CSI begins with a kid filming at Jefferson High School. He films one of the teachers before continuing his way down the hall. He passes some jocks, a girl he knows next door, and some cheerleaders before mentioning it is time for class. However, everything comes to a stop when a loud explosion is heard and one of the teachers runs down the hall in a ball of fire. The janitor attempts to bat away the flames, but the teacher is dead.
The students are led back down the hall away from the body as police work the scene. Greg comes along as David is looking over the victim. His name is Chet Messner and he was a chemistry teacher. Morgan comes along and tells them Chet was in the classroom when the explosion occurred. She tells them that Chet received an anonymous text message threatening him.
Greg talks to Ms. Meadows, the Principle, about Chet and she tells him during eighth period he was normally grading papers. When Greg asks for a list of student names, she tells him everyone loved him and she doesn’t see who would hurt him. Morgan comes along still wearing one of the suits that protect them from chemicals and Greg teases her about being late for class. She teases back and asks if he’ll carry her kit, but he says no.
Inside the classroom, Morgan tells Greg emergency personnel cut off the gas line and that the sprinklers had quickly put out the fire. They know Chet was working on a lesson plan and after Greg finds the source of the accelerant, Brody figures out that Chet’s lesson plan was most likely about how sugar can give you energy by using Potassium chlorate, which is used in fireworks. While his experiment, which involved gummy bears, would have been controlled and not dangerous, whoever killed Chet made it worse.
Russell is interviewing the kid from earlier, Mason, who is the source of the anonymous text message. His mom is with him and as a faculty member she assures Russell this is unusual for him. Mason admits he sent the text only because he was upset about receiving a B + instead of an A.
Robbins is doing the autopsy when Finlay comes in, asking about a text she got from Hodges about his nose. He tells her that he has a gift for smelling the odor of cyanide. They discover that the victim was covered in cyanide and that the condition caused him to have a seizure as he was doing his experiment. He wasn’t pushed into the flames. As they discuss the victim, who appears to have a clean record, Robbins reveals that Chet has a life rune, or a gang symbol, which Robbins saw on a dead biker weeks ago.
Russell is once again looking at the bulletin for the Gig Harbor Killer when Nick comes in. He reveals that Chet had ordered red phosphorous powder online from a supplier that was considered shady. They think it is likely he was dealing meth.
Nick goes to the house and the police tell him the house is clear. They go into the shed and find a knife with blood, but no meth lab. They go further in the shed where they find an alter with a cauldron and a book called The Book of Shadows. Chet was apparently a witch.
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We then see a group of witches around a cauldron reciting from a book, but it is just Russell reading from the book they found. Nick comes in and he teases Russell about lightning strikes. Russell informs him about the Wiccan faith as they begin searching. They see the red powder and figure that Chet was making potions, not meth. Nick finds a singed piece of hair in one of the cauldrons. They begin searching for more clues to see if more hair is in the area.
In the lab, Greg goes to see Hodges, who is wearing a Druid robe. Hodges tells Greg the Wiccans were making a banishment spell and Greg asks how he knows about this stuff. He reveals he dated a girl in college, who did not have a bathing spell. Hodges tells Greg that a drop of blood on the cauldron told them that Messner was the target. Henry got a DNA hit on the hair follicle from earlier, which belonged to an unknown female. However, prints on a candle led them to four hits. One is a postal worker out of town, another is a pharmaceutical sales woman who has a DUI record, Mason Brewer’s mother, and the janitor who tried to save Messner.
Detective Crawford interviews Ed the janitor, who reveals that his Wiccan beliefs were all about peace and that even though Chet was speaking out about the coven, he wasn’t mad enough to kill.
Meanwhile, Morgan interviews Ms. Brewer, who reveals she was new to the coven and just tried to follow the rules since everyone wanted Chet out of the coven. Morgan tells Ms. Brewer they need to know who the unidentified female is, but she won’t answer.
