What happened in Vegas …

When CSI prepares to wrap up its “historic and groundbreaking” CBS run on Sunday, many of the series’s favorites are returning, including charter cast members William Petersen as Gil Grissom and Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows, to join Ted Danson’s D.B. Russell for one last investigation.

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Says original cast member Jorja Fox (whose Sara Sidle returned in season 11 after a brief hiatus): “Obviously we left a lot of balls up in the air at the end of season 15. It’s amazing to get some things off our proverbial chest and to get a chance to thank the fans and to take a bow.”

For Petersen and Helgenberger, the show is deeply entwined in the last two decades of their lives. While Helgenberger admits she’s been wowed by the show’s “global impact,” Petersen marvels how “each day was an invention” on the science-centered series.

Fox is a little more blunt, admitting that she “thought nobody was going to watch it” in the show’s first days.

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But for devotees of the series, it all comes back to the characters that started it all.

Petersen and Helgenberger, as Grissom and Willows, “started the show, so for them to end it, it’s quite wonderful,” says Danson, who took the reins in season 12.

Adds Fox, “It’s a love card to the fans. I hope that people will remember us as a comforting friend.”

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