Oedipus Hex


Oedipus Hex

Season	3
Number	5
Writer	Ken Solarz Anthony E. Zuiker
Director	Scott Lautanen
Original Airdate	October 18, 2006
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Oedipus Hex is the fourth episode in season three of CSI: NY.

Synopsis

The CSI's handle two puzzling cases; Carensa is a young Suicide Girl who at 17, wanted a change of scenery and to become a Suicide girl; at 18 she gets her wish only to lose her life. Chopper, a rising street basketball star, a homeless man trying to change his life for the better is killed and leaves a painful trail of blood which leaves Mac to figure out where and how he died.

Plot

A girl is found dead under the subway tracks after she performs with a burlesque show re-enacting the prom scene fromCarrie, complete with fake blood covering the performers. Mac, Danny and Lindsay notice the fake blood on her body, as well as the fact that her shoes are missing. In the morgue, Sid Hammerback determines she was beaten to death, and that several wounds in her head indicate she was struck with a sharp object. Danny notices a tattoo that reads: "Til Death Do Us Part, Omen & ..." with the second name scratched out, while Dr. Hawkes makes note of abrasions on the girl's hands. Danny discovers a logo on her underwear with the initials "SG," which Adam identifies as standing for the Suicide Girls. Danny tracks them down and learns the Suicide Girls are a group of women who take the same last name and share a love of body art. Danny speaks with Missy Suicide, the group's founder, who IDs the dead girl as Omen Suicide, formerly Carensa Sanders, and two other girls, one of whom has a trash poker with blood on it. Danny suspects the worst, but when Hawkes tests the blood, it turns out to be from a rat, not a human.

At Rucker Park, an area famous for its intense basketball games, the body of one of the star players, Alondo "Chopper" Tevis is found on one of the courts. Mac notices a crescent shaped wound in his forehead, and finds a similarly shaped piece of brass nearby. The CSIs follow the trail of blood to an alley and wonder how and why the gravely injured man crawled from the alley to the basketball court. In the morgue, Hammerback pulls a bloody, folded up piece of paper from Chopper's sock and glass from his arm. Both of his legs were fractured, he had burn marks on his wrist made 6-8 hours prior to his death, and old track marks on his body indicate he was a recovering addict. Stella is able to get a print from one of the pieces of glass from his body, and it's a match for up and coming NBA star Dante Hope. When the CSIs confront him, he insists he had nothing but respect for Chopper even though the man beat him on the basketball court recently.

Danny and Lindsay are surprised when Omen's mother, Helen Sanders, shows up at the precinct, and Lindsay asks Danny to handle her, claiming she's not good with mothers. Danny tries to console the woman, only to get slapped in the face for his efforts. After Hammerback finds shoe polish in the wounds in Omen's skull, Danny and Lindsay identify the kind of shoe used to kill her--a green stiletto. Danny turns to the dummy to figure out how she was killed, and determines the murderer struck her in the head with the shoe, which would have produced a significant amount of blood spatter. Since the Suicide Girls were all wearing similar green stilettos, the CSIs have eight suspects the night of the show, none of whom are very forthcoming. Nixon Suicide hits on Danny, while Al tells Lindsay she tossed her shoes after the show because they were ruined by the fake blood.

The paper from Chopper's shoe turns out to be a prayer card, leading the CSIs to his church. The priest tells them Chopper had told him in confession that someone was offering him a lot of money to throw a basketball game. At the altar, they discover a burnt button in one of the candles, and suspect that it might belong to the person who wanted Chopper to throw the game. Stella takes it back to the lab, but when Flack calls in to say that Chopper's widow, Kendra, cashed a check of Chopper's for fifty grand. Mac meets Flack at her apartment, which overlooks the basketball court. She tells them that Chopper gave her the check and tried to reconcile with her, but she told him it was too late for them. Their son, Taurus, enters the apartment and regards the cops indifferently. Back at the lab, Stella traces the button from the church to a custom-made car spinner owned by a man named Hector Moody. Mac and Flack catch the man trying to filch a stolen watch, and the bring him in. Hector tried to pay Chopper off to throw the game, and hit the basketball player with his car when he refused. Hector denies the charges.

Hawkes reconstructs Omen's tattoo and discovers the other name is Al. The CSIs go to pick up Al Suicide and find her in the middle of a fight in a club with a man who goes by the name of Why Munster. Al thinks Omen cheated on her by hooking up with him, and Munster confirms it, and tells the CSIs he met her when she asked him to ink her tattoo for her. At a loss, the CSIs go back to Omen's wounds, and Danny recalls marks on her hands. He suspects they may have been made by a motorcycle kick from a vintage bike, and recalls that Munster mentioned driving a bike. They bring him back in and Danny puts it together. Munster's real name is Albert Linehart, and Danny suspects when Omen asked him to ink her tattoo that he assumed the Al on it was him. When he discovered it wasn't, he waited for her outside her show and beat her to death. Blood on his bike helmet confirms Danny's theory. The case closed, Lindsay offers to show Helen Sanders the tape her daughter made to join the Suicide Girls. Danny watches the group of women leave the station; Nixon asks him out, but he turns her down.

Stella and Mac track down the couple whose watch Hector Moody was trying to sell. Clay and Lily Becker were on vacation when they were mugged. Mac spots a Teacher of the Year award in Lily's suitcase, and notices the stem of the apple is missing. It's the piece found near Chopper's body. The couple confesses: shortly after they were mugged, Chopper crawled up to their car, wounded after being hit by Hector. Frightened, Clay assumed he was another assailant, and Lily struck him with her award. They drove off and left Chopper to die. Flashbacks reveal another sad irony: Chopper's son was the mugger who robbed the Beckers.

Cast

Main Cast

Guest Cast

A.J. Buckley as Adam Ross
Robert Joy as Sid Hammerback
Sancho Demmings as Alonzo Chopper Tevis
Allison Miller as Omen/Carensa Sanders
Zoli Suicide as Herself
Razzi Suicide as Herself
Fractal Suicide as Herself
Sawa Suicide as Herself
Amina Munster as Herself
Al Suicide as Herself
Missy Suicide as Herself
Mary-Margaret Humes as Helen Sanders
Marvin Jordan as Dante Hope
Natashia Williams as Kendra Tevis
Darrel Allen Labert as Marcus
Jack Hannibal as Clay Becker
Stephanie Denise Griffin as Lily Becker

Music

"Walk" by Pantera.
"New York" by Rakim.
"Hour of Zero (Don't Mess with Illinoize Remix)" by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult & TRS-80.
"Don't Go" by Scratch Track.
"Get Myself Into It" by The Rapture.
"Distant City" by The Cassandra Project.
"I'm Not Worried at All" by Moby.
"You Love It" by Peaches.

Notes

The Suicide Girls is a real web site and traveling burlesque show. The Suicide Girls featured in the episode, including Missy Suicide are on the website.
Mary-Margaret Humes, who plays Helen Sanders in this episode, has appeared in the CSI episode Let the Seller Beware.
The title Oedipus Hex is a play on the name of a tragic play written by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex.