Shot of the glittering lights of Vegas. If I had Smell-o-Vision, the scent of abject desperation would be wafting around my living room. The camera pulls in a close-up to a package sitting on an examining table in a room lit with the blue lights of death. Ooh -- I love brown paper packages tied up with string! Wait, I have a feeling I'm not going to love this one. Al The Previously-Named-"David" Coroner carefully slits the box open and pulls out a huge white tub. There's something dark floating in it. Yes, that's a human head, all right. As Al examines the head, Gil sticks his in the way and comments, "I heard you got some head." Best part of that line? Neither man flinched or really reacted to the overtones. Al wonders how Gil knew, and Gil comments he's got his connections, which have something to do with Celine tickets and being apprised of the arrival of perishable goods. My idea of "perishable"? Leg of lamb. CSI's idea of "perishable"? Head of human. I think I'll put my apple aside now. The two guys examine the head. Al mentions that formaldehyde "fixes tissue but destroys DNA." I did not know that! Man, the most I learn from my regular recapping gig is a lot of technobabble, which is fairly worthless because it's all made up. They note a lot of "leaf litter," and some "animal activity" on the head. Because of the extreme decomposition, Al thinks determining time of death will be impossible. Looking at the ragged and rotting flesh at the neck, Al says, "This neck wasn't severed, it was disarticulated. No skill involved." "Disarticulated"? I so don't like the sound of that. Al recants this statement when he sees a cut on the left cheek, and Gil comments, "That took skill." Suddenly, the camera jumps inside the cut, and for a second I think we're going to see Angel's beating heart. Gil quotes Shakespeare: "The unkindest cut of all." Does that give us a hint who the killer will be, since that's what Antony said after Brutus, a trusted friend, stabbed Caesar?
Credits. Wow, this show has The Who singing the theme song? God, what a crappy theme song I have by comparison! Actually, scratch the "by comparison."
Hodges Podges and Al do some more head-hunting and hypothesize that with the existence of more "plant life" than "geological," it's possible the victim wasn't buried. Al comments that the hair and roots are clean, and I know it's not the case, but I can't help but think that means the guy was using Aveda's newest shampoo. Cat walks in, gives both men (or the head) a weird look, picks up a case file, and asks if they know when Gil's coming back. They don't. Cat takes a look a the file and asks, "Jackpot, Nevada? Where the hell is that?" Probably right between "Going For Broke" and "Completely Destitute."
Overhead twilight scenes of areas way too pretty and green to be the Nevada I drove through this summer. On I-80, there wasn't a spear of green until we hit Tahoe, and it was not until we literally crossed the border into California that this dramatic change took place. You see the sign, "Welcome to California, future land of stupid governors," and look ahead to verdant mountains. You turn around and see "Thank God you left Nevada behind," and a landscape that does nothing more than make you really thirsty. Since we find out that they're in Elko County, that's northeast Nevada -- as close to the Utah border as you can get -- and at least four hours from Vegas, so maybe it's just much nicer up there. Gil drives his gas guzzler (yes, yes, I know there are mountains out there, so it's an NUV [Necessary Utility Vehicle] more than an SUV) through Main Street, Smalltown and stops at a diner. Because all knowledge can be gained through sippin' coffee and eatin' hash browns at the local greasy spoon. Gil walks over to the local law, who is handily sitting right there, and we get a nice earful of the local color discussing Herman's Head. "Bet a wolf got 'em." "There's no wolves around here, dumbass! Bear!" "Ten bucks says satanic cult." Hee. I hate to say it, but those three guys were much entertaining right there than most weeks of Enterprise. The local law introduces himself as Lt. Alan Brooks and the other guy sitting at the table as his brother Leland. Lt. Brooks comments that things must be slow in Las Vegas for Gil to come all the way out to Jackpot to help them out. "Well, the Elko County sheriff made the request, we were happy to respond. It's an interesting case," Gil says. Lt. Brooks hmms that he doesn't find it all that interesting. Probably because heads roll on a daily basis around there. Br'er Leland comments that it was most likely a hiker or transient who met with an accident or fell. An accident where his head popped clear off his body? "That must've been a heckuva fall -- his head's in a plastic jar," Gil reminds him. Lt. Brooks brushes the whole thing off and says there isn't going to be much left of the body save for some "ki-otee" turds. Lt. Brooks adds that not one of the seven inhabitants of Jackpot has been reported missing, and he doesn't have the resources to go scarping about to look for heady remains. "Well, you do now," Gil smiles firmly. "There better be a whole lot more of you out there," Lt. Brooks comments. A pair of overalls gets up from the counter and leaves. "Have a good one, Marty," Lt. Brooks calls out. The pair of overalls barely looks back as he limps away. Gil mentions the unkindest cut on Herman's Head's face: "So there's not just a body out there, there's also a killer."
