Up in Smoke

When a chimney begins to smoke, a body is found in the chimney. This leads to the investigation of a guy who appeared as a suspect in the death of a sixteen year old girl earlier. This episode has lots of nice twists and turns. The good guys aren't always who you think they are. One thing, once again Catherine is playing fast and loose with search and seizure stuff. Still, it works quite well.

The main down was the realisation that Nick Stokes' haircut was approaching that of Mike Nesmith - or maybe even Peter Tork? Of what were the producers thinking? Not the right image. The ups were the emotional upthrusts throughout the episode, leading to the final scene.

A "smoked" body is found in a chimney of a wealthy man's house. By smoked I mean the guy was already dead and burned. Then he was dumped in the chimney and was further charred. The body was a lot smaller by then but, thanks to some CSI work and a gym membership card in the deceased pants, they later found out who he was....the son of another guy from a previous episode who was involved with a female minor who since disappeared.

Meanwhile, they have to find out what happened to this kid. Further examination by Doc Robbins reveals he was the victim of a blunt forced trauma, then burned. That, it turns out, had no relevance in the case. Instead, this episode turns out to be more about the previous case with the missing girl.

Everyone is on this case, figuring out the usual who, what, why and hows of the mystery. The opening scene of this charred skeleton, complete with gruesome Halloween-type skull staring at us, and the ending which included several startling twists in the last five minutes, were the best parts of the show.