CSI - Episode 718 - Empty Eyes

CBS warns me that tonight's episode contains adult content and viewer discretion is advised. I'd like to think it means we'll see Grissom and Sara sexing it up with each other, but I know the adult content is not going to be that fun. I have watched CSI before, you know.

Five showgirls are discovered brutally murdered in the house they shared. Sara arrives on the scene, greeting Warrick and then Grissom, to whom she wryly informs, "My date got canceled." Grissom smiles and tells her, "I'm sure he had a good excuse." Their cuteness seriously makes me grin like an idiot sometimes, even when it's displayed in the middle of a house full of bodies. There are actually six residents of the house but the person who discovered the bodies, the boyfriend of one of the victims, says he didn't find the sixth girl so she must've gotten very lucky and not come home that night. Wellllll...not so much. When Sara is investigating one of the bedrooms, the sixth girl, barely alive, lashes out from under the bed and scratches Sara's face. I shriek and jump about ten feet, as does Sara. She pulls her gun but when she realizes her attacker is one of the victims, she calls for help. Sara grasps the victim's hand and tells her to hold on but the victim, who is able to gasp out her name - Cammie - and a few barely coherent words, tragically dies before help can arrive. Sara looks completely devastated. This is only the first of many times I will say, "Poor Sara!" during the episode. Forget the six dead girls; for me, it's all about Sara's emo pain.

Warrick's got his own emo pain to deal with, because he's convinced that he recognizes one of the victims. Catherine lectures him that when she started the job she used to think every victim looked familiar. Warrick does not point out that he's not exactly a CSI n00b so her speech is not so much with the sense-making. He eventually figures out that the girl is Emily Wilson, the granddaughter of a woman from his old neighborhood. He takes on the unpleasant task of informing the old woman that her granddaughter is one of the six murdered showgirls being talked about on the news. She wails in shock and grief as Warrick tries his best to comfort her.

Coming in third place in the emo pain sweepstakes is Greg, who learns from Grissom that the city has decided to settle the Demetrius James civil suit for $2.5 million instead of going to court. Greg realizes that this basically makes him look guilty and the city sacrificed his reputation to save themselves from having to deal with a lengthy and costly trial. Grissom is sympathetic but resigned to the fact that this is often how bureaucracy works.

Finally, Hodges gets his very first dose of emo pain. He's processing evidence when the cellphone belonging to one of the victims rings. Nervously, he answers it and it's the mother of Libby, one of the victims. Hodges is forced to take a giant leap outside his comfort zone and tell Libby's mother that her daughter is dead. Later, when Sara comes by to ask about something, she notices that he's uncharacteristically subdued. Hodges doesn't want to talk about it and she's fine with letting it go, but as she's leaving he asks if she's ever done the right thing but still felt guilty about it. Sara grimaces and replies, "Yeah, it sucks, doesn't it?" Welcome to humanity, Hodges.

Anyway, back to the case. As the episode progresses, the evidence mounts up. Five of the victims were killed by slashes across the throat but the sixth, Becca, was stabbed multiple times with a ceramic knife, the tip of which broke off in her body, and she was also sexually assaulted. The killer tore up sheets from the girls' bedrooms and forced them to tie each other up. Based on the random placements of the girls' bodies, he was unfamiliar with the layout of the house and who slept in which room. Grissom determines that this means the killer was disorganized, picking his victims almost randomly and using whatever materials were easily at hand to help commit his crimes. In the bathroom, Catherine discovers the imprint of a gun in some powder, which explains how he was able to control six women, and bloody paper towels in the trashcan. She's able to determine the order of death based on this, since the killer wiped off his knife after each murder. It was also another way to control his victims, since a bloody knife would have sent them into a panic. Grissom notices that one of the bedroom windows has been partially kicked out and there's a footprint on it. He later determines that the killer was in the middle of cutting Cammie's throat when Jennifer tried to kick her way to freedom. The killer went back to stop Jennifer from escaping and forgot about Cammie, which is how she was able to survive for a couple of hours after the killer left. Downstairs, Sara finds a chair wedging the back door shut and she takes a set of prints, but the calluses make them impossible to identify. Nicky is processing the kitchen when Sara enters and she sees a wine bottle with a custom label on the floor. She recalls that Cammie was trying to say something like "pour wine" before she died so she thinks the wine bottle may be a clue. Nicky asks Sara if she's okay and tells her that it's good Cammie had someone with her when she died. Sara is still shaken by what happened but seems to take some comfort from what Nicky said. Y'all, I would seriously sell my soul for a big brother-type friend as awesome as Nicky. There aren't enough words in any language for how much I love him.

