CSI: Goodbye & Good Luck (Episode 807)

Stuff happened, and then Sara left, and now I'm curled up in the fetal position and sobbing on the couch. The end.

Okay, FINE. I will elaborate, just for you guys. I hope you appreciate the agony I went through to do this recap. Watching the episode over and over? Let's just say that the Geneva Convention would consider it an act of most heinous torture. Now, where's the sweet, numbing relief of my beer?

We open on a tight focus of a hand lifting stitches with a knife. The focus widens out to show Sara, sitting in the locker room, using the knife on something in her lap.

Cut to a college campus, where various activities are going on in a dorm. On one floor, a keg party is in full swing, on another nerds watch The X-Files and listen to the couple on the floor above them have sex. Outside all of their windows, the body of a young woman falls in slow motion until the shot speeds up and she plummets to the ground. Later, Catherine photographs the victim and SuperDave examines the body while they try to ignore the noise of the gathered crowd. SuperDave tells Catherine that this is the college's third jumper this year. On the stairwell to the roof, Nicky radios down to Catherine that the door is chained and padlocked, so the victim didn't fall from there. Brass radios Nicky and says the resident director has IDed the victim as Kira Dellinger, a freshman from McLean, VA. I'm taking it as kind of a grisly shout out that the victim in Sara's last episode came from my home state. Brass grimly says he'll go notify the parents and Nicky heads to Kira's room. Inside, he finds blood and some cloth on a nail on the windowsill. He calls down to Catherine, who confirms that Kira has a wound on her back consistent with being scraped while being pushed out the window.

I didn't catch this the first time I watched, but I like the symmetry of Sara's last case being a woman who was pushed from a building. Her very first scene on the show was with Grissom, where he was staging an experiment to learn if a victim fell or was pushed from a building. "Norman pushed. Norman jumped. Norman fell." "Wouldn't you, if you were married to Mrs. Roper?" "I don't even have to turn around. Sara Sidle." "That's me!"

There's another tight focus shot of Sara like she's walking through a tunnel, all of her surroundings faded to black. She's lost in thought, listening to her iPod, and she collides with Warrick when she enters the locker room. She apologizes profusely and hands him his stuff, noticing that he's got a prescription for sleeping pills. He explains he hasn't been sleeping well (Y HALO THAR FORESHADOWING) and she commiserates. He attributes her sleeping problems to switching from night to swing and tells her she's a "tough cookie." After he's left, Sara sits down wearily, and notices with a sigh that she has blood on her boots. Ronnie swings by and asks if she's done with her case and when Sara says she is, tells her that they've got another. Ronnie's excited that she has a busy shift but Sara looks physically and emotionally exhausted. However, she gets back to work, but she throws her boots in the trash first.

Ronnie and Sara have been called out to a house where the door is open a few inches and there are signs of a struggle inside. An officer explains that neighbors called in a domestic disturbance between Adam and Kim Jimenez, who have not responded to any calls. They go inside and find several areas of blood and start to process the scene, but they're startled when a woman walks into the room from the back of the house. She identifies herself as Kim Jimenez and says she and her husband had a fight, she went on a walk, and she doesn't know where her husband is. Ronnie notices that she's trembling and there's blood dripping down the back of her leg. Kim says she has a bad back and Ronnie edges behind her to see a large knife sticking out of her back. "Sara," Ronnie says pointedly, "she's got a very bad back." Kim turns around and Sara, seeing the knife, looks sickened.

Morgue. Catherine photographs Kira's body and finds a fragment of something embedded in one hand. Doc Robbins, who's just walked in, suggests it could be a tooth fragment and Catherine speculates there was a struggle before Kira was killed. She also says Kira had unprotected sex before she died, but there's no evidence of rape. She and Robbins talk about Lindsay, who is already looking at colleges, and Catherine says even if she went to a local college it's a scary thing for a parent. I wonder if Marg Helgenberger's botox addition can be directly correlated to the writers SORASing her TV daughter.

