For a season finale, the series leaves viewers on a sour note and cranks up the cheese more than usual

You expect a certain amount of cheese when you watch CSI, but the season finale “Way To Go,” was much worse than usual. There were a number of lines, which I like to call groaners, that were added to get a laugh, but instead caused me to audibly groan to ease the pain inflicted by terrible writing. When it was all said and done, the last ten seconds will give everyone something to talk about during the long summer hiatus, but the previous 58 minutes were nothing special. (SPOILER ALERT)

For those of you who caught last week’s episode (the first of a two-parter) we were thrust back into Captain Brass’s (Paul Guilfoyle) fight for life after being shot during a hostage negotiation. We are then treated to a flashback explaining how Grissom (William Petersen) gained power of attorney concerning Brass’s medical condition. From here we jump into a standard episode where we have two murders. One a decapitated body found near the railroad tracks, the other concerns a heavy partier who may have over done the festivities.

There is nothing to say about the episode. For fans familiar with the show we see the usual arc of having the CSIs following the clues until we find out exactly what caused these two people to end up dead. This was a weak two-part episode unlike “A Bullet Runs Through It,” from earlier in the season, when Brass accidentally shot a fellow officer. This episode utilized the shooting of Brass as the lone connection to the part one. Brass’s fight for his life took up very little air time, and is a red herring for what is the real cliff hanger.

As expected, they capture their killers, but this episode puts a little more emphasis on family as Brass’s daughter Ellie comes into town because of her father’s shooting. Ellie is a person of ill repute, and a former crack addict who has come into town, not to see her dying father, but to claim what Brass leaves behind. Grissom attempts to show Ellie how much Brass loves her, but when she realizes that he is going to pull through she bolts. This leaves Brass with the people who truly care about him, although (as we learned earlier) they don’t pal around outside of the work place.

What is really going to stir the imaginations of fans is the final scene. Grissom is laying in bed wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt explaining how he wishes to know when he is going to die. The camera is panning around him as he lies there talking to an unknown person, finally we see a robe appear in the bathroom doorway. After a few moments of taking in the unknown, the figure is revealed to be Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox).

Although it is great to finally see Grissom and Sara together, one has to hope that the show won’t stray too far from what makes it popular - the science. CSIhas shown a weakness when it comes to focusing on the characters’ backgrounds. I tend to believe that they would do best to not revolve around the possible relationship. There has been hints at a possible connection between the two for years now, but they can’t turn this into the next Ross and Rachel fiasco. Touch on it, use it for a couple of story arcs but never let it be the focus of the show. While this was a great twist for loyal fans, we may be looking at the point where CSIhas finally jumped the shark.