Las Vegas Lab. Hodges Podges tells Cat that spruce and fir tree fragments were found on Herman's Head. "Typical mountain forest," Cat shrugs. "Typical for nine thousand feet above sea level," Hodges Podges corrects her, and picks up a jar in his gloved hands. "The wood fragments are either cottonwood or aspen. And aspen only grows in places that have been recently cleared." "Fire, roads or...logging," Cat supplies. Hodges nods, "After major forest fires, manzanita bushes grow like weeds for decades." Cat adds there are no signs of manzanita leaves on Herman's Head. "Which means the head was on a damp, north-facing slope, a least nine thousand feet up, cleared but not recently exposed to fire," Hodges Podges finishes. How did they know it was north-facing? Was there moss growing on Herman?
Cat calls to harass Gil, and Gil suckers her into taking care of some sizeable stacks of paperwork on his desk. After Cat gapes at the mess, she tells him about Hodges Podges's final analysis of the leaf litter. Gil thanks her and hangs up. "Trouble with the wife?" Lt. Brooks asks. "Yeah, she hates it when we're apart," Gil deadpans.
More beautiful scenery shots of a really large lake that I'm pretty certain doesn't exist up there, as maps only show dotted lines for lakes, which usually mean lake beds. Although there is a reservoir and a river up there.
Gil questions the woman whose dog found the head. We get a scary slashback of the woman calling her German shepherd, Tripper, for dinner. Shots of the dog pulling the scalp away with his teeth. Ugh. Dogs like human flesh? In a move that earns major points with this animal-lover, Gil asks if the dog is okay. The woman said Tripper acted lethargic for a few days, so she took him to the vet and had some tests run. "He got better, just wanna keep him that way." She adds, "Where there's a head there's gotta be hands and feet and sooner or later, he'll dig'em up." "Or what's left of them," Lt. Brooks says. "No offense, Sylvia, but he's not exactly a scent hound." Tripper whimpers a bit at this. "All animals can smell rotting flesh. Studies have shown that when domestic pets bring back human body parts usually the remains are within a half-mile radius," Gil tells them. The woman is incredulous that they've done studies on something like that, and Gil says it happens more often than one would think. He then asks if she's noticed any buzzards or vultures hanging about. "All the time," Tripper's Mom says. "Thanks," Gil nods. Was that last response that helpful? Gil looks at the area behind them and mentions that it faces north. Lt. Brooks doesn't really care. "You know that expression 'heads will roll'? It's true, especially downhill," Gil informs him, and starts hiking. Heh. Lt. Brooks radios (I had to delete my verb of "comms") a "Bernie" and tells him to "drop the doughnut" because he's going to "earn [his] pay today."
Hike Town. "I hope so," is Gil's response to Lt. Brooks's question asking if he's afraid he's going to trip over something. Gil continues walking carefully and says that dead bodies make good fertilizer; one often sees "fresh green shoots" on a burial site. Ah-ha! That's why Mrs. Pleavish door took first prize for her roses so soon after her husband disappeared! "Must be nice to know the answer to every little thing," Lt. Brooks snarks. I'm not sure if he's being snotty because he's annoyed Gil has an answer for everything, or if he's denigrating Gil for knowing so much about stuff he considers unimportant. Either way, he's a jerk. "I prefer questions, actually," Gil the Unruffled says. "And I don't, I suppose?" Lt. Brooks retorts rhetorically. He then goes on to tell Gil that Doris (the waitress at the greasy spoon) has an ex-husband who "likes to smack her around every once in awhile," and lists a whole bunch of issues Jackpot has with its inhabitants, but as Gil doesn't seem to be listening, neither do I. Although when Brooks wearily finishes with, "Fire chief's a closet pyro and so forth," my ears perk up so I can giggle. It turns out that Lt. Brooks's point was that he doesn't have time to ask questions about "buzzards and such." Gil is still not listening as he examines an aspen tree. "That's an aspen tree, in case you were wondering," Lt. Brooks says. I'll bet it took a lot for Gil not to say that he wasn't wondering at all, since he just knew exactly what it was. One of Brooks's men calls out from the top of the hill that they found something.
