Nick Stokes
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| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character | |
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 George Eads as Nick Stokes in the Season 5 episode, "Viva Las Vegas". |
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| Nick Stokes | |
| City | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Job | CSI |
| Rank | CSI Level 3 |
| Position | Nightshift CSI |
| Seasons | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Portrayed by | George Eads |
| First appearance | The Pilot |
Nicholas "Nick" Stokes is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by George Eads. Nick has appeared in every episode except for "Blood Lust" from season three, "Jackpot" and "Butterflied" from season four, "Committed" from season five, "Spellbound" from season six, and "Genetic Disorder" from season twelve.
George Eads is one of only two actors to have been part of the main cast for every episode of the show with Paul Guilfoyle also sharing the honours.
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[edit] Background
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This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (September 2011) |
Nicholas "Nick" Stokes was born in Austin, Texas to Judge Bill Stokes and Lawyer Jillian Stokes. Nick is the youngest of seven siblings (it is mentioned in "Revenge is Best Served Cold" that he has at least one brother amongst these), and throughout his childhood he exhibited considerable athletic and academic potential. In the episode "Bloodsport", Nick tells Raymond Langston, "I'm from Austin. I grew up playing football."
Nick attended Texas A&M University, where he pledged at a fraternity, as revealed in the Season 1 episode "Pledging Mr. Johnson". After leaving college, he joined the police department and took a job with the Dallas crime lab in Texas, where he specialised in hair and fiber analysis.
Feeling that he would not be able to match his parents' considerable academic achievement, Nick decided to leave Texas and headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. In Vegas, Nick found that he could be his own man and in 1997, joined the successful CSI team under the leadership of Gil Grissom.
Nick, overall, is shown as having had a happy childhood and as being close to his parents. In the season five finale "Grave Danger", it is revealed that his father's nickname for him is "Pancho", and he in turn calls his father "Cisco" (a reference to the central characters in The Cisco Kid). In that episode, Grissom later uses the "Pancho" nickname to calm Nick down while they are trying to rescue him from a coffin that has been rigged with explosives.
In the episode "Overload", Nick confides to Catherine Willows that he was molested at age nine by a last-minute replacement female babysitter. Although it is never again directly addressed in the show, the manifestation of the trauma can be seen whenever the character has trouble investigating crimes against children, especially during episodes like "Gum Drops", "Turn, Turn, Turn", "418/427", or "Unleashed".
[edit] On the Job
When in the field, Nick has a natural empathy with the people affected by the crimes he investigates; in contrast with many of his colleagues, who prefer to keep an emotional distance. On occasion, Nick's empathy causes friction both with colleague Warrick Brown and with supervisor Grissom, but Nick defends his approach and it often proves beneficial to the cases he handles.
Nick has a good command of Spanish; he frequently deals with cases involving Hispanics and the Latino community.
During the sixth season of CSI, Nick grew an ill-advised moustache, but soon got rid of it.
It is often mentioned that Nick is something of a ladies' man. However, the only onscreen romance over the course of the series is a brief affair with a prostitute named Kristi Hopkins and a date with Doctor Robbins's niece in the episode "Bittersweet". His relative celibacy might be explained by a sort of running gag throughout the series, which seems to indicate that whenever Nick gets with a woman, misfortune befalls someone else. In "Boom", he sleeps with Kristi, and she is murdered later that night. In "Built to Kill, Part 1", Nick and Catherine go to a club together. Shortly after Nick hooks up with a woman at the club, Catherine is drugged and abducted. In "For Gedda", during breakfast with the team at a diner, Nick eyes a pretty waitress and stays behind to get her number while Warrick leaves. Shortly after, Warrick is murdered.
In "The Grave Shift", after Catherine turns down the offer to move into Grissom's office, she offers it to Nick, who accepts after some thought. He in turn decides to share the office space with Greg Sanders and Riley Adams, who are shown unpacking alongside him. Grissom's infamous fetal pig in a jar is placed in the room by Hodges, who says that "it is where it belongs". During the tenth season premiere, Nick is promoted to Assistant Supervisor after Sara Sidle advises Catherine that she needs a number two. Nick is also seen dealing with tarantulas, and is shown taking Grissom's old tarantula under his care.
Nick's promotion, however, gets compromised after the CSIs tried to apprehend the serial killer Nate Haskell in Los Angeles in "Cello and Goodbye". Nick and Ray are both apprehended by the LAPD for going beyond their jurisdiction when Nick used his gun in attempt to apprehend Haskell and eventually, when Ray is accused of killing Haskell's partner Tina, for which Haskell is responsible for.[1] In the season twelve premiere, Nick returns from a work-related trip to find that he has lost his office to new CSI supervisor D.B. Russell.
[edit] Trauma
Despite being one of the more well-adjusted members of Grissom's team, Nick is the victim of a number of crimes during the course of the series. In the episode "Rashomama", his car (and all the evidence inside it) is stolen (although the car is subsequently returned). In the episode "Grave Danger", which is frequently voted the best ever episode of CSI, Nick is kidnapped and buried alive in a glass coffin rigged with explosives, where he is attacked by fire ants. The episode traumatizes him for some time. In "Who Are You?", Nick is held at gunpoint more than once; in "Stalker" he is stalked by Nigel Crane, a cable guy, who throws Nick out of a second-story window. In "Boom" Nick is also accused of killing a prostitute, Kristy Hopkins, with whom he has enjoyed a one-night stand. Nick falls victim to a car bomb during a police funeral in the season eleven premiere. Feeling responsible for the officer's murder during the end of season 10, he attends the funeral but was barred from attending by the officer's family. In "Targets of Obsession", Nick becomes the personal target of teenage bomber Jason McCann and is forced to shoot him in self-defense. In the tenth season finale he is shot, pretending to be dead before shooting Dr. Jekyll and rescuing supervisor Raymond Langston.
Throughout the season eleven premiere, Nick is seen struggling with the pain of this gunshot and he suffers a mental breakdown when a suspect pulls a gun, firing his own weapon so many times that he has to reload, despite the fact that the suspect is already dead. Catherine eventually stops him. As Nick struggles emotionally, Catherine attempts to comfort him by describing how she handled losing Warrick. She gives him the card of a therapist and eventually Nick decides to meet with him.
[edit] Relationship with colleagues
Nick is shown to be affable and gets along well with his colleagues, even the occasionally annoying David Hodges. Prior to Warrick's death, the duo were good friends and Nick even sets up a college fund for Warrick's son. In the episode "Appendicitement", he colludes with Greg and Hodges in "kidnapping" and taking Henry out for a birthday treat. He is defensive of his colleagues, as shown in "Fannysmackin'" where he takes his anger out at a bystander upon seeing Greg beaten up. He shares a good-natured relationship with now former supervisor Gil Grissom. When new CSI Ray Langston takes his first case, Nick acts as his right-hand man, giving him tips and helping with investigations. He is occasionally seen being mildly flirtatious with Catherine Willows, his good friend and co-worker who becomes something of an "older sister" figure to him. In the episode "Willows in the Wind", both he and Sara receive notice of Catherine's resignation. As Catherine says her final goodbyes, Nick breaks down and tells Catherine that she will always be with them.
[edit] References
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