Directed by Rob Bailey
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, & Andrew Lipsitz
"Corporate Warriors" is the 4th episode of Season 2, and the 27th episode overall. It originally aired October 19, 2005.
Synopsis:
Three deaths are investigated: an executive who collapses in the middle of a street festival, another executive found seated upright on a bench in Central Park, and a boy who perishes in an apartment fire.Tropes for the episode:
- Accidental Murder: The arsonist has no idea the boy is at home and is not intending to kill him.
- Clean Cut: The man on the bench is decapitated, but the cut is so clean his head doesn't fall away and the blood dries, holding it in place.
- The Coats Are Off: In a bit of Fanservice, Mac changes out of his suit into a tight black t-shirt and track pants to test the martial arts weaponry found at the CEO's office.
- Combat Cue Stick: A splinter from a broken pool cue enters the first victim's heart during the fight, disrupting it's electrical impulses and killing him.
- Death of a Child: The 10 yr old boy in the third case dies of smoke inhalation.
- Diagonal Cut: The decapitated man's head is sliced off at an angle. It takes a while for the detectives to figure out the murderer was hanging upside down from a tree when he struck.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: All the company executives are trained in marshal arts. Two men battle each other in a bar; a woman is shown training in a dojo; a couple are shown fighting each other in one's apartment before having sex.
- House Fire: The boy's death from smoke inhalation occurs while his apartment is on fire
- Improvised Weapon User: During the bar fight, one man stabs another with a broken pool cue.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Upon testing the weapons, Mac discovers that the Katana is what the second man was decapitated with.
- Kung-Shui: The owner of the bar in which the first victim fights with his assailant bemoans the fact that she had just remodeled the place and now she has to fix it up all over again.
- My Card: Don warns Sheldon not to keep giving his card out to victims' family members, else his phone will be ringing off the hook.
- Off with His Head!: The decapitated victim.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The company the two men work for trains all their executives in martial arts. Two of them battle each other thusly in a bar, trashing it, much to the owner's dismay.
- Title Drop: While Stella and Mac observe yet another executive in a martial arts class, she observes, "Guess that's what they mean when they say corporate warriors."
- Weapon Twirling: As he prepares to slice the test material with the Katana, Mac twirls it with Lindsay observing.
- X-Ray of Pain: During a flashback to the fight involving the Combat Cue Stick, a splinter is shown stabbing the victim's heart.
