Art Imitates Life

"Art Imitates Life"

"Art Imitates Life" is the third episode in the ninth season of the American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Plot

The team investigates the appearance of unusual corpses around the city, which are artistically posed as to appear alive. With the lab short-staffed and still reeling from the death of Warrick Brown, a psychiatrist is brought in to provide grief counseling for the team, and the staff gets a new member - CSI Level 2 Riley Adams.

The team responds to a report of a woman that was found murdered at the park. When Grissom and Catherine arrive at the scene, they see that the victim is upright, leaning against a lamp post and holding her cell phone against her head. Catherine suspects that she was killed by lightning that hit the post while she was talking, however, they see no burn marks and the bulb doesn't look like it was hit. They find that she was carrying a purse with no wallet and that the phone shows only one phone call to a movie ticket place.

The team finds that the woman is Carla Paretti. Grissom returns to the station and learns that he is supposed to attend a department wide meeting. The team is assembled in the conference room and are introduced to Patricia Rowley, a therapist sent there to counsel them if they feel any grief over the loss of Warrick.

After the meeting is over, Warrick's replacement, Riley Adams, enters the room and introduces herself to the therapist. Patricia tells her that joining a new team will be hard on her and the team. Riley tells her that she thinks it will all work out. Patricia believes that she is becoming defensive and she responds by telling her that both of her parents were shrinks.

Grissom enters the room, introduces himself and calls Riley out to another scene.

Riley is shown a body that was discovered on a bus bench. The man is shirtless wearing only a pair of shoes and running shorts. He has no wallet, cash, or keys on him. They find that the body shows signs of rigor mortis. The team learns that the bus driver was there only an hour and a half ago and did not see the body. They figure that the amount of time that the man was there was not enough for him to develop rigor mortis. Riley states her theory that rigor mortis may spontaneously develop if the man was running and while having a heart attack. They take the body for further examination.

Back at the lab, Catherine tells Nick that the first victim died from cardiac arrest. Nick tells her that classification is coroner code for 'they don't know what killed her.'

Catherine tells Nick that before she died, Carla had odd jobs including being a model and actress.

Greg says that there were no drugs, organ damage, or diseases in her body that would show how she died.

Riley meets with Al and shows her playful personality by sharing a story how she lost several of her teeth. They look over the body of the male victim and find that he was full of meth, heroin and other drugs. He also died from cardiac arrest. His liver is pink and red, just like Carla's.

Meanwhile, Grissom is performing a test that Hodges was supposed to do, but instead decided to try to see the therapist. Hodges sees Grissom making a mistake while conducting the test. He tells Grissom that it has to be redone and takes over the test.

Grissom gets a call and heads over to another crime scene. He is greeted by Detective Vartann who shows him a dead man standing on a street corner.

They take the man back and find that he was carrying an empty briefcase and has no identification. They remove his shoes and find a brown dust. Grissom finds dirt in his ears and wonders if he was homeless. He combs his hair and finds dead lice.

At Carla's apartment, Riley and Catherine arrive to see if there are any clues. Riley finds a bag of marijuana in her drawer and jokes around that she smokes and has a bottle of clean urine in her locker just in case she is drug tested. They find that Carla might have been an art student. They discover a painting on her wall that resembles a dead person. Catherine looks closer and sees the signature, 'J Skaggs'. Riley uses her phone to look up his name on the internet. She finds that J Skaggs is a local painter.

Captain Jim Brass goes to Jersey Skaggs studio and finds him painting a scene of a man slumping over a car, while hearing the song Risque, music of the Brazilian composer Ary Barroso. Jim asks why he paints dead people and Jersey tells him that people are willing to pay top dollar for images of sex and death. Jim asks if he knows who Carla is, and he says that he doesn't.

Back at the lab, Hodges discovers that all of the victims, as well as the lice, died from carbon monoxide.

The team figures that each victim was sedated, placed in a chamber where they were posed in their particular position then killed by carbon monoxide.

Later, the team discovers another set of victims in the park. An elderly couple suffering from Alzheimer's disease were murdered and posed as if they were bird watchers.

The team finds that all of the bodies have traces of jute fibers and believe that they were placed in a burlap bag at some point.

Later, Patricia enters Grissom's office and talks to him about him mentioning that he had problems with his dog Hank earlier. Grissom tells her that recently Hank has been listless and barely eats. Patricia tells him that pets sometimes take on the emotions of their owners. Grissom tells her that recently he has been distracted. She suggests that he should either talk to her or someone else about his feelings.

Brass calls Grissom on the phone and tells him that they learned that Carla attended one of Jersey's parties a few years back.

They bring in Jersey and he says that he has a lot of parties with people who are just models, not anyone really special. He says that he does not remember all the people that he meets and that he even forgot the name of the detective that he is now talking to. Jersey is shown photos of the recent murders and he says that they look familiar. He tells the team that the poses are similar to drawings that a sub-contractor showed him earlier that year. He says that he was hired help and does not remember who he was, but remembers that he tried to enter a city art competition.

The team finds that a recent art competition received digital submissions. They find that an Arthur Blisterman entered drawings that match the poses of the people killed. They find that in addition to the five victims, there is a drawing of a young boy smiling and riding his bike.

On a local art blog, Riley discovers an anonymously submitted photo of the first victim that does not show any police tape or any crowd. She checks the photo's metadata and finds that it was taken before the police arrived.

Detective Vartann goes to the office of the website's owner and tells him to contact the person who submitted the photo. He instructs him to praise his work to keep him on the internet long enough for the police to track him down.

Detective Vartann gets a call and meets a woman who reported her son missing. He tells her that they are on their way to find him.

Vartann locates Arthur Listerman at a local library on his computer. They find that his palms has traces of the same jute fiber. They bring him in for questioning.

Grissom speaks to Arthur in a room with a camera. Arthur asks Grissom to flip the camera's viewfinder so he can see himself. He wants to tell the world in his own words, the reasons why he committed the crimes.

Meanwhile, Catherine figures that the environment that Arthur has taken his victims may be the source of the jute fibers. She discovers that a warehouse previously being used to manufacturer natural fiber bags may be where Arthur is holding the kid. She instructs Greg and Riley to go to the scene.

Back in the interrogation room, Grissom tells Arthur that he will be executed if he does not tell him where the boy is. Arthur tells Grissom that he is not afraid of dying and that his work will make people remember him forever. Grissom asks where the boy is and Arthur says that without the boy, his work will not be complete. Grissom is texted the location of the warehouse and asks Arthur if it is his hideout. Arthur says that the police will not reach him in time.

Riley and Greg arrive at the warehouse and find a chamber filled with smoke. They free the boy from his position on a bike and bring him out into the open. His face is taped to force his eyes open and mouth to smile. Riley performs CPR and is able to save his life.

External links

• "Art Imitates Life"
• "Art Imitates Life" TV.com