Directed by David Von Ancken
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, & Peter M. Lenkov
"And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael" is the 9th episode of Season 3, and the 56th overall. It originally aired November 15, 2006.
Synopsis:
A young woman who just awakened from a coma following a car accident in which her best friend was killed is found suffocated.Tropes for the episode:
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: At the end of the episode, Sheldon sees a man get hit by a car and rushes over to help. He clears the man's airway and administers CPR which induces coughing. Not immediately recognizing Sheldon as a doctor, an EMT arriving on scene tells him he just saved the man's life.
- Fake Identity Baggage: The best friends resemble each other so much that the owner of the car asks the other girl to swap ID's with her in case they get pulled over, because she knows she's too wasted to drive. This leads to a severe case of mistaken identity in which the accident survivor ends up being murdered.
- Mercy Kill: Discussed in a couple of scenes.
- In the course of the investigation, the team learn that a group of teenagers made a provisional pact that they would end each other's suffering if asked.
- Mac tells Sheldon that he had been unable to pull the plug in spite of his father's request from being in so much pain in the final stages of cancer. Sheldon affirms his decision.
- Murder by Mistake: The murderer kills the hospitalized girl due to believing she is responsible for someone else's death, but that is not the case.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The murderer reacts with shock and disbelief at the end of the episode upon being told that the hospitalized girl is really her own daughter, whom she had not recognized due to the bandages covering most of her face.
- Ripped from the Headlines: This episode is based on the real-life case of look-alike accident victims Whitney Cerak and Laura VanRyn, which occurred the same year.
- Shout-Out: The episode title is a play on the Simon & Garfunkel song, "Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson."
- Sickbed Slaying: The young woman is suffocated in her hospital bed with a plastic bag from the hospital gift shop.
- Suicide Pact: The hospitalized girl and some of her friends agreed to euthanize one another if one was injured and/or in tremendous pain. This was in response to another friend having been in a terrible accident which they all agreed had severely lessened the boy's quality of life.
- You Did the Right Thing: Sheldon, being a doctor, tells Mac he did the right thing by not turning off his father's life support when he had cancer.
