CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

High and Low - S3-E10

Corrected entry: When the detective is talking to Warrick about 'la lluvia de los peces,' he calls him 'Rick' ("Point is, Rick, they gotta come from somewhere").

Correction: He's shortening Warrick's name, like how Grissom goes by Gil instead of Gilbert.

Xofer

Lady Heather's Box - S3-E15

Corrected entry: In the scene where Lindsay is being questioned she says that the car driver got out of the car, then Eddie (Lindsay's father and Catherine's Ex) fell out of the car and into the water. This is not possible. The passenger side door was closed and as the car was on an angle and wedged against the ground and unable to open. It is not possible that he fell upwards and out of the driver side door.

Scrappy

Correction: Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable - a case can rarely be tried on that alone. In this case, the testimony is even more unreliable, as it comes from a child who was in grave danger at the time and was easily confused. The CSIs would not take what she said as the exact truth, but rather a starting point in the absence of anything else.

Snuff - S3-E8

Corrected entry: Catherine tells the snuff film producer that they know he was infected with HIV by accidental blood transfer from the actress he killed because they 'tested the DNA of the HIV'. No, they didn't. HIV is a retrovirus - it has no DNA. It has RNA, a far simpler nucleic acid which is completely distinct from DNA. Catherine is a scientist, trained and experienced in genetic 'fingerprinting' - she would never make a mistake like that.

Correction: On the other hand, the producer in question isn't a scientist, trained or otherwise. She has to use terminology that he'll understand, rather than being 100% accurate. It's not the actual truth, but, you know, people do that sort of thing when they need to convince people. Most laypersons know about DNA, but few are familiar with RNA. And police are entirely allowed to lie to you, so that's not an issue either.

Tailkinker

Abra Cadaver - S3-E5

Corrected entry: When Catherine and Nick are investigating the rock star's death and find the needle in his arm, why wouldn't they have just checked for prints on the syringe? In the flashback later on, it is shown that the murderer did not use gloves, and therefore her prints should be on the syringe.

Correction: The scene and show did not remotely indicate whether or not the villain wiped their fingerprints or not, which most guilty people do. Nor did the sequence indicate at all how much time the crime scene took place over as oppsed to time spent on screen. These two concepts together imply a legitimate counter to your mistake/.

Blood Lust - S3-E9

Corrected entry: In this episode, the CSIs discover that the father of the murdered boy had a handgun registered to him that was found at the crime scene. The gun was registered in California. California does not have handgun registration and prohibits any local registration laws.

Correction: In California they don't register guns but they keep records of who they are sold to.

Correction: Character mistake.

Show generally

Factual error: In a number of episodes people are shown eating and drinking in the laboratories. For instance, in "Miss Willows' Regrets" Nick and Greg are seen eating fried chicken in the lab, and in "Overload" Sara eats a sandwich while watching Grissom experiment with her deli pickle. There are other examples. No reputable laboratory (which this is supposed to be) would allow its staff to eat or drink while in the lab. It is basic scientific protocol to prevent contamination of samples or the person picking up toxins on their food.

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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.

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