Say Uncle

Say Uncle
Season	9
Number	6
Writer	Dustin Lee Abraham
Director	Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate	November 13, 2008
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Say Uncle is the sixth episode in Season Nine of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis

The CSI team investigates a shooting at a Koreatown neighborhood party, in which the mother and uncle of a small boy, Park Bang, are murdered.

Plot

Victims: Sung Bang and Kora Sil (both deceased)

On the case: entire team

At a neighborhood party in Koreatown, gunshots cause partygoers to disperse and run for cover. A young boy is seen standing in the vicinity with blood spatter on his sunglasses. At nightfall, Grissom and Riley look over the scene; there are two victims, one male and one female. Five shots in total have been fired, but only one casing is on the ground, possibly from foot traffic kicking the casings every which way. The male victim is identified as Sung Bang, but the female victim doesn't have any identification on her. Sung has prison release forms in his wallet, as he had just been released earlier in the day. Riley remarks that their suspect is probably Korean since nobody in the crowd has come forward with a description. Grissom finds the boy's sunglasses on the ground. Though it's unclear whether he ran or was kidnapped, they're now looking for a missing child.

The numerous partygoers are brought to the station for questioning, which is difficult because of the language barrier. Greg is in charge of checking all of them for blood spatter, which he finds on one man. Brass questions the man, but he refuses to talk about anything that isn't his business.

Doc Robbins tells Grissom that both victims died from gunshot wounds; however, they were shot with two different guns, meaning that there were either two shooters or one shooter with two guns. Furthermore, while Sung was shot at fairly straight and level, the female victim was shot at a 20-degree angle, front to back. The female has needle marks between her toes and scars above both of her eyelids. This, combined with her hanging out with a recently released ex-con, leads them to believe that she's possibly a hooker whose pimp paid for cosmetic surgery.

Catherine and Riley go over Sung's history, which is clean outside of his DUIs. He had no children nor any gang affiliations. In the two hours between his release and his death, he stopped at a department store.

Grissom finds out that the female victim had a blepharoplasty (eyelid procedure) and Brass passes the victim's photo around a block in Koreatown known for its plastic surgeons. The doctor who performed the procedure is found, and he tells Brass that he was held at gunpoint while performing the surgery by members of the KD (or the Kkangpae Dragons), a new crime organization in town. Their game is extortion and they only take from their own because they know that their own won't turn them in. Det. Cavaliere interrupts and tells Brass that they got a hit on a surveillance camera in the department store.

Catherine and Brass head to the department store and are surprised to find a high-tech forensic lab in the back of the store. The lab, which is better equipped than some labs in the country, is in place to combat shoplifting in a high-crime area. Sung is spotted on the surveillance feed with the young boy. The boy is seen grabbing a toy, which the store has already collected and fingerprinted. Catherine compares the prints from the crime scene with the prints on the toy's box and determines that it's the same boy. Records indicate that Sung had no children, so who is the kid?

Brass shows the surveillance footage of Sung and the boy leaving the store to Bae Chin, the boy's CPS investigator. She identifies the boy as Park Bang. Sung is his uncle, while the female victim is his mother, Kora Sil. Park's father, a gangster in both Korea and the United States, died of AIDS a few years ago, which led to Sung taking over the father role. Bae adds that Sung is the one who informed Child Protective Services about Kora's drug use. Like his mother was, Park is HIV positive, which puts him on a strict drug regimen, meaning that he needs to be found immediately. Brass theorizes that a gang killed Park's mother and uncle and that since he was a witness, he could be dead, as well.

It's found that Kora served three months in jail for prostitution. Archie checks her Friend Agenda page and traces her last post to a house in Koreatown. The man, Yang Pan, says that he knows both Kora and Sung, but denies that Park is there. He admits that he let them come over and use his computer. When pressed, he tells Brass that he had known Park's father for his entire life and that they came over from Korea together. Because of this, he treats the family as if it were his own. The house is searched by an officer, but Park is nowhere to be found.

Nick looks over a map of Koreatown and notes that the department store is only a couple of blocks away from where the shooting took place. Since Sung didn't have a car, he figures they walked there, taking one of two routes to get to their destination. A receipt from the department store shows that Sung purchased a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a bunch of sweets for Park. Since the sunglasses were the only thing found at the scene, the team figures the rest of the items were discarded at some point and heads out to the scene to find them. An unwilling Hodges finds the shopping bag in the first trash bin he searches.

Nick, Riley and some uniformed officers go the house adjacent to the trash bin, barging in when there's no answer at the door. In the living room, a frightened Korean woman is confused about the intrusion. Nick explains to her that they're looking for Park, but she doesn't understand English. She suddenly pulls a gun and starts screaming at Nick and Riley in Korean. Riley points her gun at the woman while Nick calmly tells the woman to put the gun down. Nick remains calm and asks again about Park. As the woman looks like she's about to pull the trigger, Park appears in a doorway and tells her in Korean to put the gun down.

Park is brought to the hospital to be cared for. There, Riley tells Grissom that she lightly questioned Park without his child advocate present, which is against regulations. Grissom sends her back to the lab and watches the doctor tend to Park. When Park's shirt is removed, it's revealed that he has a feeding tube near his stomach and a skin condition that's possibly a side effect from his HIV medication. There's also blood around the feeding tube area, indicating that he may have tried to pull it out.

