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Grave Danger, Part 2
Grave Danger
Season 5
Number 25
Writer Carol Mendelsohn,
Naren Shankar,
Quentin Tarantino,
Anthony E. Zuiker
Director Quentin Tarantino
Original Airdate May 19, 2005
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Previous Episode: Grave Danger, Part 1
Next Episode: Bodies in Motion

Grave Danger, Part 2 is the twenty-fifth episode and Season Five finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

After Grissom gives the kidnapper the ransom money, the kidnapper blows himself up without revealing where Nick is buried. The team must then use all their knowledge and resources, as well as race time, to find Nick before he runs out of air.

Plot[]

Victim: Nick Stokes (missing)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle, Warrick Brown, Jim Brass

The rest of the team (sans Nick, of course) joins Grissom at the site of the explosion. While Grissom gets checked for a concussion, Brass calls in the tags on the white Ford Expedition. Inside, Greg and Warrick run diagnostics on the vehicle and find out that its last trip was 23 miles; they already know that it was last heading east. Catherine enters and is in disbelief that, after all she had to do to get the money from Sam, they're no closer to finding Nick. There's a lump of flesh on the ground that David Phillips is unable to get an ID from. As Sara walks around, she finds a thumb amongst the carnage.

In the A/V lab, Archie continues to keep tabs on Nick through the live video feed. After Archie leaves for a moment and the video feed ends, Warrick presses the "WATCH" button again. Doing so activates the light in Nick's coffin. The light constantly turning on and off is starting to frustrate Nick. He glances at the vent to his right and notices that when the light is on, the fan turns off, limiting his air supply. The fan kicks back on when the light is off.

Sara processes the thumb recovered from the scene and runs the print through the system, only to find that it comes back with no matches. Meanwhile, Warrick activates the video again, turning on the light in Nick's coffin and stopping the fan. Nick has now had enough. He takes some gum out of his pocket, chews it and puts it in his ears. As Warrick cautiously watches, Nick then takes the gun and holds it to his chin, making it look like the worst is about to happen. Instead, he shoots the light out at the bottom of the coffin. Warrick yells out in anguish, but sees that Nick is still alive after he illuminates the coffin with a glow stick. Nick laughs triumphantly, as he'll no longer be bothered by the light and the fan will continue to run.

Archie tells Grissom that he figures the light and the fan were running off of the same battery. He has been unable to get a trace off of the webcam so far, as every time the "WATCH" button is pressed, a different ISP is generated. However, he believes that he's getting closer.

Mia Dickerson calls Sara to her lab. There, she tells her that she ran the print from the thumb through CODIS and found that it has seven alleles in common with a Kelly Gordon. Based on ages, they guess that Kelly is the kidnapper's daughter and that her father is Walter Gordon.

Grissom and Sara go through Kelly's case files. She finds that Kelly is currently in prison serving the third year of a five-year sentence for accessory to murder. Sara looks at the map from the crime scene and sees that the address where the murder took place is the same address the courier picked the package up from. Furthermore, Grissom discovers that a styrofoam cup with Kelly's DNA was also a key piece of evidence in putting her behind bars. Neither the house nor the cup were random.

Kelly Gordon is transferred from the prison to the police station for interrogation. She's clearly holding a grudge, blaming a styrofoam cup for her being put in prison and treated poorly by other inmates. Sara notes that Kelly's father stopped visiting her six months into her sentence; however, he did visit her last week. Kelly seems unaware of what her father was planning to do. Brass tells her that her father kidnapped a CSI and tried to blow up some cops; she shows indifference and asks how many cops her father was able to take out. Kelly recalls that she was studying horticulture before she was imprisoned and had her life turned upside down. She reveals a flower tattoo on her left palm that her cellmate gave her as a "gift" before angrily telling Sara that she hopes Nick dies.

Catherine, Greg and Warrick continue to process the ransom drop-off/explosion site. As Greg sifts through the debris, he find some wires and theorizes that if they can find all of the bomb's components, they can piece it together and find out where it came from. Warrick, exhausted from this whole ordeal, doesn't believe this is good enough and frustratingly kicks a bucket towards Greg, spilling it on Greg's clothes and some evidence. Catherine goes to calm Warrick down. There, Warrick admits that he and Nick flipped a coin for the trash run and that he could just as easily be in the coffin. He tells Catherine that he wouldn't have been able to last as long as Nick and would've ended his life by this point.

Greg excitedly yells out to Catherine and Warrick; he's found something. He pours some liquid on the dirt and finds that it makes an outline, indicating that there's something buried underneath. They brush the dirt aside and start to dig. At the same time, Nick hears digging from inside of his coffin and starts singing loudly to get their attention. Warrick digs down and finds a coffin made of plexiglass. It's a fake-out, however, as he unearths a coffin containing a dead dog. Meanwhile, Nick starts to panic as his plexiglass coffin begins to crack all around him due to the shots he fired earlier.

The coffin containing the dead dog is brought back to the lab and processed by Warrick. He reassembles the mechanism and is able to make the fan run when the light is turned on. Meanwhile, Grissom, Sara and Archie continue watching the live video feed. Nick records a goodbye message into the tape recorder, which Grissom is able to understand by reading Nick's lips. Suddenly, Nick looks down at his feet and begins to squirm around. Grissom enhances the video and sees that ants have entered the coffin and are starting to eat Nick alive. Nick pulls a latex glove from his pocket, tears it in half and sticks the halves in his nostrils to prevent the ants from crawling in there. He then stops squirming; Grissom approves, mentioning out loud that if Nick stops moving, the ants won't bite him as much.

