Rashomama | |
Season | 6 |
Number | 21 |
Writer | Sarah Goldfinger |
Director | Kenneth Fink |
Original Airdate | April 27, 2006 |
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Next Episode: Time of your Death |
Rashomama is the twenty-first episode in Season Six of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Synopsis[]
A wealthy but disagreeable defense attorney is murdered at her son's wedding, and the CSIs are called in to investigate. However, Nick's truck is stolen with all the evidence inside it, and the case becomes compromised. The CSIs must think back to their investigations as well as search for new evidence to find the killer.
Plot[]
Victim: Diane Chase (deceased)
On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle, Jim Brass
As her son and new daughter-in-law are paraded in a convertible to celebrate their wedding, the body of Diane Chase is dragged behind it, much to the horror of the guests. Greg, Nick and Sara work the crime scene for 11 hours, collecting every bit of evidence. Afterwards, Nick joins them at Frank's Diner to have breakfast. They discuss the notion of a wedding, with each CSI seeing things differently. A news report on the diner TV explains that Diane was a fierce lawyer known for defending high-profile organized crime members. She had recently represented mobster Dino Fatelli, who was sentenced to life in prison for murder. On the surface, it appears that someone got revenge on Diane at her son's wedding. During the news report, a truck pulls into the parking lot, stopping between Nick's truck and the restaurant. When the truck leaves, Greg notices that Nick's truck is gone.
Grissom arrives with Brass and tells the three CSIs to keep their mouths shut and look apologetic. Undersheriff McKeen arrives with a roll of antacids in his hand. He recaps what has occurred, which includes two of the CSIs being maxed out on their overtime, Nick using his personal truck, and Nick not bringing the evidence back to the lab immediately to secure it. Grissom adds that, even if the evidence is recovered, the chain of custody has been broken. Therefore, all evidence would be thrown out of court. Additionally, the crime scene was released, meaning that it, too, has been compromised.
Nick tells Brass that he parked the truck in view and that a box truck blocked it for two or three minutes, tops. The alarm on the truck didn't go off and he's sure that he locked it. He adds that the truck has a tracking system on it. Brass guesses that the Fatellis stole the truck and that they would know where to find the tracking system. Sofia arrives and says that there's no evidence of broken glass or tire treads.
Grissom tells Greg, Nick and Sara that Internal Affairs will want their statements and he has them write down everything they can remember, including evidence collected and interview notes. After he leaves, Catherine runs into him in the hallway. He tells her that the Fatelli case was handled by the day shift and that they'll need the case file. When told that they have no crime scene photos, Grissom notes that every wedding these days has a videographer, so they'll have to collect the video.
In autopsy, David Phillips shows Grissom that Diane had a vital response to the ligature marks around her ankles, meaning that she may have been alive when she was tied to the convertible. She also suffered significant trauma to the back of the head.
Undersheriff McKeen tells Brass that he has a problem—since Diane was an enemy of the department, the press will believe that they lost the evidence of her murder on purpose. He believes that it's going to look like the CSIs were paid off by the Fatellis, meaning that the department is either inept or dirty.
In the break room, Greg, Nick and Sara write down everything they can remember from the scene. Sara recalls that she was able to lift some prints from the "just married" convertible; unfortunately, it'll be hours before the convertible is brought to the lab. They soon find that it may be easier to remember every detail if they talk things out. Sara begins:
Sara's flashback
Sara arrives at the crime scene, which is full of vibrant colors. She marvels at the cheesiness of the setup and the fake flowers set up on the trestle. As she makes her way through the crowd, she passes Nick, who is talking to two bridesmaids, Mindy and Cindy. Sara only hears them speaking in fast-forward gibberish. She then runs into a drunk groomsman, Bryce Gundy, who admits that he and his friends tied the beer cans to the back of the convertible, but didn't do the same to Diane. He's uncaring about the fact that there has been a death and tells Sara that Diane and her son were "creepy close." After Bryce falls flat on his face, fellow groomsman (and best man) Mikey Shoemaker intervenes and introduces himself as the brother of the bride.
End of Sara's flashback
Sofia tells Catherine that the tracking device from Nick's truck was found in a trash can a few blocks from the diner. She guesses that if the Fatellis are behind the theft, no prints are going to be recovered.
