1x01 the Pilot

Case File:
1x01 Pilot

Gatherine evidence:
A gun is being loaded. A male voice is giving detailed information about himself – his name is Royce Harmon, lives in Las Vegas, and is 41 years of age. , ending with a statement that he’s going to kill himself. We see a man with a gun walk down a hall & into a room. Cut to a handful of police cars gathered outside a residence at night. An SUV drives up. Captain Brass and CSI Gil Grissom arrive at the crime scene. Brass is grumbling about doing more ‘legwork’ and is hoping for a promotion soon. The two arrive at the bathroom where there is a dead guy in the tub. Grissom starts processing the scene and notices a maggot on the body. He states that the man has been dead for seven days. He also finds a mini-cassette recorder with the same recorded message we heard at the beginning. Now, Grissom is playing the message back for the deceased’s mother & sister to hear. The message ends with a gunshot. Mrs Harmon says that the picture Grissom showed her is that of her son, but the voice on the recorder wasn’t.

A young woman drives up to the Crime Lab and goes inside. She goes into Grissom’s office and notices many dead animals and insects in various types of preservation. Grissom startles her and they introduce themselves. The woman’s name is Holly Gribbs. She’s starting her first night of work on the grave shift at the crime lab. He talks her into giving him a pint of her blood.

A “solved” marker goes up onto crime #99 on a ‘Crimes Solved’ board by CSI Nick Stokes. Another CSI, Warrick Brown also arrives and places a “solved” marker under #99 for his name as well. Warrick wants to bet that he’ll solve his next one by the end of shift. It seems that he bets on a lot of different things.

Back in Grissom’s office, he’s just finished taking Holly’s blood. He has her sign paperwork to begin her new job. She’s still feeling a bit lightheaded from the blood donation, so Grissom goes to his fridge and pulls out a jar of chocolate covered grasshoppers to give her. She’s a bit squicked out by it. Grissom takes one and pops it in his mouth.

Brass is heading up a briefing to all of the CSIs, and handing out assignments. Nick gets a ‘trick roll’. Warrick is assigned a home invasion. He asks if anyone has seen Catherine Willows.

An SUV pulls up outside the Crime Lab. A women gets out and says goodbye to her young daughter, who is in the back seat, and to her sister, who is driving. She goes inside and the SUV leaves.

Brass is talking to Holly and Grissom. Brass doesn’t seem to be too pleased that Holly’s mother, who’s a cop in the ‘traffic’ department, pulled some strings to get her the CSI job. She retorts that a good investigator reserves judgement, and that she has the credentials to earn the job. Brass still isn’t impressed. Holly leaves. Grissom tells Brass that he might have been a bit rough on her. Brass reminds him that he’s scheduled to be at an autopsy at 12:30am and says to take Holly with him.

Catherine & Warrick arrive at the scene of the home invasion. There’s a dead man lying outside the door. A husband & wife are just inside the door, trying to console their young child. According to the husband, his wife invited her drunk friend to stay with them for a while to get back on his feet. He’s been there for six months. The husband said he kicked the guy out, but the guy came back & tried to bust down the door. The husband says he shot the guy out of self defense. The couple leave to go put the baby to bed.

Catherine asks Warrick his thoughts. Warrick says the guy is lying. The two are processing the body & the area – taking tape lifts from the dead man’s clothing, snapping pictures of other evidence. Catherine tells Warrick to print the shoe impression on the door. The husband comes back & questions what they’re doing. Catherine notices that one of the shoes is tied differently than the other. The husband tells Catherine that he never touched the body or ever wore the deceased’s shoes. Catherine asks the husband about the injury on his pinky toe. “I tripped over a rattle” was the husband’s response.

