   The colours of their clothes are like a Redskins' game.   Ray calls it a hit.   Greg and Ray use dummies to reconstruct the fight and the stabbing, and work out the blood spatter on their clothing using lasers.   Carlos (Rey Gallegos) and Jose (Hector Atreyo Ruiz) were on the side and Tomas (Luis Jose Lopez) stabbed Vance.   Brass questions Tomas and does a 'walker' motion, indicating he'll get old in prison.   The hit was a favour for someone on the outside.   Nick tells Catherine about the list.   Vance had a case for a new trial and Annie was sleeping around.   Catherine knew Annie and she wasn't doing anything that men wouldn't do, it's double standards.   Nick comments it's cos they were doing it with her.  The list of "bedfellows" includes Brass, Ecklie and Vartann (Alec Carter).   Catherine calls it ancient history; commenting Brass was a player back in the day and had this Jack Nicholson thing going.   The killer was a cop on the list.   But you know it won't be one of their own.

Half of the list worked Annie's murder case.   Brass was the lead and Vartann was his second.   Catherine wonders why they didn't recuse themselves.   When this hits the fan, it will reflect on them.   No wonder Sara (Jorga Fox) wasn't around in this episode and neither was Hodges (Wallace Langham.)  Brass explains he met her at a homicide convention in New Orleans, she was sexy, as he told Nick already, and they hooked up, but he told his boss about it.   Ecklie (Marc Vann) describes his meeting with her as "dinner with benefits"  and he didn't handle any of the evidence personally.   This lot come across as having very loose morals don't they, anything for a pretty face.   Catherine suggests they start with the gangbangers.   Nick and Ray throw Carlos and Jose's things from their cell when searching.   Ray finds a phone belonging to Carlos.   The Warden says the visitor's log had Jody (Melinda Page Hamilton) visiting Vance.   She was Annie's sister and tells Nick Vance wrote her everyday and one day she decided to read the letter.   Notice the photos of Annie everywhere, just like Vance had photos of her in his cell too.   She tells Nick what they already know, that Vance was getting a new trial and many of them investigated her murder.   Vance believes he was set up.   Annie was in love with someone else and was leaving him for another cop.   Jody was a bit cagey, saying she believes he didn't kill her, because she just knows.   Yeah, cos she knew Annie was still alive.

Catherine meets with Vartann and asks about his leg, which he injured in Targets of Obsession episode.     So haven't they seen each other since then.   It's new to him seeing her out of the office, during the day, with clothes on.   Vartann met Annie at the academy and they had some good times.   Catherine asks why he didn't recuse himself from the case.   No one looked past Vance as a suspect and brings up the CSIs investigating Warrick's (Gary Dourdan) murder and how Nick nearly put a bullet in McKean (Connor Farrel).  (In For Warrick, For Gedda.) She asks what evidence they had.   Her body wasn't found (clue) the car was burnt out and had blood inside, clothes and a kitchen knife were found in a dumpster.   Catherine believes the evidence was too good and Vance was smart enough to make the evidence disappear, not leave it where it could be found.   Yes and why not leave the evidence with the body if the body would never be found!  She wants Greg to process the evidence from Annie's case again.

He finds the blood evidence had high levels of EDTA.   The time stamp on the photo was two hours after the car was found and blood clots in 20 minutes.   There was no clotting in Annie's blood.   So how come the CSIs on that case didn't find the EDTA evidence and they were part of Ecklie's team.   Nick says the anti-coagulant was added, so posits Greg, the blood was transported and planted.   Nick believes Vance was framed; by adds Greg, someone with knowledge of serology.   Nick recalls the matchbook trick: what cops know about forensics they learn from their cases.   Lucas Martin (Louis Hertum) was the investigating officer in the other matchbook case and his name isn't on the list.   He must be Annie's mystery lover.   Nick knows where to look for her DB.

Ecklie tells Catherine there was no 419/420 and asks for a full 411.   They're looking at a 10 year old CS.   Martin worked the case in the desert.   They find Jody's DB instead with 2 GS wounds to the back of her head, with a 9 mil.   Martin turns up and proceeds to tell Catherine "Screw you bitch."  Catherine: "I think you mean screw you CIS Willows."  Doc comments Ray's started without him, his wife also starts without him, dinner that is.   Jody was pistol whipped and Ray finds all the evidence points to a cop.   The 2 bullets match Martin's gun, which he doesn't have anymore and Brass charges him.   Ray subsequently finds Martin had an alibi when Jody was killed, he was at work.   They're still waiting for the epithelial results.   Ray threatens to put Carlos' sister in prison and her children removed if he doesn't tell him who ordered the hit on Vance.   She was paid $5,000.

