Synopsis  

A night full of celebration ends with a bang when the director of a scholarship foundation for the deaf is killed by a deadly car bomb, prompting Sara to interrogate the students and faculty of the college where her mother-in-law, Betty Grissom, works.

Grissom’s ex girlfriend, Julia Holden, is on the selection committed for the grant to be given out by Dr. Eric Lambert (the head of the Gilbert Foundation). She’s also first on the scene when his car is exploded and then shoved down a hill, on fire. Sara has to drag her away before the car burns up entirely. The CSIs find that there was a bomb in the car, and he was dead before the fire started. When they determine Julia is lying to them about feeling the explosion, Sara and Nick investigate her office and find enough evidence to bring Julia in for questioning. In interrogation, Julia professes her innocence, but offers no explanations. She derails the questioning by revealing that she and Grissom were once intimate, and accuses Sara of allowing that relationship to color the case.

The bomb used to blow of Dr. Lambert was made with a Shake Alert device found on Gilbert College. The CSIs search all the dorm rooms and finds that Michael, Julia’s TA, has a Shake Alert device that is totally different. They talk to him, but he wasn’t at the party. He tips the CSIs off to Sean Wyatt, who had a fight with Dr. Lambert, and a favorite of Julia, and they find trace in his room. He is innocent, but he was sleeping with Julia. In fact, his alibi is that he and Julia were together after they left the party.

When Sara and Ray go to bring Julia in for further questioning, a bomb explodes in her office. The CSIs are okay, and investigate Michael, the TA, further, as he delivered the package with the bomb. Michael claims its a setup, and continues to blame Sean. When Sara notices him signing something neither she, nor her interpreter, know, she asks Betty, who says it’s LSQ – Quebecois sign language. But Sean is British. Once the CSI’s determine that the bomb was set off via an audio clue, they secretly test Sean’s ability to hear. And he is, indeed, able to hear.

Sean and his cousin, Dennis the interpreter, set up a scam to get Sean into the college and get the half-million grant. The plan included seducing Julia, but the bomb and the plain itself was all Dennis.

Review  

Sara attends a gala celebration for a foundation for the deaf, of which her husband, Gil Grissom, is a member. Gil was supposed to come, but got stuck in Peru when ‘another’ mass grave was found. The phone call cuts out and Sara catches Julia (then unknown to her) coming out of a room where a man remains, looking like she was having sex with him moments before. Sara then finds her mother-in-law, Betty Grissom, who introduces her to Julia Holden, who is ’like a daughter’ to Betty. Sara is comfortable with Betty’s apparent preference to Julia, and later tells Catherine that she and Betty don’t get along well.

After the murder, the CSIs are surprised to see Sara there, and more so to see her in a dress. They had never seen her in a dress before (skirts yes , but not a dress). Ray and Nick tease her, but bring her coveralls and boots so she can help.

Once Julia reveals that she and Grissom were once intimate, Brass wants Sara off the case. The news doesn’t seem to bother Sara all that much. Betty comes to talk to Sara about the case, upset that Julia was interrogated. Sara is annoyed at Betty for not telling her about Julia and Grissom’s relationship before she interrogated Julia, and Betty lays the blame on the fact that Grissom and Sara don’t live in the same city. She doesn’t understand how Grissom and Sara can live so far apart.

After solving the case, Sara and Betty share a Skype conversation with Grissom, who is in Peru on ‘government business.’ By way of apology, Betty brings Sara a plant, because Grissom tells her she likes plants: an african violet.

Notes  

• Catherine supports Sara’s ability to be professional and remain on the case.
• Grissom and Sara talk every day.
• Grissom and Sara see each other at least once a month.
• Grissom wants to have dinner with Sara and his mother when he comes back to town.

Quotes  

Sara: Grissom and I have great sex.
Catherine: I’m sure you do.

Gil Grissom: The graves were littered with pupae casings. It looked like someone dumped a ton of Rice Krispies on top of a bunch of halloween skeletons. It indicated that it wasn’t a proper burial. During the Inca period, there was no greater punishment. We think it was meant as a warning. ‘Don’t mess with the Moche.’
Sara: Ah ha.
Gil Grissom: So anyway. How was your week? What’d you do?
Sara: Well. I almost got blown up twice. I accused your ex-girlfriend of murder. And … Oh, and I told off your mother.
Gil Grissom: Oh good. You kept busy.
Sara: Yes. You see what happens when you stand me up?
Betty Grissom: (knocks on the doorway)
Gil Grissom: Who’s that?
Sara: It’s your mother.
Gil Grissom: Hi, Mom.
Betty Grissom: Hi!
Gil Grissom: You never came to the office when I was working there. I heard you and Sara had an exciting week.
Betty Grissom: I owe her a apology for that. (gives Sara an African Violet)
Sara: African Violet. It’s beautiful.
Gil Grissom: I told her you like vegetation.
Sara: Thank you … I’m sorry too. Can we start over?
Betty Grissom: nods I would like that.
Gil Grissom: Hey when I come back, three of us will go out to dinner.
Betty Grissom: When?
Gil Grissom: Soon.
Betty Grissom: I still think you two need get together more, sex is always important in marriage.
Sara: Gil. Your mother is talking about our sex life.
Gil Grissom: In Incan society, the Moche elders would pass down their knowledge of sexual pleasure to the younger generation. Their stories were documented on their pottery. Little ceramic jars called sex pots.
Sara: Sex pots.
Betty Grissom: You can still learn a lot from your elders.
Gil Grissom: Sometimes too much. I love you both.
Sara: I love you, too.
Betty Grissom: I love you.
Sara: Bye.