CSI
Register
Advertisement


CSIblack
After the Show
Show
Season 4
Number 8
Writer Elizabeth Devine,
Andrew Lipsitz
Director Kenneth Fink
Original Airdate November 20, 2003
Navigation
Previous Episode: Invisible Evidence
Next Episode: Grissom Versus The Volcano

After the Show is the eighth episode in Season Four of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The center of attention for the Las Vegas media is a missing model who aspired to become a showgirl. When a strange 911 call comes in, Catherine is sure she has found the man responsible and takes over the case from Sara and Nick, who both hoped they could use this high profile case to get a promotion.

Plot[]

Victim: Julie Waters (missing)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle, Jim Brass

A man, Howard Delhomme, is watching a television news report on missing Vegas showgirl Julie Waters. He calls the police, says he never meant to hurt her, and puts a gun to his mouth. A short while later, SWAT is lined up outside of the house. Howard exits, tosses the gun to the ground, and is handcuffed. Brass and the CSI team arrive at the house. SWAT searches the house but find no sign of Julie inside. Brass questions an intoxicated Howard who only repeats "I didn't mean to hurt her." Catherine notes that Julie has been missing for six days and figures that Howard did more than just hurt her.

While Sheriff Rory Atwater gives an interview outside of Howard's house, Catherine and Sara search inside. The house is littered with newspaper articles about Julie's disappearance; some of the pictures of Julie have eyes darkened or drawn elsewhere on the page. Catherine notes that it's like a timeline. They discover a dark room where photographs are developing; every photograph is a closeup of an eye. Catherine finds a stack of Howard's business cards identifying him as a professional photographer.

In the interrogation room, Brass gets in Howard's face and asks him where Julie is; however, Howard refuses to answer or even make eye contact. Meanwhile, Catherine, Nick, and Sara recap the case—Julie's mother reported her missing when she didn't call, something she did every day. Nick and Sara were sent to Julie's apartment, where they photographed every square inch. Her bills were paid and ready to be mailed, her toiletries appeared to be untouched, and her birth control pills were also left behind. Julie had had dinner with the producers of Real Vegas Showgirls, a reality-based TV show and her car had been found outside of Dante's Pizza four days ago. The car was locked and there were no signs of foul play; only Julie's purse was missing. Catherine gets interrupted when she gets a call from Brass.

As Catherine and Grissom walk up to Brass, he's berating an officer. While the officer was briefly called away, Howard managed to pry a piece of metal from the side of the table, dig it into his hand, and write "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone." on the wall in his own blood. Catherine is perplexed by the word "anyone," which seems to indicate that Howard has kidnapped and/or murdered others besides Julie. Howard, now stitched up, is returned to the room by another officer. After he stares at Catherine, Grissom tells the officer to take Howard to the other interrogation room. There, Sara and Brass question a mostly silent Howard. Howard tells them that he will only talk to Catherine, who he calls "the pretty one in the next room."

Howard leads the police (and the media) out to the desert, where he flirts with Catherine as they walk along. She asks Howard questions like what he was wearing when he killed Julie and whether he recognizes anything in the area, but he continues to dodge them. They search all day, but come up empty as nightfall arrives. Howard is put in the back of the police car to go back to the station and stares at Catherine as the car drives away. Tensions rise as Nick and Sara join Catherine and Grissom—Catherine is calling the shots, but Nick and Sara are mad because they responded to the original missing persons call. Both Nick and Sara have put in for promotions and know that a case this big can define their careers. However, since Catherine has an in with the suspect, Grissom silently backs her. Nick and Sara angrily leave.

Back in the lab, Catherine and Greg sort through Howard's trash and separate out his receipts. They're looking for anything Howard did seven days ago—the same time Julie disappeared. Greg finds a receipt from a snack shop that indicates Howard bought a "household item" for $9.99. Meanwhile, Catherine comes across a vehicle release agreement from Inucci Motors—Howard had checked out a vehicle at 2 PM the day Julie disappeared and he returned it the following morning at 9 AM.

