Sara Sidle
Encyclopedia
Sara Sidle is a fictional character
on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
, portrayed by actress Jorja Fox
. Sidle is a forensic scientist and one of the core characters of the show, which revolves around a crime scene investigation
team from Clark County, Nevada
that investigates cases in and around the city of Las Vegas
. In the first seven years of the show, Sidle appears in every episode except in the pilot, "Random Acts of Violence" from season three
, "Jackpot" from season four
, "Formalities", "Hollywood Brass" from season five
, "Spellbound" from season six
, and in season eleven
"Sqweegel", "Cold Blooded", "Fracked", "Man Up", "A Kiss Before Frying", "The List", and "Father of the Bride", "Maid Man" from season twelve
.
Sara Sidle has gained an extensive fan base
throughout the years. A romantic relationship between Sidle and her supervisor, Gil Grissom
, was hinted at during the first years of the show, but it was only in CSIs season six that the relationship was confirmed and then made definitive with Grissom's marriage proposal in season eight.
In September 2007, there were rumors of Fox leaving the show. Fans from all over the world sent money and gifts to CSIs writers and producers to "Keep Jorja Fox in CSI". Although the campaign received some minor publicity and comments to the media from Fox and Carol Mendelsohn
, it proved fruitless when, in October 2007, Fox confirmed her departure from the show.
The character returned in the season nine premiere when she hears the news concerning the shooting of Warrick Brown
. She leaves at the conclusion of the second episode of the season, after having a thinly veiled argument with Grissom while dealing with the distraught husband of a victim whose case she had worked eight years prior. Grissom joins her in Costa Rica
in the tenth episode of season nine. The final scene shows the couple kissing.
Jorja Fox returned to CSI for season 10 as Sara Sidle on a part-time basis; although she is not part of the main cast, she has appeared on various episodes throughout the season. This recurring role continued until the ninth episode of the eleventh season where she was credited as main cast in CBS press releases - despite appearing in the opening credits since the beginning of the season.
, an hour and a half outside San Francisco. Her father was abusive
, battering both his wife and children, until Sidle's schizophrenic mother, Laura, killed him in 1984. When searching for records of the crime in Season 5, Episode 10, she searches for records from Modesto, CA. Afterward, she spent time in the foster care system
, which didn't keep her from graduating high school as valedictorian
at age 16. She attained a scholarship and attended Harvard
, moving on to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley
. While at Berkeley, she started a work-study position at the San Francisco Coroner’s office, where she would also audit lectures to keep up with new developments; it was at one of these that she met Gil Grissom
. Some time later, while she was working in San Francisco, Grissom called her because he was in need of someone outside the Las Vegas team. Sidle then went to Las Vegas and helped resolve some internal affairs problems within the CSIs. Some episodes later she became a permanent member of the Las Vegas crime scene investigators night shift as a CSI Level 3 at the LVPD Criminalistics Bureau, specialising in materials and element analysis. In season eight
, Sidle briefly changed from the night shift to the swing shift. In the season 10 premiere, it is revealed Sara is now married to Grissom and that they live in Las Vegas together. In season 12 it is official Sara is again a main character
In the early years of the show, Sidle is depicted as a loner. Her hobbies are all work-related (listening to her police scanner and reading forensic journal
s); and she claims to prefer working with corpses over live people. In a mid-second season
episode, she realizes how much she is missing out on and decides to "get a life" outside of work. During season three
she dates a paramedic named Hank Pettigrew, but this relationship ends later in the season when she discovered that he had a longtime girlfriend. Later in the third season, she is injured in an explosion in the lab and, realizing she could have been killed, she decides to ask Grissom out, though he turns her down.
During the fourth
and fifth
seasons, Sidle seems to be on a downward spiral as her memories of childhood resurface, with cases becoming more difficult for her emotionally. Also, the fact that Grissom decided to promote Nick Stokes
instead of Sidle, did not help. Season Four concludes with Sidle being stopped by a traffic cop. Although she is driving under the influence
, she is not charged, but Grissom, as her supervisor, is informed of her arrest. He arrives at the station to bring her home, and finally seems to notice her emotional state. Later, in season five
, she loses her temper with a domestic abuse suspect and then argues with supervisors Catherine Willows
and Conrad Ecklie
, which results in her suspension. Following this incident, she admits to Grissom that she has a problem with authority, has chosen emotionally unavailable men (like Grissom), and has a self destructive streak. Sidle then opens up to him and reveals her family story; it is during this season that she apparently starts bonding with Grissom. During the subsequent seasons (sixth
and seventh
), after it is revealed that they are in a relationship, she appears to be happier and on a more even keel.
