1x02 Cool Change

Case File:
1x02 Cool Change

Gathering evidence:
A couple is in a casino and the woman is begging the man to go put some money in the GigaMillions slot machine where a man has just left the machine, opening up a space. The man grumbles, but eventually concedes and goes to put some money in the machine. He’s sarcastically taunting her that she just wasted his $20. As he plays his third try, he starts walking away. The woman is watching the machine turn to “$$$” and starts screaming with excitement. They’ve just won over $40 million. We see the couple being showered with confetti and holding a huge check while celebrating. They’re escorted to a VIP suite. The woman is looking out on the balcony when the guy comes up behind her and says “take a hike. Get lost.”. There’s a knock on the hotel door.

Gil Grissom is on the phone, telling someone to page him with any kind of update on Holly Gribbs’ condition. He goes under the crime scene tape as he hangs up his phone. A detective is waiting there for him. The new millionaire man is lying dead face down on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. The detective tells Grissom it’s a curse – the past four GigaMillion winners have ended up either dead or missing. Grissom says it’s just coincidence. The detective says the man’s girlfriend is upstairs in police custody and asks Grissom if he wants to talk to her. Grissom tells the detective that he’ll let the dead body talk to him. The detective is confused by that. Grissom picks up the dead man’s broken glasses and tells the detective that the guy just told him that he didn’t commit suicide. Most suicide jumpers take off their glasses before jumping as they aren’t brave enough to “watch” their own death.

In the lab, Grissom is walking by the reception desk & casually asks for messages, not expecting any. The receptionist hands him a large stack of them. He takes them and continues walking through the lab, glancing at the employees who are working in their labs. They seem to be watching him as he walks by. He walks into Brass’ office. Brass is packing up his things. Grissom tells Brass that he just got done talking to the Sheriff, who wants him to run the CSI unit. Brass has been moved back to the homicide division at PD.

The rest of the CSIs (Catherine, Warrick & Nick) are in the break room, watching the news story about Holly’s shooting. Cath & Nick ask Warrick what happened. He said he left her to go hook up with Grissom on the toenail case. Grissom comes into the room and runs down the information that they know so far. He tells them of Brass’ relocation and that he’s been given command of the CSI unit. Grissom hands out assignments. He says he’ll take the leaper from the Monaco (dead gigamillions winner). He gives Nick the “Holly case”. Catherine is adamant that she wants Holly’s case, so Grissom relents and tells Nick to help him on his case. He also tells them that he’s bringing in Sara Sidle to help them out because they’re short handed. Sara is a CSI from San Francisco and someone that he trusts. She’ll be handling the internal investigation into what happened with Holly. Cath & Nick leave to begin their cases. Warrick asks what his assignment is. Grissom tells him that he’s on administrative leave until the investigation on Holly is complete.

Catherine arrives at Holly’s scene. She finds Holly’s gun and sees that some bullets are missing. She is relieved thinking that Holly shot back. Then she hears a few short beeps. She finds a pager underneath a cabinet. It’s got a low battery.

In the morgue, Dr Jenna Williams is instructing Nick & Grissom to pull the dead guy’s arm down. It’s “stuck” because he’s in rigor mortis. They get his arm pulled down and Grissom notices bandages on the guy’s arm, covering what appear to be defensive wounds. Small pieces of black glass were found on some of the wounds.

Nick & Grissom are now in the hotel room, looking for evidence. There is a trail of blood drops leading to some bloody towels. Nick finds a broken black champagne bottle. Grissom gives Nick a chance to “call it” – giving his initial theory on what happened. We see in flashbacks, the woman hitting the guy with the champagne bottle after he tells her to get lost. Now Nick & Grissom are talking to the woman in a PD interrogation room. They decide to clear her when they see that the record of entries into the room showed only the initial one where the security guy checked them in. They’re wondering if he didn’t fall from his balcony, he might have been on the roof.

At the lab, Warrick is on the phone checking out Holly’s status. His phone call is interrupted by another incoming call. It’s Judge Cohen. He’s irate that Warrick placed his bet on the wrong team. He tells Warrick to meet him in 15 minutes.

Grissom & Nick are executing “Operation Norman”, throwing simulation dummies off the roof in various ways – jump, push and fall. The crowd that’s gathered around the crime scene area applauds. Grissom takes pictures of the various ways the dummies lie, verbally noting each one: “Norman pushed. Norman jumped. Norman Fell”. That final saying prompts a female voice to chime in with “Wouldn’t you if you were married to Mrs Roper?”. The voice belongs to Sara Sidle, the San Fran CSI whom Grissom called to run the internal investigation. Grissom tells her that his conclusion is that the deceased was pushed off the roof.

