Marg on CSI

Season 1
1×01 Pilot

Catherine: We restore peace of mind. And when you’re a victim, that’s everything. Stick with it. At least until you solve your first. And, after that, if you don’t feel like King Kong on cocaine, then you can quit. But if you stay, with my right hand to God, you will never regret it.

1×04 Pledging Mr Johnson

Doc Robbins: The leg was severed post mortem.
Catherine: Well, that’s good news.
Doc Robbins: How do you figure?
Catherine: Would you want to be alive while your leg is being cut off?

1×06 Who Are You?

Gil: What’s the status?
Catherine: Skin samples from under the woman’s fingernails are consistent with Ed’s. I saw some bruises. But Eddie’s style as always been very…involved. Vigorous
Gil: …Vigorous
Warrick: She’s trying to tell you Eddie likes it rough.
Catherine: Thank you, Warrick.

1×14 To Halve and To Hold

Catherine (to Grissom): Are the bones whispering to you?

Gil: You bring in a specialist without consulting me?
Catherine: What? And you don’t bring one in, possibly compromising the case, because you two had a relationship?
Gil: Relationship? I hardly know that woman?
Catherine: Oh, so I guess that dopey look in your eye whenever she’s around is just you.

(After Gil has licked a piece of rock to see if it’s bone)
Gil: Could be a piece of wrist bone?
Catherine: Well, do you want to suck on it? You know, to be sure?

1×22 Evaluation Day

(about a decapitation case)
Catherine: Definitely a crime of passion.
Gil: You think a female did this?
Catherine: I could have.
Gil: Scared of you.

1×23 Strip Strangler

Catherine: Never doubt, never look back. That’s how I live my life.
Gil: I admire that.

Season 2

2×01 Burked

Sam: I remember, the first time I saw you, you didn’t have any clothes on.
Catherine: That was a long time ago.
Sam: I would have taken you home right then if I could have
Catherine: I know, but you were married and I was a baby. It would never have worked.

Catherine: Mind the dummy!

Catherine (to Grissom, after watching a couple argue bitterly): Been there.

Catherine (to Grissom): Is that part of the Sherlock Holmes fan club kit?

2×02 Chaos Theory

Gil: We told them what happened.
Catherine: Yeah. But we didn’t give them what they needed – closure.
Gil: Truth brings closure.
Catherine: Not always.

Catherine (after her hand is almost caught in the garbage chute): Snappy little sucker.

Gil: You showered.
Catherine: Thanks for noticing, Gil, you’re very observant.

Gil: What does that look like?
Catherine: A five foot eleven workaholic.

2×05 Scuba Doobie Doo

Catherine: Hey, Coffee Boy. Where’s my DNA? Cigarette butt, matchbook time-delay device, hairspray. Any of this sound familiar?
Greg: Bags under the eyes, coffee cup, stress face. Any of this look familiar?

Greg: Hey, yo, Cat!
Catherine: I’m going to forget that you called me that.

Catherine: Did Grissom put his stuff in front of mine?

2×06 Altar Boys

Gil: Hey.
Catherine: Oh. You’re going to be getting a call from the local papers about spa safety.
Gil: Spa safety?
Catherine: We had a victim die of an allergic reaction at the Mediterranean. Some foul play…some negligence.
Gil: So what am I supposed to say?
Catherine: That it was an isolated incident…that in no way should it be a mark against The Strips other fine hotels/casinos
Gil: CSI supports Las Vegas.
Catherine: Bottom line.

2×07 Caged

Grissom: The question is, why did the SVU cross the tracks?
Catherine: To get to the other side.

2×08 Slaves of Las Vegas

Catherine: I feel like I’m trapped in the Marquis De Sade’s brain pan.

Nick: None of this weirds me out anymore.
Catherine: People are just as twisted in their own living rooms. The props are different here. That’s all.
Nick: Well, not everybody’s twisted.
Catherine: Everybody, Nick. Wake up and smell the species.
Nick: Catherine, do you really think those freaks out there, running around with their little dog collars on getting spanked are the same as you and me?
Catherine: Just because you never did it, doesn’t mean you never could.
Nick: No way, never gonna happen.
Catherine: Hey, relax, Nick. All I’m saying is you’re human.

Catherine: Why do men always make everything look so tough?

Catherine: Do you get these haikus out of a book, or do they just come to you?
Gil: Every time when you find a body, you have to choose a path. And when you choose that path, Grasshopper, you risk destroying evidence.
Catherine: We grab a trowel and some fine mesh screen and we just pretend like we’re panning for gold…Master.

Catherine: If there’s one thing you learn on this job, it’s that human beings are capable of anything.

Lady Heather: Sex pays a lot better than death.
Catherine: Plus the outfits are cooler.

Catherine: Like Hansel and Gretel, we just followed the breadcrumbs all the way home.

Catherine: I just realized that you and I have a very healthy relationship.
Gil: We do?
Catherine: When we have a problem, I don’t paint Greg in latex and stick a straw up his nose.
Gil: Good. He’d probably like it.
Catherine: You’re supposed to say something revealing back to me.
Gil: Okay. I never told anyone this, Catherine.
(screen fades to black)

2×09 And Then There Were None

Catherine: Peaceful? The town just lost 5% of its population!
Sara: I thought you said this was a single homicide?
Catherine: Yeah. In a population of twenty!

Sara: Do you have a mirror?
Catherine: Since when do you care about your appearance?
Sara: Huh!
Catherine: I meant at a crime scene.

Catherine: Grissom!
Gil: If you’re going to badger me about your crime scene, put it in a memo.
Catherine: You don’t read memos!

