#csi 13x11

[lilcathsmith]

Crime Show Meme - CSI insp [dynamics - bonus]

"I want my guys back." - The Graveyard Shift (2000 - 2015)

[csidle]

I am deeply unprepared for the pain of the Grivorce. But we continue (even if I think this is BULLSHIT and a betrayal of the first few seasons)

[ilkkawhat]

MK’s Favorite Post-Grave Danger Things for @letswaitforme​​ Part Four: Over the Shoulder (my commentary below)    

So fun fact that I’m sure I’ve spoken about before, and I know I’ve used that script bit in a set before, but I own a rough draft of the Grave Danger script that has some minor changes from the final cut (such as that voice over, which was Nick talking on his tape that Grissom lip reads) and something I’ve loved about it is that Nick thinks he was stupid to get kidnapped like that--first of all, the poor baby, thinking it was his fault cause he let his guard down, but second of all, I love that it seems to haunt him even past season six. Any inkling of trouble, he looks over his shoulder, out of that newfound instinct cause he’ll never be taken off guard again.

[jencsi]

13x11 “Dead Air”

[addictedtostorytelling]

I liked your take on the g/s divorce -- I wish we had gotten more information about it in later seasons or in the finale. Do you have any head cannons about the conversations that took place surrounding the divorce, their relationship in the interim, etc? Even though this is not my favorite plot point (and seemed more of a necessity) it seems like this could have been mined for more interesting material.

hey, anon!

i’m right there with you on your feelings about this particular plot point.

i do have a post here in which i conjecture about how the phone conversation from episode 13x11 “dead air”might actually go down. the post also contains specific headcanons about how grissom and sara’s post-divorce relationship operates between s13 and the series finale—seeing as the show gives us so little to go on in that regard.

otherwise, more discussion after the “keep reading,” if you’re interested.

__________

so in terms of the conversation, here’s what i imagine:

both grissom and sara come into the thing acting based on faulty assumptions.

grissom erroneously believes that he is holding sara back from living her life and is secretly making her miserable. for a while now, on the rare occasions when they’ve talked, he’s perceived sadness and frustration in her voice, which he takes as evidence that he is making her unhappy. he doubts his own lovability—both if he can be loved and if he should be loved—and thinks that regardless of how sara may feel about him, she can (and should) do so much better than him. he therefore decides to “set her free,” even though letting her go is the last thing in the world that he actually wants. 

meanwhile, sara fears that over the last few years grissom has learned to prefer living alone to living with her. she takes his radio silence as proof that he doesn’t need her as much as she needs him. she erroneously believes that he has asked for a divorce because he (personally) desires one. she takes his behavior to mean that he has fallen out of love with her. she therefore agrees to the split, even though it’s the last thing in the world she actually wants.

so.

on that fateful night, grissom calls sara several times (and she ignores his call several times, per the events of episode 13x11 “dead air”). eventually, she answers his call. they make some awkward, stunted small talk—like “how are you?” “uh, fine,” “how’s the weather?” levels of stilted—before abruptly, with no preamble, grissom just drops the bomb.

“i think we should get a divorce.”

—and even though sara had been expecting to hear those words (or at least some version of that sentiment) for a while now, she’s still taken momentarily aback.

“what?”

grissom, not trusting himself to explain his reasoning, resorts to shorthand.

“we both know that this isn’t working.” 

he expects her to fill in the blanks in a certain way—to understand that he is offering her an out, which is what he presumes she both wants and needs from him, given that they’ve gone months with next to no communication. 

of course, she fills the blanks differently than he expects her to, inferring that if he’s asking for a divorce, then he must be the one who wants it; that he must have fallen out of love with her, even though she still loves him with every beat of her heart.

her first instinct is always to shield her wounds, so she doesn’t fight him (even though she wants to), and she doesn’t allow herself to cry or display any vulnerabilities or weakness (even though her heart is breaking). she just agrees to the proposition because she thinks that’s what grissom’s interested in hearing, and she isn’t about to make a fool out of herself, begging him to stay when clearly he wants to go.

“no, no, it’s not. i mean, of course, it isn’t.”

then there’s probably a pause as grissom struggles internally, wondering if he should say something else—should tell her that, no matter what, he’ll always care about her; that he just wants her to be happy, always—but ultimately realizing that anything he said at this point would probably do more harm than good. so all he manages is a quick sign-off. a retreat, really.

“okay, then. i’ll, uh, get the paperwork started.”

“um, okay. thanks.”

