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CSIblack
Stalker
40431
Season 2
Number 19
Writer Danny Cannon,
Anthony E. Zuiker
Director Peter Markle
Original Airdate April 4, 2002
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Previous Episode: Chasing The Bus
Next Episode: Cats in the Cradle

Stalker is the nineteenth episode in Season Two of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

A young woman is found murdered in her heavily secured apartment, clearly terrified of someone who was stalking her. The position of her body seems familiar to Nick, and as he and the others piece together the solution, Nick finds himself the stalker's next target.

Plot[]

Victim: Jane Galloway (deceased)

On the case: entire team

In her darkened house, a terrified Jane Galloway receives a phone call that she refuses to answer. When the caller, presumably her boyfriend, hangs up, someone else calls immediately after. This caller starts to call Jane names, and she starts biting her nails out of anxiety. The man on the other end reprimands her for doing so, and she realizes that this caller can see her. Realizing this means the man is in the house with her, Jane panics and rips the phone cord out of the wall and tries to get out of her house, but the windows are bolted shut. She flees to the closet and closes the doors, trying to hide. Her dog scratches at the closet door, prompting her to try to shoo him away. When the dog doesn't move, she pulls him into her arms and scoots her and the dog into the back of the closet, only for a pair of arms to burst out from behind her and grab her, causing her to scream and struggle.

Catherine and Grissom arrive and find Jane dead, propped up into a toilet. The body appears to be posed, and red stains all over the bathtub are identified as hair dye. Since her hair is still wet, the murder happened recently; the dog is also now missing. Catherine observes that there are no signs of forced entry and that the bathroom window is nailed shut. In fact, the entire house is a fortress, with triple locks on the front door and a state-of-the-art alarm system. Catherine wonders how the intruder got into the house, but Grissom asks the more important question: how did he get out?

Upon arriving on the scene, Nick becomes fixated on the body, seeming unsettled by her appearance. When startled by Grissom, Nick says that he doesn't know the victim. In the bedroom, Catherine collects a blonde hair from the bed and advises Nick, the "Crime Stopper," to look under the bed, where a plastic bag with a red smudge is found. Nick has become somewhat of a celebrity due to a recently solved case and an article in the department newsletter has been published about him. Catherine makes a joking suggestion that Nick should be wearing new shirts now that he has notoriety, but he mentions that the dry cleaners keeps losing his clothes.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins determines that Jane was a natural blonde and that she died from a lack of oxygen, most likely from suffocation. There are no ligature marks around Jane's neck, and the doc points out that if she struggled with her attacker, her oxygen intake would've been limited. Curiously, there are also no overt signs of sexual assault. Catherine and Grissom wonder why someone would murder Jane and pose the body, but wouldn't try to rob or rape her.

Per Warrick's warning, Greg goes to visit Nick. Nick sternly asks him to stop invading his privacy, saying that the article written about him wasn't his doing—someone in the community wrote a letter of commendation and public affairs ran with it. He just wants to do his job and doesn't want or need the extra attention. With the two now at peace, Greg watches Nick fume the plastic bag from Jane's bedroom, and they find something horrifying—Jane's face is imprinted in the bag. Her intruder suffocated her to death with the bag, then discarded it. Meanwhile, it's discovered that the blonde hair from the bed isn't human; it's a synthetic fiber that Warrick believes may be fiberglass.

Police records show that Jane had a restraining order against her boyfriend, Adam Piorio. Despite this, Adam called Jane 13 times on the day of the murder. Sara and Brass go to his house, but find it unoccupied. She soon spots Adam's car across the street, and he's found bloodied and passed out in the driver's seat. Adam awakens when Brass checks for a pulse, and the disoriented man is ordered to sit on the ground next to his car. He claims to not know how his face become bloodied, and he's taken to the station for questioning.

Under interrogation, Adam reiterates that he has no recollection of the night before. He says that he and Jane broke up a few weeks ago after she "started acting weird," which included barricading herself in her house and constantly calling out sick at work. Concerned and feeling ignored, he confronted Jane at her house and found out she filed a restraining order against him. Brass points out that Adam called Jane 13 times on the night she was murdered, which makes him a stalker. Adam replies that he was high on drugs last night, and it's confirmed that the blood on his face isn't Jane's—he got into a bar fight and punched someone in the nose.

