- CSI tries to figure out who put a severed head in the ball return during a championship bowling match, while Dr. Langston reinvestigates the case of a wife accused of shooting her husband after the wife kills herself in her prison cell.
- A Las Vegas pro-bowling tournament is stopped when obsessed amateur Ronald Tobin's decapitated head is found in the balls dispenser. Nick and Greg work out in detail how it was done, what alibis that leaves and which motives apply, such as jealousy. Meanwhile a jail suicide leads to a home murder case being re-examined with crucial results.—KGF Vissers
- During a final of a bowling match, a severed head comes back instead of the ball, and the victim is identified as Ronald Tobin, who worked in the bowling alley. Brass, Catherine, Nick, Greg and Sara work in the case, collecting evidences and interviewing Ronald's girlfriend Shea and acquaintances, including a homeless guy that is sleeping in his trunk. Meanwhile, the inmate Carla York commits suicide and hangs herself in the cell. Langston learns that Carla had always claimed that she was innocent in the shooting of her husband, James, who was killed with a gunshot to his head. Langston decides to reopen and re-investigate her case.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- "CSI" - "Lover's Lane" - Nov. 19, 2009
A heated bowling tournament is down to the last role. The reigning champ Chevy Cigs has rolled a 7/10 split and must knock it down to continue his reign against the cocky younger bowler Kevin X. Before he can roll though a severed head comes rolling out of the ball return.
Turns out the head belongs to an alley employee named Ron. No word on where the rest of his body is as of yet.
Greg, who went on a mechanical engineering field trip to an alley once, exposits all about bowling alley mechanics to Nick as they go over the scene and explains how the head could make it's way into the ball return. Nick himself was a big bowler growing up. Greg finds a bowling ball bag with no balls but blood in it behind the lanes by the pin setters.
Nick finds a homeless guy named Vitus is sleeping in Ron's car amidst a pile of new bowling gear: shirts, shoes, balls etc. Turns out Ron hooked him up with a place to sleep while between apartments and got him a job at the local bowling supply warehouse.
During the head-topsy Katherine and Robbins hypothesize that Ron was shot before he died. Turns out the dead guy Ron was dating a girl named Shea who also worked at the alley. During her interview Shea tells Sara that Ron wanted to go pro but, even though he was good enough, he didn't have an, um, level head so he burned out and had to be the shoe boy.
Sara tests the ball bag and gets prints on the victime and Kevin "X" the bowler, who has several DUIs.
Brass brings him in and Kevin X denies killing him saying the bag was stolen. He admits that Ron challenged him to a game and that Ron won, which was embarrassing, but not embarrassing enough to kill him. Also, he and Chevy definitely had their rivalry but not so much that he would try to shake up Chevy's game by killing some dude and putting his head in the ball return.
Greg discovers that there was another interesting camera angle at the alley, aimed at the pin setter. (Some infrared situation to let the machine know which pins need to be picked up). In one shot he's got the killer's hands around the head tossing it into the ball return. In another, from the day before, there's a shot of Vitus leaning down into the pin area.
They go to the bowling warehouse and pick up Vitus. Catherine and Nick determine from blood spatter, blood on a nearby saw and wood splinters that Ron was shot, killed and decapitated here. They follow the blood and splinters and discover the rest of his body in a crate.
Vitus tells Brass he was knocking down pins down for Ron in his game against Kevin X, 20 bucks a pin. Vitus says it was so Ron could impress Shea. Brass advances the theory that Ron didn't pay him on time or cut him in on the resale of the bowling gear he stole from SSN with Vitus' help. Vitus says no, Ron was a stand up guy and reiterates "I may be a broke, homeless, druggie but I ain't no killer."
Greg and Nick determine that Vitus would have had 18 seconds to get back into crowd after dropping off the head into the ball return which seems unlikely 'cuz he's a big pothead. They go test it out at the alley and realize it's doable, even for Vitus. They then look over the rest of the footage from the tournament and realize it was Shea who was coming into the crowd from that direction not Ron.
Sara interviews Shea, who makes excuses about running to her car. Catherine comes in with expensive bag from Shea's apartment. Shea comes clean that she and Chevy Cigs were getting it on and they fell in love.
Brass interviews Cigs. Cigs says he didn't kill anybody. Brass points out that Cigs had the same kind of gun and ammo but the gun isn't at his house. Cigs fingers Shea. He explains that he broke up with her when Ron found out. He advances the theory to get revenge on him she killed Ron and put the head in the ball return to mess with his game.
Sara and Catherine go over the details: Shea shoots, saws off head, throws body in crate, drags crate? Nah, she had to have had help. Catherine tests Chevy's clothes. Nothing. She tests the ball holes. Bingo. The blood in fingerholes came from Ron. Mandy hypothesizes Chevy didn't wash under his nails well enough.
The final roll of the tournament is finally happening after the first interruptin. We're back to the fateful 7/10 split. Cigs is about to roll when the cops arrive to arrest him. He rolls anyway. And wins and is all "in your face" to Kevin X.
Sara brings Shea back in and explains that Chevy says Shea kiled him. Shea says she didn't shoot him. We see the scenario unfold as she explains: An angry, jealous Ronnie forced Shea to lure Chevy out to the bowling supply warehouse. When he arrived Ron confronted him with a gun. Chevy pulled out his own gun and shot Ron. He yells at Shea that they have to get rid of body. They crated it and dragged it away. Chevy told her it was over. Shea complains that Ron promised he would marry her and 15 years later he still hadn't. Chevy promised the same thing. Mad at Chevy she cut off Ron's head to give Chevy something he'd never forget in the ball return. She gets a little thrill telling the story. She asks Sara about jail time since she didn't do the actual shooting. Sara points out that cutting off Ron's head probably won't get much sympathy from the jury. Shea works out that since Chevy shot in self-defense he might even get out of jail first and forgive her and they could get to be together after all. Cuckoo.
In a separate case Ray is investigating the prison suicide of a woman named Carla. Her public defender drops by with the case files and declares Carla claimed she was innocent all along.
Turns out the woman was convicted of shooting her husband after a violent altercation in their home. A visiting sister was cleared with several pieces of an alibi and the claim that she was in the backyard trying to steer clear of the fight. Carla was convicted because the trajectory of the bullet, from the cheating husband's gun, matched the concept of her shooting from the master bedroom window on the second floor into his car in the driveway.
For some reason Langston is not convinced of this and through a series of tests discovers that because they were hollow point bullets they could've been fired from the same level and achieved the same trajectory. He and Hodges go back to the scene and find gun shot residue near the fence separating the driveway and the backyard, where the sister claims she was. Langston brings in the sister and drops the news on her. The sister has been caring for her dead sister and brother-in-law's toddler. She asks Langston if it make any difference that the husband was a cheating piece of garbage and that she's been doing an awesome job of caring for the kid. Ray says it's not for him to judge and a cop comes in to arrest her.
The gang goes bowling. Nick and Greg are great. Catherine gutters it. Hodges rocks the granny roll. Sara rolls a spare. Langston arrives and Nick toasts their CSI family. Langston got the wrong size shoe and as he waits at the shoe desk he looks back with a contented smile on his new family.
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