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For Warrick
For Warrick
Season 9
Number 1
Writer Allen MacDonald,
Richard J. Lewis,
Carol Mendelsohn
Director Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate October 9, 2008
Navigation
Previous Episode: For Gedda
Next Episode: The Happy Place

For Warrick is the Season Nine premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The ninth season comes to a shocking open when CSI Warrick Brown is shot and killed outside a Las Vegas diner. The entire team grieves for their fallen friend, while unknown to them, the killer is one of their own. Also, an old friend returns to Las Vegas when she hears the news.

Plot[]

Victim: Warrick Brown (deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, Jim Brass

The viewer is reminded of previous events from the past season. Warrick ended up being cleared of Lou Gedda's murder, but was still convinced that there was someone higher up in the department on Gedda's payroll. That someone is Undersheriff McKeen, who shot Warrick twice while he was sitting in his car.

McKeen calls the shooting in, requesting backup units and paramedics. He describes the suspect as a white male, possibly armed, wearing dark clothing. Down the street, Grissom hears the call on his police radio and realizes that the scene is nearby. He rushes to the alleyway and sees Warrick's car parked. Upon reaching the car, he sees that Warrick has been shot and is slumped over the steering wheel bleeding out. Grissom drags Warrick out of the car and urges him to stay alive until help arrives. McKeen jogs up and claims that he was chasing the "shooter" before he "lost" him. He has a panicked look on his face when he sees that Warrick is still alive. Warrick attempts to tell Grissom that McKeen shot him, which causes McKeen to reach for his gun. However, before Warrick can get it out, he dies in Grissom's arms.

The rest of the team arrive, devastated by the death of Warrick. McKeen tells Brass that he was in the area to congratulate Warrick and inform him that he could keep his job. While on his way to the diner, he heard gunshots and saw a white adult male fleeing the scene. Believing that Warrick was dead, he pursued the suspect and called it in; however, the suspect drove away. The description he gives of the car is a match to that of Daniel Pritchard's, a beat cop who was also on Gedda's payroll.

Ecklie arrives and finds that nothing has been done yet, as the team is still in shock and grieving. Grissom tells him that he wants his team to work the case, with Catherine and Nick processing the car. Grissom rides back to the lab with Warrick's body; there, Doc Robbins tells him that the day shift medical examiner will handle the autopsy. As the rest of the lab (Wendy, Mandy, Bobby, Archie) mourn their loss, Grissom takes off his blood-stained clothes and hands them to Hodges for processing.

At the scene, Nick finds a .25 caliber bullet, while Catherine finds two .25 caliber shell casings inside the car. The gun is also on the floor underneath the passenger's seat, and Nick notes that Warrick's gun was still in evidence and that he didn't carry a backup. This leads Nick to think that this was a hit. Evidence suggests that at least one shot came from inside the car. Since the window was down, Catherine figures that the shooter was standing outside, stuck the gun through the open window, and fired. Gunshot residue found on the headliner confirms this theory. Nick questions why the window was down. When Catherine mentions that it was a hot night, Nick wonders why Warrick didn't roll down his own window.

Brass informs all of the officers that Warrick is their only case with Pritchard their main suspect. Airports and highways will be searched and roadblocked, while Pritchard's family, friends, and associates will be tracked down. Meanwhile, Sara returns to Las Vegas after hearing the news of Warrick's death. Grissom tells her about Warrick's last moments before the rest of the team enters his office and greets Sara. Sara and Greg offer to help with the funeral arrangements. Nick mentions that Warrick was right about Gedda and about there being a mole in the department; they need to finish the case for him.

McKeen pays Brass a visit and says that he feels guilty for labeling Warrick as a "bad apple." He had believed that Warrick had killed Gedda, a conclusion that Brass reached, as well. Brass remembers the last thing he said to Warrick: "never forget how lucky you are."

The gun is processed, and Catherine is able to uncover its serial number. In the garage, Nick examines Warrick's car and notices that the key is still in the ignition. When he turns the key, the radio comes on at a low volume. Nick then rolls up the passenger's side window and sees a knuckle print, which he tape lifts. At Warrick's house, Greg and Sara discover that Warrick had a son that he was fighting for custody over. The letter from his lawyer also came with a DVD.

Catherine informs Grissom that the gun was a dead end, as it had been wiped down. However, the serial number she recovered was traced back to an armed robbery where Pritchard was the arresting officer. The gun was reported to have been destroyed, but obviously this isn't the case. It seems that Pritchard stole the gun from Central Property and, if so, he had to have someone working on the inside fudging the records for him.

In the garage, Nick tells Catherine and Grissom that he's found something. He concludes that between the knuckle prints on the window and the low volume of the radio (with Warrick's prints the only ones on the knob), the killer knocked on the window. Warrick, who was known to play the radio loud, turned it down and rolled down the window. Grissom knows that Warrick wouldn't roll down the window for Pritchard, especially since Pritchard was the one who framed him for murder. Nick guesses that they're looking at McKeen, for he was the only eyewitness and he was the one to place Pritchard and his car in the alley.

Sara shows Grissom the DVD that came with Warrick's paternity test and custody filing. In it, Warrick says he would be a great father because he learned a lot from the most important man in his life—Grissom.

