(S08E17) Last week's special episode of CSI, the one written by the Two and a Half Men creators, was fun and light-hearted and filled with inside jokes and gags. Last night's show was the complete antithesis: brutal, bloody and in the end, shockingly sad. It was Gary Dourdan's last episode of the series. Warrick is gone and the only way you'll ever see him on CSI again will be in flashback or we discover a twin brother or lookalike cousin.The show picked up on the storyline began last season, when Warrick bedded an exotic dancer from Pigalle who wound up dead. He was cleared back then, but never got over her death. We learn that he's been obsessively stalking Lou Gedda, the club owner whom Warrick believes had her killed. Before you can say, "what the heck is going on with the funeral with the two guys in the coffin," Warrick is caught seemingly red-handed (literally with blood all over his hands!) in Lou's office where the hulking body of the gangster has been riddled with bullets in his barber chair.
Warrick called Grissom, but there wasn't much Gil could do and the CSI team was pretty much told to stay out of the case. Brass was sympathetic, as were the rest, but the evidence was damning and Warrick didn't help his cause by being unable to remember what happened after he confronted Gedda. Internal affairs took over and ran the show. The funeral case gives Grissom and company a chance to skirt the rules to investigate what happened -- and they find a link between when the second body is a P.I. that Warrick was using to follow Gedda.
There was a lot of good character stuff in this show, like Brass and Grissom showing real concern for their colleague -- after being pissed off at him initially -- and Catherine reaching out to Warrick and then going to get him a change of clothes. It was in that scene that we saw how obsessed he was with Gedda -- you know, typical signs of stalker-like behavior, pictures all over the walls, newspaper clippings, et. al. It just made Warrick look more guilty.
When Gil finally figures out what really happened in Gedda's office, how Warrick was framed, it's revealed that the crooked club owner had a mole in the sheriff's office. Warrick was set up because he wouldn't stop snooping around and he had to be stopped. A low level, beat cop name Pritchard was arrested. When Grissom told him how he was framed, Warrick was stunned that the mole wasn't higher up -- and that was the tip off. Gil told that he would be suspended and demoted for his rogue activities, but he indicated that some time in the future, Warrick would get his job back.
Then came the twist. The CSI night shift goes to a cop hangout, a diner, for breakfast. All's well that ends well, right? Grissom socializing with the staff, how cool was that? I think he even smiled and laughed. He seemed almost human. As the group departs, Nick offered to hang out with Warrick, but he wanted to go home and put the ordeal behind him and take a shower. As a viewer, you could relate. This was a harrowing time, but there seemed there was a happy ending.
No -- uh-uh. No frakking way. Just as Warrick was starting his car, the under sheriff appeared out of nowhere (which is where Warrick had parked the car!), knocking on the window. When he didn't lift his right hand, I was suspicious. He congratulated Warrick on being exonerated. He told Warrick what a great CSI he is/was, the kind who was tenacious and dogged. Warrick assured the sheriff he would find the real mole, which is when the guy shot him. BAM! Then one more for good measure. The bullet looked like it went through one side of his neck to the other. Warrick looks dead. Deader than Sara last year under the turned-over car in the desert.
Other Points of Interest
-- All the elements of Warrick's arrest and booking had an eerie feel in light of Gary Dourdan's real-life felony arrest recently.
-- We saw a few flashes of Rebecca Buddig as Joanna, the dancer who died after sleeping with Warrick. She's now back on All My Children as Greenlee.
-- There were allusions to Warrick's gambling problems. While Nick was working on one of the corpses from the funeral case, Warrick remembered that he owed him money. Clearly, Warrick's addiction problems were not so under control as Grissom thought/hoped.
-- Chloroform can effect not only the person who's directly chloroformed, but anyone exposed and it can cause temporary amnesia.
-- Greg told Catherine that he's finished his mob/Las Vegas history book and is going to L.A. to meet with three publishers.
-- When Grissom tells the IA rep and sheriff that Warrick was set up, the IA guy said, "Who better than a CSI to make it look like a frame?" Grissom answered, "He was framed and I'll prove it."
-- Warrick hugs Grissom to thank him for clearing his name. It was a rare show of emotion, and Dourdan looked teary-eyed.
-- At the diner, Catherine kissed him goodbye and reminded him that she's there for him. After she left, Nick said, "It's just you and me, Serpico." These scenes played out like a goodbye -- telegraphing the end.
-- Before shooting Warrick, the sheriff told him, "Grissom taught you well." It's his excellence and unwillingness to give up that's cost him his life.
-- It seems like the whole African-American funeral procession at the opening, with singing, was meant to prefigure Warrick's death.
-- Catherine likes turkey bacon. Also, Hodges was not invited to breakfast -- he also was the first to rat out Warrick to IA.
-- Why do they use flashlights when they can turn on the lights?
-- Proof that CSI is at the top of the Nielsens: commercials for the new Indiana Jones movie and Batman with Heath Ledger as the Joker.