In CSIs eighth season, when Fox decided to leave the show, both she and the writers decided not to kill the character, so as to leave the door open for a possible comeback. Consequently, Sara Sidle is submerged into depression after she is abducted in the season seven finale (she is rescued in the first episode of the new season), and, even though she accepts Grissom's marriage proposal on the season's fourth episode, she shows signs of burnout
during the subsequent episodes, breaking down on the season's seventh episode, leaving Las Vegas with only a goodbye letter for Grissom in which she tells him she loves him, and a good luck note for Ronnie Lake (played by Jessica Lucas
) . In the letter she states that ever since her father's death she has been living with "ghosts" and that she now needs to go away and deal with them before self-destructing.
In the season eight episode "You Kill Me", Grissom indicates he has talked with Sidle and that she is in San Francisco visiting her mother.
Promos for the season nine premiere announced that actress Jorja Fox would return as Sara, and showed her in three clips. However, Sidle left again after the second episode. She appeared again in the final scene of the tenth episode of season nine when she appears to be working on a research team in Costa Rica, where Grissom joins her after leaving CSI.
During the tenth season, Sara is brought back by Under-Sheriff Ecklie to aid the lab, which has undergone staffing cuts as a result of Warrick's death and the resignation of his replacement, Riley Adams. Adams was revealed to have resigned as a result of Catherine's poor management and lack of teamwork; when Catherine reveals this to Sara, Sara reminds Catherine that Grissom had her (Catherine) as a number two, prompting the promotion of Nick Stokes to Assistant Supervisor.
she named a college boyfriend, Ken Fuller, with whom she had an unsatisfactory relationship, also saying that they had joined the Mile high club
(Unfriendly Skies). In season seven
she mentioned a college boyfriend who cheated on her. It is unclear whether Fuller was also the boyfriend who cheated on her. In the third season
she had a casual relationship
with Hank Pettigrew, who was an emergency medical technician
. He was involved in several of her cases, but they later broke up after she found out Hank had a longtime girlfriend.
During the first seasons, coroner David Phillips
, laboratory technician Greg Sanders
, and fellow CSI Nick Stokes
occasionally flirted with her, but nothing more than friendship resulted from those flirtations.
there were hints that both Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom
were interested in each other romantically; in fact, the show's producers initially introduced Sara Sidle as a future love interest for Grissom. However, during the show's first three seasons Grissom flirted with other female characters, and when she asked him out to dinner he rejected her, saying that he didn't know what to do about what was going on between them.
In season four, Grissom's true feelings were revealed in "Butterflied", an episode that centers entirely around Grissom exploring his attraction to Sidle when confronted with a dead woman who bore a striking resemblance to her. In this episode, Grissom admitted that he was unable to risk his career to be with her. In this season Sara Sidle apparently developed a drinking problem, which Grissom acknowledged in the season finale. In the next season, Sidle was suspended for insubordination and told Grissom about her tormented childhood. He refused to fire her and has her working with him in almost every episode from season six and season seven.
It was not until the sixth season finale that it is revealed that Grissom and Sidle have worked through whatever issues they had and are, in fact, a couple. In season eight it was revealed they have been intimately involved for two years. This revelation caused mixed emotions from fans, some of whom see this relationship as CSI "jumping the shark
," an attempt to include more drama and romance to the show to compete with the medical drama Grey's Anatomy
, which airs in the U.S. at the same time. By resolving the sexual tension between the two characters, critics posited that the show might appeal to some of Grey's younger audience. This has been denied by the writers. In one interview, producer Carol Mendelsohn
said that she has never been able to see Grissom with any other character other than Sidle and that this episode was seen by the writers as the right time to reveal the relationship. Jorja Fox
and William Petersen
have also said that the relationship between their characters is not new.
Throughout season seven
the audience saw Grissom and Sidle as a couple, but the relationship was kept secret from the others in the lab until Sidle's abduction by The Miniature Killer
in the season finale, during which Grissom reveals to the team that Sara is the only person he's ever loved. In season eight
, they become engaged to be married, but this storyline is left inconclusive when Sara leaves Grissom with a note three episodes later.
A season eight scene showed Catherine Willows visiting Grissom's apartment, updating him on a case. While he is in his bedroom, she snoops around and finds a woman's dressing robe in his closet. She then notices the photograph of Gil and Sara together on the fridge. When Grissom emerges from his room, she asks him "How long have you and Sara been together?" He tries to make a quick exit. When she tells him she's always thought he was a lonely bachelor, he just laughs and leaves. This scene was cut from the episode for time constraints.