Warrick meets Judge Cohen in a parking garage. The judge wants his $10K. Warrick says he only has $4K and he’ll need a day to get it. The judge gives him an hour.

Catherine is in a lab working with the pager that she found at the crime scene. Sara walks in and asks where to find Catherine Willows. Catherine says she’s out in the field, but Sara doesn’t buy it. Catherine gets defensive about giving up her case to Sara. Sara tries to appease her by suggesting that they work together. Catherine relents. The info from the pager brings up a fake name, leaving a dead end to that trail of evidence. Sara asks where she can find Warrick. Cath says maybe one of the casinos on Blue Diamond Road.

Grissom & Nick are in the surveillance room at the casino looking over video around the time that the guy won the jackpot. They notice that a guy was sitting at that same machine for the previous 11 hours and coincidentally the jackpot gets hit on the machine immediately after he walks away.

Catherine is in the Ballistics lab with Bobby, the tech. She test fires Holly’s gun into a vat full of water, then they retrieve the bullet. They compare the striations from that bullet to the one that shot Holly. It’s a perfect match. Holly was shot with her own gun.

A casino employee has found Grissom & Nick’s possible suspect that was on the video tape. Grissom sits down next to him and casually mentions that he’s a murder suspect. He notices roof dust on the guy’s clothing, an indication that the guy was on the roof. As they’re leaving, Grissom cashes out his machine and playfully tells Nick to gather his winnings – as a CSI 3 initiation.

At a quieter casino, Warrick is playing blackjack and has a substantial pile of winnings of $11,000. The dealer asks him to hit or stay. Sara comes up behind Warrick and says “stay”. They talk at a table in a café at the casino. She’s asking him about the things he bets on. He mentions that he bets sports from time to time. Sara then starts to run down the specifics of what he did prior to Holly’s death. He says he went for coffee and there was an officer at the scene, so it was no big deal. Sara intuitively asks if he went for coffee before or after placing his bets. Warrick is defensive saying that he was left alone many times at a crime scene when he was a rookie. Sara tells him that Holly died a few minutes prior. Warrick is stunned. We see a montage of all of the CSIs, plus Brass, having a moment of disbelief.

Sara walks into the break room to get a soda from the fridge. Cath is there looking a bit haggard. A pager beeps and both ladies check theirs. The beeping is coming from the pager on the table – the one that was found at Holly’s crime scene. Catherine decides to call the number on the pager. It’s the owner of the pager. Cath entices him to meet her and he gives her his address.

Grissom & Nick are now interviewing Red Carlson, the guy who had been sitting at the GigaMillions slot machine for 11 hours before the next guy won the big bucks. He admits he was on the roof, but is adamant that he didn’t push the guy off. Grissom & Nick have a list of Ted Salinger’s (the dead guy) purchases at the gift shop – bandaids & antiseptic. Later, he made a purchase of a $30K watch. A bit later, Ted & Red started drinking together in the bar. After a couple hours, Ted ordered doubles & Red switched to coffee. Red said he was depressed and was thinking of killing himself, but chickened out. He said he was a “born failure”. Grissom tells Red that he believes him. Grissom says they’ll go back and check Ted’s clothes to see if he has roof dust on them. If there’s no roof dust on the clothes, then Red is cleared.

An operation is in place to bust into the motel where Holly’s potential killer is staying. Cath & Sara are waiting on the stairway for the operation to commence. Brass comes up the stairs. He tells Catherine he’s there for “guilt therapy”. The officers bust in and arrest Jerrod Cooper with minimal resistance. He’s got a big scratch under his eye. Sara says that to make a conviction, they’re going to need a DNA sample. They take one and Cooper is ushered away. Catherine calls on the walkie to all of the others that Holly’s suspect is in custody.

Warrick hears Catherine’s announcement just as he’s meeting with Judge Cohen to give him the money. The judge says it’s not that easy and he still “owns” Warrick. The judge says that they’re going to do “business” together.

Catherine arrives at the morgue to take a DNA sample from Holly to hopefully get a match. Grissom is waiting for her outside the door. He gives her a bit of moral support before she goes in. Catherine takes scrapings from under Holly’s fingernails. When she’s done, she takes a moment to tell Holly that she’s sorry.

Nick & Grissom are in the lab examining Ted’s clothing, looking for roof dust. They don’t find any, thus clearing Red as a suspect. Grissom opens a packet that contains other evidence from the victim. He examines the new watch & notices some white fibers stuck in the band. Nick decides to go and get a sample of the carpet from the guy’s hotel room. Jenna calls Grissom down to the morgue and shows him new evidence – a diamond shaped wound on the guy’s head. It appeared to be the fatal blow, indicating that he was killed before he was pushed.