Greg knocks everything over in his path, in his haste to get to Catherine with the epithelial results.   Catherine: "Running from another stripper."
Greg: "Burlesque dancer and that's not funny." So how many strippers do they have at the lab, aside from Catherine.   He could always have replied, it takes one to know one (stripper.) ha.   Oh someone mentioned that episode again, A Kiss Before Frying.   Thought that was forgotten.  The epithelials were female and matched Annie.   Planted to cover Annie's disappearance, they were led by love.  Martin's not helping her anymore.   Vance was innocent.   Ray thinks Annie killed Jody and Martin gave her his gun.   Annie's framing Martin now.   As they say, what goes around, comes around.   Martin told her he was about to retire and she stopped calling him.   He was sending money to an orphanage fund Mexico, which was really to her.

Nick and Greg search Jody's place, she received Annie's life insurance.   Jody knew Annie was alive and didn't want Vance to remain in prison when he was innocent.   The last transfer of funds was made after Jody was already dead and Martin was in jail.   Annie had to kill Jody before she ratted her out.   Vartann says Catherine only needs one guy to depend on.   Namely him.   He finds the connection between Annie and prison.   One man at the academy who couldn't hack it, Malone ( Max Martini) was on Vance's cell block.   Malone gave himself away when he looked behind him when making the call to Annie, meaning they probably contacted him.   Annie checks him for wires.   He doesn't trust her, she killed her sister.   Annie replies, men can't be trusted, well she was right about that.   Brass arrests her and comments she died once so not to do it for real this time.   Vartann would shoot her and says she's lost her touch cos these days the entire world is wired and they didn't need a wire on Malone.

The last scene where Brass and Vartann make the arrest was good to see for a change, since it's usually the CSIs present at the final scene too.   Since it was an episode about the cops more than the CSIs.  Dina Meyer in convincing bad role, she knows how to play those.   Pity her appearance was so short.

Haven't seen a CSI episode this good in ages, even if you hadn't worked out Annie was still alive, it would've kept you guessing til the end.   Also what  gave it away was that Dina Meyer had to get some screen time, otherwise it would have been pointless having her in there just for photos.  I Iike Dina, she's always worth watching;  been in quite a lot from NCIS, to the Mentalist lately.  Of course none of the Vegas PD would be involved since their "relationships" with Annie were all in the past and besides they wouldn't keep it to themselves if she had been in touch with any of them.   As Catherine rightly tells Nick  - it's in the past, referring to Vartann and Annie.   Also good for her referring to double standards, men can play the field but when women do the same, it's frowned upon.   Even though Annie used her feminine wiles to make men do whatever she wanted, men have other means to get what they want, ranging from threats, etc.   She just used what she was born with, rightly or wrongly, in this case wrongly, and more fool the men for falling for her.

Ray and his tough guy portrayal in front of the prisoners, to show he's not afraid of the monsters behind bars and in a way to reinforce his toughness on the dregs of society, now that Haskell is at large.   It was great to see Ray show exactly who was in charge and order the prisoners around, not being intimidated either.   Though I have to say, the opening scene was more like that of a CSI:Miami episode.

In CSI episode 7.13 Redrum, blood found in the car had high levels of EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-acetic Acid) .   The car was sprayed with blood from an officer when Catherine and Keppler (Liev Schrieber) faked a crime scene to catch the killer.   In the same way EDTA was also used on the blood in Annie's car, which also turned out to be a faked CS.   CSI episode Ch-Ch Changes again mentioned EDTA, as did CSI:Miami episode Camp Fear.

Downton Abbey Series 4 Part 2 Review

                                             
A parcel is delivered for Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) thinks it would be better if they let Robert (Hugh Bonneville) have a look at it beforehand incase there's something in it to upset her. On the contrary it was upsetting but not for Mary.  Robert looks through the box, Matthew's belongings from his office and a letter falls out.  A letter to Mary with Matthew's intention to have her as his sole heir. Robert shows it to Dowager Violet (Maggie Smith) who thinks eh should show it to Mary.  Naturally he's upset as it will mean he can't run the estate anymore, though he seems to be more worried about paying death duties twice over, as they have nowhere to do this from.  He thinks perhaps by selling off some land and paying it off in one go is a good idea.

Robert tells Mary about the letter and that she should read it but she insists he read it to everyone.  He wants to send it to Murray to ensure its legality and whether it can be used as a will.  Matthew wrote it when they went to Scotland and knows he needs to make a will at least for the baby, which the Dowager agrees with. Isobel (Penelope Wilton) is happy to hear of it cos it means Matthew can now have his say.

Anna (Joanne Froggatt) tells Edna (Myanna Buring) to be weary of Thomas (Rob James-Collier).  He didn't speak to her before but he will now cos she's a lady's maid and she messes up a dress of Cora's (Elizabeth McGovern) and Thomas says she shouldn't come clean about it.  Though she shows it to Cora, she doesn't want to turn the culprit in, as Thomas also tells Cora.  Of course they blame Anna.  Don't know why Cora was fooled by that cos she's known Anna longer and I didn't know she'd do something like that and hide it. Robert has words to Bates (Brendan Coyle) about it later and that Anna should be less angry about it and more understanding in future.  Bates doesn't know what he's talking about.

