CSI:NY 9.14 "White Gold" Review

A girl paints graffiti on the wall as she's an animal rights activist when she and her boyfriend see a van and a car.  One drives into the other and then hear gunshots.  They describe the incident and their stories check.  Jo (Sela Ward) comments on the weather and wishes she was back in Alabama.  Mac (Gary Sinise) also says the same thing with her whining, trying to be funny.  Mac thinks it could be a carjacking.  Adam (AJ Buckley) and Lindsay (Anna Belknap) process the CS as Adam takes readings of the tyre tracks and Lindsay finds broken pieces of the light.  Knew she'd be first up on the scene as soon as the opening credits rolled!  Sid (Robert Joy) performs the autopsy and the Vic bled out from his gunshot wounds.  The Vic also has a white substance in his nostrils which he finds is flour.  The Vic is missing his gall bladder which is strange for someone his age which will make it easy for him to be Ided.

Adam asks how Lucy's taking the news of a new baby and then tells Lindsay about his own older brother who was pissed over him but they worked it out.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) found the Vic was Paul Tortucci (Kanin Howell) and he bakes pizzas which Danny describes as good.  He and Mac pay a visit over there and find Paul was the owner Ray's (Daniel Roebuck) nephew and was a good boy.  He brought him up as his own after his parents died and promised he'd look after him.  He lived above the pizzeria.  They believe Paul was carjacked and his BMW was stolen but Paul drove a van.  They find they have their story wrong and theorize Paul was now the carjacker and got shot, but he doesn't have a record.

Lindsay finds the BMW belonged to Rowena (Chasty Ballasteros) and Flack (Eddie Cahill) pays her a call along with Lovato (Natalie Martinez) yet more waste of space!  Flack comments on her jacket and thinks it's fine, he paid her a compliment.  Lovato only wants him to be honest with her, that's all women want. Rowena says she was here for three days and hasn't seen her car since then, it was stolen.  Lovato thinks she's lying of course and wants to drag her down to the precinct!  Agh!  She shows them her leg in a cast.  Adam shows Jo the simulation of the accident which he did using the data he collected from the CS.  It shows the van tried to swerve the car but it was the car which caused the accident.  The two vehicles are found and Hawkes (Hill Harper) measures the impact on both vehicles.  It appears the van was weighed down when it hit the car so something is missing.  Danny finds a hidden compartment under the floor and thinks something could have been smuggled.  Paul did say he was going snowboarding in Canada.

Hawkes also finds some pellets on the floor of the car, as well as blood on the transmission wires and GSR on the driver's side of the door.  He also finds the seat is pushed right back.  Adam uses his simulation again to calculate the weight of the cargo which turns out to be 533 pounds.  Mac and Jo get a warrant for Paul's apartment and Jo finds money hidden behind the grate on the wall.  With Ray making the funny comment of how they don't know Paul from Adam! Ha.  He's back at the lab!

Hawkes finds the pellets were from a welding torch and so the man in the passenger seat was a welder. Hawkes also gets a hit on the blood he found which belongs to Reno Martell (Myk Watford) and he's 6' 4" and has a record.  They get his address from his parole officer and at the apartment Danny thinks he's hit paydirt, "boom."  However the blocks turn out to be cheese.  Mozzarella.  Hawkes finds a clean corner in the kitchen which has been wiped of blood.  Ray recalls the cheese incident when some men came over from Canada and said he could make money by smuggling it across the border into Canada.  It's called white gold.  But he didn't want any part of it.  Paul took over the running of the books and they started to make a profit so he thinks maybe Paul was involved.  Mac notices one of the men cut open the cheese and thinks it looks like drugs and someone could have mistaken it for drugs.

Outside Mac and Jo wonder who could have sat there and watched Paul.  Then notice an auto shop.  The owner, George (Leif Gantvoort) also has a record but says he has an alibi.  Jo collects pellets from the ground and Mac finds cigarette butts on the floor by the door where someone had a perfect view of Paul. George tells them it was Felipe (Sam Situmorang) and he hasn't been to work today.  He doesn't know much English.  Felipe is found in a dumpster and Hawkes finds he was stabbed twice.  He also has defensive wounds and Flack notices something stuck to his sleeve.  It's a matchbook from the Blue Moon.

Flack and Lovato wait for Reno to show up and when they do he tries to escape.   Lovato tries to take him down using her legs again, what is it with her legs?  Reno tells them it was all Felipe's idea.  He watched Paul and thought he was loading drugs late at night.  That he drove the car and shot Paul after dragging him out of the van.  Reno says he was having a bad day.  When Felipe saw it was cheese he lost it and so Reno had to stab him in self defence, twice.  Flack: "You're like a one man Ellis Island."  When Reno says Felipe was new around here. Flack tells Mac he'd believe him.

Jo tells him they're the ones he's going to tell the truth to and then he does but this time Mac tells him of the seat being pulled back to his height position, the blood on the wire when he hotwired the car was his and GSR was on the driver' side of the door.  He claims self defence again when Paul tried to grab the gun from him.  As for Felipe, the neighbours heard yelling and Felipe didn't know English.

