‘CSI: Vegas’ Series Finale Recap: Shocking, Unexpected Villain Twist

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read on if you haven’t watched “Tunnel Vision,” the final episode of “CSI: Vegas” that aired on Sunday, May 19.

“Things are about to go kaboom.” That’s what Beau (Lex Medlin) says on Friday night’s series finale of “CSI: Vegas” as he prepares to detonate a series of bombs. But he might be describing everyone’s minds, as the show’s characters discover midway through the episode (“Tunnel Vision”) that they’ve been chasing the wrong villain all season.

With Max (Paula Newsome) kidnapped and Chris (Jay Lee) injured by some sort of nerve agent and in the hospital, the “CSI” team continues to place the blame on tech billionaire Truman Thomas (Owain Yeoman) — until they find his dead body. (Says one character, who discovers Thomas had been injecting himself with de-aging synthetic stem cells: “If he wanted to live forever, my guy should have worn a bullet-proof vest.” LOL, truth! Those crazy tech billionaires, amirite?)

It’s actually an entirely different villainous group that has taken Max through the 600 miles of flood channels that lie beneath Las Vegas. In a secret lab, they force her to create better DNA encryption after she reveals theirs was “sloppy.”

And who is “they”? Why, rogue Saudi spies, of course. Faran Tahir plays the real baddie of the season, a character that had infiltrated Truman’s AI robot and DNA hacking lab.

Says one character, helpfully filling in the plot details: “The bureau has been warning us for years that foreign governments are infiltrating U.S. companies and stealing tech.”

Turns out the Saudis were nestled inside Truman’s Mojave Kinematic Designs facility to grab his proprietary DNA synthesis research and borderline sentient robots. But when Max began snooping around Truman’s work, the Saudis had to “tie up their loose ends. They killed everyone involved, hacked our lab, erased every file in the case.”

And ultimately, it wasn’t Truman to blame for the deaths of Cliff Roland, Valerie Hammond and Robert Cuevas. How smart were the bad guys? They had bugged all the robots, so our crack “CSI” team — which had one sitting in their office — were under surveillance the entire time.

“They didn’t have to die,” Tahir’s character says to Max. “But you wouldn’t stop digging into Truman. You wanted it to be an arrogant billionaire, so I gift wrapped him for you. At least, I tried.”

With private airplanes grounded in Vegas, the Saudis nonetheless prepared their escape. And like any good bad guy, Tahir’s character (did he have a name? Maybe? In the photo credit above, he is called “Gray Suit.” At least give our bad guy the respect of a name!) made sure to spell out his plan to Max before trying to kill her. “Truman’s dream of having AI-powered robots fix all our genetic flaws might be pure fantasy. But as you’ve seen, his tech is very real.”

His plan? “To show my superiors how useful synthetic DNA can be. Military op, forensics obfuscation. The possibilities are exciting.”

Good news: Max manages to distract our bad guy and get out of the way of his gun — just in time for Josh (Matt Lauria) and Serena (Ariana Guerra) to save the day.

Cleaning up some loose ends, Josh has worked to regain Max’s trust, and see rewards him by reinstating him back to Level 3. “I’m back?” he says. “You never left,” she replies. Later, Matt and Allie (Mandeep Dhillion) share a tender moment as he shares the news about his restored job (as Serena looks on). Looks like the “will they” of the “will they/won’t they” is winning out!

So hey, looks like things are sort of tied up nicely, right? Well, not quite. The episode, the season and the series ends with what appears to be a mysterious murder.

We hear a news report/podcast say, “Only the latest in the series of unsolved murders beneath Sin City has some law enforcement officials wondering, will the terror stalking the shadows pour into the light?” And on screen, a hooded figure inside a tent is seen with a meat hook… stabbing someone or something.

But that’s it for “CSI: Vegas!” So I guess we’ll never know. Good luck with all those murders, Vegas!