Nick, meanwhile, goes home and unwinds. When he opens his email, he sees that his old prom date sent him pictures she recently came across. One of the photos shows her throwing up after drinking too much—she's in the same exact position Jane was staged in. A freaked out Nick discusses it with Warrick in the station locker room, saying that something feels suspicious about the whole thing, but he doesn't know what exactly. He suggests that maybe someone got into his email at work, but Warrick is skeptical. When he tells Nick to change his password, Nick responds that he already did.

Brass introduces Grissom to Morris Pearson, a psychic who claims claims to have had a vision of Jane's death hours before it happened. Curiously, he has details about the murder that weren't on the news or any press releases. When asked about his visions, Morris replies that he saw a "screaming face in a plastic womb," a "blood shower," and "three heartbeats beating very fast." Grissom is skeptical, but Morris correctly guesses that Jane had a dog and his assumption is that the dog also perished.

Sara goes through Jane's work history. She was a secretary at a brokerage firm until she took a leave of absence three weeks ago due to severe anxiety. One day back from leave, she quit her job and checked into the Monaco hotel for two nights. A week before that, she went on a shopping spree, purchasing everything from high-end security systems to locks; she even changed her telephone number. Sara surmises that Jane was a victim of emotional terrorism, but there's something even more disturbing—the calls she was receiving were coming from inside her house. Meanwhile, Brass discovers that Morris also recently stayed at the Monaco hotel—and that he had the adjoining room next to Jane.

Grissom and Brass take Morris to the hotel and question him on his connections to Jane. He claims that he had no idea Jane was their victim and says that he tried to contact her the evening she had stayed at the hotel. Morris explains he had sensed a "negative energy" from her room, and had been trying to explain that to her. A freaked out Jane hung up the phone, and a subsequent call to her room ended the same way. When Jane checked out of the room, Morris followed suit, saying that he "shared her fear" and was only hoping to comfort her. Grissom and he then talk about his visions, and Morris reveals more visions he had about Jane: "three locks," "hanging ghosts," and "wooden beams in 'church darkness.'"

Grissom takes Morris to Jane's house and shows him the locks on the front door. Morris affirms that they're the locks from his vision, but he says that the angle he saw them at was from higher up, as if he were seeing them from above. The same thing goes for the "hanging ghosts" (clothes) in Jane's closet. Grissom shines his flashlight around the closet and finds a gap in the ceiling that leads to the attic. Inspecting the attic, he finds disturbed insulation, labeled peepholes in the attic floor that show each and every room below, and a rigged phone that leads into Jane's second line, indicating the stalker had been hiding out up there. Grissom suspects that the stalker wasn't interested in Jane for sex or any other typical motivation, instead being more interested in the control he had over her life by living in her attic and terrorizing her, and the entertainment of observing her so closely without her knowledge.

Catherine finds assorted equipment the stalker used, including a digital camera with a fiberoptic lens, night-vision goggles, and a digital recorder. She and Grissom then discuss how the stalker got in, as the attic window only opens from the inside. Grissom suspects that he somehow gained voluntary access to Jane's home at some point, and they wonder who people voluntarily let into their homes every day. This leads to a search through Jane's bills to determine which utility companies worked on her home.

Warrick and Nick check out a Luna Cable employee named Nigel Crane, as he had been one of the personnel that had visited Jane's house recently. As they walk up, Nick remarks about Luna Cable, and that he had it installed himself, to his enjoyment. They find the front door slightly ajar, but nobody appears to be home. Nick searches the house, while Warrick takes a phone call outside due to bad reception inside the house. As he looks around, Nick's attention turns to some drops on the floor that lead to a trash bin in the kitchen. There, he finds a single, red-stained latex glove, but is unaware that someone is descending from the ceiling to sneak up on him. Nick looks up when he hears the figure get to the floor, but it's too late. Outside, Warrick sees Nick come barreling out of the house's second-floor window, landing in the bushes below. Deciding not to pursue the suspect, Warrick rushes to Nick's aid.

The ordeal leaves Nick with a concussion, two cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, and five stitches to the forehead. The doctor says that Nick is fine to go home and rest, and is lucky that the damage wasn't worse. Warrick berates himself for not apprehending the suspect, but Grissom says that he did the right thing in tending to Nick. The team wonders why the stalker didn't try to actually kill Nick, and Grissom suggests they check out Nigel Crane's home themselves.

Grissom goes over Nigel's past, finding that he has no criminal record and lives alone in his house with little social contact. Catherine notices Nigel doesn't have much furniture or other typical features of a home, but Grissom checks his attic and finds that Nigel primarily lives up there, confirming him as the stalker. They find all of his important items up in the attic, along with a collection of videotapes.

