CSI 14.6 "Passed Pawns" Review

                                                 
Jeremy Sikes (Eric Frentzel) a homeless man enters Pike's Casino and goes on a winning spree.  The pit boss, Bobby (Steven Bauer) thinks he's cheating and replaces the dealer, Kristi (Shannon Lucio) but Jeremy decides he wants to quit now.  Should've quit while he was ahead.  Bobby offers him a room where he can clean up and then come back and play again but he wants to cash out.  Jeremy is later found in an alley, apparently stabbed.  Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) is at the CS when Sean Yeager (Matt Davis) turns up from Dayshift, telling her it's his case since her shift was over two hours ago.  He wants to get in touch with her Supervisor, cue DB (Ted Danson) who is called by his wife, Barbara (Peri Gilpin) as he needs to pick her up from the airport.  He mentions Sean being CSI 2 and he needs one more case solved for promotion.

They work together and Sean finds a bloody briefcase in the dumpster.  David (David Berman) says there wasn't a wallet and Sean says he already looked which riles him up cos he can't touch the DB without his say so.  Sean just looked and there weren't any bulges.  Back at autopsy, Doc (Robert David Hall) finds the wounds look familiar as two of them seem to be bigger than the others and thinks it could be a familiar pattern.  Greg (Eric Szmanda)says he'll check the cases to see if there's anything there.

Morgan processes his clothes and finds a pawn ticket for Ruby's pawn shop.  It's called Ruby's but is run by her sons, Kyle (Max Adler) and Zeke  (Harrison Thomas).  Here she finds that Jeremy pawned a watch and a ring. Zeke knows the name and address of Jeremy from memory and what he pawned.  The watch is found to belong to Simon Holt who happens to be Kristi's husband.  She also has disappeared, so Morgan and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) posit that Jeremy and Kristi were both cheating together at the poker table and she killed him to take the money. Stabbing him in the back.  Morgan doesn't believe in coincidences and she doesn't believe in luck either. Sean saying they should call it destiny then or fate.  Also adding that he's Rizzoli and she's Isle's.

So Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Henry (Jon Wellner) analyze the cards at the casino and the shuffling machine and find that everything was in proper order.  Hodges agrees with Morgan however that Jeremy must have been cheating.  They also watch the video from the casino but she's not cheating.  Also noticing that Bobby talks with Alonso Pierce, thinking he was sent to kill Jeremy.  Especially since Jeremy wrote 'De' with his own blood.  Kristi's husband was killed in a home invasion and they believe she hired Jeremy to kill him. Considering she didn't report the expensive watch as stolen.  However video also shows that Kristi was being interrogated by Bobby at the time of Jeremy's murder.

Kristi is found and interviewed by Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) as she says she was hiding out from Bobby.  She claims she found her husband dead when she returned home and she bought the watch for their anniversary. His life insurance paid off his debts.  Of course it had to be a woman cos in their flashbacks, the outline of the killer is that of a woman, not many women were in this ep, aside from Kristi and Ruby (Illeana Douglas) narrowing down the suspects.  So if Kristi was with Bobby, that leaves Ruby.

Alonso  is seen on footage from the pawn shop, bringing in some speakers and a stereo.  Zeke gives them to Morgan and she finds money inside.  He's impressed she can use a drill.  Sara (Jorga Fox) walks in and watches Morgan and looks at the photos.  She notices Alonso doesn't have any blood on him and he didn't have time to change his clothes from the time stamps on the videos.  Instead, Brass finds Bobby with a gun, having shot Alonso and stuffed him into the boot of the car.  Bobby admits he did it cos he was old school, it's not like the days when Sam Braun used to run the casinos, where they'd threaten the players.  He didn't tell Alonso to kill Jeremy but just rough him up and get the money back, but he stole from him.  Also it's a question of honour. He tells Brass he wants to be put in prison with the old boys, out of honour.

Greg tells Morgan that Doc found the tip of the knife was actually a bullet, so Jeremy was shot twice and the killer made it look like he was stabbed, thus trying to hide the actual method of killing.  There was an old case like this where an informant was stabbed after being shot and the suspect was Delgado (Jason Manuel Olazabal) a member of the Mala Noche who has moved here from Miami.  Well they had to get that name mentioned in Vegas, as an homage to CSI:Miami possibly, ha.  Delgado was involved in a home invasion a few months ago and was shot.  He survived and he is the owner of the ring Jeremy stole.

Delgado runs a strip club and tells Brass he didn't report the ring stolen, thus he can't have it back.  Also saying he couldn't have shot him cos he was with his elderly mother.  DEA surveillance shows this is true.  It transpires there were similar home invasions, where one member was found dead.  Jeremy was actually being hired to kill them and then was given the unreported items as payment.  A search of the pawn shop reveals all the items that were stolen and in all cases, an item wasn't reported as stolen by the owners.  Kristi admits she hired him to kill her husband who was cheating on her and also used to beat her up as DB surmizes.  But she never knew that Jeremy was the man who had done this for her.  As Morgan puts it, that was just dumb luck.  She mentions the pawn shop and that Ruby had set up the hits from there.

