S03.E03: Rat Packed

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

The CSI team is called to investigate when the bodies of Frank Sinatra and Joey Bishop impersonators are discovered behind the drywall of a home construction project. Also, Folsom must face the review board about the future of his career.

Air Date: March 3, 2024

 

 

[mammaM]

The first thing that went thru my mind:

Frank Sinatra!? Joey Bishop?! And tptb DIDN'T do this episode last season with Greg?! Come on show!!! 

As for the whole Josh sturm und drang, did anyone think he was really gonna get fired? And now that Max has put her job on the line for him, its one more thing for Josh to feel guilty over.

I had made a comment on the season finale that maybe josh is the killer and he'll get put in a nice "rest home" to get the help he needs. I kinda wish that had happened😂😂😎

 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, mammaM said:

As for the whole Josh sturm und drang, did anyone think he was really gonna get fired? And now that Max has put her job on the line for him, its one more thing for Josh to feel guilty over.

With these shorter TV seasons and the new characters not getting the their part of the viewers extended family feeling it was always a possibility like a 70s movie when the protagonist losses.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Where is Dr. Milton??!

Beau’s maggot theory and Elizabeth Taylor’s knock-off perfume help to solve this case. The kooky impersonators make the Kooksville case a little bit interesting while the investigation is quite meh. The perp confesses so easily.

I love the tender moment between Max and Penny in the lab, talking about Josh. Max is so motherly towards her team, we don’t get this vibe from Catherine.

Josh trying to provide context to his irrational actions is not convincing at all. He should’ve opted for temporary insanity instead. Luckily, his work mom is there to save him. It’s not surprising that Josh will be back in the crime lab as Matt Lauria mentions nothing about leaving the show.

Being demoted from CSI Level 3 to CSI Level 1 is quite degrading - the same level as Beau, Chris and Penny. Josh needs to abandon his “old life” and any romantic feelings he has for Allie to get his professional life back on track.

Now, am waiting for Allie’s turn to screw up. Will the writers go there or is she too precious? 🤔

[shapeshifter]

I fell asleep a couple of times.
So:
Josh stole his Mom's blood from evidence to fake out the killer to get a confession?????
Why not just use, IDK, blood from a slaughterhouse, or, even better, fake blood?

[vibeology]

I hate Josh so much. He goes on about how Max worked hard to rebuild the crime lab's reputation and how damaging his actions "could have been." He broke into the morgue and stole evidence, did a kidnapping, used his credentials to access a location he had no business being in and committed assault. Could have been? How can he work any case going forward? How can any evidence he collects be trusted? How can he go into court and testify? He has completely damaged the credibility of the lab. 

If the show wanted to keep Josh around, they should not have written the plot they wrote. They prioritized a cliff hanger over logic and now I hate Josh, and Aly and Penny because they were all so out of line in how they reacted. Even Max didn't come out totally clean. Putting her neck out for someone with so little self-control is such a bad decision. 

[emma675]

I knew Josh wouldn't be fired, but I hated the way they went about it just as much. Don't tease the audience with "omg, he is about to be terminated" and then swoop in at the last second with Max saving the day by putting her neck on the line. I like Max a lot and I don't like the writers putting her in this position. 

The case of the week was kind of ridiculous to me, if I'm understanding it right. Two impersonators basically kill each other over a woman, and then she is charged because she put them both into a wall? I guess I could understand her being charged with the one murder since that guy was still alive, but she wasn't involved physically in the fight, and she was basically just kind of a witness (she may have asked the one impersonator to kill the other but it's not like he couldn't have said no and it's not like she forced him at gunpoint). I guess I can see how a defense attorney could get her off with no charges pretty easily. And Beau calling her a murderer to her face was a little over the top to me.

Also, why did she put them into the wall? It just seemed like a ton of work, plus someone at the party could have seen her at any point so she was running a huge risk. Why not just walk away and let the scene be discovered the way it was?

[vibeology]

9 hours ago, emma675 said:

Also, why did she put them into the wall? It just seemed like a ton of work, plus someone at the party could have seen her at any point so she was running a huge risk. Why not just walk away and let the scene be discovered the way it was?

The only thing I could think is because Frank was still alive and he saw her that she didn't want him to be found before he died and go to the police saying she was there. But even then, she played it totally wrong. She should have called 911 and said that the two men got into a fight and because of her condition she couldn't intervene in time. Frank Sinatra may contradict her but with Joey Bishop dead it would be hard to prove that she set the whole thing up. A pregnant, injured, white lady would probably get away with it.

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, mammaM said:

As for the whole Josh sturm und drang, did anyone think he was really gonna get fired?

He should have been fired but there was no way that was actually going to happen.

The Rat Pack/Celebrity impersonators stuff was fun, though.

12 hours ago, emma675 said:

The case of the week was kind of ridiculous to me, if I'm understanding it right. Two impersonators basically kill each other over a woman, and then she is charged because she put them both into a wall? I guess I could understand her being charged with the one murder since that guy was still alive, but she wasn't involved physically in the fight, and she was basically just kind of a witness (she may have asked the one impersonator to kill the other but it's not like he couldn't have said no and it's not like she forced him at gunpoint). I guess I can see how a defense attorney could get her off with no charges pretty easily. And Beau calling her a murderer to her face was a little over the top to me.

