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Petersen’s shortened workday is evident in tonight’s episode, “Nesting Dolls,” which intertwines domestic abuse with mail-order brides. However, his scenes are significant, marking one of the rare occasions in which CSI goes home with a character to peel back layers of personality.

In the episode, Grissom visits the apartment of suspended subordinate Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) to ask why the abuse case triggered an outburst that endangered her job.

CSI is at its best when solving crimes, Petersen says, “not when people are crying.” Yet he sees room to reveal personality through characters’ reactions to crimes.

Scenes between Grissom and Sidle also stir up the complexities of a five-season relationship that has featured sometimes awkward flirtation and hints of deeper meaning.

“It’s this weird sort of mysterious dance. We rarely know from one season to another how we’re going to play the relationship,” says Fox, whose character was first imagined as a love interest for Grissom.

The actors help influence the shaping of their characters, Fox says. “One of the things I adore about Billy is that, coming from Chicago and that theater experience, he said, ‘This is going to have to be a collective thing. We have to talk about things together.’ "

About that raise…

The thought that CSI could have lost Fox and George Eads bothers Petersen. The pair, who were fired last summer during a salary dispute, eventually were rehired at their old pay.

The matter was resolved properly, says Petersen, who adds that the network “would have been looking for me” if the dismissals had stuck. “You want a raise and that’s wrong? When did that become wrong in this country? When did you have to get castigated for it?”

Petersen talked to Fox and Eads but didn’t go to Moonves, saying it was their business. He trusts Tassler, who matched him with CSI creator Anthony Zuiker, but appears to group Moonves with many he says have changed with success. “I’m good friends with Les when Les is a good guy.”

Petersen also disputes the notion that actors are interchangeable parts on procedural dramas.

“You can call it a procedural. You can say it’s all about the science. If that were true, then these 30 million people would be watching the Discovery Channel. They’re not,” Petersen says. “They want to see Marg (Helgenberger) and Billy. They want to see George and Jorja. They want to see Gary (Dourdan) and Eric (Szmanda).”

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