Rose (Lily James) wants to go to a tea dance in York but it's for servants and 'commoners'.  She thinks Anna can chaperon her and Mary might let her go, but Anna has to ask Mary's permission who tells her to take her.  Jimmy (Ed Speleers) is also there cos he talks Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) into getting permission from Carson (Jim Carter) to pick up some fish for her and follows them in.  Rose wants to dance the one step as she's been practising and talks Anna round as Bates isn't really into dancing.  Jimmy dances with Anna and Rose pretends to be a lady's maid and tells Sam she's from Downtown.  There's a scuffle and a fight breaks out when Rose refuses to dance with someone else and they must leave before the police arrive.  In the trailer for this week's ep it looked as if there was going to be more trouble than that, which seemed to fizzle out.  Guess they had to make people tune in on that basis, ha.

Edith (Laura Carmichael) wants Michael (Charles Edwards) to come to Downton and meet the family but he's reluctant to do so and at any rate, a divorce will take a long time yet.  She tells him she's surprised he can boil a kettle cos Robert can't and he'd probably be sprawled dead on his way to looking for the kitchen if he had to fend for himself.  Cora's throwing a party soon so she tells him to come and he can just blend in without questions being asked.  Cora likes him but Robert doesn't, which isn't surprising since he doesn't really like any of his daughter's beaus or suitors.  Edith telling him it's getting harder for her to keep her hands off him!  Though she does arrive back late to dinner.

Anna finds Molesley (Kevin Doyle) working the roads and he owes money.  She can lend him some but he won't be able to pay it back yet and he won't take it outright either.  Anna tells Bates about this and she's upset by it.  Bates comes up with a plan cos he doesn't want to see her upset and forges Molesley's signature on a promissory note he owes him. Then invites him for tea.  Molesley can't recall lending Bates £30 when he first arrived and Bates tells Anna, she's done so much for him that it's about time he did something to make her happy.  Prison was an education he tells Anna when she asks him how he managed that.

Bates tells Anna about Edna and she's surprised since she wasn't harsh to her.  They then see Thomas and Edna together and having a laugh.  Well it wouldn't be hard to tell they're in collusion together now that O'Brien is gone, Thomas needs someone else to make mischief with, another partner in crime.   Jimmy gets permission to take Ivy (Cara Theobold) to the theatre and Alfred (Matt Milne) mopes around cos he thinks he's just doing that to get back at him.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) doesn't understand men.

Isobel finds a job for Grieg at the theatre in Belfast and Carson is convinced to see him off before he leaves as he tells Mrs Hughes about his lost love Alice.  Alice chose him and not Carson and regretted it, before she died she wanted things to be put right and wanted Carson to know she should have chosen him.  They shake hands and part as friends and Carson wants to repay Isobel for what she spent on him.

The Dowager also suggests Branson (Allen Leech) whom she must call Tom, show Mary the workings of the estate and take her on his rounds.  The letter is attested to as Matthew's last will and so Mary owns half of Downton, much to Robert's chagrin.  He shows this by bombarding Mary with questions at dinner about how she'd handle the problems, trying to put her off.  He says it's to show he the hardships of running an estate.  So she's convinced she won't be able to do the same.  More like Robert seems to get a perverse sense of pleasure or relishes in putting his daughters down, as well as Cora on occasions!  But Granny, I mean the Dowager is having none of it.

Pretty convenient a letter turning up from Matthew just when everyone was despondent he hadn't left a last word or something from beyond which would give everyone encouragement.  So lo and behold a letter is found, by none other than Robert which gives him more cause for concern.  A recycled plot point in that Lavinia Swire, Matthew's fiance also sent a letter to Matthew after she passed telling him to move on and be happy with Mary.  Seems everyone leaves these behind.  Which is funny, cos only last ep it was said Matthew didn't believe in writing a will so soon and now here's a letter which is just as good as.  Of course he wouldn't be around to go through with the formalities.  Though he did add in the letter, "I shall sign this and get off home for dinner with you.  What a lovely, lovely thought."  Dinner was more important it seemed. Yes he was right, for a lawyer he didn't come across as very bright as far as making his family's future secure was concerned.

Sam arrives looking for Rose whom Anna dresses in maid's outfit and she tells him she's promised to a farmer. As if she didn't know that was going to happen.

Funny scene when the Dowager threatened to send for nanny and have Robert sent to his room without any supper, cos he was behaving that childish!  Oh you know women's rights are non-existant so he'll hold onto his position as lord and master for as long as possible!  So if we're talking recyclable plots let's also mention the fracas caused when Sybil attended that political meeting with Branson where there was, let's see, a fight and he had to take her away.  Just as at the The Dansant.  That'd be tea dance to us.