Watching the tapes reveals Nigel, talking about his views on others, seeing them as beneath himself and other such beliefs. On the videotapes, Nigel begins talking of a person who understands him, and Catherine notices a copy of the "Crime Stopper" article in the background behind him with Nick's picture circled. This leads the team to suspect that Nigel is the one who read Nick's email, and when Sara asks if Nick has satellite cable, Warrick brings up Nick's mention of it earlier. Grissom comes to a realization: they've been looking at the tapes the wrong way. Archie plays the last tape in Nigel's collection, which has Nigel talking more heavily of the person, calling him a "friend" and then referring to Nick, confirming that he's indeed the person Nigel is now fixated on.

Nick is released from the hospital and taken home. He takes some medication and tries to relax, but soon receives a knock at the door. It's Morris Pearson, who says he's worked with Grissom. He begs to be let in, saying he's had more visions. Morris reveals that he saw Nick's house and street number in one vision, explaining his arrival. Nick is suspicious and confused; he asks Morris to leave, but Morris fearfully demands that Nick listen to him. The psychic then says that he saw "falling and crashing" and "somebody seeing through the back of his head," and asks if "green tea" means anything to Nick, which Nick doesn't understand. Morris wanders as he talks, going around the house while Nick is called by Grissom, who warns him about Nigel and says that the cops are on their way to the house. Nick mentions that Morris is in his house, and Grissom asks that Nick keep him there.

When the phone call ends, Nick discovers that Morris has vanished. Not finding him, Nick then hears heavy sounds from his ceiling, following them back into his living room. As Nick walks across his living room carpet, which has a green 'T' on it, the ceiling busts open and Morris' body falls out, crashing to the floor. A moment later, Nigel jumps down, having killed Morris when he found him. He and Nick converse, with Nigel revealing intimate knowledge of Nick's life and habits, and confirming that he's wearing the clothes that Nick thought he had lost at the dry cleaners. Nigel then explains that he encountered Nick when he installed his cable, and that he feels connected to Nick because they both observe others. Nick asks about Jane Galloway, and Nigel talks about her, revealing that his posing of Jane was a "gift" to Nick. He then starts getting aggressive towards Nick, explaining that he had been "meeting" (actually following) Nick and that Nick had been "blowing him off." Flashbacks reveal that Nigel was present earlier when Nick walked to his house, and again when he and Warrick were visiting Nigel's place.

Trying to defuse Nigel's anger, Nick tries to talk him into helping with the procedure for a dead body, but Nigel refuses, pointing a gun at Nick and threatening to blow his brains out. When Nick asks Nigel how exactly he wants this situation to end, Nigel responds "I want you to be able to remember my name..." then turns the gun on himself, intending to commit suicide. Nick wrestles him for the gun, just as the cops bust in. They grab Nigel and arrest him.

Nigel is put in an interrogation room, repeating "I am one and who am I..." endlessly. Nick, who is watching from outside, asks why it was him Nigel had targeted, and Grissom answers that it seemed that neither Nick or Jane Galloway had been what Nigel was concerned about in particular. Nigel had apparently been obsessed with "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," a psychological theory about a person and their desire to belong. In Nigel's interpretation of it, he needed someone he could control, i.e. Jane Galloway, and someone to become, which he had found in Nick. In Nigel's realization of his version of the theory, Nick would have to die for Nigel to properly "be" him or else Nigel himself would have to die. Sara then tries to comfort Nick that Nigel is going to prison for life, telling him that "it's over." Nick responds that it isn't over for him, but it is for Jane Galloway. The team then return to the lab, while Nick watches Nigel be taken away, still repeating the same words.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Notes[]

  • When held at gunpoint by Nigel Crane, Nick tells him that this isn't the first time he's had a gun pointed at him. Nick is referring to the season one episode Who Are You? when Amy Hendler held him at gunpoint after he found out she was guilty of murder.
  • When Nick is buried alive in Grave Danger, Part 1 (season five), Nigel Crane is mentioned as a possible suspect. However, the suggestion is pushed aside when it's revealed that Nigel is still in prison.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 2
BurkedChaos TheoryOverloadBully for YouScuba Doobie-DooAlter BoysCagedSlaves of Las VegasAnd Then There Were NoneEllieOrgan GrinderYou've Got MaleIdentity CrisisThe FingerBurden of ProofPrimum Non NocereFelonious MonkChasing The BusStalkerCats in the CradleAnatomy of a LyeCross JurisdictionsThe Hunger Artist
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