Season 9, Episode 10: One To Go

Grissom finishes packing up his office, and despite an impassioned plea to stay from Hodges, exits CSI, catching only Catherine's eye as he walks past the team hard at work.

There were quite a few powerful moments in "One to Go," but two in particular critical where the focus shifted from the tense case to Grissom's departure.

The first was from an unlikely source: David Hodges. Hodges reacted to the news of Grissom's departure with a huffy, wounded demeanor in "19 Down", hurt that he heard the news second hand. But as Grissom packs up his office and prepares to leave CSI, Hodges turns up at the door, full of honest-to-goodness sincerity. In most of his interactions with Grissom, Hodges has been something of a suck-up, hoping to impress the boss he so clearly admires. But there's none of that here: there's a real earnestness in Wallace Langham's delivery.

Everything he says to Grissom in this scene to be heartfelt and touching, but something about the line, "The bad guys will win more if we don't have you" really resonates. So often people who suck up are dismissed, and that's usually how Hodges has been treated. Most people assume their flattery is false or just has some selfish end behind it. This line shows just how sincere Hodges' admiration for Grissom truly is. Maybe his way of expressing it usually landed on the obsequious side of the line, but what he says in this scene is completely genuine.

Grissom responds in an equally forthright way. When Hodges laments, "Who was Watson without Sherlock Holmes?" Grissom responds, "Watson was a genius in his own right." It's a real compliment to Hodges, who has always longed for acknowledgment and praise from Grissom. Hodges, for all his bravado and facade of arrogance, is really just looking for praise and affirmation from the team--especially Grissom--more often than not. Hodges is the last person I would have thought would have the final (verbal) farewell with Grissom, but it's a perfect choice.

The second moment was yet another perfect goodbye. As Grissom walks down the hall and observes the various team members doing their jobs, the only one whose eye he catches is Catherine's. She notices, registers what's going on, and winks at him as he smiles at her.

There's so much warmth in the moment; everything between them is communicated without a word being said. She's happy for him, she'll miss him, she thinks he's doing what he needs to do--few actresses could get across so much with a simple wink, but that's just what Marg Helgenberger does here.

Grissom opened himself up to Catherine in "Young Man with a Horn", and after he makes the announcement in "19 Down" that he's leaving, she tells him she knew before he did. Catherine really knows Grissom, and she knows this departure, while the end of his career as a CSI, is the beginning of something else. Grissom is a scientist, but that part of him isn't going to go away when he walks out the door of CSI. It's time for something else to take the pot. Catherine knows this, and she's clearly happy for him.

Doc Robbins, Wendy, David Phillips, Brass and Catherine got to speak with Grissom about his departure in "19 Down," which left only Nick, Greg and Hodges (who made up for his angry initial response in the previous episode).

Nick promises Grissom, "I'll never forget the things you taught me," and the audience knows he's not just talking about crime scene procedure and forensic techniques. "You were the best student I ever had, Nick," Grissom replies, letting Nick and the audience know that Grissom feels Nick has learned all he needs to from him. Nick will miss him, but he's no longer at the student level. Greg, on the other hand, is a much newer CSI, and thanks Grissom for putting him out in the field. "You changed my life," he says simply. Greg got off to a rocky start as a CSI, but he's grown in confidence since then.

Review provided by CSI Files.