CSI
Register
Advertisement


NYblack
Grounds For Deception
Grounds
Season 5
Number 24
Writer Melina Kanakaredes
Director Duane Clark
Original Airdate May 13, 2009
Navigation
Previous Episode: Greater Good
Next Episode: Pay Up

Grounds For Deception is the twenty-fourth episode in Season Five of CSI: NY.

Synopsis[]

Stella discovers that her old friend, Professor Papakota, may be connected to the Greek antiquities smuggling ring and travels to Greece to investigate.

Plot[]

Mac confronts Stella about the anonymous call she made to report finding the body of Sebastian Diakos in "Point of No Return"—after he'd expressly ordered her to drop the case. She storms out of his office, leaving her badge behind, but Mac is soon calling her back, after a man's body turns up backstage at the outdoor performance of a Greek play at Chelsea University. Stella identifies him as George Kolovos—the man she and Detective Angell sent in a shipping crate to Cyprus. Mac thinks he may have returned to New York seeking revenge—and that whoever killed him saved Stella's life. At the scene, Hawkes collects trace that Adam identifies as coffee grounds. Danny reassembles pieces of plaster found at the scene to make a mold of the murder weapon, a thick, ornate dagger. Stella tells Flack to let Angell, who is on vacation, know about Kolovos' murder and then goes to talk to her mentor Professor Papakota, who reminds Stella he urged her to let the case go. Back at the lab, Lindsay shows Mac the ornate markings that the plaster picked up from the weapon, and informs him that they represent ancient Greek philosophers and poets. Hawkes carbon dates trace from the wound and tells Mac the weapon was crafted in 300 BC. Danny has the results from a print on the plaster, which matches Professor Papakota.

When Danny and Flack go to question the professor, they find Stella just leaving his apartment. Stella returns to the apartment with the two men in tow, but Papakota is gone—as is his passport. Stella goes back to her office and takes down a painting Papakota gave her as a gift. Looking at the back of it, she finds a stamp for the Ancient Macedon Museum and realizes it was stolen. Stella leaves, and Mac finds the torn up paper from the frame in her office—along with ink from the stamp, which allows him to piece the words together. Mac tells Danny and Adam that the painting was stolen from an exhibit Professor Papakota put together at the Met in 1977. Hawkes matches coffee grounds found at Papakota's apartment with the grounds he found at the scene. Adam gets a DNA match on both sets of grounds, leading the team to believe Papakota is their man. Flack tells Mac that Papakota is in the wind—and that Stella just purchased a ticket to Thessaloniki, Greece. In Greece, Stella goes to the house of Papakota's brother, Tasso, who tells her Papakota isn't there. She gives her hotel address to Tasso and leaves, catching sight of Papakota. She chases him, but loses him in a museum. Mac follows Stella to Greece and together the two speak to Detective Cristos Temmas and Areti Moungri, a museum curator, who identifies the painting Stella has as one stolen from her museum. Stella insists that she had no idea it was stolen, but Temmas tells her not to leave the country.

Mac tells Stella that the murder weapon dates back to the time of Alexander the Great. Stella thinks Diakos, Kolovos and Papakota stumbled upon the ancient tomb. Stella apologizes to Mac and he shows her a picture of Papakota from the time of the Met exhibit—with a blonde woman who looks like Stella. Mac thinks the woman, a restoration artist from Greece who was killed in a traffic accident just after the exhibit opened, is Stella's mother. When Mac tells her he thinks Papakota is the killer, Stella insists he isn't. When he tells her about the coffee grounds, she asks him to have Danny run the DNA from the grounds against a reference sample from Papakota, thinking that he may have been reading someone else's grounds—a tradition in Greece. Danny does as she asks and eliminates Papakota as a suspect, but finds a filial match to the man: the killer is his brother, Tasso. Mac goes to tell Stella but finds Tasso attacking her. Mac goes after him but the man runs. Recalling the Papakotas lost their peach-tree-filled lands to the government, she and Mac isolate a pesticide that leads them to the location of the Papakotas' lands—and the tomb of Alexander. They find Papakota and Tasso with the valuables from the grave; Tasso begins to fire at Mac and then flees. Stella confronts Papakota, who says Greece stole his family's lands from him. Stella counters that he stole from her by not telling her he knew her mother. As they argue, Tasso gets off a shot that hits Papakota rather than Stella. As he dies in her arms, he admits that he loved her mother—and that he was returning the artifacts to the land. Stella drops the dagger back in the ground before she and Mac return to New York. Back at the lab, Stella reads Mac's coffee grounds—and he returns her badge.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Sofya Skya as Olympia
  • Bettis Richardson as Danaus
  • Paul Papadakis as George Kolovos
  • Tony Amendola as Professor Papakota
  • George Tasudis as Tasso Papakota
  • Georgia Hatzis as Areti Moungri
  • Louis Mandylor as Det. Christos Temmas
  • Brenna Radding as Young Stella
  • Jiffy Reed as Greek Statue
  • Steven James Price as Police Officer

See Also[]

CSI:NY Season 5
VeritasPage TurnerTurbulenceSex, Lies, and SiliconeThe Cost of LivingEnoughDead InsideMy Name is Mac TaylorThe BoxThe TriangleForbidden FruitHelpRush to JudgementShe's Not ThereThe Party's OverNo Good DeedGreen PiecePoint of No ReturnCommunication BreakdownPrey (NY)The Past, Present and MurderYahrzeitGreater GoodGrounds For DeceptionPay Up


Advertisement