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For Gedda
Gedda
Season 8
Number 17
Writer Dustin Lee Abraham,
Kenneth Fink,
Richard Catalani
Director Kenneth Fink
Original Airdate May 15, 2008
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Previous Episode: Two And A Half Deaths
Next Episode: For Warrick

For Gedda is the seventeenth episode and Season Eight finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The team investigates the murder of a man who was stuffed in an occupied coffin. The victim ends up being someone Warrick is familiar with. Then, the police discover Warrick covered in blood with a dead Lou Gedda next to him. Warrick can't remember what happened.

Plot[]

Victim: Lenny Harper (deceased)

On the case: entire team

Flashbacks show Warrick's involvements with Lou Gedda. This includes conducting his own investigation of Gedda's strip club, which led to the death of stripper Joanna 'Candy' Krumsky. Gedda was never charged with anything, as he has an unknown police informant on his payroll.

On a hot afternoon, mourners are gathered at a funeral for a Mr. Bell, a beloved high school football coach. The pallbearers are straining under the weight of the casket and hear it start to creak. Two male bodies fall out of the bottom of the casket: Mr. Bell and an unknown white man. Grissom and Nick arrive at the scene, where David Phillips tells them that the white man has been dead for over 24 hours; however, he can't immediately tell the cause of death. Upon observation of the casket, Grissom notes that the bodies were separated inside by a board. The top body, Mr. Bell, was too heavy, which caused the casket to crack and break. Nick wonders if the mortuary is pulling a scam by putting two bodies into one casket. The male gatherers refuse to let David escort Mr. Bell's body into the van. Nick tells them that the person they should be angry with is whoever put the other body in the casket, not him and Grissom, but they refuse to listen. The other police officers move in to remove them for interfering with police business, but they fight back. Finally, Mrs. Bell intervenes and pleads with the gatherers to stop and let the body through.

Brass interviews the mortician, who is keeping as silent as his subjects. When the mortician silently writes down that he wants a lawyer, Brass responds by writing down that the mortician is under arrest. In autopsy, Warrick visits Doc Robbins and is told that the white man's cause of death was suffocation. When he pulls back the face back over the exposed brain, Warrick recognizes the victim as a private investigator he dealt with. This sets Warrick off, as he had hired the PI to investigate Gedda.

The PI was Lenny Harper, a former cop, who Brass had worked with over 20 years ago. Undersheriff McKeen calls Lenny a class cop; however, Brass finds a long list of complaints against him, including soliciting prostitutes, extortion, and insurance fraud. These charges led to Lenny getting forced into early retirement at the age of 33. McKeen says that no matter what Lenny's past was, he was a cop, and cops are a priority.

Grissom and Nick check out Lenny's immaculately clean office. Nick finds Lenny's laptop, while Grissom notices that there's no liner in one of the trashcans and that the paper shredder next to it has been emptied. All evidence is pointing to someone cleaning the office thoroughly after they killed Lenny. Nick finds car keys in the desk drawer and discovers that Lenny's car is in the parking lot. They check the car out; it's also clean as a whistle. In fact, the floor mats are still damp. Grissom thinks it was just detailed and that maybe it was used to transport the body. Nick wonders why the killer would go through all this trouble, including stuffing the body in a double-decker casket, just to leave the keys for the cops to find.

Back at the office, Warrick is having flashbacks to Gedda's strip club and Joanna's death. A phone call interrupts his train of thought. Hodges, about to enter the room with information, overhears Warrick yell at the phone, asking the caller how they got his number. He then asks, "Should I bring my own shovel?" before angrily hanging up and storming out. Hodges, unseen by Warrick, watches him walk away.