At the site, one officer is vomiting both in audio and visual range. You know what? It's hard to type when I have both hands covering my face. Gil asks the officers not to disturb The Scene. There's a great deal of bug buzzing around The Scene, and Gil crouches for a closer look. What we have here is a body, buried up to its upper chest, with a bloody stump where the head used to be. Looks like we found Herman. And we're done with the raspberry smoothie! What makes The Scene all the more creepy is that besides the head being torn clean off, the body (or what we can see) just looks so normal in its button-down shirt over a t-shirt. There's a lot of blood around. "Carabid beetles," Gil comments. "Second instar maggots." He pulls thin forceps out of his jacket and nabs a bug: "Formica obscuripes." Amazing -- bugs that obscure Formica? That's gotta be one of the seven deadly plagues of the kitchen, right to wine stains and raw chicken. We get a nice zoom of the tiny bug struggling in the forceps. I can hear my mother squealing in delight all the way from Minneapolis. "Let me guess: you like bugs, don't you?" Lt. Brooks says, studiously not looking down at Herman's Body. "Yeah, I do," Gil says, calmly. "They're perfect, they always do their jobs." I'm so itchy right now. How the hell does Sobell do this week after week? Either she's got a thicker skin than I do, or she's got some magical lotion I need to borrow. Gil determines that the body has been there for four to seven days, and asks how deep Brooks thinks the hole is. Lt. Brooks takes off his hat and viciously bats at bugs as he guesses about four feet, depending on "how he's stuffed in there." Gil's got his little Elph camera out like he's about to start taking souvenir vacation pictures, and comments that it took "a fair amount of dedication" to dig the hole. "Unless the killer had help," Lt. Brooks supposes. Gil takes pictures of some blood spatter on nearby rocks. Okay, but it would have been a quick death, yes? I mean, wild animals go for the jugular for an instant kill, right? RIGHT?! Lt. Brooks notes that Gil was right about the head being cut. "This blood's not from a cut," Gil corrects him. "The drops imply directionality. The stellated circles imply perpendicular impact." Slashback to the blood spurting in a perpendicular way and impacting on the rock. "This spatter is in direct line with the victim's carotid, it's arterial spurt," Gil finishes. Lt. Brooks asks if Gil is saying Herman was alive when he was buried. Gil thinks the cut on his face was to lure predators. Night-vision slashback of the buried Herman being cut, a growling something approaching the exposed head, and the resulting spurt of blood on the rocks. Gil stands up: "This wasn't just murder, it was torture." Shudder.
Commercials. Or, as I can't stop spelling it to save my life, "commericals."
Lt. Brooks asks "Einstein" if they're just going stand there all day "or what?" Gil gives Brooks yet another lesson in procedure when he tells him they can't do anything until The Scene is released. As they wait for something or someone, Gil muses that the murder could be a variation on a Native American punishment of burying a body up to its neck and then pouring tree sap all over the head to attract ants. God, how long would it take for you to die of ant nibbles? Maybe you'd die of thirst first. Or suffocation, if enough ants got into your mouth and nose. Still feeling very itchy. "Punishment for what?" Brooks asks. "See? There's a good question," Gil tells him.
A man in a checked shirt comes stumbling up the hill and stares down at Herman. "About time, Dale," Brooks says. Without even hearing his dead-giveaway whisper-like voice, you can just tell from the squared-off chin and squinty eyes that this is Jeffrey Combs. Combs recurs as an Andorian named "Shran" on Enterprise, but I like to call him "Excedrin PM". Dr. Excedrin PM continues to stare down at the body until Gil prompts him by confirming that he's the coroner. Dr. Excedrin PM looks up and nods: "Mr. Grissom -- I'm Dr. Dale Stearling, I sent you the head. How can I help?" Gil patiently explains that they can't touch the body until he authorizes it. "Oh," Dr. Excedrin PM says, looking back and forth at the officers. He steps closer to get another look at the bloody stump: "He's dead, you're authorized." Heh -- I like how he felt the need to take another step closer to determine that Herman was dead. Brooks gets fidgety about getting the body out. "There may be evidence in the gravesite -- we need to preserve it," Gil tells him. Brooks continues to act fidgety about what Gil wants them to do. "Now, for each foot of dirt that's removed, go on a separate bag. I'll sift through it later," Gil instructs. These guys are so hating his High and Persnicketiness, and I'm just loving it. Brooks starts to plunge his shovel in. "Hold on, make sure your shovels don't get within six inches of that body," Gil orders. This guy is so precise; he'd make the ideal pastry chef! Okay, ew. I didn't need to connect the dots like that. Brooks wants to get on with it already, as they are losing light. As they dig, Gil looks resigned to having a body hacked apart by flatfoot shovels.
