Synopsis  

It’s a relatively slow night for the CSIs, until a plane crashes at Tresser Park, a mile away from the Strip. NTSB Investigator Doug Wilson is brought in to help work the case. The plane took off from Las Vegas airport, headed to Chicago, but cited an unspecified emergency. Then there was radio silence, and the plane just missed running into a tower at the Mediterranean Hotel before crashing.

The pilot, Keith Mannheim, didn’t submit a passenger manifest (not required for a plan his size), so the three additional bodies found in the crash are unknown. The pilots business partner (Dalton Burke, also his life partner of 15 years), is distraught, and had no idea there was anyone else on the plane. One of the bodies on the plane belonged to Charles Harrigan, who had a vendetta against the Mediterranean, which makes the CSIs suspect a revenge attack.

A gun found on the plane initially hints that there was a shooting and encourages the initial theory, but when the flight recorder is found, they determine there was catastrophic pressure loss in the cabin. Investigations on the door shows the seal was tampered with from the outside by someone intimately familiar with planes. Now the hijacking looks like a murder, and since the pilot was the only person expected to be on the plane, either he or the plane itself is the likely target.

Tool marks and paint transfers on the cabin door match the tools used by Hal, the regular mechanic for the company. The charter owed him around $6000, however. Hal was out of town, and could not have tampered with the plane, so someone took his tools.

Meanwhile, the gun’s owner is identified as Jeffery Forsythe, alive, and explains he loaned the gun to a colleague, Grant Abbot, a criminal lawyer who specializes in cases with violent offenders. Said colleague was headed home to Chicago for some time off, following threats to his life. The Jane Doe on the plane is also identified as Jordan Lowell, a woman with a potential paternity DNA test. Of course, things get even more confused when the pilot is found floating in a pool, leaving the CSI’s wondering just who they found in the cockpit of the plane.

The body is identified as a stripper named Thor, who claimed he was moving in with his boyfriend Keith, the pilot. This is news to Dalton, who protests his innocence, having lost everything in that crash, including the man he loved. Video of the sabotage is blocked by a fuel truck, but they’re able to make out the coveralls, which belong to Hal, the mechanic. DNA from the coveralls exonerate Hal and Dalton.

Jordan’s DNA test cannot be recovered, but the fact that she only has two swabs leads the CSIs to determine she was looking for her own father. Jordan’s father was dead, but she had a half-sister, Helen, who is in semi-comatose state, where she is no longer aware of her surroundings, following a car accident over 40 years ago. The home, Tranquil Hours, received millions of dollars from Jordan and Helen’s father. Surprisingly, DNA shows Helen and Jordan aren’t sisters, but DB suspects that the real surprise is that someone is posing as Helen.

Back at Tranquil Hours, Helen has been moved to critical care, her room cleaned with bleach, and her doctor, Dr. O’Keefe, has called in sick. They find a fingerprint, naming fake-Helen as Marsha Forsythe, and the DNA comes back and connects the fake Helen with whomever sabotaged the plane; Jeffery Forsythe, the lawyer who loaned his gun to his coworker who was on the plane. Forsythe was also a pilot.

Review  

While Sara is public about having worked with Doug before, she does not disclose to her coworkers exactly how close they once were. Doug is tangentially aware Sara married her boss (and manages to make that a teasing dig at her), while Sara is seemingly unaware Doug split with his wife (also making that a dig at him). While they work together, their old camaraderie appears.

Only when Grissom calls, and Sara lets it go to voicemail in front of Finn, does some of the truth come out. Sara is feeling a bit of a strain with the long distance relationship, and having her ex, Doug, in town is weird. Finn asks if it will remain weird, to which Sara says it has to.

When Doug asks Sara and Grissom out to dinner, and then just Sara, she asks him to not do ’this.’ He backs off, but tells her she deserves to be happy.

Notes  

• Sara worked with Doug Wilson on an NTSB investigation when she was at the San Francisco crime lab.

Quotes  

Sara: to phone Hey, Gil. Just wanted to hear your voice. It’s kind of a slow night here. Give me a call if you get the chance.

Wilson Did you hear that the Rusty Nickel closed?
Sara: Hah! Well, that’s about time, that bar gave dives a bad name.
Wilson What are you talking about? You loved that place.
Sara: Well, yeah. You’re right. I did love it. Right up until the moment they kicked me out for life.
Wilson They did do that.
Sara: Yep.

Sara: I tell you what. I’m going to take my physics and find whatever it was that fell out of your plane.
Wilson What about me? What am I going to do?
Sara: You’re going to build me a plane.

Finn You can take that. I’ll come back.
Sara: No, that’s alright. I– I’ll call him back later.
Finn If you ever feel like talking …
Sara: You ever try the long distance thing?
Finn No. But I think it would have helped with my relationship with husband number two.
Sara: Ah, the Seattle Ex.
Finn Yeah.
Sara: What was that like? Seeing him again.
Finn It was weird. And then it wasn’t.
Sara: You know, I wondered why you took a later flight.
Finn What about you and your NTSB guy? Is that weird?
Sara: Very weird.
Finn Gonna stay that way?
Sara: It has to, right?

Wilson Listen, Sara, I was wondering if I could buy you and Grissom dinner tonight. You pick the place, NTSB picks up the tab, I’m a, uh, hell of a third wheel.
Sara: Actually… Gil’s out of town.
Wilson So just the two of us, then?
Sara: Don’t.
Wilson Don’t what?
Sara: Do this.
Wilson Okay. I mean, if everything’s good between you two, and I know you Sara, so I’m getting the feeling that maybe it isn’t, then I understand–
Sara: Everything’s great.
Wilson Okay.