Since I'm mentioning funny scenes, another was Carson turning up at ye olde steam train station to make amends with Grigg, emerging from the steam, like a reenactment of The Railway Children, or some romantic black and white flick! Ha. That and Mary's line of her room smelling like that of a tart after she drops the perfume bottle.  is she reminiscing about her one night with the Turkish gent in series 1 one might ask! ha.

Judging from next week's trailer, they're in danger of turning Bates into a possible Norman Bates when he gets jealous over Anna and another man.  It's that "prison education" he's gleaned, you know.  Well at least it'd make the show a little more exciting.

CSI 11.16 "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead" Review

The CSIs investigate the reports of possible zombies, when two men reportedly presumed dead, turn up alive. Ray still deals with the fall out from Nate Haskell's escape.

Ray (Laurence Fishburne) still having to battle his demons with Haskell (Bill Irwin) being on the loose.   News reports of Haskell's escape and Ray doesn't want Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) turning off the TV due to him.   Brass can't report there have been any sightings of him.   Ray explains Haskell isn't any ordinary criminal and so the search for him, that should be manhunt, should also be different.  Ray: "Until he makes a mistake, we just satisfy ourselves picking up bodies."  Well, like it or not, it's what they do; unfortunately.

 A man presumed a DB is picked up and brought to autopsy.   Before David (David Berman) can cut him open, he gets up and walks out of the morgue.   David faints.   Lucky for the DB, David got a call otherwise he'd be cut open; but he turns out to be not so luck after all.   CSI delving into zombies for the twenty-first century.   No wonder the scene was shown from the 'DB's' point of view, as he wasn't really dead.   David only took photos and made an incision to determine the liver temp.   David's line of having "a customer waiting" was funny since he's not expecting his customer to walk out of there.   Like he's got a conveyor belt of DBs to handle.

Brass asks if the DB just left and David replies he had to "defend my domain."  So who found him passed out, or did he recover and get help.   Brass: "suspect has left the building."  Prompting Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) to add the funny line: "Dead man walking.2 The EMT declared him dead and Catherine surmises dead men don't sweat.   Ray replies, as often as they get up and walk away.   Ray looks at an old notebook, which refers to 'Stonewall' and is full of data.   There's different writing on the last pages.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) looks over the surveillance footage of the 'DB' and comments they're looking for the Anti-Christ to make an appearance.  To Ray, Haskell being on the loose is enough to fill that void.

Sara (Jorga Fox) is called out to another CS with Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) but he too turns up missing.   There's a blood pool on the ground and Sara thinks he could have hit his head on the gutter.   There's surveillance footage of him walking away too.   Brass appears to be holding Officer Mitchell responsible for the disappearance of this body and asks how he would explain that.   Officer Mitchell: "Zombie epidemic."  Police officers mimic zombies behind him.   Nick (George Eads) checks the first 'DB' using the facial recognition software of the DMV and comments half the people who work there are the walking dead anyway.   Henry (Jon Wellner) brings in some results Hodges (Wallace Langham) was meant to have analyzed and relays his message that they should refer to CODIS as 'ZODIS', Zombie DNA Index system.   Hodges determined the blood was consistent with normal human blood.    Nick jokingly says that brain hungry zombies can say the same thing about Hodges: "minimal sample."  Adds Henry: "fairly useless."  Hey Hodges wasn't there to hear that!  No fair making jokes behind his back, ha.   Pity he wasn't in this episode as this would have been right up his street.

Greg researches the notebook entries and finds a Defence Department programme from the 1970's being conducted at the university, entitled 'Stonewall'.   Relating to ESP, out of body experiments, which Ray denotes as science fiction.   Dr Aden (Howard Hesseman) was the doctor involved, a psychoanalyst, who fell down the "rabbit hole of psychedelic drugs."  Ray works with Sara this time round and not Nick.   Dr Aden doesn't recognize the first 'DB' and refers to reanimation, it's not easy bringing back the dead.   Aden asks Sara; "What's your clearance?"  To which she replies, "About 5' 9."  Hey a funny line from Sara, he wasn't referring to her height but whether she's been cleared to talk about the research!  He didn't ask Ray this question for some reason.   He says he has the "Ithaca of mystery" in his sights.   Sara never saw The Dead perform in San Francisco, she was too busy  with the dead everywhere else.

Catherine talks with Ecklie (Marc Vann) over the phone and suggests they come up with a new name for this, "DAWOL" which was a joke.   Nick matches a DMV facial recognition of the first 'DB' to Max (Keegan Allen) a psychology grad student.   Aden discovers someone's been using his office.   His research subject was death.   So of course there's more going on than he's letting on and he would have had to have been involved in these experiments since he wouldn't just give up on them; when he had such an active role in the 1970's.   Ray feels they were going on hallucinogenic trips and weren't zombies.   A junkie (Joe Hursley) is arrested with Max's credit card and a "phone thing." Which Archie (Archie Kao) identifies as a camcorder.   Footage from this shows three of them were experimenting, one was a woman and the second 'DB' , Kurt (Christoph Sanders) from the alley is also on there.   Max didn't tell them what pills they were taking.  He calls her Alice (Camille Chen).   Aden has poisonous fish in the tank and they're still being fed.   Another clue connecting Aden.   Aden locates his sensory deprivation tank and Kurt is dead inside.  Ray: he got "de-animated."

