CBS’ ‘CSI’ season 15, episode 13 review: Mark Paul Gosselaar thrills as the Gig Harbor Butcher

Have you been wondering what’s going on with Jared Briscoe, Russell and the Gig Harbor Butcher case on “CSI”? Well so have we and on tonight’s episode we are finally going to have some more movement on this story and it sounds like it’s going to be one intense episode. Russell will be back in the hot seat and it seems that his daughter will be involved as well.

So we saw Jared Briscoe’s completely terrorized Russell’s daughter Maya in a dream, but what was interesting about it was that Paul was also part of the equation. We’ve said this before and we will say it again: Mark Paul Gosselaar is absolutely terrifying in this role of a killer and it’s easy to forget that he was ever Zack Morris from “Saved By The Bell”. After the dream Maya decides that she wants to go to Seattle as she is sick of living in fear of the Gig Harbor butcher and although Russell has some reservations about it he gives her his blessing – Daniel Shaw over hears everything and now that we know he is up to nefarious things with Paul things are not looking that great for her… or is this just what she wants?

Jared Briscoe is set free by his brother Paul and looks like he will be suing the CSI department as likely Russell and what’s worse is that the brothers are looking to snatch up Maya as a welcome home gift. Russell sends a detective to pick Maya up to bring her to the airport, but Daniel Shaw ends up picking her up and CSI figures out (too late) that he is working with Paul. Maya is wearing a wire as part of Russell’s plan (to use her as bait) and a team of cops are following as Shaw drives off with her.

When he drives her into an underground parking garage the team following the car can’t follow her without getting made. Shaw pulls Maya’s wire from her and takes off with her in a different car. So why is Shaw doing all of this? Shaw had a daughter and Paul found out about it and is holding her hostage – trading Russell’s daughter for his own. Paul and Jared of course try to kill Shaw and his daughter to tie up the lose ends instead of letting them go as promised and while Shaw is able to kill Jared, Paul shoots Shaw. Just before Paul runs off to do all kinds of bad things, Maya hits Paul with a pipe and the cops all show up. So here is what we ended up with as a “death toll”: Shaw is still alive, Jared is dead, and Paul has escaped.

We thought with the reveal of Shaw being a villain might’ve had Julie a little bit shaken up since she had a sort of relationship with him, but she seemed un-phased by this information and agreed to help Shaw’s daughter get to her grandmother and not end up in the system. Episode grade: A-

Were you excited to see Mark Paul Gosselaar back in action as the Gig Harbor butcher? Share with a comment.