Urban Hellraisers (CSI Episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title= Urban Hellraisers
Series=
Season = 4
Episode = 9
Guests = Jerad Anderson
Lea Moreno
Joel McHale
Shaun Sipos


Airdate = November 21, 2005
Production = 409
Writer = Dean Widenmann
Marc Guggenheim
Director = Matt Earl Beesley
Episode list =
Season list = Infobox CSI: Miami season 4 episode list

Urban Hellraisers is an episode of the hit crime drama "". The episode first aired on November 21, 2005.

Plot

Today, Eric Delko gets to meet a whole new breed of criminal up close and personal during a visit to his bank. Money problems are the least of his concerns when three masked gunmen burst through the entrance, shooting out the security cameras with Tec-9 automatic handguns, yelling for people to get down. A security guard is wounded. A female teller's drawer is robbed of $18,000. The bank manager is taken hostage. Delko, outgunned and outflanked, notices one of the gunmen is wearing Heelys, shoes with embedded wheels in the soles that enable the wearer to skate. One of the gunmen, Demon, sees a beautiful teenage girl cowering on the floor near Delko and calls out to a partner named Scream, "Bonus round! Tap that stuff." Delko can't believe one of them is actually going to attempt a rape during a robbery. He identifies himself as MDPD and draws his weapon. Demon yells, "Cop! Take him out!" Scream fires wildly, mortally wounding a teller before Delko drops him with a round to the chest. Heelys and Demon use the bank manager as a human shield to make their escape.

Police and CSI arrive a short time later. Alexx takes the mask off the dead gunman, surprised to see it's a nineteen-year-old kid. A numerical "clicker" is found in his pocket. Horatio interviews Monica, the bank teller. She believes the robbers were more smash-and-grab types than pros. She took a gamble placing a dye pack in the bank bag beneath the cash. Since the bank's security cameras were shot out, Delko will see what the ATM surveillance cameras have to offer. Meanwhile, Ryan Wolfe arrives, tailed by relentless reporter Erica Sikes. She wants to have a chat but he blows her off. He's not about to be misconstrued as her source again.

Back at CSI, Delko, Ryan and Dan Cooper huddle in the A.V. Lab and review the ATM video feed. Dan syncs up the two camera angles, utilizing a split screen. The gunmen's vehicle can be seen cruising through the bank parking lot. As soon as they see Eric's CSI Hummer, they brake, back up, park and enter the bank. Strange… why execute a bank robbery when you know a cop's inside? Advancing the footage, they see the bank manager being hustled out to the getaway car. Enhancement of a decal on the car reveals a parking permit for lot 23A at the University of Miami. When Ryan calls it in, he gets word that the bank's dye pack exploded on a female student in a dorm laundry room.

Kim Mills is brought in, and half her body is splattered with crimson paint. Calleigh interviews her and the girl states that she was sneaking in to the Y Dorm because they have better laundry machines. She found the bag in the basement there and opened it. Next thing she knew she was covered in paint. Calleigh is dubious, and expresses her suspicions to Detective Tripp. Dye packs are set to explode ten seconds after passing the bank's door sensors. Tripp is also a bit bewildered. What kind of guys rob a bank then toss the money out? Calleigh wants to hold Kim until her story checks out. Special Agent Peter Elliott has been called in from the U.S. Treasury. The moneybag is sent to Trace for Ryan to examine. The dye pack has obliterated any usable evidence inside the bag, but on the outside there's a white powdery residue, possibly a watermark. Horatio informs Ryan that he got a call from Erica Sikes--and it wasn't to get a quote. She's gotten wind of something involving CSI and Ryan gets the feeling that his boss is on guard with the media. After he leaves, Ryan takes a sample of the powdery residue. The MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETER shows it to be forty percent ETHYLENE GLYCOL solution, a coolant mixed with water. There's only one place on the University of Miami campus that would keep water circulating in sub-freezing temperatures--the hockey rink.