Greg gives Cath & Sara the DNA results, which match the suspect, Jerrod Cooper as Holly’s killer.

Nick compares the fibers found in the watch to the carpet sample from the hotel suite. Grissom is examining the hotel and finds a candle holder that has a suit from a deck of cards on each side – including the diamond. He checks the balcony of the hotel room & discovers blood that someone had cleaned up. The bloody area has a handprint void in it. Grissom does a little experiment with the security guy. When the keycard is stuck in the slot, the door opening doesn’t register with the security logs.

They’re now interrogating the girlfriend again. They talk out their theory with her. As the boyfriend stumbled through the door, she whacked him from behind with the candleholder, killing him instantly. Then she dragged him across the carpet & out to the balcony, and then dumped him over the side. The girlfriend isn’t remorseful at all. She just holds out her hands to be cuffed.

Grissom & Nick are leaving the PD when they see Warrick sitting on a bench. Grissom tells Nick to go on ahead and he talks to Warrick. Grissom has been told that he has to let Warrick go. Warrick tells him that he went to lay a bet. Grissom decides against that and gives Warrick back his gun, saying that everyone was partly responsible for Holly’s death.

The team is standing outside, watching as Jerrod Cooper is being led away by Brass. After the van drives away, they all start leaving individually.


The Geek Squad:
Grissom: He’s just become leader of this fractured unit, trying to focus on a new case while a co-worker’s life hangs in the balance. Thankfully, he’s allowed his giddy moments – like sitting down at a slot machine & playing a bit before informing a suspect that he’s under arrest, or executing his “Operation Norman” experiment with the dummies.

Catherine: Cath shows many sides to her personality in this one, first demanding to be in charge of Holly’s case, then standoffish at the first meeting with Sara, followed by a bit of humor with Sara & the suspect on the phone. After that, we see & hear her triumphant call on the walkie that the suspect has been caught, followed by the quiet, remorseful moment with Holly in the morgue, and ending with the sigh of relief that the DNA evidence was a match, meaning case closed. There was even a moment of pride at Holly when she murmured that Holly gave her “just enough” evidence to catch the killer.

Warrick: Warrick is on a fast train into a brick wall in this episode. He’s immediately suspended after the news of Holly being shot. He’s in big trouble with Judge Cohen for placing the bet on the wrong team, and even worse trouble since the judge won’t let him off the hook. He had Sara correctly deduce his whereabouts when he was to be shadowing Holly. The only thing that kept Warrick from ending up as a crash-dummy into that brick wall was Grissom’s intuition that Warrick learned his lesson.

Sara: It’s interesting to note from the start that Sara was given a bit of humor to her character. It was quite charming. Strangely enough, that humor was taken away very quickly as the series went on. If Cath & Sara’s initial meeting was considered a bit prickly, then Sara & Warrick’s introduction can be considered porcupine-esque. From the beginning, we see that Sara is a great detective. She immediately knew how to placate Catherine, and in meeting Warrick, she surmised quickly that he had been placing a sports bet when he was to be watching Holly.

Nick: After two episodes, Nick seems to be the only main character who doesn’t have much depth yet. So far, he’s basically been a “Yes, sir.” man, quietly doing his job studiously. The focus has been on the others, so far.

My Girls:
the ladies meet for the first time in the lab, and we immediately see Catherine’s reluctance at this “outsider” coming in and taking over things. It’s great to see how Sara immediately placates her with an invitation to share. Thankfully, later on we see some humor between the two when Cath makes the phone call to the suspect in Holly’s case. It’s a shame that in the rest of the series, we’ve very rarely seen that humor between them again.

Cath also takes a brief moment to say “I’m sorry” to Holly in the morgue. It’s a nice character beat for Catherine.

The Boys’ Club:
The boys in the ‘club’ this time are Nick & Grissom. As they take Red away from the slots as a suspect, Grissom cashes out his machine & tells Nick to collect his winnings, saying it’s a CSI 3 initiation. He’s acting like a giddy schoolboy. Another ‘Boys Club’ moment is when they initially go into the hotel room, Grissom lets Nick be the first to “call” the scene, and testing his CSI ‘theorizing’ skills.

Oh ‘Rats’!
We’re introduced to Bobby, the ballistics technician here. He helps Cath compare the bullets from Holly’s gun to the one that shot her. Greg is also included briefly in this episode, giving the DNA results to Cath & Sara.