At Dr. Excedrin PM's office, Gil appears to be examining the vet's degree. It doesn't look like a real degree, either. It looks like a template stored in a computer that you can run off on a color printer, stick a gold seal on, and have a bunch of people sign. Dr. Excedrin PM defensively blithers that he was in the ninety-ninth percentile on the MCATs but chose to be a vet. Gil gives him a bland look and says, "Well, veterinary school's harder to get into than medical school," and tells him he wasn't looking at the degree, he was looking at a picture of him and Doris. Dr. Excedrin PM admits they were married for a bit, but it didn't work out. So, he's the ex-husband that Brooks mentioned? He's such a shrinking character in this, but I guess that conceals a serious temper. What I find interesting is that he's her ex-husband but still manages to hit her. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she got out of an abusive marriage, but it must be pretty difficult to have occasion to hit someone when you aren't living with them anymore. I wonder what the statistics for ex-spousal abuse are. You know, I'll bet my apartment manager would know -- he's an ex-chief of police who has been badgering me to collaborate on a book about domestic violence. He's got all the background, and he seems to think I have the publishing pull. I guess he'd be right if it was a book about smacking someone around with a sauce soubise or visiting violence by venison.
ANY-way. As Gil snaps on some gloves, Dr. Excedrin PM fusses that he knows "how to cut" and should therefore be qualified to prepare the autopsy. Gil reproves him with, "Only a licensed pathologist can perform an autopsy. All we're allowed to do is search for evidence on the body." Kinda makes you wonder how many illegal autopsies Dr. Excedrin PM's been performing on the sly, doesn't it? Gil says the body will have to go to Las Vegas that night, so Brooks recruits Barry, a woebegone-looking officer, to go and git his car in order to be Herman's chauffeur. Gil gives some more instructions before they start pawing through Herman's clothes. Although, since he's again using his thin and elegant forceps, I guess "pawing over" isn't really the correct term. Ten bucks says that my mother now owns a pair of those forceps. Just for fun. With no sign of a wallet or ID, the most interesting thing Gil pulls out with his Fun Forceps is...a bit of crumpled lint! Or maybe it's a wad of cotton. Or stuffing for a teddy bear. More examining yields discovering a lack of ligature marks on the wrists, which means Herman wasn't tied up. "Well, no one just lets themselves get buried alive," Dr. Excedrin PM says, looking accusingly at Herman. Gil supposes the murderer could have had a gun, but Brooks makes his first salient point of the day when he says you can't dig a hole and hold a gun on someone at the same time. Dr. Excedrin PM suggests the hole was dug earlier. "That would imply premeditation," Gil says. "Or more than one killer," Brooks adds. Gil follows with the idea of Herman being drugged, and brings up the fact that Tripper wasn't feeling too well after he made a Happy Meal of Herman's earlobes. He orders Dr. Excedrin PM to order a full drug and tox panel on the dog's bloodwork he sent to Reno. "Maybe whatever was in this man's body was also in the dog's," Gil says casually as he fingerprints Herman.
The officers load Herman into a car, but Gil has them hold on while he locks the body bag with a red plastic lock and takes a picture of his handiwork. "Say cheese!" he says, and snaps a picture of the driver. Brooks wants to know "what the hell was that fer?" "Souvenir," Gil cracks. "Is that French for evidence?" Brooks asks, and then gives the driver directions to "drive straight and stay out of the casinos." Dr. Excedrin PM asks Gil if he needs a place to sleep. "I need a place to work," Gil responds. Because this man? Does. Not. Sleep.
At a desk lit by a single shaft of light falling over his face, Gil squirts the lint ball with something as he holds it in his Fun Forceps. Carefully, he unravels what appears to be a piece of paper. Hearing some noise, Gil pulls out a gun -- goodness, it's been so long since I've seen a bit of twentieth-century weaponry! -- and puts it within his reach before getting back to work.
A fax pops out at Vegas HQ, and Cat examines the photocopy of the piece of paper, which turns out to be a receipt from a Western Las Vegas University bookstore. As Cat and Warrick go over the list of mainly core curriculum books, Cat somehow divines, based on one title (Chiaroscuro Theory and Technique), that Herman must be a freshman in a sophomore-level class.
WLVU. Cat and Jim Brass question Herman's roommate, who sadly has a real name: Ross Jenson. The roomie drawls that he hasn't seen him since last Friday. Apparently, the prospect of Weezer tickets wasn't enough to draw him back to his dorm. Jim asks if it's normal for Herman to be gone almost a week. The Roomie thinks that as a Wild and Wacky Art Student, Herman is prone to do things just like that. Jim lifts up a bag of Doritos on a desk and finds a pipe of sorts. Pot? Crack? Jim then opens a tin of Altoids and lifts out a plastic Ziploc of oregano. There's also a vial of white powder. The roomie hurriedly says that it's not his. Of course not, he's just holding it for a friend, right? But hey, there's no shame in admitting you hoard dried herbs -- embrace the gourmand within! Jim tells him, "Relax, buddy, this is a homicide investigation." And that would make him relax…why? "Oh, swell, you're not here to bust me for drugs, just for murder!" Cat notes aspen leaves and mud covering some shoes and asks if they are Herman's. The roomie says he doesn't know. Okay, wait. How does he not know? If they're not his shoes, chances are they are his roommate's, right? Or is there a third person living in that room they aren't bothering to question? After being asked, the roomie tells the investigators that Herman spends lots of time in northern Nevada. Jim says they're going to have to confiscate the laptop and shoes. The roomie shrugs his assent.