Archie tells Nick that the hard drive from Lenny's laptop has been wiped clean. Nothing incriminating has been found in the blades of the paper shredder, either. However, Archie was able to get a court order for Lenny's multiple email accounts. One of the accounts was for work/clients, and he finds that Lenny would tape record his own meetings. One recording is particularly interesting: Lenny informing a client that he has Gedda on tape admitting to killing Joanna. Nick listens and identifies another voice on the tape: Warrick's. Nick figures it out and tells Grissom that Warrick hired Lenny to investigate Gedda because he couldn't do it himself. Archie found a lot of photos and soundbites on the laptop pertaining to Gedda, and Nick theorizes that Gedda found out he was being spied on and killed Lenny. A disturbed Grissom calls Warrick, but the call goes straight to voicemail. Grissom instructs Warrick to call him back immediately.

Warrick calls back shortly thereafter; he's got a gun in his hand and tells Grissom he doesn't know what happened. The only thing he knows is that he's at Gedda's club. While the call is still going on, the police arrive with their guns drawn. Warrick gets down on his knees, puts his hands in the air, and yells out that he's a CSI. Grissom heads to the scene and finds Warrick in the middle of the room on his knees with his hands cuffed behind him. There's blood on the floor, as well as on Warrick. A few feet from him, Gedda is in his famous barber's chair, dead. Warrick's gun is on the ground nearby and his handcuffs are around Gedda's wrists. The responding officer tells Grissom that a local merchant heard gunshots and that when he arrived on the scene, there was nobody else in the building. Warrick tells Grissom that his head is throbbing and that he doesn't know what happened.

Grissom tells Warrick that he needs a lawyer, a point Brass reiterates when he arrives. Leading him away, he says to Warrick, "You couldn't just let it go." As Warrick is placed in the car, Catherine and Nick arrive and are shocked to see their friend and colleague handcuffed in the back of a police car. Grissom informs them Gedda is dead. McKeen arrives and tells the team that the day shift will be handling the case. Ecklie photographs Warrick's hands and clothes and checks his hands for gun shot residue. He tells Warrick to get a lawyer, but Warrick refuses, saying that he wouldn't even know what to tell the lawyer. Ecklie takes Warrick's clothes before departing.

Nick sees Hodges talking to Internal Affairs. When pressed, he tells Nick about the phone call he saw Warrick take. Warrick is then interviewed by Officer Wagenbach from Internal Affairs and continues to say that he doesn't know what happened. However, he does remember hiring Lenny to investigate Gedda (in violation of direct orders) and admits that Gedda is the one who called his cell phone. The call came from a disposable cell phone, so Warrick's story can't be confirmed. Warrick says that Gedda called him to the club, and a flashback shows Warrick checking the place out with his gun drawn. The next thing he remembers is waking up bloodied, holding the gun, with Gedda dead in the barber's chair. Wagenbach lays out the evidence: Warrick was found covered in blood, his gun had blood, tissue and hair in it, and his handcuffs were around Gedda's wrists. Warrick admits that the evidence is pointing to him killing Gedda, but he grabs Wagenbach and insists that he doesn't know what happened. Grissom watches all of this unfold from behind the glass.

Grissom walks in on Ecklie and a day shift CSI processing Warrick's clothes. He asks Ecklie for the files so that he may draw his own conclusions about what happened, and Ecklie tells him they'll be ready in a few hours. Meanwhile, Catherine stops by to see Warrick. Warrick asks her if she thinks he did it, but she says she can't discuss the case, indicating that they're being listened to. He asks for a change of clothes, as he hates being dressed like a convict. Catherine obliges and tells him to stay strong as she leaves.

Wagenbach starts in again with Warrick, asking if he ever thinks about "her"—a pretty young girl who ended up dead. Warrick thinks he means Joanna, but Wagenbach is actually talking about Holly Gribbs, the CSI who was killed at a crime scene eight years ago when Warrick left to go place bets for a crooked judge. Warrick says that the two incidents are unrelated, but Wagenbach points out that this seems to be a pattern of behavior. Wagenbach tries to get Warrick to confess by saying that Gedda was a slime ball and that Warrick actually did the world a favor. Warrick says that he's used the same line on suspects in the past and that it won't work on him. He asks for a lawyer.

