Abra Cadaver (31 Oct. 2002)

During a magic show, a female participant really disappears during a disappearing act. Nick and Catherine investigates the death of a rock star found on his tour bus with a needle stuck in his arm.

Director:

Danny Cannon

Writers:

Anthony E. Zuiker (creator), Anthony E. Zuiker,

Stars:

William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
William Petersen	...	Gil Grissom
Marg Helgenberger	...	Catherine Willows
Gary Dourdan	...	Warrick Brown
George Eads	...	Nick Stokes
Jorja Fox	...	Sara Sidle
Eric Szmanda	...	Greg Sanders
Robert David Hall	...	Dr. Al Robbins
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Captain Jim Brass
Tom Noonan	...	Zephyr
Lawrence Monoson	...	Toby Arcane
Salvator Xuereb	...	Keith Castle
Jennifer Sky	...	Matilda, Zephyr's Assistant
Tushka Bergen	...	Samantha Dean
Jon Sklaroff	...	Punky Dillinger
Esteban Powell	...	Band Member

Storyline

Grisham, Captain Jim Brass, Catherine Willows and Warrick Brown examine the case of magician Amazing Zephyr whose Chamber of Doom- illusion is supposed to make a volunteer from the audience disappear from stage and magically reappear, but claims he doesn't know where the last female went, and refuses to reveal his trick, which stagehand Punky Dillinger does, whose fingerprints are on too many objects. Rival illusionist Toby Arcane and the identity of the victim Zoe prove interesting... Meanwhile Nick Stokes and Sara Sidle find the apparent OD of rock band- member Gus Kenyon must be staged by his murderer, which they look for in the band...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Paramount Network Television

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tom Noonan and William Petersen worked together in 1986, in the production of Manhunter. In the movie Petersen was Will Graham and Noonan was Francis Dollarhyde, a psycho-killer that Petersen wanted to capture (played later by Ralph Fiennes in _Red Dragon (2002)_).

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Goofs

Grissom incorrectly says that abracadabra is made up of three Hebrew words meaning father, son, and the holy spirit. In reality abracadabra is derived either from Hebrew or Aramaic language "Avra Kadavrai" meaning "I will create as my words".

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Quotes

Sara Sidle: You didn't beep me for a magic trick.
Greg Sanders: Swami doesn't do magic tricks, Swami is here to reveal all your DNA secrets
Sara Sidle: I'm very busy Greg.

User Reviews

Interesting rematch

I'm not sure if anyone else caught this but it was the second match-up for William Petersen and Tom Noonan as good guy/bad guy. They originally faced off against each other in Manhunter, the first (and in my opinion superior) version of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon. I was unable to tell if they made any reference to Manhunter in the show but it appeared not. There was not even any usage of the music that I could tell. Does anyone know if they had Grissom go up against a Willem Defoe character reprising To Live and Die in LA in any of the subsequent episodes? That would be a CSI to see. My other question would be did this episode get cast as a result of the previous work of Petersen and Noonan together or was it just the result of random casting?