Directed by Marshall Adams
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Noah Nelson & Daniele Nathanson
"Happily Never After" is the 12th episode of Season 4 and the 83rd overall. It originally aired January 9, 2008.
A much-hated woman is found dead underneath an ice castle. A second dead woman slides off the top of a school bus in traffic.
Tropes for the episode:
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: The crowd at the first scene actually breaks into applause upon learning the victim's identity.
- Bland-Name Product: "Kiddie Clay" is found at the primary crime scene, a kindergarten classroom, in the second case.
- Car Cushion: The second victim gets dropped from a window onto the bus.
- Hooks and Crooks: The second victim is killed by a Captain Hook crook that was part of someone else's costume.
- Kill It with Ice: The first victim is revealed to have been impaled on the nozzle of a liquid nitrogen tank, which Sid discovers literally froze her heart.
- Pun-Based Title: For the fairy tale line, obviously.
- Shout-Out: The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan are referenced several times throughout, including the fact that the terrier belonging to Dorothea is named "Otto," an anagram of "Toto;" and the first victim having "Wendy" written on her chest.
- Sick and Wrong: Flack and Stella visit a street vendor staging area to question a suspect, and observe rotten food and other trash all over the ground, rats running around, and a woman sneezing on a head of lettuce... which she continues to cut up for use. Flack is so disgusted he says, "This is wrong. Seriously, no New Yorker should ever see this. Ever." She tells him he can put in for psych leave. After they find a piece of skin stuck to their suspect's chestnut roaster, which he claims to have just cleaned, and arrest the guy, Stella asks Flack if he's okay. He replies, "No I'm not. I don't think I'm ever going to be the same."
- Snow Means Love: The first victim is found by a couple on a date in an outdoor "Winter Wonderland" display.
- Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal: The perp in the second case tosses the victim out of a window onto the roof of a school bus someone else had "borrowed" for the night.