Catherine speaks to the manager at Inucci Motors, who informs her that Howard was hired to photograph the car, which is a Maserati. He confirms that there were no models used for the photo shoot. The manager refuses to part with the car and tells Catherine that it has been detailed three times since Howard returned it, so any evidence has been eradicated. She hands him a warrant and says she's taking the car anyway. In the CSI garage, Catherine goes over the interior of the car with a UV light. She finds a strand of hair and discovers that the upholstery tests positive for blood.

Nick and Sara go through previous case files, hoping to find a connection to the Julie Waters case. Sara continues to lament losing the case to Catherine; however, Nick continues to remain positive, even when told that Catherine is working with the inexperienced Greg. They find that there were twelve missing girls reported over the last two years, with ten of them ending up dead. One of them was a model named Robyn Knight, whose skeletal remains were found washed up in Furnace Creek. On the morning of her death, she left for a photo shoot. Howard Delhomme's name is on the list of photographers in Robyn's day planner.

Catherine informs Nick and Sara that Howard drove the Maserati 133 miles between the time he checked it out and the time he brought it back, giving them a 66 1/2 mile search radius. The pizza place where Julie's car was found and the snack shop Howard visited are both within the radius. Greg lets the three CSIs know that the hair found in the backseat of the Maserati belonged to Julie and that the item Howard purchased at the snack shop was a shovel; it seems that Howard had already killed Julie when he purchased it. They note that Furnace Creek is also in the search radius; in fact, it's exactly 133 miles round trip from the car dealership. Catherine recognizes one of the rock formations in one of Howard's photos as "Devil's Smile" and a search crew is sent to the location. At the location, one of the cadets searching the area finds fingers sticking up from the sand. After the CSIs remove rocks and brush away from the sand, they find the body of Julie Waters. Julie is wearing a sweater with the zipper zipped all the way up; she's also not wearing any makeup. Nick notes to Brass that rocks were put on top of the burial site to prevent rains from washing her away like they apparently did with Robyn Knight's body.

Catherine and Brass interview Howard once again. When Brass recaps the events of the murder, Howard denies them and continues to say it was an accident. He claims that he was photographing Julie with the Maserati, moved the car, and accidentally hit her. Catherine refutes this by saying that she was told no models were used when photographing the cars. Howard changes his story and says he was shooting new head shots of Julie as a favor for her; when Catherine asks where the rolls of film are, Howard can't remember.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Catherine that Julie has no injuries consistent with a car accident; the cause of death was positional asphyxia. Julie's earring had been ripped out shortly before her death, drawing blood. A flashback shows her getting slapped in the face. Doc Robbins says that there was a lot of trauma and that he collected a sexual assault kit. He also informs Catherine that Julie's blood alcohol content was .18, part of which could be from decomposing blood creating ethanol after her death. However, she was definitely drinking before she died. Catherine notes that Julie was supposed to have dinner that night with the producers of Real Vegas Showgirls, so there's no way she would've gotten drunk beforehand. Whether Howard forced her to drink is another question.

While looking over the autopsy photos with Catherine, Grissom sees that one photo shows multiple abrasions to Julie's cervix. Catherine notes that there was no semen found and no trace evidence, indicating that a foreign object may have been used. She interrogates Howard again; he confirms that Julie had some drinks to loosen up before the photo shoot. Howard's past is also brought up—two years before, Howard was arrested for a forced sexual act but was found not guilty. He maintains that he could never kill Julie by sitting on her chest (positional asphyxia).

Catherine gets a page that she has a visitor at the front desk. There, Howard's brother, James, hands her a package mailed to him by Howard two days ago. Inside, there are five rolls of a film as well as a note that reads "If I get arrested, use these to help me." Catherine and Archie look over the photo negatives, where it appears that Julie was photographed wearing different clothes than she was buried in. There are also a few double exposures of a nude body. Sara interrupts and informs Catherine that a cadet found a trash can with importance to the case.

