Cindy Cosey

20 min read

·

Dec 7, 2024

SPOILERS

This is one of my favorite episodes so I might get a bit windy.

This story begins with the entire CBI team accompanied by local police milling around in the middle of a highway near the California/Nevada state line. In the middle of the road lies a severed hand and the jokes begin with Wayne who says, after Grace announces that forensics is running the fingerprints as they speak and she hopes they’ll find a match, “no, we’re gonna be talking to the hand for a long while.” Everyone seems a little down in the mouth and Patrick asks why everyone is so glum. “A case is a case. “Wayne and Kimball discuss whether or not the hand is in California — they’re hoping it’s in Nevada, so they won’t have to deal with it. Wayne comments that they’re in the middle of nowhere, it’s windy and he hasn’t eaten anything. He gets to the silly comments again stating, “aw, dismemberments are a bitch. You spend months assembling the victim. There’s always a piece missing.”

But Patrick thinks there’s already plenty to work with. Grace and Wayne inspect the hand and say that it’s a right hand with the number 43 written on it and that it’s, in all likelihood, a male hand. Wayne asks what else there is to work with, and Patrick surmises it’s probably a white male in his fifties and probably left-handed because the inked number 43 is on the right hand. Then he gets on hands and knees for a closer inspection. The others kind of look away, like, ‘Ew, how does he stand getting that close to a severed hand?’ A sniff and the eye level look raise eyebrows of the local police and Teresa says, “Consultant.” Like she’s trying to explain Patrick’s weirdness by telling the police he’s not an agent — JUST a consultant. Sigh. Patrick’s inspection includes odors, skin condition and the fact that the victim wore a pinky ring and he thinks the man was rich and an extrovert and concludes he was upper management in the hotel or gaming business. Kimball gets a grin on his face and says Patrick is guessing and Patrick challenges him to a bet that he is right. Kimball has 35 cents in his pocket and offers it for the bet and Patrick grins at the small bet, makes a comment about Kimball having a kids’ piggy bank at home full of change and Kimball gets an offended look on his face while Wayne grins away. Kimball says, “35 cents, take it or leave it.” Patrick takes the bet. Grace chimes in that she doesn’t think it’s right to take bets on such things — after all, that’s a human being that died. Wayne remarks, “no it’s okay. We’re in Nevada.” Funny, whether Grace thinks so or not. Clearly the men are getting a big kick out of this.

Just then Teresa walks up and announces that after measuring, the hand has been found to be 3 feet on the California side of the state line. The fingerprints have been identified — James Quincy Meier, and he runs the Calida Resort and Casino. Kimball looks sheepish and it’s time to pay up. 35 cents into Patrick’s hand.

Teresa, Patrick and Grace go to visit the victim’s family which includes his wife, his daughter and his son-in-law. The wife last saw the victim yesterday morning, but it wasn’t unusual for him to stay overnight at the casino — he was very attached to his work and his family was used to that happening, so they didn’t suspect any foul play, just figured he was at work. The wife did say that her husband had called the previous evening to say he would be working late. The son-in-law verifies this. When asked what his involvement with the casino is and he states he is a glorified house player. Son-in-law’s name is Daniel, by the way. His wife disputes Daniel’s self-description. Grace asks what a house player is, and Daniel explains that his job is to ‘herd the whales. . .the big money gamblers.’ He plays with casino money to break the ice and get the heavy action going. During the conversation Patrick is in his usual observation mode — how the family members interact with one another, what does their home tell him about them. Daniel seems to be a little controlling of his wife evidenced by a firm grip on her hands. Is he signaling her about when to speak and when not to? Names again — daughter, Jessica and wife, Ann.