Jackpot. Gil's asleep on a bench -- still holding his gun -- when a fax wakes him up. From the looks of it, it's a photocopy of an ID. Cat (or someone) has written on the bottom, "Gil, a face for your head."
At the local greasy, Doris checks out the fax -- which must be a photocopy, because it's now on goldenrod paper -- and remembers him as a handsome boy with nice clothes who came in for some coffee last week. The Slashback shows Doris flirting with Herman as the camera pulls up on Dr. Excedrin PM glaring menacingly in the background. Herman rebuffs her advances and just repeats his order of coffee as he waves his thermos at her. Back in normal time, the Pair of Overalls we saw earlier gets up from the bar and silently leaves. One of the locals at the counter comments that he was driving a "gutless little four-banger." I have no idea what that means, but I'm guessing it's not a pickup truck. The local thinks it was black or blue. Gil turns to Brooks for help on the Herman's car, so Brooks calls out to the greasy, "Anybody here seen a black or blue mystery vehicle?" No one has. Brooks dismisses the car as being long gone by now. Gil thinks the car may have been ditched near there. "Do you have a local suspect?" Brooks queries. Considering where the murder took place, how can he not, Chief Wiggum? Gil tells him it's a theory, which doesn't mean anything unless he can prove it. He takes a placemat from the greasy, which happens to have a nice little road map of Jackpot on it, and plots out where the body was found and where the killer would have had to intercept Herman on the way out of town. "Knock yerself out," Brooks invites.
Gil drives out into the country. Getting out of the car, he grabs a much more sophisticated camera than the Elph and follows some tire tracks. But first he locks his car. He looks up and notes The Scene -- the camera pans down through the police tapes to show the empty hole, just to confirm that it is indeed The Scene -- and walks on by. Just as the creepy music kicks up with equally creepy "ooooh-whoo" lyrics, Gil spies a barn in the distance. He peers into a crack and sees a deserted black (or blue!) car. The barn is bolted from the inside with a slat of wood, which means the person who stowed the car had to get out by an alternate means. Gil opens a shutter whose sill is about chest high. Taking care to put a hankie down first, Gil leans in and sees a screen lying on the ground. A slashback illustrates that the killer stepped on the screen -- creating a cloud of dust -- and crawled out this window. Just as Gil's clearly about to say, "Veddy interesting!" his car alarm goes off. Checking back, Gil finds a smashed passenger-side window; the silver case that was there when he grabbed his much more sophisticated camera is gone. Gil looks around at the silent woods in consternation, exhales, and tips his head and shoulders to the side all, "Damn, people!"
Gil storms into Dr. Excedrin PM's vet practice and tells him he needs to borrow some medical supplies and make a local call. "Uh, okay," Dr. Excedrin PM says, in the middle of examining a very cute pooch. As he makes the local call, Gil looks up at some peeling home-tinted windows and asks to borrow any tinting film Dr. Excedrin PM has left.
As Gil leaves the vet's, Brooks pulls up. "Oh, good, the police," Gil says flatly, "I'd like to report a crime." "No kiddin'?" Brooks says in the least sincere voice I have ever had occasion to hear. Gil explains that his car was broken into and his Coroner's Bag o' Murder Tricks was stolen. "That's going to cramp your style," Brooks clicks. "Not necessarily," Gil says, and walks away. Oh, man, with the music and the swagger, can I guess what's going to happen ?
