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Score: 8.0 Great 98 votes

Game Over

Episode Number: 66    Season Num: 3    First Aired: Monday March 21, 2005    Prod Code: 318
Originally aired: Monday March 21, 2005 on CBS
Writer: Michael Ostrowski, Corey Miller
Director: Jonathan Glassner
Show Stars: David Caruso (Lieutenant Horatio Caine), Khandi Alexander (Chief Medical Examiner Alexx Woods), Sofia Milos (Detective Yelina Salas (Episodes 49+, Recurring Previously)), Adam Rodriguez (Eric "Delko" Delektorsky), Emily Procter (Calleigh Duquesne), Jonathan Togo (Ryan Wolfe (Episodes 54+, Recurring Previously))
Recurring Role: Brooke Bloom (Cynthia Wells), Brian Poth (Tyler Jenson)
Guest Stars: Kerr Smith (Matthew Wilton) , Michael Wiseman (Connor Meade) , Kate Norby (Julie Sullivan) , Boti Bliss (Maxine Valera) , Hal Ozsan (Brandon Pace) , Lisa Rotondi (Rachel Thomas) , Kyle J. Downes (Ron Benson) , James Grimaldi (Bill Waller) , Paul Hipp (Vince Fisher) , Scott McIntosh (Skater Dave) , Ethan Cohn (Todd Simmons) , Tony Hawk (Jake Sullivan) , Jennifer Sky (Sara Piper) , Robert Mailhouse (Dave Strong) , Andy MacDonald (Skater Andy)
Production Code: 318

A man is delivering a new boat to the marina. A car suddenly cuts in front, so he steps on the brakes. Then, another car hits the side of the boat head-on.

Yelina explains to Horatio that the paramedics had tried to revive the man in the car which collided but was too late. Alexx says that they were much too late - the man was dead before the crash. Lacerations on the face should be bloody if he were alive. And the hand is showing advanced rigor. This is not just an accident.

The DB is Jake Sullivan, missing a right foot. The car was going at least 40 mph when it rammed into the boat, but there is nothing jamming the accelerator. He must have had help from someone alive.

A woman comes to reception and asks for Tim Speedles. Horatio, who happens to be there, explains to her that Tim was killed in the line of duty a few months ago. They take a walk. Tim had told her, Sara Piper, to call him if she needed any help. He had arrested the guy who killed her friend, Ashley Anders. Horatio remembers the case. She eventually got out of the adult film business. Her boyfriend, Matthew, who has no idea what she used to do, videotaped the two a couple of weeks ago. The tape is missing. It is her nightmare, because it would put her back in the porn business as Cookie Devine. Matthew doen't know where it is, either. If the tape comes out, she would lose him. Horatio will look into this.

Alexx finds a woman standing next to Jake Sullivan's body. She is his wife, but she isn't supposed to be here. She wants to know what happened, why his ear is messed up. Alexx tells her that she is going to find out. Alexx is upset that Eric still hasn't found the foot. She will need the foot to complete post. Eric sees a blaunt force trauma to the head. Alexx warns him that that doesn't make it COD (cause of death). She tells him the TOD (time of death) is about 1 a.m.

Horatio speaks with Vince Fisher, who had been trying to get in touch with Sara Fisher, Cookie, as he used to work with her. Horatio will try to prove it if he had broken into her house to get personal property.

Ryan and Calleigh are with the crashed car. Ryan finds fingerprints on the gear, but the prints are smudged and may not be useful. There is way too much glass on the floor for one car. Calleigh finds pieces of glass that fluoresce and aren't from the car. She takes the pieces and fits them together, and finds a crystal cube which reads "Best Overall Title - Thrash Canyon" with an "S" logo on top. Ryan explains that this is Strong Studios, by Dave Strong, a famous skateboarder, who made an empire out of his hobby by making videogames.

Ryan and Calleigh visit Strong Studios. Dave Strong says that Jake was a tester who worked for him. Last time he saw Jake was midnight, in the motion capture studio, messing around the virtual ramp. Strong just became the last person to see Jake alive.

