S16.E01: Finale/Wrap-Up Movie

[mansonlamps]

I haven't been watching the last couple of years, so what was the wrap up for Stokes and Finn? Not that I cared about Finn, just curious.

Scariest part of the episode was Catherine's immobile face. Even her voice sounded different. And I always hated the Lady Heather character and storyline, so I was very disappointed that they came back to that as the finale.

I watched this from day one, sad to see my little Friday night show with Gil, Catherine, Warrick, Nick, Sara and Brass turn into this ending.

[BeatrixK]

The casting of Doug Hutchison was a HUGE giveaway that he was the dood. 

 

It was an episode chock full of Grissom - so I'll overlook how meh it was otherwise.

[NYGirl]

Hate Sara.  Like Gil.

 

I haven't watched since Gil left because the darkness of the show always bugged me.  I don't mean dark storylines..I mean it literally.  How can the building they work in have no lights?  It's unbelievable!

 

I found the storyline boring.  I could hardly stay awake.  I have some questions:  If the perp loved Lady Heather why did he blow up her car?  And then...who was that that blew up in the car?  I don't understand how it was Gil's fault that LH stopped with him. 

 

Who put all that stuff in LH's dungeon?

 

I'm still confused by that bee thing but I guess they had to put some insects in there.

[walnutqueen]

A crappy parting gift wrapped with a fugly bow. 

[mertensia]

Nick left the last episode of the last season to head the San Diego CSI department. In a nice touch he'd been actively sought after by them for a few years.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The plot was as ridiculous and OTT as  CSI plots always were (how did he get the corpse of Lady Heather's daughter's killer?) but I still enjoyed it.  Would have liked more wrap-up with the rest of the cast but I guess we assume they just go along as always.

 

They never really explained how Lady Heather's daughter's killer got out of prison (because he should have still been in prison if he was convicted of murder), was captured and then mummified by Doug Hutchison/Betton.  And they never explained who was in Lady Heather's house that blew up in the car, other than Betton used her as one of his minions.

 

I haven't been watching the last couple of years, so what was the wrap up for Stokes and Finn? Not that I cared about Finn, just curious.

 

Finn was nearly killed in the S15 finale and ended up in a coma.  And apparently she died off-screen per the plaque that D.B. was packing up from his office.

[Trey]

I didn't realize Finn was supposed to have died - thought she was still in her coma.  I was never too fond of the character but it's still kind of sad that she only got one little mention - and a plaque.

[mertensia]

She got off better than Nick- no mention at all.

[Chaos Theory]

I put off watching Quantico to watch this and I am not sure if that was a good judgment call. It was exactly what I thought it would be which is both good and....agh. The crime itself was incidental and mostly there as an excuse to get Catherine and Grissom and well Lady Heather back.

This was a rap up for Griison and Sara and a lesser extent Catherine. I did like seeing Catherine's kid though considering like Lady Heather she's been a part of the show off and on since season 1.

All in all average but not offensive ending.

So I approve.

[mledawn]

This was not very good at all - I watched it because I missed Grissom and I did like the GSR back in the day. I literally haven't seen a show since Peterson left.

 

I was reading Entertainment Weekly's recap of the finale and this made me laugh out loud:

Midway through the two-hour running time, a few suspects showed up, and one of them was played by Doug Hutchinson. If you’ve ever seen Doug Hutchinson in anything, this was the end of the mystery.

[Josette]

 

Somehow, I don't think there's actually a flower which can do that to people.

 

 The drug derived from it is called Scopolamine.  They used this on Criminal Minds, too.  There are a lot stories about people losing their own will, but there's no hard  proof.  It is used by criminals in Colombia, though, to drug people.

[iluvobx]

I liked the way it ended.  I was never a big fan of Sarah and Gil but I did like it.

I quit watching because of the Catherine character. After Gil left, I discovered that I really didn't like her at all.  Glad to know that I am not the only one that was bothered by her face last night.  What has she done?  Biggest distraction was her mouth.

 

I didn't mind Lady Heather being back as she would have been the only character that Gil would have come back for.  There was always a connection between her and Grissom.

 

Some of the storyline didn't make sense but after all it is CSI and many stories never made too much sense.

