Lady Heather
| Lady Heather | |
|---|---|
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character | |
Melinda Clarke as Lady Heather
|
|
| First appearance | "Slaves of Las Vegas" |
| Last appearance | "Immortality" |
| Portrayed by | Melinda Clarke |
| City | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Occupation | Professional Dominatrix |
| Seasons | 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 16 |
Heather Kessler, also known as Lady Heather, is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Melinda Clarke.
This recurring character is a professional dominatrix and a potential romantic interest for then regular CSI supervisor Gil Grissom, as well as romantic rival to CSI forensic scientist Sara Sidle.
The character appears in six regular episodes of CSI and the 2-hour finale TV movie.
Lady Heather was created by writer Jerry Stahl. He has written some of CSI's most controversial episodes, which have also sometimes been the most watched.
Melinda Clarke has said that she became interested in playing Lady Heather because of the contrasts embodied within the character:
"a multidimensional person who hadn't been seen, a dominatrix who was much more evolved — enigmatic and empowered".
As noted in The Philosophy of TV Noir, Lady Heather is an "inspired variant" on the classic film noir femme fatale, with different aspects of her personality being explored over the course of multiple episodes.
Bill Keveney of USA Today nominates Lady Heather as a favorite of viewers, crediting "her ability to read the usually opaque Grissom".
Steven Cohan explores in his book on the series, Lady Heather as part of the show's "questioning of identity and the status of normality".
In her first appearance in 2001, during CSI's second season, a murder occurs at Lady Heather's fetish club. When meeting her, Gil Grissom becomes instantly interested in her. They have tea, where she lets him know that she has a daughter, Zoë, who's studying at Harvard.
William Petersen has said that his character, Grissom, becomes attracted to Lady Heather because they are "both anthropologists. He's fascinated by her science, [a look at] the sexual psyche of human beings."
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