Question: Why would Catherine take the blame for the lab explosion? If anyone was to blame it was Hodges. Since he accidentally turned on the hot plate and even admits that sometimes it gets switched on by others accidentally, if he had bothered to make sure he didn't switch it on before leaving the room, the explosion never would have happened.
Question: Is there an episode in which someone gets impaled by an icicle? I seem to recall the team not being able to find the murder weapon, and then someone realized that it had melted. This could also be CSI: New York.
Answer: The episode on CSI:NY was called "Love Runs Cold" and first aired on October 4, 2006 (Season 3, Episode 3) and involves the investigation of a model found stabbed to death by an ice dagger.
Question: Why does Mrs Perez tell Catherine that they couldn't find a marrow donor for Daniel because he's mixed race? I thought it didn't matter what race you are when it came to donating organs or blood, as long as the blood types match or were compatible.
Answer: What is often called bone marrow transplants is the transplant of hematopoietic stem cell. Instead of blood type match, patients need to be an HLA match (human leukocyte antigen). There's a lower percentage of matching one's HLA type with a random person than blood type. When it comes to matching human HLA types, a person's ethnic background is important in finding a match because the HLA markers used in matching are inherited, and some ethnic groups have more complex tissue types than others. A person's best chance of finding a donor may be with someone of the same ethnic background, meaning someone on the registry would have to be of mixed race as well. At the time, the total number of multiple race donors in the registry was very low (I don't have the figures for 2004, but in 2014 there were less than 500,000 multiple race donors).
Question: Is it ever explained why Robbins has a limp and uses a cane of some sort?
Answer: The answer is the actor who plays him, Robert Hall, is a double amputee therefore he needs his crutch to get around in everyday life not just on the TV show. See this CNN page for more details: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/13/apontv.hall.ap/. I'm sure in one episode he mentions something about his legs and hints at it being a Vietnam injury.
Question: Sarah asks Grissom to have dinner with her. Moments before, Grissom removes a card from his filofax thing for a 'Dr. Karen Roth'. I'm uncertain, but is this the blonde entomologist he had chemistry with in an earlier episode (they were discussing their mutual love of tarantulas, I think)? If not, who is it?
Answer: It's his ear doctor. At the time, he was thinking of getting his big operation. The entymologist's name was Terri Miller.
The Accused Is Entitled - S3-E2
Question: How did the movie star's blood on the sheet prove that he was the murderer? Maybe his scab just got knocked off. Hardly damning evidence by itself. Anyone explain?
Answer: The blood made a specific imprint of a scar on his knee which CSI matched to his knee and the trailer step he fell on.
Question: In this episode, Catherine says, "I think I know the word that made her throw her coffee," and Sarah says she hates that word. While I could take a few educated guesses, I'm not sure what word they mean and I can't tell from Croft's mouth movements either. Can someone enlighten me?
Answer: I believe that she is referring to the 'C' word.
Question: According to IMDb, Kaley Cuoco stars in this episode as "Zoe Young" but I've just watched the episode and can't see her anywhere. Is this a mistake on IMDb or is it just a blink and you'll miss it appearance?
Answer: This site includes a screenshot of her in the episode: http://www.aveleyman.com/TVEpisode.aspx?FilmID=1512&Episode=20031023 In this 2003 episode, she was 17, although in the screenshot, she appears to be about 12, and not at all like her current look.
Question: How accurately does the show depict the way crime scene investigators do their job?
Answer: The show is very unrealistic. For starters, the primary function of a crime scene investigator is to collect and analyze physical evidence. The show consistently shows crime scene investigators engaging in detective work to help solve their cases. This does not happen in real life. A crime scene investigator's job is not to "solve" a case, they are simply meant to examine evidence. Also, the crime scene investigators on the show routinely question suspects along with the detectives, which is absurd. The actual methods of collection of evidence and equipment used on the show is however, fairly realistic; although this show and many others exaggerate the importance of leaving a crime scene undisturbed.
Homebodies - S4-E3
Question: OK, I don't get it. Who killed Suzanna? Was it the same guy that raped her? And how were the two cases interlinked?
Answer: As I understand the episode, yes the man that raped Suzanna then killed her. She makes the comment during the line up that "he already knows it's me" and I guess you are to assume that he tied up the loose end by killing her since she didn't pick him in the line up and he was set free. And I believe they get fingerprint results that confirm that Kelly James was also responsible for the first crime scene.
Question: OK, why does the title song have nothing to do with the show? It keeps saying "haaaawaii!" over and over, yet the show takes place in Vegas, not Hawaii. I never got that.