Catherine 250 000 turned a career cop bad
Gil (looks at the money): Yeah, well, he had his price.
Catherine: We all do.

2×11 Organ Grinder

Greg: Hey Catherine, you think Sara would go to dinner with me?
Catherine: Sure, as long as you don’t tell her it’s a date.

Nick: So, what do you think it is? Cocaine maybe?
Catherine: Nope.
Nick: How can you tell just by looking at it?
Catherine: Never you mind.

2×15 Burden of Proof

Catherine: Every now and then you’ve got to lift your head up out of that microscope.

(Catherine returns from a body farm)
Sara: Body farm…creepy. What was it like?
Catherine: Quiet.

(Upon finding an insect on the victim’s clothes)
Gil: It’s a carpet beetle. It shouldn’t be here.
Catherine: Vic seem like a hardwood floors kind of guy to you?

Season 3

3×02 The Accused is Entitled

Lawyer: You took your clothes off for a living.
Catherine: For a VERY good living.

3×03 Let the Seller Beware

Gil: Women don’t usually shoot themselves in the head, do they Catherine?
Catherine: Well, gunshot wounds do a number on your face.

3×07 Fight Night

Catherine: Jerome is under the misguided impression that he’s a one man pyrotechnics display.

Catherine: The only thing standing between me and this wardrobe is a couple of extra zeroes on my paycheck.

3×11 Recipe for Murder

Hostess: Hi, last name?
Gil: We don’t have a reservation. We’re here…
Hostess (goes back to phone): Party of four? Three weeks from Thursday? Let me see…
Catherine: Excuse me, but you don’t understand…
Hostess: No, I’m sorry, you don’t understand. You’re walk-ins on a very busy night. We’re short a chef.
Catherine: We know. He’s dead.
Gil: Not only dead. Dismembered. We’re with the crime lab.
Hostess (putting down the phone): I’ll get the owner.

Gil: You know about meat grinders?
Catherine: Well, it’s all pretty much plumbing. Male into female parts. Righty tighty, lefty loosely.

3×18 Precious Metal

(in the morgue, looking over fragmented bones)
Doc Robbins: You want a breast, or a thigh?
Catherine: It’s your kitchen.

From the CSI Video Games

Dark Motives:

Catherine: Hey, learning math without a calculator comes in handy sometimes.

Ace: Please tell me you’re my physical therapist, beautiful.
Catherine: Just isn’t your lucky night, is it?

Catherine: Well, you laughed so hard in the face of death that you could have used an adult diaper.

Catherine: You believe this insanity?

Catherine: We’ve got a pungent yellowish liquid. I’m gonna past on the taste test…how about you?

(hands Greg a cup of coffee)
Greg: No thanks, makes me jumpy.
Catherine: Just analyse it, would you Greg?

Marg on CSI

on her character being drugged and abducted: I thought that was an interesting idea, to have a criminalist – someone who’s always watching her back and always hip to suspicious behaviour – have that happen to her.

on what she’ll miss when she’s done on CSI: I’ve always liked shooting in Vegas, it’s such a character. It’s so visually stimulating.

on her CSI versus the two spin-offs: I always love it when people say [assumes self-important mock voice] “It’s the only one we watch, none of them can compare to you guys, blah, blah, blah.”

on filming the squeamish scenes on CSI: I’m relatively squeamish in civilian life. I’ve been very fortunate not to have to deal with such things in my immediate family. When we’re filming autopsy scenes, I actually feel sad. Behind each of these deaths there’s usually a backstory of unhappiness and loss. We use a guidebook the Las Vegas police put together that’s incredibly graphic. Looking at the pictures make me turn white. If I’m going over the script at home, my husband will ask, “Are you alright?”

on wanting romance for her character: I keep telling the producers I’d love to have a relationship. We do a lot of cerebral work on the show playing opposite a swab or a computer screen. I’d much rather play opposite someone like Gary Dourdan – he’s not bad at all! It would be great because it would give my character the opportunity to show a few more colors – her passionate side, or intimate side or vulnerable side.

on Catherine: Catherine is a former exotic dancer…she’s a Vegas girl and is connected to the history of the town. I gravitate toward edgier material because it suits my nature.

on Catherine…in the bedroom: Catherine is…an animal in bed!

on deciding to be on CSI: CSI itself was intriguing because it was the first time a show had featured the criminalists. In the past, it has always been the cop or the detective. This time, it was the people who did the collection and analysis. Also, the style was intriguing. All of those, what are now known as CSI shots, were written into the pilot script. That is what made the science exciting, fun, and why it captured viewers of all ages. I don’t think anyone anticipated this show was going to have such a broad mass appeal. It has influenced young people to become criminalists and made them fascinated with science because it was made to look fun. — CSI Magazine, July/August, 2008

on Catherine: The character interested me because on the page, she was described as CSI level 3, single mother, and ex-stripper. — CSI Magazine, July/August 2008

on Liev Schreiber being on the show: That was great, not only to have a shake-up with the new blood, but they wrote him very heavily and why wouldn’t you utilize a newcomer and someone of Liev Schreiber’s talent? — CSI Magazine, July/August 2008

highlights of the show: I also certainly enjoyed working with Liev. And any time Billy and I have scenes to do, it is magic because we like and respect each other so much. The first two seasons we were together so much and then they realized they needed to give us a break so we don’t solve many crimes together anymore. I miss that. — CSI Magazine, July/August, 2008

more on Catherine:There are certain aspects of Catherine that I still hope to achieve in my life. She’s pretty tough, pretty straightforward. When it comes to certain situations, I become shy. She’s a very confident person. Whereas Marg, I sometimes feel intimidated or don’t know what to say. — TV Guide, January 23-29, 2006

Back to Marg Quotes