Catherine Willows
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This television-related article or section describes an aspect of the series in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character | |
|---|---|
 Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows |
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| Catherine Willows (née Flynn) | |
| Birthdate | March 26, 1963 (45) |
| City | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Status | Alive |
| Job | CSI |
| Rank | CSI Level 3 |
| Position | Night Shift Assistant Supervisor |
| Seasons | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
| Portrayed by | Marg Helgenberger |
| First appearance | Pilot |
Catherine Willows (née Flynn) is a fictional character on the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She is employed as a crime-scene investigator supervisor (a "CSI-3") and forensic scientist for Clark County, Nevada, which contains the city of Las Vegas. She is played by Marg Helgenberger, who has received two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for the role. [1]
Catherine Willows is listed as number 82 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters[2].
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[edit] Fictional character biography
The character's original CBS biography stated that she was born in Bozeman, Montana in 1963 and raised by her mother, Lily Flynn (Anita Gillette), a former show girl ("Weeping Willows", "Kiss-Kiss, Bye-Bye"). This biography was later revised. The new version states that the character was born in Las Vegas and raised by her single mother, who worked as a cocktail waitress and showgirl at various jobs along the west coast.[3] The seventh season episode "Living Legend" established that Willows was 16 years old (portrayed by Amy Scott) in 1975, the year the movie "Jaws" was released, which places her year of birth in either 1958 or 1959. She had occasional contact with her biological father, casino owner Sam Braun (Scott Wilson), but knew him only as a family friend. Sam Braun nicknamed her "Muggs." She did not learn he had fathered her until she was an adult and compared his DNA sample with her own as part of a murder investigation in the episode "Inside the Box". Willows herself worked for a time as a dancer/stripper and briefly had a cocaine habit, dropping it before pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from the University of Las Vegas. Like the other characters on CSI, she has a wide knowledge of odd facts that help in their investigations of crime scenes.
Willows has one daughter, Lindsey Willows (originally portrayed by Madison McReynolds, as of 2006 by Kay Panabaker), and had a stormy relationship with ex-husband Eddie (Timothy Carhart) until his murder ("Lady Heather's Box"). Prosecution of Eddie's killer proved impossible due to ambiguous evidence, something she took rather hard. The show's writers advanced Lindsey's age several years after the death of Eddie, turning the character from preteen to teenager. Willows' relationship with Lindsey soured somewhat after Eddie's murder, and the girl's behavior took a turn for the worse; she would get in fights at school and was once picked up for hitchhiking. Willows took Lindsey to the morgue and showed her the body of a murder victim to impress upon Lindsey the danger of her behavior. Willows later enrolled Lindsey in Butterfield ("4 x 4"), a private school that would keep a tighter rein on her.
Willows' relationship with Sam Braun occasionally created conflicts in cases where he was involved in some way with an ongoing investigation (i.e., "Inside the Box"). Willows however accepted a large monetary gift from Braun, despite some ethical qualms, and became more financially stable. Grissom expressed some misgivings when he learned of this, but no lasting negative repercussions occur. In episode 702 ("Built to Kill, Part 2") Braun is shot and dies moments later in Willows' arms. She, in episode 705 ("Double-Cross"), lights a candle in a Roman Catholic church in Braun's memory, crosses herself, and whispers, "This one is for you, Sam." It remains to be seen what Willows will inherit from Braun (she was asked about it by fellow investigator Nick Stokes in episode 711 ("Leaving Las Vegas") but beyond describing Braun's large estate as being tied up in land development, she seemed indifferent and not anticipating a large legacy) as he cared very deeply for her, even when she was his legal opponent.
Willows dates in several episodes. The earliest occurrence was a brief fling with a city engineer Paul Newsome played by Brad Johnson across three episodes ("$35K O.B.O.", "Justice is Served" and "Scuba Doobie-Doo"). A later brief flirtation, in the episode "Weeping Willows", ended when the man (Adam Novak, played by Marg Helgenberger's real-life husband, Alan Rosenberg) became overly aggressive. In Seasons 4 and 5 she dates an owner of nightclub Chris Bezich played by Nicholas Lea that she meets while investigating a murder that occurred at his night club. Their relationship ends when she meets him in his office one night and he is fooling around with one of the club girls. No long-term romantic relationships have otherwise been established, though there was a brief flirtation with fellow CSI Warrick Brown, ending with his marriage, which she described as the end of a "fantasy". Willows maintains a close friendship with the other investigators on the night shift, especially supervisor Gil Grissom, though she has occasionally criticized him for his lax attitude toward paperwork and office politics. When newcomer Sara Sidle arrived they briefly butted heads, but have become friends since then.
After Greg Sanders is injured in an explosion in the lab in "Play with Fire", Willows visits him in the hospital so that she can tell him personally that she was partially responsible for the accident. Several years later, she also expresses a deal of concern for Sanders when he returns to work not too long after being the victim of a brutal beating ("Double-Cross").
After Grissom goes on sabbatical, Willows welcomes his temporary replacement Michael Keppler, accepting Keppler quite quickly into his new role on the team (episode 712, "Sweet Jane"). Despite some misgivings on her part, she is ordered by the Undersheriff McKeen to follow his suggestions in performing an unorthodox investigative style known as "reverse forensics," which, although successful in luring out the suspect, fails to produce charges because a lack of communication between the undersheriff and the district attorney. It also serves to create a great deal of hard feelings when the other members of her team discover that she and Keppler deceived them and created a false crime scene (episode 713, "Redrum"). After Keppler goes rogue during an investigation, she is the first to express concern to and about him. Unfortunately, she locates him just moments too late, after he takes a fatal bullet meant for a murder witness. When the paramedics declare Keppler to be dead, Willows collapses in tears into (the recently returned) Grissom's arms ("Law of Gravity").
In "Living Doll" she finally understood what Grissom was trying to tell them as he revealed his relationship with Sara. Catherine along with the team was left speechless.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ IMDB - Marg Helgenberger - Awards Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- ^ Bravo > 100 Greatest TV Characters Bravo (television network). Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- ^ Marrinan and Parker (2006), p. 34
[edit] References
- Marrinan, Corinne and Parker, Steve. Ultimate CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006). DK Publishing. ISBN 0-7566-2353-7
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