(she can’t believe she just thanked him for breaking her heart, but.)

and then they both hang up.

sara immediately bursts into tears once the call ends. grissom wilts onto the chair beside him, phone still clutched in his hand, wondering if this is what having a heart attack feels like.

only later do they both realize that they’re going to have to have some more in-depth conversations in order to work out the actual logistics of the dissolution of their marriage, in terms of who gets what and what goes where.

those conversations are intermittent and tense. they always go generally the same way: grissom calls, sara answers, they forego any kind of pleasantries or personal discussion, focusing instead on the task at hand. sara never allows herself to cry on the phone; she fights her tears for as long as grissom stays on the line, and then once he’s gone, she finally breaks down. grissom never offers any additional explanation as to why he’s doing what he’s doing; he just presumes that sara knows and that the less he says, the better. he finds speaking to her so difficult that oftentimes he resorts to monosyllables, barely making it through. 

i don’t suppose that they ever get to the point of screaming at each other over the phone, but that’s not to say that the divorce process isn’t difficult or angsty in other ways.

things being as they are, both parties have plenty of motivation to hide their emotions from each other and to passively go along with what they assume that the other person wants. neither one of them is seeking to hurt the other, but they are both trying to avoid making themselves appear needy and foolish, and in so doing they undoubtedly do cause each other some pain. 

in this situation, the underlying emotion for both grissom and sara is sorrow; they’re equally heartbroken at the prospect of losing each other, doubting themselves and their own lovability, fearful that they won’t be able to survive alone. but sara tends to mask heartbreak with anger, and grissom with fatalism, and those two responses don’t mix well. 

there are probably times when sara tries to bait grissom into getting angry—into saying something untoward or putting his foot in his mouth—so that she can seize the opportunity to scream at him (because screaming feels better, or at least less helpless, than sobbing; because she just can’t sob anymore). 

she probably says some rude and hurtful things, getting in little barbs (much in the same way that we’ll later see her do during the series finale), constantly posturing.

i doubt that grissom ever takes the bait—though maybe in a way it’s worse that he doesn’t, because his stoicism probably comes across to her as apathy. 

there have got to be some awful moments when grissom forces himself to ignore sara’s jabs or even the tears he hears her fighting against—to remain aloof because he feels he needs to be “the strong one,” because he believes that he has to make the hard choice that sara can’t make for herself. 

they probably both walk away from those conversations feeling like shit, grissom trying desperately to convince himself that he’s doing the right thing (even though it feels wrong), sara wondering if grissom ever really loved her at all, given his callousness now.   

and grissom is probably sometimes rude, too, but in a different way than sara is—not in the sense of saying asshole things, but in being maddeningly laconic and businesslike. 

there’s nothing in his conduct that would allow for sara to yell at him, but there is plenty that makes her feel as if he is suddenly a stranger to her, because how can he be so cool and distant? how can he act like what’s happening between them isn’t hurting him at all?

of course, what she doesn’t know is that he is hurting—that for as much as he puts on a stiff upper lip, her verbal stabs do get to him; it does twist his stomach into knots knowing that he’s making her cry the second they hang up (even if he believes that, in the long, she’ll be happier with him out of her life).

the closer they get to sorting everything out—and, honestly, there probably isn’t that much to be sorted, legally speaking, as they’ve already been living mostly separate lives for years by this point—the more sara’s anger shifts into sadness and grissom’s aloofness into loneliness; the more they both realize that soon they’re going to have what may be their final conversation, and all they can do is grieve.

as discussed in the other post linked above, for myriad reasons, i don’t think that grissom and sara ever fully extricate themselves from each other’s lives; even after the divorce is finalized, they likely maintain very sporadic contact, a postcard here, an email there, the occasional three-minute phone call, almost always with grissom initiating (suddenly, sometimes after months without any communication in-between), almost always with sara left reeling in the aftermath.

still.

they probably don’t share a lot of life details between s13 and the series finale; for instance, i doubt grissom ever hears about sara’s troubles with ronald basderic or learns about the numerous times when her life has been in danger (such as during the events of episodes 14x07 “under a cloud” or 15x05 “girls gone wilder”). certainly, neither one of them ever works up the courage to ask if the other one is dating again. they probably, on the few occasions when they do communicate, keep the interactions fairly anodyne, focused mostly on generalities about sara’s work at the lab and grissom’s travel, never anything that could get them into the realm of feelings.