They go into the studio, where a skateboarder is skating back and forth a ramp, with a computer turning his moves into graphics. Strong explains that they do motion capture in this studio for simulation titles, so players can be Dave Strong. Ryan finds a wet spot on the carpet. He tests it for blood, negative. Calleigh finds blood spots on the floor and medium velocity splatter, still red and fresh, on a skateboard in the rack. Strong explains that blood is symbol of honor for skateboarders. They will take his DNA and the skateboard in plain sight. Ryan shows Strong a photo of the cube. This was given to Strong's best programmer, Ron Benson.

Ron Benson says he gets about three of those awards every year and that they make great door stops. He kept this one, probably by the wall. Ryan finds a sticky, syurpy substance in front of the wall, where a cube seems to be missing. Ron does not like the testers. He graduated from MIT in three years and does not like to have the testers tell him what is wrong with his game. Ryan swabs the substance. Jake and Ron had got into shoving matches twice over the present project. Ron has been working on a bug on this game 72 hours straight, thanks to Jake. Strong can probably prove that he was there, as he has spyware on all the computers. Every key strike is recorded on the company's main computer.

Calleigh and Ryan approach Strong's receptionist to get access to the computer server. She opens up the employee database for them. Ron was not lying about not leaving his desk for two days.

Horatio is at Sara's place, dusting for fingerprints the end table where the video was kept. Matthew steps in. He is a little suspicious about Sara knowing Horatio. No recent guest in the house, except for the contractors who replaced the doors behind Horatio. On the doors, there are fingerprints where they shouldn't be, and the doors are on backwards. Horatio asks for the number of the contractor, and Matthew writes it down by memory and gives the note to Horatio. Horatio notices that Matthew is left-handed.

Horatio and Yelina are at the station with Connor Meade, the contractor. They accuse him of installing the doors backwards so he could get easy entry when he came back. Connor's print was on the end table. Horatio wants the video back. Connor doesn't have it anymore. He saw it was Cookie Devine, and he knew a guy who could make lots of cash by using the internet. Connor doesn't have the guy's name, only where he makes the dubs.

Horatio, Yelina and a uniformed officer approach a boat. Brandon Pace is on it. Yelina shows him a warrant to search his place, and gets on the boat. She finds a DVD case titled "COOKIE'S COMEBACK" and the video is playing on the TV. Brandon made 5000 copies. Truck came by this morning to pick up. Horatio tells Brandon that if proof of payment is shown, state attorney may show leniency. Brandon asks why, Cookie has done this before, and blows his chance. Horatio has him arrested.

Ryan is in the lab testing the sticky substance. It is Chappy's Cola, a soft drink with cane sugar as the sweetner. Cane sugar is used only in soft drinks from Mexico, and as it is naturally sweeter, some soda fans prefer it. Ryan spoke with the receptionist, Rachel, and got the name of one guy who gets the special order soda: Todd Simmons, also a tester.

Todd continues to play a game as Calleigh and Ryan question him. Todd didn't steal the cube, Todd didn't see a cube. Ryan takes the controller away from Todd's hands. He admits that he was in Ron's room to self-meditate, as it was the best suite. Calleigh gets a call and they leave.

Strong is skateboarding on the ramp. Calleigh tells Strong that lab results showed the blood from the studio floor and skateboard are both from Jake. They have a warrant for everything in the studio, including all of the motion capture footage.

The motion capture footage is being viewed in the lab. Tyler, the tech, notices that the footage from last night is different from today's; the man is taking it much easier today. They compare the height of the graphic men from last night and today - they are different - two different guys. Jake was not messing around. Strong is a fraud. The footage from last night ends up with the motion capture man getting the blunt force trauma on the head.

Calleigh and Ryan speak with Strong at the station. The skateboarder doing the tricks had been Jake all along. Strong responds, so what. Strong doesn't have time to skate anymore, he's got a company to run, he's grown up. Jake didn't, but Strong paid Jake a pretty sum for his services. It's capitalism. He even has the rights to Jake's tricks. Right now, Strong wants to go find a replacement.

Horatio enters the lab and asks Cynthia if she has anything. Brandon Pace was paid in money orders, six of them, 1000 dollars each, because banks that issue them has put monetary limits. But they don't require IDs to purchase. Derek Baldwin, the signer of the money orders, doesn't exist, but the signer is probably left-handed, because there are smudges of ink. Horatio recalls Matthew was left-handed. He hands Cynthia the note that Matthew gave him, for comparison of handwriting. Lower case "d" is identical.

