A long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, we had a new episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. And then came the holidays. Fortunately, those times are over (drat!), and we've gotten down to brass tacks with our Las Vegas science patrol. And there's nothing like bringing us back with a barn burner, is there? In "Werewolves," we're treated to a case involving a man afflicted with hypertrichosis - a condition where a person has hair growing just about everywhere except the eyes and mouth - who is found dead in his home after a mysterious, anonymous phone call is received from a pay phone in the middle of the night. Additionally, we're given just enough "false lead" information that Greg and Warrick think they've got the case rolled up like the sports car that "Casino Dan," the first suspect, showed up at his house in. As it turns out, Dan had sent the victim, Hayden Bradford, a harassing email because Bradford yanked back his credit card from Dan's online gambling establishment, costing Dan some bucks. Dan had, in fact, been to the crime scene, but once he saw the "freak of nature" that was his prey, he decided he wanted no part of recouping his losses. Or so he said.

As it turns out, Hayden had a girlfriend, Michelle, and her brother was Hayden's best friend. He's brought in under suspicion next, but let go after coming up with a perfectly good explanation for the broken window on the side of the victim's house. All the while, Sofia has gone out to the phone booth where the call came in from, and turned up some evidence. But of course, she called Sara Sidle to have her come out and do the work - but since it took so long, Sofia ended up doing the work herself, driving the spike into Sara's side a little bit more. It's a wonder these two haven't just had it out, Vegas style, to show who's boss.
And apparently, Nick Stokes has decided that growing in his hair again (anyone remember the horrible 'do he had a few seasons back?) is a smart move. We'll see if he shows up in Tiger Beat anytime soon (not). Greg looks like he's packing on a few pounds, or maybe it's just the haircut. And yes, being catty is part of the job.

Turns out that Hayden wasn't alone in that house after all, though - he had a twin sister, Allison, who seems to have a harsher case of hypertrichosis, and she's living in a hidden room that Catherine finds when looking for more evidence. And she's got a nifty peephole to look out through. Of course, this means she's either the criminal that the CSIs have been looking for, or she knows who committed the crime. Once Dr. Robbins points out that all the blood had shifted to one side of Hayden, but he was found flat on his back, that there has to be a problem with the case. And there was - Hayden actually was killed in a different part of the house, a place where blue carpet fibers were. As usual, Catherine flashes back to just the image in her head that would contain the evidence once she went back - the blankets covering Allison's bed. Sure enough, there was blood under there that came from her brother - who was shot in close range by none other than Michelle's brother, and best friend to Hayden, Brent.

Brent was very displeased by the announcement that Hayden and his sister were engaged, and his rage towards his supposed best friend came out. So he took some random sterling silver from around the house, and shot him with a silver bullet. I mean, how else are you going to kill someone who resembles a werewolf. If there could be a happy ending out of this show, it was the ending, where Allison's mom comes to see her, after pretending to be dead for years, a lie that Hayden had kept going as a favor to his mother. But when Allison had searched her mother out using an Internet investigative site, the mother was roped into the case. In a way, what seemed like a horrible thing for a mother to find out - that her son had been murdered - ends up being a reunion with the daughter that she turned away years earlier.