Month: October 2007

CSI: Season 8, Episode 4 – : The Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp

Last week’s episode, “Go To Hell” was a chilling story as the CSI team faced a 12-year old girl supposedly possessed by the devil. As it turns out, she was completely normal and she was the one who planned and killed her parents and sister. This week, the CSI team investigates two crime scene – one at Sam’s (Catherine’s dead father) casino site and the other at a lake where a boy was hanged.

The victim, Bryan Towne had lacerations on his chest, which appeared to have swollen mammary glands. Although the vic was stabbed, the cause of death was suffocation from hanging. Evidence found were beer bottles, which may have been used to stab the victim.

In the meantime, Catherine and her mom talked on a site where Sam’s casino used to stand. Lily was talking about how she met Sam and how she fell for him. As a way to move on, Lily threw the 5-dollar chip (that Sam gave during their first meeting). A few minutes later, police came to the site and Catherine rushes to find out that a body was found on the site. Due to conflict of interest, Sara and the new CSI Ronnie was assigned to the case.

Warrick investigates Bryan Towne’s room and finds a stash of cash, gun kept under his bed and water samples in a dozen small tubes. The victim’s mom, who is a surviving cancer patient, visits her son at Dr. Robbin’s office.

Sara and Ronnie checks out the casino site and sees an Indian necklace, which may indicate the site could be a Native American burial ground.

A man named Paul Sides called Bryan Towne several times before he died. Catherine and Brass asks about his relationship with the victim. As it turns out, Sides and the victim was working on a project and Towne became the project himself.

At the lab, Stokes found finger prints from the beer bottles that led to Larry Ludwig, a man who worked in the same water company as Bryan. Since he had rope burns, he was immediately taken to the station. He told Stokes and Warrick during his interogation that he and a friend brought 2 girls along with them to the lake, where they saw Bryan hanging out. He admitted that the girls wanted to play so he placed the rope around the tree so they could swing to the lake. When it was Bryan’s turn to jump, the girls and Larry made fun of him when they saw him “man-boobs” through his wet shirt.

Dr. Al and Sara discusses the bones found on the casino site, but Greg (who was planning to write a book on Las Vegas murders and dead bodies unknown to the press) had more insights about the case. He helped Ronnie and Sara as they went back to the site to measure the bones.

However, it was Hodgens who helped Sara determine the last location where the John Doe lived. Greg finds a roll of film from the rubbles and sees one picture that may be the clue to the John Doe’s death – Sam’s financials where the feds, state and a certain “Fergus” had their fare share during the 1960’s casino development.

While Catherine and Brass’ believed Paul Sides was in the hiding, he was found dead on his apartment, wherein they found a ripped paper stating an offer to buy his house from Bryan Towne’s boss, Jonah Quin. They went over Sides’ paperwork and experiments, where they found a freezer filled with carps.

Sara visits Grissom at his bee farm, where Grissom casually proposes to Sara and where she casually agrees to marry him.

As it turns out, the John Doe last lived in South East Asia, particularly in Vietname, but was of Indian backgrounds. As Greg was talking to Lily (Catherine’s mom) about the people found on the other pictures, she remembered a journalist who attended that party, Lee Jordan who wore an Indian costume. Greg and Sara assumed that after taking a picture of Sam’s financial statements, his bodyguard may have caught him and caused his fall down to the ground floor. Was he pushed or did he fall while running? Sara, Greg and the team may never know.

Back at the lab, Grissom becomes interested when Catherine gives him the freezer filled with fish. With the help of Hodgens, Grissom determined that the water used in Paul Sides’ experiments were endangering the lives of both humans and other living things exposed to it. Sides discovered that Quin’s water company was using the dirty water from the lake, which may have caused Bryan Towne’s high levels of estrogen.

Warrick and Stokes ruled out murder in Bryan Towne’s case because evidences pointed out to suicide. It was definitely a hate crime, but Bryan Towne was the one who hated himself. Unfortunately, his mom thought Sides killed her son, so she shot him using the gun found on his son’s bedroom. It was only until Catherine explained to her that Paul Sides was helping his son that she understood what really happened.

At the office, Catherine and Grissom was talking to the district attorney about the water problem and Jonah Quin’s case. Unfortunately, the company has plans of counter-attacking all witnesses and evidences that the water is really dangerous. About Mrs. Towne, the DA says she will not put the cancer patient and widow who has just lost her only son into court.. so she goes free.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 episode 5, which airs Thursday at 9pm on CBS.

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The Bachelor 11 Episode 4

In The Bachelor 11 Episode 3, Brad wanted to give his twin brother some prime camera time, so he had him trick the girls into thinking he was Brad and pretended the results of this test actually mattered. Also, Hillary went on a one-on-one date with Brad (and got over the top emotional), we found out McCarten and DeAnna were heartless, and three more women were sent home (Solisa, Lindsey, and Sarah, the last two largely, if not entirely, because of the twin twist).