Gil walks into a local notions store, asks the girl behind the counter to keep an eye on his bag, and starts rummaging. The girl behind the counter must think Gil's hot, because she takes off her glasses and purses her lips as she eyes his retreating back. Hot? Meh. The problem is that the first time I ever saw William L. Petersen was in Cousins, and he played a skeevy, philandering husband to Isabella Rossellini, whom she finally leaves for Ted Danson. I have never been able to shake what a jerk he was in that movie, so finding him sexy here is pretty much out of the question. That's compounded by the fact that Cousins is one of those movies that Encore LOVE shows all the time and I can never turn it off. However, in this short acquaintance, I admit that I have grown to esteem him. Gil shops. Actually, he MacGyvers. In his basket he's got some very large Duracell batteries, a box of generic resealable plastic bags, packing tape, mechanical pencil Super-Hi Polymer lead refills, Oxford index cards, and he's just on the point of selecting some white loose powder puffs when Brooks walks in. Brooks encourages Gil to fill out a report on his kit, but Gil wonders if that will really help. "Wouldn't hurt," Brooks says, looking over his shoulder at the girl behind the counter, who seems to be listening a little too intently. She smiles shamefacedly and puts her glasses back on. Gil adds that he found Herman's car out in a deserted barn, and, as he knows Brooks's men are soooo busy, he took the liberty of calling in the highway patrol to secure the site. Throughout this conversation, Gil is fingering a little blush brush. Brooks comments that it should take the highway patrol a few hours to get there from their Elko station. "Well, that will give you enough time to burn down the barn," Gil says and walks away. Oh, SNAP!
At the deserted barn, Gil hooks the battery to a piece of tinting film and lays the film on the screen thing on the floor. The close-up Science Scope shows dust/dirt collecting on the electro-static/magnetized film. The resident scientist and mathematician in my family, the Evil Dr. Mathra, weighs in on what exactly is going on here. "Is the soil/dust/dirt really magnetic enough that an electric current would pick it up? Or is he trying to do some sort of static electricity trick? However, in that case, I don't know what he's doing with the battery." Gil pulls up the tinting film and shows a perfectly captured footprint. Turning his attention to the car, Gil finds a thermos and some hairs on clothes in a bag. He crushes up some lead sticks with the butt of a screwdriver and, using the little brush from Revlon's Renounced Virgin blush, dusts the resulting powder onto the steering wheel. The packing tape picks up the fingerprints left from the lead powder. This really cool music is playing, and the verbal equivalent is roughly "Loquat! Doo-di-doo. Loquat! Doo-di-doo," which my husband turned into "Dukat! Doo-di-doo. Dukat! Doo-di-doo." God, we're such Trek geeks. Brooks pulls up, and Gil invites him in. Leaning against a metal fence, Brooks tells him to carry on, but that it's a shame to see so much work come to naught. "Naught" is my word, by the way. Sheriff Bumpkin would think that's how you tie a string. Gil demands to know what the heck he's hinting at. "Well, unless you've managed to improvise yourself a warrant as well, this is an illegal search," Brooks says, casual-like. Gil smiles. Oh, the sheriff is in for it now! Bring. It. On. Gil. "This barn had been broken into, which makes it a car scene even without the murder victim's car inside. So I don't need a warrant," Gil schools him, and then demands to know who owns the place. After some wimpy dancing around the issue, Brooks admits that Mr. Overalls, Marty Cooperman, who runs the gas station is the rightful owner of the barn, which once belonged to Marty's late uncle. "Is that who you're protecting?" Gil asks. Brooks, who has walked back to his car, looks back, but is very careful not to look at Gil. He pretends not to have heard him and leaves without another word. Gil meticulously dusts the place where Brooks's hands rested. He's got the most hysterically fastidious look on his face when he does it, too.
Jackpot Gas Station. Gil asks Marty Overalls to fix his window and then asks about the barn. Marty claims not to have been up there for years. As his is the only gas station within twenty-three miles, Gil tells Marty he must have sold Herman the gas that sits as a full tank in the abandoned car. Marty doesn't want to answer. All he says is, "I can have yer winder fixed in a coupla hours, Mr. Grissom, and then you ken git back home. I think you should dew that." You know, Gil's not exactly Jessica Fletcher sticking her busybodying glasses into the personal goings-on in Cabot Cove; he does actually have the authority to be there. The compulsive continuity checker in me notes that the window in Gil's car was a lot more broken when he first found the break-in. Now, as Marty Overalls checks it out, it seems to have re-grown some glass. It's a good old-fashioned Jackpot miracle! Cat calls Gil to tell him that Herman, a.k.a. Ross, a.k.a. the Dead Dude, was having a relationship with someone in Jackpot, as evidenced by some pretty "hot" IMs Greg found. "It sounds like Ross was in love," Cat says, and mentions that they are working on a court order for the paramour's name. Gil gives Marty Overalls the hairy eyeball as Marty Overalls continues to look very suspicious, which means, of course, that he didn't do it.
As part of an ongoing story that I know very little about, Cat receives a check for two hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars from someone named "Sam Braun" who lives in Las Vegas, NV. She acts a lot more perturbed than I would in receiving such a windfall.
