bunchofgrapes

Same here. I'm only watching for Paul Guilfoyle. If they kill him off, then I'm out. Can't see myself getting invested in this for any other reason.

Pilot Brass was a real pill but Pilot Warrick wasn't much better. Thankfully, Paul Guilfoyle didn't like Pilot Brass either and was responsible for changing the character. The funny thing about the Pilot is that all of them, Warrick, Grissom, Brass, would have been fired after Holly's death but then we wouldn't have had a show so there's that.

George's wife was having a baby so that's why there was no Nick. Not sure but he may be missing from the next episode too. Or not. ETA: I think I read somewhere that he's back for the next episode.

Of course this now means that they will have to go after the CSIs and exact their revenge. Because that's how real life works.

No one should "replace" Brass because Brass is irreplaceable. If I were still going to watch, I'd rather see a rotation of cop du jours, which I suspect they will do. This current crop of writers doesn't know how to write detectives like the old writers did (see Brass' reduced interaction with the CSIs as evidence). Actor who plays Crawford seems to be one of McGill's favorites so I expect he'll be recurring but I doubt he'll get a spot in the credits as a series regular. The whole point of not renewing Paul's contract was cutting costs so why add more? And really, do you want to see Vartann back? They'd probably just use him as a plot device like they did Vega and kill him off during sweeps. Btw, not renewing a contract is not the same as being fired. Fired implies Paul did something wrong and he did nothing wrong. They just didn't renew his contract. That said, I hated the way Paul was told, the lame-ass reason they gave for not renewing his contract, but mostly I hated the way it ended for Brass. At least give him a proper send-off at some point in S15 and not just some passing "Where's Brass? Oh didn't you hear, he retired." bullshit.

With Paul Guilfoyle leaving, I'm done after this season. It's been a struggle to stay with the show this long but Brass was always my favorite. If there's not a hockey game on, I can always watch Duck Dynasty at 10pm on Wednesdays. They have much better writers ;-)