Directed by Norberto Barba
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, JP Donahue & Kevin Polay
"Death House" is the 10th episode of Season 6 and the 127th overall. It originally aired December 9, 2009.
The team respond to a call for help via 911, but do not find the victim when they arrive at the address he gave. What they find instead is an 80+ yr old mummified corpse in a mysterious penthouse. They are then faced with a series of puzzles, clues and booby traps that lead them first to the caller, and ultimately to his girlfriend, whom they must race to rescue.
Tropes for the episode:
- 15 Puzzle: One of the clues is found in a "giant floor version of a child's number puzzle," as Mac puts it.
- Abandoned Area: The penthouse has been shut up for at least eight decades.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Sheldon briefly gets trapped in a room whose steel walls start closing in on him. He shouts for help and Mac manages to pry an opening big enough to shove his kit into, allowing Sheldon to squeeze his way out.
- Booby Trap: One of the perils in the house is a very large, sharp, multi-pointed, sword/axe-like blade that swings down from the ceiling to stab someone to death when they step on a particular tile of the floor's 15-Puzzle.
- Cobweb of Disuse: While the team search the unoccupied penthouse, Flack sticks his head up through the attic door. The area is full of cobwebs and they're hanging from the door as he opens it.
- Death Trap: The original owner intentionally rigged his entire apartment with deadly obstacles for the express purpose of trapping and killing his arch enemy in as tortuous and painful a way as possible. He even left a taunting message to that effect on a gramophone record for the man to hear before he died.
- Drowning Pit: One victim is trapped in a sealed room which slowly fills with cold water, subjecting her to hypothermia, which in turn causes her to not fight to stay above water and she almost dies before the team gets to her.
- Durable Deathtrap: The deadly traps in the penthouse are still in perfect working order in spite of not being touched in over 80 years.
- Extremely Cold Case: The mummified man was killed in 1923. The team investigate his case along with the present-day one, and solve them both.
- Malevolent Architecture: The dangers in the penthouse include a room that can either close in and crush you or cook you to death, a spiked object that swings down from the ceiling to impale you, and a room that fills with water with the intent to drown you... if you don't die from hypothermia first.
- Only Smart People May Pass: Two of the puzzles are hidden riddles that are located by following various clues around the apartment. The team finds one inside a book, solving it tells how to open a secret door. The other is revealed by light coming through an oddly placed window and hitting a wall at a certain angle; it sends them to a grandfather clock whose hands they have to reposition, which opens another secret room.
- Opening the Flood Gates: The girlfriend is discovered to be trapped in a hidden room that's rapidly filling with cold water. When the team bursts through the wall, it all floods out, nearly knocking them off their feet.
- Shady Real Estate Agent: One of the victims is a realtor who was trying to swindle the owner out of the penthouse.
- Trap Master: The original owner of the penthouse had the traps installed as a way of taking revenge on an enemy. He had multiple contractors work on portions of them so that no one knew exactly what he was having built.
- The Walls Are Closing In: Sheldon accidentally gets trapped in a rapidly shrinking room.
