The CSI Character Everyone Forgets Viola Davis Played

Fittingly for a series that was, over the course of 15 years, able to become a veritable American pop culture institution, CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" featured a positively staggering number of illustrious guest stars throughout its history-making run. From Taylor Swift as a teen murder victim, to Dakota Fanning in her first major screen acting role, to Faye Dunaway as a suspicious socialite, to Michael B. Jordan as a rap crew member, the show was been able to fit quite a lot of head-turning appearances into its 337 episodes.

One of the many before-they-were-big guest spots a fan of "CSI" might catch on a rewatch belongs to Viola Davis, who dropped by for the sixth episode of Season 3, titled "The Execution of Catherine Willows." The episode, which originally aired on November 7, 2002, actually came after Davis became known among theater buffs for her Tony-winning performance in the 2001 Broadway production of "King Hedley II." But it still predated her Oscar-nominated screen breakthrough in the 2008 film "Doubt" by six years, and her arguable mainstream breakout on ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" by more than a decade. And that latter tidbit is especially funny, seeing as "CSI" also had her playing a defense attorney — and, to boot, one who just might be trying to help somebody get away with... well, you get the idea.

The episode on which Viola Davis appears, "The Execution of Catherine Willows," centers on Catherine's (Marg Helgenberger) reckoning with her past when John Mathers (Victor Bevine), a killer she helped put on death row, is given a stay of execution due to the discovery of new DNA evidence. While the CSI team is initially convinced of Mathers' guilt and works fast to prove it before he's given a new trial, things become murkier when a new murder is discovered with a similar pattern to the very case Catherine is revisiting.

Davis' character, Ms. Campbell, firmly believes the real killer is still on the loose. Granted, she's John Mathers' defense attorney — but even so, the episode positions her as a necessary dissenting voice in the building of conflict and uncertainty that the team must face as part of the plot. 

Davis only has one substantial scene — which sees Ms. Campbell seek out Catherine and earnestly attempt to get information about how the investigation is going. Upon being met with cold resistance, Campbell segues into a candid, tense heart-to-heart with Catherine, in which she finally airs out the reason for her worry. The way she sees it, the CSI team is heavily biased in favor of the prosecution, not only in this but in all cases. And, as you'd expect of an actress whose first Oscar-nominated role would eventually reveal her as a master of walking-and-talking single-scene performances, Davis absolutely kills it in her few seconds of screentime.