Catherine goes to Warrick's apartment to get him a change of clothes, but Ecklie and a day shift CSI are processing it. All around the living room are newspapers about Gedda and Joanna, as well as numerous photos of Gedda on the wall. Warrick has clearly had a hard time letting the case go.

Grissom, Catherine and Nick read reports from Wendy, Bobby Dawson and Doc Robbins. Wendy's report states that the high-velocity blood spatter on Warrick's shirt belongs to Gedda. Bobby found that the five expended cartridge casings found at the strip club were all fired from Warrick's gun; furthermore, bullets recovered at autopsy and from the barber's chair were also from the same gun. The autopsy report indicates that, based on blood clotting and the development of bruises, Gedda was bound and beaten at least an hour before his death.

Grissom asks his team what their conclusion would be if they were dealing with a suspect they didn't know. Greg replies that the conclusion would be that the "suspect" did it, adding that the only thing the jury will see is a rogue cop with a vendetta. Henry interrupts and says that there was chloroform in Gedda's blood and tissue. This leads the CSIs to wonder why Warrick would use chloroform to subdue Gedda if he was just going to shoot him. Greg wonders if Warrick used chloroform to subdue Gedda to get him into the barber's chair and torture him, but Nick knows that this isn't Warrick's style. Grissom notes that chloroform can cause short-term amnesia and asks for Warrick's tox report. However, Warrick's blood wasn't drawn at the scene. When it does get drawn, the tests come back negative for chloroform because they waited too long to draw it.

Grissom lays out the shirt Warrick was wearing and notices voids in the blood spatter around the armpits. It appears that there was something under Warrick's arms which folded the fabric when blood was deposited. Under Grissom's direction, Nick grabs Hodges (who is there to assist) and holds him up by his armpits. Nick extends Hodges' arm to mimic shooting a gun. When Grissom sprays Hodges with a red liquid and has him remove the shirt, they find that the voids in the blood spatter are almost identical. Nick says that the evidence isn't conclusive enough, but Grissom tells him that they now have an alternative explanation of the evidence and that, if they're right, Warrick was framed.

The team starts looking for other suspects. Nick tells Catherine that there's a long list of people who wanted Gedda dead and she tells him to cross-reference the list with any of Warrick's convictions who may have it out for him. Greg and Wendy have been unable to find any other contributors from the blood at the scene. Catherine walks in on Grissom, who is looking over Gedda's autopsy photos. He notes that the width of the rails on Warrick's handcuffs are three millimeters narrower than the ligature marks on Gedda's wrists. Therefore, the ligature marks didn't come from Warrick's handcuffs and someone switched them out after Gedda was dead. Grissom says that Brass always suspected that there was a mole in the department on Gedda's payroll and believes that they're looking for a cop. The team isn't allowed to work Warrick's case, but they can still work Lenny's case to see if there's a link between the two.

Meanwhile, McKeen tries to get Warrick to make a deal. If Warrick confesses, he could get tried for manslaughter; otherwise, he's going down for first degree murder. Warrick refuses to accept the deal and maintains his innocence.

Catherine informs Grissom that they found the link between the two cases—there was chloroform in Lenny's system, as well. Grissom goes over the evidence logs and police files from both scenes, noting that they would usually write off cop trace at a scene as investigator contamination. He notices that there were fingerprints from five different officers at the mortuary; however, only four signed in. The missing officer is Daniel Pritchard, and his prints were found on the casket. How did his print get on the casket if he wasn't at the mortuary?

Officer Pritchard hasn't been seen in a few days and his locker is opened and searched. There are no handcuffs inside, but Grissom tests the key for blood; the test comes back positive. A flashback shows Prichard unlocking his handcuffs from around Gedda's wrists while Warrick was lying unconscious a few feet away.

Grissom presents the evidence to McKeen and IA Officer Wagenbach. He insists that Warrick was framed and that the evidence will hold up in court; he can also prove it.

