Synopsis  

The episode opens where “Bang-Bang” left off. Brass has been shot and is being rushed by the EMTs to the hospital. His blood pressure is dangerously low and Brass flatlines on the table. The doctors bring him back, and Brass hallucinates, remembering when he asked Grissom to be his emergency contact and to have power of attorney in case something happens, because there’s no one he trusts more with his life or death. Grissom is informed he may have to make a choice soon about what to do.

Before that can happen, Grissom is called away for a dead body on the train tracks near Henderson. The body is an apparent decapitaion by the train. Grissom finds a bad toupee, and David (the coroner) opens the body’s shirt to find that the waist has been shaped into a perfect hourglass.

Catherine and Warrick find a man dead in his apartment after a long night of partying. There was a cake, drugs and alcohol all over the apartment, but the body is only a few hours dead. Catherine finds a mirror with blood on it.

Nick finds the head to the decapitated body in a stream a ways from where the body was found. Doc Robbins explains that the body shape was done intentionally over a long period of time. The cause of death was a very large caliber bullet shot, not decapitation. Hodges says that white cream on the decapitated body was cortizone cream, for an itch, and the fibers indicated the clothes were vintage.

Meanwhile, Brass’ condition is still critical. He may need surgery to remove the bullet, but either way it’s not good for Brass’ long term odds. Grissom weighs the risks and approves the surgery and contacts Ellie, Brass’ daughter to come to Vegas.

The party-boy was filled with drugs and booze to the gills. It if was illegal, he was into it. The mirror’s blood matches a hooker who’d been arrested after a trick roll. The hooker’s DNA also matches the pubic hairs found all over the dead body.

Greg has taken over watching Brass, and asks Grissom about Brass and Grissom’s relationship. Grissom attests to the fact that they don’t hang out, but is distracted when Ellie arrives and is her usuall abrasive self.

Sara stops by Grissom’s office asks if he’s okay. Grissom is looking at a magazine about the use of a corset for men. Sara takes the photo of man to a corset shop, who identifies the body as Caleb Carson, a real mans man. Sara and Sofia go to Caleb’s house, where he’s shown to be an intense Civil War buff. His ancestor, Colonel Caleb C.C. Carson, is prominent in the collection, as are large caliber, old style pistols.

Grissom comes and inspects Caleb’s diorama, while Warrick waits with Brass. The surgery was just completed and they removed the bullet, but Brass was still unconscious. Sofia reveals her father was a Civil War buff. Sara prints the corset Carson wore, because it laces in the back and he’d have to have had someone to help him. Corset wearing also ran in the family, as Colonel Carson also wore one.

Warrick and Ellie talk. Brass never talks much about her.

The hooker from the party-boy, aka Manny Rupert, says that she earned the $10,000 and that Manny had wanted more sex after six go-arounds, and shot at her when she bailed. Catherine points out the hooker isn’t a $10-G a night girl. Manny’s official cause of death is diabetic shock.

Caleb Carson’s driver and dresser is brought in, his prints matching those found on the corset. He is stunned to learn about Caleb’s death. Caleb was last seen at a duel at Gettysburg: a reenactment site outside of Las Vegas. Caleb and a Northern soldier got into a tiff at the reenactment (over the Northern soldier using his cell phone during a reenactment). They dueled, but Caleb used real bullets.

Grissom and Sara reenact the duel with cameras. The blood matches the Northerners story, but they also find what may be the location of Caleb’s decapitation. The Northerners gun is found to be unable to have killed Caleb, because it was configured to only shoot black smoke.

Manny’s sister says he was just diagnosed as a pre diabetic. He’d just turned 40 and had acted like it was a death sentence. Warrick is less than sympathetic.

Caleb’s blood is that of the second pool by the train. The hair fibers are a toupee, however. The toupee matches his driver/dresser, who confesses that after Caleb shot the Northerner, he and Caleb wrestled for the pistol, accidentally killing Caleb. The driver staged the body on the tracks, to pay homage to how Colonel Carson died, standing on the tracks, shooting at a Yankee train until it ran him over.

Nick keeps an eye on Ellie, which may be good, because she calls the payroll asking about Brass’ pension. Ellie is brought to Brass’s office, where she sits and sees pictures of her as a child. But she says it’s easier to love a child than an adult. At the hospital, Catherine stands vigil over Brass. Lindsey, her daughter, calls, upset about Catherine not being home. As Catherine hangs up, Brass has small emergency where he’s not getting enough oxygen. After he’s helped, he wakes up and reaches for Ellie, who runs off.

When Brass finally wakes up completely, he sees all the CSI’s outside the room, happy to find him alive.

Grissom, in a bedroom, talks about how he’d like to know before he dies. He’d like the time to say goodbye and do the things he’d never been able to do before. As he talks, Sara comes out of the bathroom, with damp hair, in a bathrobe and says she’s not ready to say goodbye yet. Grissom smiles.

Review  

Sara spends most of her time working on the corset angle of the Carson case. When Brass wakes up, Sara cries and hugs Warrick and Nick, who are standing beside her. As the episode ends, Grissom and Sara are shown togeather, in a bedroom, both wearing bathrobes and quite obviously in a relationship.

Notes  

• Grissom and Sara are in a relationship

Quotes  

Sara: I guess I should feel comforted that sadistic ideas of beauty aren’t restricted to women.

David This must be some kind of birth defect.
Grissom: What do you think?
Sara: I think I feel fat.

Sara: Go in for sex and get stung. Pretty much every man’s fear.

Grissom: I don’t know. Most people want to die in their sleep, I suppose. Never know that it’s happening, like a crime scene. Surprise, you’re dead. I’d prefer to know in advance that I was going to die. I’d like to be diagnosed with cancer actually, have some time to prepare. Go back to the rain forest one more time, re-read ‘Moby Dick.’ Possibly enter an international chess tournament. At least have enough time to say ‘goodbye’ to the ones that I love.
Sara: I’m not ready to say ‘Goodbye.’