Patrick talks to Jessica about a photo on the wall showing James with Frank Sinatra and Jessica says they were friends, in fact she got a smooch from Sinatra on her first birthday, at least that’s what she was told. Patrick tells Jessica he thinks she didn’t believe the story of the kiss and that her dad wasn’t around a lot when she was growing up. Jessica confirms this but makes tearful excuses for her father’s absence. Suddenly Daniel bursts out, “Damn. Stupid son of a bitch went for the two-point conversion.” He’s busy watching a football game during the interview? Wow. He really gives a rat about what’s happening. Ann expresses concern that there was danger to her husband because he was very principled and that wasn’t often accepted in his line of work. Jessica cautions her mother that the casino wasn’t being run by the mafia or anything, but Ann is clearly skeptical of just such associations. The motive of robbery is mentioned, and Ann is asked if James carried a lot of cash. Ann does say that her husband wore a “lucky $100,000 chip on a necklace. The chip only had value in the casino. She shows the team a photo of the chip.

Teresa, Grace and Patrick go for a visit to the casino and Teresa learns in a phone call from Wayne that there have been several other cases involving a severed hand and they were connected to organized crime. None of these cases were recent though. Patrick, Grace and Teresa enter the casino and are greeted by the head of security, Matt Etienne. He leads them further into the casino explaining that new upgrades were recently made and it’s obvious that Matt is proud of their establishment. To his credit, the place does look very swanky and high class. At this point Patrick makes a rather amusing (and knowledgeable) comment. “They use the same techniques they use in state-of-the-art animal husbandry. . . to make cows and sheep feel more comfortable. Dim lights, soft music, a maze of passages that lead you back to the pens, or in this case, the slots. There’s no clocks or windows anywhere so there’s no passage of time. Low priced alcohol is poured down you by attractive young women. Oxygen is pumped into the place to make you stay awake. . . and the constant symphony of bells and sirens that make it seem like someone’s winning all the time.” Matt bemusedly tells Patrick to speak his mind and not hold back. He also says that, indeed, someone is always winning. The machines are designed to let every gambler have a taste of victory, just enough to keep the customers spending money. Matt asks Patrick what the point of his little speech is and Patrick replies, “oh, no point. I love it.” The expression on Teresa’s face at the start of Patrick’s comments was precious — like, ‘oh God, what’s he going to say now?’

Patrick notices a man who intrigues him playing cards and surrounded by ladies probably half his age. The man is Cal Trask, a serious gambler and honored guest of the casino. A whale.

Patrick excuses himself to ‘play about’ in the casino — more Jane-style investigating and he hits Teresa up for $100. She thinks that’s a bad idea, but Patrick promises to double, maybe even triple her money and she gives him the hundred dollars. I find this amusing because throughout the series Patrick is always bumming money from someone (often to buy food). But when he needs money and no one is around he always has his own money and we already know he’s pretty wealthy. So why does he do this? I think he just has fun annoying people.

Off he goes onto the casino gaming floor to make his fortune. He buys his $100 worth of chips and searches for a game to play. First up. The blackjack table. I’m not familiar with the rules of casino gaming but I found it interesting that Patrick sat to the table and immediately introduced himself.

Back to Teresa and Grace talking with Matt. Matt tells them James had a meeting marked in his calendar with the number 43 next to it. They ask Matt if he thinks James might have been skimming or stealing from the casino (because the severed hand used to be a sign that a person was doing just that). Matt denies this, saying the casino owners are in the hundreds (people who have stock in the business) and that mafia type connections faded out long ago.

Back to Patrick playing Blackjack. He wins a hand, asking for a hit when he already has 17 on the table — big risk for going over 21, but he draws a 4 and wins the play. Obviously, he’s been steadily winning — he has a huge pile of chips now. He strolls off to find a new game after changing his chips out for chips of greater value — less chips to carry about. He finds himself another Blackjack table and sits down, and again, introduces himself.

Again, Patrick is shown steadily winning and a warning comes up in the casino’s observation room that there is a possible Code 9 at table 43. A code 9 means cheating and Matt tells his observing staff that he will be right there. Of course, this is Patrick’s table. Cal Trask is walking behind where Patrick sits and congratulates Patrick on his success at the table. Teresa and Grace have followed Matt to table 43 and Matt asks Patrick for a word. Patrick asks for a minute. “I’m on a streak.” Matt asks him what his secret is and Patrick replies, “there’s no secret. I’m memorizing the cards.” He is advised that the casino doesn’t like people doing that. Patrick quips, “is having a good memory illegal?” Gotta love the guy. Matt replies that, no, having a good memory is not illegal; they can only congratulate him on his good luck and bar him from the establishment in the future. Patrick says okay and gets up to leave the table, but he tells Matt that the dealer, Alexandra, is robbing him blind. He explains how she is not always dealing from the top of the deck, and she is passing good cards to her cousin who is playing at the table.

