CSI: Miami

Season 3 - Episode 18 - Game Over

Written by Michael Ostrowski & Corey Miller
Directed by Jonathan Glassner

A collision on the highway leaves the driver of one car dead. Caine, Yelina and Alexx arrive on the scene. Alexx determines the victim, 35 year-old Jake Sullivan, was dead long before the crash took place. Horatio confirms the auto “accident” was no accident.

As the body is pulled from the wreckage, Alexx notices Jake is missing his right foot and it’s nowhere to be found. Alexx also discovers Jake received a severe blow to the head, and has a badly shredded ear.

Caine notices Sara Piper in the lobby, asking for Tim Speedle. He introduces himself and tells her Tim was killed in the line of duty. Her shock prompts Caine to talk with her, and she tells him she left the porn business but her ex-producer, Vince Fisher, is harassing her to come back. She explains she has a new life with a boyfriend who knows nothing of her past. They made a private sex tape together and it was stolen from their home. She has to find the video before it gets into the wrong hands. Horatio assures her he’ll look into it, then sets out to visit Fisher, the ex-producer, who claims he knows nothing.

Ryan and Calleigh examine the car Sullivan was found in. Ryan lifts a print from the gearshift and they concur the broken glass inside the car came from an additional source other than the windshield. Calleigh finds a piece of glass with a logo on it -- Best Overall Title: “Thrash Canyon.” Ryan recognizes it as a video game from Strong Studios, a skateboard video empire founded by Dave Strong.

Strong confirms Jake was a game tester at the studio. Calleigh and Ryan investigate the testing room there. Calleigh finds a blood-stained skateboard and fresh blood on the floor. Strong tells them awards are given as incentives -- the “Thrash Canyon” award was won by Ron Benson.

Wolfe notices a brown sticky substance on the floor in Benson’s office, along with a number of awards. Benson is bitter about his working environment at the studio, having worked for the past 72 hours straight. He points out Strong has spyware on every computer in the studio to monitor employees’ work habits. He’s not a happy man.

Caine stops by Sara’s house to dust for prints. Caine lifts a set of prints belonging to Connor Meade, the maintenance guy who fixed their sliding doors. During questioning, Meade admits to stealing the tape of “Cookie Devine” (Sara’s porn name) to make quick cash and provides the address where the dubs are being made. Caine and Yelina visit Brandon Pace’s place and uncover his dubbing equipment. Pace confesses he made 5,000 copies of “Cookie’s Comeback” that were picked up that morning. Tracing everything back to Sara’s boyfriend, Caine confronts Matt, who reveals he was shocked and hurt when he found out about her past and wanted revenge, so he sold the tape.

Wolfe & Calleigh check out Benson’s alibi on the Strong’s computer server, which verifies he was working at the time of the murder. They witness receptionist Rachel Thomas ordering flowers for an employee’s girlfriend, and she explains Strong often has her do this to “help out at home” since the employees work such demanding hours.

The brown sticky substance on Benson’s floor is traced back to programmer Todd Simmons, who drinks a special brand of imported cola. Simmons admits to being in Benson’s office, but only to “cop a blunt,” to help relieve his job stress. He swears he didn’t take one of Benson’s awards. Back in the lab, Tyler Jenson’s film work determines Dave Strong is a fraud. Strong doesn’t do his own stunts; he has skaters on the payroll as “testers” do the stunts, but takes the credit.

After talking with the receptionist further, Delko learns that she accidentally sent flowers to Jake’s wife Julie, with the name Amber on the card. A visit to Julie lets the pieces of the puzzle fall into place -- Julie had always believed Jake when he said he was working late, but became furious upon receiving flowers addressed to another woman, thinking he was having an affair all along. She showed up at the studio to confront him. Jake tried to convince her he didn’t even know an Amber, but she picked up a nearby skateboard and bashed his head in anger. Delko is in the middle of getting the confession from Julie when Alexx interrupts. She found Jake’s missing foot and the cause of death was electrocution, not the head injury, ruling out Julie as the killer.

Horatio finds Fisher with a truckload of “Cookie’s Comeback” DVD’s. He confiscates the contraband and orders Fisher to stay away from Sara.

Ryan and Calleigh trace the gearshift fingerprint to Todd Simmons. Simmons breaks down and confesses Strong told him if he might be replaced by Jake. Simmons felt humiliated. When he found Jake lying on the floor unconscious, he decided to finish him off by electrocuting him, so he made use of a nearby water cooler to do the job.

Caine calls Sara to come down and pick up her tape. She can’t thank him enough; Horatio steps aside to let Matt explain himself and how the tape got into the wrong hands in the first place.