csi: crime scene investigation
the good, the bad and the dominatrix (23/24)

The successful Las Vegas-based forensics drama continues its seventh season. This week, Catherine and Brass investigate when dominatrix Lady Heather is almost strangled to death at a Wild West theme park; and Warrick and Nick look into the death of a young woman apparently hit by a taxi cab.

An old acquaintance re-enters Grissom’s life this week when Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke, ‘The OC’), the notorious dominatrix, is found half-dead by a night-watchman at a Wild West theme park. As Heather is rushed to hospital, Sara and Catherine sweep the scene for clues. Catherine reflects that Lady Heather is “the only woman I’ve ever seen rattle Grissom,” and adds, “they had chemistry” –unaware that her musings on Heather and Grissom’s relationship are making Sara uncomfortable.

Sara is curious to know more about Lady Heather, but her attempts to collect DNA samples from her at the hospital are rebuffed, while the dominatrix refuses to answer Brass’s questions. A concerned Grissom has better luck at extracting her story: “I was planning an Old-West party,” Lady Heather explains, “and I was checking out the facilities.” She claims the theme park’s owner gave her permission to be there at night, but she will not say who it was that almost garrotted her with a rope, and quickly checks out of hospital.

Evidence shows that Lady Heather may have endured three strangulation attempts, and could have been sexually assaulted – yet she did not fight back. An appalled Grissom cannot understand why Heather is protecting her attacker: “This makes no sense,” he says. “Why didn’t she fight?”

The case takes a sudden turn when the nightwatchman is found dead. The police theorise that he could have been involved in Heather’s attack – only for her to get her revenge on him. Brass and Catherine head to Heather’s house with a search warrant and demand to know her whereabouts at the time of the watchman’s death, only for an unexpected figure to step forward and provide her with an alibi: Grissom. “She was here with me,” he says. A furious Catherine cannot believe that Grissom has planted himself in the middle of an investigation, while Sara is confounded by her lover’s behaviour. Can Grissom explain his actions and get to the bottom of the case?

Also this week, Warrick and Nick probe the death of a young woman apparently hit by a car. The victim turns out to be a kleptomaniac who was picked up by a foreign taxi driver in a black and yellow cab. Footage from the cab’s onboard camera indicates that the woman picked the driver’s pocket before getting out – giving him motive for running her down. But further evidence in the form of paint flecks from the scene indicates a second cab was involved. Was the young woman a victim of two battling taxis?