CSI 12x08 Crime After Crime

For the entire week leading up to this episode, the title itself had Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” running through my head.

Now after watching the episode, the only thing running through my head is… “Why?”

The only crime (after crime, after crime) for this series is the writers continually taking loved recurring (or even main) characters and turning them into assholes. And not only that… but DEAD assholes. I’m still waiting for Lady Heather to return, so they can turn her into a killer. Oh wait… I forgot that she’s their main GSR plot-mover. Therefore, they can’t do that to her.

If they were going to kill a recurring detective – and make him an ass – why not Detective Cavaliere instead of Vega? I loved Vega. Cavaliere – not so much (or at all). I guess the bright spot is that they didn’t use Sofia as their bait this time… or Vartann...or my beloved Officer Akers (thankfully I know Larry will be in an upcoming episode).

So I repeat… Why did they need to do this to a loved character? Do they really believe that was considered suspense? Have they gotten to the point where the only “suspense” they can generate is to reveal that a familiar, friendly face went to the dark side?

For me, the biggest suspense with this show in its 11 + seasons has been if we’ll ever get to see a great TEAM moment again. They’ve been very few & very, very far between. I’m talking about moments like eating breakfast at the end of season 1, or the get-together just before Warrick was killed, or even the little team bonding diner scene where Nick ate the fly in his soup. I don’t think there’s even enough of those scenes to list one per season. That’s why they bring the most suspense…because they bring the most joy. And with this show, finding “joy” is like searching for Waldo.


As for this episode…

-- it was lovely to see Paul McCrane’s name as director again. He also directed last season’s “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead”. Now I just wish he’d be back in front of the camera, like he was in Season 10’s “world’s end”

-- Jimmy, the Assistant Coroner (or is that assistant to the assitant?) Considering this is officially James Aldridge’s 5th appearance on the show, (and the first time he’s been credited) it’s about time he finally gets a name…and even a line. And wait a minute – Jimmy, the assistant coroner? That is such an NCIS ripoff.

-- Michael Massee as Detective Stan Richardson. Oh, where do I start? He will, forever in my mind, be Jane’s personal boogeyman - the evil serial killer, Charles Hoyt - on Rizzoli & Isles. I’m almost sad that they killed him off on R&I…almost. He’s SO great at playing evil. I think he would have even made a much better Nate Haskell than Bill Irwin.

-- Cooper Huckabee (Rick Fetzer) was in Season 10’s “Appendicitement”. I thought that face looked familiar.


Let’s take a closer look at a few of the best scenes.

-- I knew with cases about “Adults acting like kids again”, that there would be some Greg & Hodges geekiness. We got Greg’s right from the beginning.
DB: he was a entrepreneur. Started a franchise called “Joystick Jungle”? Something like that.
G: the king of Drunken Donkey Kong. Joystick Jungle, it’s a video arcade for adults…Pinball, Pacman, pizza, lots & lots of booze.
C: letting intoxicated adults act like little kids. It’s a surefire investment.
DB: well, new American Dream. Perpetual adolescence, right?
C: maybe that explains the underwear.
G: They’re on backwards. Got dressed in a hurry? Or drunk.
DB: or…killer put them on him. Wanted to turn him into a little boy. Specifically (looks at the candles on top of the big cake) an eight year old. Look at this.
C: Gravitational blood drops where the other candles have been deliberately removed.
G: Candles…redressing.
C: Killer took some time
DB: after he took his life.

I can’t help but laugh at the poor actor lying like that and having everyone focus closely at his crotch, covered in nothing but a pair of kids undies with different colored cars on them. And on the flip side, how did Marg & Eric not crack up while having to focus on that specific part. I’d love to see the outtakes of that scene.


-- Great to see Doc Robbins out at a scene again.
Doc: when I heard ‘tycoon’, I was picturing top hat & monocle… or at least pants.

-- Greg & Cath continue their investigation of the scene
G: Surveillance is pretty thin throughout the club. No eyes in this area, but the bouncer did say there was one ugly incident earlier. Kevin got into it with an uninvited guest. Had him tossed out.
C: Anyone have a name for this ‘uninvited guest’?
G: Kevin called him “dad”.
C: oh. Son gives dad the heave-ho. Maybe dad comes back to remind him who’s the grown up.

Greg & Cath together again. I love seeing these two together. It always seems that Greg can be a little more relaxed & a bit more playful when he’s around Cath.