Jackpot. Gil compares Brooks's prints with others. Dr. Excedrin PM tells him the lab results on Tripper came back reporting traces of GHB in his blood. "I though GHB was a party drug," Dr. Excedrin PM adds. "It is. It's also a powerful sedative. Could be what was used to subdue him -- know anyone in town who would use this?" Gil asks. Dr. Excedrin PM scoffs that "weed and speed" are the drugs of choice in Jackpot. Gil invites Dr. Excedrin PM to look in the microscope and take a dekko at the hair he removed from Herman's clothes. Dr. Excedrin PM quickly IDs it as belonging to an Abyssinian cat. Following up on Gil's and obvious question, Dr. Excedrin PM shows him a patient photo of a beautiful Abyssinian cat, Isis, with her human in the background. It's Leland, Sheriff Brooks's brother. It's also the only Abyssinian patient Dr. Excedrin PM has.
Gil buttonholes Brooks and tells him that he can prove Herman was having a relationship with someone in that town, and that he was up there visiting that person. He mentions the cat hairs and says they're from the same kind of cat Brooks's brother owns. Brooks gets irritated. Gil's not done yet; he asks if Leland lives alone (yes) and if he's gay (angry reaction). Without confirming or denying anything, Brooks says Leland was married but his wife left him. Leland also has a son. Gil finally tells him that his brother is now a murder suspect, and that he's giving the sheriff a chance to (finally) help out. "So far, you're only guilty of being a good brother," Gil finishes. Brooks growls at him to get in the car, and when Gil hesitates, he asks, "What're you worried about? You do have a gun, don't you?" Do all coroners carry guns around?
At Leland's house, Brooks tells Gil to wait outside. Gil notes tire tracks -- too thin to be from a car -- in the drive. We see Isis sitting on a chair, meowing. Oh, pretty baby! There's the sound of angry words from inside. Gil walks over to pet Isis. There's a blast as the window directly behind Gil shatters. I do not understand how he was not hit with that. I rewound it several times and he was standing point-blank in front of the window when it was blasted. Gil ducks to the side and then looks around into the house. He sees Brooks wresting a shotgun away from Leland and shoving him onto the couch. Leland starts sobbing pathetically, and Brooks does that chik-chah! thing with the shotgun.
Sheriff's department. Gil asks if Brooks is going to "keep Leland in there, right?" "Yeah, until he's ready to go home," Brooks says calmly. "He took a shot at me and then he tried to kill himself," Gil reminds Brooks irritably. Brooks says that's not the way he saw it. Are you kidding me with this? Brooks also says, "FYI, Leland's always run pretty hot. That's no secret." It may be no secret, but it's going to be illegal if he murdered someone! What kind of comment is that, anyway? Brooks then chuckles as he relates an amusing little tale of how Marty Overalls started "bustin' on" Leland when they were in school. Well, as fate would have it, Leland -- who has always run pretty hot, and there's no secret about that -- jest turned right around and "busts him back." Brooks stands up for the denouement of the roman a clef: "And I helped. And we fractured Marty's leg in three places." Is that why he limps? Gil supposes he should be grateful that Brooks showed restraint where he was concerned. "No, I didn't do it for you. A man shouldn't go through life being ashamed of who he is," Brooks says. Gil looks at a file with Leland's fingerprints on it.
A ranch. Cat approaches an older man and asks about the check. He says it's a way for her to get her to talk to him. She doesn't want to talk to him and she doesn't want the money, because even though she discovered he's her father, he's still a murderer. All righty then! Apparently, he must have been acquitted of his crime, because he says he's not a murderer in the eyes of the law. Cat makes it very clear that she doesn't want her or her daughter to have anything to do with Daddy Murderbucks. Cat tells him she doesn't need his bribes or his charity. Daddy Murderbucks tells her to do whatever she wants with the money, because he's going to make damn sure he tries to "do right" by her.
In a locker room, Cat makes to tear up the check but pauses. Greg interrupts her throwing money out the window with both hands to tell her he's found a possible inconsistency.
