Pirates of the Third Reich

Pirates of the Third Reich
Season	6
Number	15
Writer	Jerry Stahl
Director	Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate	February 9, 2006
Navigation
Previous Episode: {{{previous}}}
Next Episode: {{{next}}}

"Pirates of the Third Reich" is the fifteenth episode from the sixth season of the American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Synopsis

The CSIs uncover the body of a young woman, Lady Heather's daughter, in the Nevada desert. While Heather pursues an investigation of her own, the crime lab discovers that the victim's killer has more victims in his past.

Summary

A half-naked woman is found half buried in the desert with a number branded on her arm. She has no hair and is missing her right hand. The woman turns out to be Lady Heather's estranged daughter, Zoe. The autopsy reveals she was starved to death, injected with a flesh eating bacteria and probably chewed off her own hand; one of her eyes is also not actually attached, but is only sitting in the socket. After looking over photos of Zoe while she was still alive, Catherine and Grissom realize that her right eye was brown while her left was blue; however, Zoe was found with two blue eyes. A rambling homeless person named Captain Jack is found with only one eye, and it is his eye that is in Zoe's socket (a DNA test having confirmed it was not the victim's). A medical examination of the suspect shows that he has been lobotomised and has also been branded with a number. The team investigates the Betz Clinic where the deceased, and the homeless man, underwent a sleep therapy session for insomnia.

Nick and Warrick head into the desert and find a house which is owned by the head of the clinic. The house smells storngly of decomposition, but they discover plants called "corpse flowers" in the garage. Nick speculates that the only reason someone would keep such foul smelling flowers woulld be to cover up the real thing. They become suspicious when Lady Heather is caught inside illegally, but the owner chooses not to press charges. Heather hints that she suspects he's hiding something and reveals a manuscript that she recovered from the house which was stolen from a nearby library.

The doctor is found dead in his car the next day, however his body is frozen solid. Lady Heather appears with a semen sample from the suspect, claiming to have slept with him the previous night, despite the fact it would have taken up to two days to freeze the body. A search of his records leads the CSIs to believe that their suspect is the identical twin of the doctor. The twins were raised by adoptive parents (who were Jewish). Grissom suspects that the killer appears to harbour Neo-Nazi beliefs and murdered his brother (who decided to follow the Jewish faith), who was the frozen corpse. He then took over his brother's identity and medical clinic.

After obtaining a warrant, the house is searched. The CSIs find a room with documents detailing the killer's gruesome "experiments" and an area where he held his victims. Over the doorway is sign that reads Arbeit Macht Frei ("work will set you free"), which was the sign over the entry at Auschwitz-Birkenau. In one of his notes, he writes about Zoe, "subject is physically pure, with the exception of the right eye." Catherine realizes that the killer removed Zoe's brown eye and replaced it with Jack's blue eye in order to "perfect" her. Upon hearing muffled moans, they open a hidden door that reveals a dark cell with chains and equipment for branding inside. A pair of artificially made conjoined twins are also found (branded with numbers as the other victims were) but one is already dead, and the other dies in the hospital. Grissom speculates that Zoe, chained to the wall and terrified of what would become of her, chewed her own hand off to escape. The killer is nowhere to be seen.

Grissom then finds a piece of jewelry belonging to Lady Heather and immediately leaves. He finds her on the road with the killer tied to her car, whipping him in a rage. Grissom manages to stop her from killing her daughter's killer by using a "safe word" that registers with her.

Continuity

Lady Heather also appears in the following episodes:

• Season 2 episode "Slaves of Las Vegas"
• Season 3 episode "Lady Heather's Box"
• Season 7 episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix"
• Season 9 episode "Leave Out All The Rest"

Tony Amendola returns in the role of Professor Rambar, who first appeared in "Secrets and Flies". Amendola previously appeared in CSI as two different characters in "I-15 Murders" and "Viva Las Vegas".

See also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

References

• Lady Heather To 'Lose Control' In 'Pirates Of The Third Reich', CSI Files, February 2, 2006
• Why not 'CSI: Kink'?, USA Today, February 7, 2006

External links

• Lady Heather's Dominion
• Sense of Self - A Lady Heather Community
• "Pirates of the Third Reich" at CSI Files