The entire team returns to the CBI office. Wayne and Kimball ask Patrick how much he won, and he says he won around $250,000. Grace, Kimball and Wayne look pretty amazed. Why? I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Kimball and Teresa are interviewing Alexandra about her cheating scheme and Patrick invites himself to the interview. Kimball accuses Alexandria of ‘living large.’ Alexandria says she has been trying to save money to buy her mother a new liver before she dies. She learns her cousin told all about the cheating scheme. Kimball ascertains that James knew about her cheating, fired her and was to have a meeting with her where she planned to ask for her job back. When she went for the meeting, she learned that James was dead and so she returned to work, acting as though he had allowed her to return to her job. She denies killing James. Kimball states, “Losing your job, going to jail. Who’s gonna look after your mom?” He also says that the possibility of losing her job and going to jail could be motive for murder. Again, Alexandra denies murdering James. Patrick pops in and asks Alexandra if she told James that Matt was involved in her cheating, and she denies that Matt was involved. Patrick then tells Alexandra that she’s free to go. Teresa chastises Patrick for saying Alexandra can go because the Gaming Commision will want to charge her and Patrick asks, “why do we get so hung up on every little law someone breaks?” Patrick surmises that Matt Etienne might be caught in the murder based on his reaction to what Alexandra told CBI. A little deceit from CBI might go a long way, but when questioned by Teresa for details of his plan he evades her.

Outside the interview Patrick takes a seat on the edge of his desk and opens up a gift bag from the casino pulling 2 boxes from it. A quick check of the boxes and he hands one to Teresa. She asks him suspiciously what it is and Patrick replies, “open it. It’s not a fake turd or anything.” This makes me think that he has, perhaps, made some practical jokes with the team members in the past. Given his playful sense of humor this wouldn’t shock me. He pitches the other box over to Grace. Teresa opens her box and finds a lovely emerald and diamond necklace and earring set. Grace opens hers and finds a ruby and diamond jewery set. Grace is awestruck and thankful. Teresa, not so much. Teresa says they cannot keep the gifts — it’s against regulations to which Patrick replies it is not, he won the money fair and square. Teresa just shakes her head. Kimball asks, “so where’s our stuff? You didn’t just get stuff for the ladies. That’d be creepy.” Patrick plays a brief head game with them by hesitating and looking a little guilty, then pitches a smaller box to Kimball and one of the same size to Wayne. Inside? Very expensive watches. Kimball makes me laugh when he says, “yeah, it must be worth a lot of money because this is the ugliest watch I’ve ever seen.” Both Wayne and Kimball are appreciative of their gifts.

