Season Finale. The CSIs investigate when the body of an unidentified young woman is discovered stuffed in an overturned shopping cart near a freeway underpass. Her horribly disfigured and partially decomposed face is a nightmare of blood, scabs and scars, as if she'd been shoved into a fan. A huge circular hole dominates her left cheek. Someone not only wanted her dead, Grissom reasons, but ""they wanted her ugly."" Adding to the mystery are the cart's other contents: an expensive handbag, fashion magazines and a leather day planner with notes written in code.
Grissom and his crew handle their highest profile case to date when the city's former chief of detectives is slain execution-style in his house following a wild party. Missing from the residence are the chief's trophy wife and their 7-year-old daughter. Catherine and Warrick follow the trail to Miami, and soon enlist the help of Horatio Caine.
Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander, reappears and claims a third victim in this gripping episode. The latest slaying matches Millander's previous killings in that it recreates his father's murder. The killer's next target was born Aug. 17, 1956...which just happens to be Grissom's birthday.
Grissom and crew are called in after high roller Tony Braun, a known drug addict, is found dead in his house by a gardener. Since drug paraphernalia is discovered near his body and it is also determined that he had recently inhaled heroin, the cause of death is at first thought to be an overdose. But further examination of the corpse reveals that Braun had been restrained at some point with duct tape, leading Grissom to believe that the victim was forced to ingest lethal amounts of heroin and, perhaps, other drugs.