In the tenth episode of season nine, "One to Go", Grissom is seen walking through a rain forest, holding a GPS System that places him in Costa Rica. He spots a bug on a leaf, but continues on. He comes across a camp, where Sidle is seen taking a picture of a monkey in a tree. Sidle then sees Grissom, who then removes his backpack and walks into Sidle's arms and greets her with a kiss.
In "Family Affair", the first episode of Season 10, Sidle returns to work in the laboratory on a temporary basis, revealing that she and Grissom are now married and have been living in Paris while Grissom conducts a seminar at the Sorbonne
.
In "The Two Mrs. Grissoms", Sara attends a party for a school for the deaf. She then gets a call from Grissom during a Taiko drum performance. It was revealed that Grissom was in Peru consulting for the government. She then meets Grissom's mother, Betty, and two deaf professors, at which one of them ends up dead in a car explosion.
Grissom's mother ends up criticising Sara for not spending much time with Grissom.
At the end of the episode, she is shown talking with Grissom on a webcam, eventually having his mother walk into the office. Grissom then said that he will return to Vegas to have dinner with Sara and his mother.
William Petersen
has said that what Grissom loves about Sidle is her tenacity. "She's a bulldog. And he always saw that in her. And he always knew that subconsciously the only person who'd be able to give him a second look is someone who's not willing to take the first look for granted." On her side, Jorja Fox
has said that "The story of Sara and Grissom is a little like a fable
. And most great fables don't really have 100 percent resolution."
In early August 2007, upon rumors of Jorja Fox
leaving the show, a grassroots
campaign started. Thousands of fans donated to the cause, and they had a plane flying over the Universal Studios
of Los Angeles weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a "Keep Jorja Fox on CBS" banner for a month. The online forum Your Tax Dollars At Work, which has about 15,000 members and has organized the campaign, created another campaign that includes mailing the show's producers a dollar, so as to keep Fox on the show. By October 5, 2007, more than $3,500 had reportedly been mailed to the Universal Studios from forty-nine countries. The campaign had started less than a week before, on September 29, 2007.
Though the effort garnered media coverage, it was announced in late October, 2007 that Jorja Fox's final appearance as a full cast member would be in the episode Goodbye and Good Luck, which aired on November 15, 2007. Both writers and Fox have said that they believe that Sara Sidle "will be back" sometime in the future. Fox and CSI writer Carol Mendelsohn
chose to donate the money sent to the studios to CASA
, a national association that supports and promotes court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children.
CBS initially confirmed that Jorja Fox would be returning to CSI in the tenth season for the season premiere and four subsequent episodes. Recently, however, executive producer Carol Mendelsohn has amended that Fox's tenure on the show has, at the moment, been extended indefinitely. CBS states that the season premiere will deal with where life has taken Sara and what brings her back to Las Vegas.
, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
and CSI: Dark Motives
. The other two video games, CSI: Hard Evidence
and CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder
, are dubbed by Kate Savage. Rachel Robinson
voiced Sara in the ninth CSI game, CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, portrayed by actress Jorja Fox
Jorja Fox
Jorja-An Fox , is an American actress, musician and songwriter. She first came to prominence as a guest star on the television drama ER, portraying the recurring role of Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent...
. Sidle is a forensic scientist and one of the core characters of the show, which revolves around a crime scene investigation
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
team from Clark County, Nevada
Clark County, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,375,765 people, 512,253 households, and 339,693 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 71.6% White , 9.1% Black, 5.7% Asian, 0.8% American Indian and 12.8% of other or mixed race. 22.0% were Hispanic of any race...
that investigates cases in and around the city of Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. In the first seven years of the show, Sidle appears in every episode except in the pilot, "Random Acts of Violence" from season three
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 3)
The third season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 26, 2002 and ended May 15, 2003.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:...
, "Jackpot" from season four
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 4)
The fourth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 25, 2003 and ended May 20, 2004.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:...
, "Formalities", "Hollywood Brass" from season five
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 5)
The fifth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 23, 2004 and ended May 19, 2005.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
, "Spellbound" from season six
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 6)
The sixth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005 and ended May 18, 2006.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
, and in season eleven
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 11)
The eleventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 23, 2010 and ended May 12, 2011.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:- U.S. Nielsen Ratings :-External links:...
"Sqweegel", "Cold Blooded", "Fracked", "Man Up", "A Kiss Before Frying", "The List", and "Father of the Bride", "Maid Man" from season twelve
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 12)
The twelfth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on September 21, 2011 on CBS. The show now airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c, following Criminal Minds.-Notable cast members:...
.