[Lostinthehouse]

I'm such a rabid CSI lover that I still DVR episodes from Seasons 1-7.  After that? - meh.  So I was plenty excited to see Grissom & Willows returning for this finale.

 

General thoughts:

My God, everyone looked so old!!  Grissom, Sarah, Brass.  The only one who hadn't aged was Catherine, but MH has probably had so many face lifts that her face was immovable in this episode.

I had to really concentrate to see if the woman playing Lady Heather was really LH.  Voice was different, lips were different, bangs were gone.

Doug Hutchison, aka the attic-dweller, was back and immediately I knew he was the bomber.  Immediately.  No shocker there at all.

Victim in Lady H's car?  No clue.

Gil & Sarah re-bonded over bees?  Too sickly sweet.

And painting bees?  Seriously?  Ridiculous!

So many more WTF's that I can't even.

 

All in all, very disappointing.  And I'm sad about that.

[Runningwild]

I only tuned in last night to see Gil again. Disappointed that they had divorced but glad they got back together. That's about all that really interested me.

[alynch]

Brass: "Hey guys, how's it going? Oh shit, I'm on fire. See ya."

[Kitty Redstone]

I was disappointed that Sara didn't keep DB's moss terrariums, since he apparently wasn't going to take them and she didn't stick around anyway.  Who doesn't like moss terrariums???

 

Anyway, it was great to see William Petersen again.  CSI hasn't been the same since he left, and I missed many, many episodes because of his replacements.  And because of Elisabeth Shue's character. 

 

Wish we'd seen more of Greg and Brass, but overall I can't complain.  The story was going to be nonsensical and over the top no matter what.

[slowpoked]

I've followed CSI over the years, even during the eventual down trend, and while I would have preferred a more explosive finale, this one will do just fine I guess.

 

I would have preferred to have one of the serial killers that Gil was never able to corral over the years of being a CSI to be the main story, and the bait to ask Gil to come back. I think that was Paul Milander? IIRC, he was the first case too. That would have been a nice wrap and closure to the series.

 

But I also understand why they want to explore Lady Heather one more time. Over the years, the show has dealt with the Grissom-Lady Heather relationship with such ambiguity that no one fully understands what their relationship is really. Not even Sara apparently, based on the hostility she's shown towards her. So Gil never talked about it, not even to Sara when they were married. And I was pissed at Gil when she brought in LH and told the CSIs, a bit condescendingly if I might add, that she came in voluntarily and for that she should be treated with respect. If that was any other suspect, Gil himself would be side-eyeing him already. But it was a nice reveal at the end to see that LH was actually the reason for Grissom-Sara, and she wasn't the third party everyone thought her to be.

 

I would have wanted the last shot of the series to be at the lab, with Catherine being the director and Greg/Morgan/Hodges all walking around, where it all started. But I also get the *wink wink* ending of sailing into the sunset, and also being ambiguous on whether or not Sara really left her director position or not. I hope not. She worked so hard for that.

 

And when that new girl came in and greeted Grissom with such familiarity, I knew she was related to someone. And since Catherine was really the only one shown on the series with some kind of personal life (aside from Brass and we know his daughter's rotting in jail currently), I immediately thought that girl was Lindsey. And when Catherine greeted her with a big smile when the suitcase came in, that's when it confirmed for me it was her daughter. It was nice to see her get her act together. Last I saw of her she was losing her shit and rebelling against her mom, I think.

 

So let me get this straight - when Brass said he was leaving the force to deal with his daughter, he eventually ended up working for Catherine's casino? As private security? 

 

It would have also been nice to have a mention of Nick from Grissom, seeing as he seems to be living in SD. "Hey guys, Nick says hi to all of you". I mean, even Fin got an offscrean death and a plaque. 

 

The only truly bad years for me were the Ray years. But I've enjoyed the middle seasons here and there, especially when the lab rats got their time in the sun. Those were some fun few episodes.

[Primetimer]

The same traits that kept people tuning in to C.S.I. -- low-stakes episodic storytelling larded through with flashy special effects -- will be why this show will quietly fade into history.

Read the story

[Secretly Stephie]

My husband and I caught an episode in Iceland. The gang realized they could catch a pick-up artist killer if the smell of his special cologne was on a set of sheets. Cut to a montage of them scanning the sheets with a handheld device that was seriously labeled "Smell-O-Matic." Bye bye, CSI.