Cat calls Gil to say that Herman used MapQuest to find his way from his dorm to Jackpot. Gil's not surprised, as he had reason to believe it was his first and only trip there. Cat doesn't think that makes sense, because they found aspen leaves in his closet. They both wonder how the leaves got there if this was Herman's first and only visit. They put two and two together, and once Cat names "Eric Brooks" as Herman's roommate, it's a whole different ballgame. Dr. Excedrin PM is even there to handily supply that Eric is Leland's son. "You guys gonna tell him about his dad?" Dr. Excedrin PM asks. Gil looks at the vet like he can't believe he doesn't realize that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Las Vegas. Jim and Cat interrogate Eric. They ask if he knew his father was involved with his roommate. "My dad's not gay," Eric says. When asked if Herman was, Eric says they didn't talk about it, and he denies being in Jackpot last weekend himself. Jim tells him that Herman was up there to see Eric's dad, and that they found his car. When Cat tells Eric they found Eric's prints on the steering wheel of Herman's car, Eric shrugs that he borrowed his roommate's car all the time. Jim says, "That's right, you don't own a car, you own a motorcycle." Slashback to Gil finding the thin tire marks at Leland's house. Eric admits to owning a motorcycle. Cat asks to see the bottom of his shoes. Eric props his foot on the table, and Cat holds up a piece of paper with a shoe print on it so we can see that they match. There's even a weird bar of wear above the ball of the foot. Cat comments that it's an unusual wear pattern. Eric looks nervous. Jim says that he puts a lot of wear on his bike and it shows. Slashback of a foot being put down on the pedal of a motorcycle. The positioning of the foot shows how a shoe would get worn down in the ball of the foot. "You were there," Cat tells him. Slashback of Eric riding his bike up to his father's and then looking in the window and seeing his father and Herman together.
Jackpot. Gil tells Leland that his son must've known for awhile, and wonders how he thought he could keep the relationship from his own son. Leland says he's been hiding it his whole life. "You knew," Leland says, turning tearfully to his brother. "Yeah," Brooks smiles, "I figured you'd tell me when you were ready. I saw you with Ross. I stopped by last weekend and you and he were taking a walk." Leland hangs his head and apologizes. Brooks tells him he has nothing to be sorry about. "Nothing," he reiterates. Brooks tries to tell him about Eric, but looks to Gil for help. "Mr. Brooks, your son killed Ross Jenson," Gil finishes for him. Leland refuses to believe it. Gil tells him all the evidence points to the fact that he should believe it.
Las Vegas. Slashback to Eric fiddling with a thermos as he stands to a car. Cat tells Eric that he spiked Herman's thermos with the GHB, and Jim points out that Eric knew Herman would stop for a coffee refill before he left town. Slashback of Herman getting drowsy and falling on the steering wheel. The car goes off the road and into some bushes. Eric pulls up on his motorcycle and pulls his roommate out of the car.
Jackpot. Leland cries and says, "Eric never could deal with the fact that his mother left. She wanted a husband. All I wanted was a family."
Las Vegas. Eric says that people in town said his father was "different. But he wasn't, he was just lonely and Ross, like, totally used that to ruin him. It was all Ross!" Jim asks if that's why he drugged him, drove him into the woods, put him into a hole. Slashback of Eric lugging Ross up a hill and dropping him on the ground. You can hear Ross mutter, "Where are you taking me?" Jim continues with, "Buried him up to his neck." Slashback of Eric buying Ross up to his chest, not his neck. "Cut him," Jim says. Slashback: Ross asks, "What are you doing?" as a hand opens a curved and wicked-looking hunting blade. The hand drags the blade across Ross's face, Ross screams. Cat asks why Eric didn't just finish him off right then and there. "Because I wanted him to suffer!" Eric spits out. Jim looks troubled. "Because he was in love with your father?" Cat asks. "Or because he wasn't in love with you?" Whuh-huh? And that came from where? And they don't show Eric answering with any more than a glare, so we never know because…why?
Jackpot. Gil gets ready to hit the road and makes friends with everyone in town. He asks Marty Overalls if his new window comes with a warranty. "Nothing around here does, Mr. Grissom. Thanks for your business," Marty Overalls says, and walks away as Brooks comes out. "Hey, Marty," he calls. Marty Overalls doesn't turn around as he limps away. "Does he ever talk to you?" Gil asks. "Not one word since high school," Brooks says. I suppose that has something to do with the "bustin'"? Confession time. Brooks tells Gil that when they found the torso, he recognized the shirt and knew that the body -- when it was alive -- had been with Leland. "So you assumed your brother was capable of murder," Gil states. "I didn't even ask him what happened," Brooks says with a note of remorse in his voice. "Questions, remember? Not asking 'em is what's got everybody in trouble here in the first place," Gil lectures. "Do you not keep secrets, Mr. Grissom? Not even from your wife?" Brooks asks. "I used to, I'm trying to change," Gils says. Now for people who watch that show more regularly that I, I'm assuming there's layers upon layers in that statement, yes? "It's a bitch," Brooks adds. Gil gets in his car and sees that his Coroner's Bag o' Murder Tricks in back in the passenger seat. He gives Brooks a look. Brooks remains inscrutable. Gil shakes his head and drives off. Well, now, isn't that nice? He solved a crime and taught the local law how to be a better and more effective person.
week, Sobell is back (yay!) and recapping from her new digs in SoCal and I'm back on my Enterprise beat, which is sort of sad because I really enjoyed this sub-in. Take care and don't murder each other.