You’re mine tonight:
Grissom & Nick are teamed up on the case of the dead mega-millionaire. Catherine takes Holly’s case, getting a little bit of help from Sara along the way. Sara’s main assignment is to figure out where & what Warrick was doing when Holly was shot. Warrick was not on a case as he was suspended pending further investigation into his situation.

My crime scene is where?
Standard crime scenes for this one – mainly the hotel/casino roof, room and casino floor. The scene of Holly’s murder was the same place that she was assigned to the burglary in the previous episode.

You’re under arrest:
Brass has been reassigned to homicide and is starting out by joining in the ‘guilt therapy’ and arresting Holly’s killer. The episode begins with a new young detective (whom we never see again) who seems to never have worked with a CSI before, considering his awe at the details Grissom is pointing out to him about the victim not committing suicide.

I know how to hide the body!
No annoyances in this one, other than maybe the killer girlfriend who seemed to have no remorse at taking the life of her boyfriend.

What’s up, Doc?
In this episode, we see a new M.E. – Dr Jenna Williams. I enjoyed her much better than the gruff old guy that we saw in the pilot. The new evidence (diamond-shaped wound) that Dr Williams brings to Grissom late in the case is a big key to solving it.

It’s personal:
Having Holly’s life on the line makes this case personal to everyone, with the exception of Sara. Even Nick, who really had no contact with Holly, is affected by her situation in that it’s “one of their own” and that at any point, what happened to her could happen to any of them. Catherine is the one who makes it known that it IS personal to her when she states matter-of-factly that Holly’s case is hers, and she’s partly responsible because she told her to stay. Grissom also mentions the personal aspect of Holly’s situation when he re-instates Warrick, saying that they’re all culpable.

Who are you? Who? Who?
Tim DeZarn was great in his role as Red Carlton, the self-proclaimed “born failure” who just missed out on being a mega-millionaire.
I enjoyed Judith Scott’s appearance as Dr Jenna Williams. She’ll appear in a few more episodes in season 1 before eventually getting replaced. I wish she would have made some guest appearances in later seasons, just for some continuity.
Timilee Romilini plays an interesting non-remorseful character as Jamie, the spurned girlfriend – and eventual killer.

Hey, I know you!
Harrison Young continues as the unscrupulous Judge Cohen, who not only has Warrick pay him back for his losses, but also uses it to his advantage to keep Warrick “under his thumb” for the future.

Person of interest:
Sara is the main person of interest in this episode. Her arrival brings out various emotions from both Cath & Warrick. From the beginning, we see that she’s witty, bright, and a good detective. She learned instantly how to placate Catherine (two sharp women are better than one), giving her a verbal pat on the back (nice work, Catherine), and keeping a CSI perspective during an adrenaline rush (reminding that a DNA sample from the suspect would be needed for comparison during the apprehension of the suspect). With Warrick, she was able to sum up the situation very quickly – that Warrick was placing a bet. I’m guessing some of her intuition on this came from Catherine’s comment that she could probably find Warrick at a casino.

Micro/mini/gadget:
Grissom & Nick use the dummies to determine how the victim was dropped from the roof. Catherine uses the pager nest to try and find the owner of the pager. Catherine test fires the bullet into the water vat and compare striations from the bullets. Nick & Grissom search through video surveillance tapes to track a possible suspect. Greg runs DNA samples and makes a match. Grissom uses luminol to discover blood on the balcony floor.

Do you wish to change your statement?
I’m not really seeing much for continuity errors here (since we’re only in episode #2!), however… (see the next segment)

I don’t get it:
I don’t really think that jumped, pushed, and fallen dummies would actually land only a few feet from each other the way they were arranged on the ground after Grissom & Nick’s experiment. The physics of this really seem out of place.

What did you say?
- Grissom: Was he in town with anybody?
Detective: His girlfriend. She’s upstairs in police custody. Do you want to talk to her?
Grissom: Not yet. Right now, I want to talk to him.
Detective: How do you talk to a dead body?
Grissom: I let him talk to me, actually. In fact, he just spoke. (picks up some broken eyeglasses) Didn’t you hear him? He just told me that he didn’t commit suicide.
Detective: you lost me.
Grissom: this man fell to his death wearing prescription eyeglasses. Jumpers take their glasses off. Suicide is the ultimate form of selfishness, detective. It’s unlikely that anyone cowardly enough to take his own life would be brave enough to watch his own death.
Detective: You can tell all of that just by looking at a pair of eyeglasses?
Grissom: You have no idea.

- Brass: I guess this might put you and me at odds.
Grissom: Cops vs scientist. Interesting, huh?
Brass: yeah.
Grissom: You got any advice for me?
Brass: yeah…cover your ass…and hide. … they’re all yours, pal.