Mac pays a visit to Ray for a slice and gives him the photo of him and Paul when he was little, that Danny found in the van.  Mac tells Ray he didn't let his brother down since he brought up Paul to be good when he could have gone either way.

A bit of a routine ep which I didn't find interesting at all.  hey even Flack and Danny's scene together at Reno's apartment was rather flat, compared to their scenes throughout past seasons.  It appears they really were scraping the bottom of the barrel, the cheese barrel, when they came up with this story, it was cheesy which is not a pun, not to mention most of this final season was hit and miss.  CSI:NY used to be good and one of my fave CSI shows! What happened?  At least Danny got more to do this ep than he has of late, even showing sympathy towards Ray after they break the news of Paul to him..
Danny: "If you had told me this morning we'd be investigating a cheese murder, you know what I would have said."
Hawkes: "Please don't."
Danny: "No whey!"

Danny finding the hidden compartment in the van like he did in a season 1 episode.  If Jo was cold would've thought she'd have worn something warmer than a short jacket!  She's been living in New York for three years now and before that was in Washington.  Whoever wrote that line, well, you shouldn't have!

LFCCW Winter 2013 Michael Shanks/Garrett Wang

Hoards descended on Kensington Olympia this past weekend, 5-6 October 2013 for the London Film and Comic Con and well, hoards is definitely the right word to use.  Why do certain people think it's fine to queue jump, smoke endlessly whilst in the queue and just have a God given right to stare for no reason!  Let me say Star Trek has a more classier fandom!  Cos Destination Star Trek London 2012 was so better organized and had amazing people there, fans and crew!  Trekkies are cool.  No one acted like they were still at school.  Anyhoo, rant over!

The Star Trek talk was enlightening and interesting mostly cos Garrett Wang was doing most if not all of the talking.  Letting us into snippets of info most of us wouldn't have known about.  Like how he missed out on kissing Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine cos it wasn't in the script of a ST:Voyager ep!!  As an actor he said he was excited for it to happen but it didn't and even Jeri said he missed out on it.  Another fun anecdote was how not to upset Voyager writers when he did that one day, he found Harry Kim was killed off and no one noticed or said anything about it in the show.  Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) just kind of grunted!

Another thing he said was how JJ Abrams didn't want to cast anyone in his Trek movies who had been involved in the Star Trek TV shows: crews or actors, except for Leonard Nimoy.  How Garrett was annoyed that none of the actors from the shows were invited to the premiere of the movies either and when he met JJ one day whilst queueing for the 2009 movie at the cinema, he didn't really have much in the way of acknowledgement. Even when he told him he watched the movie like everyone else at the cinema about 13 times.  Garrett so kindly paid for tickets for the fans in front and behind him who had queued up to watch it.
Nicole de Boer interjected of how she auditioned for every show JJ was making.  She didn't say much, she had a cold.

Also how he thought Star Trek Into Darkness: STID stood for Star Trek into Die Hard, cos it was so action orientated.  Most of his shows are though, such as Alias and that was really fast paced.  Wasn't really into Lost myself, but Garrett mentioned how he thought the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch was wrong for the part of Khan.  As we know he was an Indian character and he would have loved Naveen Andrews to have been cast.  Also how the cast appeared like they wanted to get their lines out quickly and rush through them.  Which I have to agree with, especially Spock.  I said it in the first movie, Zachary Qunito spoke fast, whereas the original Spock spoke slowly and calmly.  Hence his overdoing: "Khaannn!"  Spock would never have made such an outburst.  Irrespective of being young in years. Ha.  The line most everyone hated in the movie.

Great talk Garrett, fun and exciting!

Gotta admit though one of the main reasons for my going was to have a chin wag with Michael Shanks.  Not much of a chin wag but it was great meeting him in the flesh and he looks even hotter than on TV! His talk was with his wife Lexa Doig, but I can't help feeling he would have done more talking if he was on his own, naturally, ha.  It didn't help that most of the fans questions were kind of a re-hash of something another fan had asked.  I mean how many times can you ask what they would have liked to have come in and who was their inspiration.  Michael is obsessed with Harrison Ford, ahh, he'd like to play Indiana Jones.

Lexa was trying to be sarcastic a lot of the times in terms of being funny, but she came across as a little like having Michael under her thumb!  Saying things like he'll get into trouble when he gets home...ha!

It was a shame there wasn't a full house for Michael's talk since it was a paid talk as variation in the audience would have been good.  I didn't get picked to ask my question, what is it something I said or didn't say, cos I had much to ask.  Let's see, would he play Daniel Jackson again; what was it like playing two different sorts of doctors, one on Stargate SG-1 and one on his new show, Saving Hope.  Would have been good to have him on Supernatural again as an angel even this time round, seeing as Amanda Tapping plays a recurring one on the show.  Heck anything would have been more interesting than the same old, same old.  Oh well maybe next time I'll get my chance...Dream on hey!! ha. At least I got me hug from Michael!!

