csi: crime scene investigation
living doll (24/24)

The successful Las Vegas-based forensics drama concludes its seventh series this week. In tonight’s nerve-wracking finale, the identity of the replica killer is finally revealed, but not before a member of the CSI team is placed in grave danger; and Grissom and Sara’s relationship comes to light.

After a season of twists and turns, the CSIs think they have a new lead on the serial killer that has struck four times, leaving a replica of the crime at each location. A man named Ernie Dell originally confessed to the crimes before killing himself, but it later emerged that he lied to protect somebody else – possibly one of his 13 foster children. The police now have a lead on another of his grownup foster kids, Trevor Dell –but when the CSIs arrive at his flat, they find him beaten to death on the bathroom floor.

Grissom suspects that the serial killer may have got there first when he finds a miniature doll of Trevor in the apartment. The doll boasts a tiny bracelet with Trevor’s name on it – yet the figure does not match the body and there is no replica scene to be found. “Maybe this one wasn’t planned,” Sara says. “Maybe the miniature killer has to make the miniature after the fact.”

DNA from a partial fingerprint on the doll reveals the surprising truth that the killer is a woman. “Female serial killers are rare enough,” Grissom muses. “Delusional psychosis in women – rarer still.” Nick cannot believe that a woman could have beaten Trevor to death, so he looks again at the cause of death, and discovers that he was electrocuted. A second look at the scene reveals that Trevor’s sink was electrified by the neighbour.

The police burst into the neighbouring apartment and arrest the occupant, who quickly confesses to stealing electricity from his neighbour by attaching cables to his supply. “So the genius steals power from his neighbour and ends up electrifying Trevor’s sink,” Catherine concludes. Trevor Dell’s death was nothing more than an accident – yet this does not explain the presence of the doll.

Grissom traces the person who made the bracelet on the doll and finds out who ordered it: a twentysomething girl named Natalie. Sofia pulls the name ‘Natalie Davis’ out of Ernie Dell’s file and Grissom and Catherine go to speak with Natalie’s biological father, Christopher Davis, who relates their tragic story: Natalie killed her baby sister when she was just six by pushing her out of a tree house. Davis gave her up for fostering and she was eventually cared for by Ernie Dell. Both Davis and another of Natalie’s foster parents testify that Natalie was deeply disturbed.

With the suspect identified, Grissom returns to the lab to find a new replica has been left in his office, showing a car turned over in the desert. Beneath the car, a trapped figure waves its arm. Lifting the car off, Grissom’s worst nightmare is realised when he finds a tiny doll of Sara.

A search reveals that Sara is missing and the CSIs race to pull together the evidence. It transpires that Natalie is a cleaner at police headquarters and planted the replica in Grissom’s office herself. She also recently bought a wrecked car in order to stage the latest crime scene.

The CSIs realise that Natalie has departed from her normal methods but are unable to explain why – until Grissom reveals that her motives are personal: “This girl holds me responsible for the death of Ernie Dell,” he says. “I took away the only person she ever loved, so she’s going to do the same thing to me...” With his relationship out in the open, can Grissom and his team finally catch the killer? And will they be in time to rescue Sara from her terrible fate?