Synopsis  

Sara is accused of murder of her acquaintance Taylor Wynard, with whom she had celebrated her birthday. Taylor’s murder was part of an elaborate plot created by Ronald Basderic to discredit Sara and pave the way for her own murder. Basderic planned the murder for months and in the end is tripped up by the CSIs working together.

Review  

Celebrating her birthday alone at a hotel, Sara is approached by Taylor Wynard, who buys her a mini-cake. After dinner she went with Taylor to his room and the next morning, while checking out, learned Taylor was dead – stabbed seven times. Right away, Sara talks to D.B. Russell about how she knows Taylor, however she states nothing happened. Yes, she went to his room and they had a little more wine, but she went back to her room alone shortly after Grissom texted her birthday wishes. The phone records claim that she called Taylor at 2am, and the room key records say she came back into her room around 3am. Sara has no memory of this, as she’d taken a sleeping pill.

Of the CSIs, Greg wants to talk about it, Nick doesn’t, Hodges’s feels like she cheated on God, Doc Robbins wants to protect both Grissom and Sara, Morgan understands why Sara might cheat, and Finn wonders whose team everyone is on. Only Finn brings up the point that more people are paying attention to Sara’s possible infidelity than the fact that she’s been accused of murder. On Finn’s advice, Sara goes home to relax, only to find the murder weapon being cleaned in her dishwasher.

Faced with photographic evidence, Sara explains that she met Taylor once before, two weeks ago, and they kissed outside a bar. But she did not cheat on her husband. Russell and Nick are concerned about Sara’s behavior, and she admits that she and Grissom have divorced, implying it was something Grissom did with her best interests at heart. So yes, she’s been having trouble lately.

The necklace found in the hotel room is Sara’s, but she she insists she was not wearing it that night. In a parking garage by his work, Sara confronts Ronald Basderic, because the necklace was one that Edie gave her for helping file a case against Basderic. Basderic provokes Sara, remarking on her troubles. Sara slaps the phone out of Basderic’s hand when he offers to call Grissom, and shoves him to the ground.

Back at her house, Sara is trying to get Basderic’s phone records when the police come to bring her in. Basderic has come to the police, viciously beaten, claiming Sara did it. The parking garage camera shows that she shoved him, but Basderic moves out of the camera’s frame shortly there after. Sara’s processed, since there’s enough evidence to indicate she did beat him. Thankfully Sara’s clothes are free of any trace, supporting her claims. The CSIs consider Basderic for the crime, and how easy it would have been for him to find the information. When Basderic serves Sara with a restraining order, Sara is put on leave, and the team doggedly tries to exonerate her and find evidence against Basderic.

While Sara was in lock up, her mother gets a bottle of alcohol and ends up in the ER with blood poisoning. When Sara goes to visit her mother, Laura says she prayed Sara would never turn out like her, but there Sara stabbed Taylor, just like Laura stabbed Sara’s father. There’s no way Laura should have known about that, and when Sara presses her, Laura says that Sara’s friend ‘Ronald’ told her. Sara rushes home to get her personal weapon out of her gun locker.

Checking the key logs, Nick verifies thats someone used a keycard override on Sara’s room shortly before midnight. Hodges determines that Sara’s sleeping pills had been tampered with, double strength. Morgan finds that the shower drain grates between Sara and Taylor’s rooms have been swapped. Greg finds sight of Basderic on the hotel’s surveillance. At this point they determine that Basderic is setting Sara up, like he did another man years ago, so he can shoot her and get away with it.

While Sara’s stalking Basderic’s house, the CSI’s pull over Basderic and take his gun while talking to him. When Basderic isn’t paying attention, the detective swaps the bullets for blanks. Sara breaks into Basderic’s house and threatens him, saying she’s going to stop him. Sara fires the gun at him, only to find that Basderic removed the firing pin from her gun.

Basderic tells Sara he was, indeed, behind everything. He’d hacked her email, followed her, paid Taylor to come to see her at dinner, even paid for the cake, and planned for months, just to have her at his mercy. He fires his gun, not harming Sara in the least, and she pulls out a voice recorder, showing she had, in fact, set him up with the help of the CSIs.

With the case closed, Nick and Greg come to Sara if she wants to talk. She tells them she had hoped Grissom would come for her birthday anyway, and thanks them for not giving up on her.

Notes  

• Sara is still wearing her wedding ring.
• Sara has been having trouble sleeping.
• Sara and Grissom are no longer married.
• Sara moved her mother closer to Las Vegas six months ago, though she doesn’t see her any more often.
• A birthday ‘date’ was arranged before they split up, and Sara was hoping Grissom would come anyway.

Quotes  

Sara: Suddenly being alone in my hotel room doesn’t sound like that much fun.

Sara: A little late for an intervention, don’t you think?
Nick: Well, I just thought–
Greg: We.
Nick: We just thought that it might be a good idea to talk.
Greg: Or listen. Whatever you prefer.
Sara: Have a seat. I didn’t mean to shut you guys out. I didn’t tell you about Grissom and me because I didn’t believe it myself. You know we made that dinner reservation together, before we split up. As I sat there, alone, in the restaurant… I honestly expected him to show up.
Nick: I think that we all liked the idea of you two being together, that maybe it was because that was our way of hanging on to him just a little bit. But if it’s over… It’s over.
Greg: You can’t sit around waiting forever.
Nick: And you’ll always have us.
Greg: Like it or not.
Sara: Thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me.