Grissom, Holly, and the coroner are in the morgue for the autopsy of the first victim. The coroner says right away that it wasn’t a suicide. The wound from the gunshot is too big. The person who shot the gun was standing farther away than where the deceased’s hands would have reached. The coroner starts the “Y” incision on the body and Holly gets nauseous. She runs off to find the restroom. She ends up in the wrong place and finds herself in a room with multiple covered dead bodies on gurneys. After she notices this, she gets freaked out and can’t open the door to get out. In the other room, Grissom & the coroner continue with the autopsy, unaware of Holly’s freak-out. Grissom finally comes to her rescue & lets her out.

Nick arrives at his scene in a hotel. The victim of the ‘trick-roll’, Mr Lafferty, is sitting on the bed, dismayed at his predicament. Mr Lafferty said the woman took his wallet, ID, and wedding ring. He says he was down in the lounge and a pretty brunette came on to him, then they were up in his room where he passed out, then she was gone. Nick notices some discoloration on the man’s gums. He swabbed the substance for analysis.

Grissom & Holly drive up to X.O Liquors, a place that had just been robbed. He’s letting Holly do this one solo. He tells her to dust for prints, take photos, check video tape and he’d be back in an hour.

Back at the crime lab, Warrick is examining hair fibers from his home invasion case. An apprentice, Bo, comes in to watch him. Warrick has him look at the hairs through the microscope. Bo says he sees little ‘seeds’ at the end of the hair fibers. Warrick says you only find them when someone has pulled a hair out. Warrick leaves to go back & talk to the husband.

Back at the liquor store, Holly is dusting the register for prints. The owner lady from the store is being obnoxious and complaining that it’s taking too long and she’s losing business.

Warrick is in an interrogation room talking with the husband. The husband is now saying that there was a bit of a struggle and that the deceased’s shoe fell off. He said he put the shoe back on the deceased after he shot him.

Holly is now on her walkie requesting backup at the liquor store. Catherine answers her request, asking if she’s in danger. Holly says it’s getting close to that. We see the owner pointing her own gun at Holly.

Nick is back at the lab with Greg Sanders, the DNA technician. Greg is doing analysis on the swab of substance from Mr Lafferty’s gums. The substance is run through the GCMS, but results are inconclusive. It only brings up saliva and denture adhesive.

Catherine arrives at the liquor store and, seeing the situation, immediately draws her gun. The owner relents and keeps complaining about losing money and now having a dirty counter. Catherine tells the lady that if she doesn’t care, they don’t care. Cath & Holly leave.

Back at the lab, Warrick checks in with Grissom, who’s trying to prove a theory on a different case – one with a disgruntled wife at a country club. His experiment involved a gel dummy, a golf club, and some of the blood he got from Holly. As he’s talking with Warrick, he’s writing down stats from his experiment. Warrick tells Grissom how the husband changed his story and now Warrick doesn’t know what to think. Grissom reminds him that it’s all about the evidence. He tells Warrick to go back and search the evidence, which in this case, is now the victim’s shoe. So Warrick examines the shoe and finds a piece of toenail that was stuck inside.

Grissom is now in the print lab. Print tech, Charlotte, has results of the prints found on the mini-cassette recorder from the first case. There are latex flakes imbedded in the prints, possibly from latex gloves. Further analysis from Charlotte showed that it’s from a chemical normally found in cooking spray.

Catherine & Holly are taking a lunch break. Holly is bemoaning the fact that this job wasn’t really her choice. She was pushed into it by her mom who is a lieutenant in ‘traffic’. Catherine isn’t standing for that. She tells Holly about how she loves the job and compares it to being a kid and working on puzzles. She encourages Holly to stick it out – at least until she solves her first case. Their break is interrupted by a call from Brass telling Catherine that she has another case to work on.

Warrick is in Brass’ office. Brass is upset that Warrick wants him to call a judge at 4am to issue a warrant based on just a toenail as evidence. Brass gets heated and continues denying Warrick’s request. Grissom calls in the middle of their conversation, telling Brass that he’s got a possible suspect on the original homicide case and the guy is local. Brass immediately says he’ll call the judge for a warrant. Warrick isn’t pleased at that request. Warrick leaves & Brass makes the phone call to Judge Cohen.