Delko and Ryan get the rink manager to open up the storage room where they find Mr. Welch, the bank manager, bound and gagged. He states that the two robber-abductors never took their masks off, and threatened to kill him if he didn't reveal when and where the Federal Reserve money drop would be made. It's going down on the rooftop of the main bank branch in twenty minutes--by helicopter. Delko calls Horatio and they arrive at the helicopter landing pad in time to thwart another robbery and possible homicide. Only one robber is involved in this attempted heist, the one wearing the Heelys. They take his mask off. He's another 19-year-old student. "Better watch your grill, Johnny Law. We're still in play," he snorts arrogantly. Ryan reacts. He knows what this kid is saying. In the back of his CSI Hummer he pulls out a wireless game controller and sorts through his discs until he comes to the game titled "Urban Hellraisers." On the Hummer's A.V. screen, the CSIs watch a sequence of this offensive action game. In one scenario, a bank robbery similar to the one that actually went down shows that the shooting of a security guard is worth 500 points, and the killing of a bank teller is worth 1,000 points. Even when one of the player/robbers is killed, a deadpan voice declares, "You're still in play." Horatio realizes this robbery gang is recreating the video game, playing it for real. It's become an addiction, and CSI had better perform an intervention before someone else gets killed. In CSI Reception, Calleigh reunites with Treasury Agent Peter Elliott. There's a mutual attraction in play here, and he doesn't hide his. He'll handle the extended interview of student Kim Mills. Meanwhile, Horatio and Tripp interrogate Gabe Hammond, aka Heelys. He also has a point clicker on him. His shoe-wheels are a match to the skid marks lifted off the bank floor. In the game, 1000 extra points are awarded if you follow a cop into a bank--which is why they followed Officer Delko. Gabe quips: "5,000 if you waste him." He won't dime out the ringleader because that will cost him 500 points. He's so into the game he's willing to do the prison time rather than cooperate. For Detectives Caine and Tripp, the next move is to talk to the person who wrote the game. That's Chris Allen, a hip entrepreneur. "Urban Hellraisers" is his company's top seller. He refuses to give the detectives a breakdown of the game. It's proprietary and he's safeguarding his stockholders. If the MDPD wants to know what's in the game, they'll have to play the game. Horatio has Chad arrested for obstruction of justice, then instructs Ryan to play the game. They need to know what the next move is for this gang of robber-addicts.

It's not long before Ryan is able to show Delko why he stopped playing the game. Raping a woman during a robbery is worth 1000 points. Another startling discovery within the game: the scenario for robbing the Federal Reserve Bank helicopter involved a "sniper option." They realized that the other robber, Demon, was probably setting up to take a shot at a police officer during the aborted heist. On a rooftop across from the helicopter-landing pad, Delko and Horatio find a .308 bullet and Demon's painted goalie mask stashed behind some piping. The only reason the shot didn't go off was because the helicopter landed in a position different than how it landed in the game, thus blocking the line of fire. The bullet is sent to Ballistics, the mask to DNA. Delko hooks up with Calleigh and they realize the hockey mask is a custom fitted item. That means they can be put it through Biometrics. In quick pops we see how the plaster cast was molded to the athlete's face and then manufactured with a heated sheet of clear plastic. There are 80 nodal points on a human face. They only need 17 for the CSI's facial recognition software to make a comparison and give them a profile of what Demon actually looks like. They'll use the Miami U. Student yearbooks. Calleigh leaves Delko to the task and crosses paths with Special Agent Elliott again. He's interviewed and cleared the girl, Kim Mills. He asks Calleigh out for drinks after her shift. She stifles her excitement and replies that he can take her out for a whole dinner if they catch these homicidal gamers. Meanwhile, Ryan has reached the next level of the game and informs Horatio that it involves a hit on a police station in order to steal criminal evidence that could convict the player. Horatio calls for a security lockdown just as two gunmen wearing ski masks, baseball caps and shades burst in through the North Lobby with Tech-9s. They move toward the evidence vault and one turns his gun on Natalia Boa Vista. However, Horatio blows him away just before he can take his kill shot. The other gunman ("Glasses") sprays the lobby with automatic fire. Agent Elliott tackles Calleigh, shielding her, and is wounded. Horatio hits "Glasses" in the shoulder, knocking him down. As Calleigh coordinates Agent Elliott's evacuation to the hospital, the suspect is arrested. His wound isn't life threatening, just painful. Real bullets are funny that way. His real name is Michael Page. His glasses are tricked out, optic embedded with circuitry and a tiny camera that can project a 3-D architectural rendering of CSI's remodeled DNA Lab. Natalia recalls the firm was K.N.B. Design. Delko finds out that Michael "Glasses" Page interned for the firm. That's how he got the blueprints. In pain and pressed, he states that he doesn't know who "Demon" really is, that they met online. The only place they have in common is the University Research library where they reported their points to the scorekeeper, Evan Walsh (aka "The Wizard"). Meanwhile, Tripp has traced the Tech-9s to a stolen shipment out of Tampa. They're expensive items for college kids.