grissom knows enough about sara to know she’s still in vegas at the lab. sara knows enough about grissom to know that he’s sailing the world on a sea shepherd, though not necessarily where he is or what he’s doing at any given time. they both hope that the other party is happy, though they also both dread to think that the other party may have replaced them with “someone new” (or even “someone old,” as i’m sure sara sometimes imagines, in her fear, that grissom has finally taken up with heather, just like she always worried he would). 

per gsr usual, they misinterpret the few signals they get from each other during this period, each one thinking that the other has moved on, though in actuality neither one ever truly “gets over” the other (or seeks out long-term romantic relationships with other partners).

for example, i imagine that the very few times when they talk by phone, the conversations are short and harried, less than five minutes, in and out. 

grissom probably assumes that sara wants to get off the line with him because she’s got places to go and people to see—a whole life that doesn’t include him. sara probably assumes that grissom can hardly stand to talk to her; that he only called out of a sense of obligation, and he can’t wait to hang up the second he gets the chance. 

in actuality, sara is quick to end the calls because she fears imposing (and also because she doesn’t want to lose her composure and start crying like an idiot). grissom is likewise skittish because he knows that the longer he talks to her, the likelier he is to say something desperate and romantic (“i miss you,” “i love you,” “i made a mistake,” “i want you back”). they both go away from these conversations under the mistaken impression that the other person doesn’t want to talk to them.

—and that’s why we see them acting so tentative around each other in the series finale: because they honestly have no idea where they stand with each other after two and a half years of divorce.

they haven’t ever talked about their feelings.

they’ve both just assumed that the other person wants nothing to do with them.

and yet they’re both still desperately in love with each other and pining for reconciliation.

so that’s how i see things going between them, post-divorce: lots of hedging, lots of concealment, and lots of secret, unvoiced yearning. sara tries to play things tough to avoid revealing how hurt she feels. grissom tries to keep his distance to prevent himself from reneging on what he asked for. because they are them, they have a difficult time completely staying away from each other, even though doing so might make things easier for both of them. they still maintain some contact, however irregular and stilted. they never fall out of love with each other, though they both resign themselves to living the rest of their lives bereft of the other’s companionship.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time. 

[laurenpandora]

Breakdown

So this weeks episode of Supernatural is creepy from the very beginning. Jars of organs and parts lined up on a table, a creepy af dude in some kinda mask.  Cheesy old music playing. Missing persons notes on the wall. A severed arm. It begins looking more like the film Hostel than a regular SPN episode.

Wendy Hanscum finds herself getting fuel at a creepy truck stop where everyone looks up as she walks in. I’ll be honest, this would be my cue to get the hell out of here. The creepy perv cashier is just the icing on this uncomfortable cake, telling her to smile more.. I really hate when people think they can just tell someone to smile. Honestly the whole situation would have me calling someone but maybe being creeped out repeatedly at night doesn’t panic other people as much? Of course, her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and she’s alone and then unsurprisingly she gets attacked. This is exactly why you call the AA and wait inside the car.

Scenes of Depressed Sam. We can tell he’s not doing well because he doesn’t get out of bed at 6am. Obviously as we’ve known Sam for so long, we know that him not being out of bed until 10am is a big deal. It’s kinda mirroring Dean’s breakdown before Castiel came back. I think we’re assuming it’s because they lost Jack, and their hope of finding their Mother, and got Kaia killed. Dean seems to be coping with this a lot better though.

"I know it's not your normal thing but-" "Text us the address we're on our way" Of course they’re going to help Donna find her niece, even if it’s not a Case-case. Because it’s Donna. 

Dean meeting the real FBI. Awkward af. Of course Dean’s ability to make up a cover story on the fly, just comes natural to him after so many years. 

Dean says Donna is family and obviously that’s his pretext for being there, but we know it's also kinda true. Dean cares very deeply about those he considers family, and we know that “Family don’t end in blood” etc. The Sioux falls Family Reunion story by Donna, obviously her cover for the events of the Wayward Sisters episode, is clever and not entirely inaccurate. I find it interesting that both Dean and Donna have used ‘family’ here as a cover story for their hunting.

FBI guy calls the killer the Butterfly. Weirdest nickname ever not gonna lie. Did make me think of The Simpsons though..

"No one uses CB radios any more" So today I learned that Truckers still use CB radios. Someone in a group I am in on Facebook confirmed that this is true.

Dean calling out Sam for moping is all kinds of hypocritical. Telling Sam not to let it eat him up, yet a few episodes ago he was moping about Castiel being dead. Really does show how much better Dean is doing since they ‘got Cas back’, although obviously they are unaware that Asmodeus has him in Hell Jail.