Nick is now at a traffic accident on Fremont Street. A woman crashed her car into a center pole. She seems to be drugged or intoxicated. She says she doesn’t remember passing out. Nick sees nothing wrong with her and tells the cops to take her to the hospital and get her checked out.

It’s the middle of the night and Warrick is sitting in his car. He gets out and goes up towards a house. Cops come driving up immediately, telling him to stop and get down on his knees. The officer is being harsh. Judge Cohen comes running out of the house and berates the officer for stopping Warrick, telling the officer that the guy is from the Crime Lab. The officer apologizes to the judge, saying there was a report of a black man snooping around the judge’s house. Judge Cohen sends the officer away.

As the officers drive away, Warrick tells the judge why he’s there. He also makes a deal with the judge and gives him a ‘hot tip’ on a sports bet in exchange for the warrant. The judge wants Warrick to put $5,000 down on the Packers.

At the police department, Sargent O’Riley is interviewing Paul Millander. He’s a suspect in the first homicide of the night. Grissom comes in and asks to take over. He asks Millander whether he’d have access to latex. He said he does at his job. So they go to his warehouse. He makes lots of rubber body parts – including a rubber hand, which he claims he used his own hand for the mold, which means it would be his fingerprints that would show up if someone used it.

In the hospital, Nick is talking to a doctor who asks him about a rash of trick rolls where the girl mysteriously is knocked unconscious. They also have a mysterious skin discoloration on their nipples. This brings Nick back to talk to the lady involved in the car accident. She’s currently in the hospital getting checked out. Nick asks to see her discoloration. She asks him if he has $20. He asks her if she wants to do time. He makes a deal with her to give the guy back his belongings, tell him what substance she’s using, and he won’t have her charged with murder. She hands him a bottle of eyedrops. Nick is now in the lab checking with Greg on the contents of the eyedrops bottle. It’s scopolamine, a chemical used for motion sickness.

Grissom is talking with Mrs Harmon – the mother of the homicide victim. He says they’ve ruled out suicide as cause of death. He assures her that they will find the killer, that there’s always a clue. She is comforted in the knowledge that her son didn’t take his own life.

Catherine arrives at the hospital for a child sexual assault case. The victim is a young girl named Laura. She is able to point at a drawing of a person where a man touched her. It was in her ‘private’ area. Then Laura asks Catherine to hold her doll for her, and not just hold her doll, but wants Catherine to take the doll to her own house so the man won’t do to the doll what he did to her.

Brass is furious at Warrick going behind his back to get the warrant from Judge Cohen, and he kicks Warrick off the case. He gives him the assignment of shadowing Holly on a new case – a robbery. Brass tells Grissom to make sure Warrick shadows Holly for the next three weeks or until Nick makes his 100th solved crime and gets the promotion.

Warrick takes Holly to the robbery scene and drops her off. Then he drives off.

Grissom arrives back at the house from the home invasion crime. He tells the husband he has a warrant for his toenails. The guy says he already clipped his toenails and flushed them in the toilet. Grissom uses the ALS machine to look for any errant clippings. He finds one.

Catherine drives up to a residence and goes inside. On her walkie, she tells dispatch that she’s taking a short break. We see her enter a room with a set of bunkbeds. Her daughter, Lindsey, wakes up as she enters. Catherine motions to be quiet so they don’t wake up Jeremy. Cath tells Lindsey that she had a rough night and just wanted to see her and give her and say “I love you”.

Back at the lab, Grissom and Bo, the intern, are trying to make a match on the toenail clipping he found by the toilet to the one that was in the shoe. They get a match.

Warrick is pulling up to a drive-up window and places the bet from Judge Cohen. Grissom calls Warrick on the walkie & tells him that they made a match on the toenail. This distracts Warrick and he tells the guy in the window to put the money on the 49’ers.

Grissom & Warrick watch as the husband is taken away by officers. Grissom questions why Warrick isn’t shadowing Holly. Warrick tells him that “it’s cool”, that there is an officer there and she’s just lifting prints at the scene.

