Unfinished Business    Season 1, Episode 20

After a couple of weeks of far-flung travel (hello, TCM Classic Film Festival), we are back with a recap!

At the top of the episode:

The Tumbleweed is about to “come under new management”.  Mining tycoon Porter Gainsley’s ownership of the Tumbleweed not only has Vince’s panties in a bunch but and wants him out. Gainsley thinks he can up Vince. We know better.

The chorus line at the Savoy is expensive, costing the hotel  $25,000 to bribe a gaming commissioner.

Agent Byrne,  who was shot by a rogue woman  last week is recovering. He hates jello cubes. Don’t we all.

Lady Heather, oops, Mia’s mother, Lena, is on her way to Tahoe for the weekend but runs into Mia and Jack before hand and has eyes for Jack. Mia is not happy.

The brothers Lamb find the body of a lawyer, Milton Krull, in the trunk of a car with a canary in his mouth. Can we say foreshadowing? Yes, we can.

Katherine thinks Krull is working both sides against the middle. Are you surprised? No, we thought not.

Gainsley was a friend of the former, dead sheriff and that causes Ralph to raise an eyebrow.

Katherine knows that Jack has been taping the phone calls and Mia may be in the cross hairs of the Feds. Jack assures her that’s not the case. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Seems the dead lawyer had an in with Ralph’s dead wife. Her brother was involved, business speaking, with the dead lawyer. Seems the brother sold the ranch to Krull and the payments ran out. The brother thinks that Ralph thinks he might have killed Krull. He claims he didn’t. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Dixon and Miss Sanchez find out that a company, Nevada Land Consortium, was interested in Marilyn’s family’s ranch before her death. Ooops!

Dixon goes after his uncle. The uncle claims he is innocent and gets the drop. Are you surprised? We thought not.

The Lamb brothers really aren’t all that good no matter how much the show runners want us to think they are.

Dixon and his uncle talk about Marilyn, the missing piece that is supposed to be at the heart of this story. Do you care? We thought not.

Agent Byrne, it seems, is making inroads with the investigation and with Katherine. He is being made Special Bureau Chief and wants Katherine to join him outside Las Vegas. She sees through the transparent attempt to derail the investigation. And we are sure you did, too!

Dixon wants to investigate what happened to Marilyn and enlists Ralph’s help. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Jack sees a future where he and Mia own a 500 acre ranch. Have you stopped laughing? We thought not. But, this being Vegas, she’s thinking about it.

We find out that Vince got out of Havana just ahead of Castro. He wants to be his own man. The Tumbleweed is that opportunity. That and Lady Heather, oops, Mia’s mother, Lena. They have plenty of heat. And someone tries to blow them up. Doesn’t look good for Lady Heather. Luckily, for whoever planted the bomb, she lives.

Katherine and Ralph think Gainsley double crossed Vince.

Vince, of course, wants revenge.

Jack believes that Gainsley wants Vince dead. He wants Mia out of there. She ain’t leaving cause, well, because it serves the overall plot. What’s that plot? We have no idea. Something about Chicago wanting Vince dead and Vince wanting his own place and all this happens under the watchful eye of Ralph Lamb.

Gainsley goes to Katherine because she has questions. He has no answers. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Katherine thinks she can lower the boom on Gainsley. You think that will happen? We thought not.

Seems Nevada Land Consortium was looking for water rights. There is a straw man at the heart of it. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Jack has competition with the Savoy Entertainment Director who has eyes for Mia. Are you surprised? We thought not.

Katherine is driving home on a dark road and gets run off that road. Are you surprised? We thought not. Will you be surprised that Ralph is upset? We thought not.

Vince discovers he’s been bugged not by the Feds but by Jack and the local sheriff’s office.

Looks like Gainsley put out the hit on Katherine which causes Ralph to attack him. Ralph gets replaced by the state attorney general and relieved of duty.

Gainsley is implicated not only in the accident that has put Katherine in the hospital in critical condition but the death of Ralph’s wife (and he had to turn in his badge). Are you surprised?  We thought not.

Ralph goes to Vince to get his help in bringing down Gainsley. Ralph offers up the tapes vis a via Vince and Chicago to bring down Gainsley. Are you surprised? We thought not.

How does this lead to the season finale?

 A showdown between Ralph and Vince vs Porter Gainsley.

Who do you think will win?

Yeah, we thought so.

The big question at this point is not how they accomplish that but will the series be renewed.

Stay tuned!

Just to give our readers (and everyone else) a heads up-  News sources are saying that CBS is going with news coverage of the manhunt in Boston tonight instead of their regularly programmed dramas.

We'll keep you posted. If Vegas is pre-empted, which seems quite likely, we'll let you know when tonight's episode will be rescheduled.

Stay tuned.

Hollywood Ending  season 1, episode 17

A tale of two cities.

We are in Hollywood and Miss Sanchez is all googly eyed about her singing audition at Capitol Records.

Back in Vegas, DA Reynolds is not having a good evening. He’s not happy about being Savino’s bag man. “You either carry your weight or become dead weight”, Vince tells him. While he is talking to Savino, Mia and her guys take the briefcase full of money out of the DA’s trunk.