This week there will be three dates: a one-on-one date, a group date, and a two-on-one date where only one person will return.

Jenni gets the one-on-one date. Brad arrives in a helicopter. Brad and Jenni have dinner on top of a building overlooking the city. Back at the house, DeAnna and McCarten continue to be mean to people. Jade gets really pissed off at them. Jenni, who was the first to kiss Brad (really kiss him anyway) kisses him again, then she gets a rose.

Sheena, McCarten, Hillary, Bettina, Kristy, and Stephy will go on the group date, leaving Jade and DeAnna to go on the two-on-one date. Brad chooses to have the group date do an improv comedy show because apparently making people do improv comedy proves they’re not shy and reserved. Bettina screams that she loves Brad and gets embarassed because she meant it. Kristy says she’s not comfortable being put on the spot and doing something she feels ridiculous doing, then she starts crying. Everybody else seems to feel reasonably comfortable. Brad says Hillary steals the show, but he gives the rose to Bettina because he felt she did a lot more than he’d expected.

Jade and DeAnna pack their bags and go on a two-on-one date. They hate each other, and the tension between them gets played up by the producers. Granted, everybody hates DeAnna except McCarten, so they could have taken this angle regardless. The date turns into a competition. Whatever Jade says, DeAnna responds similarly. Brad tells Jade she doesn’t give herself enough credit, and DeAnna tells him she’s looking for love. He gives the rose to DeAnna. Not a particularly big surprise since we’ve seen so little of Jade this season. She’s probably more upset that DeAnna stayed than having to leave. After she leaves, Brad gets into the hottub with DeAnna and kisses her.

At the house, the girls are discussing marriage. A couple of them say they’d say yes if he asks. Bettina, who’s already told Brad she loves him after like three dates, is telling the girls they’re naive for saying that stuff. She then breaks the news to them that she’s divorced.

Brad’s concerned Kristy’s too refined for her. Sheena gets emotional and says she wants to stay there for all the right reasons. McCarten tells Brad she’s afraid of being hurt again.

Four of the girls ask who was Brad’s first kiss, and he says Jenni. They all hate her. They then talk to her and twist her words to try to make her look bad. She refuses to get wrapped up in the catfight.

Roses
Bettina (received earlier)
Jenni (received earlier)
DeAnna (received earlier)
Kristy
Sheena
Hillary

McCarten and Stephy get sent home, following in the footsteps of Jade.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Bachelor 11 episode 5, which airs Monday at 10/9c on ABC.

Watch The Bachelor 11 Online

Survivor: China Episode 5

In Survivor: China Episode 2, I said Zhan Hu should get rid of Dave, or they’ll regret it. Of course, they refused to do that and kept him around. So then in Survivor: China episode 4, they woke up and realized they should have done that, and decided to vote him out. Unfortunately, what made sense in episode 2 no longer made sense in episode 4. I really can’t figure out what Sherea, one of the laziest contestants on the show this year, contributes to the team, and her excuse that she’s saving up her energy for challenges doesn’t cut it because it’s not like she’s good at them or anything. With decisions like these, it’s no wonder they’ve been to tribal council three out of four times.

Erik and Jaime start flirting. He says he’s a virgin, which she says makes him more trustworthy than she thought before. In Survivor, a showmance should work pretty well.

James and Denise are getting along well because of their work ethic. He’s definitely a good person to coast under.

The tribes receive a message saying they must pick two warriors. Fei Long picks Frosti and… Sherea. Huh? As Simon Cowell would say, what the bloody hell was that? Zhan Hu picks James and Aaron. Maybe this tribe is less dumb than the other. Or maybe they’re both just dumb in their own ways. Anyway, this does even things up, as Fei Long was becoming way too strong (largely because Zhan Hu kept sucking worse and worse).

Both tribes are talking about voting off new members, but in terms of winning challenges, this doesn’t make sense. If this were a normal tribe shuffle, it definitely would, but when you get the strongest members, you don’t just vote them off. That’s just stupid unless you want to lose. With that said, Sherea’s completely expendable.

Sherea’s talking about stepping up her work now that she’s on the other tribe. I’m not betting on it. Frosti’s happy to find out nobody likes Jean-Robert because it improves his position. Jean-Robert’s asking people to help him out politely as far as I can tell, yet everybody takes offense to it. They’re just looking for an excuse to hate on the guy who’s now their strongest member. If they lose him, they’ll suck as bad as the other tribe used to.

Aaron already starts talking about James being a threat longer term. Dude, it’s episode 5. Granted, better James than himself.

