Writer:	David Rambo, Steven Felder, David Rambo
Director:	Richard J. Lewis
Star:	George Eads (Nick Stokes),  Paul Guilfoyle (Captain Jim Brass),  Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown),  Wallace Langham ((David Hodges (episode 166+ recurring previously))),  Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders (episode 47+, recurring previously)),  Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows),  William Petersen (Gil Grissom),  Robert David Hall (Dr. Al Robbins (episode 47+, recurring previously))
Recurring Role:	Archie Kao (Archie Johnson),  David Berman (David Phillips),  Liz Vassey (Wendy Simms)
Guest Star:	Joseph Campanella (Grissley Geezer),  Eric Pierpont (Cash Dooley),  Tamara Braun (Coco),  Rob Turner (Himself),  Ryan Wariner (Himself),  Bryan Keeling (Himself),  Libby Mintz (Buckle Bunny #2),  Rachael C. Smith (Buckle Bunny #1),  Julie Brown (Connie Dellaquilla),  Chuck Hittinger (Troy Birkhart),  Faren Miller (Himself),  Garry Murray (Himself),  Ty Murray (Himself),  Patrick McGaw (Cody Latshaw),  Shane Conrad (J.J. Milton),  Whitnee Patterson (Tiffany),  Colin Kim (Officer Choi),  James Hiroyuki Liao (Erik "Precious Ricky" Hong),  Shooter Jennings (Himself),  Nicole Sullivan (Nancy Twicker),  Brendan Wayne (Dustin Lightfoot)

All the clips of the rides in the opening are actual rides. (edit) Original International Air dates:
UK: March 18, 2008 on Ch5.
Denmark: March 28, 2008 on Kanal 5
New Zealand: April 13, 2008 on TV3
The Netherlands: April 14, 2008 on RTL4
Norway: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9.35 pm on TVNorge
Latin America: Monday, April 21, 2008, 7:00pm (Eastern Time) on AXN
Australia: Sunday, May 18, 2008 on Network 9
Italy: Thursday, May 29, 2008 on FoxCrime (edit) The check stub found in the dead bull rider's truck has an error. It shows the zip code for Elk City, OK as 93644, but that's the zip code for Oakhurst, CA. So 73644 would be correct zip for Elk City. (edit) Catherine and Hodges both cried when they saw Brokeback Mountain. (edit) This was the last episode completed before the WGA strike that started on November 5, 2007. (edit)

Nick (about Cody): That's part of the tradition, you know. Solitary man out there trying to find himself.
Catherine: Yeah, but no man is an island. I mean, obviously, he had feelings for Nancy or he wouldn't have written her that poem.
Nick: Nancy? I don't know about that. Tiffany's the one that broke his heart.
Grissom: I don't think it's about either girl. (reading the poem): "I can't help now but wonder what your brown eyes were concealing." Did you read Tiffany's autopsy report?
Nick: Oh. Yeah, her eyes were blue.
Grissom: So were Nancy's.
Nick: Then who did he write the poem for?
Grissom: Wintwister. (Catherine and Nick can't believe it)
Catherine: The bull?
Grissom: I think that's why he went back to the arena that night. Wordsworth once wrote, "Through love we feel we are greater than we know." My guess is, riding that bull, Cody felt like a greater man. (edit) Greg: Cowboys, cattle rustling, and now a shooting at the dance hall.
Nick: Welcome to the Wild West. (edit) Hodges: Cowboy had a roll in the hay. Either he's messy or ... uh ... we could have a Brokeback Mountain situation.
Catherine: Oh, God, that movie made me cry.
Hodges: Me, too. You know, it takes a big man to admit that. And I am that man. (edit) Wendy: Hey buckaroos, have you seen Catherine? Because I just got the results from that semen stain on Cody Latshaw's jeans.
Nick: Come up with a match?
Wendy: I did. I had to run an Ouchterlony test on it.
Greg: So, not from a human donor?
Wendy: No, no, bovine. (Nick and Greg look appalled) Yeah. I took a psychobiology class once and we studied a very interesting case. Okay, there was a guy who lived on a farm, and literally the only way this guy could get sexually satisfied was when he was with livestock. (Nick tries to interrupt)
Nick: Hey, I'm good...
Wendy (growing more enthusiastic as she continues): Apparently the whole thing started one day because he was in the barn and it started snowing, he got stuck in there and couldn't make his way back to the farmhouse so he decided that he would try and stay warm... well, with a sheep. (Nick just looks at Wendy) But then the horses were jealous, so, you know... And I think there was a cow in there as well...
Greg: You know, I think we got the picture.
Nick: I wish I didn't. (edit) Nick (after Grissom read Cody's poem): It's not Shakespeare.
Grissom: I'm actually a fan of cowboy poetry.
Nick: Are you really?
Grissom: Yeah, it's just a way of organizing your thoughts and feelings so that you can make sense of them.
Nick: Sounds like Cody was trying to make sense of his girl leaving him.
Grissom (returning the poetry letter to Nick): Yeah well, poetry can help you with that, too. (edit)

When Precious Ricky enters the interrogation room, he says "All right, I don't want nobody hitting me."

This is a reference to the season seven episode Law Of Gravity, in which Mike Keppler gets agitated in an interrogation and slammed Ricky into the table. (edit) During the flashback of Cody's death: Cash takes Cody's pulse with the back of his fingers (nail-side). It is very hard to feel a pulse with that side and even harder with the latex gloves he was wearing at the time. His hand also changes from nail-side to fingerprint-side touching Cody's neck between shots. (edit) The Poem:

I can't help now but wonder what your brown eyes were concealing
They just showed me reflections of all that I was feeling
Our bodies close together like my right hand in my glove
Heart pounding with excitement and dare I say it love
I know I'll never own you it's your nature to run free
But I'll pray the lord above that one day you'll come back to me
Then we'll ride off in glory until our time is done
And I will be your hero, your cowboy in the sun. (edit) The scene where fictional bull rider Cody Latshaw is thrown and kicked in the face uses footage of real-life PBR (Professional Bull Riders) champion Justin McBride. The face-kick was real; it occured during a June 2007 PBR event in Glendale, Arizona, and McBride escaped with only a concussion. Wintwister, the "killer bull" in this episode, was the same bull that threw and kicked Justin McBride.

The real-life footage can be easily discerned by paying attention to the sponsor's logos adorning the rider. Considerably more are visible in the real-life footage, and the prominent "SENDEX" across the upper back changes to "CINCH". (edit) The singer performing the National Anthem at the beginning of this episode is Jewel Kilcher.

Jewel's long-time boyfriend, retired professional bull rider and PBR president Ty Murray, also appears as himself in this episode. (edit)

Hodges: Cowboy had a roll in the hay. Either he's messy or ... uh ... we could have a Brokeback Mountain situation.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) is an award winning movie about two modern gay sheep herders who hide their relationship from their wives. (edit) Hodges (walks in with his hands full of ropes tied to cowbells, impersonating Christopher Walken very effectively): More cowbell!

"More cowbell" is a catch-phrase from a classic Saturday Night Live comedy sketch (#5 on the 101 Most Unforgettable Moments list). The sketch was about the recording of the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (musical guests Blue Oyster Cult) and revolved around Christopher Walken playing a music producer named Bruce Dickinson and Will Ferrell playing a fictional cowbell player named Gene Frenkle. Walken claims the song needs "More cowbell", and keeps pushing this point to absurdity. The musical release does, in fact, contain a cowbell in reality, but it is much more subtle than suggeested here. (edit)