CSI: Las Vegas - Recap - Episode 8.16 - Two and a Half Deaths

May 10, 2008   •   CSI Fanatic, Entertainment

Episode 8.15 - Two and a Half Deaths
Air Date: 8 May 2008

Loads of fun, this episode was written by the people who bring us Two and a Half Men. It’s also quite funny, and packed with guest stars, including Diedrich Bader (Office Space, Drew Carey Show), Katy Sagal, and even Jon Cryer, Charlie Sheen, and Angus T. Jones. This is also a good example of a couple different shades of the term meta-fiction –various types of fiction portrayed within a work of fiction, or references to fiction. For the most part, I found the action to be funnier than the dialog.

Annabelle Fundt, a feisty, mean comedic star, is bitching at her show’s creator, and everyone else involved. The next morning, she’s dead on her hotel room floor, with a blow to the head, and a rubber chicken stuffed into her mouth. The team estimates time of death around midnight. The creator tells Brass that the rest of the cast and crew returned to LA, right after rap. Annabelle insisted that he stay behind, because she doesn’t travel at night.

Annabelle’s former driver, then writer, then producer, rushes into the hotel room, and tells the team that he and Annabelle married two days earlier. [Everybody! Suspect time.] Annabelle didn’t like to look at him after sex, so they slept in separate rooms.

Mr. Little: [in the crime lab corridor] Beautiful people doing high tech police work. There might be a series in this.

Natasha shows up in the hotel surveillance cameras, the second time with a garment bag. She tells Brass picking up wardrobe from Annabelle’s room is part of her job.

Examination shows cause of death to be from a blow to the back of her head. The chicken was inserted post-mortem. It also showed that Annabelle had a hysterectomy, but, ironically, had tampons on her.

David: She has no lady parts.
Al: She had a hysterectomy.
David: Okay. Um… Then, why was she using one of these?
Al: Nostalgia?

The tampons, though, were loaded with vodka. They would only hold about 19 grams, so it’s not enough to get an alcoholic drunk.

The carpet shows bloody woman’s footprints. The team is called to the studios in LA. There we see the usual backlot shots, and a compulsory cameo of the actual Two and a Half Men. On the lot, Natasha –Annabelle’s stunt double and the team’s prime suspect- died in a car accident during an attempt to finish the episode using her in place of Annabelle. Yards away, Grissom and Brass spot Annabelle’s co-star Megan crying over her also-dead dog, just a few yards away.

LA Crime Lab found an after-market chip in Annabelle’s Ferrari, which Natasha was driving when she had the accident. Perez Hilton’s website yields camera phone video of Bud and Annabelle exiting the chapel after their wedding. A closer look reveals a mole on Annabelle’s chin. It’s not Annabelle. It’s Natasha!

Bud’s desk yields a box of tampons and a bottle of vodka. “She was a mean drunk, but she was worse when she was sober.” Semen found in Natasha leads them to believe Bud was dosing Annabelle, while spending time with Natasha. Bud admits that their plan was to kill Annabelle, but Natasha found her dead.

Further examination of the hotel elevator video reveals that one writer went upstairs with three others, but didn’t go down until five hours later, around the time of death. Jimmy, the new guy, was drinking from the same brand of bottled water found at the scene –that bottle, though, was filled with urine.

Prints on the scene’s bottle match those of Richard Langford. Warrick and George are passing out flyers with Langford’s photo. One he hands to a street performer dressed as a robot, who looks an awful lot like a tin Langford. Warrick doesn’t notice, but George does. They arrest him.

Three years earlier, Langford appeared, once, in a bit role on the Annabelle show. His assurance of a regular role disappeared, though, when he refused to have sex with Annabelle. He said he couldn’t get TV work after that. He sneaked into Annabelle’s closet, when she was berating the three writers. When they left, though, she left, leaving him behind in the closet. He saw Annabelle and Bud’s strange sex scene, which ended when Annabelle kicked Bud out for not being able to perform. Langford came out of the closet, and Annabelle, upon recognizing him grabbed his private parts. He pushed her away, and she hit her head on the coffee table. It was an accident.

They find an anti-coagulant in Annabelle’s “mouthwash”. They realize that not only Bud, but Megan knew that Annabelle was drinking vodka from her mouthwash bottle. She had received extra anti-coagulant from Binky’s vet. She plays dumb, af first. She tells Brass and Grissom about spiking the vodka, because she was tired of being second to someone that she clearly outperformed –she is smarter. Then, she smugly tells them they have no physical evidence.

They let her go, with plans to watch her. She leaves with

Bud cuts his neck shaving, and the blood thinner in his vodka prevents the bleeding from stopping.

What did you think of Two and a Half Deaths? I liked this episode. There were trists, but I think they fould have done better.

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