Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, & Zachary Reiter
"Hung Out to Dry" is the 4th episode of Season 3, and the 51st overall. It originally aired October 11, 2006.
Synopsis:
A decapitated co-ed is found suspended upside down from a ceiling fan in a frat house bedroom. A second victim is discovered nailed to a tree. Both are wearing t-shirts with cryptic messages, suggesting that the cases are connected and that more victims can be expected.Tropes for the episode:
- Arc Villain: The T-shirt Killer makes his first appearance here and will be around for almost four years.
- Calling Card: The killer dresses the victims in t-shirts with home-screened clues printed on them.
- Dizzy Cam: When Mac is noodling over the Greek mythology & numerology clues the killer left on the t-shirts, the camera pans in a complete circle around him, with the symbols all floating around as he imagines them.
- Eye Scream: The second victim is nailed to the tree thru his eye sockets...with railroad ties. Mac finds the man's eyeballs in his front pants pocket. They are then shown in close-up, and one of them has deflated a bit.
- Logging onto the Fourth Wall: For a while, there was a website based on the Edoc laundry one used in the ep.
- Off with His Head!: The decapitated co-ed. The killer cauterizes her neck to prevent massive blood loss.
- Orbital Shot: The camera pans 360 degrees around Mac as he's ciphering the t-shirt messages.
- Pinned to the Wall: The man is literally nailed to the tree.
- Poetic Serial Killer / Theme Serial Killer: The killer uses methods of offing his victims that he considers symbolic of their "crimes." The man nailed to the tree, for example, is a witness. The t-shirts he dresses them in contain both numerology and images from Greek mythology.
- Rain of Blood: The "Where did that drop come from?" version is used with the discovery of the first victim. A couple enter the dark bedroom to have sex. As they're getting settled, the girl feels something drip on her and gets up to turn on the light. Cue screaming.
- Significant Anagram: Casey's website is kodecon.com and has a logo of the Scale of Justice. Mac figures out that the name, including the period plus using a "t" for the logo, anagrams to "docket no." which indicates that the killer's motivation is a particular court case whose outcome he considered unfair.
- Story Arc: Shane Casey, aka the t-shirt killer, will be around around longer than any other perp in the series, perhaps the entire franchise. This is episode 3.04, and the last of him will not be seen until the season 7 premiere.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: During the final scene, just it seems like the case is over, Lindsay rushes in to say that the perp has escaped custody.