[Goshengir1]

Maybe I have just been spoiled by the caliber of TV shows today, but I thought the finale was jarringly bad.  I haven't watched since Grissom left but I was a huge fan back in the day, and I loved Grissom and Sara so when I saw a preview I set my DVR to catch it.  It was good to see the characters again, though everyone looks so much older, but as others have pointed out much of the story just didn't make any sense.  As soon as I saw Tooms playing one of the suspects I knew he was the bomber, and there were so many plot holes it was ridiculous.

 

I'm glad Grissom and Sara sailed off into the sunset together but I didn't think the two actors had much chemistry last night, and I have always been a shipper for them.  I appreciated that the showrunners devoted so much of the finale to them because they were always a big part of the show for me, and the scenes with the bombs and the bees were callbacks to some of their romantic scenes (he proposed over bees), but it just seemed clumsily done.  The thing with the bees didn't make any sense to me - the color-coded bees came back to their hives with evidence of a human body which led Grissom to Tooms?  If he wanted to get back at Grissom for stealing Lady Heather from him, it seems like there were numerously better and less complicated ways of doing it.

[kwnyc]

Real life has lapped this show in terms of everyday horror.

This is the saddest thing in the recap. From the days when it was a little Friday night show that caught everyone by surprise, it's the marker of how times have changed.

[EAG46]

Nice to see Lisa [AKA TWOP's Sobell] had the last word on this show, since it was her awesome recaps there that kept me watching it. When she stopped, I stopped, pretty much. As for the finale: I didn't think the show really NEEDED one. It could have just ended. Did we really need to see the glorious sail into the sunset? I kind of understand why George Eads said no to the finale; he must have looked at the script and barfed.

[alynch]

Nice to see Lisa [AKA TWOP's Sobell] had the last word on this show, since it was her awesome recaps there that kept me watching it. When she stopped, I stopped, pretty much. As for the finale: I didn't think the show really NEEDED one. It could have just ended. Did we really need to see the glorious sail into the sunset? I kind of understand why George Eads said no to the finale; he must have looked at the script and barfed.

 

Supposedly Eads was in the script initially. I'm betting they gave his scenes to the young blonde (who I assume was a regular in the later years). If that's all he was going to have to do, I can completely understand why he'd pass.

Edited September 28, 2015 by alynch

[AntiBeeSpray]

Maybe I have just been spoiled by the caliber of TV shows today, but I thought the finale was jarringly bad.  I haven't watched since Grissom left but I was a huge fan back in the day, and I loved Grissom and Sara so when I saw a preview I set my DVR to catch it.  It was good to see the characters again, though everyone looks so much older, but as others have pointed out much of the story just didn't make any sense.  As soon as I saw Tooms playing one of the suspects I knew he was the bomber, and there were so many plot holes it was ridiculous.

 

I'm glad Grissom and Sara sailed off into the sunset together but I didn't think the two actors had much chemistry last night, and I have always been a shipper for them.  I appreciated that the showrunners devoted so much of the finale to them because they were always a big part of the show for me, and the scenes with the bombs and the bees were callbacks to some of their romantic scenes (he proposed over bees), but it just seemed clumsily done.  The thing with the bees didn't make any sense to me - the color-coded bees came back to their hives with evidence of a human body which led Grissom to Tooms?  If he wanted to get back at Grissom for stealing Lady Heather from him, it seems like there were numerously better and less complicated ways of doing it.

 

Word. It just seemed off somehow. But I'm glad for the characters none the less.

[AlwaysWatching]

Goodbye,  CSI  Too bad you had to have such a lousy finale.  The best part of the whole two hours was Gil's "jump the shark" comment.  I'm sure William Petersen put that line in himself. He was very upset when they decided to spin off other CSI shows. He thought it would dilute the uniqueness of the original and I think he was correct.   I was a loyal CSI follower and except for this horrible two hour mess, I would prefer any original CSI show to anything made by Shonda Rhimes. I guess I simply like a different kind of "formula" than a lot of people.  I didn't mind the "you can expect this at this time in the hour" aspect of the show.  I enjoyed all the actors, well, at least most of them until they started changing near the end.  I remember being upset when Sara and Nick left for awhile due to contract disputes.  It was a show I looked forward to when it was in it's original time slot.  When it moved to Sunday nights with football knocking out some episodes, I knew it was doomed.  But, 15 years, or whatever they had, was a darn good run.  It was time to go.

