73 Seconds

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CSI EPISODE
73 Seconds

Season	12
Number	1
Writer	Gavin Harris
Director	Alec Smight
Original Airdate	September 21, 2011

73 Seconds is the premiere episode of the twelfth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It is also the CSI debut of Ted Danson, who portrays D.B. Russell.

Synopsis

A wild and bizarre shootout occurs on a hotel tram, with the ride only lasting for 73 seconds. The team, now led by the eccentric D.B. Russell, must figure out what occurred.

Plot

The episode begins on a train. An Asian woman in a red dress, brothers, a mother and son, and a cowboy board the train. In a span of seventy-three seconds, one of the brothers is stabbed and the cowboy and mother are shot.

Nick arrives at the station, greeted by Greg. There are ants on the floor and a trail of slime. Examining the bodies, he realizes one of the bodies isn't a cadaver, it's D.B. Russell, the new guy in Vegas. He is a little eccentric and picks on Nick for being unable to size him up as fast as Captain Brass. He still looks to Catherine for advice.

Greg and Sara are sent into the desert to deal with a case where a man appears young, but has the sagging skin of an elderly person. There is a strange puncture wound on his side.

At the morgue, Nick and D.B. are informed that the younger of the two brothers -- who had died from a stab wound -- was also dying of lung cancer.

At the hospital, Brass meets Doc Robbins there to examine the mother. Her son Emmett is a reluctant witness who is traumatized by the events. Brass asks Doc Robbins if he had heard from Raymond Langston. Doc informs Brass that Gloria and Ray are doing well in Baltimore and Gloria is recovering from the aftershocks of her encounter with serial killer Nate Haskell. Brass informs Doc that Ray had been railroaded by Internal Affairs. Doc informs Brass that killing Haskell had perhaps been a life saver for Ray, as he was able to piece his life back together. Tthey notice a bug bite on the woman's leg.

In the morgue, Sara and Greg are examining the body they found in the desert. Greg is pretty sure he knows where the wound in the victim's side came from.

Interrogating the older brother, Ecklie and D.B. discuss the fact that the CSIs seem to have too much empathy for their suspects. D.B. says off-hand that he would hate to lose Nick Stokes, as he likes Nick. He goes to back to the train where Nick is investigating and reprimands him for not having his field report handed in. Nick promises it will never happen again, but D.B. knows it's not true.

Morgan Brody arrives at CSI Headquarters, much to the admiration of Greg. She is applying for a position in the CSI Lab, citing the Ray Langston fallout at her other place of work. She tells Ecklie that the decision to hire her is in his hands. Nick complains about the fact that he had to give up his office for D.B.

Examining the slime, Hodges and D.B. conclude that there was an octopus on the train, held by the Asian woman, who performs shoukushu-goukan, or octopus erotica. Brass and D.B. go and visit the woman, who tells them that she saw one of the guys stab his brother. Speaking with Emmett, Emmett admits he stole a hundred dollars from the brother who had been stabbed, prompting D.B. and Nick to realize that the older brother didn't stab the younger brother. In fact, the younger brother had met his older brother's old business associate, fresh out of prison, in the bathroom -- where there were no surveillance cameras -- in hopes of squaring debts. He was stabbed for his efforts, dying on the train. The brother pulled the knife out, prompting the cowboy to start firing, along with the security guard.

As a thanks for his part in helping the investigation, D.B. replaces Emmett's bloody hundred dollar bill with a brand new one and invites him to a college basketball game should he and his mother ever return to Vegas. Emmett is okay with this. The final interrogation with the older brother doesn't go so smooth; Catherine had earlier spoken to the murderer, who was in the wind. After some prodding, Nick convinces the older brother to give up the suspect Allen Krick; he is arrested with the blood money in his possession.

Greg shows Sara a thing that his Scandinavian cousin Jerka does while he is hunting. He uses an airhose to separate deer skin from the bone. This leads them to the victim's hunting partner, who informs them that they had been poaching deer off-season, when the deer woke up. The victim ended up injecting himself with the air compressor hose and inflated himself, leading to the saggy skin.

The episode ends with Nick working out of the break room. He informs Catherine that he asked the DA to go easy on the older brother because he had meant well. Catherine and Nick begin to argue about back-door deals and leading with their hearts instead of their heads. She informs Nick that she doesn't want anymore LA shenanigans in Las Vegas. Nick tells her that he wouldn't have done anything differently in LA. Catherine loses it, informing Nick that she was demoted over what had happened. Everybody hears them arguing. D.B. is leaving his office, telling his wife that the team is gelling fine, until he hears them arguing. The episode comes to a close when the entire team receives a text from D.B., informing him that he is going to take them out for breakfast.

Goofs

When Nick is examining the semi-automatic handgun on the tram, he pulls out the magazine and says two rounds were fired. Unlike a revolver, it is not possible to determine how many rounds have been fired just by looking how many rounds are in the magazine. The magazine may hold 15 rounds, but there may only have been 1 to 14 loaded.
Tom 'Baseball Jersey' Finnerty may live in Locust Valley, NY but the zip code is 11560 not 11423

Soundtrack

Who Are You by The Who

Main Cast

Recurring Cast

Marc Vann as Conrad Ecklie
Larry M. Mitchell as Officer Mitchell

Guest Cast

Scott 'Carrot Top' Thompson as Himself
Chad Faust as Jimmy Finnerty
Skylar Gaertner as Emmett Drake
Clay Wilcox as Ross Gibbs
Elaine Tan as Shizu Yoshi
Stephen Amell as A.J. Gust
Nathan Anderson as Tom Finnerty
Heather Prete as Nancy Drake
David Tom as Allen Krick

< In a Dark, Dark House	CSI:Las Vegas Season 12	Tell-Tale Hearts >
73 Seconds • Tell-Tale Hearts • Bittersweet • Maid Man • CSI Down • Freaks & Geeks • Brain Doe • Crime After Crime • Zippered • Genetic Disorder • Ms. Willows Regrets • Willows in the Wind • Tressed to Kill • Seeing Red • Stealing Home • CSI Unplugged • Trends with Benefits • Malice in Wonderland • Split Decisions • Altered Stakes • Dune and Gloom • Homecoming