A singer bursts into flames on stage and is pronounced dead by the EMTs. Ryan (Jonathan Togo) points out their evidence is on the gurney, but her doctor, Dr Beckham (Alan Ruck) isn't interested. Ryan did however manage to snag the costume. Calleigh (Emily Procter) wonders how the world's greatest popstar could have caught fire and survived. Ryan says she didn't survive. Horatio (David Caruso) arrives. The way Horatio drove to the CS in slow motion with the crowd outside, looked like they were all waiting to see him! ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) is in a bit of a huff since he can't get access to the Vic. Horatio telling them to get out of his way, cos he's taking charge of the situation. ME Tom doesn't see any signs of edema from the lungs so she wasn't breathing when on fire. Horatio spells it out, "She was already dead."
Jesse (Eddie Cibrian) talks with the pyrotechnic guy and asks if anyone could have tampered with them. They were meant to go towards the audience. Jesse believes the fire masked who killed Phoenicks. She was sprayed with bronzer beforehand and so was covered in accelerant as Calleigh puts it. The make-up woman inadvertently states "she shouldn't have burned." Ryan comments she was flat-lining when she was here.
Julian (Brennan Elliott) her manager calls her death an 'inconvenience'. Horatio: "I call it obstruction." He was backstage when it happened but she didn't have any enemies (that was an understatement.) He comments people become targets when they're famous. Rick Stetler (David Lee Smith) corners Calleigh to ask about the mileage discrepancy in her log. She can't account for it and tells him Jesse borrowed the Hummer, too late, she already put her foot in and dropped him in it. Then tries to backtrack by saying she can't remember. Cos she's gonna have it out with Jesse later.
Walter (Omar Miller) comments on how tiny Phoenicks dress was and he was a fan. He has such eclectic tastes in music and other pursuits doesn't he, also confessing to liking rock music a few episodes back. Ryan isn't a fan, "I'm not an 11 year old girl." That was really dismissive and abrupt from him. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going through his head. Ryan notices a point of ignition on the dress and some strange metallic wiring on the dress. Her designer didn't design her clothes and the wires weren't part of the dress. Julian dealt with everything.
Travers (Christopher Redman) identifies the wiring as copper from a stun gun, which in turn ignited her make-up, the bronzer. ME Tom explains her COD was a heart attack resulting from fatal muscular interruption. No stun probes were found on the DB. Ryan comments on her having a nose job, but she hasn't had one and her wisdom teeth are still intact too. Horatio: "Who is this?" It's not Phoebe Nichols (Lucy Hale) on the table, but Vanessa Patten. Phoebe quit. No one else knew except Julian and Horatio calls that fraud. Melanie Nichols, (Jackie Debatin) Phoebe's mother and manager tells Calleigh she was fired. Phoebe also emancipated herself. (Get the impression this was really based on Britney, and other teen popstars of today; at least parts of her character.) Calleigh thinks Phoebe may be the real target.
Dave (Wes Ramsey) reconstructed the CS, of sorts, with the use of the footage from cameras and phones and recreated the concert. A 180 degree picture of the events reveals a pickpocket in the crowd stealing her bracelet. Identified as Robbie (Erik Scott Smith) she owed him money and he's her number 1 fan. An obvious clue, it's always the number 1 fan who has the greatest involvement in such cases. She ignored him and Ryan notices his bitterness. Calleigh checks Phoenicks' website and Jesse asks her if it's personal or business. Phoebe is actually alive and Jesse associates this with Elvis. Calleigh adds Elvis is actually dead. Jesse: "Is he?" There's one place owned by Phoebe's umbrella company which they haven't checked out. I was about to ask when Calleigh was going to confront Jesse about the mileage but I thought too soon, ha. Jesse is defensive when she does ask and he's very angry saying he'll handle it and then apologizes for his outburst.