The pawn shop has been shot up by Delgado and he's taken Zeke in return for the drugs that Ruby stole. Kyle is killed and Brass confronts Delgado telling him the drugs are gone and he's never getting them back. Brass shoots one of his men in the knee and he then says it's up to him if he wants to die.  Zeke is found safe and Sean tells Morgan she has a fan.  She replies he's just impressed with her power took skills.  She and Sean will see each other around and he lets her have the case cos she worked on it and deserves it.  Oh look, potential love interest for Morgan in the form of Alaric from the Vampire Diaries.  Okay I had to get that in, ha. But don't tell Hodges or Greg! Obviously she and Sean were going to argue as soon as she got on the scene and it seems Morgan may follow Ruby's advice when she tells her he's a keeper.

Elsewhere things looked to be prickly between DB and Barbara as she arrives at his office.  She knows he's busy and she tells him that Charlie has been offered a scholarship at East Indiana, but wants to tell DB in person.  At the end they find time for dinner, as Finn is covering for him.  She tells him she knocked on the door of the house in Seattle they always wanted to buy.  She's ready for that now cos he can't work forever and it's getting to him and something's bothering him.  He denies this but also says they have a house here. He promises when he's ready they'll knock on the door together, but for now he's staying.  She says he's got a family in his CSIs.

Brass also had some hairy moments this ep as if he was goading Delgado into making the first move, so he could have a shoot up.  Telling Delgado, "we all gotta die sometime."  Seems he is still affected by the events with Ellie.  Showing the differences between DB and Brass in terms of his doing the job for so long and maybe it's about time he calls it quits. Whereas DB still wants to continue, he's still go so much to do.  Brass is very much a man from the old days of Vegas and one reason why I think producers wanted to bring in some changes and have his character bow out.  Still a shame though cos he had the best one liners in many of the eps!

Somehow I didn't really enjoy this ep that much, it was mostly done before and used a tried and tested storyline of a casino winner getting killed apparently for his takings and then uncovering some other plot twist which wasn't that interesting.

CSI 14.5 "Frame By Frame" Review

                                                
CSI goes back to solving a cold case for its 300th ep, a cold case which didn't really happen 14 years ago, but for the purposes of the story/plot, it did. But it was actually meant to be 13 not 14!  Gwen (Kiersey Clemons) is found dead in Jack Witten's (Jason Priestly) house. He's a suspect in the murder of Darcy (Bethany Joy Lenz)14 years ago, but they couldn't prove anything.  Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Sara (Jorga Fox) investigated when Catherine was supervising in Grissom's absence.  The clue that probably ties them to Darcy's case is that the current DB was also hit over the head.  Glass is found nearby and Greg (Eric Szmanda) and David (David Berman) talk about The Premiere, a casino that Jack was going to build years ago.  Greg also saying he could write another book on how many buildings weren't built in Vegas that should have been.  Ooh do I sense another book from Greg.  Better not, it'll vanish from our screens and we'll never hear about it again.  Also being the 300th, it was a reference to Greg and his writing prowess.  Jack pretty much became a recluse.

There was camera footage of Jack and Darcy leaving the club together and coming back to his house.  They found she had been roofied as well as other drugs in her system.  This case is close to home for Sara again, not leastwise she investigated it, but cos these ones usually are.  She finds a carpet fibre from the rug in Jack's bedroom and she thinks it might be a match to the fibre that was found in the boot of Jack's car 14 years ago.  It had Darcy's blood on it and also there was blood in the boot of his car when her dumped her DB.  What they can't understand is that if he was guilty back then, then why would he call for help now.

Jack says he was in his preservation room and was watching movies that's why he didn't hear what happened.  Having a knack for always getting my suspects right, I knew Jack didn't kill Gwen or Darcy back then, it would have been too obvious for starters! Greg and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) search for evidence in Jack's house and Greg finds a piece of desiccant and cork.  It's what's used to preserve pills in bottles and if his father had artwork which Jack would have inherited, then it would have come from that.  But the walls have movie posters on them.  Greg thinks there's a secret room where the artwork is kept and finds a split in the skirting boards.  Inside he hears a woman shouting for help and he manages to enter the code correctly, guessing the year the movie would be released.

Inside Emily (Lindsay Bushman) is bound and saying Jack killed Gwen, as she heard her screaming.  Sara and DB (Ted Danson) question her in hospital and she tells them they met him, got drunk and came back here.  Sh needed the loo and so he tied her up in her whilst she heard him killing her.  Which was a lie since Greg couldn't hear her from outside and didn't until he actually found the secret panel.  DB has his doubts too and tells Sara not to rush into things for the same reason.