Now that a bunch of evidence has been collected, it's time for the parade of red herrings. First up is Lewis Greyburg, played by Robert "Ben on Queer As Folk" Gant. I am always excited to see QAF people show up on other shows. I've also met Bobby Gant and he's super nice and also gorgeous. Like, you know that line about Dean from Supernatural's "Tall Tales" episode? The "it's like looking into the sun" one? Yeah, it's like that with Bobby. The lighting on this show does him no justice but believe me when I say that he's spectacularly beautiful. ANYWAY. Lewis wrote an article about the showgirls when they raised money to help a fellow showgirl with cancer and he's also the one who gave them the wine with the personalized label. He's able to contribute the information that there was a ceramic knife in the girls' fundraising swag bags but he insists that he was at home working on his novel when the girls were murdered. He readily agrees to turn over any evidence and take any tests as long as Sara stops "looking at me that way."

Red herring #2 is Chris Mullins, Lauren's boyfriend. He's a completely disgusting sleazebag, basically admitting that he was just sleeping with Lauren until something better came along and that he also had sex with Emily, but he's not the killer. He and Lauren had sex in all of the girls' beds, which means he was familiar with the house. That doesn't match with Grissom's theory that the killer was unfamiliar with the house so Chris is free to go because, sadly, there's no law against being total trash.

Meanwhile, as Brass is trying to track down Chris Mullins, he gets a call that someone has been cut across the throat outside of a bar. He, Nicky and Sara race over to the bar where the victim, Marlon Frost, is being treated by paramedics. Across the parking lot, Nicky finds a ceramic knife with the tip broken off and he and Sara think it's got to be the murder weapon. Sara decides to ride with Frost to the hospital, clearly hoping she can have a better outcome with him than she did with Cammie. Nicky asks if that's a good idea but he smiles and doesn't really try to stop her, because he knows he's the last person who should be telling someone not to get emotionally involved. On the way to the hospital, Sara holds Frost's hand and assures him that he'll be okay.

At the hospital, Sara is still in full-on empathy mode as she photographs Marlon Frost and begins taking his fingerprints. As she notices the rough calluses on his fingers, she slowly begins to make the connection that she's found the killer. Frost figures out that she knows as soon as she does and he lunges at Sara, making me shriek and jump yet again this episode, but the ventilator yanks him back. His gown falls open, revealing a large birthmark on his chest, and Sara realizes that Cammie was saying "port wine," not "pour wine." Later, Sara is talking a mile a minute as she explains her theory to Grissom, excitedly explaining that Frost tried to kill himself, and she declares that she's determined to nail Frost for the murders. He doesn't disagree with her but does caution her to chillax. She says Frost's BAC at the hospital was ridonkulously high and thinks that he drank the wine at the girls' house and a DNA test proves her right. It also reveals Frost's real name as David Marlon, an ex-con also wanted for assault on an elderly woman. He also stole her car and the police find it, bringing it to the CSI garage. Sara and Nicky process it, finding handbags belonging to each of the six showgirls, as well as a plastic gun that would've looked real to someone who's terrified. In Becca's bag, Nicky finds a pack of cigarettes and a receipt showing she bought it on the night of the murders at the same bar where Marlon was found. They've placed Marlon in the house and connected him to one of the victims, which is more than enough evidence to convict him. Even so, it doesn't hurt that Marlon confesses all to Brass, saying that he saw Becca in the bar and because she smiled, it meant she wanted him. He followed her home and murdered her roommates, then raped and murdered her. He feels no remorse for what he did; in fact, he tells Brass that he feels nothing at all.

Sara talks to Corey, Cammie's ex-boyfriend. They had a baby together several years ago that they gave up for adoption. The adoptive family sent pictures of the child, Fin, to Cammie once a year and she and Corey would get together to look at them. He says he should've married Cammie when she got pregnant and then she might still be alive, but Sara tells him that it's not his fault and there's nothing he could have done. However, as Grissom and Sara watch the news report about Marlon's confession, it's obvious that Sara isn't quite ready to practice what she's preaching. She still feels guilty about Cammie dying in her arms and that she gave Marlon the same care that she gave his victim. She cries and Grissom brushes away a tear with his knuckle, then puts his arm around her and walks with her out of the lab. The "poor Sara!" count this episode = 6502204020340203.