With the ugly turnabout of Holly Gribbs' (Chandra West, concluding her quick time on the show at its beginning) shooting, surgery, and most certain death, Brass is reduced from lead of the crime lab back to Homicide while Gil Grissom receives "temporary promotion" to take over as the boss of CSI in Las Vegas. Sara Sidal (Jorga Fox) is a CSI in San Francisco called in by Gil (he trusts her and wanted IA away from the lab) to investigate internally what went wrong during the night Holly Gribbs was shot. Warrick placed a bet for a sonofabitch corrupt judge wrongfully, having to earn him a quick few thousand in an hour, further placing himself in a bad light while on leave due to his reckless disregard for orders entailing him to watch Holly while she dusted for prints. It appears as if Gil will have to fire Warrick for his misdeeds. Meanwhile, a fake suicide (prescription glasses dictate to Gil this was set up to look as so; he's further assisted by a "dummy drop" with tourists outside the hotel cheering on each drop of a forensic dummy by Nick from the roof!) is investigated as it pertains to a creep who won millions and dumped a girlfriend (carried along as a piece to bang as he tells her; yeah, nice guy this sleaze) after encouraged by her to use a twenty on a slot machine. An unfortunate guy who had spent so much time on that machine, winning nothing, and the dumped girlfriend are suspects. Red roof dirt, bloody carpet and towel, a square image embedded in skull from a statue, and carpet fibers in a watch all play a part in the answer of the whodunit. Also, the scumbag who murdered Holly doesn't realize that she damned him through a fingernails-scratch on the face, hidden pager, and use of a phone to give her a little time to decide how to combat him
the ultimate tragedy of being shot by her own gun does leave a bad taste in Catherine's mouth as she is adamant in working the Gribbs' shooting (because she encouraged Holly to stay a CSI for the night). This is Fox' introduction to the series and her quick earning of Catherine's favor indicates just how special to those on the team, and Grissom, she'd be. Warrick has a hard time ahead of him as the judge insists they are not done with gambled bets, but having Grissom as an ally and support does help. Highlights include Catherine "going method", talking seductively to Holly's killer to secure his residence and Grissom's mentioning of "following the evidence". Letting "the evidence speak for the victim" is now commonplace in forensics shows and reality crime television.
Review of Cool Change