We see Holly at the scene, dusting for prints. A young man walks in the door behind her and asks if everything is okay. He says he just saw the cop car leave. She tells him everything is fine. As she turns back to continue dusting for prints, we see him take a gun from the back of his belt.

Nick is back at the hotel and brings Mr Lafferty his personal belongings that the hooker had taken from him. Mr Lafferty is very relieved.

Back at the lab, Grissom presents Nick with his ID badge as a CSI Level 3 with the successful wrap of his 100th case. The CSIs cheer and Catherine says they need to celebrate with her buying breakfast. Brass comes in to breakup their little party by saying that the Grave Shift needs to pull a double. Holly Gribbs has been shot at her crime scene. She’s in the hospital, but they don’t think she’s going to make it. Brass puts Warrick on suspension pending an investigation into his whereabouts when he should have been watching Holly.


The Geek Squad:
Gil: He’s the senior CSI here, but still taking orders from Jim Brass. His apparent suicide case turns to homicide very quickly and more investigative work is needed. He also gets the task of training in newbie Holly Gribbs.

Catherine: It seems to be a busy night for Cath. She starts out with Warrick on the home invasion case, then goes to help Holly at the liquor store before getting the case of the abused young girl.

Warrick: He’s trying to solve his 100th case and earn a promotion before Nick does. He starts out with the home invasion case before getting Brass’ wrath and relegated to supervising Holly’s first night. We see Warrick clashing with Brass, who takes him off the home invasion case. We also see Warrick’s demons emerge – by placing a bet while on duty and ignoring his assignment of shadowing Holly.

Nick: As with Warrick, Nick is trying to solve his 100th case first and get the promotion. He seems to be doing things by the book – with the exception of flirting with a hooker.

Holly: the newbie is starting her first night of work at the Crime Lab – and what a night it ends up being. She gets berated by Brass, has to begin with viewing an autopsy, working a liquor store burglary solo, needing help with that as she gets a gun drawn on her, then she’s assigned to do another case by herself as Warrick leaves her to “go for coffee”. She is attacked as the original suspect comes back, and is not faring well in the hospital.


My Girls:
Cath & Holly are introduced to each other at the liquor store. The two eventually have lunch together. After Holly whines about the job not being her choice, but rather her mother’s, Catherine gives her a pep talk and says to stay at least until she solves her first case.

The Boys’ Club:
Nick & Warrick both going for their 100th solved case, and Warrick wants to bet on it.
Nick & Greg talk about the newest video game while waiting for evidence results

Oh ‘Rats’!
Greg is our main lab rat here. He does analysis of Nick’s evidence swab. We also see Charlotte, the print tech, who gives Grissom fingerprint evidence taken from the tape recorder.

You’re mine tonight:
- Grissom is handed the task of training in the new girl, Holly. His case is the possible suicide, turned homicide. He is also continuing work on a case of blunt force trauma at a country club. He eventually takes over the home invasion case when Brass takes Warrick off the case to go shadow Holly.

- Warrick is paired up with Catherine on the home invasion case before Brass gets pissed and takes him off the case and puts him on ‘babysitting duty’ to watch over Holly.
- Cath also goes to the hospital to take the case of the sexually abused young girl. Plus, she helps Holly out of her mini-dilemma at the liquor store.
- Nick has a solo case this time around in the hotel, followed by a traffic accident on Fremont Street. The two end up being related.

My crime scene is where?
Many crime scene locations for this initial episode. We start out at the house with the dead man in the tub. Then it’s the house in Summerlin with the home invasion. Nick goes to a hotel room for the trick roll. Holly is at the liquor store for the burglary. Catherine goes to the hospital for the young assault victim. Holly then goes to the house for the robbery.

You’re under arrest:
Brass is head of the Crime Lab, but he’s still a cop. At the very beginning we also see Sergeant O’Riley waiting at the house for the ‘nerd squad’ to arrive, and later again with the beginning of Millander’s interrogation.

