Directed by Rob Bailey
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, & Noah Nelson
"Some Buried Bones" is the 15th episode of Season 3, and the 62nd overall. It originally aired February 7, 2007.
Synopsis:
Stella and Danny investigate the murder of a security guard in a high-end store. Their prime suspect is a "personal shoplifter." Meanwhile Mac and Sheldon are faced with a college student who was stabbed to death after joining a secret society. Reed, who attends the same school and knew the victim, comes to Mac with info that helps with the case.Tropes for the episode:
- California University: Reed attends Chelsea University, as do a number of victims and suspects throughout the series.
- Fictional Counterpart: The group "Kings and Shadows," in which membership is passed down from powerful alumni to their sons, stands in for Yale's real-life "Skull and Bones."
- Fiendish Fraternity: Some privileged male students form a secret fraternity called Kings and Shadows, thinking their rich fathers can get them out of any trouble they get into. One of their practices is to give a ritualistic beating to anyone who wants to quit. They're found out when a guy dies after such a beating. That turns out not to be his cause of death, though.
- Deadly Hazing: a young pledge to a university secret society is found dead in a hedge maze with an absinthe spoon imbedded in his neck. Subverted in that the exit-beating the group gave him when he wanted out is determined *not* to be the cause of death.
- Hedge Maze: The second victim is found in a hedge maze, the closing time of which was before the determined time of death - proving that he shouldn't have been there.
- Man Hug: Stoic Mac awkwardly returns a hug from Reed at the funeral of one of Reed's friends.
- Map All Along: Carvings in an absinthe spoon found embedded in the male victim's neck turn out to be a map of how to exit the hedge maze in which he died.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Reed wants the victim's killer found. He gets beaten up after he tells Mac what he knows.
- Pillow Pregnancy: One of the shoplifter's tricks to hide the merchandise she's stealing is using a plastic belly form under her dress as a container. When Danny raps on it with his knuckles, two pieces of jewelry fall out. He says, "Whadda ya know, twins."
- Shout-Out: Mac and Sid have an answer/question conversation a la Jeopardy!:Mac: Absinthe spoon, a branding, a brutal beat down.Sid: I'll take Cult Rituals for two-hundred.Mac: I don't think so. Kid doesn't look the part. We have reason to believe he went to Chelsea University. What is...a fraternity hazing gone bad?
- Students' Secret Society: The body of a Chelsea University student leads the investigators to a secret fraternity known as the Kings and Shadows. The victim was writing an expose on the society, initially suggesting that they had him bumped off before he could reveal their secrets, but it turns out that the victim had undergone a ritualized beating as part of an exit ceremony and the perpetrators swear that they left him alive.
- Urban Legend: The college student gets killed so that his roommate can get an automatic 4.0 for the semester.
- Useless Security Camera: The thief wears a special raincoat designed to reflect light into and dazzle the security cameras, which showed the suspect's movements only as a vague, glaring-bright blob.
