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The following contains spoilers from the May 19 episode of CBS‘ CSI: Vegas aka the Season 3 finale aka unplanned series finale.
In its unplanned series finale, CBS’ cancelled CSI: Vegas featured a final, brilliant bit of bravado for lab boss Maxine Roby.
Abducted at gunpoint last week by, it turns out, the true mastermind of the AI robot-manned operation — a Saudi spy (played by Faran Tahir) whose people had infiltrated Truman Thomas’ operation, and recently offed the tech titan — Maxine bought herself some time by pointing out that the DNA hacking method was “sloppy.” After all, the text encoded within the DNA revealed itself to Maxine and her team, after which they were able to locate the hidden lab.
Before being dragged off to a subterranean lab to prove she could refine the DNA encryption, Max dropped/broke a vial of the atropine that’d offered her to abate her exposure to the gas that KO’d Chris. That would prove instrumental in Josh & Co. following a “trail” through the tunnels the team had found hidden behind a fake wall.
After Max completed most of her work for the Big Bad, he led her to a hotel room containing the piece of tech she needed to complete the encryption. Meanwhile, the CSIs had gleaned that their crime lab had been “bugged” this whole time by Ocho, the robot in Max’s office — and that its old-school microwave receiver must be in the line of sight of those eavesdropping on them. That led them to the hotel across town where Max now was.
Once Max completed the encryption, the Big Bad went to dispose of her, but she quickly jabbed herself with the hacked DNA, which she had cleverly encoded with every single clue she’d gathered about him and his goons. Max plunged a syringe into the guy’s neck and a chase out of the hotel room ensued, leading to a face-off between the gun-wielding Big Bad and Josh. A shot rang out… which we came to realize came from Chavez’s gun, saving Josh’s life and felling the Big Bad.
CSI: Vegas lead Paula Newsome, reflecting on Max’s “gotcha!” encryption tactic, told TVLine, “I absolutely loved it, because it was hard for me to see Max so vulnerable. It felt like she was in a really bad spot, so when she so cockily [revealed her handiwork] I just loved it. The tables turned so quickly.”
The CSI: Vegas finale left more than a couple teases and cliffhangers for a Season 4 that would not be meant to be. For one, the Big Bad in boasting of his abundant intel on the CSI team revealed that Max had a new love in her life, named Dean.
“I loved it that Max has somebody in her life, and that nobody knew,” Newsome said. “She’s always there for other people, she’s there for her job, and now you find out there’s somebody that’s there for her, and that’s beautiful.”
Asked to “dream cast” the Dean we now will never see, Newsome hedged, “Oh, my gosh…. I’m going to have to think about that,” noting that Rob Morgan (as Max’s ex-husband Daniel) had been a “really, really nice” bit of casting.
(When we suggested her NCIS widower, Rocky Carroll, Newsome excitedly shared, “You know what’s so funny? I wanted Rocky to be her ex-husband, before I wanted Rob, and Rocky was like, ‘Paula, don’t even ask them. Don’t even ask, because they’re not going to say yes to that.’ But I would have loved that.”)
Elsewhere as the unplanned series finale drew to a close, Max restored Josh’s Level 3 CSI status; Chavez witnessed a cozy moment between Josh and Allie; and Chris’ near-fatal medical scare wound up affirming Penny’s desire to marry Jack, but sooner versus later.
A final, haunting scene — one that appeared in press screeners but was edited out of CBS’ Sunday-night broadcast — teased a new killer who preys on the unhoused with a hand scythe/sickle….
Huh? In the edit that aired there was no tease as to a new killer. It was a fade to black after Catherine was upstairs in the lab.
In the press screener, the camera then panned down “through the floor” and past the lab below, to a homeless settlement on the streets, and showed the silhouette of a killer with a hand scythe inside a tent. (A screenshot has been added to the recap.)
Maybe they were smarter than the NCIS: Hawaii crew and cut an unnecessary cliffhanger to end the show on a better note.
I was really worried after it was teased there were cliffhangers but overall I am satisfied with the ending, even if I also wish it would have continued. Smart move cutting the killer tease. Since this show was also on the bubble last season, I am glad it was at least renewed then so we could see the Josh stuff play out. It would have been a much harder cancellation ending like that. This one left some romance stuff to be pondered but nothing major like that.
Yeah I was going to make the same comment about NCIS: Hawaii, really annoying they were too lazy to cut a meaningless 5 second cliffhanger from a cancelled show.
I like it when they leave something like that – sure it’s annoying for us that we don’t get to see how it pans out, but it does lend to the feeling that the story is still going on out there somewhere and these characters are still living their stories and weren’t just put together for a show for half a year every year for a few years. Allie and Josh navigating a relationship while she’s his supervisor, whatever’s going on with Dean (who we can pretend is a Winchester needing info on the sly if we like!), Tarrant never quite escaping the Maggie-shaped shadow in her history and hopefully getting more time with Milius, etc.
I don’t mind that we saw some Allie/Josh stuff at the end because as you said, it lets you imagine things continuing for the characters, but there was no need to show a new serial killer so I am glad they cut that. I don’t watch the NCIS shows so I can’t comment on what the Hawai’i one showed.
My local CBS station WTSP had a programing overrun, probably due to golf, and so the recorded finale did not have the last 15 +/- minutes of the program. Someone needs to be fired.
Same here. In fact, I thought it to be a rather good but unplanned series finale …. even though it should never have been cancelled in the first place.
Where’s The Equalizer recap? Are we actually losing several characters?
Where are you getting that info on The Equalizer from?
Why give us a season of a GREAT SHOW, only to cancel it at the end of the season? CBS is become more disjointed as it is dismantled. What a shame!