-- Dave’s having a pity-party moment while having to process a ‘crispy critter’ in the morgue with Nick, Sara, and an assistant.
D: Sure Doc, take the awesome club scene. Classic arcade games, beautiful women…why would I be interested in that.
N: are you whining? That’s not very “Super Dave” of you.
S: maybe we should remember that some people have it worse. (they uncover the crispy critter, who’s got some burnt tires wrapped around him) like this poor John Doe.
D: If there ever was a candidate for “Stop, drop & roll”. (to his assistant) Jimmy, let’s go. We have work to do.
J: (to Nick & Sara) he inhaled fumes at the scene.

Haha. Dave (not so ‘Super’ today) has an assistant to help. Sweet. At least he finally gets a speaking part. It’s cute that Dave gets to be whiny. His normally dry humor becomes quite funny when he’s being seriously irked.

-- Nick & Sara continue processing the crispy critter
N: okay, so what’s this guy’s deal?
S: officer drove up on a fire blazing up an end of an alley. Found him.
N: burning tire around the body, probably slipped down from his throat. Necklacking. South African thugs & cartels south of the border both do this
S: it’s sad at the things the world can agree on.
N: not good seeing this in Vegas.
S: same principle as being burned at the stake. It takes a while for the CO & the smoke inhalation to kill you. Until then, hell on earth. Gang neighborhood. Snakebacks vs LaTierras.
N: ah, let me guess. No witnesses.
S: didn’t hear the screaming. Didn’t even smell the bonfire.
N: these tires are two different treads. They’re probably from a junkyard. They’re not gonna give us anything.
S: hope of any trace or prints from the outside of the tires is up in smoke.
N: well, let’s try to get an ID on this guy.
S: I’d say…we strip the Michelin from the Man.

LOL and she said that with a straight face. Oh, Jorja. You crack me up. I love these two working together as much as I do Cath & Greg. I guess maybe I’ve always had a bit of a thing for ‘SNickers’ through the years.


-- Cath & Doc in the morgue
D: well, one COD – cause of de-pantsing – is still a mystery. No evidence of sexual activity.
C: mmm. So the pants around his ankles was more ‘message’ than ‘make out’. … and the other COD?
D: asphyxiation via fatal vanity. His 2 front porcelain veneers were broken & inhaled. Lacerated the bronchi, caused a bronchial spasm. Teeth weren’t the only body mods. Pec implants, hair plugs…
C: he makes money, remakes himself.
D: you take your new pride & joy for a spin, inevitably somebody dings it up.
C: weapon was a round implement, roughly spherical. Didn’t find anything like that at the scene.
D: booze flowing, games blasting…plenty of opportunity for the killer to sneak out with a weapon.
C: throw a good enough party, people think they can get away with anything.

I always love Cath & Doc together - even if it's a standard morgue scene.

-- Brass is showing his charm to Kevin’s dad with some great one-liners.
B: son of a dead beat, beat dead.
B: you got an alibi…or just your ‘sunshiny’ attitude?

You know how much I love sarcastic Brass…or is it bitchy Brass these days?


-- Hodges gets into the fun of kids games
H: unless your birthday vic was part beaver…the weapon was wooden.
C: trace from his teeth… is varnished oak
H: baseball bat?
C: hmmm well, the wounds are spherical, not cylindrical. Rough extrapolation of the curvature, we’re looking at something with a diameter of… four to five inches?
H: wooden ball. Arcade tycoon, right?
C: yeah.
H: ahhh. (goes to the computer) Arcade Bowl ball
C: excuse me?
H: on the classic game of luck & skill, beloved by children of all ages. My guess, that’s what bashed your vic’s face into a bloody pulp.
C: arcade bowl is not one of the games at the club, so the killer would’ve had to bring the ball in.
H: making the weapon-of-choice significant. No?
C: disgruntled arcade employee. That’s a good place to start

Yes, these two together is love as well. Hodges wasn’t as giddy as he usually is, but this time his geekiness overruled that.


-- DB has another case for Greg
DB: well, maybe you’ll have more luck at your next case. I want you to re-stock your kit & go meet Morgan at the Park Motel.
Greg turns around & grins
DB: it’s a scene, not a date you wacky kid.

ROFL classic Greg.


-- DB checks in with Cath, who’s in her office
DB: Hey, I hear you’re looking for unhappy arcade clerks who might’ve played Whack-a-Boss?
C: I didn’t find any. And Fetzer’s franchises don’t carry Arcade Bowl. But, the weapon is so unusual that I searched online for any connection between Kevin Fetzer & the game…check this out. (works on her laptop) in 1991, an 8-year old boy named Mikey Moran was celebrating his birthday at an arcade. He goes missing. His body is found behind the place. His pants are off, he’s been beaten to death. The weapon – a bloody arcade ball – is lying next to him.
DB: unbelievable. Arcade worker, Kevin Fetzer, age 15 said it was a day that nobody in the arcade would ever forget.
C: And guess what acne-faced future millionaire was questioned as a person of interest?
DB: Kevin Fetzer
C: yeah, I pulled the case file. There was never an arrest made for the boy’s murder.
DB: somebody turned Kevin’s birthday into his judgement day.