Forget the Knight Rider movie, say the series creators - TCA Report
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-16-2008 @ 3:11AM
Midnight13 said...
Wow, I'm the first to comment. Guess seeing a review of CSI is an oddity in itself. This episode was great. It was dark, brooding, and violent. I like Hodges but man, you have to be loyal to your crew. At the end I was just waiting for Warrick's car to explode when he was walking alone towards it. I was genuinely shocked when he was shot, and by the look on Warrick's face, so was he. Its really sad to see Gary Douran end his run on the show. The CSI cast is dropping like flies.
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5-16-2008 @ 3:27AM
Ryan said...
Someone NEW whose appearance made me perk up was Jay Karnes playing essentially his character from The Shield. I thought I was watching a cross-over for a few seconds, it was quite a nice surprise.
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5-18-2008 @ 10:25AM
Nicolas Graf said...
Same here. On IMDB it even says his role was "IA detective Wagenbach", but I never heard anyone introduce him in the episode, so I doubt that… it would fit Dutch's character, though.
5-16-2008 @ 3:29AM
Jez said...
Nearing the end, I was really thinking 'hey he is only demoted, surely he will be back next season'. But then I noticed there is still a good 4 minutes to the show and then I realized something bad was going to happen.
But yeah, wow man, that is cruel. To have a series regular killed off like that is cruel. Reminded me when they killed Aiden Burns by burning her (ironic much?) in CSI NY. I truly did not think they would kill off Warrick, but I was wrong. I was prepared to see him off the show, not definitely not to see him die. So sad.
But I suppose this will make good TV for next season. If Nick's burial and Sara's failed murder attempt can be a story arc for 3-4 episodes, this could be panned out for many more.
I hope that maybe just maybe Sara (where ever she is) heard about this and contacted the team. If not returning, at least to say her condolences. I miss her.
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5-16-2008 @ 3:33AM
Morjana Coffman said...
They use flashlights to pick up the reflections of evidence (glass, shell casings, hey, contact lens) that are on the floor, that may blend in with the carpet/wood floor if the overhead lights are on. Also, you get better shadows from objects with a flashlight than you would get with an overhead light.
Thinking back on Undersheriff Jeffrey McKeen (Conor O'Farrell)...he's always played his role as a slimeball.
But he should know Grissom will never rest until he catches who shot/killed Warrick.
The clock is ticking...
Morjana
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5-16-2008 @ 4:07AM
Paul said...
"Chloroform can effect not only the person who's directly chloroformed, but anyone exposed and it can cause temporary amnesia."
Except that Warrick was also chloroformed, so I think it was that which caused his amnesia.
Even though I figured what would happen by the happy-go-lucky diner scene, it was still an intense and good episode. I knew Dourdan was leaving the show, of course, but I thought after he was cleared, he'd surely lose his job over everything else.
It doesn't make a lot of sense for the under sheriff to kill Warrick, actually. He has to know that Grissom is a master and will surely investigate Warrick's murder a lot more intensely than he would investigate what higher-up was involved in the whole conspiracy. Why add more fuel (and evidence) to the fire? Dumb move, for sure.
It's sometimes hard for me to believe that "CSI" and "CSI: Miami" are cut from the same cloth. They're so incredibly different in almost every way besides the basic premise of the show (same with "CSI: New York", though while not the same as the other 2 is certainly far superior to "Miami").
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5-16-2008 @ 7:37AM
Eric Cotton said...
The dinner scene at the end was reminiscent of the final scene of the Sopranos - a similar feeling of foreboding. I was just waiting for the show to conclude with ten seconds of a black screen :-)
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5-16-2008 @ 8:02AM
taylor said...
I almost think that the undersheriff will be back and that he will come after the team when they get close to solving it. Also, at the end, I know that Warrick was shot twice, but he almost seemed alive in the last shot, or maybe it was just because he still had his eyes open.
Also, Sara Sidle is supposed to be back for a few episodes here and there, it was in the TV guide magazine a month or so ago. She said that her character will be back for a few here and there, but not permanently.
Overall, good episode. I really wish that the end was different, but with Dourdan's drug problems, I should've known that he would be off sooner or later.
When did Sanders say he was writing a book? I didn't know he was. Was it right after him being beaten by the gang from the episode with Kevin Federline?
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5-16-2008 @ 10:12AM
Dan Chichian said...
I don't think the found Pritchard and next season he will probably be found dead. I kept waiting for Nick or any of the other cops in the diner to come running out a the first shot since the under sheriff did not use a silencer.
As long as they do not drop the ball they way they did with the follow up to Nick's burial story.
Yippee an excuse to bring Electra back. Jez - I think she went back to San Fran. to deal with mom in the prison psych ward.
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5-16-2008 @ 11:08AM
Hank said...