Sara's mother took her to see the movie Altered States (1980) and Ray went with some good friends of his.   Ray: "I know I only talk like a square." Sara adds, in the movie, William Hurt was in the tank, naked.   Maybe the tank wasn't Kurt's idea.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) finds some bruising on Kurt's back so he took some infra red photos, revealing a  handprint.   Meaning he was held down in the tank.   COD was drowning.   Henry comments chaining them down should help ensure they didn't get up, but cutting them will also do this.  He found traces of Tetrodotoxin in his system; found in sea creatures.   That was obvious from the fish, even though the poison itself wasn't obtained from them.   Doc Robbins posits this poison would cause paralysis and they would be mistaken for being dead.   There was also LSD and cannabis in his system.   Doc refers to "the body was frozen, mind was ablaze.   I've been there."  Doc tells the EMT in no uncertain terms that she had the EKG calibrated to the wrong setting; that's why she didn't pick up their heartbeats.   Meaning if she had done her job right, then Kurt would be alive now and so would Max.

Nick notices saltwater footprints leading away from the tank, so Max came back first and finds blue fibres from his shirt.   He was decompressing in the tank, they fight and he drowned Kurt.   Nick finds Kurt's camera.  Aden tells Ray designer drugs don't produce the same results in everyone and Ray shows him footage from the camcorder.  Aden believes Max didn't tell the others the effects of the pills.   Nick and Sara just deduced that already; that Max killed Kurt.   Ray says Max was working like Aden.

Greg finds Kurt's e-mails to Max and Alice.   Catherine must find her.   Alice's brother saw her three days ago.   Sara notices a Shinto shrine dedicated to her mother in her room and photos of her grave on her computer.   Aden's notebook is also in her room and she appears to be travelling in search of someone.   Catherine thinks they'll find her at the grave, but they find Max instead who runs when he sees them and is run over - knew that was coming.   Officer Mitchell decides to handcuff him anyway, just incase.   Like Henry saying they should chain Kurt down!  Catherine analyzes the ink from the notebook in Alice's room.   It was manufactured from 2008-present and the writing matches Aden's.  Nick discovers Aden and Alice e-mailed each other.   Alice was the one who found the others for their experiments.   From Kurt's video, Archie  finds Kurt picked up Alice's signal and they see Aden's car on campus.

At Aden's house, Ray finds recent video tapes with Alice.   Sara finds the Tetrodotoxin pills he supplied them.   Ray notices the camcorder and finds a tape inside with Aden taking the pill himself, he's found outside.   He deprived his brain of oxygen for too long, he's inside, but he won't be coming out.   Sara mentions Alice in the rabbit hole, Alice and the rabbit hole are often used as references to psychedelic drug culture and Greg mentioned the rabbit hole earlier on too.   Probably no coincidence for the purposes of this episode that she was called Alice.   Nick finds Alice at Aden's office and she's found what she was looking for, her mother, who told her to go back.  

Ray concludes they were inducing chemical dreams.   To Doc Robbins, all visions can be explained by neuroscience.   He sees life as part of death and it's meant to be a mystery.  "I see people on the last worst day of their lives." He believes they go on to a better place.   Doc was taught that in Sunday school, before he went to medical school.   Ray believes that people who bring suffering and pain in the world, "should have it repaid to them, either in this world or the next."
Doc warns Ray to be careful as "evil has  a way of making friends with the good and dragging them into darkness."  That is true, since Ray will go on in his quest to bring Haskell to justice and enter into a spiral of darkness, which won't be so easy for him to leave behind.   He already has begun this descent.   It's a case of evil preying on good.   Would their conversation have been so philosophical if Haskell wasn't on the loose.  also an allusion back to Greg's comment and reference to the anti-Christ earlier on.   This conversation was one you'd expect  Gil (William Petersen) to be having about science and evil and religious beliefs.   In Alter Boys, Gil said, "I believe in God.   In science..."

Doc Robbins mentions here, meeting people on the last worst day of their lives now applied to those who have passed on.   Usually the phrase is the CSIs "meet people on the worst day of their lives" as it refers to the Vics and their families.   Just said by Jo (Sela Ward)  in episode 7.15 Vigilante of CSI:NY.   Ahh Tetrodotoxin takes me back all the way to season 1 of CSI:NY and the episode, Grand Master, haven't heard that poison in a long time.

