CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

A man is driving in the middle of a rainy and stormy night. He notices a hitchhiker holding a sign that says "Vegas." The driver stops to pick up the man in the raincoat and the hitchhiker enters. When asked about where he was going, the hitchhiker (revealed to be serial killer Paul Millander) replies "It's not where I'm headed."

CSIs Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows arrive at an abandoned warehouse in Good Springs, where a detective welcomes them to the crime scene. The victim's wallet and a recorder was found inside. The victim's name was Pete Walker from California, born August 17, 1957, found lying dead in a bathtub. Grissom and Catherine recognize the M.O. as belonging to Paul Millander, who kills victims based on their birthdays, where Pete and two previous victims shared the same birthday as the anniversary of Paul's father's murder. Grissom notes that the victims were killed in descending order by year: 1959, 1958, and 1957. They listen to the tape left behind on the bathtub. On the tape, Pete (audibly under duress) confesses to not being able to handle life anymore and apologizes to his mother for all the pain he's caused to her before being shot and killed. At the end of the tape, Paul wishes Grissom a happy birthday. Grissom notes his birthday is August 17, 1956, presumably meaning that Paul is gunning for Grissom's life.

CSIs Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, and Warrick Brown arrive to assist in processing Pete's murder scene. Grissom reminds the team of Royce Harmon and Stuart Rampler, Millander's first two victims. Nick proclaims that with the five of them working together, they can stop Millander; Grissom coldly reminds them Millander's smarter than the whole team. Catherine assigns Nick to analyze the recording back at AV lab and Sara and Warrick to the crime scene perimeter. Sara comes up empty in her search due to the rain, but Warrick finds mud prints outside the warehouse threshold. Warrick notices that the bootprints he found were deeper than his own, meaning that Millander carried Pete to the bathtub. They also note that Millander had to take off his boots from the mud. Grissom notices some stippling on the side of his face, prompting him to notify Medical Examiner Al Robbins to check for leaks. Catherine finds a long strand of dark hair, 12" under Pete's body.

Nick listens to the recording with lab tech Archie Johnson. Archie notes that the recording was not taken in the warehouse due to a lack of auditory echo, but perhaps in a car. He discovers an unknown whirring sound as well. A song on the radio ("Don't Pay the Ransom" by Willie Hank) confirms the recording's origin, getting Nick to contact the local country and western stations on when the song was played, establishing a timeline. Archie tells Nick to pay attention to the audio sensor levels, showing an auditory imbalance leaning to the right, which establishes that Pete was sitting in the passenger seat of his own car, while Millander drove that night.

Captain Jim Brass found Pete's car abandoned off the side of the road in Clark County with Millander's "Vegas" hitchhiking sign. They are puzzled about how Millander figured out Pete's birthday so fast.

Robbins autopsies Pete's body and finds only the one bullet wound to his chest. Grissom remembers an earlier visit to Millander's home, where he show him his carving of a man who showed two faces: good and evil. He figures out that Millander will "show me both sides."

Warrick and Sara process Pete's car. Warrick finds GSR (gunshot residue) on the interior roof. They deduce (in a flashback scene) that Millander rolled the passenger side window down (explaining the whirring sound from the recording) as Pete was taping his confession. In the flashback scene, Millander fired a shot barely missing Pete's nose with GSR spraying all over his face.

Lab tech Greg Sanders processes the long hair with Grissom and Catherine. He tells them the hair's chromosomes read "XX", indicating a female. Grissom notices the hair's tag cell is aged. Catherine says the hair tag would fall off if exposed. Grissom posits that Millander may have nurtured the hair and froze it at some point. They believe that Millander's telling them that he killed a woman before.

Nick processes Pete's car back at the lab. Greg joins him in the garage. Nick briefly explained that Millander witnessed a man killing his father over a money dispute and ended up killing people from that point on. He spots a number burned into the center storage compartment between the front seats, which reads in mirror image: "909987-23." Nick keeps this number in mind along with the mystery paper source before being paged for a meeting with the team.

The CSIs review the evidence collected. Meanwhile, Grissom shows signs of troubled hearing. Nick retrieved FCC lists from three country stations and found that the song "Don't Pay the Ransom" played between 1:47am and 1:51am, establishing the timeline where Millander forced Pete to make the recording. Catherine deduces from the collected evidence that Pete was incapacitated in the car and was killed in the warehouse. Grissom figures out that the physical evidence collected has no value, but places it into the context of the killer. He deduces that Millander is describing his father's death using the evidence they retrieved.