Savino makes a call. Ralph, Jack and Kathryn are listening. Unfortunately, the DA isn’t on the phone so no one realizes he is the avocado (the one getting the skim out under the nose of the Feds).

A mystery woman shows up at the Savoy. Lady Heather fans rejoice. She and Vince get hot and heavy quickly. The mystery woman is Lena Rizzo, Mia’s mother.

Kathryn tells DA Reynolds about the tap in passing. Again refers to the bag man as the avocado. And she tells him that the Feds and Agent Burns are involved as well. The DA almost lurches. Kathryn notices but the DA laughs it off.

In Hollywood, Dixon is trying to crash the gates of the studio to get in to see Violet.

Back in Las Vegas, Kathryn and Mia talk. Anvils begin falling from the sky. Kathryn tries to get Mia to realize that the screws are tightening on Savino. Kathryn wants Mia to roll over on Savino. Mia ain’t buying. She gets all huffy with Kathryn.

In Hollywood, Dixon and Miss Sanchez finally crash the gates and see Violet. She has plans she can’t cancel but she really wants to see Dixon.  But not yet. They end up getting invited to a party that Violet’s manager/lover is throwing.

In Vegas, the DA is missing. A bad guy he put away was paroled and he knows that the law knows about the skim. Is he legitimately missing or has he planned his escape?

Lena and Mia meet.  Do we care? Mia is not happy to see her. Seems all these years, Mia thought she was dead.  Daddy Rizzo thought she was fooling around.  She wasn’t but Daddy threatened to kill her if she ever came back. Now that he’s dead, it’s safe to come around, I guess.

In Hollywood, we have no idea how Miss Sanchez’s audition went as we never saw it. But we see her and Dixon at the party (so it’s the next day).  Miss Sanchez gets the chance to sing a Cuban duet at the party. Does Aimee Garcia have another gig?

Dixon is too busy kissing on Violet to notice how well Miss Sanchez sings.  But Violet’s manager notices and tells her to come by his office the next day to audition. She sees the manager and one of his goons assault a photographer.

Back in Vegas, Ralph smiles (DRINK!!!) and the search continues for the missing DA.

There’s too many stories going on. Dixon, Miss Sanchez and Violet, Mia and her mother, the missing DA, the skim and the investigation.

Vince gives Mia the ledger with all the skim info in it because she came up with the right idea to keep Chicago happy while they try to find the missing avocado, er, DA. This will come back to haunt him.

Seems the DA set up the paroled bad guy to mislead the cops. So, Reynolds staged his own kidnapping.

Agent Burns is the one who realizes that Reynolds is the avocado. You think that sounds silly reading it, imagine the actors reciting it. Come to find out, Savino wasn’t saying avocado, he was saying Italian for lawyer.

But, unfortunately, for Reynolds, Ralph catches him coming out of the bank with his money as he is about to hit the road into oblivion.  Oh well.

Kathryn is so disappointed in Reynolds and she lets him know. They even shout-out to the poor, dead sheriff from the first episode. Agent Burns wants Reynolds to be their inside man. Go back to Vince, get back in his good graces and rat him out.

In Hollywood, Miss Sanchez tells Dixon he can do better and, like everyone else in this show, he doesn’t listen to reason. Miss Sanchez goes to see her studio audition.  The manager offers her a drink. This can’t end well.  It’s the old casting couch. Miss Sanchez tries to leave, he calls her a derogatory name and starts to smack her around. She hits him with a crystal ashtray.

Lena and Mia have another reunion and more anvils fall from the sky about how Savino and his boys will screw Mia over when the Feds close in.

Vince and crew find the DA tied up in a motel room. Will Vince buy his story? This is Vegas, of course he will! Reynolds tells them Bade, the paroled bad guy is responsible.  The skim is safe in the trunk of his car, in his drive way. He had to wire Bade all the money from his personal account in Ely. Why does the DA have a bank account in Ely and not Vegas? Who knows.

Dixon discovers that Barry, the manager, hit Miss Sanchez. He wants to kill him. Violet and Miss S talk him out of it.

Back in Vegas, the plan with Reynolds and the law goes forward. There is a shout-out to the local cemetery, Woodlawn. Ralph, of course, does not like the idea of Woodlawn, too isolated. Agent Burns is all for the drop. Did he just oversell his eagerness?

At the Savoy, Mia begins copying (by hand, this is the early 1960s), the ledger by hand. She goes downstairs and talks to Lena and puts her drinks on a tab. The ice is melting.

Watch those anvils, Mia. They can hurt.

At Woodlawn cemetery, the mausoleum is fit for a city the size of Los Angeles in 1960, not a city the size of Las Vegas. Vince brings Bade with him and tells Reynolds to kill him. Vince isn’t buying anyone’s story. Bade says he’s innocent, Reynolds says he’s not. Vince says kill him to prove he is telling the truth. At the last minute, Reynolds flinches and points the gun at Savino. It’s empty and Vince knows that Reynolds lied. That’s probably the last we saw of Reynolds.