Catherine’s office. Yay. But why is she working on her laptop over on the counter in the middle of the room instead of sitting at her desk? Something’s fishy – other than the fact that she’s reading a file and NOT wearing her glasses. Damn.


-- Morgan & Greg processing the motel scene
M: bloody Mary
G: oh yeah, there’s an empty bottle of vodka on the bed
M: no, not the drink – the ghost. See, you stand in front of a mirror, lights out, you say your name three times… then she BURSTS through the glass & kills you
G: are we at a crime scene or 7th grade sleepover?

LOL these two are so fun.


-- Cath & Lou having a discussion in the break room about the old case. Cath gives him a cup of coffee
V: someone beat Kevin Fetzer’s face in with an arcade ball. There’s some justice in that.
C: I’ve got the case file from the original arcade ball murder Mikey Moran. Just to jog your memory
V: yeah, that was one of the first murders I ever worked. A scene like that…your memory gets plenty of miles on its own. We found the body behind the arcade. The weapon was right there. And for my money, so was the killer. That Fetzer kid struck me strange the instant I saw him. He’s hanging around the scene and then he leaves for an hour, comes back carrying two little shoes.
C: ugh. Mikey’s?
V: he said that he found them ditched a half block away, just happened to be looking over there.
C: but there was no physical evidence found that connected Kevin Fetzer to the crime.
V: well, we did find a pubic hair on the little boy, blond like Fetzer, but DNA testing was new and... we didn’t get a result.
C: and it wasn’t retested with improved technology?
V: the uh, sample was consumed on the first test. Then, that was my call. I was new on the job, I went all-in, and then I crapped out. That was the first time I learned the job wasn’t fair. You could have the killer standing right in front of you, you know that he did it, and…it feels like the cuffs are on your own wrists.
C: we’ve all been there, Lou.
V: so, do you have any suspects on Kevin Fetzer’s murder?
C: No, Brass talked to Fetzer’s dad, who had an alibi. We got him on casino surveillance.
V: you should be talking to Mikey Moran’s family. After what Fetzer did to that little boy, if that were my kid, I wouldn’t have waited 20 years.

Hmmm If you hadn’t seen previous episodes to the contrary, you wouldn’t have a clue that these two were once hot & heavy as a couple. I guess it reaffirms my belief that if it isn’t Grissom & Sara, it’ll be a relationship that’s quickly trashed somehow by the writers. Taking their previous relationship out of the equation, this was a very lovely scene between the two. It makes me wish that the writers would have done something with these characters that could take advantage of the great chemistry that Marg & Alex have.


-- Nick & Sara updating Det. Vega that their crispy critter victim was a gang member.
I love the little convo that Vega & Nick had in spanish. It was a nice recall to previous episodes. See, the writers actually know the word “continuity”. Too bad they have a limited supply of it.


-- Doc & Greg going over Darlene Crocker’s COD. Doc’s checking the stomach. He smells something fishy
D: did you & Morgan find any drugs at the scene?
G: just some kind of crystal trace.
D: smell this (holds up the stomach for Greg to smell)
G: Ugh. Room service in hell doesn’t smell that bad. What is it?
D: distinct ether-like odor. Pretty rare these days. PCP
G: well, bad trip, that would explain the self-mutilation. Hallucinatory state, she’s fighting off untold dark forces.
D: not self destruction. In her mind, self defense.
G: well, Henry’s running tox right now. If it is PCP, we’ll get confirmation.

EWW smelling the stomach? Just…EWWW.


-- DB brings Cath up-to-date
DB: it happened again. Again. Morgan & Greg’s case. Darlene Crocker. 1989, her 12 ½ year old daughter, Chelsea, died a pretty gruesome death on PCP. Just like her mother did today.
C: oh. A little girl with that kind of drug?
DB: junkie older brother, Ken Crocker, confessed to having fed it to her, and then…got sent away.
C: 22 years later mom self-destructs on the same drug?
DB: yeah. I’m not so sure that she just happened to choose the day to take that dose.
C: so somebody forced her to take it. Murder.
DB: just like the burning tires, and the arcade bowl. Death by déjà vu.

