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The Chick Chop Flick Shop
Chick
Season 8
Number 5
Writer Evan Dunsky
Director Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate November 1, 2007
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Previous Episode: The Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp
Next Episode: Who and What

The Chick Chop Flick Shop is the fifth episode in Season Eight of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The CSI team delves into the world of horror movies when a slasher film scream queen is killed on the set of one of her movies.

Plot[]

Victim: Weatherly Adams (deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, Ronnie Lake, Jim Brass

At Repulsion Pictures, an adult horror film studio in Vegas, the company's lawyer, Stanley Vespucci, informs Nick and Brass that star actress Weatherly Adams is missing. In her dressing room, they find a vase of flowers along with a note addressed to her. Her purse containing her wallet, keys, and cell phone is located and her car is still parked in the studio's lot. Stanley explains that Weatherly attracts all sorts of nut jobs and hands Brass a stack of letters from such people in Weatherly's past. In the basement, they're shown a broken window where somebody broke into the studio. Nearby, Nick finds Weatherly's body amongst some stuffed dummies with an axe in her back.

Weatherly's body has been left under a poster showcasing one of her past movies with a similar plot—life imitating art. David Phillips examines the body and notes that her panties are missing. Catherine notices that one of Weatherly's shoes has a broken heel and Nick determines that the blood pool around the body is actually prop blood. The handle of the axe has been wiped clean.

The owners of Repulsion, brothers Vincent and Mason Lafoon, point the finger at a former employee, Oliver Zarco. They tell Brass that Oliver had a thing for Weatherly, but got injured on set and blamed it on the brothers. According to them, Oliver is the one who sent Weatherly the flowers and the note. In fact, this isn't the first time Oliver has caused a problem at the studio post-injury.

In Weatherly's dressing room, Catherine finds a notebook listing dates, times, and weights; she tells Nick that the vase doesn't have any prints on it. Meanwhile, Brass interrogates Oliver Zarco, who relives his past with Weatherly and the accident that left most of his face burned. He says that Vincent convinced him not to file a Worker's Compensation claim and eventually offered him a mere $2,000 after the filing deadline passed. Weatherly ended up dumping him and he admits to breaking into the studio from time to time in order to leave her gifts; however, he claims he hasn't been to the studio in over a year and that therapy has helped him let go of his anger.

Wendy finds that skin underneath Weatherly's fingernails and semen from her sexual assault kit both come back to director Zack Putrid, whose real name is Vaughn Krunty. Zack was hit with a rape charge when he was 18 years old and the girl he was with was sixteen. At the studio, Zack proudly tells Brass that he and Weatherly were having sex. When told that his skin was underneath her fingernails, Zack explains that this occurred during one of their sexual endeavors and pulls down his pants to prove it.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins discovers that Weatherly's injuries are inconsistent with the position of the axe. The perforation was caused by a sharp, hollow, cylindrical object that entered through her lower back, such as a pipe or spear. Since the axe was planted in Weatherly's back postmortem, the CSIs still need to locate the actual murder weapon.

Archie shows Catherine surveillance footage of Vincent Lafoon opening the warehouse window and making it look like someone attempted to break in. It would appear that he's trying to frame Oliver. Catherine notes that Stanley had fixed the studio's surveillance a few days before, something Vincent was likely unaware of. Vincent is arrested and brought to the police station. In the hallway, he passes Oliver and the two of them get into a verbal altercation while Brass passively watches.

Nick determines that there was only less than a cup of Weatherly's blood around her body. The original assumption was that the axe wound over her puncture wound helped keep the blood inside of her body. However, when comparing Weatherly's weight on the coroner's report with the weight listed in her journal, he found that she was missing six pints of blood, meaning that she died somewhere else and was moved. Hodges informs Catherine and Nick that the trace from the puncture wound was from galvanized pipe. They head back to the studio with Ronnie in tow.

At the studio, Nick finds the hat Vincent was wearing in the surveillance video and sees that its strap has been adjusted. He brings it back to the lab for processing. Upon looking at the list of possible suspects in the case and comparing their heights with the height of the window in the surveillance video, he realizes that someone taller than Vincent was setting him up. The only suspect taller than Vincent is his brother, Mason. Nick calls Catherine at the studio and relays this information to her.

Catherine and Ronnie continue to search the studio for the murder weapon. As a storm rages on outside, Catherine eventually locates the murder weapon, a round prop with metal pipes sticking out of it. Ronnie finds Weatherly's broken heel nearby in a coiled up hose. A flashback shows Weatherly getting stuck in the coils and being pushed down onto the prop by an unknown assailant. Just then, the storm knocks the power out; when it comes back on, both CSIs have lost their cell phone service. Ronnie is tasked with bringing the bloody prop to the lab for processing; however, while at a gas station, she realizes that she left her cell phone at the studio. When she leaves the gas station, a woman with short blonde hair watches her go.

Catherine gets a call from Dickie Jones, a dwarf working on the film, saying he has information about Weatherly's death and insisting she meet him at the studio. Meanwhile, Mason is brought to the station for questioning. Brass presents him with the still from the surveillance video and Mason confesses that Weatherly died accidentally when she fell backwards off of the sound stage and onto the prop. Mason wanted to call the police, but Stanley told him that doing so would result in the company losing its liability insurance and, eventually, being shut down. They decided to make it look like a murder, with Stanley coming up with the idea to frame Vincent. Mason then reveals that Dickie saw the accident happen and has been blackmailing Vincent ever since.

Back at the warehouse, Ronnie locates her cell phone and, soon thereafter, finds Dickie's dead body hanging upside down from a rafter with a gunshot to the head. She tries to call for help, but is still unable to get a signal. Just then, she hears more gunshots come from another room. As she follows the sound of the shots, she sees the blonde-haired woman from before walk across the far entryway. Ronnie's cell phone goes off, alerting the woman. Now being pursued, Ronnie hides in a corner of the warehouse, calls Catherine, and requests backup.

As she prepares to defend herself, Ronnie stumbles across another body—Zack Putrid. Zack is alive, but has been shot. As Ronnie tends to Zack's wounds, Stanley appears and points his gun at Zack. Before he can fire, Oliver Zarco, dressed in drag as Weatherly, kills him from behind with an axe. Once they get him to the hospital, Zack tells Ronnie that Stanley shot Dickie after hearing him call Catherine. Dickie was blackmailing the company, so Stanley killed him to keep him quiet; he then went after Zack. Zack admits that the whole sequence would be great for one of his movies and notes that it's "life imitating art imitating life." He offers Ronnie a part in his next production, but she turns him down. Back at the lab, Doc Robbins and David Phillips watch one of Weatherly's movies. Doc Robbins is impressed, but mostly with how anatomically correct the murder scenes are.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • Sara privately tells Greg that she thinks she's tired of having death shoved in her face every day, hinting towards her temporary departure midway through the season.

Notes[]

  • Gary Dourdan (Warrick) is credited but does not appear in this episode.

Trivia[]

  • Will Sasso played Mason Lafoon. He is perhaps most recognizable for appearing on the sketch comedy show MADtv.
  • Martin Klebba played Dickie Jones. Klebba's most recognizable role is that of Marty in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. He also appeared in the CSI:NY episode Uncertainty Rules.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 8
Dead DollA La CartGo to HellThe Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp The Chick Chop Flick ShopWho and WhatWhere and WhyGoodbye and Good LuckYou Kill MeCockroachesLying Down With DogsBullGrissom's Divine ComedyA Thousand Days On EarthDrops OutThe Theory of EverythingTwo And A Half DeathsFor Gedda
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