Apparently she CAN smile. (photo credit: poppypetal.org)Previously: Jack was drafted into therapy; butted into Sam's relationship with her baby daddy; and proved himself a loose cannon in his OPR investigation.

Sam takes stock of her baby's room, and it is adorable.

Jack is summoned from his office to deal with the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) review.

Sam comes home to find her place filled with baby paraphernalia, including a partially assembled crib. Brian comes out from the bathroom, having bandaged his hand after slicing it with a screwdriver, and she's surprised and a little bit weirded out to see him so enthusiastic about getting things ready for the baby. She tells him she can take over and he prepares to leave, but not before asking if he can touch her giant fake belly. She complies and he talks to the baby while she looks wary but pleased.

Hi, I'm Annie, and I'll be your recapper for the rest of the season. I have to confess something - I've only seen maybe 20 episodes of this show total. So, I know who everyone is (although for some reason I get Danny and Martin mixed up. I don't even know) but I'm a bit lost when it comes to ongoing storylines. If I screw something up, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Does this bloated near-corpse make me look fat?This week we pick up where we left off, with the team finding Jack doing his best dead man's float in scummy pond water. Viv follows him to the hospital, where he's immediately wheeled towards an OR and lots of blood to replace what he's lost. Though Viv protests that Jack is her partner, the doctors won't let her see him through the rest of the ordeal.

I feel like I should make some coffee for this episode. Previously, Viv tried to thwart an underground brothel ring abducting young women, and lost Henry Thomas when he pretended to be a john, not a pimp.

Our weekly Victim of the Vanish is Laura Richards, a pretty young woman who works at a local VA as a prosthesis artist. She's flirty and friendly with the soldiers; she brings a prosthetic leg to one young soldier in bed, complimenting him on the design for the tattoo he asked her to create on his new calf. His doctor thanks her and takes the leg, but when he goes to fit it on the soldier, he begins to thrash and freak and yell that he can still feel his leg. Bewildered, Laura backs away from him, and, looking hurt and terrified, Vanishes.

You're kidding me with this, right?

So, contrary to popular belief, Santa is a nice, slim young man with a clean-shaven face and time to kill at the local mall. He sweetly chats with a kid who questions his credibility and points out that Santa’s got mail in the box conveniently beside his chair. He reads the note and pales. Later, in his dankly depressing apartment, he loads a revolve and stands to answer a knock at his door, gun in hand; before he can answer, he Vanishes.

Previously: my DVR wanked out and did not record Viv asking Jack to help her establish a task force to find the women being snatched by two scummy freaks. Jack’s come through—he owes Olczyk a few steak dinners, but he’s got Viv and Detective Mars a small room in some dank, lower-level hall and a few pairs of extra hands, more if she starts finding people. Viv asks if he wants to help, but he says one of them doing double duty is enough. She thanks him as he leaves, and he tells her to enjoy.

Sam seems nervous as she approaches a bar in a darkened... bar, asking to speak to a bartender named Brian. She describes him, and the woman currently serving tells her that Brian Donovan, the guy Sam's looking for, quit about a month ago. Sam is awkward and nervous throughout, because she's not really looking for a missing person, she's looking for a missing one night stand.

The real victim of the vanish is currently getting beaten to a pulp in a caged ring. My interest in cage fighting begins and ends with Ryan Atwood's rageful self-vendetta, but I'm stuck with this adrenaline-fueled, muscley hot dude for the remainder of the hour, so I suppose he'll do. He manages to get back on his feet and get the better of his opponent, securing the win for himself. His name is Brett Hendricks, and he Vanishes right from the ring. Danny and Viv are in his locker room shortly afterwards; there's blood on the floor and a fire extinguisher nearby as well. Viv asks if no one saw this happen, but Danny says the janitor only saw the mess and called it in. Brett's trainer, Don Foster, says Brett didn't sustain any huge injuries during the fight, and his opponent is currently hospitalized thanks to the beating he took from Brett. Viv and Danny follow the blood trail to the gym, where a crime scene investigator (hey, Annie!), has found a syringe and bottle of narcotic pain reliever that Danny says can be used as a sedative. Viv says that if you're taking out an extreme fighter, you have to be prepared.

Can I just enjoy my coffee, men? Please?A college seminar debates the problems with prison reform and why politicians don’t discuss it during election seasons. A young black man, Alan Hayes, blames the government’s inattention to poverty, and a white guy sitting behind him asks if he really wants criminals walking the streets. When Alan says he wants the government to attend its poor and disenfranchised, the asshole behind him makes a racist reference to “you people.” Alan gets out of his seat, ready for confrontation; the asshole calls him a charity case, courtesy of affirmative action. They tussle. The girl captures it on her camera phone while the professor calls for security. Another student breaks them apart and they glare at each other.

Doin' time fightin' crime.

Two hours later. Later than what, you ask? Go read Annie ’s recap and find out.

A bus rattles along. We hear news reports about Terry Wicker and the missing Kobe. Wicker turns off his radio and approaches the driver, who lets him off when he says his son isn’t feeling well. And when they step off the bus, they Vanish.

Hillside, AZ. Jack and Grissom arrive at an impound lot where a car’s been stolen. A statie tells the boys he doesn’t know which car, since all the keys were stolen and the attendant is currently sunning himself and sleeping in a lawn chair, which tells us everything we need to know about him. Jack asks if any local business would have security cameras, and the statie leaves. Grissom examines a car with a mark on its side and, in what is an inexplicably hilarious move, scoots down against the car door and rests his butt on the indentation. He explains to Jack that someone’s leaned against the car recently. Jack’s like, ….sure. Grissom decides this is where the car was. He bends down and finds a scrap of paper from a box of OTC sleep medication, more than likely used to knock Kobe out. “But nobody sleeps forever,” Grissom says.