By Angel Cohn
It's Christmas in Las Vegas, the perfect time for someone to get murdered. And in this case, it happens to be a construction dude named Merrick. It would seem that Savino and his henchman Nicky are the obvious suspects, since they did threaten him the night he died and all. But Savino can't be responsible for all the deaths in this town. Instead, the corrupt construction dude had a problem with the ladies… a lot of ladies. Including Nicky's wife. But even that redheaded mistress who nursed Merrick back to health after his run-in with another red herring wasn't responsible since he had yet another mistress. A preacher woman, in fact, and he had big plans to build this woman Amy a big old church and donate all his money to her. But Merrick's real wife, and his business partner D.B. Sweeney, are the guilty ones, as they tag-team strangled him and dumped him in the cement mixer because they couldn't bear parting with all of their money. What a lovely Christmas thought.
Over at the Savoy, Savino has hired adorable little Dixon to come work an undercover gig and find some sort of thief. And he does, while looking even cuter than we'd thought possible in his waiter uniform (a fact that does not go unnoticed by the always awesome Yvonne). In return for his crime-fighting efforts, Savino gives Dixon the key to a sweet suite for the night, and while Dixon waffles for a minute about the ethics of accepting this gift, he opts to take it and throw the holiday party that they aren't allowed to have at the Sheriff's station. And at said party, he and Yvonne have a feisty conversation, which leads us to believe that there might be a little S&M play in their future because Yvonne totally has a dominatrix thing going on and Dixon seems her willing submissive.
In other romantic news, sort of, Rizzo comes to town with Diane Desmond on his arm, and informs Mia they are getting hitched. Meet your slutty new stepmom, honey. Just what you wanted for Christmas. There is a snag with Diane's work permit (international drug charges and all), but those get quickly swept away, and after a helpful tip, Savino realizes that Diane's working as a mole for the FBI and plans to take down his operation. So he tells her to leave, which is kind. But Rizzo finds out and takes the more dramatic approach and pumps her full of drugs in a fake OD situation.
Then there is the ever-complicated relationship with the Lamb brothers. They investigate the Merrick murder, and get shot at by a suspect, but the sparks fly when Ralph catches wind of a potential dating situation between Jack and Mia. Since he put the kibosh on the whole dating a mob bosses' daughter thing before, he thinks Jack should comply, but Jack went out with Mia to a honky-tonk bar and had a lovely time drinking and dancing and would like their relationship to continue. Ralph gets pissy about it, but Jack says that Ralph has long done whatever the hell he has wanted and Jack's been the one forced to clean up the mess. So Ralph acquiesces. Jack goes over to the Savoy, where Mia tries to dump him because her dad hates the Lamb brothers and will probably try and have him killed at some point, but Jack doesn't go that easily and the two have a very merry Christmas. Meanwhile, Katherine shows up at the Sheriff's station with homemade cookies for Ralph, and he has a gift for her… horse shampoo. So they exchange an awkward hug. Looks like Jack got the better end of the deal this time around.