The Descent of Man (9 Apr. 2009)

Nick and Riley investigate the case of a badly injured skydiver, while Dr. Langston investigates the death of a religious leader out in the desert.

Director:

Christopher Leitch

Writers:

Anthony E. Zuiker (creator), Evan Dunsky

Stars:

Laurence Fishburne, Marg Helgenberger, George Eads

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Laurence Fishburne	...	Dr. Raymond Langston
Marg Helgenberger	...	Catherine Willows
George Eads	...	Nick Stokes
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Captain Jim Brass
Eric Szmanda	...	Greg Sanders
Robert David Hall	...	Dr. Al Robbins
David Berman	...	David Phillips
Wallace Langham	...	David Hodges
Liz Vassey	...	Wendy Simms
Lauren Lee Smith	...	Riley Adams
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charisma Carpenter	...	Mink
Erin Daniels	...	Schuyler
Emmanuel Delcour	...	Pierre Delongue
Greg Germann	...	George
Michael Gianelli	...	Allen McKenna

Storyline

Belgian tourist Pierre Delongue nearly died in his umpteenth sky dive, his equipment wasn't up to scratch, yet his team and its instructor are reputed for scrutiny. Nick's team works out what everybody is hiding and what happened. Langston's team is puzzled by the fate of a cult leader's corpse, found abandoned in the desert.

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Plot Keywords:

desert | religious leader | skydiver | religious nut | irregular heartbeat | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 April 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS Paramount Network Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In this episode the scene where the victim "Holy Steve" is killed was filmed at "Vasquez Rocks", a famous film set used in many westerns and most notably featured in the episode Star Trek: Arena. Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is actually located in northern Los Angeles County, California.

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Goofs

One of the main plot points is that the ultralight plane was tracked on radar to near where the toxin was dropped and then back to the airport it came from. Almost all ultralight aircraft are too small and fly to low to the ground to show up on radar.

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Quotes

Captain Jim Brass: So, according to this, you said that you struck the Steven with his staff. You smote him. That isn't true, is it?
George: Yea - no.
Captain Jim Brass: What did you hit him with? Oh, it says here a large rock.
George: Yes.
Captain Jim Brass: No, wait a minute, the branch of a tree.
George: Yes.
Captain Jim Brass: No, a hockey stick.
George: Yes.
Captain Jim Brass: You didn't really kill Steven, did you?
George: No.
[...]

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Connections

References North by Northwest (1959)

User Reviews

The team is working again, better than the 200th!

Everyone got a little action this week. Nick and Riley get the skydiver, Ray (level 1) is out on his own investigating a dead guy in the desert, and Catherine and Greg get two rich dead guys by a pool. We learn the skydiver and the rich guys are connected. Ray tells an old fable about a religious man dying from an object falling from the sky and solves his case. The skydiver and dead guys by the pool are a little more complicated. Editing and visual mistakes abound in this one--why is the grave shift working days? Why is Ray working alone? Why is Hodges in the morgue working a dead body? And put on your "closed captions" cause you will never understand the accents of a couple of these guys. Brass is letting off his zingers as usual. After 30 minutes, we finally get Catherine and Greg--both seem to have disappeared this season. With this one, maybe there is hope on the horizon that CSI will get back to it's old self. Whoever thought this show needed a big "star" to be good needs to be fired.