In Hollywood, to the strains of Frankie, Dixon is beating the crap out of Barry.

In Vegas, they discover that the avocado has been killed.

RIP DA Reynolds.

This could have been a really good episode if there hadn’t been the side story in Hollywood. Oh well. It’s Vegas, baby.

Hit the comments and tell us what you think!

Little Fish  Season 1/Ep. 16

After a month-long break, Vegas returns to the airwaves.

Violet, the movie star we met last month wants to leave the Savoy and rent a house. Her manager says she won’t last a day without room service. The Lamb brothers arrest a man for having sex with a minor (she’s 17 going on 20). She’s not cooperating and Ralph just wants to know who her pimp is.

Jack comes clean to the DA and Kathryn about the death of Daddy Rizzo. The DA, who remember is in Savino’s back pocket, gives Jack a hard time. Kathryn is on Jack’s side as is Ralph. The DA is outnumbered, so he folds and this storyline basically comes to an end (except the Jack and Mia storyline will continue).

Welcome back, Vegas.

Wait, what’s this?  A title sequence (!!!!) that emphasizes gaming, smoking and guns. It’s a short title sequence, no shots of the stars, but it is a title sequence. Is CBS having second thoughts about canceling the show?

Ralph is still his usual taciturn self. Dixon is still chasing Violet and Jack is still in love with Mia. Which is pretty much the story tonight.

The john who got arrested at the top of the show is being grilled by Ralph when Agent Burns,on orders from the governor, offers the guy, who is a dealer at the Savoy, a deal, deal if he’ll roll on the syndicate. He agrees to and Ralph’s attempt to find out who the pimp is goes out the door.

The writing is not any better than it was a month ago, still pretty much superficial. Guess all the deep thinking went into the title sequence.

Jack tells Mia that they have an informant from inside the hotel and he tells her that Savino set up not only him but Daddy Rizzo. When she asks why she should trust him, Jack tells her he is still in love with her. Feel the heartstring tug?

No smiling Ralph. Mia asks Savino if he called her a rat. She gets the run around but not a denial. She doesn’t seem to notice that Savino didn’t actually answer the question.

Agent Burns tells Mia he is going to take her down unless she rolls over on Savino and if she doesn’t, she will spend her child-bearing years in prison.

Jack and Savino get into a fight. Jack gets in a punch or two as does Vince. Vince threatens Jack.  Are you worried? I thought not. This is not Vic Mackey making threats.

Savino calls the DA on the carpet because of Agent Burns. The DA balks at doing Savino’s dirty work. Savino puts the screws to the DA and tells him to get his hands filthy. Again, unfortunately, this is Vince Savino talking and not Vic Mackey, so there really won’t be any severe consequences or in-depth story telling.

Is it just me or did the music score on this show get better since the break? Not the historic songs but the music score.

Seems Miss Sanchez really just wants to sing on the stage, just one song. Dixon is surprised by how good Miss Sanchez can sing.

The girl at the top of the show, of course, wants out of her life as a prostitute. Ralph, of course, wants to help her, but only in fatherly fashion (it is Dennis Quaid after all). But first, her “mother” shows up to spring her from jail. Everyone falls for the mother routine, even Kathryn. The only ones who don’t are the viewers.

The “mother” delivers the girl to Mia, who gives her $3000 to go to Chicago, go to secretarial school and graduate. When she does, another $3000 will be sent to her.  Mia wants the charges dropped against the dealer so that the case goes away.

Jack bugged Savino’s office. He didn’t go to Vince’s office just to fight it seems. Is it legal, Ralph asks. It’s not illegal, Jack tells him. Aah, the early 1960s wiretapping.

Violet returns to Hollywood, leaving Dixon with a broken heart. Jack tells him to go get his girl with a cow analogy. That’s classy.

Mia has the dealer thinking she’s going to be lenient on him. She fires him and tells him to what will happen to him if he ever decides to talk. He gets a major beating.

She goes to see Jack and gives him a letter from the girl. She tells him she is safe and we see her on the bus. She tells Ralph who is looking for and where he lives. There’s a chase on fire escapes.

Miss Sanchez is going to LA with a side trip (and a shout out to Langer’s Deli in McArthur Park). The Savoy entertainment director seems a bit taken with Miss Sanchez.  Dixon hitches a ride with her to win Violet back.

The DA sends a package to Chicago (briefcase full of money) and then calls Savino which means the wire tap picks the call up.

But Jack does not recognize the DA’s voice. This is Vegas, after all.

And with that, the episode comes to an end.

Hit the comments and tell us what you think!

Vegas returns this Friday night, April 5th, at 9:00 pm as the lead-in to the popular Tom Selleck starrer, Blue Bloods.

The final six episodes of this freshman season will air in order without any more breaks. We, unfortunately, have other plans that preclude from us doing an immediate recap but

The show needs to garner ratings at least as good, if not better, than CSI: NY, in this current time slot. Right now, it is "on the bubble" as they say. Last week, CBS renewed over a dozen shows but Vegas wasn't one of them. So, it's now or never.

Stay tuned!