Two things-
1. They didn't arrest Pritchard; no one has seen him since the day they found Geede's body.
2. It's AFFECT!
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5-16-2008 @ 12:21PM
Ryan said...
My guess is the following...
Nick find the body (he still in the dinner) I'd say they already have that part episode even shot. Then they investigate over the course of the season at one point Nick will find out who did it. Nick will end up killing the sheriff out of rage. Then try cover it up or claim self defense. I'll guaranteed the sheriff doesn't LIVE through the next season and he won't see the insides of a prison cell.
amazing episode...
I knew he was leaving but i figured they put him in jail then he could guest star next season as they see fit by the end finally prove him innocent then when he's released he feels like he needs to move on with his life. I didn't think they go about it that way..
Reason why Sheriff killed him because he said no more rogue for him but he not giving up on catching the one bastard out there (i.e the sheriff) and sheriff knew he wouldn't give up and that warrick would go after him rogue and not by the books and couldn't have that. Grissom will play by the rules is what the sheriff is thinking and he can control the rules. But i think nick would go outside the rules.. or maybe even grissom.
The enemy you know is better then the enemy you don't know.
In this case he knows the rules so he thinks he knows grissom. But warrick don't play by the rules so he doesn't know him. he choose whats was the lesser of 2 evils in his mind.
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5-16-2008 @ 1:46PM
Debby said...
In the episode the Under Sheriff and Brass talked about when the PI was a cop who had alot of bad marks on his record, but McKeen said he was a good cop. It was a time when the mob and the cops "worked" with each other. Apparently McKeen was one of those cops. I have to watch the epi again to see if McKeen inadvertently touched any surface of Warrick's car. You know Grissom will nail him! Warrick was like a son (or bad seed younger brother) to Grissom, and this time he may lose his infamous impersonal approach to the case.
Greg started writing the book a few season's ago when he met an old mobster girlfriend played by Faye Dunaway [Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang]. Katherine's mother, a former show girl, helped to fill-in a lot of details. It's cool that he may have a book deal.
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5-16-2008 @ 1:48PM
Gordon Werner said...
I was not expecting Warrick to be murdered as his way of leaving the show ... never mind the Under Sheriff being the one who did it.
Now, next season. Please let Liz Vassey have a bigger role on the show.
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5-16-2008 @ 4:44PM
whoosh said...
dear persons who create t.v. shows,
stop killing off the cute guys.
sincerely,
fan of cute guys
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5-16-2008 @ 6:54PM
Dan Buckley said...
Seeing Jay Karnes was cool. Having him all gray haired definitely made this role feel different from Dutch on the Shield even with it being a similar part.
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5-16-2008 @ 9:27PM
smikwily said...
Great ep. Thought I heard that Warrick would return next season, but that may have been to throw the finale a bit. I too got a little worried when the slow music started. The "parking in the back alley" thing was a little strange, but then again, they were regulars at the diner.
Just a note for Shield fans: I'm not sure if the spelling was quite right and I don't think it was mentioned in the show at any point, but I saw the name Wagenbach or something very, very similar pop up on our closed captioning.
I started wondering if maybe Dutch was brought in from out of town, he was leaving Farmington at the end of the upcoming season of The Shield, or something along those lines.
Maybe the character was supposed to be on next season after The Shield finished it's run, but due to the delays with the strike, things didn't quite line up?
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5-16-2008 @ 9:29PM
smikwily said...
Should have been a little clearer - the name came up during one of the interagation scenes between "Dutch" and Warrick. They were the only two in the room and the only ones with active dialog.
5-17-2008 @ 12:05AM
Squeakers said...
I thought it was pretty weird how they had a red-head waitress catch Nick's eye while his friend goes out and gets shot. Just like the blonde in Built-To-Kill who catches Nick's eye and while he goes off with her, she gets kidnapped. What a moron Nick is, his libido keeps getting his friends into trouble.
Plus this waitress who is supposed to be his girlfriend looks young enough to be George Ead's daughter. He's like 41 and she's 20..gee that never happens in Hollywood!!!
I think TVSquad is right, maybe Nick needs to get knocked off next, knowing Nickwit he'll probably have a piano fall on top of him and he doesn't see it because he's too busy eyeballing a woman.
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5-17-2008 @ 3:29AM
Luis Palacios said...
I read some people who were angry about the ending scene I believe it would have happen even with real life events going on.
It sad and bring up a new mission for clue crew to solve
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5-17-2008 @ 6:25AM
nickmagoo said...
not a good episode for me...everything was just OH so MEANINGFUL. the music, the looks between actors, the deep, slo-mo neon coated angst. blech. everything was telegraphing to one thing, and it was painfully obvious what that was going to be: warrick biting the dust after being cleared. would've been more interesting and more shocking if he wasn't the main focus - plus it would make the ensuing investigation more difficult to solve. but i guess they had to say goodbye since he's been there from the start...
also - is Jay Karnes going to be a regular next year?
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