CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Play with Fire - S3-E22

Question: Why would Catherine take the blame for the lab explosion? If anyone was to blame it was Hodges. Since he accidentally turned on the hot plate and even admits that sometimes it gets switched on by others accidentally, if he had bothered to make sure he didn't switch it on before leaving the room, the explosion never would have happened.

Suckers - S4-E13

Question: After finding out that Ty was committing insurance fraud, why did Grissom walk away instead of arresting him?

Answer: He doesn't have the authority to arrest him - when anyone is arrested in the show, a police officer does it. Also he tells Ty that he is going to be submitting his case findings to Ty's insurance company, who would no doubt contact the IRS, who then would have him arrested for fraud etc.

Show generally

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.

OneHappyHusky

Harvest - S5-E3

Question: Why does Mrs Perez tell Catherine that they couldn't find a marrow donor for Daniel because he's mixed race? I thought it didn't matter what race you are when it came to donating organs or blood, as long as the blood types match or were compatible.

Answer: What is often called bone marrow transplants is the transplant of hematopoietic stem cell. Instead of blood type match, patients need to be an HLA match (human leukocyte antigen). There's a lower percentage of matching one's HLA type with a random person than blood type. When it comes to matching human HLA types, a person's ethnic background is important in finding a match because the HLA markers used in matching are inherited, and some ethnic groups have more complex tissue types than others. A person's best chance of finding a donor may be with someone of the same ethnic background, meaning someone on the registry would have to be of mixed race as well. At the time, the total number of multiple race donors in the registry was very low (I don't have the figures for 2004, but in 2014 there were less than 500,000 multiple race donors).

Bishop73

Answer: The answer is the actor who plays him, Robert Hall, is a double amputee therefore he needs his crutch to get around in everyday life not just on the TV show. See this CNN page for more details: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/13/apontv.hall.ap/. I'm sure in one episode he mentions something about his legs and hints at it being a Vietnam injury.

Play with Fire - S3-E22

Question: Sarah asks Grissom to have dinner with her. Moments before, Grissom removes a card from his filofax thing for a 'Dr. Karen Roth'. I'm uncertain, but is this the blonde entomologist he had chemistry with in an earlier episode (they were discussing their mutual love of tarantulas, I think)? If not, who is it?

Answer: It's his ear doctor. At the time, he was thinking of getting his big operation. The entymologist's name was Terri Miller.

Sereenie

The Accused Is Entitled - S3-E2

Question: How did the movie star's blood on the sheet prove that he was the murderer? Maybe his scab just got knocked off. Hardly damning evidence by itself. Anyone explain?

Answer: The blood made a specific imprint of a scar on his knee which CSI matched to his knee and the trailer step he fell on.

Feeling the Heat - S4-E4

Question: According to IMDb, Kaley Cuoco stars in this episode as "Zoe Young" but I've just watched the episode and can't see her anywhere. Is this a mistake on IMDb or is it just a blink and you'll miss it appearance?

Answer: This site includes a screenshot of her in the episode: http://www.aveleyman.com/TVEpisode.aspx?FilmID=1512&Episode=20031023 In this 2003 episode, she was 17, although in the screenshot, she appears to be about 12, and not at all like her current look.

DavidRTurner

Caged - S2-E7

Question: In this episode, Catherine says, "I think I know the word that made her throw her coffee," and Sarah says she hates that word. While I could take a few educated guesses, I'm not sure what word they mean and I can't tell from Croft's mouth movements either. Can someone enlighten me?

Answer: I believe that she is referring to the 'C' word.

umathegreatstationarybear

Homebodies - S4-E3

Question: OK, I don't get it. Who killed Suzanna? Was it the same guy that raped her? And how were the two cases interlinked?

Answer: As I understand the episode, yes the man that raped Suzanna then killed her. She makes the comment during the line up that "he already knows it's me" and I guess you are to assume that he tied up the loose end by killing her since she didn't pick him in the line up and he was set free. And I believe they get fingerprint results that confirm that Kelly James was also responsible for the first crime scene.

Angela Brown

Show generally

Question: How accurately does the show depict the way crime scene investigators do their job?

Answer: The show is very unrealistic. For starters, the primary function of a crime scene investigator is to collect and analyze physical evidence. The show consistently shows crime scene investigators engaging in detective work to help solve their cases. This does not happen in real life. A crime scene investigator's job is not to "solve" a case, they are simply meant to examine evidence. Also, the crime scene investigators on the show routinely question suspects along with the detectives, which is absurd. The actual methods of collection of evidence and equipment used on the show is however, fairly realistic; although this show and many others exaggerate the importance of leaving a crime scene undisturbed.

BaconIsMyBFF

Show generally

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.

Carl Missouri

Chosen 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.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Yes, Brenda is both the daughter and the half-sister of Tina.

Sereenie

Homebodies - S4-E3

Question: How did Suzanna die at the end? To shoot herself, outside of her house, after just being to the grocery store is ludicrous, but what parents who were told, "Go to the cops and we kill you" – wouldn't take Suzanna away and try to figure out some protection from this person still on the loose? Why the same people who lied to the police the day after the home invasion apparently felt that it would be safer to gallivant about in public (i.e. to the grocery store) with Suzanna, after the home invader was on the loose doesn't make sense. Can someone please explain this?

Answer: She was killed by the two perpetrators. Since she failed to identify them in the line-up (too scared), she and/or her parents must have thought that they were "safe."

Chosen answer: Being vapor-locked, in the simplest terms, is when the person has bad gas and is unable to expel it.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen 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.

Guy

Show generally

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.

Garlonuss

Show generally

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.

Boobra

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

CCARNI

Answer: Warrick first, Nick next, Sarah last.

Bad Words - S4-E19

Plot hole: A central plot device in this episode is that there is no six letter word made up of the letters EXVIN, so the murdered man cheats at the word game by playing a word he knew to be inadmissible - exvin, a wine connoisseur who no longer drinks. Since he is supposed to be a stone cold killer player at this word game, don't you think he would have thought of Vixen? Sara Sidle points that word out later - why wouldn't a world champion word game player have figured it out, using a safe, common word and avoiding a possible challenge?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: If you watch the episode (timecode 00:36:20), in the flashback it shows exactly why he did not use vixen. There were 2 spaces between the "x" and the "n" on the board, so Adam played a bluff and used the fake word exvin.

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Sounds of Silence - S1-E20

Trivia: For those who don't (or can't) read American Sign Language, at the end of the episode, Grissom says to Dr. Gilbet is that his mother lost her hearing when she was eight years old. He once asked her what is it like to be deaf, and she told Grissom (who loved to swim) that it was like being underwater. She also taught him that being deaf does not make one inferior to others. Dr. Gilbert then replies that she teaches her students the same lesson.

Cubs Fan

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