Variety (Columns)

'CSI' Finally Becomes a Chalk Outline With Series Finale (SPOILERS)

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Not surprisingly, there was a ’the gang’s all here’ quality to the finale (and SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t watched), which concocted an excuse to bring back Grissom (Petersen) to work a case alongside Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) and ex-wife Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), all in the ostensible service of solving a crime that tied into his past, involving the dominatrix Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke). Frankly, anyone who has watched TV in the last 20-some-odd years should have instantly known whodunit when Doug Hutchison (who has been playing a psycho as far back as Tombs in ‘The X-Files’) showed up, but that really wasn’t the issue.

No, the other pretty well-telegraphed payoff was that Grissom and Sara would use this reunion – which began with a bombing in a casino – as an excuse to get back together, literally sailing off into the sunset together. It was sort of sweet and undeniably sentimental, although not nearly as funny as that ridiculously long story about the lonely whale that Grissom told the killer.

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