TV-Reviewed

CBS’s promo for “A La Cart” made me thing this episode would primarily focus on the outing of Sara and Grissom’s relationship. In fact, that story received very little attention in the show. Sara’s return to work was accompanied by a very somber piece of background music. As she walked through the hallways, other CSIs stopped what they were doing to admire Sara. The reason she was back to work was to meet with Conrad Ecklie, who is investigating her relationship with Gil Grissom. It’s against department policy for someone to date a supervisor, such as in this case.

The two cases which were investigated were completely different. Catherine and Warrick worked the murder of a man who was dining at a trendy new restaurant. The idea behind the joint is to have the patrons eat in total darkness. The lights are turned off and the shades are pulled closed. It’s pitch black. The owner’s concept for the restaurant came from when she was in love with a blind man, who would feed her in darkness. Unable to see, the body’s other senses were heightened, making eating quite pleasurable. I wasn’t at all surprised by who was responsible for the murder; the fact that the waiter had just washed his hands despite being told not to made it unbelievably obvious he had something to do with it.

Elsewhere, Grissom, Greg, and Nick investigated the unusual decapitation of a young man found dead along a highway. There wasn’t really anything unusual about the investigation. The kid wasn’t murdered, but rather killed while racing high-powered go-karts with a competitor on the highway. It seems the writers (Sarah Goldfinger and Richard Catalani) are fans of the Discovery Channel series, MythBusters, as this myth was tested on the show just recently. Because I am familiar with that show, I wasn’t at all puzzled by the investigation - I telegraphed every move.

Once the cases were solved, the team retired to the go-kart race track for a little fun. Sara was the only one who didn’t participate. Instead, she watched from the side, as the entire crew had a blast, even Doc. Robbins. With Sara moving to the swing shift, she will be able to have a relationship with Gil, but we’ll be seeing less of her. As Warrick’s marriage to Tina is officially over, it looks like Sara and Grissom’s is just coming into the open, but it’s unfortunate it took this long. Afterall, Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) won’t be with the show for much longer.

CSI - A La Cart
Original Air Date: October 04, 2007

Rating: 7.1