CSI: Miami--'Chip/Tuck'

<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>An irate man goes over to his neighbor's house to complain about the man's wood chipper only to get a face full of blood when he gets near the machine! The neighbor, Tyler Marr, hands over the video camera he used to record the wood chipper so he could file a claim against the neighbor, Steven Corbett. Corbett is dismissive of the CSIs and of his neighbor's complaints, and he tells Tripp he hasn't left his home all morning. Dr. Price and her assistants go over the pieces of flesh from the wood chipper and Kyle finds an intact pelvic bone, which is sent up to Natalia in DNA. Inside the bone, she discovers a mite. She runs DNA from the bone through CODIS and gets two profiles from the marrow: though neither is in CODIS, they are a familial match, indicating the victim recently had a bone marrow transplant. The CSIs track down the donor, Lauren Reeger, whose father Ethan was a plastic surgeon. Lauren is stunned by her father's death, and tells Horatio and Delko that her father hadn't been stable since her mother's death two years before. The team next turns to Sean Loftin, Ethan's partner at his plastic surgery practice. Sean hands over Ethan's patient files, noting that he only had a few patients. Calleigh notices Elizabeth Corbett is one of them. Delko returns to the Corbett house to speak to Elizabeth. He learns the woman never leaves her room and soon sees for himself why: she's had numerous plastic surgery procedures and doesn't resemble her former self in the slightest. She tells Delko that Corbett finally told her she "wasn't a good candidate" for what he planned--after he turned her into a monster.<p>Back at the lab, Horatio goes over Ethan's patient files and is surprised to discover photos of a badly burned Ron Saris (last seen in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season7/resurrection.shtml">"Resurrection"</a>) among them. Tripp tells Horatio, who until that moment thought Saris was dead, that Stetler brought Ron Saris in to the station. The IAB officer tells Horatio that he needs to put aside his history with Saris--and promises to explain when he can, much to Horatio's consternation. Delko discovers Ethan's car near the Corbett house, the tires slashed. The tire slash marks are unique, leading Delko to suspect they were made with a plasma blade, a tool used by plastic surgeons. Ryan goes to Sean Loftin to get his plasma blade, but the surgeon finds it missing when he goes to look for it. Sean tells Ryan that he recalls Ethan arguing with a patient with burns on his face--clearly Ron Saris. Thinking Ron may have stolen the plasma blade, Ryan takes the bag to run it for prints. Horatio pays Julia a visit to warn her that Ron has resurfaced--and might come after her. In the AV lab, Calleigh and Dave Benton go over the video Trevor took and discover a hand with a watch on it reading "Dillinger High MVP 2008" on it. Calleigh and Tripp have the owner, Lucas Gallinetti, brought in. Accompanied by his stunning mother, Bonnie, Lucas tells Calleigh and Tripp that his mother changed since going in for plastic surgery procedures with Ethan--she started going to clubs, partying and sleeping around. He followed Ethan from his office to the Corbett house hoping to talk to him, but when he saw the blood in the wood chipper he freaked out and ran.<p>In the lab, Horatio runs prints from Loftin's bag but the results are inconclusive: there's insufficient ridge detail on the prints. Michael Travers has figured out the mystery of the mite from the pelvic bone: it's a hair mite. Calleigh recovers a wad of hair Ethan must have pulled from the killer and Delko determines it's from a cheap wig. Recalling Elizabeth Corbett wore a wig, Delko and Calleigh go to see her, but when Delko touches her hair, he realizes it's synthetic. Elizabeth offers up another clue: she recalls Ethan saying to her, "You should look like her." She first began her procedures two years ago--around the time Ethan's wife, Marnie, died. Calleigh and Delko pull Marnie's accident file and discover she looked just like Bonnie now looks. The pair gets a warrant for a hair sample from Bonnie and Ryan finds mites in her extensions. Bonnie tells Calleigh that she and Ethan were lovers. They were happy together--until she found pictures of Marnie and realized Ethan had made her look like his dead wife. She went to confront him, intent on killing herself in the wood chipper, but when Ethan called her by his wife's name, she threw him in instead in a rage. Elsewhere at the station, Stetler tells Horatio that Ron Saris is going to be in the confidential informant program--that the former crook has already helped him get an undercover cop in on a drug deal. Horatio is not pleased, given a recent attack on Julia involving the plasma blade taped above her doorway. He tells Ron the attack failed, and Ron holds up his hands and shows the CSI that his prints have been burned off--after noting that he and Horatio are now working on the same side.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p><i>CSI: Miami</i> pays homage to the groundbreaking cable drama <i>Nip/Tuck</i> in this send-up of the plastic surgery business. <i>Nip/Tuck</i> deals with all sorts of bizarre plastic surgery cases--certainly Elizabeth Corbett and Bonnie Gallinetti's cases easily could have been featured on the FX drama. Fans of the show will also note that Sean Loftin shares a first name with one of the plastic surgeons on <i>Nip/Tuck</i>, and the name of the Reeger/Loftin practice mirrors that of <i>Nip/Tuck</i>'s McNamara/Troy. We don't get to see too much of Sean Loftin--played by the alway likable <font color=yellow>Kevin Rahm</font>, he seems normal and well adjusted--but Ethan's quest to turn one of his patients into his dead wife is just the sort of twisted plotline <i>Nip/Tuck</i> would feature. Though given that the FX drama recently featured a doctor who liked to fornicate with furniture, perhaps a surgeon who simply wants to recreate his wife is tame in comparison. Nonetheless, it's definitely a worthy twist for <i>Miami</i>--even if early on it does seem evident that this is what Ethan was doing, given his selectivity when it came to his patients and the fact that he rejected Elizabeth because she turned out to be not "a good candidate" for the procedure. <p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full reviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/reviews/csi/chip_tuck.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Excellent review, as always.

