‘CSI: Vegas’: Can Gil & Sara Get What They Need From Internal Affairs’ Nora? (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for CSI: Vegas Episode 4 “Long Pig.”]

Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Sara Sidle’s (Jorja Fox) goal was to stay away from Internal Affairs’ Nora Cross (Kat Foster) since they’re not supposed to be working on anything related to the Hodges case. But they’re determined to prove their former colleague didn’t tamper with evidence and has been framed, and they can only steer clear of Nora for so long. That changes in the latest CSI: Vegas episode — but can they use that to their advantage? In one word, yes.

Nora questions Gil about the case for which evidence might have been tampered with that fell under his supervision: Diane Chase (Season 6’s “Rashomama”). A blood sample from one of the women convicted was found in the storage unit. She wants to call him to testify about how he missed it, but she only shows him a redacted report. He refuses to sign off on anything without a look at the evidence. But she then questions the timing of Gil and Sara returning to Las Vegas and working at the Crime Lab. And so Gil and Sara join the team on the latest case so they’re seen working on something not tied to Hodges.

Then Sara meets with Nora, who wants to know what she observed as the person who worked with Hodges the longest. Sara says she never saw anything. Hodges was a good man, a great lab tech, and a professional. But the IAB detective warns that if she starts offering character testimony for the accused, the DA will impugn her character. For example, they might look at a performance review from Gil before the Chase investigation: “Sara Sidle’s temperament can be an issue. She has blind spots, an inability to channel emotional energy stands in the way of her becoming the best CSI she can be.” That’s from around when they got serious, Nora says, suggesting she was distracted by an affair that began in the workplace and that’s why she didn’t notice what Hodges was doing.

Sara’s (understandably) annoyed — after the meeting and that they’re still stuck calling the person they’re trying to identify “whoever.” They need to get a peek at the evidence, and Sara comes up with a plan that will allow that to happen, by making Nora think it’s her idea.

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And so when they both meet with the IAB detective again separately, Gil tells Nora he can only say that Hodges “might” have falsified DNA at this point if she puts him on the stand. She might think he’s being naïve, but as he points out, naïveté, by definition, is the lack of experience, wisdom and judgement. Its antonyms are “intelligence, perception, enlightenment. That would be my wife.”

Sara, meanwhile, tells Nora that she and Gil were in no way swept up by their romance “and not paying attention to our jobs. The work at CSI, that was our passion, it’s what brought us together.” Gil would never cheat the process, Sara continues. Nora remarks that she doesn’t usually have this much trouble bringing a man around, and Sara uses that to her advantage. “It took me years. He didn’t understand my temper. He doesn’t why I would get emotional on the job,” she says. But give him time, put him in a lab, let him study, and he’ll get there.

And so Nora gives Gil all the files. He opens the one for Ronald Pose, who choked to death on the cremains of his dead wife (Season 11’s “All That Cremains”) and narrows in on “Bones leached of DNA” in file. He tells Nora he’ll testify, then goes back to his and Sara’s hotel room to tell his wife it worked.

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'CSI: Vegas' EP & Star Break Down Gil's Ailment & Tease What's Next

Sara’s not surprised. “She’s under the opinion I’m emotional, so I went with it,” she explains. So what did he find? Only one of their suspects has the skills to do what he saw in that Pose file, and he shows her the man’s photo. Now they just have to prove it.

CSI: Vegas, Wednesdays, 10/9c, CBS