The Creepy Serial Killer Lair is starting to remind me of the Saw films now, or at least something similar? I honestly can't imagine many things scarier than waiting to be killed by a psychopath.

So this is a point in the episode where we cut to an advert break and there was a film advertised called ‘Winchester’. I wonder how much they paid to have that advertised during Supernatural.

Back into the episode and we’re introduced to a creepy guy who of course is a Pastor. He was at the Truck stop, he had something of Wendys in his van. At this point it seems pretty straightforward, right? That it must have been him? Well actually this was the point in the episode where one of my facebook group guessed who the killer really was, but I’ll be honest, I was ready to convict the guy. The writers work hard to make you dislike him, he’s creepy, racist and rude.

Doug awkwardly asks Dean about Donna, Dean obviously not wanting to be like ‘yeah we all hunt monsters by the way’ just says to trust her. Truckstop Jesus answers their questions and now we have a new suspect: Marlon the Creepy Cashier.

After Donna logics the weird Pastor into talking, he admits to being a creepy bastard and a 'sinner', but then he seems genuinely panicked about being accused of murdering Wendy. They believe he didn’t take Wendy, so we do too.

"It's how we do things in the FBI" Dean beats Marlon the Cashier into spilling the beans, because that’s how you get things done when you are Dean Winchester. Marlon shows them the dark web site and the whole thing gets incredibly disturbing, I honestly felt quite uncomfortable here. ‘Takeout for monsters.’ yep, it has suddenly become 'their kinda thing'. This episode was beginning to feel a lot like a crime tv show than a typical episode, some kind of CSI: SPN thing. Someone told me that there was a similar episode of Criminal Minds. That’s not a show I watch so I can’t confirm this.

Sam can't hack the site so they need the legitimate FBI. This instantly made me think “I bet Charlie could have hacked it” and I made myself sad. :(

Once they have located the building where Wendy is trapped, they all split up, of course, because that never gets anyone killed.

Seriously though imagine dying to that cheesy music. It really just makes the whole thing worse. Poor Wendy waits to be cut up by the masked killer and this is the point where i would have just passed out with fear.

Marlon is a vampire. Probably should’ve known he was a monster by how much he enjoyed watching the victims getting chopped up, but then, there are some sick humans out there.. "I don’t think I’m ok” - Doug gets turned into a vampire, but of course we don’t panic because we know there is a cure, The recap at the beginning reminded us all in case we had forgotten. 

The FBI guy, Terrance Clegg, turns out to be the Butterfly guy  - seriously, he gave himself that tacky nickname. Honestly, never trust a Clegg. (UK government joke). His weird pig mask reminds me of something that I can’t quite place.

“Lets begin the auction.. for Sam Winchesters heart!” - At this point I half expected to see Becky Rosen at a laptop bidding XD

Sam has a gun pointed at his head before Dean shoots the guy, so for a split second we think that Sam has been killed. Sam probably thinks so too, and probably pissed himself. Nice timing Dean.

"I was a vampire?" "For a couple hours." Doug now cured of his vampirism, and has lost his Supernatural V Card. can you get a hallmark card for that? ‘Congratulations, you know about monsters!’. Maybe ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ might be more appropriate. “You kill monsters. You're a damn hero.” Hell yes she is. Poor Donna loses another Doug :(  He’s not strong like Donna. Sam just says let him go and does Dean’s usual ‘everyone ends up hurt or dead’ speech, whilst Dean comforts Donna, which seems wrong. What happened to Sensitive Sam?

Back in the car where they always have their talks, Dean calls out Sam for being tough on Donna. Sam kinda needs a slap, because seriously. He reckons he’s “not in a dark place”, yeah right Sam, you’re just so incredibly un-Sam-like for no reason. Sure.

And then comes the first mention of Cas all episode. Seriously why haven’t they noticed Castiel is missing?

This was a good episode, slightly disturbing but it was entertaining. I love episodes with Donna anyway and this one felt very important.

Previews of next week look pretty hilarious.

[lilcathsmith]

Crime Show Meme - CSI insp [1/5 dynamics]

"So, what do you want to do next weekend?" Sara Sidle, Julie Finlay and Morgan Brody (portrayed by Jorja Fox, Elisabeth Shue and Elisabeth Harnois, 2012 - 2015)

[jencsi]

13x11 “Dead Air”

[coping-via-clint-eastwood]

Oh my...

5.24 Grave Danger | 13.11 Dead Air