The other two CSI shows have their share of kooky cases, but this one had a distinct Miami flare to it. It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but it seems to work for the show.

I thought it was funny when Tripp's jaw practically went slack at the sight of Bonnie. :lol:

But would Reeger really give his 'new Marnie' cheap hair extensions?

I wasn't surprised to see Ron Saris back again - when they didn't recover a body in "Resurrection", I figured he'd be alive. Now he's even more of a cartoon baddie, but Kim Coates is good, so I'll let that slide. (The scene with the plasma blade at the end was just corny IMO, though.)

It is nice to see Kyle inserted into episodes without over-the-top drama being necessary to get him there. I'll be interested to see how things go with Dr Price and those stolen drugs - I assume they'll deal with it this season, but I guess we'll see.

I like Travers, and I really want to see him get all flustered and embarrassed because he's just so damn cute. I'm not sold on the accent, but he's adorabe. As for Dave - I really want to tackle him and cut his hair.

By the way, did James Patrick Stuart (Steven Corbett) give anybody else David Tennant vibes? I'm not sure what it is, but something about him kind of reminded me of Tennant. And when he said 'come on' or whatever he said to Eric before letting him in the house, I totally had a Doctor Who flashback. :lol:

As a random note, the kid that played Lucas gave me a bit of a Tennant vibe as well in the interrogation scene. But mostly I was just a bit disturbed that he was the brother from Lizzie McGuire. :wtf:

 

I love David Lee Smith and am always happy when he's on (had to wait a long time for him to show up this season). Although I love the tension between Horatio and Rick Stetler, it would be nice to see them actually working together on something. And, even nicer if Stetler became a regular and not just a recurring character. But, then I can always dream about my CSI: NEW ORLEANS idea...

Lynn

 

Spot on review.

I enjoy the the tension between H and Rick, but I'm kinda hoping that they fix it so that H starts to work with Rick a bit more. I also noticed that David Caruso's character has changed a bit this season. Not that many one liners, not in every opening scene and certainly not enough of him in the lab for my liking.

I really like Caruso and I desperately miss Alexx as the ME to be honest so it was a great pleasure to see her in this season - even if it was just as a guest.

Z

 

Woah! Saris looked real creepy in this one, especially at the end of the episode when he show H his hands.

I love it whenever Rick gets into H's face. H gets so irritated, which is rare to see especially with someone he can't seemingly get rid off!!!