Superb episode defined by the guilty parties brought to the forefront at the end, the mark of excellent script-writing. The bouncing between the CSI teams with this two-fold story is the norm in television, although it is difficult to write about each in the order the events occur. At least in this review the format can be split, allowing the reader to enjoy each from beginning to end.
Both stories can be titled as stated, each is a tale of the innocent victim's last gasp. Each story is told separately in this review format, and each story can hold its own, well-acted and produced. The episode is indeed worth watching; highly recommend.
There is the Megan and Delko story where a diver surfaces, boards a yacht, bleeds out from a knife wound, and CSI is left to determine how, why, whom and where. The trail to catching the guilty is methodical, which the reviewer will omit and go right to the principle clues. Alexx is explaining the autopsy results to Megan, a compressed spleen, big heart and lungs, and she found an unknown microorganism in his wound.
Delko, looking in a microscope at the microorganisms, found barrel-sponge spores in his lungs only found in deep water, indicating the victim was free diver, dropping below fifty-feet, without air-tanks. Det. Puig leads Delko and Megan to a contest location of free divers, Carson Cassidy, thinks they are here about his brother, Adam Cassidy. The body was Adam's.
Delko and Megan processed all the knives and spear guns from the dive location. The spear gun with traces of human tissue belongs to Ignatio. Ignatio is questioned by Megan, noting he is losing his hearing from dives, and had he dived to the depths Adam Cassidy did, his inner ear would have ruptured, hospitalizing him. Ignatio is not the murderer.
They have human tissue from the gun, but are missing a knife. Delko, diving with an air tank and a metal detector, finds the missing knife. Megan swabs the found knife, no blood trace and the knife has Carson's name on it. Delko opens the knife handle, exposing blood residue inside.
Megan interrogates Carson Cassidy, his bare skin shows a scar from a barrel-sponge cut. Running on adrenaline, he shot Ignatio's spear gun at Adam, Cassidy pulled his knife and stabbed his brother. Megan makes the statement about primal instinct taking over at those depths, but probably not intentional. Carson's attorney is present throughout the meeting. Brother Carson holds his head in his hands finding it hard to realize he murdered his own brother under the influence of the deep water dive they were both performing.
The other story involves Horatio, Calleigh, Speed and Det. Sevilla where the Detective brings Horatio to a man found dead, left over from a party. Horatio is interviewing the party women, Nikki calls it a cupcake party, entertained by male lap dancers, like the dead man. Calleigh finds mosquitoes on the body and an empty condom wrapper. Alexx declares the young victim Noel died of natural causes, while Horatio suspects one of the young women had something to do with his death.
Calleigh is examining the pristine mosquitoes found on Noel, not swatted, squished, just left dead. An educated hypothesis is mosquitoes drink blood, so Horatio says let's have Alexx go over the body again, looking for something lethal. Alexx shows Horatio an injection mark on Noel's body, nothing in his medical records indicating any injections taken to date for any reason and comments one of the hardest crimes to solve. Horatio says poison. Horatio finds an injection object he analyzes for prints, it appears to be an Epinephrine injector. Calleigh notices Horatio's evidence, an Epi pen, for the treatment of allergies, he says the print match is from Nikki Olson. Nikki Olson is brought in for questioning, admitting the Epi pen is hers, for bee stings. Nikki gave Noel the shot on purpose due to the liquor he had contained shellfish which he was allergic, hence she offered the shot. Calleigh says the single shot could have caused a reaction for Noel, but it probably didn't kill him.
There was chalk dust on a condom wrapper leading to a third grade teacher Sophia Ananova called in for questioning denying sex with Noel, she has nervous mannerisms as Horatio notices. She has a nicotine patch on her, she says she is trying to quit. Alexx and Horatio test the body area for residue of nicotine patches, noting as much as four or more would have killed Noel. Nicotine was introduced through the penile tissue.
Horatio tells Speed and Calleigh hold it on the teacher's arrest, the box of patches is full, and distillation takes time. They ask where did the nicotine come from and Horatio says the nearby flowerbed was filled with roses, roses have aphids, roses are sprayed with nicotine to get rid of the aphids, explaining why the dead mosquitoes, nicotine is a known insecticide. The gardener is on site when CSI comes calling, the insecticide bottle found has multiple fingerprints, is forty percent nicotine, so into the lab it goes.
Homeowner Melissa Starr received many phone calls from Noel, Horatio says Noel told Nikki he was seeing someone new, based on the phone calls, Horatio believes it was Melissa, but it was Noel who pursued Melissa, and he thinks she cut it off by poisoning him. Her fingerprints were on the insecticide bottle, she poured it on a condom she got from Sophia's bag, enticing Noel one last time. The nicotine killed him. Melissa dropped the condom in the flower bed when she was picking up petals while speaking to Det. Sevilla.