I would've thought Ray would be motivated to conduct the hunt for Haskell, his own private search since he knows him better than anyone else, so any input he could give would be helpful in locating him; just a thought as he's so involved and so angry at the same time with the thought of Haskell running amok, potentially.

CSI:NY 9.12 "Civilized Lies" Review

A man locks up a cash place and is called by his son.  He agrees to meet for dinner as a car drives past and stops.  Three men get out and attack him.  One takes his gun but he pulls out another one and fires.  He is shot and left for dead.  The man is a policeman, Mark Riley (Gary Kraus) who moonlighted at the shop as a cashier.  Flack (Eddie Cahill) and Mac (Gary Sinise) question a suspect at the hospital who was shot and Hawkes (Hill Harper) tells Mac he was shot from six feet away so he was standing right on top of the policeman.  He says he was on the other side of the road but the evidence doesn't show that. Mac is angry he didn't return to help the policeman but he says he was shot too.  Flack tells him they wouldn't have known about him unless the hospital called them due to the gunshot.  Mac arrests him.

Adam (AJ Buckley) checks the security footage and finds three black men as were described by witnesses but nobody can place Anthony (Kris Lemche) at the CS.  So the CSIs plan an elaborate rouse whereby they use interrogation to break him into confessing and giving up the other suspects.  Flack brings him into the station where the others are watching a news report which says the policeman is stable.  Of course we know that's not true since we were just shown him being killed off at the hospital.  As Jo (Sela Ward) and Lindsay (Anna Belknap) waited to process his clothes.  Lindsay of course knew him, cos she knows everyone and feels particularly sad.  As they speak with his son, Jason (Chris Brochu).  He's at the academy and following in his father's footsteps.

Jo and Lindsay process the policeman and Lindsay forgot to take her silver case back with her.  No all she did was carry out a cardboard box.  Mac loses his cool with Anthony even pushing the chair back and telling him to give him a reason.  Clearly Anthony is upset and scared and then Flack is left alone with him.  Anthony thinks Flack will play good cop, but Flack doesn't know how to behave.  Since Mac's the good cop and he isn't usually.  Lovato (Natalie Martinez) watches with Mac from the window and boy was she excess baggage for no reason.  Talk about not doing anything!  She wasn't even needed in this episode, or any episode.

Flack tells him his boss is looking to pin this on him and Anthony had to be standing right over the policeman but his story doesn't make sense.  He finally admits he was standing over him but wasn't part of the shooting and doesn't know the killers.  Flack wants him to write it down even though he says he's not good at spelling, Flack adds he isn't either.  He's pissed Anthony didn't tell him this sooner and they wasted time.
Anthony: "Spelling's pretty bad, right?"  He's worried  about spelling at a time like this.
Flack: " It's terrible.  There's no such word as 'runned.'  It's ran."

Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Jo process the evidence from the CS as Danny retrieved the bullet and Danny bets Jo lunch his results will show up sooner, she bets him dinner and her computer pings.  She finds latex and silicone from under Mark's nails and Danny finds the same from the bullet.  Mac brings in a box from Anthony's apartment after they issued a search warrant and this contains latex masks.  There were no black men involved.   Flack acts disappointed and adds his daughter will most likely grow up without him and forget him as he's looking at 15 years.  Mac knows he's covering for someone cos he's afraid.

Jason wants to know how his father was shot and Sid explains how the first shot wasn't fatal, one went through his ribs, shattering some of them and the mark on his face was where the gun was pressed up against him.  Jason says he was executed.  Jo checks Anthony's associates and thinks the shooting was out of character for Anthony.  They also used pepper spray which means they weren't intending on shooting him. Danny says they've found the car which is processed by Adam and Hawkes.

Mac tells him Mark is dead and when they catch his accomplices they'll be dealing and then Anthony won't have a chance to deal.  Jo walks in with a camera as a man in a red hoodie walks in with walking sticks. He's Ided as Benitez (Riccardo Lebron).  Of course that was a plant.  Flack tells him he's making a deal right now and shows him to Anthony.  Of course we're then shown Adam being Benitez and manipulating his image over an old recording of Benitez.  Flack walks in with his confession and Anthony wants protection for his family.  Anthony worked with Mark at Brigstar and decided on the robbery since Benitez owed drug money to the third man, Eric (Grant Harvey).  He's afraid of him and says he didn't know Mark carried another gun.
Danny, Lindsay and Lovato arrest Eric after he fires on Lindsay and Lovato.  They lock him up and he lawyers up.  Mac says they may not be able to get a confession from him but Anthony can and so he's locked in the same cell.  Not realizing there are cameras there, Eric tells him Benitez is dead and he left him in the trunk.  He then says Anthony told them he killed the policeman and realizes his mistake.  The camera sees it all and they have their case.  As Mac thanks God for "civilized lies."  Don't know what Lovato was so happy about, she did nothing.
Flack: "In the boat, filleted, pan fried, on the plate."

