Compulsion

Season 5, Episode 17, Aired

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9.0
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A serial killer strikes again, and the CSI team tries new technology using evidence from a prior killing. They find a fingerprint belonging to Jesse Acheson, who becomes the prime suspect. Nick and Catherine investigate the murder of a young boy found dead in his bed. His brother confesses to the killing, but evidence suggests that he may not have committed the crime.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (7)

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  • Serial killer returns

    4.0
    "Poor"
    By Danny2312, May 13, 2011
    This episode is written by Josh Berman and Richard Catalani. Directed by Duane Clark. A serial killer strikes again, and the CSI team tries new technology using evidence from a prior killing. They find a fingerprint belonging to Jesse Acheson, who becomes the prime suspect. Nick and Catherine investigate the murder of a young boy found dead in his bed. His brother confesses to the killing, but evidence suggests that he may not have committed the crime.

    This episode is VERY, VERY boring. Nothing happened. What did the writers do? Probably the worst episode in the fifth season. Next episode should be better than this.moreless

  • this episode was just...wow.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By taker65, Aug 12, 2010
    The first story didn't really intrest me, I mean they are catching a serial killer. That happens in almost every episode. I did enjoy Stephen Baldwin's performace in this episode. He has gone a long way since Bio-Dome. The second story really drew my attenchion, esipichally when we find out who the killer is. This kind of freaked me out. A 14-year-old boy murders his little brother all because he told everyone that he wets the bed. That is very creepy. I would never suspect the kid. I thought the bum did it at first, but then I thought that was too obvious.moreless

  • Boy dead in bed, flight attendent murdered.

    9.4
    "Superb"
    By sid1157, Feb 26, 2008
    Okay so ill start off with the flight attendent case. So this girl is killed in a hotel and then they figure out that there was a case like it from a few years ago and it was the same person that did it. I liked how they remoced all of the colors from the fabric to display the finger print. Okay now a little boy named TY was killed and it ended up being his older brother that is 14 that killed him. Because Ty told everyone at their school that he wet the bed. I felt kinda bad for the 14 year old brother though.moreless

  • A flight attendent is raped and murdered in her hotel bed, while a young boy is beaten in his.

    9.2
    "Superb"
    By mrb105, Mar 30, 2007
    Both stories are great. First, after a flight attendent is murdered in her hotel room, the entire crime scene has been whipped down and cleaned. It is also reminescent of a previous Vegas case with errie similarities. Nick, Warrick, and Cath tackle the case of a boy beaten to death in his bed by a pipe, for reasons unknown. Nick feels that Detective Cavileer is jumping the evidence on the case, therefore some drama appears between the two. Some interesting plot twists and an appearence by Stephen Baldwin make this one of those "can never watch too many times" episodes of CSI.moreless

  • Two very different crimes - the rape and murder of a trolley dolly and the brutal beating to death of a child.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By qstevie, Oct 03, 2006
    Clever plotting and good use of technology and evidence checking to get to the conclusions.

    I love it when they do experiments on CSI to prove or disprove a point. The sight of the three guys in their sweaters ready to beat up the dummy is very funny, though the sight of them actually hitting the dummy is really quite disturbing.

    The detective investigating the boy who admits to the killing of his brother is totally out of order, even if the boy is old enough not to need adult representation with him. Regardless of the truth of the situation, I don't see why a detective would do this to a child - especially if he wanted to have a watertight confession and especially if at the time there was no actual forensic evidence to support it. Seems very out of character somehow.

    Still it's a good episode and it's really sad when the reason for the child's death is revealed.

    The serial killer rapist murderer case is also good, but for normal thriller reasons. It's good they solve the case, but it doesn't have the same resonance as the other case for me.

    All this and Wil Wheaton doing a pretty good Johnny Depp impression.moreless
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  • TRIVIA (6)

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    • Goof: When we are shown the flashback of Matt killing Ty, you can see sunlight coming through the window, but when the CSI team is looking over Ty's body, they say his time of death was around midnight, so there should have been darkness coming from the window.

    • Goof: About the middle of the episode, when Nick and Warrick are interviewing the couple in their living room, on the right side of the room you can see a crew member moving behind the glassdoors.