Doc (Robert David Hall) recalls the case and how Grissom had gathered a select team, it's not about the winning but it's the losses that they remember.  Adding that Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) is also a part of that team now.  Doc finds the piece of glass isn't from a wine glass so it could be from the lamp instead.  But Finn thinks since it had a broad lens, it could be from a flashlight, so where is the flashlight.  They find that Gwen and Emily have a record for burglary and Morgan thinks they were at Jack's house to steal and he wasn't aware of their presence.  Greg finds the light hidden in a crate.  Greg calls Sara and she tells him that Emily has died.  Doc tells her not to make any Smurf jokes as she's all blue.  Apparently she swallowed some silver and inside her stomach contents he finds a roll of film.  They think that they were looking for the film when Emily got a text and realized she was cheating with Emily's boyfriend.  Emily hit her with the flashlight. Emily staged the scene and tied herself up, making it look like Jack had done it.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) works on the film and finds a frame with Darcy, Sara adding that she's flirting to the camera.  But Jack claims he didn't take it or had seen the photo.  Hodges tries to find what sort of camera the picture was taken with and gets Henry (Jon Wellner) to do some posing for him while he films, some sexy Marilyn, Blue Steel, pouting shots and a silent film one.  Hodges finds the camera matches and this was used by a Geer (Adam Johnson).  Who owns a photoshop.  But Sara and Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) finds him dead.   Emily found the film and swallowed it so Geer hired her to retrieve it.  Geer worked for Jack and they were tying to build the casino together.

Jack admits he was trying to help Darcy since they had the same problems and were at NA together.  She was like a daughter (he didn't look that old!) and he had problems with women and couldn't control himself. So he woke up next to Darcy but she was dead with blood all over her.  Geer had a photo showing her like that.  So why again would he need the other photo if he had the bloody one.  Geer offered to clean up the CS in return for money, of course.

Greg and Sara need to clean up the photo and see why it's relevant which Greg has them do and he notices the bank building in the background in it was from 2001, when Bush won Florida (and we all recall the controversy surrounding that.)  Darcy was meant to have been dead already. Sara waits for Darcy at the airport and shows her Geer's phone records where he was warning her that her photo had been found, as she says she was defending herself and she hasn't had much luck with men.  She's a wife and mother now and claims that she's not a cold blooded killer.  She had to escape her father who would molest her.  Sara doesn't know if she's telling the truth but she knows Darcy is troubled and that's cos Sara's been through the same herself, but she doesn't believe Darcy's changed. DB tells Sara he's glad she pursued this one and didn't give up.  Her father is getting a lawyer for her.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) apologizes to Jack and he thanks him for giving him back his life.  He's still concerned about Darcy and wishes he could have done more to help her back then.  Sara and Greg put away the evidence and she thinks Jack could still build The Premiere, but Greg thinks it's too outdated now.  Sara finds that dancer's head dress that Greg wore from the Table Stakes ep and he tells her to put that away.  That was a sweet moment between Greg and Sara and they've really got this brother/sister vibe going on between them.

Catherine didn't appear to the team in person, but as flashbacks showing how she had an influence on them, including Greg when she told him not to give up on any lead especially since she knows he wanted to be out in the field.  But back then Greg wasn't interested in being a field CSI.  Also when Ecklie gives the case to dayshift, you know that's what he was like back then and Sara accuses him of being too political.  Recall Catherine telling Grissom in an early ep that he wasn't politic enough, showing their differences.  But in 3.2 The Accused is Entitled, she says he is politic now, so "Ecklie must be rubbing off on you."  Very consistent. Still it was good to see Marg especially since George wasn't able to be in the 300th.  A milestone which he was unfairly excluded from.  SO at least he was in the montage of clips at the end of the show, showing just how far we've come with this show (and how old we've all grown! ha).

As for the case, it was interesting enough and as I said Jack wasn't guilty of Darcy's murder.  It was a nice change watching Jason not playing a bad guy.  It was also good that Sara and Greg got to take the lead in the 300th as they've been around the longest in the show, but Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) only managed to get two scenes.  They do seem to be downsizing his scenes in preparing for giving him the old heave ho at the end of the season.  Though I have no idea why in terms of his character still having plenty to do in the show.

Did you notice the scenes where the number 300 figured, some in more prominent places than others. Including the car number plate of Jack's car.  There was also a 300 above the number in the right corner showing the expiry date.  The computer was a Nosumi 300.  There was a 300 on the clapperboard.  Also behind Sara with the poison sign.  There was an inverted 300 when Sara and Greg were talking about the photo in the lab.  The camera Hodges pointed out had a 300 on its side.  300 in the cage when Ecklie took Catherine and Sara off the case.  One on the wall when Ecklie was apologizing to Jack at the end of the ep. 300 behind Hodges in the lab showing 300 days without 'a lost time accident.'  300 on the spine of the book in DB's office when he was speaking with Ecklie.   As well as on the bank statement. Also 300 frames were mentioned a few times in relation to the frames of Darcy on the film. Phew.  There were also two less visible 300's, one behind Sara on the board when she goes to meet Darcy's father and the second one was on the label of the bust next to Finn when she's talking with Greg.

As well as the movie posters in Jack's house being the names of CSI eps, Blood Drops, Burn Out. The montage had clips from Living Doll, Gumdrops, Fur and Loathing, Scuba Doobie Doo, Anonymous. Started watching this from the Pilot ep back in 2000 and have stuck around ever since!  But it was funny how they hairstyles were 'disguised' and their clothes too as they didn't dress like that back then.
Some good quotes too.
Sara: "All this evidence, all these years.  You ever think you've had enough?"
Greg: "Are you kidding. I'm just getting started."