 

Oh, and I noticed all the puffiness, too.  Then I looked at a mirror.  ehh

[jaytee1812]

I just finished watching this, and I remembered why I never really watched the show every week until Ted Danson showed up - I hate Grissom. He's an insufferable know it all ass.

This was awful, I liked seeing Catherine and Lindsay that was about it.

Wouldn't DB be more likely to be retiring than starting somewhere new (for the second time in less than 5 years).

Hate that Sara's ending was throwing away a terrific career achievement for an insufferable ass who treated her like crap.

[BW Manilowe]

I thought it was just okay. I was really glad to see Grissom back, the show hasn't been the same without him. I never cared that much about the S/G relationship, but I am sort of glad that they worked things out.

While I didn't need closure on every single person in the lab, how come we got nothing when it came to Greg? He was the last original cast member ( or close to it) all we got was a post bomb defusal hug... Very disappointing.

The case was pretty meh.... I knew who the bad guy was as soon as I recognized Doug Hutchinson... You don't hire that creeper for just one scene. Lady heather came back too many times...

I'm still going to miss CSI, but more for what it used to be... Still don't care about any of the spinoffs.

Oh and at least this one didn't get delayed or postponed by football for once... I guess that's something.

It actually got delayed in certain markets--but only by about 6 minutes, I think. CBS Tweeted a relatively small list of places where programming was delayed due to football because they aired games which went longer than others CBS aired elsewhere. My hometown wasn't 1 of them though--we had the Colts game followed by the Bears game & the Bears game ended before 7:30 Eastern, when 60 Minutes was supposed to air in the Eastern Time Zone.

[Constantinople]

No Ghost of Warrick?

Alas, poor Warrick!

[iscoffy]

I just finished watching this, and I remembered why I never really watched the show every week until Ted Danson showed up - I hate Grissom. He's an insufferable know it all ass.

 

 

The thing I initially loved about CSI was that it featured introverts, which Gil Grissom definitely is, doing something they really cared about, and doing it well.   Not to say some of the characters aren't extroverts, but I think early Grissom was more an introvert who was great at his job but wasn't terribly interested in faking extroversion in his work or social life.  That's not something we saw much on TV back then.  The TV landscape has certainly changed since then, and CSI got more into trying to come up with wacky cases than just "following the evidence."   I bought that Sara had a thing about Grissom, but if they were going to go there, I never was convinced by the writing why they came together, and this sunset ending didn't really help.

 

On the topic of extroverts, as mentioned above, would Catherine even be eligible to lead the lab?  Didn't she blow it up at some point, and there was a question of whether she interfered with a case on behalf of her dad, among numerous other unprofessional things she did over the years.  I never really understood why she was such a boon to the FBI, either, but I guess a lab that would hire Finn would consider putting Willows in charge.

[Starscream]

Another drawback of ignoring most of the characters in this episode is that I didn't get any reaction from Hodges to his idol returning.  I mean, I was anticipating his reaction more than Sara's.  Then again, it's clear they were not very concerned with making us laugh in this episode.

[crowswork]

In Florida we missed the last ten minutes. I could probably catch it on demand but you can't FF and the sacrifice is too great. CBS, the jerks, could have kept a few DOZEN of their 200 show promos till the end but hey, it was just the last ep of the show that helped make their stupid network!!!

[helent]

Gil Grissom, environmental terrorist

 

Hang on, I haven't watched this in a while. Is this comedic hyperbole, or is he actually a terrorist? Because if so that sounds like the kind of cack I should be watching.

[iscoffy]

Hang on, I haven't watched this in a while. Is this comedic hyperbole, or is he actually a terrorist? Because if so that sounds like the kind of cack I should be watching.

 

 

When Grissom built a replica of the casino bomb, he mentioned that he knew how to make bombs because they sometimes took out whalers that way (in response to which, Henry naively said, "That's legal?").  Which, hm.  I saw an interview where apparently William Petersen had come to a meeting with a folder of Sea Shepherd information, so I guess he was interested in that angle.

