Directed by Martha Coolidge
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Douglas Petrie, Carol Mendelsohn, & Douglas Petrie
The team searches for a link between a current string of murders in Las Vegas and a notorious mob boss who disappeared in the 1970s.
Tropes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: Dunne was informed years earlier by the shady doctor he visited that the bullet in his chest was going to kill him and could not be removed. When he tells this to Catherine after passing out and waking up in a hospital bed, she points out the reason doctors like that tend to be shady is that they suck, and a capable surgery team already removed the bullet while he was unconscious.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The episode begins with a Mexican fisherman finding part of enigmatic mob boss Mickey Dunne's car in Lake Mead. It later turns out that the fisherman is another alias of Dunne's, intentionally leading the police along from the start.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Dunne's last disguise is as one of his victims, Johnny D'Angelo.
- Fate Worse than Death: Mickey Dunne is mortified to learn that, instead of dying as a legend, he's going to a jail where his future co-inmates will never have even heard of him, much less consider him a legend.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: In a flashback to her teenage years, Catherine's father threatens Mickey with bodily harm if he messes with her, which is why he never fulfils his promise of meeting up with her.
- Innocent Bystander: Eddie Sanchez, the police officer who notices Mickey Dunne's car in Lake Mead the night of his (attempted) murder, and ends up being killed so that Mickey can fake his own death.
- Ironic Echo: Combined with Schiff One-Liner. Mickey Dunne sings Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" twice through the episode, and in the final minutes Catherine punctuates Dunne's disbelief that he will spend the rest of his life among two-bit crooks who have never heard of or will care about his legend with a deadpan "that's life."
- The Last Dance: Mickey Dunne's motive, getting revenge before a bullet in the chest kills him, but expecting to die before serving a jail sentence.
- Latex Perfection: Dunne hides his true identity with several rubber masks.
- The Legend of Chekhov: The case revolves around a local legend of the disappearances of Mickey Dunne, a mob boss, and Eddie Sanchez, a motorcycle cop who is assumed was the man who killed Dunne. It turns out that Dunne killed Sanchez after Dunne's goons tried to kill him, placed Sanchez's corpse where they tried to bury him, and then used Sanchez's motorcycle to Run for the Border.
- Man of a Thousand Faces: Grissom references Lon Chaney as he demonstrates that Mickey Dunne is using several disguises to go on his killing spree.
- Master of Disguise: Mickey Dunne uses a variety of disguises to perform his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Downplayed because most of the disguises resemble Dunne (and a run through facial recognition software makes it perfectly clear) and Mickey is mostly exploiting the fact that he's been long believed dead. Grissom also references Lon Chaney (the "Man of a Thousand Faces") as he demonstrates Dunne's disguises.
- Mistaken for Dying: Mickey confesses his crimes in a hospital room because he assumes he won't live long enough to be incriminated, before learning that the bullet in his chest has already been removed by trained doctors.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Mickey Dunne gets shot and robbed by four of his underpaid lackeys from the Desert Island Casino, who then try to dispose of his car and his body in Lake Mead.
- Not Quite Dead: Mob boss Mickey Dunne, who fakes his own death and steals the identity of someone he kills.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: The lab rats briefly fail to recognize who Pamela Voorhees is, thinking (like many people do, see Scream (1996) for example) that her son Jason is the only slasher in the Friday the 13th series.
- Removed from the Picture: The killer's calling card is a picture of Mickey Dunne and his four lackeys, with each death leading to that person's face being crossed out.
- Rule of Three: "That's Life", the Frank Sinatra song. First sung by a disguised Dunne at a karaoke club, later sung by him as he tries to leave Vegas towards the end, and finally used as background music before the credits.
- The Sociopath: Mickey Dunne admits that, when he was bashing Eddie Sanchez's teeth and jaw out to make his corpse unrecognizable, he enjoyed doing so.
- Terminally-Ill Criminal: A former mobster goes around killing his former associates after discovering he would soon die from a bullet lodged in his chest that a mob doctor was unable to remove. He's eventually arrested and gloats that he won't live to see his trial. Catherine then points out that mob doctors aren't known for their skill and a regular doctor was able to remove the bullet. The mobster is now going to live a long time.
- Thanatos Gambit: The whole point of Mickey's plan is to get revenge and go out a legend. Too bad a good surgeon has ensured he'll spend the next 30 years forgotten in jail.
- Theme Naming: Three of Mickey's aliases are based on horror movies: Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Pamela Voorhees.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: A bullet in Mickey's chest (from his lackeys' attempted murder) shifts closer to his aorta, and the untrained doctors he sees while hiding his identity can't remove it, inspiring his Last Dance.