Patrick offers to take his team out for dinner, and they go to a small diner that lies on the way back to the casino, where they want to do more investigation. At dinner they team is having drinks and playing cards around the table. Using corn chips for poker chips. Cute. They question Patrick about how he won so well at Blackjack, wondering if he really memorized the cards or if he cheated somehow. Grace thinks the memory trick is impossible, but Patrick tells them anyone can do it, explaining that he assigns an image to each card in the deck to help him remember. And here is our introduction to the Memory Palace (which I think is so cool and have even tried it in my own life and find that it really does work. I haven’t tried it with card playing but it has helped me remember how to get to places, when and how to accomplish certain tasks, etc.) Patrick explains that the Memory Palace is a place that you are very familiar with that you affix in your mind. Then you ‘place’ things you want to remember at locations in the Memory Palace and simply ‘walk through it’ to recall information that you ‘placed’ there. During the explanation Patrick says that he used to be involved in carnival life. Teresa comments, “your people are carny folk. You’re finally starting to make sense to me.” I’m sure it’s meant to be an insult, but Patrick doesn’t seem to take offense. I like it how Grace is almost always the one to ask for further explanations from Patrick (she asks how assigning certain images to each card in the deck helps him to remember them) In this instance though it is Wayne who asks in a facetious tone, “okay, so what’s a Memory Palace?” I still think Grace is a little infatuated with Patrick. Evidence of her wisdom and good taste. Wayne says he still can’t see how it works, and Patrick is able to tell the team exactly what cards they are holding in their hands and predicts what the next card to be turned up will be. He calls it correctly and the option to play another hand is placed but Wayne says it takes the fun out of it when you’re playing with a swami. Teresa says playtime is over. She says the jewelry Patrick gave her is a waste and Grace reluctantly agrees, and they return the jewelry to Patrick. I think he’s a little insulted. “Well, I would have bought world peace if I could. They didn’t have it at the casino gift store.” He also tells Teresa that the emeralds look lovely with her eyes. Already he is romancing her, but I don’t think either of them really realizes it. The ladies leave the table, wishing the gents good night. Kimball and Wayne give each other a look and Kimball says, “I’m not giving mine back. No way.” Wayne agrees and the threesome clink beer bottles together and Patrick gets a pleased smile and says, “that’s my boys. Live it up.”

Everyone retires and we get to see Patrick tossing and turning in bed. He can’t sleep, like always. Jeez, how does he stay so upbeat with so little sleep? We see him reading a little and pacing and watching the clock and finally around 5:30 he gets up and gets dressed, throws the jewelry and most of the money he won into the casino gift bag and heads out the door. He finds a ‘Planet Aid’ drop box and tosses the bag into it, seemingly pretty pleased with himself. Here we see his generosity. He could have returned the jewelry and kept the money for himself, but he simply gave it away, anonymously. Pretty sweet.

Teresa calls him and says Ann wants to ‘come clean’ and Teresa and Patrick go to visit with her. Ann tells them, in front of Daniel and Jessica, that she has been having an affair with Matt Etienne for about 2 years. Jessica says she knew about the affair, but she defends her mom stating that her dad was never there for her or her mother. He was married to the casino. Teresa asks if Ann thinks Matt murdered James to clear the way for Ann and he to be together. Ann adamantly denies this. Jessica dislikes Patrick’s accusitory questioning and gets a little loud and heated and again, we see Daniel exerting quiet control over Jessica with a firm hand on her arm. Ann admits she lied to and betrayed her husband, but she did not kill him. She states she loved him but she was lonely. She adjures Teresa and Patrick to talk to Matt to verify her story and they assure her that they will. Before they leave the Meier family Patrick takes Daniel aside and asks him if he can get him into a card game with some of the big spenders. Daniel acknowledges Patrick’s ability at the gaming tables and says he will try to get him into a game. Patrick requests that Daniel not tell Teresa what he has asked for. “She doesn’t really approve of my gambling.”

Teresa and Patrick head off to talk with Matt Etienne at his home. Matt meets them outside and Teresa informs him that they have a warrant to search his property. Teresa asks why Matt didn’t reveal his affair with Ann and he says he felt it was not pertinent, and he wanted to protect her. He even says James knew about the affair and wasn’t really bothered because it allowed him to focus on the casino (his true love) without guilt. Patrick takes a look around the front of the home and notices some footprints entering and leaving the garage, the ones going in are deeper than the ones coming out. Man, this guy picks up on details. He says it looks to him like someone might have taken something into the garage and left it there. The threesome go check out the garage and find James’ body in an empty freezer. Matt is as shocked as anyone.

Matt is interviewed and he sort of has an alibi, but Teresa points out that hi story did give him about a 90-minute window in which he could have killed James Meier. Kimball states maybe Matt might have gotten half of Ann’s estate if James died but Matt says he didn’t need money, he has his own. Kimball says maybe he wanted James out of the way so he could have his way clear with Ann. Matt denies being the murderer and goes on to say that the last time he saw James he was reviewing whale tapes. Seems that James recorded his customers and then reviewed the tapes later trying to ‘figure out what made them tick and to keep them on the hook.’