With the three CSIs still working on their statements, Nick pulls a cocktail napkin from the wedding out of his pocket. It has Mindy's phone number and a pink lipstick kiss on it. He denies getting a number and says that Mindy must've slipped it into his pocket. Nick then gives his point of view:
Nick's flashback
The color palette is a little muted compared to Sara's. As he approaches the flower arch, he notes that the scent from them was everywhere. He speaks to Cindy and Mindy and tells them that he'll need their prints. Mindy complains that she's cold, and Nick gives her his jacket. The two girls tell Nick that Diane's wedding toast was a disaster, ending with her slurring her speech and swaying all over the place.
End of Nick's flashback
Catherine enters the room with the wedding DVD in her hand. All three CSIs want to start with the wedding toast. They see that just a few minutes into Diane's speech, she started swaying and using her hand to balance herself on the table. After she lost her card with the speech, she winged it. The ad-libbed speech turned into disdain towards the bride, Jill, as Diane criticized her plain looks and boring name. The CSIs watching the video are stunned at what they've just watched, and Catherine jokingly wonders if Diane's murder was justifiable homicide.
Sara shows the video to Grissom and says that Jill now has a motive for murder. Grissom wonders when a bride would have had time for murder on her wedding day. He then recounts what he saw at the scene:
Grissom's flashback
Grissom walks through the flower arch reciting a poem and stops to watch a ladybug on one of the roses. He questions Jill, who says that Diane made her life a living hell and that she told anyone who would listen that she wished Diane would die a fiery death. Diane had done everything possible to sabotage the wedding—she wore white, she invited her son's attractive, single female friends, she changed the gift registry behind Jill's back, she demanded roast beef be served despite Jill being a vegetarian, and she gave the horrible toast. Jill adds that Diane fought with everyone that day, including the caterer.
The caterer shows Grissom a smashed wedding cake, courtesy of Diane. He adds that Diane scared him and took years off of his life, then goes into detail about how tightly scheduled a wedding day is. It seems that Jill wouldn't have had time to commit murder, let alone tie the body to the convertible.
End of Grissom's flashback
As Sofia interrogates Dino Fatelli's brother, Sylvano, Undersheriff McKeen and a federal agent watch from behind the glass. The federal agent, who had infiltrated the Fatelli organization, tells McKeen that Sylvano didn't kill Diane, as he was running numbers out of his bar all day. McKeen thinks that Sylvano could've ordered someone to kill Diane, but the agent says that the brothers like to be hands-on, adding that he heard the Fatellis were mad that someone had stolen their M.O.
Doc Robbins tells Greg that Diane suffered two separate events—the back of her skull was punctured, creating a subdural hematoma. She then ended up with subsequent blows to her skull due to being dragged behind the convertible, causing her death. The doc says that he autopsied the Fatellis' original victim and notes that they go the whole nine yards—they don't "mostly kill someone."
Catherine shows Nick a blown-up still from the wedding video; there was someone peeking through the window during the reception. Nick recognizes the guy as the groom's father and says that he was found in the bushes trying to sleep one off. While interrogating Ernest Chase, Brass recalls his conversation with his son, Adam. Adam claims that nothing went right during the wedding, including his mother "accidentally" bringing the wrong dress. He says that his father showed up uninvited, that he's unstable, and that he's had a drug problem for years.
Ernest tells Brass that Diane's stories about him are untrue. Because of the way she acted after she went back to work, he started taking antidepressants. This resulted in the two getting divorced, with Diane claiming that the medication affected his libido even though they hadn't had sex for months when he started taking them. He tells Brass that he doesn't drink much because of the medication, but decided to do so before the wedding. A flashback shows him trying to sneak by Diane to get into the wedding; however, he got caught and subsequently kicked out. He says that he stuck around to watch the ceremony and some of the reception before being found sleeping in the bushes. Ernest makes sure to add that they better make sure Diane is dead, as you can't kill the devil.
Henry tells Nick and Sara that Ernest's blood alcohol content was way too high for him to be functional enough to kill Diane and tie her to the convertible. And, assuming that whoever took Nick's truck is the killer, Ernest was already in the tank when that occurred. He also says that Diane had high levels of diazepam in her system; however, there was no prescription for it in her medical records, meaning someone else drugged her. This would seem to explain her behavior during the reception, but it doesn't explain how someone tied her to a car bumper. Greg enters and says that he thinks he knows what happened:
Greg's flashback
Greg tells his story in sepia tone a la a film noir. He admires a woman and follows her through the flower arch. Upon passing through the reception area, he makes his way to bridesmaids Lacey Finn and Valerie Whitehead, sitting by themselves in a secluded area. The two ladies aren't the least bit upset about Diane's death, comparing her to a witch. They take cotton swabs from Greg's kit and begin to take each other's DNA samples, which Sara guesses didn't really happen.