Inside they hear singing coming through the walls, leading to Phoebe. (In a scene almost similar to the CSI season 11 House of Hoarders episode; where the mother had her daughter tied up as she was a killer. Only Phoebe wasn't a killer here and her mother was guilty. As was so obvious. Oh and CSI:Miami filmed this a year earlier. Jesse thinks she was drugged with sedatives and Calleigh notices something in her arm. Jesse processes the house and finds a bottle of Haloperidol. Tripp (Rex Linn) brings in Dr Beckham and tells him not to play dumb. She was drugged since she suffers from mania and was to be kept drugged for the duration of her tour. He didn't kill her but Horatio says she'd have become a living legend if she died during a performance.
Calleigh reassures Phoebe her whereabouts won't be revealed during the investigation. Phoebe dreamed of being a singer but doesn't want that anymore. The implant in her arm was a GPS tracker. Phoebe bonds with Calleigh since she's the only one who shows her any kindness and doesn't want her to leave. She promises to return later. Dave examines the tracker and finds the signal hasn't been deactivated. Conveniently, as in the previous episode, the web feed was still active leading to the suspect. This leads to Melanie who was tracking her as Julian wouldn't let her near Phoebe. Watch her look down and left when Calleigh questions, always a sure sign the suspect is lying. Phoebe thinks it's weird looking at her own funeral, but this should be for Vanessa, not for her. Calleigh reassures Phoebe she'll find something else to do; but she has to let people know she's still alive.
Walter and Ryan process the evidence and Walter notices the bracelet is still here. Ryan tells him to take it to the evidence locker. He asks Ryan to use ALS (Alternate Light Source) to examine the bracelet; revealing a sticker on it. Ryan calls it an anti-theft microtag. Walter thinks it's from the stun gun, so the serial number can be traced. All stun gun models have microdots when they're fired and the number can be tracked to the stun gun. Which was traced to Robbie, as we knew all along. He protested too much about not knowing it was Vanessa and not having a stun gun. Melanie was his accomplice and she wanted to reveal Vanessa as a fake. It's always parents who do it for the money and fame; living vicariously through their children, cos it's what they always wanted. See previous CSI: Miami episodes where this has been done. Such as Cyber-lebrity.
Jesse apologizes to Calleigh for earlier, allowing her to get things off her chest. She doesn't know what to think and doesn't know him. Well that's true, he left when she arrived and has only just returned; so she wouldn't have known him that well in the space of a few months. To her, he walks around "with an air of mystery" and she knows he's hiding something. (Don't think she can read Delko (Adam Rodriguez) as well either and she's known him longer. Well rather Jesse walking around mysteriously, than Delko! is what I say.) She's seen all this before and wonders if she can trust him. So finally getting Jesse to spill: that he's been following a woman he knew in LA. She's in danger as he knows the man she lives with. He worked on an investigation in LA where a woman was killed by her husband and it was this same man. He also killed Jesse's wife. His lawyer got him off.
So the mystery deepened as far as Jesse's past was concerned, but still brought up more questions than answers; such as when he was married, for how long, what really happened and is he telling the truth now or do we still think he's nothing but a stalker with nefarious intentions. Calleigh took him at his word, which either makes her really gullible, trustful or was she just stringing him along, pretending she believes him. Since she didn't have much to say after that.
However, questions aside, we know Jesse isn't bad, Horatio wouldn't have him working here if he was and look how many times Ryan's been in trouble and he's still here. Jesse calls his use of the Hummer a personal errand, which is exactly what it was.
Rick on the scene and the bracelet not being placed in evidence is a future plotline in itself. But you know by now whenever Rick's on the scene, nothing is ever simple or straightforward which is good. It's like he has a menacing effect and keeps the show interesting.
Ryan, unlike Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) in the CSI:Miami/CSI:NY intro episode, MIA/NYC-Nonstop, didn't manage to be as intrusive as her when wanting evidence from the Vic before being taken away on the gurney.
CSI: Miami loves its fire/pyrotechnics episodes.
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