Bad Blood


Bad Blood

Season	15
Number	3
Writer	Tom Mularz
Director	Louis Milito
Original Airdate	October 12, 2014
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Previous Episode: Buzz Kill
Next Episode: The Book of Shadows

Bad Blood is the third episode in Season Fifteen of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

Greg and Sara are quarantined after responding to a crime scene that’s contaminated with a deadly pathogen.

Plot[]

Victims: Jack Weaver (deceased)

On the case: D.B. Russell, Greg Sanders, Morgan Brody, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle

Greg and Sara are called to a crime scene. The victim, identified as Jack Smith, lies dead in the middle of his living room. Since the name appears to be fake and the victim paid for the place in cash, he remains relatively anonymous. There's blood everywhere, spattered on the walls and pooled on the floor. Greg finds a spent 9mm shell casing on the floor and observes that Jack was extremely interested in end-of-the-world paranoia. Jack was shot once in the neck, but it doesn't explain how blood got everywhere. Sara soon takes a closer look at the body and sees that Jack was bleeding from his eyes, a sign of a viral epidemic. The pathogen could be in all the blood and could also be airborne. Sara radios dispatch, telling them that her and Greg may have just been exposed to something.

Outside, Dr. Emmett, the CDC Emergency Response Specialist, tells Russell the symptoms suggest a virus. The house will be treated as a hot zone and will be "nuked" with ultraviolet light and formaldehyde fog, killing any living organism inside. Russell points out that this will destroy any evidence pertaining to Jack's murder, but the CDC will follow protocol, even though the murderer may have also been infected. Greg and Sara exit the house in Hazmat suits and tell Russell that they had to leave all the evidence behind. The only thing they could do was take photos of the scene and upload them to the cloud.

The CSIs will have to be quarantined for up to two weeks, as the viral incubation period is unknown. Dr. Heather Lanning, a representative from RyneLab Biomedical, arrives and introduces herself to Russell and Ecklie. The lab is a private research facility equipped to handle the deadliest organisms, and she's there to determine what kind of virus they're dealing with.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins determines that the shot that killed Jack was a through-and-through. Lack of sooting and stippling indicates that the shot wasn't from up close, and the irregular entry pattern suggests ricochet before impact. No identification or possessions were found in Jack's pockets, and there were no hits on his prints in AFIS; for now, he's being referred to as "Patient Zero." Upon opening up the body, the doc finds that the lungs are soft and hemorrhagic, while the spleen is mushy. Dr. Lanning believes that this is consistent with a filovirus infection, such as Ebola.

Nick scans the photos taken by Greg and Sara at the crime scene in an effort to identify who the victim really is. He eventually comes across a rented library book; however, before he can follow up on the lead, he and Morgan are called into the layout room. There, Dr. Emmett tells them and Russell that the pathogen has been identified as the Ibare virus, a blood-borne virus similar to Ebola. The virus replicates at a staggering rate, decimating the host's cells and causing massive hemorrhage. There are no effective treatments, and the fatality rate is 80%. Dr. Lanning gives the same grim news to Greg and Sara. The other main concern is that someone else infected could spread the disease around the world simply by sneezing amongst a group of people. If that person is the killer, he or she needs to be caught in order to stop a possible outbreak.

The borrowed library book from the house identifies the victim as Jack Weaver, a world-renown "virus hunter." An eight-year-old news article about him says that he traveled the world stalking the planet's deadliest organisms. However, after the article came out, Jack's trail started to fade, as there's no evidence of employment records or Internet presence. Nick also comes across a photo of Jack on one of his expeditions—and Dr. Lanning is standing in the same photo. She's an old coworker of Jack's at RyneLab and never mentioned it after she saw his body in autopsy.

When questioned by Russell, Dr. Lanning claims that she didn't know the body in autopsy was Jack. She goes on to say that Jack was brilliant, but years of fieldwork to virus-ravaged countries took a toll on him. When they arrived back in the States after one particular trip to Bolivia, Jack never recovered emotionally and had to be let go.

The Ibare virus has never been discovered in the United States, and Jack's passport records don't show any recent international travel. However, RyneLab actually has specimens of the virus they use for "bio-defense"—they cultivate the organisms to prepare for the possibility that they may one day end up on U.S. soil.

