The Cockroaches Will Just Have to Feed Themselves – Grissom is Gone

William Peterson is leaving CSI. This isn’t completely surprising news, Peterson has been very public about never intending to be on a show for this long. The fangirl in me is not pleased. I love Grissom. I kinda have a thing for him, actually. He just so… bowleggedly freakin’ adorable. I even liked the beard. (Sarah/Grissom romance reference!)

From EW: The events of last season's finale - specifically the death of Warrick -will push Grissom to the breaking point. "The easiest way to describe Grissom is 'in crisis,'" Petersen told [EW]. "As a man. As a scientist. As a teacher. As a middle-aged person who has been very successful at what he's done... [he] wonders, 'What's the point?'

Details about the departure, some of which are quite exciting and spoilerish, after the jump.



*Grissom will be around for 10 episodes, culminating in an arc that definitely has to do with Sarah (Jorja Fox, who’s in multiple episodes starting with the premier). He doesn’t die, in fact, he’ll be doing guest spots on the show. He’s still an Executive Producer. *Small plea to the Whatever that they do not get married and run away happily. I will vomit.

*Warrick (Gary Dourdan) will be in the first episode, but I’d guess dead body only. Maybe Nick thinking he sees him walking down a hallway, or Catherine needing masturbatory material.

*The new CSI is named Riley Adams, played by Lauren Lee Smith. Katie Sackoff (Starbuck from Battlestar) was up for this role, so Lauren better be freakin’ great so I don’t stay bitter.

*There will be a Grissom-type replacement, and it will be an established older leading man type. Names mentioned, but not probable, included Laurence Fishburne and John Malkovich. While I know that Liev Schrieber’s character can’t come back, I’m glad they’re not fishing in crappy waters. I vote Denzel. I mean, he probably wouldn’t do TV for any length of time… but doesn’t that make you shiver a bit? Denzel in a bulletproof vest making pithy comments over decapitated victims? OMGHEAVEN.

*The Lab Rats will be around more. Yay!

*The fucking terrible Miniature Killer will be back. Yuck. On the upside, those episodes are filmed so damn darkly, you can’t really see what’s happening anyway.

All in all, I’m very sad to see Grissom go. Peterson really made that character work from day one – and the silly little things like the awful hat (you know which one I’m talking about) and the way he would cock his head (just a tiny movement that would shout “I don’t understand your wacky emotion based actions, human person”) were brilliant.