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“We’re trying to understand how this man died based on the parts we can see, and it’s getting us nowhere. Has it ever occurred to you that Lacey is trying to understand you ,but all she can see are the parts that you’re willing to show her?”
- Ethan
Unlike the last couple episodes, we begin not with the murder itself but with a homeless man finding what appears to be a dead body while he’s out collecting bottles. We cut to Megan dropping Lacey off at the library, which is kind of a nice bonding moment. Then again, Megan’s ex called her last minute to be a parental taxi. Still, Megan doesn’t seem to mind. Until Lacey asks if she can film Megan at work for a school project. Megan tries to say that her job isn’t really conducive to filming (or likely a safe place for a twelve-year-old), but Lacey assumes it is a yes. At the crime scene, we find Sam working the case solo because Bud is off at court. In short order Megan discovers that the hand and foot they found aren’t actually connected. Their victim has been dismembered.
Megan gets the body parts back to lab and is rather surprised to see Kate in scrubs. I have to say I was quite happy to see Jeri getting her hands dirty. We get a little montage of the two of them examining the hand and foot and then our team has a little pow wow to share what they’ve discovered. The hand and foot belong to the same person, a man likely in his 50s who was a welder. Megan also points out that he likely had sunglasses because the UV radiation from welding causes sensitivity to light. They also find a stamp from a casino on the hand. And lucky for them, Kate’s got an in with the casino general manager (she plays a mean game of Texas hold ‘em).
At the casino, the manager identifies their victim as Cal. He didn’t play a lot of big games until the week before when he won big ($25,000). And the surveillance shows he was with a woman named Wendy who tries to separate the winners from their earnings. Though according to Wendy, when she talked to Sam at the station, she wasn’t successful in getting him to spend much. She saw him get into a dark sports car with some mystery guy. At the lab, Ethan finds some sort of stuff under Cal’s big toe. which Peter identifies as cilantro. So the two of them and Megan head out to search near the crime scene and end up finding two more body parts as Megan panics about not being at the lab when Lacey arrives.
Ethan discovers that the knee had a replacement in it and gave Peter the serial number to track down. Megan sends Ethan back to the dump to try and find more body parts. Just as Megan’s heading back to her office, Lacey shows up. Megan gives her all the rules (including no filming of bodies) and a schedule and list of questions to ask all of Megan’s co-workers, starting with Kate. Meanwhile, Peter’s gotten the serial number results back and they have a positive ID on their victim. He’s got a daughter and son-in-law, and things don’t really go well at the notification. I still don’t get how Megan can get away with going on next of kin notifications, but whatever. His daughter loved him, but her husband was not a fan. He felt his father-in-law was too needy and always asking for money, and he’s really pissed to find out that Cal won big at the casino.
Back at the lab, Lacey is interviewing Kate, and while Kate tries to stick to the script, Lacey’s more interested in seeing dead bodies and finding out that her mom is the boss even though she’s not technically the boss. It’s an interesting scene to get Kate’s take on Megan. Sam and Peter head to Cal’s apartment to look around. At first they don’t find anything, but back at the lab Megan realizes that Cal’s body was frozen. So she calls Peter, and he and Sam find the rest of Cal packaged in little green plastic bags in the freezer. Yeah, because that’s not creepy at all.
Megan shows up at the scene to find out that Cal’s head is still missing. Would be too easy if the head was with the rest of the remains. And it looks like the bathtub was the dismemberment point. CSU sets to cleaning out the drains to see what they can find. Back at the lab, Ethan gets back from the dump and finds Lacey waiting for him. He tries to be cool but it kind of doesn’t work. He mentions Megan’s questions, but Lacey has a point. They’re kind of lame and they don’t really show her what her mom does. Still, she can’t see the dead body of the week.
Megan has Curtis run a tissue sample to see what kind of arthritis medication Cal was on while she and Kate determine that the killer was right handed and find a smudge above the wrist (hopefully transfer from the casino mystery man). Back at Cal’s apartment, they discover that $25,000 is also missing. and CSU finds a blue contact lens in the sink drain. The photo in Cal’s apartment of his daughter shows she has brown eyes but during the notification she had blue eyes. So, Sam and Peter head back to the daughter’s house and find her and her husband arguing over (quite literally) a giant pile of money.