In Kira's dorm room, Nicky is collecting prints and delivering some major arm porn. Hey, I'm just pointing it out. Greg joins him and after reporting what they already knew, that dorm security sucks, he gets to work. Underneath Kira's bed, he finds a tube of sex lubricant and a tank top that indicates Kira was straight edge. He explains to Nicky that means Kira didn't smoke, drink or do drugs, but sex was definitely okay. He looks at the pictures on the wall and says it looks like Kira was in a goth band. He tells Nicky that he used to be goth to get girls and Nicky asks how that worked out for him. "You act depressed to get chicks, you get depressed chicks," Greg admits ruefully. Hee.

Out at the Jimenez house, a paramedic tapes the knife in place so Kim can be transported to the hospital. Her husband walks in and immediately starts berating and smacking her around, but Sara just stands there numbly while Ronnie and the paramedic try to fight him off. Adam is subdued and Kim is calmed down, while Ronnie looks to Sara for help. She asks Sara how they're going to handle the situation and Sara bleakly and cynically tells her that they'll be back for Kim's body, or Adam's, or both, in a month. "There is nothing you can do about this, Ronnie. Don't kid yourself."

Back at the lab, Sara sees Grissom in his office and when he looks up and sees her watching, he notices immediately that something's wrong. He gives her a wave and beckons her to come in but when he glances down at his paperwork for a moment and looks back up, she's gone. He looks confused and worried. Sara walks down the hall and Mandy intercepts her, saying she's found something from Catherine's case that Sara will want to hear. She found a print on the bottle of sex lube and it came back to Marlon West. In the evidence room, Nicky brings everyone up to speed on the case - Marlon confessed to killing a girl but he was found not guilty because his sister, Hannah, a 12 year old genius, confessed to the crime herself. Later, Hannah told Sara that Marlon was the real killer. You know what's the most disturbing thing about the flashbacks to the episode? The revenge of BadHairNicky. Ew. Sara says that Hannah went on to emancipate herself from her parents and went to college at Harvard. Grissom sharply asks if Sara's been keeping tabs on Hannah and Sara defiantly replies, "Not recently." She insists that Hannah helped Marlon get away with murder and now he's killed again, but Catherine says they haven't proved that yet and all of the evidence from the prior case was destroyed after the verdict. Sara wants in on the case and Grissom says he'll see if he can clear it with Ecklie, and tells Sara that Catherine is supervising.

Sara and Brass enter a crowded lecture hall before class has started. They find Marlon and Sara's all, "'Sup?" Marlon wants to know why they're there and when Brass says it's about Kira, he says she committed suicide. He's surprised when Brass tells him that Kira was murdered, then his surprise turns to anger when he realizes he's their number one suspect. Brass says his prints were all over Kira's room and on the sex lube (Marlon hilariously looks around at his gawking fellow students like, "Dude, did you have to mention the lube in front of everyone?"), and Marlon admits he and Kira were in a band together and were having sex. He says they didn't have sex the night Kira died but they got into a fight after a gig. Sara notes an abrasion on his lip and Marlon explains that he caught Kira kissing another guy and when he tries to confront them, the other guy smacked Marlon in the face, then Kira took off with him. Sara insincerely says she'll give him the benefit of the doubt as long as he provides a DNA sample. He's about to comply when a youthful voice advises Sara to back off unless she's got a warrant. Shocked, Sara turns to see Hannah, now 14 and, as she smirkily informs Sara, in grad school. Speechless, Sara watches as Hannah walks onto the dais and, revealing herself to be the TA, begins the lecture.

Back at the lab, Brass tells Sara that it's going to be difficult to get a warrant since there's no evidence Kira was raped and nothing directly suggests Marlon killed her. He adds that Marlon's parents died in a car accident a year ago, so any judge is likely to deliberate with the utmost sensitivity. Sara, angry and persistent, turns it around to Kira's parents and asks how it was telling them their daughter died. Brass asks what her point is and she says if they'd put Marlon away the first time like they should have, Kira would still be alive. "Talk to the judge," she snaps and walks away, while Brass has an expression on his face like, "Did she seriously just give Jim 'Badass Motherfucker' Brass an order?"