Chosen answer: It's actually "Who Are You," which is the title of the theme song by The Who. A bit more fitting for a crime show's theme than constantly saying Hawaii.
Cats in the Cradle... - S2-E20
Question: I've always wondered as to what would happen to the young girls that murdered the old woman. Would they go to juvenile hall? Or would they be let off because they are young? The episode ends without the audience being told what would happen.
Answer: While it is impossible to know for certain, it is highly unlikely they would be let go and would be prosecuted to some extent. In support of this is the statement made by real life Nevada Judge Mills Lane (Ret.), "In Nevada, if you commit murder or attempted murder you do not go to juvenile court, you go right to adult court."
Question: This applies to all three of the CSI shows. How accurate are the methods the forensic scientists use? Does Luminol function in real life like does on the show? Can the investigators actually zoom in on a picture, then press a button, and have it instantly upgrade in quality? (On a recent CSI: New York, they zoomed into the reflection of a ladies eyeball, and made out the t-shirt of a suspect)
Answer: On the surface, the scientific techniques they use in their case work are what are used in real life, but the results and what they interpret from the results, are nonsense. Perfect example: finding suspect fingerprints on doorknobs. Doorknobs are the worst place to get fingerprints because so many people touch them. I can also remember many cases where they will analyse something like petrol by GC-MS and they pretty much can tell which petrol station it came from: again, can't be done, you can sometimes get a general idea of where it came from, but not that accurate. Luminol does function to detect blood but you wouldn't spray it on all over the place like they do because you can't then analyse it for DNA, etc. The stuff with the digital pictures is possible with high resolution cameras. I haven't seen that CSI: NY episode but I can't imagine it being possible to pick up a reflection in someone's eye if the picture's good enough. Something else which the shows don't portray is how long these cases take: forensic labs run on a case work backlog of months, even up to a year. Technology these days is heading towards being able to analyse evidence at the crime scene to make things work faster, but at the moment most evidence goes to the lab and sits there until it gets to the front of the queue.
Blood Drops - S1-E7
Question: Is Brenda the result of Tina's abuse by her father or from just a random boy?
Chosen answer: Yes, Brenda is both the daughter and the half-sister of Tina.
Homebodies - S4-E3
Question: How did Suzanna die at the end? To shoot herself, outside of her house, after just being to the grocery store is ludicrous, but what parents who were told, "Go to the cops and we kill you" – wouldn't take Suzanna away and try to figure out some protection from this person still on the loose? Why the same people who lied to the police the day after the home invasion apparently felt that it would be safer to gallivant about in public (i.e. to the grocery store) with Suzanna, after the home invader was on the loose doesn't make sense. Can someone please explain this?
Answer: She was killed by the two perpetrators. Since she failed to identify them in the line-up (too scared), she and/or her parents must have thought that they were "safe."
Question: Why doesn't the real CSI have the lab in house like a correction stated? It also said that DNA testing testing is prioritized by case importance. Why doesn't the CSI use this method in real life?
Answer: There are some exceptions; some smaller divisions have a lab in-house and sometimes LE is nudged to put one case over others and solve it quickly (i.e. very public cases to save their reputation). These have to be exceptions and not the rule. It is expensive to house together (real labs are much bigger than seen on the show and there are many more scientists who all specialize in an area). It can also cause contamination if labs are open to more people and makes mistakes easier to happen. Not to mention if the scientists work that closely with the detectives, they could be biased and get the cases dismissed. If it's independent, this isn't an issue. They also need to work on several cases at once rather than focus on one priority or it'll cause heavy backup, which is not fair to other families/victims. Any time LE is nudged to go quicker than usual, it only backs up other cases and creates a bigger risk of a case not being properly solved. All cases should be treated with care.
Question: Why do characters refer to Langston as "Dr. Ray" instead of "Dr. Langston"?
Chosen answer: The CSI team is very close-knit and use each others first name all the time. Calling him Dr. Ray is their way of including him in the closeness of the team and still giving him the respect of his title.
Question: While with family we started watching an episode of this, but never finished. It involved a convention or meeting of Achondroplasiacs/Dwarfs, and one part involved interviewing an Achondroplasiac while she was playing a slot machine, with a discussion on Achondroplasia and Psuedo-Achondroplasia. What episode is this called?
Answer: I believe the one you are thinking of is "A Little Murder" with Phil Fondacaro - season 3, episode 4.
Answer: He doesn't have the authority to arrest him - when anyone is arrested in the show, a police officer does it. Also he tells Ty that he is going to be submitting his case findings to Ty's insurance company, who would no doubt contact the IRS, who then would have him arrested for fraud etc.