Lindsay takes Danny to Jason's and gives him his father's shield, he was proud of him.  The date Adam has on screen is the actual airdate for this ep, 11th January 2013.  An episode where they don't really get out as much as possible and need to find other evidence or methods for proving the crime and the presence of the suspects at the CS when forensics draws a blank.  Thus resorting to confession evidence and tricking the suspect into confessing.  As you will recall from CSI:NY season 1.9 Officer Blue episode, the NYPD is legally allowed to lie to suspects during questioning.

Enjoyed watching the scenes with Flack as he actually got more to do than usual.  So much for Lovato telling Mac Flack was being too soft when questioning Anthony.  Of course she expects everyone to go in with both barrels blazing like her and kick the crap out of them!
Mac: "He's being patient.  I can't think of anybody I'd rather have in that room."  Yeah certainly not you Lovato!

CSI 11.14 "All That Cremains" Review

                                                                                             
The CSIs investigate the remains of a dismembered man found at a thriftstore. Putting together the pieces, they follow the evidence to someone much closer to the Vic. Ray's ex comes to town.

Two old ladies in a thrift store open boxes to reveal dismembered body parts.   Nick (George Eads) arrives on the CS with Sara (Jorga Fox) this time and not Ray, (Laurence Fishburne) as is the norm; who is busy with his own personal issues.   Det Frankie (Katee Sackoff) tells them his head and foot were found.   Sara admits to shopping at this thrift store, as they have some good things.   Sara doesn't find any leakage in the boxes and Nick believes the rest of the parts must be in the boxes.   They were dropped off by a truck on a pick-up route.   Nick wonders how much the killer thought the DB was worth, "times are tough."  That was the supposedly funny line.

Nick takes Gloria (Tracee Ellis Ross) to see Ray who's conducting an experiment with Hodges (Wallace Langham).   Nick comments he looks more like "Dr Dre than Dr Ray."  Ray can't believe she's here.   Hodges has to have his say, interrupting them to add she's got a good man here and they're all family now at the lab.   His present case could be described as fun, if the DBs are omitted.   He welcomes her and she drops a bombshell: she's getting married to Phil and she invites Ray to the wedding.   Not many people invite their exes to their wedding.  So perhaps they must have parted on good terms, but why they did isn't mentioned here.   She wants Ray to meet him.   Was that to gain Ray's approval, show off Phil, or just to show she's moved on and he should do the same.   She shows Ray her engagement ring, but she doesn't seem to notice Ray is still wearing his ring.

Nick with the DB's head in his hand when she's leaving was kind of funny.   He points Gloria out to Sara and David (David Berman).   Sara calls her pretty and David says he's been here two years and he's never met her, even Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) hasn't met Gloria and he and Ray are meant to be best buddies.   Nick thought she would be more "bookish."  Why was that, cos Ray's a doctor and more into his books and academia.   Oh the gossip in the lab!  Nick points out the Vic had dirt in his mouth.   Sara stipulates if he was buried he'd have had dirt all over him.   Nick finds there's someone else in his mouth and David indicates the presence of bone fragments.   Sara notices the ash and Nick calls it cremated human remains.   Sara: "Cremains."  Doc Robbins thinks a flexible saw was used to cut the parts.   Ray presumes it was more likely a wire.   Doc also finds the presence of contusions on his chest.   He's sent them for IR (Infra red) photos so they'll have to wait and see what they show.   Doc Robbins suggests Ray and his wife should come over for dinner and he didn't get a chance to meet her.   Ray would have introduced her, had he known she was coming.   Ray doesn't like to share his feelings so easily.   Ray says he was alive when the cremains were fed to him and the cremains were the murder weapon.

Henry (Jon Wellner) finds alcohol and sedatives in the Vic.   Ray says he was comatose when he ingested the cremains.   The killer tied him up, poured cremains in his mouth and asphyxiated him.   Hodges would prefer burial to cremation.   He wouldn't like to be a mobile urn and would like a tombstone, so people can "worship" him.   Together he and Nick find bone, a gold tooth, hip replacement and Nick comments if the crematorium were doing their job this wouldn't happen.   Ray meets Phil at the bar.   Ray calls her "fashionably late" and she walks in saying Ray almost didn't make it to their wedding, she can talk.   Didn't know what to make of her, she appeared to be rubbing it in Ray's face, the whole, she's found someone else and is getting married, thing.   Also seemed a bit scatty.   Phil notices Ray's ring and thinks he's already re-married.   Funnily enough she didn't mention his ring.   Ray's coming to the wedding.

Greg (Eric Szmanda) gets a hit on the gold tooth, belonged to a death row inmate who died two years ago.   The other DNA was from an unknown female.   Nick and his shady crematorium comment again and that it's burning more than one body at a time.   Nick and Frankie give chase at the crematorium and Greg stops them in their tracks with a plank of wood.   Frankie identifies the unknown female DNA cremains as Sabrina Pose.   The wife of the Vic, Ron Pose (Peter Smith).   They had a daughter, Camryn (Madison Davenport).

