CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000) - 35 questions

Question: What exactly is the nature of the relationship between Catherine and Grissom? I know they're good friends but what else? Did they date, go to school together, etc?

Answer: Grissom recruited Catherine when she was still stripping and going to college. He was a field services officer at the time. There hasn't been any relationship except as friends.

Question: My friend made a comment the other day that Catherine is a tramp because every time you see her she's with a new guy. However, aside from Eddie, I thought the only guy you ever see her with is the construction guy from the episode where the house collapses (sorry I'm not more specific...) Can anyone resolve our dispute?

Answer: I have watched this show from the very first episode so I think I can figure out Catherine's relationship time line. She met her husband while she was a stripper as a young woman. They had a very rocky relationship which produced a daughter. The ex-husband died, I believe, last season. Catherine also has a rather estranged relationship with her father who is a casino owner and a bit of a criminal. He had seduced Catherine's mother and fathered Catherine. Later he dumped Catherine's mother for a younger woman. Catherine was romantically involved with the City/County safety inspector you mentioned but I don't think it went past casual dating and flirting as he kind of disappeared. This season she became involved with the club manager whose partner died in last season's finale. If you recall, her new beau and her father met recently in an episode and they didn't exactly hit if off. I'm sure this will make for some story material in future episodes. (Interesting point, her new beau is played by the actor who played the rogue FBI agent Kricheck on the X-Files). So I don't think Catherine is a tramp by any of today's standards. I think she's a single mom just trying to find love outside her morbid job.

Question: When did William Petersen decide to grow his beard?

Answer: Sometime between seasons 3 and 4.

Question: This applies to all three of the CSI shows. How accurate are the methods the forensic scientists use? Does Luminol function in real life like does on the show? Can the investigators actually zoom in on a picture, then press a button, and have it instantly upgrade in quality? (On a recent CSI: New York, they zoomed into the reflection of a ladies eyeball, and made out the t-shirt of a suspect)

Answer: On the surface, the scientific techniques they use in their case work are what are used in real life, but the results and what they interpret from the results, are nonsense. Perfect example: finding suspect fingerprints on doorknobs. Doorknobs are the worst place to get fingerprints because so many people touch them. I can also remember many cases where they will analyse something like petrol by GC-MS and they pretty much can tell which petrol station it came from: again, can't be done, you can sometimes get a general idea of where it came from, but not that accurate. Luminol does function to detect blood but you wouldn't spray it on all over the place like they do because you can't then analyse it for DNA, etc. The stuff with the digital pictures is possible with high resolution cameras. I haven't seen that CSI: NY episode but I can't imagine it being possible to pick up a reflection in someone's eye if the picture's good enough. Something else which the shows don't portray is how long these cases take: forensic labs run on a case work backlog of months, even up to a year. Technology these days is heading towards being able to analyse evidence at the crime scene to make things work faster, but at the moment most evidence goes to the lab and sits there until it gets to the front of the queue.

Question: According to the IMDb trivia page, William Petersen reprised his role of Will Graham from "Manhunter" in one episode. Which episode was this?

Answer: In the episode "Abra Cadaver" Tom Noonan, who played The Tooth Fairy in 'Manhunter', appeared as the bad guy. Since Grissom was the main investigator, many fans saw a similarity.

Question: This is on a bit of a tangent, but I was wondering if someone could tell me how many CSI novelisations there are and (if space permits) their titles in reading order. Thanks.

Answer: There are currently six novelizations. They are (in reading order): Double Dealer, Sin City, Cold Burn, Body of Evidence, Grave Matters, and Binding Ties.

Question: I am looking for the name of an episode. In it, a girl riding a horse finds two dead bodies in a pipe. They were sisters, one of which did nothing but order clothing on-line. It turned out that the other sister killed her, and her boyfriend, an ex-prisoner whose screen name was Apollo, killed the other sister. Any ideas?

Answer: According to the "Guest Appearances" section on the IMDB, the episode you're looking for is Episode 2.12, " "You've Got Male."

Question: For the season five episode "Grave Danger". In the beginning of the show there is a plot-line about twins being shot to death. They make quite the point out of it. Why is this important, does it refer to a previous episode or set up for a following? I don't get it.

Answer: It doesn't refer to anything specific, just office chatter. Quentin Tarantino has a lot of pointless time-fillers in the episode, and this is one example.

Question: What season did Eckley come in and rearrange the teams? And what exactly was the outcome? I don't even understand why he did it in the first place.

Answer: Eckley felt that Grissom's team where not efficient enough and were too close to each other. This all took place in Season 5. At the end of Season 5 when Nick is kidnapped (Grave Danger - Directed by Tarantino) Grissom asks for his team back. Eckley does not respond, but we see them all back together for Season 6.

Question: When did George Eads grow the awful moustache?

Answer: He grew it at the beginning of Season 6.

Question: What is the point of having different methods of firing the guns for ballistic analysis? They've got the one where they shoot into water, the one where they shoot it into a tub of rubber balls, and the one where they shoot it into some sort of Jell-o type material.

Answer: Different calliber guns fire at stronger trajectories. A smaller calibre gun will need less friction to stop it. The Jell is used for larger calibre guns.

Question: What is the name of and from which season is the episode where a woman (who I think was a dietitian) eats her victims' hearts and livers because she has some disease and if she doesn't eat them something weird happens to her skin?

Answer: Justice Is Served: Season 1, episode 21. http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0534709/

Question: What is the order of seniority between Nick, Sarah and Warick?

Answer: Warrick first, Nick next, Sarah last.

Question: I'm aware that William Petersen will be leaving the show this year, but will he continue to serve as a producer?

Answer: He will continue to occasionally act (he wants to persue live theater) and serve as executive producer.

Question: OK, why does the title song have nothing to do with the show? It keeps saying "haaaawaii!" over and over, yet the show takes place in Vegas, not Hawaii. I never got that.

Answer: It's actually "Who Are You," which is the title of the theme song by The Who. A bit more fitting for a crime show's theme than constantly saying Hawaii.

Question: Is there an episode in which someone gets impaled by an icicle? I seem to recall the team not being able to find the murder weapon, and then someone realized that it had melted. This could also be CSI: New York.

Answer: The episode on CSI:NY was called "Love Runs Cold" and first aired on October 4, 2006 (Season 3, Episode 3) and involves the investigation of a model found stabbed to death by an ice dagger.

Question: While with family we started watching an episode of this, but never finished. It involved a convention or meeting of Achondroplasiacs/Dwarfs, and one part involved interviewing an Achondroplasiac while she was playing a slot machine, with a discussion on Achondroplasia and Psuedo-Achondroplasia. What episode is this called?

Answer: I believe the one you are thinking of is "A Little Murder" with Phil Fondacaro - season 3, episode 4.

Question: Why do characters refer to Langston as "Dr. Ray" instead of "Dr. Langston"?

Answer: The CSI team is very close-knit and use each others first name all the time. Calling him Dr. Ray is their way of including him in the closeness of the team and still giving him the respect of his title.