CSI “Willows In the Wind” Review

The Las Vegas Crime Lab said goodbye to Catherine in this week’s episode of CSI, “Willows In the Wind.” I see what they did there… I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it was the send-off that she deserved, but it at least wrapped up the whole black ops plot line that was starting to drag just a bit.

We left Catherine bleeding in the back of DB’s car last week; fortunately it was just a through and through with no major damage done, but it did require some underground ops of their own to get the wound treated by Doc Robbins while keeping Catherine hidden from the guys who wanted her dead.

She and DB wound up at the strip joint where Catherine worked the pole once upon a time. It was a nice nod to the show’s history, especially since the writers did their homework and correctly remembered how Catherine became a CSI. Continuity always wins.

I was actually a little surprised at the twist; it turns out the jerk CEO who was thought to have been behind all of the ops was actually being framed for everything (including his wife’s murder) by his wife. She had a little help, though. The handsome FBI agent who was also thought to be dead staged his murder, too, only to be killed a little while later when he fired the warning shot that saved Catherine’s life.

The only thing I wasn’t clear on was the wife’s motives for choosing Catherine. Did they have some childhood beef that wasn’t disclosed? The wife wasn’t a good person by any means, but ruining the life of someone you haven’t seen since you were kids seems extreme. I guess that fits in with the case as a whole; there really wasn’t much that was subtle about it. (Uber-guns, genetically-altered beetles…you see my point.)

In the end, Catherine did take something away from her last conversation with her former friend. She decided to put herself first, and rather than keep settling for her demoted position at the crime lab, she accepted the FBI’s offer of a job. After gathering her second family together, she broke the news with a whole lot of cliches. I’m sorry…there’s no other word that accurately fits her speech. It might have made Nick tear up (although I suspect that was the actor, not the character), but it fell a little short for me, although it did fit Catherine’s character, just as Grissom’s silent walk-through fit his.

The final scene was a lot better. In the same diner where she gave a pep talk to the doomed Holly Gribbs in the pilot episode, Catherine advised Morgan to love the job, but not to make it her life. That is something that no one could ever accuse Catherine of doing. Like her or not, at the height of CSI‘s popularity, Catherine had a very big hand in making the formula work. I think we’re all asking ourselves what the show will be now that she’s gone.

What did you think of the episode? Let me know below!