Morgan and Russellr talk and while she is unsure if they are involved, Russell thinks it is unlikely they are involved. Greg sends Russell a text, telling them to “Hop off the broom. Come down and join me on Planet Earth,” just one of the many phrases he has been saying throughout the episode.
Russell goes to see Greg, who tells him that after doing a dumpster diving and finding evidence of synthetic materials, Chet was making steroids for athletes. One of his clients was the quarterback, Robert Turkla, who was seen in Mason’s selfie video from the beginning of the episode. Greg discovered through e-mails and financial records that Chet was having money problems and that he had sent Rob an e-mail telling him he owed him money. However, Greg comes to a pool after a text from Crawford, only to find his suspect dead in the pool.
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Greg is photographing a dumbbell while Dave examines Rob’s body. Based on the evidence, they discover Rob was hit in the back of the head and he fell into the pool, where he ended up drowning. Crawford tells Greg there are no security cameras that would tell them who committed the murder.
Morgan is talking to Russell and she is excited because after processing all of the paper found in Chet’s classroom, she discovered a likely scenario for how the cyanide ended up in his body. The piece of paper was coated with a solvent of cyanide and dimethyl sulfoxide. It was the answer key to a chemistry exam and it was inside Rob Turkla’s drawer. Morgan thinks Chet was not the intended target.
Someone had sent a Vidtree image of Messner’s paper to Turk the day he died. However, Messner had found the paper before Turk could. The sender was a girl named Hannah, the girl who was in Mason’s video.
Hannah comes in for questioning and Morgan discusses the paper with her. Hannah claims she didn’t send the text and someone must have hacked her account. Upon further questioning, Hannah reveals that Turk attacked her and she was at a woman’s shelter for counseling Thursday.
Robbins is doing the autopsy on Turk as Finlay watches. His cause of death is consistent with drowning and they see marks consistent with steroid use, too. He reveals another injection site on Turk’s arm was done after his death, showing that someone had taken blood from his body.
Morgan goes to see Hannah to let her know her story checked out and urges her to remember that there are more good people in the world than bad people like Rob Turkla.
Nick comes to talk to Russell and reveals that he found a used condom in Turk’s car and it matched the DNA to the unknown female from the coven. Her prints were also all over the car and it turns out to belong to Ms. Meadows.
Russell talks to Ms. Meadows, who denies everything until he tells her about the DNA. She tells him she puts on a fake face, including that she doesn’t know her husband is sleeping with a stripper, and she also tells Russell she did not kill Turk but wants him back. She tells Russell that her High Priest thought her relationship was threatening to the coven and that it was Ed Lusk. She figures if he had taken Turk’s blood, it was for a powerful spell known as the Kratos. He had an alter at the school.
Greg and Morgan enter the storage room at the school and Greg tells her no one has seen Ed since lunch. Seeing a broom, Morgan jokes that his “ride” is still there. Morgan finds blood drops leading to a cabinet. They open it to find a cauldron. Ed appears with a knife and both Greg and Morgan pull their guns on him. He curses Morgan and when she tells him to try it, he drops the knife.
Finlay and Russell walk toward Hodges lab, discussing Ed Lusk, who lawyered up. The blood on the floor in his storage unit matched Turk’s blood. They see Hodges, who is still acting in character as a Wiccan. He tells them he found a cherry opal gemstone in Lusk’s cauldron, consistent with a healing spell. Someone else had used Turk’s blood and their own blood in an attempt to heal themselves using Lusk’s cauldron. The blood in the cauldron had a drug used for cancer. They found a familial match to a print left on a candle in the coven.
Morgan goes to get Ms. Brewer, who is in a waiting room with Mason. She asks her to come with her. During the interrogation, it is revealed Mason has only been given half a year to live and she had made a healing spell to try and save him. She was the one who killed Rob Turkla and Chet Messner.
In the waiting room, Russell goes to see Mason, who is now homeless. He doesn’t know where he is going to go until Hannah comes in. She tells Mason she is sorry about being so mean to him and offers to let him stay with her family. Without a word, he goes over to her and they share a hug before leaving as Morgan and Russell look on.