Police records show that one week before he was murdered, Jack was found drunk on the streets of Vegas prophesizing about a plague. The prophecy seems to have come true, only Jack was shot before the virus had a chance to manifest. It's thought that the shooting and infection are related, and Nick wonders if Jack still had connections in the virus-hunting field. A theory is that Jack was hired to be a wingman for a bioterrorist, but he ended up getting shot when things went awry. This would mean that the shooter ended up with the viral ammo, leading Nick to conclude that a blood void left at the scene could be from a briefcase used to transport a deadly pathogen.

Morgan and Nick are granted access to the house; however, the ultraviolet light and formaldehyde destroyed all biologicals and DNA. Noting that the autopsy report indicated a ricocheted bullet, Morgan searches near the body's position and finds a bullet skip mark in the floor. The bullet impacted at a low angle, so Jack was lying down when he was shot. Nick finds the bullet in the nearby couch, and the CSIs theorize that Jack, who was already sick and in a prone position, was shot. The killer then took the briefcase and whatever its contents are.

The bullet found in Jack's house matches a round recovered from a gas station holdup six months ago. The robbery's main suspect, Shawn Steubens, has priors for weapons violations and robbery. Nick and Officer Mitchell go to Shawn's place of residence; when Nick looks through the window, he sees Shawn in a prone position with blood coming from his eyes. The virus has infected someone else.

In the hospital, Shawn tells Nick that he saw someone enter Jack's house wearing a Hazmat suit. Between the suit and the shoddy neighborhood, he figured Jack was operating a meth lab and went inside to rip it off. However, upon entering, he found Jack bleeding on the ground. He admits to taking the briefcase because it looked important, and when the person in the Hazmat suit started approaching him, he fired his 9mm in self-defense. Shawn says that Jack's murder was an accident, and he's unable to identify the person in the Hazmat suit. He adds that the briefcase he stole is still in his house, but he was never able to get it open.

As Greg and Sara watch a news report, Sara develops a high fever and collapses. Fortunately, her illness isn't Ibare-related, and she's up and running again when given medication. When Russell visits, the CSIs ask him to put them to work. Russell informs them that the briefcase in question was recovered; however, it only contained Jack's computer. The hard drive will be uploaded and sent to the quarantined CSIs.

Jack's web history reveals that he was obsessed with the Ibare virus long before he became infected with it. The focus was on one particular outbreak in 2006, when the virus tore through a village in Bolivia. He and Dr. Lanning were sent there to study the outbreak and help with the infected, a trip that caused him to burn out. It's unknown why this event is of particular importance, but Sara discovers that Jack was emailing Dr. Lanning up to a week ago. This contradicts her earlier statement that said she hadn't talked to Jack in years. The rambling emails mentioned that the two virus-hunters had to "talk about Bolivia." Just then, the attorney for RyneLab, Rudy Adela, shows up and provides Russell with a recording of Dr. Lanning covering up the disappearance of one of the vials of the virus.

In interrogation, Russell confronts Dr. Lanning about her recent communications with Jack. He shows her a surveillance photo of her and Jack entering the RyneLab facility after hours a week before he died. Jack had requested to meet at the lab and, since Dr. Lanning agreed, Russell guesses he had some sort of leverage over the doctor. She claims that she never let Jack anywhere near the specimen storage, but admits that he was out of her sight for no more than two minutes. Since Jack knew the layout of the lab, it seems likely he swiped the vial quickly and without Dr. Lanning's knowledge.

Russell theorizes that Dr. Lanning realized her mistake and went to confront Jack at his house. However, by the time she got there, Jack had already infected himself. Knowing that the lab would shut down if her mistake came to light, she let Jack bleed out and die. Her plan to dispose of the body hit a snag when Shawn entered with his gun drawn. Therefore, she panicked and left the body and the blood in the house for Greg and Sara to come across. The interrogation ends when Dr. Lanning asks for her attorney.

