Directed by Duane Clark
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn & Andrew Lipsitz
"What You See Is What You See" is the 23rd episode of Season 1, as well as the season finale. It originally aired May 18, 2005.
Mac witnesses a shootout while having breakfast at his favorite diner.
Tropes for the episode:
- Artistic License – Biology: The femur being the strongest bone in the body, there's no way Sheldon could just twist it to extract the bullet.
- Attack the Injury: Mac jumps in the ambulance with a suspect who's just been shot in the shoulder and slams him right in the GSW when he gets uncooperative. The EMT yells at Mac.
- Can Always Spot a Cop: Zig-zagged. Counterfeiters pick Mac's favorite diner to meet. As Mac enters for breakfast, having just come from the gym and dressed in a white t-shirt, a zip-up hoodie, and casual pants, one of them spots him and immediately coughs, trying to alert the other. The guy doesn't pick up on it and after he's caught, the detective calls him out on it:Mac: Boyd made me the second he saw me, but you? You wouldn't know a cop if one walked right by you.
- Counterfeit Cash: Becomes a plot point as the case goes on. The perps were in the diner to meet about the currency paper they were using.
- From Dress to Dressing: Mac uses his zip-up hoodie to apply pressure to the waitress' gunshot wound.
- Hidden Wire: The lab finds traces of tape residue inside a suspect's shirt which they'd taken for evidence. Turns out the guy was a C.I. for the Feds and had been wearing a wire.
- Little Black Dress: The short, low-cut black dress Stella dons for her date is quite stunning...even Mac can't help but stare.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: One perp's mother has this type of reaction to her son being a suspect, saying he's a good boy...then relents enough to let Mac & Stella search her property. When they find him hiding in the back yard and handcuff him, he screams, "Ma! What's wrong with you?" Mac tells him to be quiet because she's "the only one who cares about what happens to you."
- Reverse Polarity: Justified. Mac actually does this to show Stella the color-changing ink in the counterfeit money.
- Wedding Ring Removal: After mourning Claire for almost four years, Mac tells Stella, "It's time" for him to start dating again. When he checks his watch after exiting a taxi at the end of the episode, his wedding ring is no longer on his finger.