Henry tells Nicky and Catherine that he found GHB in Kira's system and Catherine suggests maybe Kira was raped, since she would've been too drugged to resist. Henry says some kids take GHB recreationally, but Nicky thinks that's not consistent with a straight edge lifestyle. Catherine scoffs at the whole straight edge thing and tells Nicky to test anything in Kira's room that she may have ingested.

In the A/V lab, Greg and Archie go through Kira's Twitter page, noting that she was posting up until a couple of hours before her death. They find an entry where she refers to Marlon and the guy he caught her macking on, then follow that guy's screenname to his MySpace Friend Agenda page, where they're able to get an ID. Later, Brass talks to Jordan Rockwell, who is in the hospital after a car accident. He says he knows Kira and the last time he saw her was the previous night, when they had sex. He explains that he and Kira knew each other in high school and reconnected online. He came to the campus to see her band and helped her drive off Marlon, who was into Kira but she wasn't all that into him. Afterwards, she took Jordan back to her room, where they had sex and fell asleep. Jordan says he woke up feeling sick so he tried to drive home, but became dizzy and crashed into a tree. Brass asks Jordan to confirm that Kira was alive the last time he saw her and Jordan is devastated to learn that Kira is dead.

At the lab, Greg tells Sara and Nicky that Jordan tested positive for GHB, but nothing in Kira's room came up with traces of the drug. Nicky gets an idea and says Kira and Jordan had unprotected sex, so they both came in contact with the sex lube. Later, Hodges confirms that the lube was dosed with GHB and it's easy to do with a bit of chemistry knowledge. Sara says Marlon takes chemistry and Hannah teaches it, and Nicky says they know Marlon's prints are on the lube. Unfortunately, it only indicates Marlon may have drugged Kira; it doesn't prove murder. Sara, who has been flipping through the photos of Kira's body, says they can get a warrant based on the tooth fragment embedded in Kira's fist. Later, Marlon, showing a cracked tooth, sits in interrogation while Nicky prepares a denture mold. Marlon insists he didn't kill Kira and complains about the harrassment, but Nicky tells him that, unlike everyone else, he doesn't underestimate Marlon. "I already know you're every bit as smart as your sister, especially when it comes to creating confusion."

Sara finds Hannah in the waiting room and Hannah insists Marlon didn't kill Kira. Sara asks why she would believe anything Hannah says and Hannah, trying to charm Sara, says maybe she's an optimistic. But Sara isn't fooled, so Hannah changes tack and tells her that college has been a difficult adjustment for Marlon, especially after their parents died. Sara says she's sorry about that and now Hannah's the one who doesn't believe her. Hannah asks when Marlon can go and Sara admits she's going to try to keep him as long as possible. Hannah appreciates the honesty but thinks it's a little vindictive and observes that Sara is different. "You're angry, and a little sad, too. Why?" Sara ignores the baiting and advises Hannah to find a good lawyer for Marlon.

Nicky is able to confirm a physical match between the tooth fragment and the mold he made of Marlon's teeth, but Sara says it's probably not enough to hold him. Greg joins them and says he may be able to help. He shows them a MySpace Friend Agenda page for Marlon and Kira's band and it has pictures from the fight between Marlon and Jordan. Sara notes with surprise that Hannah was there and Nicky, as always an astute observer of the human condition, says, "What guy would like having his little sister around to watch as he gets his ass kicked in front of his girlfriend?" He theorizes that Marlon, humiliated after the fight, killed Kira and staged it as a suicide. Sara, thoughtful, keeps clicking through the pictures, but she's not sure what she's looking for. She sees one photo of Hannah picking something off the ground and gets an idea.

