Villainess Review: Heather Glass (CSI: Vegas)

I'm a big fan of the CSI franchise, which has been on TV, on and off, for 23 years. It all started back in 2000 with the original CSI series, and it was followed by spinoffs CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, as well as the short-lived CSI: Cyber series. The abrupt cancellation of Cyber ended the franchise, but it was resurrected with the premiere of CSI: Vegas, which served as a continuation of the original series that aired between 2000 and 2015. The series also serves as a continuation of another trait from the franchise: delivering huge in the villainess department.

The latest example came in the episode, "When the Dust Settles," which centered on a cold case. Well, it wasn't that cold of a case. It was four years prior at a hair salon, where Mimi Khan was working on sister Sasha's hair, performing a keratin treatment. All of a sudden, both sisters suddenly collapsed due to a huge overdose of chemicals, and regarding Mimi, she was in a coma for four years, while Sasha sadly passed on. In the episode's present day, we see Mimi's close friend, Heather Glass, reading Beaches to her, as she had been doing on a daily basis, but on that very day, Mimi's eyes began to open. She was waking up after four years!

The emergence of Mimi led to Catherine Willows returning to that very case, as she worked it when it happened, but with no results. As if Mimi's miraculous revival wasn't enough to resurrect the case, she would later give a damning testimony: Sasha was murdered. Mimi voiced that belief with Heather present, and both of them had the prime suspect: Ken Taylor, Sasha's husband. We would see several employees interviewed as well, which included a reveal that they had workers named Nick, Nicky, and Nicole, which reminds me of Ed, Edd n Eddy. Oh boy.

Ken remained the top suspect, and it was further cemented when Mimi described the culprit, saying that a hooded figure was in the salon on the day in question, claiming to have a long snout. Ken repeated his denial, and he was finally eliminated when he revealed that he had an allergy to a certain chemical that was at the scene: finasteride. The inspection continued, and it was revealed that knock-off shampoo products were used, while a piece of plastic found at the scene led to the revelation that the "snout" was actually part of a gas mask. In addition, the charcoal filter had traces of synthetic spearmint. When Beau Finado said that, I had three words of my own: "I knew it!"

So Heather (she of the mints that she offered Mimi earlier in the episode) was behind everything all those years ago. As for the aforementioned knock-off shampoo bottles, that was also Heather. She ran the numbers for the salon, and she decided to purchase knock-offs and replace the labels so she could pocket the difference. While it was never revealed how long she had been enacting her greedy scheme, it was discovered by Sasha, who threatened to fire Heather and possibly press charges against her. To prevent this, Heather planned to kill Sasha, and used the night of her treatment as her opportunity. She poisoned the shampoo bottles with formaldehyde and cut off the HVAC system to make sure that the sisters couldn't escape what was coming.

It gets even more twisted. Heather's daily visits to Mimi? Turns out she was manipulating and gaslighting Mimi into believing that Ken was behind Sasha's death; literally whispering the false claim into the comatose Mimi. When all of this was exposed, Heather denied everything and even went as far as to voice her firm belief that Mimi would back her up and suspect Ken. Yeah...no.

"When the Dust Settles," was the 12th episode of CSI: Vegas' second season, and aired on CBS on February 2, 2023. The episode's main villainess, Heather Glass, was played by Nina Millin, and regarding the character, she was such a multi-faceted villainess. While Heather appeared to be that doting and caring friend who visited Mimi daily hoping she'd wake up, it was all a cover for a greedy, manipulative murderess who got away with her crimes and was planning on continuing to do so. Heather was absolutely fiendish and cunning in regards to her greedy actions and her murderous scheme, but in that climactic reveal, we see some delusion from Heather, as even with everything out in the open, she still held on to her insane belief that Mimi would believe her. Millin's performance was amazing; she acted out Heather's friendly nature so well, but really gave her all in the reveal, as well as the flashback scenes of her villainy.

Nina Millin's filmography includes a plethora of TV appearances. She's done shows such as Bunk'd, Raven's Home, The Mindy Project, Grey's Anatomy, and 9-1-1 (among others). Regarding films, Millin has appeared in Netflix's Sandy Wexler, and was in the big screen in Bad Moms.

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Check out Heather Glass' profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!