Spenser For Hire, Jesse Stone, Longmire: Books Brought to Life

It's been said that some of the best mysteries and films come from books, and plays which is true, since I said it, ha.  Take the Raymond Chandler books and his eponymous character of Philip Marlowe, Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade.  Turned into some of the best movies going in terms of film noir and the '40's and brought even more closer to life by portrayals from Humphrey Bogart to Robert Montgomery, Dick Powell and James Garner.

This trend continued way into the 1980's and beyond to present day.  Spenser For Hire, based on the novels of Robert B Parker was another show with intelligence and aplomb. The books have been likened to pulp fiction.  Brought to life so wonderfully and amiably by the late and talented Robert Urich.  You may recall him from shows such as Vega$ and the early and original TV series of S.W.A.T. from the '70's.  Spenser was a private detective in Boston who had a knack for getting to the heart of the case and solving the mystery, as well as living and suffering his own personal problems.  Helped along the way with Hawk (Avery Brooks) Wonder if anyone asked Avery about his time on the show at all those Star Trek Conventions?  Something I would have done.

                                            

Spenser had charm, wit and intellect, accompanied by an on screen narrative, which was poignant at times, funny at others.  Thing is Spenser was once a cop and we even got to see how he lost his badge in 3.21 Haunting when he investigates a kidnapping case, which was very close to home.

Spenser For Hire truly has become a classic in its own right.  DVDs are available if you missed this first time round on TV.  Writing this listening to the theme tune of Spenser For Hire (of which there were many variations) very inspiring and great for reminiscing too!

Following on from this, adapted for movies was the other Robert B Parker novels, of Jesse Stone.  Starring Tom Selleck in a role which was far removed from his earlier stint as Magnum PI.  As he now played a former cop too with a drinking problem, divorced, who now moves to Paradise, Massachusetts as its new Police Chief.  Met by hostility from the locals and the officials alike, it's hard for him to garner any form of respect or support from the locals.  He's even removed from his job too when he gets too close to home in one of his cases.  That's small town politics for ya!

                                                          

 The storylines are gritty, where everyone seems to be hiding secrets.  Though not all the books have been filmed since Tom is on Blue Bloods, but once again the casting was just perfect, as he realistically portrays hardened Jesse, who still has a heart and just can't seem to let go of his ex wife.
Jesse: "I'm the Police Chief I know everything."

Some of the characters from the Spenser novels do manage to make it into the Jesse Stone books too, such as Gino Fish who was originally played by Vincent Guastaferro in Spenser, played here by William Sadler. DA Rita Fiore, played by Catherine McCormick in Spenser For Hire first appeared in the book, Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes and played by Mimi Rogers in Jesse Stone.  Captain Healy was also a character from Spenser.

2012 saw another incarnation of a character from novels in the TV series, Longmire, adapted from the novels of Craig Johnson.  A fabulous read and a smart and fitting (thinking of fit here, ha) exemplary casting choice in Robert Taylor, as if he walked right out of the pages of the novels.  The Western genre has long been on our screens in some form or another, but these books and the show take that one step further into a more modern and in many ways, realistic setting.  The themes are relevant.  There'll always be friction between cultures and communities, no matter how far we may have come with Equality legislation.  People are people and no laws will change them or their behaviour.

                                               

Walt Longmire is sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming.  But is filmed in New Mexico.  He suffers a broken heart with the death of his wife and even though it has been a year still struggles to come to terms with it.  So being back at work is tough, especially with the cases that he must investigate.  Walt prefers to use the old fashioned method and is loathe to rely on forensics.  We can relate to the characters and their surroundings, understanding their lives and woes and of course everyone has secrets.  With just a hint of romance.

If you loved the books, you'll love the show even more. Or if you haven't read the books yet, well what's stopping you?  There's plenty of conflicts, underhandedness and problems which are more shades of moral ambiguity than just one easy ride into resolving issues and personal hardships and rivalries and that's just from Walt's Deputy, the ambitious Branch Connolly (Bailey Chase) who's also vying for Walt's job by being in the running for elected sheriff himself, so the gloves are off.  That'll prove hard for him since Walt is exceptional at his job.  Yet so strong, silent and stoic.  Rob's so great in the role, he can convey so much emotion by just a look or a stare!  Who needs words when facial expressions are just as good, if not better.

Walt's right hand gal is his other Deputy Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) who stands by Walt through thick and thin.  Aided along the way by rookie, Ferg (Adam Bartley) who's eager to impress and to learn at the same time.  Not forgetting Walt's daughter, Cady (Cassidy Freeman) who's headstrong and has given up a year of her life to help him too.  She's a chip off the old block in many ways.

So a brooding Walt's gotta have a best friend who is humanized in the form of Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) always there to keep him in check and offer valuable advice.  After all, "it is what it is!" Right? Ha. With a nearby Indian reservation, there's bound to be untold trouble and here Walt also has a nemesis in the form of Mathias, Tribal Police Chief who's not shy about being vocal.  Animosities run high and boil over.  Just a few of the multi-faceted characters which grace our screens in this excellent show.