Lacey tells Greg that the last time she saw Diane, she was in the hospitality suite complaining of a headache. The next time Diane was seen, she was dead. In the suite, Greg looks around and finds some snowboards that were given as gifts. He eventually comes across a statue of cupid pointing a bow and arrow. He notices blood on the arrow's tip and two red spots on a nearby towel that test positive for blood.
End of Greg's flashback
Greg wonders if Diane, high on diazepam, slipped and got the arrow straight to the back of her head. The arrow was four-sided and would have left a diamond-shaped wound pattern similar to the one on Diane's skull. If the wound was accidental, Sara asks, why would someone tie Diane to the back of the convertible? Nick points out that this discovery narrows the suspect field down to anyone who had access to the suite. The statue was collected as evidence but, much to their dismay, it was placed in the back of Nick's truck.
Diane's fingernail scrapings unsurprisingly come back as butter cream frosting due to her smashing of the cake. The convertible Diane was tied to is cleared and brought to the CSI garage. In the trunk, Greg and Sara find a snowboard bag, which she finds odd since the snowboards were in the suite. Inside the case, there are white towels covered in blood.
Archie has watched the wedding video and followed Diane's comings and goings. He tells Catherine that Diane had two glasses of champagne, but shows her that 15 minutes after Valerie brought her the second glass, Diane started to look woozy. Diane is later shown getting up during best man Mikey Shoemaker's speech. During the speech, Mikey quips that he drives a tow truck, so he knows something about "getting hitched." Diane makes her way over to Valerie and whispers something to her before departing. Lacey then gets up and follows Diane out of the room. Catherine has Archie play back Mikey's speech and calls Brass to find about his wants, warrants, and the location of his tow yard.
As Greg, Nick and Sara process the convertible further, Greg finds a nearly empty bottle of diazepam prescribed to Jill. The missing amount is similar to the amount found in Diane's system. Wendy enters the garage and informs them that the blood from the snowboard bag is a match to Diane, meaning the bag was likely used to transport the body from the suite to the convertible. Furthermore, there are two female epithelial contributions, one on each handle of the bag, and one of those females was a match to the DNA in the knot in the pantyhose tied to the back of the convertible.
Nick, tired of waiting for Internal Affairs and adamant that he didn't do anything wrong, heads to the locker room. As he's complaining about his situation to Warrick, Warrick interrupts him and tells him that his shirt is covered in blood. Nick later explains to Wendy that he loaned his jacket to a bridesmaid and that the blood must've transferred from her to him when he put the jacket back on. He couldn't see the blood on the bridesmaid's dress because she was wearing black. Wendy cuts the shirt off of Nick, saving it as evidence. Nick adds that he has a napkin in his pocket and wants Wendy to compare it to the female epithelials from the snowboard bag.
Brass tells Catherine that Mikey has a prior conviction for car theft. Nick's truck was found in the paint bay in Mikey's garage next to a delivery truck; Mikey's whereabouts are unknown. Catherine says that Mikey never left the party after Diane disappeared, so he's innocent of her murder. Nick's truck is towed into the CSI garage and he's distraught when he sees the new stylized paint job his beloved vehicle was given.
The cupid statue is recovered from a dumpster near Mikey's body shop. Greg measures the tip of the arrow and the wound from Diane's head and sees that they match. Sara enters and tells him that the evidence won't stand up in court due to the chain of custody being broken; however, Greg says that the suspects might not know that. The CSIs job is to convince the suspects that they know what happened. Greg finds that there are two handprints on the front of Diane's suit jacket and comes to three conclusions—1) Diane was stabbed by the statue, 2) she accidentally fell on it (again, if so, why would someone tie her to the convertible?), or 3) she was pushed into the statue.
Lacey's prints are the ones that were on the jacket; however, they're absent from the diazepam bottle. Jill is also off the hook for dosing her future mother-in-law; her prints would be in the system since she's a nurse. Mandy finds that the prescribing doctor for the diazepam is a Dr. Whitehall, Valerie's husband. Hodges walks in with the trace results from the jacket—it's hair gel. Greg remembers that Lacey went back to the suite to fix her hair.