And in Cath’s office once again. This time WITH the glasses. Sweet. And is the layout of her office different too? I didn’t notice that the first time.


-- suspicious Brass
It’s bad enough what they did to Vega in this whole thing, but I really don’t like the way they were trying to make Brass out to be the suspicious one. I mean, really, they’ve totally wacked-out his character with his cover up for Ray at the end of last season. Are they really going to continue down this road with him? Seriously? This is one big reason why I’m so glad that Marg is leaving after a few more episodes. But there’s still time before she’s actually gone, and I know they’ll find something for her to go down the wrong path for.

-- Cath & Lou on the street
V: Richardson? He retired a year back.
C: did you work with him much?
V: ah, I used to drink with him. A bunch of us did. Bar called the Blue Rail. Richardson would buy rounds and listen to us bitch about the job. If you had a case that was really bothering you, you could talk to him about it. He had a way of putting things in perspective. Make you feel better.
C: did you talk to him about the Mikey Moran case? Kevin Fetzer?
V: that was… 20 years ago, yeah, I might have.
C: talk to him recently?
V: not since I stopped drinking. So, 11 years, 7 months & 14 days.
C: we’ve been trying to reach him & his address & number on file are no good.
V: Like I said, you know, it’s been years.
Cath gives him THE look
V: last I heard, there were still… a few guy’s who’d tip ‘em back with Richardson
C: who?

Oh yes, she gave him THAT look. And then THAT OTHER look. And the guy caved both times. LOL Yes, Lou. You’re still under the woman’s spell. You always will be. Again, why no hint of a relationship between these two …at all? I love that this scene is right outside the lab. That’s a location we’ve only seen a few times through all the years.


-- Cath & Nick find Richardson…in the hospital/hospice
N: detective Richardson?
SR: you finally caught up to me.

Jeez, the guy can play creepy at the drop of a hat.

-- what does Stan the man know?
SR: what more do you want? You’ve got my confession. I made those people pay for their crimes. I’m ready to settle-up
C: well, we’ve talked to your hospice nurses, Stan. End-stage pancreatic cancer. You haven’t been out of bed in a month.
SR: well, and something must be done. The universe has a way of…granting power
N: oh we’re in agreement that you had help, it was just more of the human variety.
C: well, since you’re…so at peace with the universe, you wouldn’t mind us taking a look around your little corner of it?
SR: no, go ahead.
C: thank you.
SR: if you see anything you like…I have no need for it anymore.
Nick sees a pic of Stan’s police academy class.
Cath sees a flower on the table and calls Nick over.
C: there was a trace of lily powder on Darlene Crocker.
N: soil’s been disturbed.
He digs the soil & brings out a lock box

What is it with Michael Massee and roles where he’s dying of cancer? That’s just more Charles Hoyt reminders for me. I can’t decide if I love it or hate it when my shows seem to collide.


-- Nick & Sara open the box & find treasures
after Nick pulls out the knife
N: what do you think, evidence from another cold case?
S: Maybe Richardson’s got more names on his list. … Revenge…cool & serve.

Oh, hello. Now that can’t be a harken back to the “revenge is best served cold” episode, right? I mean, the writers couldn’t be THAT clever, right? At any rate, Jorja’s got the tongue-in-cheek dead-pan humor down to a science these days.


-- Vega meets his demise at Lake Mead
I'm not sure I can even discuss this. How could they break down a favorite character like that? I can see him attempting to drown the guy in order to get a confession. That fits with his character. He stopped in time as well - also fitting in with his character, but drawing his gun while facing a bunch of armed officers aimed at him... come on!

And what's with DB being so concerned about saving the other guy - the real bad guy who did the other murders? maybe that's why Sam decided to go 'suicide by cop'? Because the system has more compassion for the bad guys than it does the good guys?

At the moment, all I know is that I'm pissed.


-- the monologue
I loved hearing Michael Massee reciting the monologue of the letter. He’s got an eerie voice.

-- the ending
I was quite bummed that it was Brass & DB at the end instead of Brass & Catherine. I get the feeling that Cath would have understood Jim much better. I was actually hoping to end with Cath & Brass sharing a drink in his office. That would at least been some continuity. But, of course, DB is the new Grissom – the one that the entire CSI world needs to revolve around now. It’s turning into the same old show… DB -like Grissom & Ray – is the only one that counts. It doesn’t matter that it’s the newbie & the seasoned veteran detective. Brass/Cath, Brass/Nick or Brass/Sara would have made much more sense.

Then again, this show has NEVER made much sense with their stupid decisions.