Downton Abbey Series 4 Part 3 Review

This episode Downton Abbey is overrun by the guests for the houseparty and the house is in turmoil in more ways than one.  Mary (Michelle Dockery) meets Lord Anthony Gillingham (Tom Cullen) who she used to know from before and he tells her he's not married and doesn't have children.  He's forgotten about Matthew and doesn't recall what happened to him for which he has to apologize as Mary tells him she has a son.  She goes riding with him and talks about Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and how he wants to sell the land to pay the taxes.  He tells her how they handled the situation when his father passed, by renting the house and keeping the land.  He suggests she should see the tax people and then tell Robert how to proceed.  Mary's quite happy there are other people in her position.  Would you really say something like that to someone, happy that they're in the same predicament.

She also tells him how if she had been stronger before maybe she'd be much happier right now, since Matthew changed her.  "I loved him but he changed me."  Later she's upset when Rose (Lily James) brings out Matthew's gramophone and is distraught when she sees it.  Rose forgetting it was his and not asking permission like Anna (Joanne Froggatt) said she should.  Seems everyone's forgotten about him, except for Mary and Isobel (Penelope Wilton).  Isobel doesn't want to be happy cos then she feels she's forgotten him and ends up feeling guilty.  The Dowager (Maggie Smith) tries to get her to come and see Dame Nellie Melba (Kiri Te Kanawa) who has been invited to the party.  She reluctantly agrees and it seems Nellie is relegated to the confines of her quarters regardless of being honoured by the king.  Carson (Jim Carter) even suggests she be served dinner in her room on a tray, cos she's just a singer, as Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) points out she's not happy with that and invites her to dinner.  Seating her next to Robert, who is much more at ease after he finds Nellie is knowledgeable in wines.

The men decide on a poker game with the others and Michael (Charles Edwards) is also invited to join.  He tells Edith (Laura Carmichael) at least Robert can't ignore him now.  Below stairs, the staff are running around in a kerfuffle making ready the dinner and there's more than one crisis.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) can't open a jar and neither can Ivy (Cara Theobold) or Alfred (Matt Milne).  But Jimmy (Ed Speelers) has to show off and show how a real man can do it.  Then he throws the jar in the air and misses the catch, falling flat on his back.  Injuring his wrist and can no longer perform his footman duties at dinner, for which Thomas (Rob James-Collier) must take over under protest as he's the under butler and it's beneath him!

Carson comes up with a plan though after Molesley (Kevin Doyle) brings round the groceries as he's working for Bakewell now.  Carson thinks he can do them a favour and take over, to which he is also disappointed.  The Dowager is pleased to see him though.  Robert loses at cards against Samson as do the others cos obviously he is a card sharp. Which Michael recognizes as the next night he wants to play cards again as the others are listening to Nellie.  Carson asks if the kitchen staff should be able to attend the singing and Robert says they must as these are new times now.  As Carson was just lamenting to Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) about how they haven't got much staff now after the War.  Progression really isn't his strong suit.

Branson (Allen Leech) feels out of place when having to spend time with the Duchess of Yeovil (Joanna David).  First the Dowager must put him right about not calling her 'your grace' unless they're in society and then the Duchess asks him where he's from and if he knows certain people.  Branson may be dressed in white bow tie but he he feels a fraud and lets Edna (Myanna Buring) know this.  Edna who is still after him and hopes he doesn't think of her as an a enemy, but a friend.  Sneaking into his room later that night.  More trouble abounds there.  No wonder she gave him more whiskey, getting him drunk and taking advantage of him.

Anna gets friendly with Anthony's valet, Green (Nigel Harman) who Bates (Brendan Coyle) doesn't like cos he "gets my goat" and she would have been wise to heed his words.  They all engage in a card game of their own, making lots of noise, whilst there's a tizzy in the kitchen and Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) takes a turn for the worse, thinking she's having  a heart attack.  So the doctor (David Robb) is called for and Anna invites him to stay for the singing, when it's found that Mrs Patmore suffered a panic attack.  Can't think why, it's not the first time she's had to cook for so many, so why was she so out of sorts?  Alfred has to take over and prepare the bechamel sauce, which he tells Mrs Patore went down a treat and that this is what he wants to do.  Anna needs something for her headache and is attacked by Green who forces himself upon her when she turns down his advances.  He doesn't think Bates, "a cripple, can satisfy you."  She can't fight him off and cos of the music no one hears her screams for help.  Surprised Thomas wanted to listen to an opera singer, ha.

Michael wins at cards cos he's a dab hand at the game from his "misspent youth" and takes back everyone's IOUs otherwise he'll let Robert know Samson's (Patrick Kennedy) a card sharp and then no club will have him in.  Returning them back to everyone, he gets into Robert's good books and he surprises Cora by changing his mind about him and how he's quite the gentleman.  Andrew is glad he came since he's developing feelings for Mary, eve asking her to dinner and Robert is happy he came too.  Branson consoles Isobel at dinner when she sees Mary laughing and it's the first time he's heard her do that.  She doesn't want her to stay unhappy but Isobel is sad cos everyone's here except Matthew.