Mikey is located and brought in for interrogation. Catherine tells him that he's being charged with grand theft auto, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to murder. Mikey cops to everything but the murder and says that one of the bridesmaids approached him and asked him to steal Nick's truck and trash the evidence. With sex on the brain, he doesn't know which bridesmaid asked him, nor does he care.
It's found that the Mindy (the bridesmaid who gave Nick her phone number) matches the DNA found on one of the snowboard bag handles. In the break room, Greg, Nick and Sara recap the case for Grissom, telling him that every bridesmaid had a hand in Diane's murder. Based on the wedding video, Valerie got Diane a drink and laced it with diazepam. When Diane left during Mikey's speech, she whispered in Valerie's ear that she knew what Valerie did and that she would have her arrested for attempted murder and have her husband's medical license revoked. Lacey heard this and followed Diane to the suite. After getting berated by her, she pushed her into the cupid statue accidentally. Lacey then went back to the reception and told Cindy and Mindy what happened. The three then put the body in the snowboard bag in an effort to frame the Fatellis. Afterwards, they made it back to the reception for the bouquet toss.
The four bridesmaids—Cindy, Mindy, Lacey and Valerie—each tell Brass individually that Diane was a terrible person and that her murder was accidental, but seemingly justified. Internal Affairs finally arrives for Greg, Nick and Sara. Grissom tells Undersheriff McKeen that, while they were waiting for Internal Affairs, they recovered the evidence and solved the case. A still unhappy McKeen asks which one of the CSIs wants to give their statement first, and Grissom tells him that it doesn't matter—he's sure their stories are all the same.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- 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
- Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
- Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
- Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass
Guest Cast[]
- Louise Lombard as Sofia Curtis
- Wallace Langham as David Hodges
- Liz Vassey as Wendy Simms
- Conor O’Farrell as Jeffrey McKeen
- Sheeri Rappaport as Mandy Webster
- Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
- David Berman as David Phillips
- Jon Wellner as Henry Andrews
- Paula Francis as News Anchor
- Ray Wise as Ernest Chase
- Veronica Cartwright as Diane Chase
- Daniel Roebuck as Frank Rosetti
- Carmen Argenziano as Sylvano Fatelli
- Johnathan McClain as Adam Chase
- Amanda Seyfried as Lacey Finn
- Rachel Miner as Valerie Whitehall
- Chris Hardwick as Mikey Shoemaker
- Dave Power as Bryce Gundy
- Rheagan Wallace as Mindy Farberge
- Reagan Pasternak as Jill Shoemaker
- Claire Coffee as Cindy Jansen
Episode Title[]
- The episode's title is a reference to Rashomon, a movie by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The film uses the perspectives of multiple characters to tell the story of a crime, similar to how the CSIs individually remember what they saw at the wedding.
Music[]
- Feel Like Makin' Love by Bad Company
- Any Other Name by Thomas Newman
- Dead Already by Thomas Newman
Notes[]
- Frank's Diner was also featured prominently in the Season Thirteen episode Code Blue Plate Special when it was the site of a mass murder.
Trivia[]
- Ray Wise played Enerest Chase in this episode. Wise is an accomplished actor of both television and film, known for his role in the show Twin Peaks.
- Amanda Seyfried played Lacey Finn. She would later become recognized for her role in the 2008 film Mamma Mia!
- Chris Hardwick played Mikey Shoemaker. He is known for being the host of the show Talking Dead, which recaps the most recent episodes of the shows The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. He is also the host and executive producer of the game show The Wall.
Errors[]
- McKeen is seen putting an antacid in his mouth with his left hand. However, in the next shot, he lowers his right hand.
See Also[]
- List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
- CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 6
- Category:Images from Rashomama
CSI:Las Vegas Season 6 | ||
Bodies in Motion • Room Service • Bite Me • Shooting Stars • Gum Drops • Secrets and Flies • A Bullet Runs Through It, Part 1 • A Bullet Runs Through It, Part 2 • Dog Eat Dog • Still Life • Werewolves • Daddy's Little Girl • Kiss-Kiss, Bye-Bye • Killer • Pirates of the Third Reich • Up in Smoke • I Like to Watch • The Unusual Suspect • Spellbound • Poppin' Tags • Rashomama • Time of your Death • Bang-Bang • Way to Go |