Brass enters the CSIs' meeting and describes Pete's biographical history. Pete worked for Cinema Road Services in Valencia, California. He drove new film reels to Las Vegas and back. Pete would drop off new reels every Tuesday for Friday's release and brings the old ones back. Brass also reveals that Pete had a speeding ticket written against him last year in July 2nd. Nick remembers the number he found in Pete's car and decides to look it up.

The team examine the speeding tickets with Brass on the database belonging to Pete and the other two victims, Royce Harmon (delivery and catering) and Stuart Rampler (pharmacy). The commonality they discover was that all three had tickets issued by one police officer: Kevin Yarnell, Nevada Highway Patrol.

Grissom and Catherine question Kevin Yarnell outside of a courthouse in Mulberry about the speeding tickets he issued. Kevin tells them he is an honest and hard-working cop who goes to court on his days off to watch speeding violators contest their tickets. He tells the CSIs that there are three traffic court judges who rotate to hear the dispute cases. Kevin suggests to them to sit in on the court hearings. When they sit in on the next session, Grissom and Catherine see a long, dark-haired judge named Douglas Mason presiding over the case. They are both shocked that the judge has an uncanny resemblance to the serial killer Paul Millander.

Before the hearing begins, Grissom approaches the bailiff and tells him to arrest Judge Mason. The bailiff does not believe Grissom and Judge Mason orders Grissom to calm down or risk being removed from the courtroom. Grissom is ejected for contempt. Catherine attempts to leave the courtroom with Grissom, but is stopped by Judge Mason, who tells her she can leave once the court session has concluded or risk being held in contempt.

Judge Mason visits Grissom in his holding cell and asks about him. Grissom asserts to Mason that he is Millander. Mason explains to Grissom about the Doppelganger Syndrome, which he claims to have been proven and published by a Swiss neurobiologist named Brugger. Grissom tests Mason into giving up a DNA sample to disprove the theory, but Millander declines, telling Grissom that if he continues his accusations, he may go crazy in the public eye. Millander releases Grissom from prison and gives him a business card with an invitation to dinner at his home at 6:00pm before returning to Las Vegas. Catherine joins Grissom shortly after his release, but not before asking for her mentholatum. Grissom uses Catherine's mentholatum to fume prints on the jail cell's bars so she can lift them later for processing. He tells Catherine to take the Tahoe back to CSI while Grissom prepares for dinner with Mason.

Sara visits Greg about the female hair from the bathtub. Greg found testosterone from the hair, which he discovers to be endogeneous, meaning that the owner took testosterone injections and supplements.

Grissom stops into the Masons' residence. He finds Judge Mason's boots at the front door and inspects its impressions. Mrs. Mason invites him in shortly after. Orchestral music plays in the house background. Mrs. Mason tells Craig to greet Grissom and introduce himself. They discuss Craig's school's identification program and Craig shows him their ID tags. Judge Mason joins them later in the family room. At dinner, the party discuss Judge Mason's rain boots and his habits for bargain hunting. Judge Mason tells Grissom that he does not discuss his private life out of fear his enemies would use it against him. During dinner, Craig photographs Grissom through his polaroid camera.

Catherine processes Judge Mason's fingerprints and calls Grissom to tell him that the prints are indeed a match to Judge Mason from the time he took the bar and swore himself in at Nevada State Municipal Court. Judge Mason overhears this as confirmation that he is actually Judge Mason. He explains to his wife that he intentionally left his prints on the jail cell bars so the CSIs can lift his prints to eliminate himself as a suspect. Grissom excuses himself and thanks Mrs. Mason for dinner. Shortly after Grissom departs, the polaroid is fully developed.

Grissom returns to CSI and meets with Catherine about disproving Judge Mason's identity. Brass attempted to locate Mason's birth certificate in Mulberry, but the Records Department there burned down in 1982. The building's destruction was ruled as arson with no suspects found. Later, Brass located the new records building to find anything about Millander. He found current property-tax accounts in the name of Paul and Isabelle Millander.

Grissom and Catherine visit Isabelle Millander at her home. They ask Isabelle about Paul witnessing his father's death as a child. Millander's father, Paul Sr., was murdered by two men that Paul Jr. testified against. Regardless, Paul Sr.'s death was ruled as a suicide and the suspects went free. Catherine notices that Isabelle's dining table has been set for two people. Isabelle explains that she always sets an extra place for her husband as a way of staying together beyond the grave. Grissom inspects some old photos, which Isabelle explains as Paul moving out to Hollywood in the 1930s to start his own movie company, "Hollyweird." Grissom recognizes the "Hollyweird" building from a previous investigation into Millander. Catherine excuses herself to the bathroom. Grissom asks Isabelle for Millander's sentimental art pieces from his work.