Matthew admits to selling the tape. He didn't know who Sara was. He felt bad and wanted to erase the tape, but it was gone. Only one person could have taken it, the contractor. Matthew confronted the contractor, then heard of Cookie Devine for the first time. He wouldn't believe the contractor, but then the contractor showed him the Cookie Devine videos. Sara had lied to him. Horatio explains that she just didn't know how to tell him. The copies were sold to a company that used to produce her old films.

In the lab, Eric tells Ryan that orange particles were found on both sides of the skateboard, possibly where it was held, pollen from lily. Ryan recalls that Rachel the receptionist had flowers all around her desk as she sends them to wives and girlfriends.

Eric visits Rachel. Yes, she picks out the flowers and even writes the notes herself. She sent out lilies yesterday, for Amber Haynes, with a card "We'll be together soon". Eric looks at the Flower List file, then shows to Rachel that she had mistakenly sent the flowers to Jake Sullivan's address. His wife Julie must have gotten them. Eric asks for Julie's number.

Alexx calls to tech Maxine Valera, who at first didn't notice that she was being called because no one calls her by her first name. They notice that there is a smell. Ryan joins, and Alexx tells him to join her in the garage; it's decomp. Ryan takes a wrench to the crashed car and removes part of the front panel, and finds the missing foot. There are contact burn marks on the foot. Alexx needs to find the other end.

Eric asks Julie Sullivan at the station for her hands, as lily pollen is the most persistent kind. He finds some caught in her ring. Julie had received a bouquet of lilies yesterday, intended for Amber. She had believed him when he said he was at work all of the time. It was awful to find out about another woman like that. Eric explains that it was the office that had sent the flowers and had mixed up the names. Julie had gone to see Jake last night. In addition to the girl, at 35, he was still skateboarding. She had hit him with the skateboard. He tried to tell her it was a mistake, but she didn't listen. Alexx interrupts by knocking. Julie might have caused the blunt force trauma, but that was not the COD. Jake was electrocuted. Electricity entered at his foot, and the shredded ear was the point of exit.

In front of a storage building, a truck is backing up. Vince Fisher unloads the boxes. Horatio and policemen drive up. Horatio is confisticating the videos, as they are stolen property.

Strong is watching as a skater does a series of tricks on the ramp. Apparently, this is an audition for the new Dave Strong. Calleigh and Ryan arrive to find how the electrocution took place. Water conducts electricity. There was water on the carpet. The water cooler bottle is empty. Behind the water cooler, Ryan finds a torn power cord. The outlet is fried. Calleigh finds the power cord to the water cooler had been ripped out. Something is on the end of the cord. Skin? The handprint on the water cooler, probably used for leverage when ripping out the cord, is too big for the woman, so rule out the wife. There are voids in the prints of the forefinger and thumb. These are the same spots as on the prints from Jake's car. Ryan had thought they were smudges, but they were hyperkeratosis. With constant friction, the surface of the skin thickens - like playing a game continuously - prints get worn down and disappear, and calluses appear on the hand.

At the station, Calleigh and Ryan ask Todd to show his hands. There are calluses on his fingers. Todd has worked for Strong for three years, stuffed in a cubicle. He lost his girlfriend, gained twenty pounds, and couldn't leave because Strong kept on making him promises. Jake was hired later but Todd was doing all the work. Todd had seniority over Jake but Jake acted like he owned the place. Strong had even threatened that Todd was the expendable one. They had a deadline to make, when Todd found Jake just lying there. Todd supposed that Jake had fallen, trying to skate like Strong. It would be so easy to make it look like an accident. Todd electrocuted him. It was awful, the teeth grinding, hair burning, and eyes opening and staring at him. He had to get rid of the body, so he used Ron's cube to press down the accelerator, and let Jake's car go. Ryan tells Todd that Jake was hired to skate for Strong, and being a tester was just a show.

Horatio meets Sara in front of the station. He hands to her the master tape. Copies are being destroyed. Horatio has Matthew there, to explain where the tape had gone. As she goes to Matthew, she is angry at herself that she always falls for the wrong guy.

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Episode Vital Stats

 
Episode: Game Over
Season Number: 3
Episode Reviews: 2
Episode
Score:
8.0 Great 98 votes
Rating Statistics:
great: 42 (42.9%)
good: 21 (21.4%)
perfect: 14 (14.3%)
superb: 9 (9.2%)
Other: 12 (12.1%)
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