If this episode does anything, it tells us that life sometimes just isn't fair. Murder, accidental or of a passion due to circumstances spiraling out of control, sometimes events transpire and good people suffer the consequences. The brutal murder of a jerk dean of a school (with the woman responsible for its opening the lead suspect) has Catherine and Nick investigating blood which speaks for the victim. Warrick and Grissom investigate the strange death of a young man found naked in the desert, seemingly dead because of fear. Jimsonweed seems to be a reason for what caused his death, and the case leads them to a good friend of the victim's and a despicable dealer, knowledgeable of the law regarding his profession and assured of his not doing time, who works raves on the outskirts of Vegas. Photophobia, auditory hallucination, and fireworks turn up, as does a bite and aluminum, as the investigation concludes. We get a strong indictment of an angered Grissom unleashing a rant against the dealer, later telling his colleagues that three types of criminal bothers him: sexual predators of kids, rapists, and those who sell death to kids. We also see how Grissom deals with the frustrations of his job
rollercoasters. A young Milo Ventimiglia is the friend of the naked victim who turns out to be an unfortunate recipient of a drug considered harmless fun, while character actor Kelly Connell is a funeral director answering to a shocking revelation regarding the "cutthroat funeral business" involving caskets, a dead body that had been embalmed (found in a garbage bin in Vegas!), and a grave dug up to show no signs of a burial. Sara works the embalmed-body-in-a-garbage-bin case, outraged at what she learns once her investigation turns up a horrible truth of what desperate people do to salvage their business. The dean case leaves Catherine and Nick with a bad taste because both realize that his death could have been avoided had he just left alone his employer and a member of her faculty alone
while Nick appears satisfied with the how of the case after it's solved, Catherine encourages him to desire the why behind the murder. This episode is a major bummer.
Review of Friends & Lovers