I like that unmistakable twang in the short opening credit music, it's just so atmospheric, you know you're in for something special and in it for the long haul too.  It's a breath of fresh air to actually watch something where we go back to grass roots and little or no technology is involved, in a rapidly changing world where high tech is everything.  It's good to sit back, relax and take the scenic route into solving crimes.

Miss it and there'll be pistols at dawn!

Also check out  http://mila255h.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/robert-taylor.html

CSI 14.4 "Last Supper" Review

                                                
It's the Elite Chef reality TV show where the candidates have been whittled down to four remaining contestants.  The round is the palette test and the object is to guess the protein in the four different dishes and first one to do so will be immune from the elimination round.  Michelle (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) finds an eyeball in her dish and eats it until she gets a contact lens in her mouth and spits out the eyeball.  Apparently Finn (Elisabeth Shue) and David David Berman) are fans of the show and David knows the show is taped in advance.  DB (Ted Danson) tells them they can't watch the show until the case is solved.  Thus the meat is all human and Ray (Charles Malik Whitfield) guesses right with DB asking him why he knows that, cos of the contact lens, but no one is winning the round.

Also they showed Curtis (Matthew Holmes) sipping his soda which was a clue.  Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) and Finn proceed to analyze the CS as DB also questions the producer, Nadine (Holley Fain).  You know as soon as she came from behind the CS tape I had a sneaking suspicion she was the suspect here and the killer, call it a gut instinct!  Ha.  Well that was a lame joke! They have got hours of footage but the cameras stop rolling at 10 and everyone leaves the kitchen.  The food was prepared by other chefs.  Morgan finds blood in the drain and it's human.  All the judges are accounted for except judge Graham (Alastair Duncan) who is missing, so they think he could be the Vic.  Finn got a little too happy in this ep, as she was all smiles and laughs, you know, especially considering the subject matter.

The suspect at first appears to be Derek (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) who threatened Graham as he was sent off the show him and claimed he would never be a chef.  Derek rolls up his sleeve to reveal his tattoo, again another clue!  But Graham turns up, hungover and is questioned by Greg (Eric Szmanda) and Det Kevin Crawford (Alimi Ballard) he has an alibi as he was with Candy and Brown Sugar in a limo.  He tries to light up a cigarette and Crawford asks him to hand it over, thinking he wants a light.  He was in the kitchen which explains the boot print Greg found belonging to him but he was with Cici (Kristen Kassinger) as she was showing him some of her rubbings.

Morgan and Greg get garbage detail as they sift through the rubbish thrown out and Morgan hates maggots. Greg's used to them by now.  He finds a severed arm with the meat been removed away from the bone.  It shows a tattoo, thus the Vic was Derek.  Hodges shows Morgan how to make caviar out of blood, as in molecular gastronomy, of which Graham is an expert.  She adds she knows chemistry too.  David and Finn look at the food and specifically the testicles of a bull, and he pulls out his testicle measure showing that these came from a human too. Eeww.

Nadine tells Finn that Derek was a creep and she edited the footage making him look good, especially as she shows her footage of how he threw one of Michelle's dishes onto the floor and made her pick it up, commenting that's how he likes his women.  Doc (Robert David Hall) finds that Derek had a bump on his head so he was hit with a blunt object but that was 48 hours earlier.  Derek was drugged with kratom which was ordered in from abroad and it seems that Curtis brought this in.  Also his real name is Curtis Gant and he has a criminal record for possession.  The kratom made Derek irritable thus his fight with Graham.  He wasn't poisoning him as he tells DB and Crawford, he just wanted him sick so that he would have an advantage over him as he was beating him in every challenge.

Morgan and Finn search Derek and Curtis's room and Finn finds a bloody alarm clock under the bed, what Derek was hit with.  They think that Curtis must have hit him since he found out about his record and threatened to reveal it.  When checked for prints, it comes up with Michelle.  She said she had to fight tooth and nail to get here and compete with the men.  She was in Derek's room and he drugged her, she could taste liquorice.  When she woke up Derek was on top of her and trying to strangle her.  She clocked him (ha!) and ran away.  She didn't tell anyone about the rape cos it's her word against his, but Finn just heard from Nadine that he was a jerk, so there would have been some backing for her.  Greg finds Michelle did leave the room from the camera footage and he would tend to believe her.  He then sees Curtis also leave the room after her, meaning they both raped her.

Finn checked up on what else the liquorice  flavour could come from, including fennel and she found a cold case where a girl was raped and murdered.  Her DB was torn apart by animals.  This was at a college attended by both Curtis and Derek.  So they re the ones behind her rape and murder.  Nadine tells the crew Legal has shut down the show and the set must be cleared.  That's when Curtis's DB is found in the freezer. It looks like he was hit on the head with a frozen leg of lamb.  Morgan finds a discarded soda cup with some soda still inside it and bags it for evidence.  They think Michelle may have got her revenge on Curtis too and Doc finds he didn't necessarily have to be killed with the leg.  He could have walked into the shelf and dropped it, then fallen onto the leg.  He suffered from anaphylactic shock which would have caused his throat to cease, but no trace of almond in the soda or his stomach contents was found.

