'CSI': Enter Sir Laurence Fishburne

We've been building toward tonight's CSI all season (and, really, since William Petersen started taking sabbaticals), but that doesn't make it any easier to imagine a show without Gil Grissom. Despite the ensemble cast, Grissom has always been the team's socially awkward, slightly alien anchor.

[See Dick. See Jane. See Dick and Jane get spoiled.]

Interestingly enough, tonight's murder tied into the deaths of Ian Wallace and Justine Stefani, last seen when Lady Heather returned. And yet for such a dense episode, the first half-hour was all setup. The skinny? Someone is copycatting the Dick & Jane Killer, so named because he targeted couples. The men were found with an escalating number of stab wounds; the women were never found. And the killer, Nathan Haskell, was caught after his ninth pair of victims.

You don't have to be a CSI to guess that sort of work requires an accomplice, but it helps. Problem is, the DJK's original accomplice -- a man named Gerald Tolliver, who kept trophies from the kills -- was himself killed.

Enter Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne, of course) a former physician now teaching criminology at WLVU. Langston, we learn, worked at a hospital back East with your typical Angel of Death killer. Langston suspected the man of murder, but for some reason could never prove it. So he wrote a book instead? That part of the story is unclear. Ever since, though, Langston has been trying to penetrate the criminal mind.

Langston has set up a videoconference with Haskell for his course, so Grissom is sent undercover to try and discover the name of DJK's best killin' buddy. Haskell, incidentally, looks like Heroes anti-hero Noah Bennett's evil twin. He is utterly creepy, utterly Hannibal-esque, utterly the best part of the show. And just so you know, actor Bill Irwin did most of his work on... Sesame Street.

While Grissom is in class, the other investigators track down a pair of concert tickets previously owned by Ian and Justine. The tix were resold by one Curtis Keesey, found not long after while being devoured by maggots in his trailer home. Looks like someone -- and by that we mean the Copycat DJK -- didn't want Curtis spilling any beans.

Haskell, meanwhile, pegs Grissom as a cop after the latter uses cop slang ("keepaway" apparently means solitary confinement). He's then distracted by the mother of his first victim, whose body was never found. Haskell calls Langston later, claiming seeing the victim's mother led to a change of heart. It doesn't help that Haskell says this as creepily as possible.

Still, he tells Langston (and Grissom, secretly on conference call) where to find Joel's skeleton, which has some odd fabric in its mouth. And hey, what's that not far away? A male body with ten stab wounds! Looks like Grissom isn't going anywhere for a while. And... "to be continued."

Gil Grissom Watch

We all thought this was the end. Heck, everyone did. Grissom announced his retirement at the top of the hour, and seeing as Greg had recently been promoted to CSI-3, that left a CSI-1 slot open. Grissom fell into a bad case of senioritis, daydreaming at crime scenes and such, while the other lab rats reacted in various ways: most with shock, Hodges with hostility, Catherine with "I knew it before you did," and Li'l Coroner Dave with tears.

Still it looks like Grissom will be around a while yet.

Raymond Langston Watch

Fishburne did a good job the little he was on the screen. It's difficult, though, to see how the stern, thoughtful Dr. Langston will fit in as a CSI-1. I don't see much action-oriented field work, though we all know Fishburne can kick some butt.

Who's your pick for DJK's copycat? The smooth young man in class? Or Ryan McPoyle from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

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