Character mistake: Art expert Dale Kingston describes Goya as 'the penultimate artist'. "Penultimate" has nothing to do with greatness or artistry, it means second to last, and nowhere during his speech does he indicate that Goya is 'second to last' in anything to do with the discussion. In the context he uses it the word is completely meaningless.
Character mistake: Seven minutes into the show, Sarah Sidle is about to do an internal sexual assault exam/kit on an unconscious victim in the hospital, Sarah picks up a metal speculum and says aloud to the victim (in a presumed moment of empathy), that she "never really liked this part of my yearly exam. These things are always freezing" referring to the speculum in her hands. She then brings a speculum to her mouth and begins to blow open-mouthed on it two times, forcing her hot breath on it to warm it. She then begins to insert it into the victim as the scene cuts away. This is pure stupidity, as no trained CSI would ever contaminate the tool like this. Sarah just added her own DNA to the speculum via her breath so any saliva or body fluids are now on the speculum what she is about to use on this patient, who is now also exposed to any STDs from Sarah.
What Happens at Home... - S6-E10
Character mistake: After the murder that takes place while the team is at the church meeting, they gather together to talk about narrowing down the suspect list to the people who didn't show up to the meeting. Spencer shows up with a stack of papers and says 18 suspects didn't show up. We then see his actor break character and almost laughs when he looks over at Ashley, whose actress too almost breaks character from laughing.
Character mistake: As Reddington sets up the blood transfer between himself and Ressler he inserts the intravenous line in Ressler's arm first and then in his own arm. This way the remaining air inside the line gets into the recipient's body and could very well kill him. Judging the expert way he handles the set up he should know to first insert the IV in his own arm, let the line fill with blood and then insert the IV in Ressler's arm.
Suggested correction: That amount of air would probably not cause any problem. It actually takes quite a lot of air to cause any issue.
Character mistake: In the 11/14/2005 US Army Rangers report about Peter MacLeish, the word captain right under MacLeish's signature is misspelled "captian."
Communication Breakdown - S5-E19
Character mistake: When Mac, Stella, and Danny are trying to determine where the fired bullet entered the train car, none of them are wearing rubber gloves. But even though they're not handling any evidence, they're still processing a crime scene. (00:05:00)
Suggested correction: Theoretically correct, but it can be argued that the only evidence present is the bullet (which has DNA and prints burnt off when fired) and the body (which can only be handled by the MEs) gloves are not required.
What utter rubbish. No CSI would enter a crime scene without first putting on latex gloves - it is a carved-in-stone rule.
Exactly. Since Mac, Stella and Danny were processing a crime scene, they would need to wear gloves because without them, they would have contaminated a crime scene by not only getting their fingerprints over everything but, if one of them got a cut or scrape, their DNA would also be thrown into the mix and any defense attorney can call them out on their carelessness and have any evidence thrown out.
Character mistake: While looking at a doctored photo of Lincoln and his mother, Lincoln mentions that Michael was born in 1976, but at the end of "Killing Your Number", it reads on Michael's grave stone that he was born in 1974.
To Russia with Love (1) - S3-E24
Character mistake: While talking with Falcon, Harm mentions the "green book" Falcon stole that listed all of the American POWs transferred to Russia after the Vietnam War. But when Harm originally found the book in "Ghost Ship", its cover was yellow.
Day 4: 10:00 P.M.-11:00 P.M. - S4-E16
Character mistake: 23rd minute. Jack meets the female assassin in Anderson's apartment. She demands that he show his credentials. Jack says he's with CTU on a provisional basis and therefore he has no badge. The agent that came with Jack confirms that. Yet, in the 13th episode (minute 14) when he enters the sports shop with Audrey's husband, he shows his CTU badge to the owners in order to prove that he in fact is a federal agent.
Character mistake: Carrie tells Aayan that she can arrange for him to study at the Royal College of Physicians. The college isn't a medical school; it's a professional body.
Green Thumb - S6-E10
Character mistake: When Kim is trying to convince Lisbon to help the FBI on their case, she says Jane stopped the ten-year reign of a mass murderer. Red John was a serial killer, which, by the FBI's definition, is a criminal behavior distinctly different from mass murder; he may have had a large number of victims, but he killed them either one or a couple at a time, with a cooling-off period in between, not all at once.
Character mistake: In the first scene with Cameron after she walks away from John next to the lockers, there's a poster on a wall to the left. It contains the word "guidance" misspelled as "guidence".
Character mistake: When Olivia and Dr Galina are in the bathroom, Galina mentions an umbilical chord, from a baby whose mother died (Nadia), that contained Olivia's mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA comes from the mother, so Nadia's Mitochondrial DNA came from Letha who got hers from Marie, absolutely nothing to do with Olivia.
Character mistake: Tom Mason makes references to smaller armies defeating larger ones, of which history is rife with examples. He cites the Scottish defeating 'the British' at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. 'The British' did not exist at that time. The Scots administered a beating against the English in the Scottish War of Independence, against the Earl of Surrey, under Edward I. Someone with his level of knowledge would know that.
Character mistake: At the end of the episode, after Sarah has been tricked into revealing her plan and is rather obviously going to go to jail, Tru tells her that she "should have taken half," meaning that she should have settled for half of Andrew's money in a divorce instead of trying to get all of it by having him murdered. But Tru seems to be forgetting that Sarah has been trying to divorce Andrew all along, and it's Andrew who has stood in the way of that. Sarah would evidently have been perfectly happy with half, but Andrew prevented it from even being on the table for her, so Tru's comment doesn't make any sense.
Character mistake: Horatio writes the symbols for sulfuric acid, H2SO4, on a clear board. Both numbers should be subscripts but he writes the 4 as a coefficient (which precedes the name of the acid but he writes it after), suggesting a lack of basic chemistry knowledge.
Character mistake: When Faith arrives in LA she is carrying a bag. She puts it on the ground and then steals a man's jacket and wallet. Afterwards however, she leaves without picking up her bag.
Nobody Knows Anything - S1-E11
Character mistake: When Tony tells Dr. Melfi he feels as though a safe might fall on his head, she replies, "a feeling of pending doom." A woman of her intellect and education should know the proper word is "impending." "Pending" means something awaiting a conclusion. "Impending" means about to occur.
Stop Me Before I Hug Again - S1-E13
Character mistake: In Brian's "Laws I Have Broken Since Joining FBI" list, item #30 misspells the word "recorded" - "30) Recoreded NFL Game Without Consent." He'd only have that knowledge if he was using NZT, and if he was, he wouldn't make a mistake like that.
Night of the Living Dummy III (1) - S2-E24
Character mistake: When Zane sees Rocky with the hockey mask, he seems legitimately terrified when he notices him. However, he was responsible for putting him there and no-one else was around. There is no reason for him to express real fear when he planned for his appearance the whole time. (00:11:44 - 00:12:08)
Suggested correction: He only pretended to be scared in order to fool his cousins, uncle and aunt.