This was found in the straw.  A sugar straw was rolled by hand and placed inside the actual straw so he would have sipped it and suffered shock.  On the straw they find a fingerprint, she could've used gloves, which matches Nadine!  No surprises there!  She knew about Derek and Curtis and how they had killed her sister but they were meant to have been her friends.  She made Derek suffer since the animals ripped her body to pieces and ate it, that's why she fed Derek to the others.  She realized it was them when Michelle told her about the rape.

Elsewhere Finn advises Hodges to take a more active role in the wedding arrangements with Elisabetta (Catrinel Menghia Marlon) as he'll regret it otherwise and not helping out shows he doesn't care forher.  They sample wedding cake but can't agree on the flavours.  She wants him to move to Italy after they're married and stomp grapes but he likes his job and living here.  Morgan gives him some advice she got from the groom at a wedding she was at when he said you need to decide if you love the woman or if you can't live without her.  Whatever he decides she'll be here for him.  They part ways as Elisabetta also realizes they re so different from each other!  Can't say I didn't see that coming, it was obvious since last season.

Gotta say the ep was a little boring as they just kept jumping back and forth from suspect to suspect, with no sign of Nick/Geroge as mentioned and it seems that Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) Sara (Jorga Fox) and Henry (Jon Wellner) weren't in the ep in support of George. However, it was cos they weren't in this ep anyway and so that's why it could have done with more of the cast being included, not all vanishing in one go.  One reason why they didn't have to explain why Nick wasn't around if other cast members aren't, but still it was apparent in real life why he wasn't in the ep.

David using the orchidometer was funny and how he was so knowledgeable about such things, okay I know it's part of his job, and watching food shows too.  With reference to the title Last Supper, was also an allusion to Morgan commenting on how Hodges likened himself to Jesus when he said he'll turn blood into caviar.  Also Finn giving them advice about marriage,a little strange since she's had failed marriages but stating that she did love her first husband but they had differences and so ended up being divorced.

CSI delving into food territory, similar to CSI:NY and remember the ep No Good Deed, where Stella found the eyeball in her coffee.  They also did another food ep Fare Game where the chef, played by Kevin Rahm, was into cooking insects, spiders and the like (yuck).

CSI 14.3 "Torch Song" Review

                                          
Another ep where the subject is a fire in a club.  The opening shows how the people try to get out and trample all over each other, Nick (George Eads) narrating about how colony of ants protect each other, but only humans would crawl over each other to survive.  Four people are dead and it appears one of them was murdered. A mother tuns up looking for her son and sees he may be one of the dead ones.  Nick asks Finn (Elisabeth Shue) if she wants to help with the fire investigation.  She's seen a lot in Seattle but noting like this. Nick reassuring her that she can identify the cause of death by a drop of blood so this shouldn't be too much for her to handle.

David (David Berman) examines a DB and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) and Sara (Jorja Fox) search through the club.  Sara finds the wallet of one, Timo (Joshua Alba).  One was the band member, a woman who was most likely the bassists as she had a plec in her hand.  The other two also appear to be band members too. Greg (Eric Szmanda) takes pictures of the DB at the lab and Doc (Robert David Hall) undergoes the examination of the others.  Morgan puts back the skin of the Vic, Timo and Doc rules he was already dead before the fire as peticule in his eyes showed he was asphyxiated.  Morgan notices the chain marks around his neck,  and David is a little puzzled over what he's seen.  The bassist has tattoos all over her DB, which are all related to being a White Supremacist.  Sara does a search and finds her name was Rene Nylen.  Of the group White Rising.

At the hospital Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) points out the club owner, Stu (John Ratzenberger) to DB.  Well he was my obvious suspect, who else would it be.  He tells Greg he pawned the guitar to keep his club open and it would have been closed.  Nick continues to look for the point of origin and notices the sound proof foam just went up in flames immediately.  He finds a candle attached to cardboard and thinks it could be the incendiary device.  Hodges (Wallace Langham) analyzes it to find there's a bar code attached which leads back to a Lee Wong Automative, Lee who was attacked by people at the club a while ago and left in a coma.  Brass tells DB about the incident and Nick also recalls it too.  Before that Nick is pestered by the annoying fire investigator Ryan Miller (mark Deklin).  Talk about arrogant.  First he makes a comment about having Finn as an investigator with Nick and then he comments on the camera he's using.  Preferring to use his own.  Also Finn finds red paint on the second door showing it was unlocked but blocked from outside.

DB talks with Lee's sister, Nora (Irene Keng) who runs the shop now but she claims she thought she was here due to her brother's coma.  He can't speak now and it's unlikely he ever will.  DB asks her what car     she drives and she replies her late father's jeep.  She recalls taking her friends back to the club where Lee was attacked and they lit lanterns which must have got stuck on the roof.  Nick thinks this is plausible.

Nick thinks if they can strip back the wiring, then they can find where the wires came away from their coverings and bubbled up.  This leads them to one area and once again Miller tells them they're wasting their time.  Ecklie (Marc Vann) arrives and they think it's cos Miller's been in his ear.  He's not bothered about that but just wants to get to the bottom of it.  Nick singles out the point of origin and searching through the rubble find the incendiary, a bunch of matches attached to a cigarette with an elastic band.