So…. cancel it in the middle of the season instead?
Went out on a decent storyline. Too bad CBS ruined the show by maliciously moving them to Sunday and cutting the promos every week even before a cancellation was announced. They never had the intention of renewing it.
The killer (someone explain to me why “homeless” is offensive now) is paid by the government to solve the “unhoused” situation.
I was wondering the same thing. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard therm “unhoused”. Though I think every instance has been in a CBS show 🤔
*the term
It’s not so much offensive as not always accurate – not only does it create the image of people living in tent cities or dirty sleeping bags or boxes on doorsteps in people’s minds, but with so many people couch surfing or squatting who need help from the same services (and who might think they’re not eligible if those services are seen to target people pushing around their life’s necessities in a shopping trolley), a rising number of people working full time but not being able to afford rent, people living in multigenerational households or moving back in with immediate family because they can’t afford their own space (in particular, those for whom that arrangement includes abuse or is financially unviable), people living in hotels, tents, trailers etc. because the housing market isn’t able to satisfy demand (especially at entry level) or who are waiting on new builds after losing their house due to weather events and end up vulnerable to market and insurance trends (not like George Clooney in Up In The Air), people who live in their cars or converted campervans/RVs, people who live in unapproved tiny homes, people who work in industries where employers say they provide accommodation (whether it’s really 20 people to a room and paying most of their wage back to the employer for the convenience, especially targeting migrant workers, refugees, undocumented etc. or who provide reasonable accommodation but only for the length of the job) and so many other ways that ‘not living in a house’ looks, ‘unhoused’ covers the bases without creating as many preconceptions and associations. Some of the services in the area will still use homeless officially, but with a more specific and targeted meaning, and there are other variations as well like ‘insecurely housed’/’insecure housing’, ‘temporarily accommodated’, ‘living rough’ that may be used, all of which may be used alongside or as subsets of ‘unhoused’. The political correctness in this way is the use of an umbrella term, favouring accuracy, which just happens to also avoid imputing the stigma of ‘homeless’ in the preconceived image that word creates and any prejudice someone may have along with it.
Bring back CSI Vegas. Such a great cast and wonderful stories.
CBS should not have canceled CSI Vegas. It’s a great show and this episode kept me on the edge of my seat. I hope the show gets shopped to other networks and streaming services, why not CSI Vegas?
Cbs made big mistake canceling csi vegas ncis hawaii n so help me todd they were all good shows people r going to quit watching cbs cause there always canceling good shows more n more people r going to go to streaming I hope all these shows get picked up by another station n cbs will be sorry
I think it was a mistake canceling this series. Hope another network will pick it up.
Still saying that CSI:Vegas should be picked up by Paramount+ for more episodes!!
Stinkin’ 🐮💩 move to cancel this show… ☹️
Should be renewed……….
I wonder if dramas might forego some of these story arcs and cliffhangers in favor of more episodic stand-alone storytelling. I don’t need every series to leave me hanging come May. The tease works very well with a serialized drama and Dallas and Knots Landing did this the best. But now, no one wants sterilized dramas, but boy they love using the tropes.
Continuing stories has been standard fare for most shows these days though the best leave them in the background and have a case of the week approach.. Has worked for Law and Order for 30+ years that way…. One reason the latest one was shipped off to P+ was it is probably a better watch as a binge…
The unintended series finale was bittersweet; it was so good, but now it is gone. Once again I’m left wondering what is wrong with whoever is in charge of programming at CBS? “CSI: Vegas” and “So Help Me Todd” were wonderful, intelligent shows that CBS saw fit to dump, but they are happy to spend money on “Big Brother” and “NCIS: Sydney.” So disappointing. (And to CG, please read the last paragraph of the article – it clearly states that the teaser was not shown last night.)
CBS what are you thinking – between canceling So Help Me Todd and this show, I’m so disappointed. Sure hope someone picks this up.
They have dealt with worse during a normal episode!!! I didn’t know that this was the SERIES FINALE…WHY!!!
Great finale. It sent off each character with a lot of respect. This show should never have been canceled. Why this show got the axe and SWAT didn’t is never going to make sense to me.
Should never have been cancelled. Bring it back
Sorry to see this show was cancelled. Will miss it
Was waiting for Josh to plant a big smooch on Allie at the end.
I almost didn’t even bother to watch the last show due to the cancellation. I’m glad I decided to watch. It was very suspenseful and this is such a good show…the only thing this last show did was leave me wanting more of CSI Vegas.
One of the issues I had viewing CSI-Vegas, was that this season it was often delayed by sports on CBS. Credit to CBS to for continuing the post afternoon sports programing from 60 Minutes thru CSI, but often times they were as much as 30 minutes beyond the scheduled time slot. This raised issues w/the DVR as well as Sunday evenings.
I still think CSI Vegas the best of the genre and will miss it!
Hope CBS brings the show back or maybe another network it was one of my favorite shows just like NCIS Hawaii and Blue Bloods they all don’t deserve to be canceled
Not a streaming fan, but I would actually subscribe to a streaming outlet that would pick up CSI:Vegas. Compelling stories, solid cast. Yes, I’d pay for it.
It’s horrible that another popular show gets the axe from the hands of the corporate execs.
Can this suck anymore. What’s wrong with CBS. What’s with all the cancellations. If they keep this up they’re going to lose a lot of viewers, including me.
procedurally, there were some unbelievable mistakes made by the csi team that had me shouting at the TV.
why were josh and alli making so much noise in the tunnels when they were hunting. no weapons drawn, advertising their approach.
same with the scene where it looked like Josh got shot… why wasnt his gun drawn while he was searching, leaving him vulnerable to exactly what happened to him.
rookie moves.