Synopsis  

The episode cuts between past and present, flashing back to the events immediatly following ‘Skin in the Game’ while showing us a funeral where the CSIs are noticably distraught.

In the past, both Jim Brass and Conrad Ecklie have trouble keeping their emotions in check, as their daughters, Morgan and Ellie, are held hostage by serial killer intent on completing his twisted homage to ‘Dante’s Inferno’. The entire lab takes the case personally, with even David Hodges complaining that Morgan was undercover (not a role for a CSI). The SUV that kidnapped Morgan is found, sans Morgan, who is actually being held with Ellie in the outskirts of Vegas near an airport.

Both Larson and Tate blame each other, while still claiming their innocence. When Tate is killed in a car explosion, and the girls are still being held by the killer, it does absolve him (as does DNA). Since Larson is in custody, the CSIs are officially out of suspects until Sara and Greg decrypt the ternary DNA, filled with porn, showing that Tate was a pedophile, and Jake (the driver of the SUV that kidnapped Morgan) and his brother Matthew were two of his victims.

Before the CSIs find the girls, Morgan and Ellie are able to break free of their shackles, stabbing Matthew, tying him up, and making a run for it. Just outside, Ellie claims she thinks another girl is in the house. When Morgan goes back in, Matthew is missing, as Ellie did not actually tie him up. Realizing there is more danger staying in the house, Morgan runs back out only to face an armed Matthew. She manages to overpower him momentarily, disarming him in the process, and Ellie grabs the gun and shoots Matthew. While Morgan thanks her, Ellie shoots Morgan in the back.

Morgan survives, but claims to the CSIs that Matthew shot Morgan and Ellie killed him in self defense. The evidence does not support this, and further goes to show that Ellie knew Matthew: he was her fiance. They find out too late, however, as Ellie has stabbed her mother to death because Nancy knew that Ellie and Matthew were a couple. She had been helping the boys all along. While Brass talks her out of killing him, he’s still brokenhearted over Nancy’s death.

In the present, the CSIs are at the funeral of Jim Brass’ ex wife, and Ellie’s mother, Nancy.

Review  

Initially Sara is still in San Francisco when Morgan initial goes missing, however she had returned around the time the SUV was discovered. When Ecklie called her in, Sara checked up on and verified Father Larson’s claims about Oliver Tate’s ties to some of the missing girls.

In the lab, Sara works on processing and decrypting the dowels found in a boat in a storage room, with a dead girl. When Greg determines the dowels are in ternary, he likens it to the synthetic DNA found in the same scene, as well as in Tate’s condo, which can be used to store data. Sara gets a court order for computers from Tate’s old biotech company to decrypt the data, where she finds porn.

After the girls are rescued, Sara processes the gun and finds inconstancies between Ellie’s story and the GSR evidence. It’s Sara who makes the connection between Ellie and Matthew, finding photographs proving the two had prior knowledge.

Notes  

• Sara returns from San Francisco
• Sara believes the evidence more than Ellie, which is abnormal for her (perhaps because she’s met Ellie before).

Quotes  

Sara: We’ve got a situation here.