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Goodbye and Good Luck
Goodbye
Season 8
Number 7
Writer Sarah Goldfinger,
Allen MacDonald,
Naren Shankar
Director Kenneth Fink
Original Airdate November 15, 2007
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Previous Episode: Where and Why
Next Episode: You Kill Me

Goodbye and Good Luck is the seventh episode in Season Eight of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

Sara questions her future as a CSI when a past case comes back to haunt her, as 12-year-old Hannah West is backing up her brother one more time with all new tricks up her sleeves.

Plot[]

Victim: Kira Dellinger (deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle, Jim Brass

The episode starts with Sara sitting alone in the station locker room cutting the stitching on her name tag from her CSI vest.

At Western Las Vegas University (WLVU), a student falls from one of the dorm rooms to her death. David Phillips is unable to find any identification on the body, while Catherine photographs something in the blood nearby. Nick finds padlocks on the door to the roof, meaning that the victim didn't jump from there. The resident director identifies the victim as freshman Kira Dellinger and provides the location of her dorm room. There, Nick finds an open window that's directly above where Kira landed. A screw on the windowsill is consistent with a perimortem scratch on Kira's back. It appears Kira was pushed out the window.

Elsewhere, an already worn out and worn down Sara is called to the scene of a domestic disturbance along with Ronnie. When they enter the premises with an officer, they find the place a mess with blood on the floor in several places; however, neither Adam Jiminez or his wife Kim, who live there, are present. Suddenly, Kim shows up in the front door disheveled and disoriented. She has blood on her clothes and Ronnie notices a knife sticking out of Kim's back. Kim admits to having an argument with her husband but doesn't know where he is now. While Kim is being tended to by the paramedics later on, Adam arrives and starts attacking his wife thinking that she called the cops on him. While Adam is being restrained, Sara watches from a distance, completely out of it. Once the commotion has been put under control, Sara starts to leave. When Ronnie asks how they're going to handle the situation, Sara responds that there's nothing they can do—they'll be back next month once the abuse has escalated to murder.

In autopsy, Catherine notices something embedded in Kira's fist. Doc Robbins believes it could be a tooth fragment, indicating that Kira fought back against her attacker. Evidence suggests that Kira had sex before she died; however, the rape kit came back negative. Meanwhile, in Kira's dorm, Nick collects several fingerprints and scans them into the computer. Greg arrives to assist and finds a tube of sexual lubricant under Kira's bed. Nick dusts it and uncovers a print.

Sara arrives back at the station, goes to Grissom office, and smiles at him. He waves her in, but when he looks up from his work, she's disappeared. Mandy stops Sara as she's walking down the hall and informs her that the print recovered from the tube of lubricant belongs to Marlon West. Catherine, Grissom, Nick and Sara recap the murder of Stacy Vollmer. Marlon confessed to the murder; however, his 12-year-old prodigy sister Hannah fabricated evidence and got him exonerated by making it look like she was guilty. She later confessed to Sara about what she did and that Marlon actually killed Stacy. Sara has been keeping tabs on Hannah, knowing that she graduated later that summer, became legally emancipated from her parents, and went to Harvard. She asks to be put on the case in order to "catch the one that got away."

Sara and Brass visit Marlon at WLVU; he's getting ready to take a class. He's surprised when told that Kira was murdered and incensed that he's automatically become a suspect. When told that his fingerprints are all over Kira's dorm, Marlon admits to having been there frequently, as the two were in a band. He also admits that they were having sex, which explains the print on the tube of lubricant. Sara notices that Marlon has a fat lip, which he explains by saying that he got into a fight with someone who was kissing Kira. This resulted in Marlon getting punched in the mouth and Kira basically breaking up with him. Marlon then wandered the campus by himself, meaning that he has no real alibi. When Sara pulls out a swab to take Marlon's DNA, Hannah arrives and tells them that they'll need a DNA warrant. Sara is surprised by Hannah's arrival and tells her that she won't muddy the waters this time. Hannah responds sarcastically and heads up on stage—she's the one actually teaching the class.