She wasn't just a witness, though.  She arranged for Joey Bishop to kill Frank Sinatra in return for the chance to perform as Sinatra himself for her company - that makes it murder for hire.

[Raja]

13 hours ago, emma675 said:

Also, why did she put them into the wall? It just seemed like a ton of work, plus someone at the party could have seen her at any point so she was running a huge risk. Why not just walk away and let the scene be discovered the way it was?

Or even call 911 after the hit failed because a veteran fought back?

Speculation well she over thought it. A slam dunk mutual combat double homicide, or homicide with Frank being justified and saved by EMTs and doctors. . On the other hand perhaps Frank knew that she set him up and she knew that he was still alive  but somehow unable to stop her from putting him behind that wall and seal it up.

[Silver-hyren]

I'm very glad they had Beau say who the drag queen was impersonating because I was definitely not getting Dolly Parton.  

There was no way Josh was getting fired but it strains so much credulity I don't think it'll ever recover.  Were they not expecting to get renewed and now faced with the impossible job of writing themselves out of this corner?

[Raja]

I really did expect a serial killer with Sammy Davis Jr  and Dean Martin showing up. Not Elton John, Whitney Houston and that was supposed to be Dolly Parton you say.

[christie]

On 3/4/2024 at 7:09 PM, mammaM said:

The first thing that went thru my mind:

Frank Sinatra!? Joey Bishop?! And tptb DIDN'T do this episode last season with Greg?! Come on show!!! 

Totally. I immediately thought of Greg and that this was his kind of case.

I don't know, I'm kinda bored - I like Max, Beau, Derek Webster; Penny and Chris are fine in small doses but the whole Josh angst bores me (not to mention that he should have been fired) as does the whole Josh/Ali/Serena triangle and Catherine just irritates me; I wish that they would concentrate on the cases and not have all this personal stuff which, in my opinion, drags down the show. I'd like it for the writers to concentrate on the cases; it often feels like the cases are very conveniently tied up in a nice little bow - what I mean by this is that it feels like the writers often place evidence in the crime scene just so the CSIs will find it and figure out who the murderer is and that, in a real world situation, some of that evidence wouldn't have been there.

Did we ever find out why the levels of decomposition were so different between the two bodies?

[Raja]

Just now, christie said:

Did we ever find out why the levels of decomposition were so different between the two bodies?

Frank Sinatra was alive for a while and Joey Bishop. while somewhat wrapped up was closer to a heat source, the sun's rays and perfumed to attract the flies.

[christie]

4 minutes ago, Raja said:

Frank Sinatra was alive for a while and Joey Bishop. while somewhat wrapped up was closer to a heat source, the sun's rays and perfumed to attract the flies.

Yes but didn't either Penny or Allie say that the fact that Joey Bishop was in the hot area and Frank Sinatra was in the shaded one was, by itself, not enough to explain the different rates?

[Raja]

8 minutes ago, christie said:

Yes but didn't either Penny or Allie say that the fact that Joey Bishop was in the hot area and Frank Sinatra was in the shaded one was, by itself, not enough to explain the different rates?

It was the combination of all the factors, with Frank remaining alive for a long period eating maggots perhaps the biggest factor 

[christie]

13 hours ago, Raja said:

It was the combination of all the factors, with Frank remaining alive for a long period eating maggots perhaps the biggest factor 

Thank you. I blocked out that Frank ate the maggots.

[hilaryvm]

The whole time I kept thinking "is the show expecting that we're on Josh's side?"  Because he really should have been fired.  Even though the other CSIs were his friends they should have thought that too.  What he did was way over the line, and as said above, any defense attorney would have a field day with him on the stand.  You could never trust any of his evidence.

That was a terrible Dolly.  I can't believe any self respecting drag queen would go out in public like that and claim to be Dolly.

[slowpoked]

So what exactly is Catherine’s role supposed to be anyway? I thought she’s Max’s second-in-command, and that she has the privilege of working only when she wants to, because she’s already super rich? So why is she partnering up in the field like she’s a CSI Level 1?

Edited March 10 by slowpoked

[Cotypubby]

So how did Frank actually die? Did I miss what they said his cause of death was? Blood loss from the stab wounds? Didn’t they say he only died 24 hours after Joey Bishop? So he wouldn’t have starve to death that quickly, and if he died that fast why did he resort to eating maggots from a dead body? Did the wife know he was still alive when she walled him up and how did she do such a professional job of installing the walls? Everything happened over a weekend right? Not a whole week?

Really this whole case made no sense.

[KeithJ]

This was a bad episode all around.  Josh not getting fired (but we knew he wouldn’t) made no sense.  There is no way he should work as a CSI again.  And speaking of not making sense, we have the case of the week.  First of all, why was wheel chair lady even there watching it?  Secondly, and more importantly, why put them in the wall?  Even if Frank survived, there is zero evidence that she asked Joey to kill him.  Just call 911 and say they were fighting over something.  Lastly, even though Frank was stabbed and weakened it is fairly easy to break drywall if you try.  Him being alive for 24 hours in the wall and not making a single dent in the drywall doesn’t seem right.