It's still unknown why Jack took the vial or how he ended up infected. Nick believes that Jack infected himself with the virus purposefully to expose RyneLab as a whole. His emails hint at such a possibility, and all signs point to the '06 Bolivian outbreak as the tipping point. Morgan and Nick go through the reports from the outbreak and find nothing incriminating; 20 people were infected and 17 died. However, Morgan spots something sticking out from behind a photo recovered from Dr. Lanning's desk at the lab. It's a letter that the doctor wrote to herself; in it, she confesses that she and Jack, per the lab's directive, lied to the Bolivian townspeople about the virus, telling them that it was the common flu. This led to the townspeople visiting their ill relatives and getting infected themselves. Dr. Lanning was able to move on from the incident, but Jack couldn't live with the guilt, seemingly resorting to suicide.

Morgan goes to the lab and swabs the refrigeration unit the vial was kept in for fingerprints; however, she only recovers a partial print. Since the room is normally kept spotless and everyone who enters is wrapped in rubber, the print belongs to the ungloved person who stole the virus. Henry suggests using microbial forensics, explaining that every person has a unique mix of organisms on their skin. The combination is as singular as a fingerprint or DNA. Normally, there are far too many microbes on a surface to distinguish between contributors; however, here, they only have one contributor—the person who stole the virus.

Nick and Russell go through the Bolivia files and notice something—or someone—in one of the photos. Rudy Adela, RyneLab's attorney, was one of the people in the Bolivian village when the outbreak occurred. Under interrogation, he tells Russell that both of his parents and his sister died in the outbreak. Despite this, he had admired RyneLab's mission and strived to work for them one day, which he was able to do after getting his law degree.

While working for the lab, Rudy came across Dr. Lanning's letter and discovered the truth. Microbial DNA proves that he touched the letter and was also the one who stole the virus from the refrigeration unit, as the DNA combination is the same combination that was found on his recorder. From the letter, he discovered Jack Weaver was responsible, and he worked on getting his revenge. Rudy confesses to breaking into Jack's house and injecting him the virus, revenge for the deaths of his family members. He then stuck around and watched Jack suffer the same way his family did. Working as the lab's attorney, he watched them cover everything up; recording Dr. Lanning was his way of bringing the whole company down.

In the hospital quarantine, Greg and Sara are informed that they're going to be just fine, as it's discovered that the virus dies two hours after being exposed to air. Jack's house wasn't actually contaminated by the time the CSIs arrived on the scene. David Phillips arrives and shares in his friends' joy; unfortunately, he's there to collect the body of Shawn Steubens, who wasn't so lucky. Greg and Sara hug each other and head to breakfast with a new lease on life.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Marc Vann as Conrad Ecklie
Larry M. Mitchell as Officer Mitchell
Paula Francis as Herself
Lauren Stamile as Dr. Heather Lanning
Walter Perez as Rudy Adela
Rick Otto as Jack Weaver
Jake Richardson as Sean Stubens
Ugo Bianchi as Hugo Bianqui
James Lesure as Dr. Emmett

Quotes[]

Sara Sidle: Russell, I need you to do something for me.

D.B. Russell: Yes of course, anything.

Sara Sidle: If we are gonna die, we need to go down fighting, okay? So put us to work.

D.B. Russell: Neither one of you have my permission to die! You've got that?

Goofs[]

The landlord should've also been quarantined, as he was in the room before Greg and Sara arrived on the scene.
There seems to be an obvious script error in the story. When the lawyer, Rudy Adela, sneaked into the storage facility to steal a virus sample, he would've been sealed up in the protective outfit like all others, which wouldn't have given him the chance of leaving any fingerprint at all.

Notes[]

While in quarantine, Sara reassures Greg that everything will be fine, as they survived a similar incident in the past. Greg recalls the case of "the dead jock with the killer mold in his wall," a callback to the Season Five episode 4 x 4.

Trivia[]

Lauren Stamile, who played Dr. Lanning, also had roles in both CSI: Miami (Season One, Spring Break) and CSI: NY (Season Four, Commuted Sentences).

< Buzz Kill	CSI:Las Vegas Season 15	The Book of Shadows >
The CSI Effect • Buzz Kill • Bad Blood • The Book of Shadows • Girls Gone Wilder • The Twin Paradox • Road to Recovery • Rubbery Homicide • Let's Make A Deal • Dead Rails • Angle of Attack • Dead Woods • The Greater Good • Merchants of Menace • Hero to Zero • The Last Ride • Under My Skin • The End Game • Immortality