Catherine, Grissom and Nick head back to the scene to recreate Warrick's shooting. As Grissom runs down the alleyway after hearing Nick fire his gun, he remembers that there was loud music coming from the club he's running by. When the club's music is turned up to the level it was at the time of the shooting, Grissom is unable to hear the shots from where he's standing.

Grissom privately tells Brass their findings—there's no way McKeen heard the shots and he implied that Pritchard was the shooter. Brass recounts being invited to McKeen's "nice, but not-too-nice" cabin 20 years ago for a barbecue; when he told McKeen that he wasn't "for sale," he never got invited back. Grissom notes that the first witness to a crime is usually the first suspect and that Warrick believed that Gedda's killer had to be higher up on the food chain. They theorize that McKeen saw the interview video and was probably worried that Warrick would never let it go. Pritchard is in the wind, but they know that if he's picked up outside of Vegas, it gives him an alibi and McKeen is screwed. Unless, Brass says, McKeen knows exactly where Pritchard is.

Pritchard is holed up in a hotel room and McKeen pays him a visit. McKeen accuses Pritchard of killing Warrick, which Pritchard denies. After all, why would he kill Warrick after trying to frame him? McKeen informs him that the gun was traced back to one of his old cases, and Pritchard now knows what's going on. When McKeen points a gun on him, Pritchard tells him that he'll have a lot of explaining to do if he pulls the trigger. Their plan is to head to Mexico to get out of the country.

The team goes to Ecklie with the evidence against McKeen, but are told that they don't have enough. Furthermore, if McKeen finds out he's being investigated, the team will lose their jobs, a risk they're willing to take. Sara remembers that the gun was evidence in another case and that there was no ammo with it. Therefore, if McKeen lifted the gun from Evidence, he had to load the bullets into it. A partial print is found on one of the bullets, and Catherine finds that it belongs to McKeen.

Brass calls a judge for a warrant. Meanwhile, Nick has Archie pull McKeen's phone records. It's found that McKeen received three phone calls in the last 24 hours from the same phone number. A reverse lookup shows that the calls came from Whiskey Bend Hotel. The hotel manager recalls seeing McKeen pay for a room in cash. Greg, Nick, Brass and some uniformed officers storm the room only to find that it had just been vacated; McKeen and Pritchard are on the highway on their way to Mexico.

A print from a drinking glass confirms that Pritchard was in the room. Based on the fact that McKeen rented the room four days ago, they figure that Pritchard has been holed up there since he killed Gedda. Nick realizes that McKeen will need a fall guy for Warrick's murder, making Pritchard a dead man. Brass calls McKeen and tells him that it seems that Pritchard is their guy, but they've been unable to locate him. While this is going on, Archie is able to triangulate the signal from McKeen's cell phone; he's heading east on Boulder Highway. McKeen hangs up and Pritchard begins to worry, as every cop in Nevada will be looking for him. Pritchard points a gun at McKeen, but is alarmed to find out that McKeen removed the bullets before they left the hotel room. Instead, Pritchard eyes the gun in McKeen's holster.

Nick and Brass pursue McKeen's car on the highway and eventually find it crashed through a guardrail. The car is upside down at the bottom of a hill with Pritchard dead inside, but McKeen is nowhere to be found. Nick sees a blood trail next to the car and envisions McKeen crawling away from the wreck. He follows the blood trail and eventually finds McKeen, who is losing blood both from a gunshot wound and the accident. Nick kicks McKeen's gun away from him and points his own gun at McKeen. McKeen fabricates a story about Pritchard, but Nick won't hear it. He finally admits to killing Warrick and tries to goad Nick into killing him, but Nick misses purposely with a shot. Brass arrives after hearing the shot and places McKeen under arrest for Warrick's murder.

In the end, the entire team attends Warrick's funeral. Grissom gives a eulogy, saying that the CSI team was the only real family Warrick ever knew. He recalls Warrick's last day and how happy he was to have spent it with his coworkers and friends. As everyone else grieves, Grissom tearfully admits that he'll miss Warrick.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • This is Gary Dourdan's final appearance as Warrick Brown.

Quotes[]

Grissom: As crime scene investigators, we meet people on the worst day of their lives. They've just lost a family member, somebody they loved, often in a horrible way. A piece of their heart is gone, and will never be replaced. The phrase we're trained to offer them, "I'm sorry for your loss", as we know now, doesn't offer much. Warrick Brown was a young boy when his parents passed away. Much too young to learn that life can be so tragically short. But I think that it taught him how precious life is, and so he lived his life to the fullest, each day as if it was his last day. I was with Warrick on his last day. All the qualities that defined him, his tenaciousness, his deep sense of loyalty, his courage to risk his life for what he knew was right, all those traits were with him on that last day. Just before he died, we were all having breakfast together. Our team. His friends. His family. And Warrick was...he was...(sobs) I'm going to miss him so much.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 9
For WarrickThe Happy PlaceArt Imitates LifeLet It BleedLeave Out All The RestSay UncleWoulda, Coulda, ShouldaYoung Man with a Horn19 Down...One to GoThe Grave ShiftDisarmed and DangerousDeep Fried and Minty FreshMiscarriage of JusticeKill Me If You CanTurn, Turn, TurnNo Way OutMascaraThe Descent of ManA Space OddityIf I Had a Hammer...The Gone Dead TrainHog HeavenAll In
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