 

I personally am not a fan of Paul Watson/Whale Wars and his/their tactics, and I'm not sure why Grissom would be, either, but apparently the sea is lucky to have him.  And Sara. (?)  I would probably watch CSI: Pacific Ocean over CSI: Cyber, though.

Edited September 29, 2015 by iscoffy

[Linderhill]

I got a little excited when I saw Nigel Crane thinking that Nick might have a cameo or a mention, but no luck.  There was also the dread at one point that Nicky was the one in the suitcase.  

 

I wasn't thrilled in the least with all of the idiot Grissom/Sara idiocy.  For the last time EVERYTHING IS ABOUT SARA unless EVERYTHING IS ABOUT CATHERINE.  sigh.  I did enjoy seeing Grissom (and would definitely watch him righting oceanic crimes over the Cyber dreck) but it would have been nice if the rest of the cast had been given more than 5 min. spots.  Catherine would never have been an FBI agent, she was way too old.  The FBI actually employs a lot of civilians and they run the labs for the agency.  And yeah, how would Sara or Catherine be in the running for lab director with all of their personal drama?  

 

It was nice finding out that Brass was working for Catherine at her casino but it would have been nice if he'd had more of a final appearance than getting blown up.  It would have been nice that we could have gotten more than a quip telling us he was okay.  I actually missed the Fin mention the first time I watched but I can't say I want to freeze frame to see what that plaque DB was packing up said.

 

So not a great show.  Too bad, I've watched from the very beginning (I even suffered thru the CSI Ray years) so this was a pretty low point to go out on.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

iscoffy:The thing I initially loved about CSI was that it featured introverts, which Gil Grissom definitely is, doing something they really cared about, and doing it well.   Not to say some of the characters aren't extroverts, but I think early Grissom was more an introvert who was great at his job but wasn't terribly interested in faking extroversion in his work or social life.  That's not something we saw much on TV back then.

Agree.  I liked Grissom a lot as a character, never kind of got the point of Sara and I've always liked Marg Helgenberger, going back to China Beach.  The other thing I liked about CSI initially was the focus on actual science facts, like the progression of carrion-eating insects and their larvae that could help the CSIs pinpoint time  of death, etc.  And yes, that Grissom was so unabashedly into his bugs and didn't care if other people thought it was weird or disgusting - the best kind of nerd.  

Also it's probably hard for some of you to remember, but CSI was INCREDIBLY gory for a network show when it started.  Even the opening credits!

 

Of course it all eventually became so hard to watch with CSIs refusing to ever turn on a light switch when examining a crime scene, CSIs interrogating suspects and witnesses as if they were detectives, all the ludicrously convoluted Rube Goldberg-esque "forensic science" that more often than not required the show to have us believe that an old murder location would have been completely untouched for ten or twenty or fifty plus years.

 

 I did enjoy seeing William Peterson one last time.  But I definitely got the impression that none of the writers could muster up much enthusiasm for this supposed Grand Finale though - tepid stuff all round.

Edited September 29, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[scorpio1031]

I had seen so many interviews where the actors said that the show was tied up in a neat little bow.  It was for Grissom and Sara, but I wanted to see Greg and Morgan sail off together:)

[Linderhill]

and who was that poor woman that got blown up in the car anyway?  didn't anyone care?  

 

Re-watching the ending, (glutton for punishment) I've got two thoughts:

 

1. Ick, I still hate Grissom and Sara together and I would have been happy for the series ending without that final scene.  I'll entertain myself with thoughts that it was actually Nick that joined Grissom on his boat.

2. I am never watching CSI: Cyber

[Grommet]

That was,just awful. I've been dvr-ing early seasons and am reminded that it was a good show for a long time, but this was terrible. Rewatching has also reminded me of what a self-centered bitch Catherine was so at least the finale stayed consistent with that.

[iscoffy]

Another thought: where the heck was Grissom docking his boat?  Presumably not in the Bellagio fountains.

[Raja]

Another thought: where the heck was Grissom docking his boat? Presumably not in the Bellagio fountains.

They said San Diego when the SWAT team backed up the Harbor patrolman investigating a tresspaser. Thr jump the shark opening. Since it was there we can speculate it was a door to write Nick into the story.

