Synopsis  

While still recovering from the loss of Warrick, the CSIs go back to work with a pair of difficult cases: an apparent suicide and a brutal murder.

Catherine and Nick work the suicide, who threw herself off of her balcony, however the evidence contradicts the initial analysis as she had arranged a dinner with her soon to be in-laws for the next day and was getting married in two weeks. Very recently, she had been fired from her bank teller job and was accused of stealing $10,000. She had also been to a hypnotist recently, to help her lose weight. They hypnotist had planted a post-hypnotic impression in the mind of the suicide and another bank teller, to have them give her $100s instead of $1s, as change for a $20, robbing the bank. After the suicide caught on, the hypnotist had to have her die.

Meanwhile, Grissom works a case of a woman savagely killed in an alley with her two-year-old nearby. The woman was a gambling addict who often took her 18-year-old son’s paychecks to feed her addiction. The missing child was found, having been taken by her loan shark, who she owed $12,000. She was killed by her son, who turned out not to be her son, but her lover and the father of the baby. They had met when they were Guidance Counselor and 15-year-old student, but when she tired of him and lost their baby, he was so angry he killed her.

Review  

With the lab shorthanded, Grissom delays going in to work to lie in bed with Sara, fully clothed, processing recent events. She suggests they go away on a trip, but Grissom feels obligated to keep the lab staffed. After he leaves for a case, Greg calls Sara in to revisit the Adlers . Tom had removed Pamela’s breathing tube because he was being harassed by Tony Thorpe, the kid who had raped his wife and put her in a coma. Tom is arrested and charged because assisted euthanasia is a felony offense in Las Vegas. Sara sides with Tom, however the law is clear, and Sara can no longer support order without justice, which is why she can’t be a CSI anymore.

Grissom helps Sara to investigate, but there’s no evidence to support Tom’s accusations. They argue about the Adler’s relationship, Grissom suggesting that a relationship in stasis dies, until they get so meta, Sara has to ask if they’re discussing the Adlers or their own relationship.

Meanwhile, Greg learns the law has changed. In 2000, when the crime occurred, Pamela would have to die within a year and a day from the crime for Tony to be convicted of murder. Now, so long as her death could be attributed to the rape and assault, Tony would go down for murder. When Tony comes to the station, he’s been in a wheelchair since last Christmas, which means Tom lied. Sara confronts Tom, who says that he was angry Tony got away with it, and he couldn’t move on with Pamela still alive. Both keeping her alive and killing her were selfish actions, however, and he couldn’t win for losing.

Sara leaves Vegas shortly thereafter.

Notes  

• Sara wants to visit the Galapagos Islands, following Darwin’s footsteps.

Quotes  

Sara: Maybe we should go away for a while.
Grissom: Can’t. The lab is so short. Maybe you could stay.
Sara: I can’t stay here. It’d be nice to take a trip. Get on the Sea Shepherd. Go to the Galapagos. We could literally walk in the steps of Darwin.

Sara: Tom, look. I’m no longer a CSI, but I’ll go [to the lab] with you. I won’t leave you.