Mrs Hughes finds Anna cowering in a corner in her room, hiding from the others and she asks for clothes and her help, swearing her to secrecy cos if Bates finds out he'll kill the man who did this and he'll be hanged this time round since he's a felon.  She lies to Bates and tells him she fell and hit her head on the sink and her dress was ruined.  She walks out alone and cries.  Would have thought Mrs Hughes would have put two and two together and realize who did that to her since she saw Green come back and Anna wasn't back either.  Oh let's hope Anna doesn't get pregnant now, though that would be another plot for the show.

Downton trying to spice proceedings this week as we get poker playing (Mr Selfridge territory) and Anna being attacked, though the actual violence wasn't shown.  Seems everyone had their own dilemmas this episode, some more than others.  It is understandable why Anna is afraid to tell Bates what happened as he will take it upon himself to get justice for his wife.  We had all the court case business last series when he was accused of killing his first wife and how dark his character could go when he had to survive in prison.  But this isn't something she should just sweep under the carpet since it's not going to go away and we haven't seen the last of Green.  As once again it shows the inequality between the classes when it comes to getting justice.  As was also demonstrated with Carson going on about not being able to find help anymore and whether the kitchen staff should be allowed to watch the entertainment.  As they're the lowest of the low in this house.  Clearly snobbery existed between even the downstairs staff as firstly Thomas objects to having to do Jimmy's job and then Molesley does the same when he's asked to do so, summing it up with "beggars can't be choosers.

Then Green had the audacity to say goodnight to them thinking he's gotten away with it.  Which he believes he has but here's hoping he gets his comeuppance.  Anna must realize he can't get away with what he's done and obviously it's probably not the first time.  Perhaps he needs to be dealt with as in a game of Cluedo (though that that Rev Green, this one is far from reverend/honourable.)

Events should heat up next episode as there's a new jazz singer in town who catches Rose's eye, so expect plenty of problems there as he's black.  As well as things hotting up between Edith and Michael, who is still in awe that he's even learning German just for her!

CSI 11.19 "Unleashed" Review

                                                  
Ray and Sara investigate the suspected mauling of a woman by a lion and stumble onto much deeper issues. Nick helps Doc deliver a baby whilst looking into the abhorrent world of cyber-bullying.

A woman being chased by a lion in the woods is mauled.   Ray (Laurence Fishburne) doesn't believe she was hiking and wonders how she got out there.  The bite marks on her were made anti-mortum.   Sara (Jorga Fox) finds a piece of a tooth.  The lion wasn't the cause of all her injuries.   Sara thinks she may have "escaped from one animal, only to fall prey to another."  Which was exactly the case.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) were absent this episode.   Sara gets to work with Ray again.

Nick (George Eads) had cheap steak and eggs fro breakfast, 3 courses and he "still ate for cheap."  Whilst he's out with Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) they're stopped by a man who tells them of a girl inside the house.  She's DB in the closet, apparently she hung herself.     Doc comments there's no pulse so it just happened and he needs to deliver her baby by C-Section.   Nick helps and he got sweaty pretty quickly.

Ray finds the DB suffered a compression fracture of the tibia and fibia, showing she fell vertically.   Also she has a broken jaw, blunt force trauma, injuries not caused by a  lion.   The broken tooth could belong to her.   Ray notices she hasn't shed most of the trace on her and has two burn marks from a stun gun.  Sara finds a match to Iona (Mariah Bonner)  a social worker.   She ran a battered woman's shelter with Debra (Abby Brammell) and was a battered woman herself once.   Debra mentions boyfriends or husbands as potential threats, but not herself.

The DB girl is Maria, (Brooke Anne Smith) who was17.   Nick tells the Doc how incredible he was today and he's glad to have saved a life for a change.   Nick calls him a good man.   It was like "being part of a miracle" for Nick.  COD was asphyxiation and he found 4 contused finger impressions on her arm, she was forcibly grabbed.   The leading COD in pregnant women are expectant fathers.   Maria's mother (Allison Smith) turns up looking for her, a wreck.   She couldn't cope with her daughter or the loss of her husband.   She is unaware Maria was pregnant and refuses to see her granddaughter.   Another case of the parents not knowing what's happening with their children or what they get up to.   Ecklie (Marc Vann) holds the parents responsible at the end for what happened, as we delve into another emotional storyline for Nick, who best handles such stories and Ray having to confront his real emotions too.

Sara looks through Iona's diary and finds appointment with a Doctor K.   No surprises for guessing it's Lady Heather, now Dr Heather Kessler (Melinda Clarke).  Sara: "This changes everything."  Apparently Heather knows all about Gil (William Petersen) being in Peru and Sara being married.   Heather's been expecting them.   Iona came to see her, she had a stolen childhood, which explains why she's drawn to protecting women.   She expressed her longing for love through roleplay: as a cat.   She kept one when she was little.   Role playing is a legitimate form of therapy, and she looks to Ray for support who replies, she's the expert.   They watch Iona's video attended by her boyfriend, Carter (Aaron Hill) who didn't approve of it.   She left him and he broke into her apartment to find bondage restraints.

Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) and Nick check out Maria's room.  They find her laptop and Nick believes he's found the father from a half torn photo of the Homecoming Queen.   Maria either hung herself or it was staged.   Her phone continues receiving texts.   Archie (Archie Kao) calls them elite speak.   NCulver12 was having a serious conversation with her and there are yet more messages.   Such as KPC = Keep parents clueless.   Hodges (Wallace Langham) talks of sparks flying between Sara and Heather, "I'm sure you dominated." Trust Hodges to get a comment in, which Sara doesn't appreciate.   The tooth was fake.   Leading to a dentist, Tyrell Neth (Tony Curran) with his huge mansion, where he's throwing a party.  They're his "pets" and all are free to go.   They are able to release themselves from their restraints.   Sara: "Cat got your tongue."  Iona lived in a pine tree outside, where Ray finds gouge marks in the bark.   She fell from the tree.   They theorize Neth dragged her and material from her catsuit caught onto the sprinkler head.  A man dog growls at them, he exhibits the same burn marks too.

Nathan Culver (Cody Longo) calls Maria his girlfriend.   His father (Dylan Neal) asks if his son is the only one being questioned.   He's the father of the baby.   Brass calls him lucky otherwise they'd be charging him with double homicide.  His belt was in the closet, he grabbed her by her arms and he didn't want anything to do with the baby.   His alibi; he was at school.  Nick is angry at him and Brass says he had motive.   Nick says everyone was angry at her.   Archie notices she's still getting thousands of hits on a hate e-mail site about her.   Receiving 11 million global hits.   Ecklie is disgusted.   Nick strongly  makes his  case for murder.   Maria was bullied.  Archie agrees it was cyber-bullying.   Maria killed herself and the school kids are responsible.   Nick believes she "deserves some justice and we're obligated to give it to her."  In a similar speech to Hodges some episodes ago, when he wanted justice for the man who was killed on his motorcycle.   Ecklie demands proof and then he'll back him.   Doc visited "our baby girl" but Maria's mother didn't.  He puts the timeline down to 9.30am and TOD at 15 minutes later, so Nathan was at school.

Heather advises Ray they're making assumptions about Neth based on false premises.   In attributing all the power to Neth, but he'd be nothing without his subjects.   It's a reciprocal bond, like hunter and hunted.   Alluding to Ray and Haskell (Bill Irwin).   He doesn't want to talk about him and Heather surmises Haskell was performing for Ray's benefit in the courtroom (In Targets of Obsession.)    Ray leaves and Heather adds, under her breath that he'll return.   Sara found the stun gun but it doesn't match the wounds.   So she went shopping and found Iona had her own gun.   Hodges found partial ridge detail on the material from the sprinkler, belonging to Debra.   She wanted to save Iona from what she was doing so that Iona would thank her in return, just like Iona helped her.   When Iona fell, she thought she was dead so she left her there.   Instead of helping her, which is exactly what she wanted to do, but she couldn't be bothered to check on her, that's defined as wanting to save her.   Ray explains Iona wanted to be taken care of for a while, she didn't want to be a cat forever.   He's also talking about himself when he says "they don't know how" to ask for help.  

Archie finds Nathan dated the Homecoming Queen, Cathy (Victoria Geil) eight and a half months ago.   Then he found Maria and dumped her by SMS.  She and her two friends didn't like that, so they uploaded a video and photos of Maria around the school.   The Principal (Wendy Schenker) found them offensive and the girls were suspended, which isn't an appropriate punishment, she didn't deal with the root of the problem.  They went global with the hate.   Even Nathan saw the hits and did nothing to help Maria, who was the object of ridicule and jokes, of bullying.   It got too much for her to handle and Nathan added to it by dumping her and the baby.   Nick refers to their photos as mugshots, they're the real killers and they need to be taught a lesson.   Ecklie explains they're sending a message: "You send hate, you go to jail."

Nick says their parents work and don't talk to them and agrees with Ecklie when he says the parents have a responsibility, as do the 11 million people watching the video when they shouldn't have.   What's the law going to do about them.   The short answer being nothing cos nothing can be done to stop people from watching without censorship issues coming into it and policing the Net.   When it gets out on the web, the damage has already been done.   For too long, the popular kids can do what they please and get away with it, even murder.   Parents do carry a degree of responsibility.   Also the school didn't do much to deal or deter against this sort of behaviour, not even remotely associating it with bullying.

Ray opens up to Heather and yes he did return to her.   When he applied for an internship to medical school, he was asked why he wanted to become a doctor.   He replied, "if I'm helping people, I'm not hurting them."  They laughed at him but he got in.   There's violence inside of him and he can taste the blood.   He again says what he told Haskell, "DNA is not destiny."  But it's coming to the point where he appears to be strongly rejecting that in favour of his DNA.   She tells him it's okay to lose the muzzle for a while, almost as if she's advocating violence, that it'd be fine for Ray to kill Haskell.   If Ray gives in to his nature, he won't catch him, he'll kill him.   Heather agrees.  Maybe this meeting with her wasn't a good idea after all.