[Drogo]

Disappointed that they showed such disregard for the characters who have been so important (to me, at least) in the recent seasons - I'm looking at you, Hodges/Sanders/Morgan - in favor of giving Grissom and Catherine more time in the sun.

[needschocolate]

Well, it seems obvious to me that they didn't care about the plot, they just wanted to give viewers a little "what are they doing now" or "what will they do next" on some of the characters.  As many others have pointed out, there were so many plot holes and unanswered questions and ridiculous "science." 

 

I nominate Morgan crying at the wire snipping as the single worst bit of acting in this episode.  

 

Worst bit of dialogue goes to ---

"Where did she come from?"
"My vagina."
Who wrote this dreck?

 

I don't know who wrote it, but I can understand why Marg H said  it - This was great dialogue, compared to the crap she said on Under the Dome, 

 

And I definitely agree with the sentiment that, by and large, everybody that wasn't Catherine or Sara or Grissom (and then D.B.) was kind of shafted.  D.B. at least is going off to another show, but the rest...particularly Brass?  Shafted, no lube.  On the other hand, nobody got killed either...so, halfsies?

 

I think they tried to make it up to the shafted ones by having them stand with everyone else in various scenes.  Like when Lady Heather comes walking down the hall and there are 4-5 of the the CSI crew just standing in the hallway for no reason.  Another time, David is just standing next to the other CSIs, even though he has nothing to do with what they were discussing.  

 

I get the feeling that Brass originally had a larger part but Paul Guilfolye read the script and said, "Hey guys, why don't you have Brass catch on fire early on and give the rest of my lines to someone else?"

[iscoffy]

I get the feeling that Brass originally had a larger part but Paul Guilfolye read the script and said, "Hey guys, why don't you have Brass catch on fire early on and give the rest of my lines to someone else?"

 

 

They almost blew up the poor guy twice, too! "Oh God, you put me back in?  Could you try to blow me up a second time and just take me off screen for the remainder?"

 

I think they tried to make it up to the shafted ones by having them stand with everyone else in various scenes.  Like when Lady Heather comes walking down the hall and there are 4-5 of the the CSI crew just standing in the hallway for no reason.  Another time, David is just standing next to the other CSIs, even though he has nothing to do with what they were discussing.

 

 

Maybe it's CSI: Cyber bleed, where there are apparently tons of people at the lab with nothing better to do than ooh and aah at the main characters.

 

They said San Diego when the SWAT team backed up the Harbor patrolman investigating a tresspaser. Thr jump the shark opening. Since it was there we can speculate it was a door to write Nick into the story.

 

 

Thanks. I think I was so distracted by how the Beast-like it all was, I missed where they were even supposed to be.  And I think Nick and the ghost of Warrick made a good choice to stay far away from this one.

[Kromm]

CSI is like the ultimate lesson is how to screw up a procedural. No wait, maybe L&O: SVU is. Or it's a tie.

 

When a show that's supposed to be about investigating crimes is on too long, they shift the focus from people simply doing their jobs, and being interesting doing so, to their personal lives and interactions. Now if the show was about that in the first place--in other words not really a procedural but instead a character based drama (or even a character based dramady)--that's fine. But if it started with those intentions about the show being a window into following crimes and solving them?  Then those tendencies to explore the lives of the characters often becomes a cancer more than a feature. 

 I am never watching CSI: Cyber

Good. Your brain (and soul) would hurt if you did.

[St. Claire]

I don't understand the tendency toward using the same actors in different roles on a procedural. I was distracted by the bad guy because he seemed familiar to me, only to later have it dawn on me that he was the stalker from seasons earlier (not to mention that he's an actor who makes my skin crawl because of his personal life). Also, this is not the first time they've had a DNA misdirect from a suspect having 2 sets (the other guy ended up with his a chimera and almost got away with rape because his initial DNA test showed only a partial match).

[non sequitur]

This whole episode/ ending should have happened a few years ago.  It seemed clunky and awkward now, and only reinforced how far the show has fallen.

 

It was awful to see the plastic surgery on MH and MC.

