Friends & Lovers

CSI EPISODE
Friends & Lovers
Season	1
Number	5
Writer	Andrew Lipsitz
Director	Lou Antonio
Original Airdate	Novemeber 3, 2000

Friends & Lovers is the fifth episode in season one of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis

Grissom and Warrick investigate when a victim dies of fear in the desert, apparently from being chased. Meanwhile Catherine and Nick investigate the gruesome murder of a Catholic school dean. Sara investigates how the body of a woman who was buried the previous week ended up in a dumpster.

Plot

A dead teenager, Eric, lies naked in the desert. In autopsy, Grissom and Warrick learn that Eric’s body is abnormally dry. Warrick discovers that the maggots found in his body contain jimsonweed, suggesting that he ingested the drug before he died. Warrick also finds traces of aluminum in Eric’s nose.

Brass questions Bobby, Eric’s friend. Bobby says that he and Eric attended a rave and that they drank a tea that they bought that night. He does not remember what happened after that, but knows that he has not seen Eric since the rave. The coroner finds jimsonweed seeds in Eric’s stomach, but the seeds were not toxic enough to kill Eric. As he questions Bobby, Bobby continually scratches his arm; he says he thinks a spider has bit him and shows the bite to Grissom. He also tells Grissom that he works in a fireworks shop.

Grissom and Warrick realize that after the boys drank the jimson tea, Eric developed photophobia. Scared by the lights of the rave, he ran into the desert and took off his clothing as his body temperature rose. Meanwhile, Bobby developed auditory hallucinations, and he attacked Eric to keep him quiet. The aluminum in Eric’s airway came from Bobby’s hands as he suffocated him, and the bite mark on Bobby’s arm matches a mold of Eric’s teeth.

Sara arrives at a dumpster where a woman’s body, wrapped in plastic, has been dumped. She discovers that the woman’s body has been embalmed, and uses the woman’s fingerprints to learn that the woman was buried the week before. Sara talks to the funeral director who suggests that the grave was robbed for gold or jewelry. They exhume the grave but find no casket, and the director suggests that the casket was stolen too as it would be just as valuable. Sara arranges a viewing of the caskets and is surprised to find hairs from multiple donors inside the caskets. She discovers that the fingerprints on the plastic belong to the funeral director, and he confesses that he was recycling coffins in order to make more money.

Catherine and Nick arrive at a school and find the dean in an office, dead due to blunt force trauma to the head. The founder of the school, Kit Armstrong, says she hit the dean on the head with an object in self-defense after he tried to force himself on her. Catherine and Nick determine that the dean was hit three times while he was lying on the floor. They also discover a void in the spatter pattern, indicating the presence of a third person in the room when Dean Woods was killed.

Kit admits that she had asked Julia Easton, a teacher, to come to the office to witness the harassment. Nick tells her that reenactments of the crime show that the dean was on the floor when he was killed and that Kit would have needed help to hold him down while she hit him. Catherine and Nick process the dean’s shirt and find a void in the blood spatter. They trace it and find a hand print, one with a disproportionely long pinky finger. They question Julia and learn that she has a sprained pinky finger. Nick offers her a finger splint as Catherine demonstrates how a hand with a splint on the pinky finger creates the exact void found on the dean’s shirt. Catherine speculates that Julia held down Dean Woods while Kit killed him. Kit confesses that the dean was blackmailing her after learning about her lesbian relationship with Julia.

Main Cast

(Credit order)

• William Petersen as Gil Grissom
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
• Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown
• George Eads as Nick Stokes
• Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Recurring Roles

• Kelly Connell as Randy Gesek, Funeral Director
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Judith Scott as Dr. Jenna Williams
• Tom Beyer as L. Collins
• David Berman as David Phillips (uncredited)
• William Wantland as Extra (uncredited)

Guest Stars

• Milo Ventimiglia as Bobby Taylor
• Amy Carlson as Kate Armstrong
• Elena Lyons as Julia Eastman
• Jeffrey Vincent Parise as Ethan (Credited as Jeff Parise)
• Timothy Landfield as Dean Vernon Woods
• Paul Terrell Clayton as Homicide Detective Kane
• Mark Collver as Detective B. Evans
• Mike Graybeal as Eric R. Berkley
• Susan Santiago as Attorney Kimberly Cassano (Credited as Susan Martino)
• Elkin Antoniou as Rave Girl (Credited as Elkin Antonio)

Episode Title

Friends and Lovers could make a reference to the title of a popular song from 1986 recorded as a duet by Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson, wich talks about the special relationship between two friends who are also lovers. In this episodes, ironically, Eric's best friend its the one who killed him, and Kate and Julia turns out that they were lovers.

Major Events

• Medical Examiner Assistant David Phillips is introduced for the first time. Although he is uncredited.

Notes

• David Berman is introduce in this episode.
• From this episode until the present season Jorja Fox, in the opening credits, is billed after George Eads.

Goof

Towards the end when Nick and Catherine are questioning the two ladies, Nick throws a finger brace with no tape on it on the table. Catherine picks it up and puts it on to demonstrate and when she puts it on, the brace has tape wrapped around it.

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 1
• Category:Images from Friends & Lovers