Lady Heather

All you want to know about Lady Heather

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character

Lady Heather
City Las Vegas, Nevada
Job Professional Dominatrix
Seasons 2, 3, 6, 7, 9
Portrayed by Melinda Clarke
First appearance Slaves of Las Vegas


Lady Heather or Heather Kessler is a fictional character in the popular TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She is portrayed by Melinda Clarke.

Contents

Character creation

Lady Heather was created by writer Jerry Stahl. He has written some of CSI's most controversial episodes, which have also sometimes been the most watched. Melinda Clarke has said that she became interested in Lady Heather because of the contrasts the character has, "a multidimensional person who hadn't been seen, a dominatrix who was much more evolved — enigmatic and empowered".[1]

Appearances

Lady Heather has appeared in five CSI episodes. The first was Slaves of Las Vegas, from season two.

Lady Heather's second appearance was in the season three special Lady Heather's Box.

She reappeared in CSI third appearance, in the season six episode Pirates of the Third Reich.

She returned in the seventh season episode The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix.

Her most recent appearance was in the ninth season episode Leave Out All The Rest.

Slaves of Las Vegas

In CSI's season two, a murder occurs at Lady Heather's fetish club. When meeting her, Gil Grissom becomes instantly interested in her. They have tea, where she lets him know that she has a daughter, Zoë, who's studying at Harvard. William Petersen has said that his character, Grissom, becomes attracted to Lady Heather because they are "both anthropologists. He's fascinated by her science, [a look at] the sexual psyche of human beings." In fact, during the episode, both characters show themselves attracted to the other and the sexual tension starts to build up, but nothing noteworthy occurs.[2]

Lady Heather's Box

A year after Lady Heather's first appearance, she appeared again in CSI in its season three. This time two murders, apparently unrelated, lead the CSIs to her club. The team is surprised to know that her business is going better than ever, and that she now even has a website: LadyHeather.com, which she called "Voyeurism in a Brave New World" (the website is a genuine one, but redirects to the official CSI page at cbs.com).

In this episode, Lady Heather opens up a little bit more to Grissom, telling him that she is a diabetic. During this episode it is insinuated that Grissom might have slept with Lady Heather. They are both seen at her house at night, with Grissom approaching her in an intimate way, then it cuts to the next scene where they are both having tea during the day, wearing different clothes. The scene is very unclear, but William Petersen has said that his character did not sleep with Lady Heather.[citation needed] At the end of the episode, Lady Heather becomes a murder suspect, and although she is later cleared, she seems disappointed that he ever suspected her, and their relationship is damaged by Grissom's suspicion.[3]

Pirates of the Third Reich

Gil Grissom (William Petersen), struggling with Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke) during her third appearance on CSI

In 2006, four years after Lady Heather's first appearance, she comes back in CSI's season six. This time Lady Heather's daughter Zoë has been murdered, and her body has been mutilated and dumped in the desert. She tells the CSIs that Zoë's father left her when she was pregnant. Heather also says that while Zoë was at Harvard, Zoë began seeing a psychiatrist and became pregnant with his child. Lady Heather reporting of the psychiatrist to the AMA led to the estragement of the mother and daughter. Zoë subsequently dropped out of college and eventually returned to Las Vegas. Zoë continued to abstain from contact with her mother, who did not know that she was in town until her face showed up on the news in an effort to identify her after her death. At Zoë’s autopsy, Doc Robbins was unable to determine whether Zoë had given birth to her child due to decomposition already occuring.

Racked with grief, Lady Heather sleeps with the main suspect in the case so as to obtain a DNA sample from him. When it has been confirmed that he is, in fact Zoë's murderer, Lady Heather abducts him and takes him to the desert where she starts whipping him until Grissom comes and stops her. Grissom stops her with a safeword - in "Lady Heather's Box," Lady Heather explains to Grissom that in a domination relationship, the slave is in control. This use of the domination code by Grissom points to the mutual understanding of the characters, and perhaps to the nature of the relation once enjoyed by both. The safeword indeed makes Heather stop and she takes brief solace in Grissom's arms. Heather is arrested for assault, but is eventually released from jail by a judge, allegedly a client of hers. Her story is left unresolved.[4][5]

The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix

This episode takes place during CSI's seventh season, a year after the team last saw Lady Heather. This time she has been the victim of what appears to be an attempted murder. She is reluctant to say who her attacker was. After another murder takes place, the truth is revealed: Lady Heather has hired an ex-cop to find her granddaughter, Allison, and when he finds her Lady Heather attempts to gain custody of her. However, Jerome, Zoë's father, has also learned of Allison’s existence and sued for custody. Even though Heather sold her business in an effort to prove she could be a fit guardian, the court denied her custody and visitation rights. Feeling that she had nothing left to live for, Heather sells the right to kill her to a man who has fantasized about killing women and uses the money to set up a trust fund for Allison. Her relationship with Grissom takes another turn, eliminating the sexual tension and evolving into a deeper and loving friendship. He is so deeply concerned about her state of mind, that he spends the night at her house. Grissom meets with Jerome and asks him about the trust fund. He figures out that Lady Heather got the money from selling the right to kill her. Jerome is shocked. Grissom arranges a meeting between Jerome, Allison, and Lady Heather. The episode ends with what seems a happier Lady Heather; she is no longer the cold vixen seen during her first appearance.[6]

Leave Out All the Rest

At CSI's ninth season, two years after Lady Heather's last appearance, Grissom, depressed and grieving over the loss of his relationship with Sara, pays an unexpected visit to Lady Heather, who has become a registered psychologist and practicing therapist. The ostensible excuse for the visit is in connection with a murder that appears to be related to an S&M session gone wrong, but Heather suspects there is another reason, both for the murders and for Grissom's sudden reappearance in her life. It would appear that she is correct on both counts; the episode ending is ambiguous, both in terms of the solution of the case, and as regards the ever-changing and undefined nature of the relationship between Heather and Grissom.

Appearances

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Why not 'CSI: Kink'?, USA Today, February 7, 2006
  2. ^ "Slaves of Las Vegas". Jerry Stahl (writer) & Peter Markle (director). CSI. CBS. 2001-11-15. Season 2 Ep. 8.
  3. ^ "Lady Heather's Box". Josh Berman, Ann Donahue, Bob Harris, Andrew Lipsitz, Carol Mendelsohn, Naren Shankar, Eli Talbert, Anthony E. Zuiker (writers) & Richard J. Lewis (director). CSI. CBS. 2003-02-13. Season 3 Ep. 15.
  4. ^ CSI files/TV guide - Lady Heather To 'Lose Control' In 'Pirates Of The Third Reich' Retrieved on 2007-November 10.
  5. ^ "Pirates of the Third Reich". Jerry Stahl (writers) & Richard J. Lewis (director). CSI. CBS. 2006-02-9. Season 6 Ep. 15.
  6. ^ "The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix". Jaqualine Hoyt (writers) & Alec Smight (director). CSI. CBS. 2007-05-10. Season 7 Ep. 23.

External links

v • d • e
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Quotes · official website · CSI franchise
Characters
Cast
Seasons
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · All episodes
Crossovers
Video games
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Heather"

No comments have been added.



Your name:

City:

Country:

Your comments:

Security check *
(Please enter the number into adjoining box)

 

  • Ads

           
eXTReMe Tracker