Grace reports Meiers’ autopsy report — blugeoned with a blunt object and an abrasion on his neck where, probably, his necklace with the $100,000 poker chip was ripped off of him. Teresa tells Grace to check out the motel that Matt said he was at the night of the murder. She tells Wayne to go to James’ office to check out this footage he kept on the whales.

Now we get to my favorite part of this episode — Patrick’s poker game with the whales. Present are Daniel, Cal Trask, another card player named Fred, an unnamed card player and a lady who is dealing. Fred asks, “how you feeling Goldilocks? Feeling lucky?” To which Patrick replies, “I’m sorry. Are we here to share our feelings or to play cards?” I love it. The other players do too. Smiles and grins all round.

Kimball and Wayne search James’ office unsuccessfully for his whale tapes and Kimball gives Patrick a call. He knows that in all likelihood, Patrick can help them figure out where to look for the tapes, even though he is not there, rather than them having to look through countless books on the shelves in the office. I like this. I think Kimball is truly Patrick’s friend and he trusts and possibly even admires Patrick’s skills. Patrick is shown taking the call (claiming a new girlfriend) and walks away from the card table. Kimball tells Patrick they think the tape might be in a book but there are about 500 books to go through. Patrick asks what kind of books there are and suggests they look in either “The Bible” or “Robert’s Rules of Order.” I’m not quite sure why he chooses those 2 books but it turns out a DVD is indeed found in “Robert’s Rules of Order.” Wayne says, “I don’t care what he says. That man is psychic.” It does seem that way sometimes and I don’t feel so bad about not knowing why Patrick chose those two books. Wayne doesn’t know either. I get the feeling Kimball does know, though.

Wayne and Kimball start watching the DVD to see if maybe James saw something on it thast might be a clue. They see a working girl come to Cal Trask’s door and she is let in. Upon re-reviewing they see that the working girl is none other than — Jessica. What?

Teresa interviews Jessica who guiltily denies she was at Cal’s room for sex and she refuses to offer any other information about the visit. Teresa points out that when they checked into Jessica and Daniel’s financials that the couple was ‘swimming in debt.’ Jessica tells Teresa that Daniel had been having some gambling losses. Teresa then tells Jessica that her dad was watching the video that shows her looking like a hooker going into Cal Trask’s room. Jessica seems scared.

Back to the card game. Yay! It looks like Fred and the unknown player are already out of the game and Cal is going all in. Patrick calls (he has the biggest pile of chips, surprise surprise). Both Cal and Patrick lose to Daniel. Daniel’s pretty happy with himself. Cal leaves the game and Daniel crows about beating Trask, saying he took him for a lot of money, to which Patrick replies, “yes, we did. I took most of it, but you didn’t do too bad.” It’s this kind of taunting behaviors that often get Patrick in trouble, but they often get him exactly what he wants — reactions from the one being taunted. Patrick stands to leave the game, seeming to be happy with his winnings. Daniel wants to continue the game but Patrick says he’s done. Daniel makes his own taunt. “What’s the matter, my friend?You scared?”

I’m sure this was exactly what Patrick wanted. He wanted Daniel to think he was taunting him into continuing to play. Patrick gives him a long look and takes the challenge, asking, Nancy, the dealer, to open a fresh pack of cards. Daniel looks very pleased with himself.

Wayne and Kimball approach Cal as he is leaving the casino to see what he has to say about Jessica going into his room looking like a hooker. Cal is arrogant, and offended that James was ‘spying’ on him. Cal is evasive about what happened at first until Wayne tells him that just maybe James confronted Cal about his daughter probably having sex with him, the confrontation turned violent, and Cal killed James. Cal denies it but Kimball says, “you can see how it looks.” This worries Cal enough to spill the beans. It would seem that Daniel was playing cards against Cal and losing badly. He wanted a chance to win back his money so actually offered Jessica to Cal as money to continue playing the game. Daniel lost again and had to pay up. He had Jessica come to Cal to have sex with him. Cal said Jessica wasn’t too enthusiastic but she was willing. In other words, he didn’t force or rape her. Trask laughingly says. “man’s a second rate card player but he knows how to control his womenfolk.”

