Lady Heather! All I can say is that Lady Heather was by far the coolest character outside of Grissom and Sara ever put on CSI. When Melinda was on screen, she utterly ruled; you could not take your eyes off her. That show needs her badly; she'd know Grissom and Sara were romantically involved immediately if not sooner. And her final appearance there was heartbreaking: "Lady Heather, I said stop."

I wish Melinda Clarke all the cookies in the world. :-)

Dana5140 | February 21, 07:44 CET

This is sort of off topic, but there's no where else to talk about it. If you saw last night's episode of Veronica Mars you know that...

Sheriff Lamb smells bread! Also, he died. So it looks like fellow browncoat, Michael Muhney, is going to need a new gig, too. Unless they're bringing him back as a different character, like they did with James Jordan (Lucky/Timothy Foyle). If so, I suggest Sarcastic Mime.

betwixt | February 21, 09:37 CET

betwixt You're kidding! Blast! For once I was going to be able to watch VM from the beginning of the episode, and my brother called from FL about 10 minutes in. It ended up a long call and I finally just turned it off. Did I say "Blast!"?

On topic: She did do a great job as Lady Heather, though I have only seen CSI in reruns so I do not have a real grasp on how her story line ended.

Interestingly enough, I think I get this actress and the one who played the Preying Mantis on BtVS confused. Both are getting a lot of work and are similar types.

newcj | February 21, 09:56 CET

The episode was "Pirates of the Third Reich," one of the most bizarre stories ever told on CSI. It involved a man who killed his twin brother, took over his research program, and used it to help kidnap people into his own more personal, Nazi-based, research. One of those persons was Lady Heather's daughter, a woman who was attending Harvard, but who was also pregnant with her therapist's child (the therapist was disbarred after Lady Heather took action). What happened to Heather's daughter I won't say, but was utterly horrible. While Grissom and his team are searching for the killer, Heather is doing so on her own, using methods well beyond anything Grissom would ever consider doing- and she finds the man first. And this is how it ends, and it is immensely moving for all that is going on at the time, knowing Heather as CSI fans do (don't read any further if you do not want to be spoiled any more than I already have):


[EXT. DESERT (OFF HIGHWAY 55, NEAR SPARKS) - NIGHT]

(Grissom takes the turn onto the dirty road and drives toward Lady Heather's car.)

(In the spot where her daughter's body was found, Lady Heather unleashes her rage and grief on Leon Sneller. Sneller is bound to the front of her car as she whips him. His face and chest are cut and bloodied. He cries out with pain at every crack of her whip.)

(Behind her, Grissom parks and gets out of his car.)

(Lady Heather doesn't let up.)

GRISSOM: (shouts) Heather! Stop it!

LADY HEATHER: No. Let me finish.

(Beyond reasoning and out of control, she continues to whip Sneller. She pulls her whip back to continue, but Grissom steps forward and catches the end of the whip.)

(She whirls around and tugs her whip, trying to get it out from Grissom's grasp.)

GRISSOM: (shouts) You cannot do this!

LADY HEATHER: No! Let go! Let ... !

GRISSOM: No!

LADY HEATHER: (begs) Please ...

(The whip between them, she continues to struggle to get it free from his grasp.)

GRISSOM: Stop. (firmly) Heather.

LADY HEATHER: (begging) Please ...

GRISSOM: I'm saying stop.

(Lady Heather stops and looks at Grissom. She gasps deep, heaving sobs. Grissom pulls the whip closer, bringing him closer to her.)

(Dissolving into tears, Heather cries as Grissom holds her.)

FADE TO BLACK.

Dana5140 | February 21, 11:53 CET

If there's anyone from The OC who deserves a gig, it's her.

