Synopsis  

The episode picks up where last week’s “ Cello and Goodbye” left off. Nate Haskell (real name Warner Thorpe) has killed his father and now has Ray at gunpoint. When Haskell turns his back for a moment, Ray jumps him, disarms him, and brutally punches him into submission. Even bound, Haskell antagonizes Ray about what he did to Gloria, until Ray cuts the plastic cuffs off and they fight to the death. Brass is first on the scene, and takes in the now dead Haskell’s wrists. Noting the marks left by department issue plastic cuffs, Brass runs upstairs to find Ray and Gloria, alive.

Brass does his best to help Ray, knowing that IA will be all over it, implying to the CSIs that they should help out as well. The evidence found in the house implies that both Thorpes, father and son, were killers. Buried in the backyard is a number of animals, and the body of Haskell’s mother and the real Douglas Nathan Haskell. The mother was killed by Arvin Thorpe.

After Sara determines that there are no flex cuffs at the scene, and all three standard issue are still in Ray’s kit, they all sign the investigation to say that the killing was in self defense. When Catherine goes to tell Brass, however, she implies that it was Brass who restored the third set of flex cuffs to Ray’s kit, covering for him. Brass points out he protects his guys.

While the CSI’s found the killing to be justified, Brass tells Ray that he knows what really happened, but points out that both Ray and Brass will go to jail if they tell anyone. Because Brass picked up the cut flex cuff and hid it from the CSIs.

The episode ends on Ray’s IA interview, being asked if the killing (which Ray admits he is guilty of) was is self-defense or murder.

Review  

Sara and Greg are the first CSIs on the scene, just in time to see Ray and Gloria driven away in a squad car. Sara takes the lead at the house, working with Greg to collect evidence from the multitude of blood samples in the stairwell, but also the room where Gloria was kept and the master bedroom, where decades old blood is found.

Sara reads the evidence accurately right away, concluding the facts promptly, regardless of her friendship with Ray. She tells Catherine that Ray dominated the fight, had him off his feet, and threw him through the banister to his death. Catherine shows Sara the evidence that Haskell was bound, which he was not at the time of his death, and no flex cuffs were found at the scene. Sara checks Ray’s kit for the standard three department issued cuffs (which are there), but Greg asks if it was him, would Sara still have looked in his kit.

Notes  

• Sara is determined to show the truth in the evidence, and not color the facts for Ray’s benefit.

Quotes  

Sara: Shoot, sample, sort.

Sara: We can’t talk to [Langston and Gloria] until after they talk to I.A., but we can let the walls talk to us.

Sara: Nate Haskell may have died in this house, but I think a serial killer was born in this room.

Greg: If it was me, my kit…
Sara: I’d open it. We have all had a moment in the dark, where we had to fight our way out, and when we did, it was up to the rest of the team to shine a light on that darkness to see what happened. That’s our job. I just need to know what I’m dealing with, and then I will deal with it.

Gallery  

Images ©CBS (2011) - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from the episode 'In A Dark, Dark House'.