Warning: Spoilers for CSI: Vegas season 2, episodes 1, 2, and 3.
While Catherine Willows has returned in CSI: Vegas season 2, so far, the series hasn’t made much use of the returning CSI franchise heroine. CSI: Vegas season 2 needed Marg Helgenberger’s Catherine Willows badly. While CSI: Vegas season 1 could rely on Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle to bring back fans of the original CSI, the second season of the revival lost both of these cast and required some link to the original show as a result.
As such, bringing back Catherine Willows for CSI: Vegas season 2 was an inspired choice. Where Gil was always a leader and Sara was a lone wolf (before the pair became an item, at least), Catherine was the definition of a team player during her time on CSI. As such, Marg Helgenberger’s returning character could bring back one of the original CSI crew without drawing too much attention and screen time away from the new characters of CSI: Vegas, who the show is still trying to get viewers to invest in. However, in the first three episodes of CSI: Vegas season 2, Catherine Willows has not been a pivotal addition to the team. Since the premiere, she has proven disposable rather than central to the events of each episode.
Why CSI Vegas Season 2 Needed Catherine Willows
With Gil and Sara gone, the latest incarnation of the CSI franchise needed to keep some connection to the original show alive in season 2. Gil and Sara’s X-Files-inspired happy ending proved that they would not be returning to CSI: Vegas season 2 anytime soon, since the duo was finally enjoying the long sought-after vacation that they had been promised at the end of the original CSI's run. The fact that Catherine was not the lead character in the original CSI made her an ideal addition to the cast of CSI: Vegas season 2 since this meant that CSI: Vegas could focus on Allie, Josh, and other new characters while also incorporating Catherine in a ing role.
CSI Vegas Season 2’s Catherine Willows Return Explained
During the opening scene of the season 2 premiere, Catherine claimed that she reed the CSI team because she had been ousted from the board of directors of a casino and wanted to return to her old stomping ground. Since Allie and Josh’s CSI: Vegas season 2 love triangle took up much of the episode’s story, the premiere didn’t delve much deeper into Catherine’s story at first. However, the episode's last scene made it clear that the real reason Catherine Willows came back was to investigate her protégé Grace’s disappearance, which she thinks is linked to some shady goings-on in the casino where Catherine once sat on the board of directors.
Catherine planned to use the CSI department’s resources to work out what was going on with Grace’s mysterious disappearance and bring her fate to light, while also helping the team with her technical expertise. This wasn’t an inherently bad plot line, and Gil and Sara also had an overarching season-long story about a killer pursuing them in season 1. However, one noted CSI: Vegas season 1 mistake was focusing on this story at the expense of the new characters, meaning viewers were following Sara and Gil but had little reason to care about Josh, Allie, and Maxine. Now CSI: Vegas season 2 risks repeating this by failing to integrate Catherine into the team.
CSI: Vegas Season 2’s Catherine Willows Plot Started Well
CSI: Vegas's “She’s Gone” (season 2, episode 1) established that Catherine had her secret investigation into Grace’s fate going on the side, while the episode also saw her interact a lot with the new crew. “The Painted Man” (season 2, episode 2) developed this dynamic further, delving deeper into Catherine’s investigation as she drew Josh into her work and accidentally set up Josh and Allie’s awkward reunion. However, “Story of A Gun” saw these two intersecting plots derail as, in an attempt to avoid Catherine’s CSI: Vegas season 2 story overwhelming the team’s work, the show instead essentially forgot about her plot for a week.
Where The Catherine Willows Plot Went Wrong
“Story of A Gun” barely featured Catherine, which in and of itself is not necessarily a problem. However, her absence was striking when the dramatic ending of the previous episode saw Catherine get too close to a clue, leaving her former casino co-worker beaten and threatened by unknown assailants. After such a shocking development, it was strange to hear so little from Catherine, and this prompted the question of whether Catherine really needed the CSI team’s resources for her investigation. She used their equipment and Josh’s expertise in episode 2 but, before and after that, she acted as a solo agent.
CSI: Vegas season 2 hinted Catherine might not be as stable and detached as she appeared to be when she hallucinated seeing Grace among crowds in busy places more than once. However, if the show was attempting to imply that the returning CSI heroine needs the CSI: Vegas crew to her in her investigation, the series will need to establish more of a rapport between them soon. Fortunately, CSI: Vegas season 2 will not be as short as the ten-episode season 1, meaning there is still time for Catherine to call on her co-workers when she gets in too deep. The issue is, she already ran into trouble at the end of episode 2 and failed to inform them.
Why CSI: Vegas Wasting Catherine Could Be Good
As unlikely as it sounds, there might be a good reason for CSI: Vegas season 2 to seemingly waste Catherine in these early episodes. While failing to bring back CSI fan-favorite Lady Heather was a mistake on the part of CSI: Vegas season 2, opting to sideline Cathrine’s story could be part of a more ambitious plan to legitimize the show’s new heroes. If CSI: Vegas season 2 continues to underutilize Catherine, this approach will give Allie, Josh, Serena, and the rest of the new cast time to make more of an impression as the show’s leads. CSI: Vegas season 2 could then reintegrate Catherine’s plot later in the season, which would make sense, since she wouldn’t have wanted the CSI team to know about her investigation until it was impossible for her to go it alone.
Episodes of CSI: Vegas air Thursdays on CBS.