Later, Sara examines the tooth fragment and the photos of Kira's fist. Grissom joins her and she asks if he sees the same thing she does. He notes that the fragment in Kira's hand is backwards and Sara speculates that Hannah picked up the tooth after Jordan punched Marlon, then planted it in Kira. Sara thinks her idea is crazy but Grissom says it's possible, then after Sara says Hannah is spinning her in circles again, he suggests Nicky take over the case. She refuses, saying she needs to finish it, and insists she'll be fine. Grissom isn't convinced but he lets it drop.

Interrogation. Sara lays out her theory to Hannah. She says Hannah picked up the tooth, laced Kira's lube with GHB, then snuck into her room after Jordan was gone, planted the tooth and, using leverage, pushed Kira out the window. Hannah says that's an unlikely series of events and she's not confessing to something she didn't do. Sara retorts that she's not expecting a confession, she's merely putting Hannah on notice that she's not fooling Sara anymore. Hannah, having taken some time to find Sara's weak spot and exploit it, says she's learned why Sara is so angry. She starts talking about Sara's kidnapping and Sara gets progressively angrier and more flustered until she finally explodes, slamming her hands on the table and threateningly telling Hannah to stop playing games. Grissom watches through the glass, concerned at how easily and quickly Hannah was able to rattle Sara. Sara storms out and Grissom tries to talk to her, telling her he's worried, but she backs away. She tells him his worry makes things worse and she can't talk about it right now. She leaves, while Grissom stands there looking helpless.

Later, Sara walks down the hall and notices that Ronnie is talking to Kim Jimenez. After saying goodbye to Kim, Ronnie catches up with Sara, who asks without any real interest if Kim's husband attacked her again. Ronnie tells her that Kim came in to say she's going to a shelter, but Sara dismissively says she won't stay. Maybe not, Ronnie says, but it's a start. She says she talked with Kim on her own time and even if it's not how Sara does things, she feels it's part of her job. "At least that's how I want it to be, for me." Sara has the grace to look a little bit ashamed, perhaps remembering that she used to believe her job helped people.

Sara talks with Marlon and shows him the pictures of Hannah picking up the tooth. Marlon doesn't understand why Hannah would want to frame him but Sara says she's his sister. He tells her that Hannah was always weird, but after the trial and the death of their parents, her weirdness got worse. She became clingy and always wanted to be around Marlon, to the detriment of his relationship with Kira. When Kira dumped him because he wouldn't set boundaries with his sister, Marlon admits to Sara that he asked Hannah to help him make GHB to put in Kira's lube. He insists he just wanted to mess Kira up a little, not kill her. Sara tells Marlon that she believes him, but the evidence against him is overwhelming. She asks if he's going to let Hannah get away with putting him in jail for a crime he didn't commit for the rest of his life. "If Hannah wants me in jail, that's where I'm gonna be. There's nothing I can do about it." Sara thinks there is one thing they can do.

Hannah comes to see Marlon at his jail cell and he tells her that he asked her to come because he needs to know what he did to deserve this. She tells him that he killed Kira and he says they both know he didn't do it. She wonders why he's sweating and he says it's because he's going to be in prison the rest of his life, but some of his anxiety could be attributed to the fact that he's wired, with Brass and Sara listening to the conversation. Marlon begs her to tell him why she did, after everything they've been through. Admitting nothing and everything at once, Hannah tells him it's because she loves him. Marlon, defeated, says he loves her too but Hannah disputes this, saying he doesn't now but he will. She promises to visit him every week and leaves. In the listening room, Sara looks even more crushed and defeated than Marlon.

