Warning: Contains SPOILERS for CSI: Vegas season 2, episode 1The CSI: Vegas season 2 premiere missed a major opportunity by not bringing back Melinda Clarke’s fan-favorite character Lady Heather and sold the franchise short in the process. By and large, police procedurals don’t have a glowing track record when it comes to portraying sex workers. Often, sex workers are lamentably reduced to villains, helpless victims, or other simplistic one-note caricatures. Surprisingly, however, CSI bucked this trend with one of the show’s best recurring characters.
Melinda Clarke’s Lady Heather, a CSI supporting star and Gil Grissom love interest, was a comparatively complex character with a more rounded persona than most sex workers in shows that revolve around heroic cops. Her time on the original show has been marked by extensive character development and relationship-building with other key players. Unfortunately, the CSI: Vegas season 2 premiere neglected to bring her back to the series and sold itself short in the process.
The CSI franchise revival could have brought back Lady Heather, the dominatrix with whom Gil had an on-again, off-again relationship, to assist with their investigation into the murder of another, unrelated dominatrix in Heather's home city of Las Vegas. Lady Heather had helped the CSI team with cases like this before in the original series and her advice was often invaluable for Gil and the team, meaning CSI: Vegas season 2’s returning star Catherine Willows could reasonably have sought out her counsel. However, in failing to think of this premiere twist, CSI: Vegas's “She’s Gone” (season 2, episode 1) fell back on tired clichés about sex work as well as missing out on a stellar cameo opportunity.
Why CSI: Vegas Season 2 Needed Lady Heather’s Return
The reason that Lady Heather’s appearance in the CSI: Vegas season 2 premiere would have been more than a mere cameo is that her status as a relatively important character forced the franchise to think of sex workers as real people. In her absence, CSI: Vegas season 2 defaulted to depicting sex workers as victims of childhood abuse, a familiar trope that Lady Heather’s surprisingly strong characterization refuted. While there is certainly room for CSI to ruminate on the relationship between childhood trauma and adult life choices, CSI: Vegas needed Lady Heather or another fleshed-out sex worker to balance the show’s overly familiar, moralistic take on the industry.
Clarke’s character acted as an independent and intelligent individual who took part in a deeply flawed system, just as the CSI team did their best despite the corruption endemic in policing. By contrast, the under-seen victim of CSI: Vegas season 2 was simply another beautiful young corpse with a sad backstory and no humanizing features. The CSI franchise surprised viewers in the 00s when the series proved capable of writing a believable, interesting sex worker character, but unfortunately, CSI: Vegas season 2 took a step back as the show’s premiere reduced its victim to little more than a stereotypical stock character.
Episodes of CSI: Vegas air Thursdays on CBS