I know how to hide the body!
The annoying person in this one is definitely Captain Brass. From his gruff demeanor to Holly on her first night of work, to his loud verbal sparring matches with Warrick, he seems like someone who is very hard to work for.

What’s up, Doc?
The gruffy old M.E. does the autopsy on Royce Harmon. He mentions right away by looking at the size of the gunshot that it’s definitely not a suicide. He has a fun moment with Grissom when he asks what time limit Brass set to get rid of Holly. (8 hours)

It’s personal:
This episode is personal for many of the CSIs. Warrick & Nick have their contest to see who will get the promotion & pay raise. Things get personal for Catherine after she takes on the case of the young girl who was assaulted. She ends up making a quick trip to her sister’s house to give a hug to her daughter. Captain Brass seems to take everything that comes up as a personal assault, in one form or another.

Who are you? Who? Who?
Even though it’s small, Nancy Fish, has a great part here as the brash liquor store owner. Another nice guest appearance is Susan Gibney as Charlotte, the fingerprint technician. She has a cute scene with Grissom as they discuss their unromantic date.

Person of interest:
The main person of interest here is Holly Gribbs. This episode chronicles her struggles on her first night of work on the grave shift at the #2 rated crime lab in the U.S. She gets dressed down by Captain Brass, who doesn’t like the fact that her mom pulled strings to get her the job. On her first assignment, she gets a gun drawn on her and needs a little bit of a ‘rescue’. She complains to Cath that the job really isn’t for her, but for her mom. In turn, Cath doesn’t coddle her, but gives her some valid reasons why it’s a great job to have. Holly also has herself put in the middle of a power struggle between Brass & Warrick, ending with Warrick being given an order to “babysit” her at the scenes. End with the problem of the officer leaving her alone at her crime scene and having the suspect return with a gun and shoot her, leaving her life in jeopardy. Yes, in all, it’s a very eventful night for miss Holly Gribbs.

Micro/mini/gadget:
We see the CSIs dusting for fingerprints, lifting shoe prints, and examining hair folicles – all of which will become standard forensics work as the show continues on. Greg runs evidence through the GCMS for analysis. Grissom uses the ALS when looking for the husband’s toenail clippings. He also uses the microscope to match the toenail clippings to the one found in the shoe.

Do you wish to change your statement?
As Grissom enters the bathroom to look for the toenail clippings, we see that the main toilet seat cover is up, but the seat itself is down. After Grissom walks up to the toilet, we see that both the cover and the toilet seat are up. As Grissom squats down towards the toilet, he lifts the seat up.

I don’t get it:
- Why was there not a parent or guardian in the hospital room with Laura, the young sexual assault girl? It seems odd that there would be no one there to be in charge of her. This girl has just been sexually assaulted by a man and yet Catherine, who’s unknown to Laura, just comes in and starts asking questions? Seems very odd.

- One thing that really confuses me in this episode is Brass’ hostility towards Warrick when Warrick asks him to call the judge for a warrant. I realize after that, the hostility is about Warrick going behind Brass’ back and seeing the judge himself to get the warrant. But to begin with? A bit confusing.

- we have no resolution to Cath’s case with the abused girl? It seems that nothing was mentioned about it after Cath left the hospital.

What did you say?
- Cath: I can sit here and I can baby you and I can tell you to quit but I'm not going to do that, because I really love my job. We're just a bunch of kids that are getting paid to work on puzzles. Sometimes there's a piece that's missing. Sometimes we solve it in one night.
Holly: So you think I should stick with it?
Cath: Stick with it? The cops? Forget it. They wouldn't know fingerprints from paw prints and the detectives ... chase the lie. We solve. We restore peace of mind and when you're a victim, that's everything. Stick with it. At least until you solve your first and if after that you don't feel like King Kong on cocaine ... then you can quit, but if you stay with it my hand to god, you will never regret it.

- Warrick: Dammit, Grissom. I had his ass too.
Grissom: Yes, you had him, and the minute you started thinking about yourself you lost him. There is no room for subjectivity in this department, Warrick. You know that. We handle each case objectively without presupposition regardless of race, color, creed, or bubblegum flavor. … Okay?