- Sara: Do you know where I can find Catherine Willows?
Cath: She's out in the field. …. Let me guess ... Sara Sidle?
Sara: I know who I am. I think you're a little confused.
Cath: If you think you're taking my case ... forget it.
Sara: Look, we can stand here and argue ... or ... we can get out there and find out who did this to Holly Gribbs. (beat) Two sharp women are better than one.

- Warrick: do you know how many times I’ve been left alone at a crime scene when I was a rookie?
Sara: well, this time is different.
Warrick: yeah, why is that?
Sara: Holly Gribbs died on the operating table twenty minutes ago.

- Sara: nice work, Catherine.

- Grissom (to Warrick): you know what? If I let you go, I gotta let me go to, and Catherine & Brass. We’re all culpable in this. I don’t care what the book says. I lost one good person today, I don’t want to lose another. … Here.
Warrick: I won’t let you down again.


The joke’s on you:
- Grissom: Norman pushed. Norman jumped. Norman fell.
Sara: Wouldn’t you if you were married to Mrs Roper?

- Sara: Mind if I get a soda?
Cath: oh…yeah, I’m sorry.
Sara: You want one?
Cath: is there anything in there with alcohol?
Sara: root beer.
Cath: no.

- Sara (to Cath as she’s dialing the phone to call the number that paged): what are you going to say, “Hi, I’m a criminalist. I was in the neighborhood..
Cath: shhhhh. It’s ringing.
Guy: hello?
Cath: Uh…hey.
Guy: Who's this? I just dialed my own damn beeper.
Cath: Uh-uh. It's my beeper now. I found it.
Guy: It ain't your beeper, girl. It's mine. … I do a lot of business on that beeper.
Cath: What kind of business?
Guy: You know -- slinging a little something-something.
Cath: Oh, a little something-something. Or maybe a little bling-bling?
Guy: So what you know about some bling-bling?
Cath: Well, invite me over to your crib, baby and you might find out.
Guy: It's on. Three Aces Motel, Room 202.
Cath: Three Aces Motel, Room 202. *sighs* See you soon. (hangs up)
Cath (to Sara): Did I just do that?
Sara: What's a "bling-bling"?
Cath: Got me.

- Cath (to Brass): what are you doing here?
Brass: guilt therapy

- Grissom: nice swatch, Nick. Pizza box size.


From this moment:
Cath & Sara’s initial meeting in the lab is kind of a precursor to their push-pull relationship throughout the series. Catherine is immediately confrontational and possessive of her case. Sara is successful in diffusing the situation calmly (something that actually doesn’t occur very frequently after this). I would have enjoyed seeing more scenes between the two like the one in the break room, where there was a bit of humor involved. Unfortunately, the writers decided that the female cat-fights would bring in more viewers, so that’s what we got stuck with seeing more as the series continued on.

Meow!
Catherine divides this episode between many personalities, like her fierce “wildcat” persona, as she immediately declares that she’s taking the Holly case, as well as her initial reaction to Sara’s arrival (“if you think you’re taking my case…forget it!). Then there’s her “CSI/work” mode, where she gives in to Sara’s proposal to work together, and relays the info about the pager. We’re also treated a bit to Cath’s “flirty” side, where she’s on the phone to the suspect and trying to get him to give up some pertinent information on how to track him down. Her flirting brings success.

Quick on the draw!
Catherine: 1 – she test-fires Holly’s gun to compare bullets.

Case solved/unsolved/pending:
S1: Holly’s case is solved as Catherine enticed the suspect to give up his location by flirting with him on the phone.
S2: The mega-millionaire’s killer (the girlfriend) is apprehended by following the evidence (carpet fibers, bloody floor, diamond-shaped head wound), and ruling out other suspects (no roof dust on victim’s clothes).

Add this to the case file:
- I adore Jorja’s curly hair in her few early episodes. I was bummed that they had her with the straight hair for all of the prior seasons.
- There’s a cute Grissom moment when he decides to sit down next to the suspect at the slot machines & starts to play and acting like a giddy mini-winner. Then calmly tells the guy he’s under arrest for murder. Then when he’s leaving, he tells Nick to gather his winnings.
- In the many times I’ve watched this episode, one thing I’ve never noticed until now is that at the beginning of the scene where Catherine is walking to the morgue where Grissom is waiting outside the door, Sara is also waiting in the background at the end of the corridor.
- I actually like this episode better than the pilot. This one wasn’t as jam-packed with too much information as the previous one. The writers were able to settle things down and let the viewer follow along better with each case. This case also brings a bit more forensics into it than the Pilot did.