    • Goof: When Greg collects the suspect's discarded coffee cup from the table at the cafe, he isn't wearing any gloves which would have contaminated the DNA evidence.

    • Goof: Just after the opening credits, when Greg hands Grissom the "Phillips" Screw driver in the bathroom, it is clearly A) Not a Phillips Bit and B) Not the same head that Grissom uses to unscrew the drain cover.

    • Goof: Since Catherine is the head of the swing shift (4pm - 12am), there's no valid reason for her getting a case that begins at the crack of dawn.

    • Goof: Near the end of the episode, the CSIs verify a blood spray pattern by hitting a dummy with a pipe. When Nick Stokes takes his turn, we first see a side-on shot where the upper half of his sweater is spattered liberally with blood. The camera then cuts to a head-on shot, where Nick's sweater suddenly has significantly less blood on it.

  • QUOTES (8)

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    • Martin: I want to know why? Matt: Dad... Martin: Why, damn it. Ty looked up to you, he...he loved you. Matt: He told. He told everyone. Martin: That you wet the bed? Matt: Shut up! (He pauses for a second and then bursts into tears) Dad, I'm sorry. (Cries some more)

    • Brass: Take a whiff. Grissom: Smells clean. Brass: Smells like a hospital. Sara: Bleaches and deodorizers. Killer attacked the victim, then cleaned and sanitized the room. Grissom: Ah, but here's the smell of the blood still, and all the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten this little room.

    • (Greg enters the lab, Mia is wearing headphones) Greg: Let me guess. You're listening to something classy. Jessica or Ashlee? (Greg puts the headphones in his own ear and hears a man speaking French on the tape) Mia: It's Jean-Paul Satre. Huis Clos?...No exit. It loses something in a translation. Greg: Oui, oui.

    • (Trying to find out who killed Ty: His father, a homeless guy or his brother) Catherine: Okay, Warrick, you are approximately the same height as Martin Hopkins. Nick, you and the homeless dude are about the same and Judy, you and Matt are close to the same. The table is the same height as Ty's bed---about 43 and a half inches from the floor to the top of the mattress. The white sweaters, which you all look so adorable in, are the same fabric as the bloody one. The pipes are the same diameter as the one's on Ty's face. (Catherine is handing them all a pipe) I want each one of you to take a whack at our victim. Judy: Just like Chuck E. Cheese. Whack-a-mole. Catherine (laughs): Uh, spatter up.

    • (About a wad of hair found in a drain. Hodges thinks it smells woodsy) Grissom: You sniffed it? Hodges: That disgust you? Grissom: No. Actually it's the first thing you've ever done to impress me.

    • Sara: Hey. Neil: Hey. Call me a geek, but background subtraction application software is the bomb. Sara: Only geeks still say "the bomb." But if you ask me, geeks should be revered. Neil: Okay. Um, the technology's pretty new. You'll get hammered on cross, but it definitely works. (he hits a key on the keyboard) Okay, check it out. So the fingerprint is blood-red -- that's the shade we use for the color identifier -- and now the preprogrammed algorithm is just removing all the other colors from the fabric, and we're left with just the print. It's... Sara: Mind if I watch? Neil: Voyeur, huh? I like that. Sara: Geek!

    • Greg: I just got the call. Where's Grissom? Sara: Bathroom. (Greg looks puzzled) Working the.. uh.. case.

    • Det. Cavalier: You owe me an apology. Nick Stokes: I'm sorry... (pause) that you feel that way. (During this episode, Nick doesn't approve of Detective Cavalier 's methods and investigates further, trying to prove the detective wrong. These lines are the final lines of the episode, after Detective Cavalier is finally proven correct on the case.)

  • NOTES (2)

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  • ALLUSIONS (2)

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    • Judy: Just like Chuck E. Cheese. Whack-a-mole. Chuck E. Cheese is the name of a popular children's restaurant. "Whack-A-Mole" is the name of one game usually featured at Chuck E. Cheese, involving hitting moles with a mallet to score points.

    • Grissom: "Ah, but here's the smell of blood still, and all the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten this little room." Grissom is paraphrasing Shakespeare again. In this case Lady MacBeth who literally has blood on her hands after holding MacBeth after he murders King Duncan, "Ah, but here's the smell of blood still, and all the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten this little hand".

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