- Husband: I already gave you my statement.
Grissom: A statement is just a public record of your version. We still need proof.

The joke’s on you:
- Gil (to the dead bodies through the window): you assholes!

- Gil (to Charlotte): If latex rubber & cooking spray went on a blind date, how would the night end?
Charlotte: A lot better than ours did.
Gil: I know. Pink Floyd’s not your thing.
Charlotte: I have on cowboy boots. I work in a lab. What makes you think “Dark Side of the Moon” synched to the “The Wizard of Oz” is gonna warm a damn barn.
Gil: I just thought it would be something different.
Charlotte: You wanna be different? Pin me up against a wall and lay one on me like you mean it. … you’re slacking, pal.

- Officer: Sorry judge, we got a call from a neighbor about a black man outside your house. We reponded.
Judge: Alright, you caught him. Congratulations. Clear out of here before you wake the neighbors.

- O’Riley to Grissom: Oh, you want a whack at him, Grissom? Be my guest


From this moment:
- Grissom’s conversation with Warrick: “Forget about the husband, Warrick. Forget about the assumptions. Forget about your promotion. These things will only confuse you. Concentrate on what cannot lie – the evidence. Follow the reason we’re having this conversation.”

That statement is the basis for this entire series. It’s all about the evidence.

Meow!
From her first appearance, we’re given the information that Catherine has a young daughter who stays with Catherine’s sister while Catherine works the night shift. She really likes her job because it allows her to solve puzzles and find the missing pieces. Through the episode, we also see Catherine’s mothering instinct appear frequently – encouraging Holly to give the job a chance, working the case with the young girl who was assaulted (which prompted her to take a few minutes to go and get a hug from her own daughter).

- Cath: Let me tell you something, lady. If you don’t care about catching the suspect, neither do we. We’re out of here. … You can pick your gun up tomorrow. Holly: You can do that? Cath: (snorts) No!

Quick on the draw!
Cath: 1 – she pulls her gun on the liquor store owner as the lady is pointing her own gun at Holly.

Case solved/unsolved/pending:
S1: with the home invasion, the husband intentionally gunned down the bum that was staying at their house. With the guy yelling outside, the husband told his wife to open the door. When she did, he shot the guy three times. After shooting him, he put on the guy’s shoe and kicked in the door to make it look like the guy had kicked it in. Then he put the shoe back on the dead guy.
S2: Nick connected both of his cases – the ‘trick roll’ with the guy in the hotel and the hooker who passed out and crashed her car. She used a drug, disguised in an eyedrop bottle, on her nipples which caused the guy to pass out when he came in contact with it. She was easily able to grab his valuables and leave without him noticing.
U1: The case of the dead guy in the tub, staged as a suicide. One suspect interviewed, but cleared.
U2 (or P): the outcome of the case of the sexually abused girl is unknown. It was never brought up again.
U3: The case at the liquor store remained unsolved as the owner apparently didn’t care about catching the thief and was only worried about getting the store re-opened for business.
P: The case of Holly being shot is still pending.

Add this to the case file:
This one is pretty typical as far as pilot episodes go: get in as much information and as much action as possible in the allotted time. This being an ensemble show, it’s even more difficult with everyone needing some screen time, and the scene needs to be set. Brass is in charge of the unit; Grissom is the head CSI with Catherine next in line. Warrick & Nick are in a fight to get a promotion. Then there’s the new girl on her first night of work. Add to the mix the true purpose of the show: the world of forensic science – the many gadgets, science, and all things small and smaller. It’s a lot to put into 43 minutes of television.

However, I think the main theme of this episode is politics. Especially with Brass constantly going half-cocked throughout the episode, there was a constant feel of being in the middle of a political war. The redeeming factor of this episode is that it’s only half over. Having things end with Holly being shot and barely hanging on to life gives the viewer the sense that the ‘continuation’ in the next episode will allow us to catch our breath.