Catherine, Greg, Warrick and Hodges examine the dog's coffin and figure that it was a prototype used to see how long someone could be kept alive. Warrick estimates that because they kept turning the light in Nick's coffin on, Nick only has about 90 minutes of air left. Warrick sets the timer on his watch to 90 minutes.

Grissom continues to watch the video feed, seemingly encouraging Nick. However, he's actually encouraging one of the ants to crawl across the lens. The ant does so, and Grissom captures the video and prints a still of it. He searches through the library in his office and finds a book on ants; from the book, he's able to identify the species.

The type of ant is identified as a fire ant, which is very rare in Vegas because they don't like the soil. Grissom tells the team that, in Vegas, fire ants are only found in plant and tree nurseries. There are 11 nurseries in the area, which they narrow down to two based on the webcam trace and the 23-mile travel radius on Walter's car. Sara remembers that Kelly Gordon worked with plants and runs to retrieve the case file. She quickly returns and points to the nursery where Nick is buried.

A parade of police cars drive to the nursery, and the owner directs Grissom to the fire ant mound. Grissom tells everyone to fan out and look for loose soil, which Brass points out is basically the entire nursery. Catherine walks down one of the paths with an electric emitter trying to pick up the webcam signal. The signal continues to grow stronger and she yells out that she's picking up the webcam transmitter. As the rest of the team hurries over, she nearly trips over a vent pipe and notices something hollow just below the dirt. There's another vent pipe sticking out of the ground a few yards away. Catherine gets down on the ground and brushes some dirt away, eventually finding the transmitter. She yells down through the pipe to Nick that they're coming to get him. Inside, Nick starts to get eaten by fire ants and a close-up of his heart shows that it's starting to beat faster.

Nick hallucinates that Doc Robbins and David Phillips are performing his autopsy. Dark humor ensues as Nick is cut open while he watches and his organs are removed.

Back in the present, Nick awakens in pain from the fire ant bites. Warrick and other officers dig in the area around the pipes. A beeping is heard, and Warrick sees that the the timer on his watch has hit zero. Inside the coffin, Nick is starting to lose it. He has welts on his neck and face from the ant bites. Suddenly, the fan in the coffin stops, as the battery has run out of juice—Nick knows what this means. After letting out a weak scream, he starts to shake as he grips the gun and slowly pulls it up towards him. As Nick pulls the gun to his chin and is about to pull the trigger, light shines into the coffin; Warrick has brushed away the dirt and is joyous that they've found his friend.

Greg uses a fire extinguisher and sprays it into the coffin in short spurts, causing the ants to die on the spot. As they get ready to get Nick out, Catherine gets a call from Hodges, who tells her that the prototype of the coffin had traces of Semtex on it. Catherine hangs up and yells for everyone to move away, as the coffin is rigged with explosives. Warrick refuses to leave his friend's side, but Grissom spots a nearby backhoe and tells him that he has a plan. As Nick continues to panic, Grissom gets his attention by calling him "Pancho." He explains that the coffin is rigged with explosives and that they're going to equalize his weight with dirt and pull him out, but he needs Nick to stay still. Nick agrees to stay still, and Grissom and Warrick open the coffin lid. A hook is tied to Nick's belt buckle, and Grissom tells him to close his eyes and hold his breath. As the dirt is poured into the coffin, the team pulls Nick to safety as the coffin explodes.

Catherine and Warrick ride in the ambulance with Nick as it departs for the hospital. As the rest of the team watches it leave, Grissom tells Ecklie that he wants his team back.

Months later, a now-healed Nick visits Kelly Gordon in prison. He identifies himself as the one that her father buried alive. When Nick mentions to Kelly that her father did what he did because he loved her, she hangs up the phone—either she doesn't believe it or she doesn't want to hear it. Nick encourages her to pick it back up; when she does so, he advises her to leave her anger and hostility behind in prison when she's released in a few years. She hangs up the phone, is escorted back to her cell, and appears to be taking Nick's advice to heart.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • Nick is buried alive and the whole team must rally together to find out where he is and rescue him before it's too late.

Music[]

  • Lucky by Bob Neuwirth

Notes[]

  • This episode marks Aisha Tyler's final appearance as Mia Dickerson.
  • In order to get Nick's attention after he's discovered, Grissom calls him "Pancho," a name Nick's father used earlier.
  • Indirectly speaking to Ecklie, Grissom asked to get the entire team back to the night shift. Ecklie assigned Catherine, Nick and Warrick to the swing shift in the episode Mea Culpa.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 5
Viva Las VegasDown the DrainHarvestCrow's FeetSwap MeetWhat's Eating Gilbert Grissom?FormalitiesCh-Ch-ChangesMea CulpaNo Humans InvolvedWho Shot Sherlock?SnakesNesting DollsUnbearableKing BabyBig MiddleCompulsionSpark of Life4 x 4Hollywood BrassCommittedWeeping WillowsIcedGrave Danger, Part 1Grave Danger, Part 2
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