Sara asks Brass to get a warrant for Marlon's DNA; however, since Marlon and Kira were in a relationship, his DNA should be able to be explained away. Furthermore, Marlon and Hannah's parents died in a car accident the year before, making the kids sympathetic figures. Sara tells Brass that Kira would still be alive had they put Marlon in jail the first time and orders Brass to get the warrant. Meanwhile, Henry found traces of GHB in Kira's system; it's possible she had no vaginal trauma because she was too numb to resist the rape. Despite no drug paraphernalia in Kira's dorm, Nick is told to check everything in the room that she might have ingested.

Greg and Archie search Kira's Twitter page and find a post of hers outlining a love triangle between her, Marlon and another guy. The other guy is Jordan Rockwell, who Brass visits in the hospital. Jordan admits to punching Marlon in the face and having unprotected sex with Kira. After doing so, he left because he felt sick. On his way home, he crashed into a telephone pole, which is how he ended up in the hospital. He's shocked and saddened when informed that Kira is dead.

The tox panel run on Jordan after the crash revealed that he also tested positive for GHB. None of the soda cans or water bottles in the dorm tested positive, but Nick realizes that the sexual lubricant was dosed. Hodges remarks that dosing the lubricant is easy if you know your chemistry, leading Sara to remark that Marlon takes the class and Hannah teaches it. The evidence still doesn't put Marlon at the scene, but Sara mentions that they can get a warrant for the tooth fragment embedded in Kira's fist.

While Nick takes a dental impression from Marlon, Sara visits Hannah in the station waiting room. Hannah insists that Marlon is innocent, but Sara refuses to play her game. As the two talk, Hannah mentions that Sara is different; she's now "angry...and a little sad." Sara refuses to answer why and tells Hannah to invest in a good lawyer.

Nick determines that the tooth fragment from Kira's fist is a physical match to Marlon's teeth, putting him at the scene. Greg shows Nick and Sara Kira's Friend Agenda page, which contains pictures of the band she and Marlon were in. Pictures of the fight between Marlon and Jordan are shown, as is a picture of Hannah coming to console Marlon after he lost. Sara finds another picture that shows Hannah picking Marlon's tooth up off the ground.

In the layout room, Sara puts the tooth fragment in the mold of Marlon's teeth and punches it lightly until it falls out—something isn't adding up. Grissom enters, and she shows him the orientation of the fragment in the tooth. She then shows him the tooth embedded in Kira's fist; the orientation is backwards. Sara posits that Kira didn't punch Marlon and that Hannah picked up the tooth and planted it on Kira. A frustrated Sara tells Grissom that Hannah is spinning her in circles again but she insists on finishing the case.

Sara interrogates Hannah while Grissom watches from the observation room. When shown the picture of her picking Marlon's tooth up off the ground, Hannah feigns innocence and says it was a gum wrapper. Sara gives her opinion of what transpired—Hannah spiked Kira's lubricant with GHB, embedded Marlon's tooth in her fist, and used leverage to push her from the window. Hannah replies that the story is improbable and that she would never do anything to hurt her brother, as he's all she has left. She then gets under Sara's skin by bringing up her encounter with Natalie Davis and being trapped under a car. Sara eventually yells at Hannah and storms out of the room. When Grissom asks Sara what's going on and says that he's worried about her, she refuses to answer and walks away.

Ronnie stops Sara in the hallway and tells her that Kim Jiminez agreed to go to a shelter. Sara pessimistically says that Kim won't stay there, but Ronnie believes that at least Kim now has a chance, and she wants part of her job to be helping people.