Catherine sneaks off and finds Isabelle's bedroom, a bathroom, and a room made for a young girl. In the girl's room, she finds Millander's childhood photos and a sign reading "Pauline."

Isabelle shows Grissom an ashtray Isabelle's husband made with his hand. Both notice the green discolorization in the imprints. Grissom offers to take it back to the lab and analyze it for both of them and Isabelle agrees.

Catherine searches through the drawers and finds little girls' clothing. Underneath the clothes is a stack of baseball cards wrapped in rubber bands. She pockets the cards before closing the drawer. In the closet, Catherine finds a strand of hair and collects it before Isabelle walks in. Catherine explains to Isabelle that she has a daughter and admires Isabelle's daughter's room. Isabelle explains that her daughter died a long time ago. When Grissom asks about her son, Isabelle orders the CSIs to leave her home. She is visibly frightened and the CSIs leave. After leaving the residence, they hypothesize that Paul may have killed his sister at childhood.

Back at CSI lab, Greg processes the green discolorization with Grissom. The substance is an alginate, which is used for molds and impressions. The handprint belongs to his father, proving Grissom's theory that Millander uses the murders to tell a story about his father's murder. When Greg mentions that Millander is smart, Grissom tells him not to do it again, citing that only he can mention it. Greg goes to work on the hair Catherine found in Isabelle's house.

Catherine lifts fingerprints from the baseball cards. Brass was unable to turn up records of a daughter in the Millander family, so she compares the prints against Judge Mason's. The prints are a match, proving that Judge Mason is really Paul Millander. Greg pages Grissom to come to the lab and join him and Sara. Greg confirms the hair came back as carrying "XX" chromosomes. He also confirmed that the hair left from the bathtub is a perfect identical match and DNA. Sara explains that the hairs have endogeneous testosterone, confirming that Pauline took testosterone injections. In effect, Paul killed Pauline and became Paul Millander via sex change.

Grissom confronts Isabelle at her home about Paul's sex change. Isabelle explained that Pauline left and Paul came as a very strange man. She refused to let Paul stay in the house in his new form. Grissom asks Isabelle for permission to collect hairs from Pauline's bedroom for use in court.

Grissom interrogates Millander about the hairs they collected from his childhood bedroom. Millander explained that the doctors said he had "endocronic ambiguity", meaning his chromosomes read "XX", but his body disagreed. The doctors told his parents to raise him as they saw fit. Millander managed to live his life as a boy until the night his father was shot and killed in the bathtub in the same manner he would murder his victims later. He relived his childhood trauma during interrogation, testifying against his father's killers, even positively identifying them. Nevertheless, the murderers went free and Millander began identifying with the aggressors. Millander smiles because he is comfortable sharing it with Grissom. Millander went on to get a surgical sex change and became a judge. Grissom presents a warrant to Millander for his DNA. Millander offers it willingly. Before leaving, Millander asks Grissom why he did not kill him despite sharing a birthday with his father's death day. He told Grissom he has another victim, but Grissom says it does not matter since Millander will be in jail, unable to kill again. Grissom leaves the interrogation room.

Grissom arrives in court for Millander's hearing, but Catherine tells him that he elected to represent himself, making him a pro per, which are always up last to be heard on the docket. He rushes to where Millander was being held and escapes, using Grissom's ID he confiscated earlier when he was placed in custody for contempt in court. Millander fixed the ID card to escape the courthouse.

As Grissom prepares to go home, Catherine believes that Millander may have slipped up when she rechecked his victims' backgrounds. Pete Walker, Millander's latest victim, had a mother who actually died in childbirth. Yet he was ordered to record his suicide confession, apologizing to his mother for the pain he caused her. Grissom does not believe that Millander makes mistakes and runs to Isabelle's house.

Grissom notices the door is open, so he lets himself in. During his investigation sweep, Grissom finds Isabelle (making her his next victim) in her table place setting in the dining room after having been stabbed in the abdomen and killed. He walks to the bathroom, where Millander has shot and killed himself in the bathtub, the same place and manner his father was murdered. Grissom finds Millander's own suicidal confession recorded on tape on the bathtub and plays it.