This week's episode of CSI promises something a little different – a focus on the supporting cast instead of the usual CSIs.

The TV Guide summary of the episode, called "Lab Rats," which airs April 12, says "Hodges convinces fellow lab rats Archie, Henry, Mandy and Wendy that Grissom wants them to secretly investigate the so-called miniature murders while the CSIs are in the field probing other crimes." While the regular CSI cast will have their parts to play and cases to solve, the episode focuses more on the technicians who only work in the lab.


Not sure who all these "lab rats" are? All of them have appeared in lots of episodes in the past, though only in minor roles. This will be the first episode in which all five of them appear together.

- David Hodges: played by Wallace Langham, Hodges is the lab's head Trace technician, which means he processes anything from crime scenes that's not DNA or fingerprints.

- Wendy Simms: played by Liz Vassey. Wendy is the CSI's DNA analyst now that Greg's in the field. Wallace Langham says "Hodges has a crush on Wendy. That's his Achilles' heel."

- Fingerprint analyst Mandy Webster is played by Sheeri Rappaport

- Toxicologist Henry Andrews, played by Jon Wellner, who's also a researcher on the show.

- Archie Johnson, played by Archie Kao, is the CSI Audio/Visual analyst.

Assistant coroner David Phillips (played by David Berman) also appears in the episode. More trivia for you: David Berman's also the head researcher on the show, as well as being the brother of CSI co-producer Josh Berman

Until a couple of weeks ago, this episode was said to be called "When the Cat's Away." Insiders say that the original "cat" title had more than one meaning and referred to more than one case – but has something changed to make them change the title? CSI is one of those shows that sometimes changes the details of the plots at the last minute, making spoilers occasionally turn out to be completely wrong. We'll have to wait and see.

-Mel Harris, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

Sources: Your Tax Dollars At Work, TV Guide
Photo courtesy of blacktie-affair.org (L-R: Hodges, Henry, Mandy, Archie)