All this build up for Haskell's appearance and Ray really does have a hidden dark side in him, which is only emerging now the longer Haskell remains at large.   We're being prepared for the build up, as it's obvious what Ray's going to do next.   Heather only seems to be added to carry the story forward as far as Ray goes and she'd be the only one geared to understand what role playing can achieve.   CSI has done episodes where people have been obsessed with animals or mimicking them and delving into that part of the human psyche; such as Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Cyber-bullying is a phenomenon that can't really be legislated against since it's global - short of such websites being shutdown, thereby giving rise to all sorts of issues of enforcement, cost, but parents need to take an active role in this area.   Good to see Ecklie actually standing by Nick for a change on such an important matter, usually they're at odds with each other.   Also Ecklie being a parent himself can't see how other parents could have ignored such behaviour from their own children.

Another good use of the title, Unleashed referring to animals and their behaviour, as well as humans also being unleashed and behaving worse than animals.

Allison Smith was also in the CSI episode Got Murder and here, she and Dylan Neal only got a scene each. Dylan last time in CSI:Miami played a DB, mostly, in the episode Vengeance.

Scandal 2.14 "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" Review

The action moves on ten months with Olivia (Kerry Washington) now having taken up swimming, as she later tells Abby (Darby Stanchfield) exercise helps, or dating, or work, since it's obvious Abby still has feelings for David (Joshua Molina).  Olivia meets a mysterious stranger at her coffee place who asks her what she does for a living.  It's Washington, they both make up fake jobs, him an office supplier.  He tells her to let him buy her a doughnut after dropping her phone.  Of course the two will meet again!

Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) plays with the baby and Mellie (Bellamy Young) doesn't have the patience for it as Cyrus (Jeff Perry) tells her he's not confiding him and he needs to trust someone or else he'll go elsewhere.  Some Americans are kidnapped in Kashfar (yeah a weird name for a fake country if ever there was one!!)  Fitz prefers to 'run' the country by himself as Cyrus puts it cos he's not using him as his chief of staff, his dragon, watchdog etc.

David wakes next to the body of a woman, the oldest frame job in the business and the police knock on his door too after a neighbour hearing screams.  So they really didn't buy the TV being too loud excuse.  His neighbours must be experts in women screaming then.  He calls Olivia for help cos he's really got nowhere else to turn.  After the Defiance fiasco he's lost his job, applied for many, even tried opening up his own firm, Harrison (Columbus Short) referring to the business cards as 'cheap'.  Flimsy.  Well he's on a budget.  Olivia asks if he wants her help, he can go to the police to whom he just lied and they'll really not investigate or they can move Wendy's DB.  Wendy whom he met in a bar and spent the night with, much to Abby's dismay.  He decides on her help.

Huck (Guillermo Diaz) puts her DB back in her apartment and makes it look like a B&E.  Quinn (Katie Lowes) wants to know how clean up is done so he gives her a knife to restab the DB.  She then finds her computer is missing.  Huck finds several calls made to her phone and also photos of men.  They piece together the photos and find she was sleeping with men and stealing info from them before turning in stories about them.  David is arrested and tells his successor that he can do what he did , arrest him and pursue this case like he did the Defiance investigation and then end up with egg on his face really, for lack of evidence.  After Harrison tells him to keep quiet.  David then thinks Olivia may be the one behind this and wants to pay her fee for services rendered since she's been after him since day one.  Olivia replies he couldn't afford her.  Huck also finds she made calls to someone at the Pentagon where Olivia meets the same man again.  Captain Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) who works Intel for the Joint Chiefs.

Jake can't tell her anything and neither can Olivia so he asks her to dinner which she turns down.  Yeah but not for long.  Olivia asks Cyrus if he's making sure the Defiance story is put to rest by framing David and he denies it.  He thinks the story is laid to rest with Verna's demise.  Olivia tells him Fitz knows what they did and Cyrus should have known that's why Fitz is freezing him out all of a sudden.  He tells Mellie to handle it and she does so by talking Fitz round insisting it was all Cyrus who came up with the plan to steal the election and talked everyone round.

Fitz wants SEALS sent in to rescue the hostages even if they are spies for the US even after telling Cyrus he'll hold off on it.  At the christening of Cyrus and James's (Dan Bucatinsky) daughter, Ella, Fitz has a momentary lapse of his libido, (ha) and has a final 'stab' at Olivia.  Then saying it's finally over and he may not be able to control himself but it won't happen again.  Yes a likely story.  Seems he can get his own way when he wants but then put it down to lapse of judgement or loss of control.  Olivia apologizes for the election but he doesn't want to hear it.   Cyrus tells him they're going in but when the SEALs arrive there, the hostages aren't found.  Concluding they have a mole. Now who could that be?

David finds a flashdrive which belongs to Wendy and Olivia realizes it contains classified info no civilian should have.  David needs her help again cos he won't last in prison and Olivia talks about him wanting the white hat to come out again.  Olivia calls Jake who was expecting her call and they arrange a date.  She likes quiet but he likes watching people as he has a ringside view of all of Olivia's apartment.  Even her little smile at the end when he hangs up.  Ah Olivia so gullible, he's a complete stranger and she goes gaga over him. What a creep.  Well it's apparent he knows more than he's letting on about Wendy and probably who was behind framing David, even if it turns out not to be him.

