Lindsay: "A doll?! I mean, I could understand if you dumped me for another woman. But a piece of plastic?!"
Directed by Jonathan Glassner
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn & Wendy Battles
"Sex, Lies, and Silicone" is the 4th episode of Season 5 and the 96th overall. It originally aired October 22, 2008.
When a business consultant with powerful connections dies in the middle of the street, the team is led into the world of life-size silicone dolls. After they close the case, evidence is stolen from the locker.
Tropes for the episode:
- Cut Himself Shaving: After getting beat up by thugs sent by a so-called friend who wants him to destroy some evidence, Sheldon tells Mac he ran into a wall. After Mac gently prods for the truth, he admits what really happened.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: An alternate arrangement of an instrumental portion of the show's theme song, "Baba O'Riley," is played by a violinist during a nighttime street party.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title plays with that of the film sex, lies, and videotape. As with the movie, all three elements listed here feature within.
- Story Arc: The consultant and her missing flash drive will come up again in several episodes.
- Subculture of the Week: The doll owners treat the dolls as companions (for example, watching tv together). Although two of them trade dolls because one felt his newest one "wasn't a good fit" for his collection (he had three of them).
- Taken During the Ending: The episode ends with the flash drive being removed from its box in the evidence locker and handed over to someone else. Only the hands of the individuals are seen and no words are spoken, thus keeping their identities hidden from the audience.
- Troll: While taking a life-size doll back to the lab, Flack replies to Lindsay's question about how these dolls are better than a real woman by saying that at least they don't eat. Lindsay counters back by pretending to be Flack's wife and yelling at him in public for dumping her for a doll.