While last night’s Vegas may not have had the greatest investigation, it was certainly compelling in its other storylines.
The case this week revolved around the apparent poisoning of Fay Binder, one of three sisters in a family singing group “The Teen-tastics.” After Dixon saves her from drowning at a hotel pool, a doctor suggests that the incident may have actually saved her life by diluting the poison. Dixon takes lead on the case, follows the theory that a fan of Fay’s may be responsible, as a man matching his description was seen wandering the hotel’s kitchen on the night of the poisoning.
The fan – Robbie Reuben – leads Dixon on a new line of investigation when he shows him a carbon copy of her singing group’s latest contract — one with no signature line for Fay. Now, earlier in the episode Fay had told Dixon of her frustrations with the group, fearing that the Teen-tastics would hurt her solo career. So naturally, the contract sans-Fay pushes Dixon to confront her father, accusing him of having something to do with the poisoning of her food, though it turns out that he was removing her from the group due to her questionable recreational habits.
It ultimately becomes clear that Fay’s poisoning was entirely accidental. Dixon worked off of newfound knowledge of what the singer does and doesn’t like to eat and realized that the poison was in a sandwich that she, in fact, would not order for herself. No, Fay’s intent was to poison her sister, have her miss a tour for the group, so that she could prove her own singing abilities, but a waiter delivered the wrong order and she inadvertently poisoned herself.
As I mentioned, not the most thrilling case, though it was nice to see Dixon take charge of the investigation while trying to balance his flirtatious tendencies.
Elsewhere in the episode, Savino, Anthony and Cota find themselves stranded in the desert on their trek to pick up a shipment of electronic slot machines. In an effort to help The Savoy stand out from the other casino’s in Vegas, the three head out to buy the machines for a steal, but the car stalls and they try to make it on foot, which of course, in the desert, fails.
The trio stumbles upon a truck driver and his daughter willing to give them a ride, and for Savino, more, as well. At a rest top on the road Savino questions the girl about what book she’s reading — ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ and we see a small spark of regret in him as a father, as he doesn’t know the answer to the girl’s question about what books his daughters like. Perhaps he feels as if he needs to make up for what he has lost, but Savino hangs onto his feelings for the girl, and even comes to her rescue when some would-be thugs threaten her and her father. After the boys basically say that they want her Savino and his guys draw their guns and shoot them off.
But of course, even though they were trying to be heroic, the girl’s father is less than thankful, and Savino assures him that once they get where they’re going the man will never see them again.
Unfortunately for Savino, when they do finally get where they need to be they discover that the slot machines are French, and thus, only accept francs and have the wrong plugs. To punish for the bad sales attempt, Savino and the boys take the dealers car, finally converging with the Ralph Lamb side of the episode when they pick up Jones from the side of the road.
This week the Sheriff spent the hour with Katherine tracking down a thread in the case against Johnny Rizzo for the murder of Diane Desmond. Katherine is no fool, suspicious as to why Laura Savino is suddenly gone and turns to the only informant she has…Jones. What should have been an immediate red flag somehow did not occur to Katherine, and the hit man manages to escape custody thanks to braces he asked her for, starting a grand chase throughout the episode for the ADA and Sheriff Lamb.
Eventually the two track down a truck Jones had been hitching on the back of and a shootout ensues. But things become even more high-stakes after Jones steals a car that just so happens to have a kid in the back seat. Of course, he ditches the car and gets away, but the car is left precariously perched on the edge of a cliff. Enter our hero, Sheriff Ralph Lamb who successfully pulls the child from the vehicle just before it goes tumbling over.
Back at the station, Ralph tries to assure Katherine that the issues with Jones were not all her fault, but she admits to having selfish, regretful thoughts that remind us of the will they/won’t they, or rather have they/haven’t they quality to the pair’s relationship.
But what of Jack? Where has he been through all this drama? Well, a call for help draws him out to a woman’s house and turns out to be a trap set by Mia’s father. As expected, Johnny’s displeasure with his daughter’s choice of boyfriend did not end with the last episode, and he is convinced that Jack is the one who led Mia to spill to Katherine about him.
Jack’s attempts to convince him of the truth fall flat as Johnny tortures the deputy with what appears to be a cattle prod, until Johnny presents dates of meetings that coincide with days and times that Mia spent with Jack. So the only logical conclusion remaining is: someone set Johnny up to think Jack is involved.
But just because Johnny is no longer suspicious of Jack doesn’t mean he’s going to let the man go — not at all. Just as Johnny is about to shoot Jack, get him out of the picture, the woman Johnny had bribed with drugs (and seemingly killed) springs up behind him, slashing him in the neck with a shard of glass and Jack and Johnny go at it. Jack shoots Johnny at the last second, before the same could be done to him.
Surely this is not going to go over well with Mia.
Now, a lot happened in this episode of Vegas. It almost seems as if the case of the week is less of the A storyline and more of a supporting fact, as the cases provide the Lambs with that status needed to compete with the mob. And it really doesn’t seem to be a problem as the conflict everywhere else in the episode is certainly entertaining enough to hold one’s attention — I know it holds mine. This week’s script had quite a collection of amusing lines, as well.
To be honest, it was nice to see Sheriff Ralph Lamb take a smaller chunk of the episode this week. Of course, we still got to see him play the hero, but it was great that this episode allowed the supporting characters to have some bigger storylines. It was certainly interesting to see Dixon, who in all actuality is still somewhat of a child, take the lead on a case. After hints and remarks about his frustrations with his father his efforts in this episode could lead to either conflict or resolution to such. Maybe Ralph will realize that his son is capable? Or did Dixon just get lucky?
And of course, things are sure to get interesting now that Jones is apparently working for Savino, and Johnny is well…dead. There is no doubt that Mia is going to want the truth, but will Jack tell her? As soon as the promo for next week is available, it will be posted.
What did you think of this week’s Vegas?
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