Day breaks on the Las Vegas strip, but we quickly move from shots of the more tastef-- I mean, "less gaudy" casinos, and into a courtroom. From the depths of the couch, Mr. Sobell wonders, "Why don't they hold trials in casinos? Think about it -- 'Today at the Excalibur: Merlin's Banquet, Thunder from Down Under, and People vs. Greeley!'" Yeah? Why not?
Anyway, we're in a courtroom, at what is obviously a trial, with Gil on the witness stand. D.A. Jeffrey Sinclair tells Gil, "I need you to answer the same questions I asked you at the first trial, and I need you to answer them honestly, just as you did back then." Okay, then. We're at a retrial, and Sinclair's making a big deal over Gil's credibility. He then becomes Mr. Exposition, Esq., explaining that on December 20, 1999, Gil answered a call at a hardware store, where the victim was evidently beaten to death with a tool. That's an Alanis Morissette lyric in the making. Sinclair holds up the wrench that killed the victim, and Gil confirms that verily, it is the fatal wrench, and it was found underneath the sink at the business door, Garbett's Gourmet. You know, if I operated a food emporium, I wouldn't use a name that's so close to "garbage." Sinclair confirms yet again that Gil is ab-so-posi-lu-tively certain the wrench is what sent the victim to the Home Depot in the Sky, because Gil found Mr. Garbett's fingerprints on the handle of the lethal lug fastener, and in the hardware store-cum-murder scene.
Sinclair then asks what else Gil found at the store. Gil says he found a matchbook, explaining it with, "The killer tried to cover his tracks by setting a fire, but a lack of sufficient combustibles may have thwarted his effort." Or a lack of sufficient brain cells: what hardware store isn't packed to the rafters with combustibles? It's not like manufacturers put the "keep out of direct heat and away from open flame" warnings on the paint thinner and furniture finish cans because they've never been able to think of anything catchier with which to fill the space. Sinclair produces the matchbook, but Gil's just noticed something new -- a fingerprint. Sinclair presses with, "Is this the same matchbook you found on the scene," Gil attempts to duck a perjury charge by asking for a quick break to consult with the prosecution, and the defense jumps all over his request like a pyromaniac in the aerosols aisle of a hardware store. Gil's all, "Okay, fine, it's the matchbook I collected at the crime scene." The judge allows for a break.
Cut to Mr. Exposition, Esq. getting shirty with Gil because "the defendant was found guilty at his first trial. The only reason we're back in court is because his new lawyer convinced some appellate judge the original jury instructions were faulty. This has nothing to do with the evidence." Gil sighs under the burden of having to explain to Mr. Exposition, Esq. that if it weren't for the precious evidence, the television character "Jeffrey Sinclair" would still be synonymous with Babylon 5. He explains that the matchbook has a fingerprint on it, and when Sinclair reasonably asks, "So?" Gil says he doesn't remember it. It figures Gil would operate on the kind of mental plane where he's got immediate and perfect recall of six-year-old crime scene artifacts. Also, the fingerprint's not in his notes.
“ Conrad Ecklie materializes out of nowhere and snarls, 'I heard we have a problem.' I bet you he thinks the first person plural pronouns are a team-building tactic. It's so Successories of him. ”
Sinclair points out that the evidence seal's unbroken, so the print's clearly been there all along. Gil throws another blood-covered monkey wrench into Sinclair's plans to have this deposition wrapped up in time for happy hour by pointing out that the fingerprint on the matchbook don't match the defendant's fingerprints. Sinclair asks, "Are you sure?" and Gil shoots him a look that clearly conveys his deep desire to shoot laser beams out of his eyes at all who dare question him. Sinclair sets us up for the rest of the hour with, "When the defense hears about this, they are going to call every other piece of evidence into question. I don't need to tell you what that means." Gil shrugs and says resignedly, "I've given them reasonable doubt."
The Who doubt anyone's even trying with the bumper lines anymore.
When we get back from commercial, Gil is strolling through the Labitrail. Conrad Ecklie materializes out of nowhere and snarls, "I heard we have a problem." I bet you he thinks the first-person-plural pronouns are a team-building tactic. It's so Successories of him. I bet he gave the day shift the desk plaques reading, "Teamwork: Coming together is a beginning...Keeping together is progress...Working together is a success." And everyone on the day shift promptly stampeded to the computer, where they all jostled each other to see who could hit Monster.com first. Anyway, Gil smacks Ecklie lightly with, "The Middle East has a problem." Gil is also the master of the understatement. Ecklie reproaches Gil for missing a fingerprint, and Gil disputes that with, "I'm trying to keep an open mind." "Then how do you explain it?" Ecklie shoots back. Gil tries to remember the English-to-Successories tutorial he had to take once and replies, "With...'Creativity: An organization that is committed to creative collaboration will ride the wave of the future. They will go beyond the realm of assumptive thinking and welcome the dawn of innovation...because there is nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.' So welcome to the future, Conrad. We're riding the wave above assumptive thinking."
Oh, he does not either. Gil actually admits he can't. Ecklie wonders if maybe another matchbook got in there, and Gil points out that the evidence seal more or less eliminates that possibility. Ecklie says, "Since your testimony differs from the actual physical evidence, I thought I'd inform you, I've opened a supervisory inquiry." Gil practically smirks, then rearranges his features before saying tartly, "Well, that's good, Conrad. You know, I can't recall a lab director as expeditious as you." Ecklie's about to reply, "That's because I 'Dare to Soar. My attitude, almost always determines my altitude in life.'" "That's good, because your punctuation certainly isn't helping," Gil shoots back.
Actually, none of that happens either, because the two men are distracted by Ballistics Bobby shooting out a wall of his testing lab. Why on Earth is the ballistics lab not in the basement, thus minimizing the odds of bullets traveling through the lobby? For that matter, why is Ecklie opening a supervisory inquiry on Gil when he wasn't even supervising the shift yet? If y'all recall, Brass was in charge until September 2000, when he was busted down in the wake of Holly Gribbs's death. But we don't get answers to these questions, so let's focus on the one we can answer: what caused Bobby's gun to go off?