Mellie you sly dog getting into Fitz's good books and even his shower when she thinks she can mould him into her world.  Of course she wanted the Whitehouse which he knows but he seems to fall for her explanation.  Either that or he's playing her too considering she's just as guilty as the others for the vote rigging.  An accomplice, accessory whatever the label, she's not innocent of wrongdoing.

As for the title read into it what you will.  Oh you know WTF, as in what's happening here?  Or WTF everyone wants a piece of Fitz, in the shower, closet or wherever! ha.  But really not believing Olivia would be so gullible so as not to have her place checked especially since she's got the best in the business working for her, yes I mean Huck.  As for her 'stalker' their meeting was no coincidence cos really how can you make someone drop their phone, or drop it for them when the place isn't even crowded.  Fitz even more gullible for trusting Mellie and Cyrus not believing Fitz would know, may know, after all he was the last one to see Verna alive.  Oh and maybe Fitz's suddenn binge drinking has more to do with guilt, he did take a life after all, rather then those around him stealing the election for him.  Let's face it, he was losing and what exactly would he be doing now.  One way to figure out if he would have won, maybe when he runs again he'll be able to run a more 'honest' race.

CSI 11.18 "Hitting for the Cycle" Review

                                                 
The CSIs bet on who will win the cycle: they have an accidental death, a suicide and a homicide, needing a natural death to complete the cycle. Stakes are high, as is finding whether their cases will fit the mould.

Henry (Jon Wellner) reminds Nick (George Eads) about the cycle and doesn't mention it cos they'll jinx it.   Nick tells Greg (Eric Szmanda) he's having A Beautiful Mind moment.   For the cycle to be complete they need a natural death for the graveyard shift.   Hodges (Wallace Langham) knows exactly how long it is since the cycle was last completed: 4 years ago.  As for Henry thinking they'll jinx it he adds, "We're men of science not superstition."  Hodges has been superstitious on a few occasions in the past.   Hodges bets on Nick who's on a roll, and not just because Nick is Co-supervisor.   There's his position being mentioned again, wonder if this means anything for later episodes; or next season.

Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) has a new assistant, Kevin (Travis Aaron Wade) who is adept in making annoying comments and irritates everyone.   He's from LA.   Sara (Jorga Fox) wants Greg to give the cycle a rest.   The DB died at her desk and Doc removes a paper clip from her intestine, she swallowed it, which makes her death an accident.   They get a 419 call out.   Greg: "Where there is death there is hope."  They investigate the death of DV8 Avenger, aka Steven Pyles (Ramsey Moore) who wears a diaper and was AFK.   Unfortunate name as they say and AFK, Greg explains means, 'Away From Keyboard.'  He's a serious gamer and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) makes his exit.   Kevin keeps smiling at Sara,  ooh creepy.   Kevin says it's natural causes, just cos the Vic was overweight and probably binged on one pizza too many.   Greg sarcastically says, they all can go home then.   David (David Berman) tells Kevin they need to wait for an autopsy.   TOD was 6-8 hours so the body temperature should've been lower.   Sara says they can't rule out homicide and she was right.

Nick and Ray (Laurence Fishburne) are paired together again and arrive to find a DB in the pool.   Benjamin (Victor Brown) was crashing here after his divorce.   Ray notices the shoe prints on the door and believes it was a forced entry, there's glass on the ground.   Nick notices the window was broken from the outside in.   He thinks it's a robbery/homicide.   Making a lot of judgements here the CSIs, without all the evidence being in, was the cycle turning their brains to mush!

Doc tells Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) he had Kevin remove the diaper.   And Catherine always ends up in autopsy with Doc Robbins, that's a habit now.   He finds undigested food in his gullet, there was a violent regurgitation and he was unable to expel.   He had healed contusions on his tongue indicative of a history of seizures, so he was most likey epileptic.   Catherine's bet $200 on there being no natural causes death.   Greg read about cases of gamers who suffer epileptic fits whilst playing.   Steven used to record his games so he may be able to find the last moments before his death.

Nick fishes the gun from the pool and doesn't need a forensics lesson from Kevin, he knows what he's doing and he'll put it on the bag to dry.   Kevin is in awe of Ray crossing swords with Haskell (Bill Irwin) and since he's mentioned, he's bound to turn up soon.   David tells them Kevin's from LA.   Nick: "That explains it."  Benjamin probably tried to free himself of his restraints and sustained a single GSW to the back of the head.  Ray notices the woman in the photo and from his own personal experience says it's his wife since he was still wearing his wedding ring.