Later, Sara finds Grissom in his office and she smiles, then starts to apologize for her recent behavior, but her phone rings. She sighs in frustration but answers it, and whatever she hears isn't good. She goes back to the jail, where she finds sees Marlon's body hanging in his cell. Her face ashen, she leans against the wall for support as she stares with dismay at the tragedy. She returns to the campus and waits for Hannah, who sees her and immediately starts in with the taunting digs. However, Sara doesn't return the favor of snideness and, instead, breaks it to Hannah as gently as possible that Marlon is dead. Hannah refuses to believe it, thinking it's a trick to get her to confess, so Sara, fed up, shows her a photograph of Marlon's body. She says Marlon was fitting in at college and making friends but Hannah, "still a little freak," couldn't stand that Marlon was growing apart from her and she killed Kira so she could keep Marlon all to herself. Hannah, for the first time acting like the young girl she really is, starts sobbing piteously and clutches at Sara's hand. Sara jerks away, looking disgusted with the entire tragic and unnecessary situation, with Hannah who is still a cold-blooded killer, and most of all, with herself for being unable to comfort the grieving little girl inside Hannah.

Back at the lab, Sara walks slowly down the hall, moving like she's mired in quicksand, and finds Grissom getting a report from Hodges. She says nothing, just plants a fierce, desperate kiss on him, then walks away. Grissom stands there, completely stunned into paralysis, while Hodges mentally makes plans to post about the kiss on his MySpace FriendAgenda later that night. I know things had to have a certain level of contrivance in this episode, but the fact that Grissom did not go after Sara is wildly improbable and unusually passive even for him.

We return to the opening scene of the episode, with Sara in the locker room, cutting stitches off of something. It's the name badge on her vest, and she cries as she cuts it off, everything around her fading to black. She replaces the spot on the vest with a strip of masking tape, where she writes, "Good luck." She puts it in Ronnie's locker, then gazes at the contents of her own locker, with a lame episode still photo of her and Grissom, before shutting the door. For a long moment she stares sorrowfully at her name badge, then looks around at the locker room, before she drops the badge in the trash and walks out.

Grissom asks Judy at the front desk if she's seen Sara and Judy says she left a few minutes ago but left something for him. Grissom takes the letter back to his office and, as we see Sara take a taxi out of Las Vegas, he reads Sara's goodbye:

"Gil,

You know I love you. I feel I've loved you forever. Lately, I haven't been feeling very well. Truth be told, I'm tired. Out in the desert under the car that night, I realized something and haven't been able to shake it. Since my father died, I've spent almost my entire life with ghosts. We've been like close friends and, out there in the desert it occured to me, that it was time for me to bury them. I can't do that here. I'm so sorry. No matter how hard I try to fight it off, I'm left feeling that I have to go. I have no idea where I'm going but I know I have to do this. If I don't, I'm afraid I'll self-destruct and, worse, you'll be there to see it happen. Be safe. Know that I tried very hard to stay. Know that you are my one and only. I'll miss you with every beat of my heart. Our life together was the only home I've ever really had. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love you. I always will. Goodbye."

The final shot is of Grissom, his face filled with anguish and misery, looking like he's just aged ten years in 90 seconds.

I have to say that I thought this episode was a little weak, overall. I loved the visual choices used to show Sara's emotional isolation; the performances from Juliette Goglia, William Petersen and, of course, Jorja Fox were incredible; and it hit all of the right emotional buttons. I also appreciate that there were clues that Sara will return, since she didn't empty her locker and she took a cab out of town rather than packing up all of her stuff and driving away. And I will always be grateful that Sara wasn't killed off or written out in an undignified, humiliating way. But the pacing was wildly uneven, with some things feeling rushed (the Jimenez subplot should've come in an earlier episode) and other things dragging. There are also the contrived plot-driven moments, like the one I mentioned earlier, in which characters made inexplicable, unbelievable choices simply to get Sara to the point where she has to leave. And finally, the transition from enthusiastic, overly emotional, loves-her-job Sara to numb, cynical, hates-her-job Sara was not properly developed. This wasn't a bad episode. I'd even say it was a very good one. It just wasn't a great one and it really should have and could have been.

But it is what it is. I will miss both Jorja and Sara deeply and although I know she needs a break from regular TV work, I'm letting my fellow recappers know right now that the moment Jorja signs on to another show, that baby is mine. As for CSI, I'll be recapping it at least until it goes on its strike-enforced hiatus. After that, who knows?