Peter and Sam are interviewing the daughter and husband. and it’s still a crap shoot about who to believe. The daughter says her dad gave her the money so she could get out of her marriage and follow her dream of going to art school. The husband was just surprised to find out Cal was getting social security money in the amount of $500 every other week. Megan gets back to the lab, and Lacey immediately asks about the dismembered body. She says that Ethan told and Megan is pissed. She tells Ethan (in private) that she doesn’t want Lacey to see things in the wrong context and that seeing one’s first dead body is traumatic. But Ethan makes the point that maybe Lacey is trying to get to know and understand her mom, but she can’t because Megan will only let her see certain aspects. As they finish talking, Ethan finds something in one of Cal’s arteries.
Meanwhile, Lacey is supposed to be talking to Curtis, but she doesn’t see the point since her mom is just controlling everything. So Curtis says to hell with Megan’s list of questions and shows Lacey a slide under the microscope. The smudges on the wrist were cigarette ash. And one would need to be a pretty heavy smoker to have that much buildup on your fingertips. Megan catches Curtis showing Lacey the slide and tells him to call Sam with the information and find out what brand Cal’s neighbor smokes. Sam confronts him and finds out that he went out for a guy’s night and saw Cal at the casino and helped him home. He didn’t mention it during the canvas because he knew his wife would get pissed off. Apparently she hated Cal for blaring his music so loud that they had to soundproof their whole apartment so their baby could sleep. Sam says she can’t believe staying home all day with the baby is that hard with a full time nanny. The neighbor is shocked to even hear the word.
At the lab, Megan sits down with Lacey and talks to her about what she does in a very matter of fact but relatable way. She talks to Lacey about what her hand tells about her life and then shows her the photo of Cal’s hand and what it says about him. She tries to impart in her daughter that the victims they see aren’t just dead bodies but it is the story of the life they lived and how they died. She even shows Lacey the tissue Ethan found in Cal’s artery. And it turns out, Lacey may help lead to a breakthrough in the case.
We hop over to a status pow wow where the team is trying to figure out what they know. They still can’t decide on who the killer is or even how it happened. Enter Megan and Lacey. Megan says it was blunt force trauma to the head. When Ethan remarks that they still don’t’ have the head, Megan says that they don’t need the head either. Cal was struck so hard on the head that some of his brain tissue travelled into his heart. Right then, Curtis comes back with the arthritis medication Cal was taking. It had to be by injection and given how weak his hands were, he had to have someone do it for him. Ah, the pieces are falling into place. Megan gets a call from her ex-husband that he’s there to pick up Lacey, but she doesn’t one leave. She wants to see how the case turns out.
Just then Sam shows up with her own news. Megan tasks Peter with getting Lacey down to her dad while she fills Sam in on what she found out. They’ve got the same person. The woman who claimed she was the nanny for Cal’s neighbor. The name she gave isn’t real. Sam finds out her real name and brings her in for questioning. Sam’s attempt to get her to talk fails miserably. So Megan gives it a try. And she’s much more successful. According to the woman, she liked Cal. He paid her under the table, and he was going to help her bring her son to the States. But the day he died, she found him in the bathtub. It looked like he’d fallen and his hit head (blunt force trauma and the blood pattern in the tub). She cut him up because if he was found dead, her attempts at finalizing immigration status would be off. Megan says she believes her but that she needs the head for proof. So they head back to the dumpsters and they find his head in a green bag. But there was a second wound in his head. It turns out it was the landlord. He wanted Cal out because he was the last rent controlled tenant.
Cal’s daughter comes by the morgue to pick up her father’s remains to have them cremated. She’s leaving her husband and going back to art school. Her dad would be so proud. Later that night, Peter stops by to find Megan still in her office working. She swears she’s wrapping it up. Peter says the DA is deporting Cal’s caretaker instead of filing charges against her. As Peter leaves for the night, Megan gets an email from Lacey with the video she’s put together. It has clips from everyone at the lab and it really is a great video and it really shows Megan that Lacey gets who she is and what she does.
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