Greg tells Catherine that Steven was playing an MMORPG, so he had opponents.   The players weren't supposed to use a flashpan otherwise points would be deducted, one of the players, Ninja assassin, did.  So he could have caused the seizure.   Catherine surmizes if he knew about his epilepsy then it could be homicide.   Brass asks him if Steven mentioned his medical condition to him.   He "kinda new."  So Brass adds he'll kinda need a lawyer.   Lots of funny one liners from Brass in this episode.   Nick tells Doc there are plenty of people betting on him, but Doc holds his cards close to his vest and his money even closer.   There were teeth marks on his restraints  Nick thinks the bullet now exited the back of his head, but the real entry wound was in his pharnyx.   Ray talks to Benjamin's ex-wife.   He knows what divorce is like.   She bailed him out of jail (and he offers her wine!)  Hodges tells Nick he's not going to look for the bullet in the pool as he's having a good hair day, unlike the season's second episode; Pool Shark, where he was in the pool with Henry.    Nick finds the bullet in the pool cleaner.   Hodges is elated and has to utter, 'team Stokes.'  Now they just need a natural to win.

The Tox screen shows Steven had sleeping pills in his system and was asleep when the flashbangs went off so Ninja Assassin didn't kill him.   Sara noticed a prescription bottle in the trash, but it wasn't collected since there wasn't any direct link to the case.   So where did these new rules spring from, thought if it was in his trash, it could have been pertinent to the case.   She scans the barcode revealing the bottle belongs to Evan Ferrari (Kaitlin Doubleday).   She's a blonde, Steven's girfriend, which surprises Greg.   Brass refers to her as the "Italian sportscar girlfriend" and Steven must have been upset at what she was doing.   She specifically mentions men and how he was the one who looked past her looks.

Nick found two contributors of DNA.   Ray ran the prints and came up with Carl Jansen (Sal Lands) a loan shark.   Benjamin owed him bigtime so he wouldn't kill him, he wanted his money so he stole from the house.  Catherine tells David she won't repeat what Kevin said to her in the washroom and asks him to take a look at the DB: an old woman whom he determines died accidentally.   Kevin asks him to keep that to himself, but of course David wouldn't do that.

Evan insists she loved Steven too much.   Greg tells Sara gamers have groupies.   Henry finally gets round to examining the rest of the evidence and finds Steven had ementine in him.   The ingredient for Ipecac.   The prints on the pizza box and pill bottle come back to Monica, aka DJ Drang ( Nathalie Kelley).  She wanted Evan back.   So it was just easier to end it all, how would that get her back.   She assumed no one would notice or investigate the death of  a fat guy, who would appear to have died from overeating, just as Kevin said.   So if he'd been investigating, he would have said he died from natural causes.   Didn't she realize all deaths are investigated, at least they all get autopsied.

Catherine spoke with the insurance adjuster who said a sculpture was missing from the house.   Hodges determines the trace on the front of the gun was human tissue, from Benjamin's tongue.   Catherine empties her gun and Hodges quickly apologizes.   The evidence says the break-in was staged.   Catherine uses Jelloman's head to test fire the gun.   The fibres in his teeth showed he tied the knots himself.   Catherine finds the flames from the bullet extinguished themselves when he fired the gun underwater thus no GSR.   Ray explains he wanted to make amends and pawned the sculpture for a million dollars; paid off his insurance policy, for his ex wife.   He never stopped loving her.   Like Ray still has/had feelings for his wife.   If a man lets his wife down he can also lose himself.   A failed marriage makes them feel like they failed.   All personal experience on Ray's part, since he must have felt the same way too.   Ray seemed kind of dejected and distant in this episode, know Haskell's escape is still weighing on him, but that coupled with this case being a bit too close to home for him, he didn't seem to be his usual self.   As he tells Nick if he wants to bet he'll go to a casino and Nick doesn't pursue the point any further.

Doc bet on David since as an ME, he'll always come across a natural death, before a CSI will and David is always there when a body drops.   Doc wins the bet since they get a natural after all in the guise of Kevin, who died from an aneurysm.   So he completed the cycle for them.   That was obvious from the outset since no one liked him and thus no one bothered to look at the symptoms he was exhibiting, the hangover, the headaches.   They just all saw him as annoying, which he was.   Going back to Gil (William Petersen) in the season 1 episode Unfriendly Skies, when he said if one person took the time out to talk to the Vic and see what was really happening to him, then he could have been saved.   Doc was a little cold and unfeeling here, but then he didn't really know him, so he'd treat Kevin like any one of his other DBs.

Lots of references to marriage break-ups since Ray's been through his own.   Also he tells Nick that Benjamin was still wearing his wedding ring, Nick knows that's a sore point with Ray and in All That Cremains, Nick was the one who advised Ray should remove his wedding ring before he attended his ex's wedding.

Nick really has a competitive nature when it comes to winning and winning big, must be a sore loser; shown in Man Up, when he bet with Greg but gave him back his money as it wasn't tasteful.   Also with Warrick (Gary Dourdan) in the Pilot episode when he bet on who'd make CSI 3 first.

It was apparent Benjamin had killed himself, noticed that straightaway.   Ipecac is mentioned quite a bit in CSI episodes, most notably in Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas.   Also the episode You've Got Male had a similar storyline to this and in the Pilot episode, the killer used the DB's shoe to break the door down and mask the fact he really killed his wife's brother; but not in self-defence.

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.