Henry (Jon Wellner) uses CCTV camera footage to find the red Pontiac which shows fire damage at the side but the driver can't be seen.  It's registered to a Jeremy Douglas (Joe Adler).  He didn't set the fire, but he was told to leave the car outside and was sent a text by Caleb Voight (Michael Filipowich).  You don't argue with him cos he breaks rocks.  Ecklie gives him a microphone to record his conversation with Caleb.  He has to get him talking about the wallet with the chain on it, the cigarettes or the limestone, that was found in Timo's throat.

Sara and Brass wait outside and it was so obvious Caleb would attack him, as he throws acid over him and makes a run for it, only to be knocked down by Brass.  Who also finds the chain.  Brass was rearing to do that after everything he's been through, it was an outlet for his anger.  Also mentioning to DB earlier it must be some small comfort for the mother not to know what her son was involved in and the sort of people he was mixing with.  Caleb admits to fighting Timo, he came to the club and got in his face, but it wasn't meant to go down like that.  Claiming he was going to take him to the hospital, yeah I bet he was.  Brass saying he knew Timo was already dead.  Also he couldn't get out cos Jeremy had blocked the door with the car. He saw someone crouching in a corner wearing a dark T shirt with a skull on the front.  He's now in a coma in hospital and Morgan is able to lift a print from his burnt fingers.  Ian Baxton, an arsonist.

Nick and Finn confront Miller about Ian who says he was working last night cos his parole officer said so. Nick adding they could have solved the case a day earlier if he had told them he knew Ian's MO.  Ian is also an arsonist for hire and the trail leads back to Stu, the owner.  There notch up another one for my getting the suspect, ha.  They found money at Ian's apartment, the same amount for which Stu pawned the guitar and it has his prints on it.  He ran that club for 30 years bit couldn't get anyone to buy the building.  He hates how kids these days talk about bad things and what they sing about.  He thought everyone would get out of there and didn't think the fire would spread so quickly.

Nick shows DB some ants going round in a circle, a death spiral cos they're following each other blindly due to their pheromones which alert the others to danger.  Nick saying at least they wouldn't set fire to each other and wouldn't be chaotic when an emergency breaks out, leading to every man for himself.  DB adding they wouldn't break out and compose a symphony or search for enlightenment either.  Nick breaks the circle and gets an ant on his finger, adding that's Beethoven.

So first off this ep reminded me of the CSI:Miami fire ep in 1.22 Tinder Box where the fire in the club was started by a disgruntled man, Danny (Ben Browder) who was rejected from becoming a fireman.  Almost headed that way here with Miller who really was more about his techniques rather than solving the fire by any and all means necessary.

Thought Ted and John wouldn't get a Cheers reunion in cos he didn't speak with him at the hospital, but turns out they did get a scene together at the end and a powerful one at that.  DB adding that they're just "stupid kids" but that's no excuse for setting fire to the place for insurance money.  They maybe just being kids but violent ones at that and their actions wouldn't earn them any points on the humanitarian front.  Look at Lee's attack and Timo being killed in that way just cos they're 'different' in other's eyes.  Seems his remark was rather flippant and thoughtless, especially after his earlier conversation with Brass and his comment about hoping the boy's mother didn't know who her son was in league with.  Maybe if more parents knew, there'd be less senseless attacks.  Also the acid attack reminded me of Eddie Cahill's appearance in Law and Order SVU 2.17 Folly,  they sent Tommy to 'extract' a confession with a wire attached and the woman threw boiling water over him, so knew that was coming!

So this was the last ep with Nick/George before he was 'suspended' for his behind the scene remarks which I won't go into here.  We won't see him back until ep 9!  But at least he got some good scenes here with his narration at the beginning and at the end with DB, but also putting Miller in his place.  Showing him he's just as capable of doing his job if not better.  With Finn adding that Nick's science led to the case being solved, or almost.

CSI 14.2 "Take the Money and Run" Review

                                                
Another card game goes wrong at the Four Kings Casino as there's a robbery in progress.  Knew that card dealer, Audrey (Tyler Kain)was dodgy, she looked so shifty and she looked like she was cheating.  A motorcycle rider hits the streets with police giving chase and is finally shot down.  When the CSIs arrive, they find that he wasn't shot but just died.  Nick (George Eads) tells Sara (Jorga Fox) he'd ask him but it doesn't look like he'll be talking.  Oh Nick, yet more jokes from him.  Nice to see him taking point on the one liner front this time round.  Also thought those motorcycle riding and stunts would be familiar to George since he did play Eval Kineval! Ha.  The money they find on him is counterfeit.

At the other CS Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) process the casino and also Morgan is upset over the security guard, Paul (Sean Riggs) being shot since he only just married his high school sweetheart.  Greg tells her he can process the scene if she's not up to it and she soldiers on.  They find strobe lights were used to disrupt the security feed on the cameras and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) gets a call from NJ where he has to handle his ex wife's estate and is still visibly upset over it.  Greg fills DB (Ted Danson) in over the scene, thinking it's an inside job cos the robber knew exactly when to strike and the dead guard's wife, Karen (Teyonah Parris) arrives.  Making a big hooha, okay a bit rough, but she goes on about wanting to see him and how he survived four tours of Afghanistan only to be shot here.  Poor Greg can't really do much except say sorry.