[saxon57]

Was a loyal weekly viewer up till Grissom's exit so I kind of felt obliged to tune in for the finale. I'm not sure if the face of tv dramas has changed so much in the past few years or if the early years of the show just weren't as good as I thought. The whole storyline seemed downright ludicrous which is strange given that I reveled in plots about killers dressed as plush animals, pipe bombs in sewers or scuba divers in trees. It felt very disjointed and thrown together. Grissom has always been my favorite so I didn't mind the attention given the character since to be honest I had no idea who any of the characters post his exit even were. 

  I was just glad to see Catherine, Brass, Henry and Hodges one more time even in a limited role. Somehow the Grissom character just seemed "off". I'm not sure if it was Petersen's choice to have him mellow or if he has sort of forgotten how to play the character many people know too well. Anyhow it was no grand exit but I'm a sucker for happy endings and was ok with seeing Sara and Grissom sail into the sunset. Good bye CSI and thanks for the memories.

[Kromm]

I realize Catherine putting her name into the ring to take over the lab was intended to let us know that Sara winding up on that boat means she left and Catherine took over.  But it was pretty badly cobbled together. The order of things as presented made it seem like Catherine was trying to poach the job (even with that verbal "if Sara doesn't want it" caveat--which seemed mega strange before we had any reason to think Sara wouldn't want it), then in the end we could only INFER Catherine wound up with it (and that Sara basically walked away from a job she'd had for 1 day--oops, that's a career killer).

 

Really the solution to this bit of bad writing would have been to have Sara be told she won the job, but not have us see a ceremony welcoming her to it.  In other words have her walk away before she'd actually started it. Then, as clichéd as it seems, have Sara see the tape of what Grissom said, and have us SEE her leaving the lab (not like there was any suspense to maintain), and on her way out have her bump into a departing Catherine--and have SARA tell Catherine that she should apply for the job and that she's a sure thing if she does.  THEN the boat stuff.

 

Speaking of Catherine, was there ever any indication previously that her spawn had any interest in being a CSI? I can't say I have a great memory for the nitty gritty backstories on the show so I genuinely don't know. I DO remember though that Catherine's kiddie was played by Kay Panabaker. Who I guess was more expensive to pay to come back than recasting.  Or was she? I mean Kay Panabaker is not exactly burning up Hollywood these days (her sister is the one getting all the work).  EDIT - Someone typed into Wikipedia that Kay has retired from acting. No clue if its true, but I suppose it would explain her not being in this as her OWN character (even if its a minor one).

 

And I can't claim I've seen more than 2 episodes of the Ted Danson era, but I really get the feeling he got shafted by that finale. His character just seemed bored with the whole thing (and maybe the actor too). I suppose him getting another job on the godawful CSI Cyber was some consolation, but... ugh. He has to work on CSI Cyber!  It's a paycheck sure, but it's also punishment too.

 

Really all of it is shit one way or the other, since it's all about these people instead of SOLVING FUCKING CRIMES! But if you have to have the soap opera and all the stuff with their personal lives, that ending could have been far cleaner than the shit they presented.

 

BTW: put your hand up if you are the ONE person watching who didn't know that Catherine was due to adopt those girls the moment we saw the scene where she learns they have nobody?  Shame on you!  How didn't you know?  I've rarely to never seen TV bullshit telegraphed as clearly as that one!

 

In other news, even though it came during the actual prime TV season and not during the summer or deep in the winter, "'CSI's 'Immortality' finale draws highest ratings in nearly 4 years". 

 

CBS broadcast a two-hour "CSI" finale movie -- dubbed "Immortality" -- that served as the finale for the smash hit series and delivered 12.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.
 

Those are the highest numbers for an original episode of the forensics drama since January 2012.

 

The season average for Season 15 was 8.26 million. In it's peak-rated years (Season 3 through 6), CSI: Original Recipe topped 30 million viewers quite often.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Kromm

[Lebanna]

No Ghost of Warrick?Alas, poor Warrick!

I so wanted them to call up the Miami team to investigate Warrick's murder back in the day.

I could just see Grissom saying 'I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest...'

It was a missed opportunity I still mourn.

[Kromm]

I could just see Grissom saying 'I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest...'

 

"We've got a killer to catch..." 

{dramatic pause}

{abruptly shoves sunglasses onto face}

"...and it's no laughing matter!"

{yaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh!}

Edited September 29, 2015 by Kromm