User Reviews

I saw this for the first time tonight. I have been watching Crime Scene, Las Vegas in reruns on the USA Network.

This was a very interesting episode. I was kept guessing throughout the entire show, as someone else pointed out.

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However, the show cut out in the last 5 minutes, when they were interviewing both brother and sister at same time, yet separately. It got up the the point where the sister said she moved the body using the cart used by the grounds keepers.

I never got to see the end. I HAVE to know how it ended. Someone, please tell me who did the crime this time.

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This was indeed a very good episode, where they didn't really shy away from using the talents of Goglia. Older actresses can rightfully complain about the lack of good parts in filmland these days (or at anytime). Likewise, or even more so, prepubescent actresses and actors almost NEVER get the part of the "Mad And Evil Genius". Kids' parts are mostly fillers. Kids are used to make us feel warm and fuzzy or heroic when they are saved from Horror And Unspeakable Crimes. They seldom get to play the perps. Not that boys play them a lot either. Macauley Culkin in "The Good Son" comes closest, I guess.

10 year old Juliette Goglia gets to play the 12 year old criminal genius Hannah, who thinks up the crime and who lets gravity and brawn in the form of her brother Marlon pull her through.

A popular girl at school is murdered. But the guilt of the boy, Marlon who claimed to have done it, is suddenly cast in doubt by an on-the-stand confession by his little sister Hannah. She even strips to her bloody undershirt (don't worry: her biggest bump is her belly button, if that) to judge and jury and the entire courtroom to prove her point. Of course, as usual on CSI, the story goes back and forth between the two suspects and briefly inclines towards a 'feel-good happy ending' with a third suspect. But even in the end, we are not entirely sure who did it. Sure, Marlon is found innocent, which indicates that the jury believed that the little girl had something to do with it. And she even confesses to the cop in the end, that she did nót do it. But you could easily feel that since she's sooo smart, that even that confession was to confuse the cops even more than they are. All the way through the episode I was guessing who did it, and I used American culture to help me solve it. Because to solve crimes on TV these days, you just have to use Neo-Con Values as your guide. This told me (correctly) that the brother had done it.

However, the surprise was that the writers let him walk away. And the little sister too. That was somewhat brave of the writers. Ish. As was her (albeit in long shot) 'undressing' scene, to forensically research the bloody undershirt. This added to the realism. Without the acting talent of Goglia however, who plays the "Cold & Calculated Evil Murderer" to a tee, this would have fallen flat on its face.

The most shocking aspects of this episode aren't the counterculture facts that 12 year olds can murder, or the showing of her taking of her over-shirt on TV. I guess most of the 12 year-olds often would like to kill their bullies, or even some of their peers. No, the most shocking aspect of this for me was the 'established-culture' aspect that religion these days makes the boyfriend think that his girlfriend deservedly and justly dies because they had premarital sex. This mind set seems completely acceptable in American culture these days: You have premarital sex? You die!