Back at the autopsy, Doc (Robert David Hall) struggles to remove the leather pants of the DB motorcycle rider, Clint Tyree and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) has to help him.  He was the stunt rider in the Four Seasons' motorcycle show.  His body bloated and he says he suffered from an allergic reaction.  Hoping there's no relation to him.  Nick wonders what footage Hodges (Wallace Langham) got from the camera but the strobes disrupted the feed.  The newspaper clippings from a Chinese paper had traces of gunpowder on them from fireworks, so can't be traced back.   Nick wants him to clean it up or he'll do it himself.  Finn brings in footage from another camera as Gentry (John Allen Nelson) the man at the card game disappears.  He was found using chips from the Four Seasons in other casinos and these chips are all tagged.  He wasn't  part of the robbery but he saw someone in leathers leaving the other way.  Of course he wasn't a suspect but my first suspect as said was Audrey.

When Hodges shows Finn the other camera footage she notices how the biker jumps over the luggage in the way and how his boots don't match those of Clint's.  Apparently his had steel toes and were worn, showing he had a limp. She also notices the hole in his jacket, which was made by a syringe cos he was injected with venom which caused his allergic reaction.  Which Doc IDs as snake venom, from the Russell family.  If he wasn't allergic he would have suffered a slow painful death as Doc tells DB.

Sara and Morgan also question the casino's maintenance man, Ryan (Chad Brannon) and he demos how the lights can be switched on and off by using an app on the phone.  Obviously he was a suspect and especially since he's just showed them what he actually did.  Also cleaning his hands in mechanic's soap right in front of them.  Again that was a clue and not a red herring.  Don't think I've used red herring before in a CSI review, ha.  Well there's always a first. They notice his baby pic in his wallet.

Nick is called to a CS where the DB of Julian has been found, he was the valet and he's been beaten and shot.  He also finds trace on his collar and in the trunk he finds the biker outfit, well that was a plant job if ever there was one!  Henry (Jon Wellner) tells Sara that the murder weapon was the syringe and he's testing part of the jacket which turns out is giving off an orange colour.  Hodges finds the trace on Julian's collar was from pumice and he and Henry have a bit of rivalry going explaining its origins and where it can be found, mentioning soap.  Leading to Ryan.  No surprises there then.

He's brought in but he can't talk cos obviously his baby's been kidnapped but this isn't discovered until Greg finds a kidnapper's note to him on his computer.  Morgan is upset for the baby and as they search the rest of his house, she loses it and thinks the baby might be dead.  She knew they were looking for her we she was taken but what's the baby thinking right now.  Hey where were Morgan's tears?  Outside they find a coin in the garden and she IDs the writing as Pashto, so the coin is Afghani, leading to the security guard.

Greg tries to talk with Karen but she doesn't believe he had anything to do with it and clams up even when there's a baby's life at stake, she was heartless.  Even when Greg tells her they found evidence of the baby in his car. It's not like her husband's coming back is it.  Ryan tells Nick of how he was forced into going through with the robbery and they used to fantasize about staling some money.  He doesn't know who's behind it cos he was only contacted by Julian.  He takes out a pill which he's taking for Meningitis and that was another clue.  Again he had the motive right before them, the medical bills which his wife left behind after dying. How did they think he'd pay them off.

Morgan tells them that Ryan's vanished and they find a note on the computer via email.  Of course there'd be no phones involved since they'd sent a note before, getting a little lax hey CSIs in season 14.  Brass loses it with Officer Akers for leaving him alone and with Nick too.  At the garage Nick and Morgan find Ryan hailing them with blood on his shirt.  They find Audrey dead and Morgan checks her car using the key to find the baby.  Sara brings in the baby's clothes from the hospital to check and Henry remembers how he had an elephant toy called Stinky.  There's orange sweat stains on the baby's clothes showing he was handled by Ryan. They're both on medication so he was the only one who could have known that and given him the medication.  The leather patch and his sweat matches.  The orange was from the chromium in the medication.

He confesses he did it for the baby and to pay off the bills, all he needed was a little money just to look after his son.  Finn asks how he's going to do that now.  Morgan tells DB Greg found the money in the maintenance  locker at the casino, it was still there and that she's okay.  Time heals.  She wishes they could set up a trust fund for the baby and DB tells her how resilient children are and he'll be fine.  Speaking from experience there.  Brass apologizes to Nick telling him he has to testify against his daughter.  Nick tells him things will get back to normal, but his life is far from normal.

Can't help thinking this was all done before, just adding a variation on the story here and there and adding in personal aspects for Brass and Morgan.  Finn's line was straight out of a CSI:NY ep when he asks him how he's going to look after his son now when he's killed four other people, just for money.  Though CSI went all Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express when they were all in on the crime, but there was only one killer, suppose it makes a little change, but not much, ha.