My sincere apologies for this late review! Storm Arwen weirdly made this episode of CSI: Vegas completely slip my mind! I'm very much looking forward to how the show starts to wrap up the overarching story in the next few episodes. I'm even more interested to see if it gives a fulfilling ending and doesn't stop on a cliffhanger or feel like it was written in 30 minutes.
Onto this weeks episode! A melted body was found in the bathtub of a house, only bones and pieces are left. There's minimal evidence around other than a dent in the bathroom wall, Erik Shaw (the victim) put up a fight but killer was way taller than the poor man. Now because the body is already down the pipes, they have to take the pipes apart piece by piece (Eww!!!!) so they don't lose any of the body. If people (including myself) thought previous episode were gruesome, boy were we wrong!
Josh and Allie speak to the ex wife who's very shocked and sad at the news. she's at a Child pageant competition. The amusing part of this was the man in charge Chase Starr is played by Jack Plotnick. He played Brett Partridge in The Mentalist who was always so creepy, which immediately had me calling him the killer. On a completely different note but a main staple in this episode, Sara accidently loses her ring in the vats of Erik Shaw remains...
To open the safe found at the scene, Sara employs Janice Woo (Anson Wix's new expert witness) who expertly replicates Eriks fingerprint to open the safe. Definitely a forensic method I have never seen before! The safe contained files on plaintiffs with lawsuits against Erik over money. Funnily enough, one is Chase Starr (creepy guy from mentalist) and a Herman Maddock (doomsday preppers). At the morgue, while sifting through the sludge, Hugo determines two people were melted down since the femurs found were different lengths. Another search of the house leads Josh and Allie to determine Shaw was not killed in the bathroom but the kitchen (he was shot in the neck with the bullet left in the wall of a cupboard). It seems the killer only cared about cleaning up the body.
Fake teeth found in the vat led to Chase Starr... who's still alive. But actually isn't! He has an identical twin, called Grayson who's covering for Chase. He was devastated at his brothers death (so didn't do it). I'm sort of glad he isn't the murderer, because I called it way too early to get it right plus I had no actual bearing for that decision. Other than his excellent performance in The Mentalist, which, by the way, is a great show...
Speaking to the ex wife, Allie noticed a chemical burn on her leg. She had stolen the chemicals for Chase (they were in love) but she didn't do the murders or knew why Chase needed them.
Grissom was almost convinced something is up since the wife couldn't have caused the dent in the wall (she's too short). Turns out he was right, the mix of chemicals caused an explosion, flinging the killer (Chase) into the wall and then into the tub, killing himself too. An interesting end to the case, I was not expecting that twist.
Since Maxine was indefinitely suspended, the undersheriff has taken over the lab for the moment. He does not trust the crime lab since Anson Wix has spoken to the news recently saying they are in on it. It makes sense, I wouldn't trust them either, they've been secretly working on the case behind his back. The man still has no clue, and he works on the same floor now! Sara and Gil spent most of overarching story this time, going through Wix's rubbish... In between they discussed theories such as,Woo forged Hodges fingerprints and is on the fake evidence set up.
Gil and Sara decide to grab more rubbish (because that is always the answer when you hit a investigation wall) from Wix's house but Sara is caught in the process. Anson showed how much he hates CSIs, what they stand for, how they delude the court with fancy terms and good storytelling. I think he's a little jealous he has lost so many times to the CSI crime lab. On the other hand, he has a point, there are real life cases of CSIs being fake, phoney credentials or evidence results, and have been charismatic with a good story at court.
I also get the vibe Anson may have an even more personal experience of this, like a friend or family member who was wrongfully convicted based on fake forensics. I'm most likely wrong though as nothing like that has been mentioned in the last eight episodes. Suddenly Max is back in the crime lab to test a lipstick sample found on a bandage in Wix's rubbish. Ooooo also Hodges trial starts!
Turns out the DNA recovered from the sample had both Wix and Janice woo present. Gil and Sara decide to try and turn Janice but before the trial started Anson Wix fired and replaced her. Leaving the happy couple (Sara and Gil) back at square one.
Thankfully Gil found Sara's ring! Like Sara, I was also starting to believe it was an omen. Possibly a break up between the two (mutual or not) or the death of either character. It could still happen but hopefully not!
Now throughout this episode Maxine was at friendly basketball games taking pictures of a player. In a twist of events she was watching a client of Wix who slips up and buys drugs at the game. Which Max gets a pic of. Max and Josh reveal he paid Estaban to kill Jim Brass! (all the way back in episode one). Now he has to help them take down Anson. I'm both happy and sad Max didn't get her job back this episode. We all know she deserves to get her job back and some payback for this but I'm glad its going to take a little longer. Writers often have negative things happen to a character and then quickly fix the issue within the next episode. It is almost always rushed.
Overall a pretty good episode! I'm guessing the next two are going to be crazy! The writers having to tie up loose ends and lead us through Hodges trial, plus Grissom is going to be testifying. I can already tell that isn't going to work out well for our CSI team.
Please let me know what you all thought in the comments! Reading your messages (and sometimes remembering to respond) is always super interesting and encouraging :)
- SarahR