With help from a translator, Nick questions the woman who Park was found with. She recalls that she was watering her garden when she heard the gunshots and then saw Park standing at her fence watching her. She took the boy in, fed him, and let him play with some toys before he fell asleep. When asked why she pulled a gun on the police, the woman says that where she comes from, people protect their neighbors and she believes that turning Park over to the police would've resulted in more aggressive medical treatment.

With the advocate now present in the hospital, Brass shows Park a photo array of Korean men and asks if any of them were the shooter; however, Park refuses to talk. Grissom is able to coax Park into having his fingernails scraped for evidence. While he's doing so, Park's doctor, Dr. Eisling, enters which causes Park to grab Grissom's hand in fear. As Grissom watches, Park is given more medication against his will and screams in pain.

Back in the lab, Grissom and Nick look over the evidence. The white shirt Park was wearing thrown into the garbage, as it was covered in blood spatter; he changed into a dark blue one in the woman's house. Henry enters with Park's tox results and reveals that the boy is being badly overmedicated and that most of the medications are extremely dangerous for an adult, let alone a little boy. Furthermore, some of the drugs aren't even on the market yet, leading Grissom to wonder if Park is in a medical trial.

Trace from under Park's fingernails comes back to Yang Pan, whose house had been searched earlier. It's revealed that his real name is Jang Ming and that he has a criminal history. Wendy tells Greg that the skin under Park's nails came from the butt. When they look at Jang's past and current photos, they see that he had tattoos on his neck covered up, leading Wendy to think that skin from the butt was grafted onto the neck. A search of Jang's house reveals that it's now completely empty upstairs. In the basement, there's a bed and some family photos; it appears that Park and his mother were staying there. Det. Cavaliere finds a picture of Jang with Park and his mother. When he picks up the photo to get a closer look, he discovers that it's booby trapped. A small explosive knocks him back.

Greg informs Grissom that Det. Cavaliere suffered minor injuries. Grissom points out that if the Jang and the KD really wanted to hurt someone, they would've sent a more powerful message. Greg finds out that Kora was suing Dr. Eisling for money; the doctor had paid Kora to put Park on the clinical trial, but it apparently wasn't enough.

Grissom researches articles about HIV-positive children and the uses of anti-HIV therapy. At the hospital, he stops Dr. Eisling from administering more medication to Park, telling him that data he's collecting is useless since Park was missing for two days. The doctor insists that the drugs are saving Park's life, but Grissom and Bae shut him down. Park watches the interaction from his hospital bed with a smile.

In the room, Grissom asks Park to recall the events the day his mother and uncle were killed. Park says that his uncle found him in Jang's basement and was appalled at the condition his nephew was in. He fought with both Jang and Kora, and Park scratched Jang's arm in the melee. They escaped the house but were spotted by Jang and Kora at the party. Carrying two guns, Jang first shot Sung, then turned around and shot Kora with the other gun. Grissom relays the information to Brass and is surprised to find out that Sung was released from prison with a 9mm gun. However, there's no evidence that Sung even got a chance to fire it.

Evidence shows that Sung was carrying his gun in the waistband of his pants, while Kora was carrying a gun in her purse. Riley theorizes that they shot each other—Kora fired first and knocked Sung down to the ground, but an undead Sung sat up and shot Kora twice before dying. She adds someone in the neighborhood picked up the gun, Jang skipped town because his once-invisible gang has been exposed, and he left a booby trap because he was angry about it. Grissom is still following Park's statement and offers to have them test their theories at the scene.

Park is brought back to the scene of the crime and arranges three dummies to show where Jang, his mother, and his uncle were standing. When asked, he claims that nobody had a gun, nor was anyone falling down before they were shot. Riley whispers that Park is obviously lying and points out the 20-degree angle at which Kora was shot. Park recreates how his mother was shot, and his arm is stretched out at the same angle as the bullet trajectories. Grissom and Riley now know that Park shot his mother. A flashback shows Kora confronting Sung at the party and shooting him dead. Park then found the gun in his uncle's waistband and shot his mother in retaliation.

Grissom tells Brass that Park shot his mother for shooting his uncle while Jang had nothing to do with it. Brass says that, ironically, Park will now get better care in juvenile detention than he was getting on the outside. Grissom replies that he's sorry they solved the case.

Cast

Main Cast

• William Petersen as Gil Grissom
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
• George Eads as Nick Stokes
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
• Wallace Langham as David Hodges
• Lauren Lee Smith as Riley Adams
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Guest Cast

• Gavin Toy as Park Bang
• David Berman as David Phillips
• Liz Vassey as Wendy Simms
• José Züniga as Detective Chris Cavaliere
• Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
• Larry Sullivan as Officer Akers
• Jon Wellner as Henry Andrews
• Larry M. Mitchell as Officer Mitchell
• Paula Francis as News Anchor
• Lauren Tom as Bae Chin
• Sung Kang as Jang
• Patrick Labyorteaux as Bob Lenz
• Lanny Joon as Jang Ming/Yang Pan
• James Kyson as Officer Kwan
• Peter Mackenzie as Dr. Eisling
• June Kyoto Lu as Mrs. Lee
• Kevin Moon as Sung Bang
• Jin Yang as Kora Sil
• Isabelle Marlowe as Mindy (uncredited)

Trivia

• The armed confrontation with Mrs. Lee during Park’s rescue appears to be inspired by the stand off with Eleanor Bumpers, an elderly black-American woman who refused eviction and fought with police until she was killed with a shotgun blast.
• Lauren Tom played Bae Chin in the episode. She has leant her voice to the animated shows King of the Hill and Futurama as well as appearing in numerous movies and television shows.

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 9
• Category:Images from Say Uncle