Both stories can be titled as stated, each is a tale of the innocent victim's last gasp. Each story is told separately in this review format, and each story can hold its own, well-acted and produced. The episode is indeed worth watching; highly recommend.
There is the Megan and Delko story where a diver surfaces, boards a yacht, bleeds out from a knife wound, and CSI is left to determine how, why, whom and where. The trail to catching the guilty is methodical, which the reviewer will omit and go right to the principle clues. Alexx is explaining the autopsy results to Megan, a compressed spleen, big heart and lungs, and she found an unknown microorganism in his wound.
Delko, looking in a microscope at the microorganisms, found barrel-sponge spores in his lungs only found in deep water, indicating the victim was free diver, dropping below fifty-feet, without air-tanks. Det. Puig leads Delko and Megan to a contest location of free divers, Carson Cassidy, thinks they are here about his brother, Adam Cassidy. The body was Adam's.
Delko and Megan processed all the knives and spear guns from the dive location. The spear gun with traces of human tissue belongs to Ignatio. Ignatio is questioned by Megan, noting he is losing his hearing from dives, and had he dived to the depths Adam Cassidy did, his inner ear would have ruptured, hospitalizing him. Ignatio is not the murderer.
They have human tissue from the gun, but are missing a knife. Delko, diving with an air tank and a metal detector, finds the missing knife. Megan swabs the found knife, no blood trace and the knife has Carson's name on it. Delko opens the knife handle, exposing blood residue inside.
Megan interrogates Carson Cassidy, his bare skin shows a scar from a barrel-sponge cut. Running on adrenaline, he shot Ignatio's spear gun at Adam, Cassidy pulled his knife and stabbed his brother. Megan makes the statement about primal instinct taking over at those depths, but probably not intentional. Carson's attorney is present throughout the meeting. Brother Carson holds his head in his hands finding it hard to realize he murdered his own brother under the influence of the deep water dive they were both performing.
The other story involves Horatio, Calleigh, Speed and Det. Sevilla where the Detective brings Horatio to a man found dead, left over from a party. Horatio is interviewing the party women, Nikki calls it a cupcake party, entertained by male lap dancers, like the dead man. Calleigh finds mosquitoes on the body and an empty condom wrapper. Alexx declares the young victim Noel died of natural causes, while Horatio suspects one of the young women had something to do with his death.
Calleigh is examining the pristine mosquitoes found on Noel, not swatted, squished, just left dead. An educated hypothesis is mosquitoes drink blood, so Horatio says let's have Alexx go over the body again, looking for something lethal. Alexx shows Horatio an injection mark on Noel's body, nothing in his medical records indicating any injections taken to date for any reason and comments one of the hardest crimes to solve. Horatio says poison. Horatio finds an injection object he analyzes for prints, it appears to be an Epinephrine injector. Calleigh notices Horatio's evidence, an Epi pen, for the treatment of allergies, he says the print match is from Nikki Olson. Nikki Olson is brought in for questioning, admitting the Epi pen is hers, for bee stings. Nikki gave Noel the shot on purpose due to the liquor he had contained shellfish which he was allergic, hence she offered the shot. Calleigh says the single shot could have caused a reaction for Noel, but it probably didn't kill him.
There was chalk dust on a condom wrapper leading to a third grade teacher Sophia Ananova called in for questioning denying sex with Noel, she has nervous mannerisms as Horatio notices. She has a nicotine patch on her, she says she is trying to quit. Alexx and Horatio test the body area for residue of nicotine patches, noting as much as four or more would have killed Noel. Nicotine was introduced through the penile tissue.
Horatio tells Speed and Calleigh hold it on the teacher's arrest, the box of patches is full, and distillation takes time. They ask where did the nicotine come from and Horatio says the nearby flowerbed was filled with roses, roses have aphids, roses are sprayed with nicotine to get rid of the aphids, explaining why the dead mosquitoes, nicotine is a known insecticide. The gardener is on site when CSI comes calling, the insecticide bottle found has multiple fingerprints, is forty percent nicotine, so into the lab it goes.
Homeowner Melissa Starr received many phone calls from Noel, Horatio says Noel told Nikki he was seeing someone new, based on the phone calls, Horatio believes it was Melissa, but it was Noel who pursued Melissa, and he thinks she cut it off by poisoning him. Her fingerprints were on the insecticide bottle, she poured it on a condom she got from Sophia's bag, enticing Noel one last time. The nicotine killed him. Melissa dropped the condom in the flower bed when she was picking up petals while speaking to Det. Sevilla.