 Sara indicates the house across the street was the pick-up for the thrift store.   Nick and Sara process the Vic's house.   Nick notices the void on the mantlepiece where the urn probably was.   In the bedroom, Nick finds ash on the lampshade and Sara finds ligature marks on the bedpost.   There are cremains in the bed.   Directionality from the ash reveals Ron was dragged from the bed by his feet and they follow an ash trail to the bath, where he was dismembered.   There are fresh cut marks on the tub.  Sara finds traces of blood around the bathtub ring.

The house across the street belonged to a minister (Sean O'Bryan).   Camryn gets home from school and tells them she looks after herself.   Nick prevents her from going into the house and she's to stay with child services.   She was just feigning grief.   Greg gets a hit off the work card belonging to a dancer, Sydney (Christine Milian) Ron's ex girlfriend.   Her prints are everywhere.    Dancers clothes were found in the boxes and Greg surmises she came back to exact her revenge.   Ray comments her actions indicate "she's a monster."  Ray's usual choice of word there.   See Blood Moon episode where he said to Nick they deal with monsters all the time.  Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) tells Sydney she needs to come downtown with them.   She saw Ron two weeks ago, he cheated on her.   She didn't want to see him and that's why she didn't collect her things.   She is genuinely shocked that he's dead, and I believed her.   She was too obvious a suspect anyway.    Ray thinks she could have killed him, Sydney loved him; but he had many women and provides Ray with a list of names.   She's also sincerely concerned about Camryn and those aren't the actions of a killer, or a monster.   Ray asks for her DNA.

The minister lived there 15 years and he knows Sydney better than he knew Ron.   Camryn was always alone even when her mother was alive.   Being an only child, they had a connection to each other.   See in the flashback it's apparent Cameron's heart was broken when Sydney left.   They fought about some videos with girls.   They go over the evidence and Greg says they have plenty of it.   Nick comments they're dealing with the cleanest house in town and all the prints are explainable.   All the blood evidence belonged to the Vic and Sara adds the killer knew the house.   Nick still believes Sydney killed him.   Greg returns to the house and finds the tapes in the safe with women's names on them.   They turn out to be dance auditions.   Out of 30 tapes, number 15 is missing.   Sara questions Trufant (Ian Reed Kesler)  the name on the tapes.   He explains he made the tapes for Ron as potential women he could date.   He wasn't a club goer and he gives them the original of tape 15.

It's Sydney's audition with her guitar and she's wearing kneepads.   Sara believes the cremains could be Sydney's way of telling Ron he belonged with his wife.   Sara doesn't find any prints on the guitar and four strings are missing.   Sydney tells Ray she didn't want anyone seeing her tape, not even them since she didn't want anyone to know she fell for it.   Ray says the guitar strings were used to tie him up and the kneepads were used to hold him down whilst he was choking.   There were two sets of DNA on the kneepads, the minor donor was Sydney but the major donor had half of Ron's DNA; meaning it was Camryn.   She claims she didn't kill him, nor did she use Cameron to do it.   She questions her.   Camryn says Ron was angry she was playing Sydney's guitar and told her to throw it out since "Sydney's dead."   She never had any parents until Sydney and she wanted him dead like her mother.   Nick has a hard time believing Camryn killed him because all the children he's come across, at least the majority of them; have been victims of crime and not killers themselves; leaving him speechless.

Camryn shows Sydney the urn as proof she killed him.   Ray tells Sydney it's hard to accept the truth about people they love and "denying it doesn't make it go away."  He's also talking about himself here too.   Camryn still loves Sydney.   Ray opens up to Nick, as I thought he would.   He and Gloria were divorced two years ago, hey that's when he got here so maybe his work was one of the reasons for their marriage breakup.   She was the best part of his life.   Nick says he thought that was being here with them.   He loved her and misses her, but she had a look in her eyes showing she's happy.   Nick believes if she's happy then Ray should be happy too and calls Ray a good guy.   He advises Ray to remove his ring before the wedding, which he does.

Good to see some more bonding on the part of Ray and Nick, even if David said earlier on that Ray and Doc Robbins are best friends.  Camryn was ruthless, she didn't even show any remorse and thought only about herself and her own happiness.   A bit of a gruesome episode showing how her grief and loneliness led to so much anger and bitterness.   The flashbacks to the killing and the dismemberment showed just how cold blooded she really was and yet after it all, she still expected Sydney to see her in the same way.

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) were missing this episode.

Also in CSI:NY Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) told Mac (Gary Sinise) he should take off his wedding ring since he'd been wearing it too long.   Ian Reed Kesler played officer Shelley in the season 7 NCIS episode Reunion.