Sara questions Marlon, who tells her that Hannah became more clingy after their parents died. A flashback shows Hannah walking in on Marlon and Kira when they were having sex; when Marlon refused to kick her out, Kira stormed out of the room. Marlon admits to dosing the lubricant with GHB with Hannah's help in order to get back at Kira, but that's all he wanted to do. Sara tells Marlon that she believes him, but a jury will only see his prints on the lubricant and his prints on the windowsill. Marlon defeatedly says that if Hannah wants him in jail, then that's where he'll be; she can't be outsmarted. Sara formulates a plan to help disprove this idea.

Hannah visits Marlon in his cell while Sara and Brass have the conversation recorded. Marlon tries to get Hannah to confess to murdering Kira, but she doesn't bite. As she leaves, Hannah says that someday Marlon will love her and that she'll visit him every week. The ploy has failed and Sara admits that Hannah is way out of her league.

Sara goes to speak to Grissom, but gets interrupted by a phone call; Marlon has hung himself in his cell. On the WLVU campus, Sara tells Hannah that she knows that she killed Kira because Marlon and her were growing apart and Hannah wanted him all to herself. She relays the information that Marlon is dead, which Hannah doesn't believe until she's shown a picture of Marlon hanging in his prison cell. Hannah breaks down as Sara comforts her looking sad and despondent.

Sara arrives back at the lab and gives Grissom a passionate kiss in the hallway in front of peering eyes. In the station locker room, she removes her name patch from her vest. She writes "Good Luck" on a piece of masking tape, puts it on the vest, puts the vest in Ronnie's locker, and throws her name patch in the garbage.

Grissom looks for Sara and is given an envelope she left behind. There's a letter in the envelope that reads:

Gil, you know I love you. I feel I've loved you forever. Lately, I haven't been feeling very well. Truth be told, I'm tired. Out in the desert, under that car that night, I realized something, and I haven't been able to shake it. Since my father died, I've spent almost my entire life with ghosts. We'd been like close friends, and out there in the desert, it occurred to me that it was time for me to bury them. I can't do that here. I'm so sorry. No matter how hard I try to fight it off, I'm left with the feeling that...I have to go. I have no idea where I'm going, but I know I have to do this. If I don't, I'm afraid I'll self-destruct, and worse, you'll be there to see it happen. Be safe. Know that I tried very hard to stay. Know that you are my one and only. I will miss you with every beat of my heart. Our life together was the only home I've ever really had. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love you. I always will. Goodbye.

Grissom takes off his glasses in shock. Sara has quit her job and ended their relationship.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • Sara has temporarily quit her job.

Music[]

  • Tick Tick Boom by The Hives
  • Carousel by Iron & Wine
  • The X-Files Theme by Mark Snow

Notes[]

  • When Sara opens her locker and looks at a picture of her and Grissom, the picture is from the Season Six episode Time of your Death.
  • Hannah (Juliette Goglia) and Marlon West (Douglas Smith) were characters in the Season Six episode The Unusual Suspect, where Marlon West was tried for the murder of a high school girl and his sister put doubts in the jury's mind when she confessed to the murder.
  • While being interrogated by Sara, Hannah mentions reading about Sara's encounter with Natalie Davis, aka "The Miniature Killer." Sara was abducted and trapped under a car in the episodes Living Doll and Dead Doll.
  • This episode marks the final appearance of CSI Ronnie Lake. She appeared in four episodes and is never mentioned in the series again.

Trivia[]

  • Kira's dorm was number 807. This episode was Season Eight, episode Seven (8x07).
  • Jorja Fox wrote the goodbye letter to William Petersen herself.
  • This episode went through several name changes. Some of them included: "Hello, Goodnight," "Hello, Goodbye," and "Goodbye & Goodnight."

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 8
Dead DollA La CartGo to HellThe Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp The Chick Chop Flick ShopWho and WhatWhere and WhyGoodbye and Good LuckYou Kill MeCockroachesLying Down With DogsBullGrissom's Divine ComedyA Thousand Days On EarthDrops OutThe Theory of EverythingTwo And A Half DeathsFor Gedda
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