David Cassidy on the Web
CSI Season 13 Review "Last Woman Standing" – Cheaters Never Win
March 28, 2013
By Kristen Elizabeth
www.tvequals.com
Coming off the emotional highs and lows (but mostly lows) of last week's episode, CSI looked to Vegas itself for inspiration with the poker-centric "Last Woman Standing," when the team stumbled onto a serial killer using a losing hand of cards as inspiration for a series of gruesome revenge murders.
Joining Danny Bonaduce (who was axed by season seven's Miniature Killer), David Cassidy became the second member of the Partridge family to be murdered on CSI, and from now until the end of the show, I will be holding out for Susan Dey. (You know you want to see Laurie on Doc Robbins' slab as much as I do.)
This episode felt a bit like a return to the old days. You know…when Sara didn't wear a wedding ring and hid her feelings from her co-workers. Seriously though, it was an interesting case with some much-needed gore. It's easy for us to forget thirteen years later just how much the blood and guts of CSI changed television standards, and they're still one of the only non-cable shows that can get away with showing the details of a decapitated body.
I also liked that it was Greg who put the final pieces together and figured out that the men (and one woman) who were killed were paying the price for their involvement in a cheating ring that drove a man to suicide. The killer was the man's daughter, and my only problem with that revelation was that she chose to murder the innocent daughter of one of the conspirators since the conspirator himself had already died. Yes, she was obviously crazy, but would she really make a fellow innocent victim of the scam suffer for something over which she had no control? I just didn't quite buy that.
What I did buy, to my great surprise, was the contrition and transformation of Conrad Ecklie. Faced with the choice whether to accept the office of Sheriff, Ecklie had a great scene in which he confessed that he had been a power-hungry, manipulative son of a something-or-other when he ruled the crime lab. We all already knew that, but it was nice to see him acknowledge it, as well as his fear that he might return to that version of himself. Fortunately he has Morgan to keep him grounded, as fear of losing his daughter's fledgling trust will probably keep him on the straight and narrow.