Return to the card game. Now it’s just Daniel and Patrick playing, with Nancy, the dealer, present. Patrick is pouring himself a (looks like a cup of tea) drink at the buffet and while there he tilts a tumbler partly filled with (I think hot water) on edge and close to the edge of the buffet using a partly melted ice cube. What’s up with that? He returns to the table and seats himself and Daniel says, “I have to win this hand to stay in.” Patrick agrees. Just then the tumber falls off the buffet and breaks and Patrick takes the distraction to do a cut of the cards that were lying on the table, evidently ready for dealing. Nancy deals out and the men check their hands. Patrick has three 7’s, one of which is a heart and an 8 and 9 of hearts. Daniel has three kings, an ace and a 2. Patrick bets $2,000. When he leans up to place his chips, he purposely lets Daniel see this three 7’s. They each take new cards — Daniel one and Patrick two. Daniel drew his fourth king, kept his ace. What a fabulous hand. A sure winner against Patrick’s three 7’s. Patrick can tell Daniel is sure he has won — “that good, huh?” When Daniel says he can’t lose Patrick comments, “well, it’s a shame you don’t have diddly squat to bet with.” Daniel looks chagrinned for a moment but when pressed for his bet he raises a finger and, you guessed it, produces the $100,000 chip that was taken from James when he was murdered. Daniel makes a bet of $105,000. He looks so smug. Nancy looks a little worried. I don’t think she really likes Daniel much and was hoping Patrick would win. Patrick gets one of those small shit eating grins of his and matches Daniel’s bet. Daniel shakes his head and says, “you should trust me when I tell you things. I told you I couldn’t lose” as he hautily lays his cards down. Patrick murmurs, “that’s pretty. Not as pretty as this” as he spreads out his straight flush on the table — 7, 8, 9, 10 and jack of hearts. Daniel is pretty much quietly enraged stating “that’s impossible.” But really it wasn’t. It’s just that Patrick gave up two of his 7’s, something Daniel would never expect (he did see those cards in Patrick’s hand). He makes a reach toward the chips, but Nancy intervenes. Patrick has the winning hand, and he rakes in the pile of chips including the $100,000 one. Daniel knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on and walks away saying, “whatever man.” When he opens the door to leave, he is met face-to-face by Kimball and Wayne, there to arrest him for James’ murder.

Turns out James confronted Daniel about probably having something to do with Jessica going to Cal Trask to have sex. Daniel figured James wasn’t such a great husband and father so what right did he have to judge Daniel. James told Daniel he would do whatever it took to get Daniel out of Jessica’s life, that he was a no good. So, Daniel whacked James over his head and cut off his hand, attempting to make it look like the murder was mob related. He dumped James’ body at Matt’s house because he knew that would make the affair become known. Kind of “double” protecting himself. If the cops decided the murder wasn’t mob related, they would probably blame Matt Etienne.

Patrick tells Daniel he suspected him from the moment Daniel found the football game more interesting than his father-in-law’s murder during the initial interview of the family. Daniel wants to know how Patrick won the last hand and Patrick non challantly says, “oh, I cheated.”

Patrick returns the $100,000 chip to James’ wife and daughter and he tells Jessica, “Your father died protecting you. so, in the end he. . . he was there for you.”

Patrick walks to his couch with a satisfied smile on his face and lays himself down. Wayne and Kimball come and ask him how much money he won in the poker game, and he says he won around $300,000. They are clearly impressed. When asked where the money is Patrick simply relies, “I spent it.” He evades details.

Lastly, we see Alexandra at her mother’s bedside at the hospital and a nurse brings her a briefcase stating some cute blond guy left it at the desk for her. She opens up the briefcase to find it filled with neat stacks of $100 bills. We’re left with a reclining Patrick with a gentle smile on his face. Kind and generous once again. In spite of his faults, he’s still pretty darned sweet.