Peih-Gee is the only person I’ve seen smart enough to discuss taking advantage of having a post-shuffle majority. Most people try their hardest to make sure they win immunity, thereby ensuring that their teammates on the other side who are in the minority go home. She realizes this problem and contemplates whether it’s a good idea. This is potentially problematic for her in this case (again going back to the picks based on strength) because if they get rid of the strongest players, that runs the risk of losing more immunities, which may be a problem if the couple decide to take her out.

Tribes must head out to a raft and dive under the water to retrieve sticks. They must get as many sticks in one breath as possible. When they get all the sticks out, puzzle pieces will be released. Amanda and Courtney sit out for Fei Long. Zhan Hu gets back to shore first. Fei Long’s a bit behind but not too far. Jaime and Peih Gee are completely unconcerned about the challenge, and since they’re two of the three puzzle solvers, this is enough to make sure they lost big.

James hopes the guys unite, which would make for a very strong tribe. Erik’s not going to turn on Jaime yet, but he would turn on Peih-Gee. Would have made more sense to clue Erik in on the decision beforehand and gotten his feedback. They do, however, tell him after the fact, and he’s willing to work with them just because he doesn’t see a viable alternative. James tells them to just send him home if they’re not getting rid of one of the girls. He would have been safe at least one more time, but probably not much more at this rate.

Jaime admits at tribal council that she threw the challenge. James is going nuts listening to this conversation and wants to leave because he just can’t sit around and watch what they’re doing.

Votes:
Peih-Gee
James
Aaron
Aaron
Aaron

Aaron has been voted off the island. James is quite upset, but they got rid of the person who’s a smoother talker.

I’ve got to give credit to Peih-Gee for one of the better strategic plays I’ve seen in quite some time. This is how you deal with a shuffle.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 6 That’s Love Baby! It Makes You Strong!, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

The Next Great American Band Premieres Tomorrow

From the folks that brought us American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance comes the newest music-focused creation, The Next Great American Band. It’s in a rather iffy time slot of 8PM on Fridays, so I wouldn’t expect too much from it in terms of ratings, but it may perform well enough to move to a real night.

“You just have to cross your fingers,” said Mike Darnell, Fox’s president for alternative entertainment. He added that American Idol’s success “doesn’t necessarily translate to the band show. … You can’t compare anything to American Idol.”

Nigel Lythgoe’s not afraid to poke fun of American Idol in the process of promoting this new show. “I can pick out five bands that I can go, ‘Wow, these guys are tremendous.’ You can’t do that with the top 12 Idols,” Lythgoe said.

One of the judges, the Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Rzeznik, told The Associated Press, “People are tired of seeing really manufactured artists, who are very beautiful and can sing but don’t have their own body of work… This is a cool process, not put together by a marketing team, a record company.”

The producers accepted 60 videos from online submissions and will narrow that down to the final 12 on the first night. So they will get rid of one of Idol’s biggest criticisms (yet also its biggest draw): the excessive really bad auditions. Two bands will be voted off each week.

Online Nation Cancelled

Online Nation, which saw a ridiculously low viewership of just 580,000 people in what was to be its final broadcast, has been cancelled by The CW, effective immediately. Apparently it’s dragging down the (dead) Sunday night lineup or something.

In its place, Aliens in America will be airing, which seems completely out of place in that time slot, but it does revert back to what The WB has historically done on Sunday night in terms of promoting its other nights with reruns.

It’s unclear why CW Now has not also been cancelled or just how much life it has left in it, as it, too, is well under 1 million viewers.

CSI: NY Season 4, Episode 4 – “Time’s Up”

In last week’s episode, “You Only Die Once”, the team encounters a group of spy wannabes that robs Flack’s girlfriend and chief Sinclair’s apartment using an extremely high-tech batmobile-like car. This week, the CSI: NY team faces two weird cases – a college girl with a COD of death by orgasm and a naked man who claims he’s from the future, but dies at the police station after confessing to a murder that will happen the next day.

The crime scene was in front of the police station, where the victim’s blood scattered. They found a piece of glass, which may have been the cause of death, as the victim tried to get it out of his neck.

Of course, Flack searches the apartment of the “victim”, which the futuristic man has confessed of killing, only to find out that the guy is still alive. Kevin Murray, a college student, claims he does not know the dead guy, but becomes afraid when he finds out that the dead guy says “he will die tomorrow”.

Dr. Hammerback discovers a chip on the vic’s arm, which the victim implanted on himself. Adam explores the chip and finds longitude and latitude numbers that led them to the apartment where a physics genius named Dr. Mark Browning (the victim) lived and conducted his time-travel research and experiments. Here Mac found an old coin with unidentified thumb prints.

Another interesting discovery was the #9 steel sewing needle found inside Dr. Browning’s brain, which may have been the reason for his genius mind.

Danny and Stella checks out the crime scene and interviews witnesses. According to most of the witnesses, the girl died after an orgasm in front of everyone in the diner.

