Synopsis  

Two cases are well tied together in this episode, aptly showing how, in the end, we all end up in the same place. The episode is filmed with a lot of split screen, allowing one case to mirror the other and to hi-light the class differences between the dead men. It’s interesting to note that the CSI’s seem to treat each case as equally important.

One case is of Julian Harper, and up and coming actor who was found dead in his hotel room by his best friend, Blinky. Through the night preceding his death, Julian’s manager (and ex-wife) found a teenaged girl for Julian to have sex with (and the manager paid the girl off to claim Julian was a gentleman), Julian had his room broken into (the thief spent two hours listening to Julian and the girl), he left another girl to Blinky for sloppy seconds, and finally died of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Blinky found him and cut him down, trying to afford Julian a little dignity in death to pay him back for being a great friend.

The other case is a complicated and convolution relationship of three men from Laos who all work together, hate each other and two are dead. Noy Vipraxy is found dead of a car accident. Later that same night, Samay Thao and his taxi driver are found shot by a shotgun, wielded by Noy’s brother, Keo. Samay also has trace from Noy’s car on his person (a bit of a broken CD in his eye). Keo insists he shot a burglar, but as the CSI’s determine, he was possibly waiting to kill his own brother. With a red herring of the slightly unscrupulous laundry boss, who gently alters Keo’s interview to exclude hints that the boss is shady (he’s working multiple jobs on the sly, presumably without paying taxes, and is on the insurance plan as a beneficiary for many of his workers), Keo confesses that his brother’s dead wasn’t a bad thing. Keo brought Noy to America to raise money for the rest of their family. Instead, Noy blew their earnings. So Keo bought a shotgun, and Noy went and got killed in a car. It’s possible that either Samay killed Noy as a favor for Keo, and Keo shot Samay to keep the money himself or Keo was waiting for Noy to come home and ‘accidentally’ shoot him, but got Samay instead, when Samay came to tell Keo about what happened to Noy.

In the end, rich man and poor man are in the morgue together, their lives ending the same way.

Review  

Sara didn’t do a whole lot this episode. She worked efficiently and well. She discovered evidence and looked through the case thoroughly.

Quotes  

Cop: Why’s [Grissom] leaving?
Sara: Well. That’s kind of what he does.