Grissom visits Warrick, who apologizes for everything that has happened. Before Warrick can finish speaking, Grissom tells him that he was framed by Pritchard and that Gedda had a mole in the department. A flashback shows Gedda calling Warrick and getting him to come to the club. Pritchard then chloroformed Gedda and put him in the barber's chair. When Warrick arrived, Prichard knocked him out with a hit to the head, then chloroformed him, as well. Pritchard then held Warrick up and shot Gedda using Warrick's gun.

Grissom's theory is that Gedda had Pritchard kill Lenny and likely Joanna, as well. Warrick questions why Prichard would kill Gedda and notes that it would take more than a beat cop to take him down. Grissom tells Warrick that the district attorney is dropping the charges and that he and Ecklie are recommending that Warrick be suspended and demoted, but not terminated. Warrick gives him a hug and tearfully thanks him for everything. In the hallway, Warrick thanks Brass and goes to shake his hand. Brass, still seemingly unconvinced, shakes Warrick's hand and tells him not to forget how lucky he is.

Later, the team meets at a diner for breakfast, sharing some laughs and good times. Grissom, Greg and Catherine each congratulate Warrick on his being cleared before leaving the diner one by one. Warrick then leaves, leaving Nick alone to flirt with their waitress. He walks to his car by himself; the car is parked in an alleyway.

Someone taps on Warrick's passenger's side window to get his attention. Warrick sees that it's McKeen, turns down his radio, and rolls down the window. McKeen tells him that he wanted to congratulate him in person and that he doesn't want to fire him. He just needs to know that Warrick will cease being a rogue cop, something Warrick agrees to. However, Warrick says that there's still one guy out there working for Gedda and promises that they'll find him. McKeen compliments him on his persistence and tells him that that's what makes him a great CSI.

McKeen then shoots Warrick, shattering the driver's side window. He fires another shot before cleaning the gun and tossing it on the passenger's seat. Warrick slumps over the steering wheel and starts to bleed out.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Music[]

  • All My Days by Alexi Murdoch
  • Come Tenderness by Lisa Gerrard
  • Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
  • Paper Heart by Gram Rabbit
  • Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean by Explosions in the Sky
  • What Becomes of Us by Holly Throsby
  • Word Up by Willis

Quotes[]

Grissom (to Warrick): What happened?
Warrick: I don't know. My head is throbbing.
Grissom: Is that your gun?
Warrick: Yeah.
Grissom: Are those your cuffs?
Warrick: I guess so.
Grissom: We need to get you a lawyer.
Warrick: Grissom...
Brass: Don't say another word.
Warrick: Jim...
Brass: Just get on your feet.
Warrick: I don't know what happened.
Brass: Hey, it's for your own good. Just keep your mouth shut until we get to the station...you couldn't just let it go.

Goofs[]

  • The newspaper article's headline at Warrick's house refers to a slain stripper, but the article's body is about a political story.

Notes[]

  • Greg has finished writing his book on the Las Vegas mob and is showing it around to publishers. He began writing the book after meeting Lois O'Neill (Faye Dunaway) in the Season Six episode Kiss-Kiss, Bye-Bye.
  • Flashback scenes of Warrick meeting with PI Lenny Harper didn't occur in a previous episode.
  • When interrogating Warrick, IA Officer Wagenbach mentions former CSI Holly Gribbs. Holly was killed on duty while Warrick, who was supposed to be with her at the scene, was placing bets for a crooked judge. Her murder at the hands of a criminal who came back to the scene occurred in the first two episodes of the series, Pilot and Cool Change. Sara was the one who ended up replacing Holly on the team.

Trivia[]

  • This is the first season finale in which Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) doesn't appear.
  • During the filming of this episode, Gary Dourdan was arrested on drug charges. He was found asleep in his car at 5:14 AM, posted a $5,000 bail, and was back on the set filming later that day.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 8
Dead DollA La CartGo to HellThe Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp The Chick Chop Flick ShopWho and WhatWhere and WhyGoodbye and Good LuckYou Kill MeCockroachesLying Down With DogsBullGrissom's Divine ComedyA Thousand Days On EarthDrops OutThe Theory of EverythingTwo And A Half DeathsFor Gedda
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