CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Last Laugh

Teleplay by Bob Harris & Anthony E. Zuiker
Story by Bob Harris & Carol Mendelsohn
Directed by Richard Lewis

Dougie Max has turned his nightclub standup into cable TV stardom, and his fans will forgive him anything. But when he is poisoned on stage, it soon becomes clear to the CSI team that his fellow comics – including the smarter, funnier but lower profile Michael Borland (Goldthwait) and the wannabe Kenchy (Gottfried)-- weren’t as supportive of Dougie as the comedy club patrons who worshipped him.

The team soon finds the murder weapon – someone slipped a lethal mickey into the bottled water that Dougie drank. At first it seems straightforward – follow the bottle that contained the fatal overdose of migraine medicine to the comedian who hated Dougie the most. But when Warrick is called to a convenience store to investigate another death, the CSIs are stunned to find that they have another bottle of water that has been tampered with, and they may be on the trail of an elusive and cowardly serial killer.

Quickly, they expand their investigation, and recall 40,000 units of the bottled water. Two unconnected deaths only serve to remind them that the killer who put cyanide in Tylenol bottles years before was never found. But then Catherine and Grissom play a hunch, and they soon realize that they may be dealing with an even more cunning fiend. Perhaps the two victims were not chosen randomly at all, and the killer may have been trying to throw the team off the track. The convenience store victim may have been murdered to cover up Dougie Max’s death – which leads them right back to the comedy club, in search of the best punchline of all – evidence that will catch them a killer.

Meanwhile, Brass spots a patron outside the club, whom he recognizes as the grieving widower, whose wife suffered a fatal fall in her bathtub. Only trouble is, hubby ain’t grieving anymore – he’s driving a hot car, and has a hot chick on his arm, and his wife has been dead only a few weeks. On a hunch, Brass persuades Nick, Sara – and a reluctant Dr. Robbins, who feels his professionalism is being impugned – to reopen the case, and orders that the woman’s body be exhumed. When Robbins looks again – and Nick and Sara recreate the “accident” – what they wind up creating is the perfect murder scene, with the perfect motive, all leading to a very imperfect husband.