A visit to campus turns up another casualty of the game down in the library basement. Horatio and Delko find the bone-thin body of Evan Walsh. The crystals on his skin tell Alexx that the kid died of renal failure. The game log shows he was playing "Urban Hellraisers" for seventy straight hours on a diet of soda. The kid was at the center of the game. He knew every player and every crime. A box of Tech-9s is found. The scoreboard has a cryptic instruction: "all returns to 1312 Surf Street." The location turns out to be a photography studio run by Carl Hiatt. More Tech-9s are found. Cornered, Carl states that he gets the guns from an unknown guy who pays him cash to distribute them to the student-players. Delko finds on his computer an icon that matches the watermark on the bag that held the robbery cash and dye pack. It belongs to Trance International. And who are they?

Meanwhile, Special Agent Elliott is ready to be released from the hospital. Calleigh has come to get him, but she discovers the man has a fiancée, Megan West. She makes a tactical and painful retreat. Meanwhile, the facial recognition software has led to John Berg, a former basketball player who used to wear a clear plastic mask. He states he threw away the mask after he blew out his knee a year ago. He looks like a guy who found another game until Valera calls in with DNA results from Demon's mask recovered from the sniper's rooftop. The AMELOGENIN was X-X, for female. Calleigh gets that info just before she has her final face-to-face with Agent Elliott. He apologizes for the awkwardness. He didn't make a move on her a year ago because the late John Hagen told him to back off. He should have asked her out anyway. She agrees, but returns to the business at hand. His idea of being thorough falls short of her standards. He released Kim Mills, who turns out to be Demon. The DNA from the mask will, no doubt match hers. When arrested and brought back into interrogation, the girl folds. The guys play 24-7. It was the only way to get them to notice her. And she was better than all of them. Now she's going to serve more years in jail, too.

Chris Allen, creator and distributor of the video game "Urban Hellraisers," is brought into MDPD and buckles under the weight of Horatio's tough questioning. Trance International is his holding company, which also owns the building at 1312 Surf Street where weapons were distributed to juveniles. The evidence shows that Mr. Allen created some deadly hype to sell the game--he had kids try out the game with real weapons in real locations. Horatio will make sure his high-priced lawyers won't enable him to get away with these crimes, including four deaths.

Trivia

Joel McHale, who regularly spoofs Horatio Caine on "The Soup", appears as a bank manager.

Artwork on the CD box of the computer game Wolfe shows to Horatio strongly resembles the artwork found on the boxes of Grand Theft Auto series of PC games. Artwork pattern is nearly identical at some points, while the gameplay is exceptionally similar to GTA.

ee also

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External links

*imdb title|id=0534850|title=Urban Hellraisers
*Tv.com episode|id=559934|title=Urban Hellraisers