Ameer | February 21, 12:06 CET

I've seen her on Entourage, too. She's amazing looking and very talented. And since someone already wished her cookies, I guess I'll have to settle for wishing her cake.
;)

kerfuffle | February 21, 12:12 CET

Dana5140, I saw that episode in reruns, but I do not remember that ending. I wonder if I got interrupted and never actually saw the end.

newcj | February 21, 12:17 CET

That's really the ending, that's how it plays out and that's both how I remember seeing it when it first aired and most definitely is how the DVD for S6 has it. I am wondering if the station showing it chickened out on the whipping at the end, because it was so intense.

Those words "I'm saying stop" carry meaning well beyond their simple utterance.

[ edited by Dana5140 on 2007-02-21 19:29 ]

Dana5140 | February 21, 12:28 CET

Melinda's role in CSI, is one of most stunning and deep characters from that show, even more than some of the main characters. Everytime, I'm get more and more surprised, by how amazing she's playing Lady Heather.

Wish the best of luck for her in this new role.

betwixt, if you'd like to further discuss that matter hidden in the invisio-text, we have a forum for that show over at whedonesque.org, for which you're more than welcome to join in, so we won't go off topic over here in the black.

Numfar PTB | February 21, 12:32 CET

I found a link to the end scene so you can see it yourself. If you go to http://www.grissomsararomance.com/clips615.htm, you can click on the link for the end scene and download it to your computer. For us GSR shippers, grissomsararomance is as valuable as the buffy diaglogue database is for Buffyverse folks; it has everything you could ever want and more. But I digress- you can view a few other select scenes from that eiposde on this link as well.

Lady Heather's first appearance back in S2 was an amazing turn; her return a couple of years later in a special 90-minute episode was simply incredible. Listening to her and Catherine Willows talk about being powerful women in a man's world was great acting by both. And then Grissom just blows it- though that led to GSR, so I cannot complain. And her final appearance, as noted here, was heart wrenching. I had never seen any The OC, but I bought S1 solely because of her acting in the 3 eps of CSI she was in. She never steps wrong, she owns the screen, and she is the most compelling person the show has ever had.

ETA: newcj, you are right, some of the text was cut at the beginning when Grissom first sees her. Damn, good call!

[ edited by Dana5140 on 2007-02-21 19:48 ]

Dana5140 | February 21, 12:39 CET

"Those words "I'm saying stop" carry meaning well beyond their simple utterance."

Absolutely.

I'll take a look at the link when I get home. I wonder how the 90 minute episode is handled in reruns? Maybe they don't show it...

newcj | February 21, 12:44 CET

Wait, I got it wrong again, the text matches the transcript- but still way damned powerful! It is just that the way the words are spoken is a bit broken compared to how it reads above, but it is all there.

They do show it in reruns, and typically they do show the entire episode and schedule around it on Spike. I could watch Lady Heather's Box (no jokes now) over and over again, just an incredible episode. POTTR is very hard to watch since it is so disturbing on so many levels. Slaves of Las Vegas, her first episode, is lots of fun as well- especially when Grissom picks up the mask with the, shall we say, odd nose. BTW, Elizabeth Berklely has a role in LHB as well.

It is amazing to me how powerful those words Grissom says are. And that Lady Heather is begging him, something she would never, ever do. She is the one always in control and in her world she knows that the one being beaten is always in control, not the one doing the beating. And Grissom talks to her with the only words she will hear or understand- and that allows her her release, not the beating. Incredible!

Dana5140 | February 21, 12:57 CET

Thanks Numfar PTB, I didn't know about whedonesque.org.

betwixt | February 21, 15:06 CET

my question: Is The O.C. dead? Is it dead? Did they kill it, really? They killed it! Yay! ... Or is it inappropriate to show satisfaction, when the show you hate more than anything gets killed. Or didn't get it killed?

bookworm | February 21, 18:03 CET

Even though I havn't watched it since the end of Season 1, I would wager there're far more hate-worthy shows on TV . Like According to Jim and the like ? the OC at least has a number of capable actors and had some worthwhile bits of humour beyond it's soapy base.

Kris | February 22, 01:58 CET

I've never seen the OC but I reserve my hate for some of the reality shows and talk shows that encourage people to display the worst of human nature.

newcj | February 22, 10:40 CET