Catherine and Sara sift through the garbage and find multiple head shots of Julie. This proves that Howard was lying; he claims he photographed Julie because she needed new head shots. There are also makeup removal cloths in the garbage, and a flashback shows Howard wiping the makeup off of Julie. Sara finds Julie's day planner with two things written down for the day she died—a meeting with the producers of Real Vegas Showgirls and a meeting with Howard at Dante's Pizza set for 2 PM. Catherine finds a bag that contains the clothes Julie was wearing in the photo negatives she saw earlier. She observes blood on the stockings and tells Sara that Howard was lying—he claims Julie injured her ear when she was in her underwear and barefoot. Catherine recreates the blood drops and concludes that Julie was hit, bled onto the stocking, then stepped on another blood drop. All of this indicates that she was standing when she was hit.

In the A/V lab, Nick and Archie go over the photos from Julie's photo shoot again. Archie separates out the two images from the double exposure, one of which is a car speedometer. They compare that photo to the crime scene photos Catherine took of the car; the speedometers are drastically different. Catherine and Sara are also looking over the photos from the shoot and see that Julie's expressions go from outgoing and flirtatious to worried. Nick interrupts with the news about the speedometers, and Catherine volunteers to compare Julie's autopsy photos to the photos of the naked woman in the double exposures. After comparisons, she tells Sara that the naked pictures weren't of Julie.

Catherine meets up with Sara, who tells her that none of the objects laid out on the table were used to rape Julie. Sara continues to throw Catherine shade for her taking over the case, with Catherine saying that if Sara were in her position, she would've done the same thing—she exploited Howard's infatuation with her to help solve the case. Catherine notices an empty gun case and remembers that Howard's original arrest was for brandishing a firearm. She swabs the gun.

Catherine interrogates Howard one last time and tells him that Julie's cervical tissue was found on his gun. A flashback shows their photo shoot, which started with her laughing. However, Howard ignored her when she said that she had to end the shoot for a meeting back in town. Howard continued to take photos, then slapped Julie. The last thing seen is Howard brandishing the gun. Back in the room, Howard lunges at Catherine when she accuses him of not being able to handle it when Julie was plastered all over the news channels.

A news report says that prosecutors will seek a life sentence without parole for Howard. Catherine is sitting with Grissom. She tells him that Howard likely would've gotten away with murder if he had kept quiet; however, the constant media reports continued to remind him of Julie, causing him to crack. "She couldn't get away from him," Catherine remarks, "and he couldn't get away from her."

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Xander Berkeley as Rory Atwater
  • Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
  • Paula Francis as News Anchor
  • Martin Donovan as Howard Delhomme
  • Jaime Ray Newman as Julie Waters
  • Paul Cassell as Delhomme's Attorney
  • Gildart Jackson as Oliver Miccelli
  • Branden R. Morgan as James Delhomme
  • Bradley James as SWAT Leader
  • Maureen Muldoon as Lynda Darby
  • Edmund Wyson as Officer Devine
  • Tom Warden as Himself
  • Ellen Diner as Robyn Knight (uncredited)

Major Events[]

  • Catherine recruits Greg to help her out in the current case she's investigating.
  • Greg is seen wearing his very own stab vest for the first time.

Notes[]

  • Gary Dourdan (Warrick) is credited but does not appear in the episode.

Trivia[]

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 4
Assume NothingAll For Our CountryHomebodiesFeeling the HeatFur and LoathingJackpotInvisible EvidenceAfter the ShowGrissom Versus the VolcanoComing of RageEleven Angry JurorsButterfliedSuckersPaper or PlasticEarly RolloutGetting OffXXBad To The BoneBad WordsDead RingerTurn of the ScrewsNo More BetsBloodlines
Advertisement