Hammerback finds 27 sad-faces (using transparent markers) on the girl’s body. Although the cause of death was endorphin aneurism, Hammerback discovers an unidentified drug (of high doses) on her system. Stella discovers that the girl’s inhaler has been tampered and inserted with an experimental sexual drug that is still undergoing clinical testing. Stella and Danny checks out all students who are part of the drug study, but no one knows the victim.

In front of Dr. Browning’s apartment, Kevin Murray dies, just on time as Browning predicted before he died. Mac and Hawkes finds a new evidence – traces of blood on a book.

The prints from the book, coin and piece of glass led to a Leo Tyler, who became Browning’s assistant and believed his time-traveling when the doctor gave him lotto and horse race results. Because of greed, Tyler wanted Browning to get him another gambling result. But once the doctor declined his request, he smashes the doc’s head with a circular glass and kills Kevin Murray in hopes of fixing the time-machine for himself.

In the mean time, Stella and Danny discovers that one of the drug testers was a leader of a college sorority. Apparently, she knows the girl victim and was one of the girls who drew sad faces on her body in one of their ceremonies. As a way to for the vic to lose her virginity (one of the sorority’s requirements), the leader thought the experimental sexual drug could “losen her up” before losing her virginity. As it turns out, the vic’s existing meds and the experimental drug caused adverse reactions that caused her death.

Back at the lab, Mac receives a letter from Dr. Peyton telling him about a job she accepted in Italy. She says she won’t be coming back for work and it’s time to say goodbye.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of CSI: NY Season 4 episode 5, which airs Wednesday at 11/10c on CBS.

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The Bachelor 11 Episode 3

In The Bachelor 11 episode 2, McCarten was the first bachelorette to kiss Brad (badly), Solisa tried way too hard to impress Brad, Michele fell and got a concussion, the girls decided they hated Jenni and tattled on her, and we said goodbye to three women (Michelle, Erin, and Mallory).

Stephy, McCarten, Jenni, Lindsey, Sarah, and DeAnna went on the first group date. They’re going to a circus where there will be a lot of participation. They started off by petting the elephants. Then they went to the luxury box (there’s a luxury box at the circus?). After that, they get to interact with circus people, which Jenni says is her element. Jenni asks what Brad’s thoughts are about a long distance relationship because she wants to finish the cheerleading season. Stephy’s been single for a long time and is looking for someone like her dad.

Brad is the official guest ringmaster and walks out on the stage with the women. He takes McCarten to the side and tries to figure out what she’s feeling. She says she’s feeling more than a friend vibe but doesn’t need a rose to feel safe. After the circus, one of the circus guys come out and gives Brad the rose. He gives it to Stephy because she really put herself out there.

Hillary gets the one-on-one date with Brad. She says she wants to get the first kiss (so she thinks, as two others have already kissed him) so she can brag about it. He breaks out a million dollar necklace to let her wear for the date. They go to San Francisco for the night by private jet and limo. He says he chose her because he thinks she’s a fun girl. At dinner, Sheena gets emotional but says she’s not going to cry. Afterwards, though, she does become an emotional wreck, which confuses him but lets him know she’s got true feelings for him. He gives her a rose. At the end of the date, they do end up kissing. Then she says she’s falling in love with him in her confessional.

McCarten couldn’t care less whether Hillary leaves or not, and DeAnna’s just as cold. They openly and willingly admit it to her face when she gets back.

Kristy, Sheena, Jade, Bettina, and Solisa go on the second group date, which is sailing. Solisa gives Brad a lap dance. Sheena and Brad are racing in the water, and she cuts him off and gets in trouble by the water cops, which I’m assuming are about as dangerous as the mall police. This gives Bettina the chance to get some time alone with him. She finally takes the opportunity to tell him she’s divorced. He’s shocked (so is this a bad thing or not?). He gives the rose to Kristy.

Brad’s twin brother Chad comes to help him out. Brad asks Chad to pretend to be him. He’s going to use this as a test to see who’s there for him and who’s not. Given the limited amount of time he’s spent with them so far, this is a lame test and a pitiful thing to base a decision on, though many of them will be able to tell the difference. McCarten and Lindsey don’t notice, but Chad thinks that given more time McCarten would have figured it out. Sheena notices and says he looks and sounds different but takes a little bit to completely catch on. Kristy notices before Chad even gets a chance to sit down. Sarah notices something’s off but doesn’t figure it out.

Roses:
Hillary (already received a rose)
Stephy (already received a rose)
Kristy (already received a rose)
Sheena
McCarten
Jenni
Jade
DeAnna
Bettina

Sent home:
Lindsey
Solisa
Sarah

I’ve been wondering when he’d send Solisa home, but the idiotic twin twist screwed both Lindsey and Sarah.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Bachelor 11 episode 4.

Watch The Bachelor 11 Online