Sara Sidle has gained an extensive fan base
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
throughout the years. A romantic relationship between Sidle and her supervisor, Gil Grissom
Gil Grissom
Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom, is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by William Petersen. Grissom was a forensic entomologist and the night-shift supervisor of the Clark County, Nevada CSI team, investigating crimes in and around the city of Las Vegas...
, was hinted at during the first years of the show, but it was only in CSIs season six that the relationship was confirmed and then made definitive with Grissom's marriage proposal in season eight.
In September 2007, there were rumors of Fox leaving the show. Fans from all over the world sent money and gifts to CSIs writers and producers to "Keep Jorja Fox in CSI". Although the campaign received some minor publicity and comments to the media from Fox and Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn is a TV writer, notable for her work on the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Education:Mendelsohn grew up in Chicago. She attended the Latin School Of Chicago. Also she went to Smith College, but later transferred and in 1973 graduated from Cornell University...
, it proved fruitless when, in October 2007, Fox confirmed her departure from the show.
The character returned in the season nine premiere when she hears the news concerning the shooting of Warrick Brown
Warrick Brown
Warrick Brown is a fictional character in the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Gary Dourdan. Warrick appeared in every episode until his death in season nine, with the exceptions of "After the Show" from season four, "Crow's Feet" and "Committed" from season five, and...
. She leaves at the conclusion of the second episode of the season, after having a thinly veiled argument with Grissom while dealing with the distraught husband of a victim whose case she had worked eight years prior. Grissom joins her in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
in the tenth episode of season nine. The final scene shows the couple kissing.
Jorja Fox returned to CSI for season 10 as Sara Sidle on a part-time basis; although she is not part of the main cast, she has appeared on various episodes throughout the season. This recurring role continued until the ninth episode of the eleventh season where she was credited as main cast in CBS press releases - despite appearing in the opening credits since the beginning of the season.
Fictional character biography
Sidle was born on September 16th, 1971 in Tamales BayTomales Bay
Tomales Bay is a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles long and averages nearly 1.0 miles wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Marin County. It is located...
, an hour and a half outside San Francisco. Her father was abusive
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
, battering both his wife and children, until Sidle's schizophrenic mother, Laura, killed him in 1984. When searching for records of the crime in Season 5, Episode 10, she searches for records from Modesto, CA. Afterward, she spent time in the foster care system
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
, which didn't keep her from graduating high school as valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
at age 16. She attained a scholarship and attended Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, moving on to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. While at Berkeley, she started a work-study position at the San Francisco Coroner’s office, where she would also audit lectures to keep up with new developments; it was at one of these that she met Gil Grissom
Gil Grissom
Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom, is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by William Petersen. Grissom was a forensic entomologist and the night-shift supervisor of the Clark County, Nevada CSI team, investigating crimes in and around the city of Las Vegas...
. Some time later, while she was working in San Francisco, Grissom called her because he was in need of someone outside the Las Vegas team. Sidle then went to Las Vegas and helped resolve some internal affairs problems within the CSIs. Some episodes later she became a permanent member of the Las Vegas crime scene investigators night shift as a CSI Level 3 at the LVPD Criminalistics Bureau, specialising in materials and element analysis. In season eight
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 8)
The eighth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 27, 2007 and ended May 15, 2008. Only 11 episodes had been completed and aired before the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Only six more episodes were made after the strike, for a total of only 17 episodes, which...
, Sidle briefly changed from the night shift to the swing shift. In the season 10 premiere, it is revealed Sara is now married to Grissom and that they live in Las Vegas together. In season 12 it is official Sara is again a main character
Character development
Perhaps because of her traumatic childhood, Sidle has demonstrated compassion and empathy for victims of domestic violence, and fury against their abusers. She also has a soft spot for animals, and became a vegetarian after she saw Grissom conduct an experiment on a dead pig. She has also shown a tendency to become very aggressive when under pressure or annoyed, especially in cases involving abused women - such as her arguments with Catherine and Ecklie, and engaging in a heated argument with a man suspected of murdering his wife.In the early years of the show, Sidle is depicted as a loner. Her hobbies are all work-related (listening to her police scanner and reading forensic journal
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
s); and she claims to prefer working with corpses over live people. In a mid-second season
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 2)
The second season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 27, 2001 and ended May 16, 2002.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
episode, she realizes how much she is missing out on and decides to "get a life" outside of work. During season three
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 3)
The third season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 26, 2002 and ended May 15, 2003.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:...
she dates a paramedic named Hank Pettigrew, but this relationship ends later in the season when she discovered that he had a longtime girlfriend. Later in the third season, she is injured in an explosion in the lab and, realizing she could have been killed, she decides to ask Grissom out, though he turns her down.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 4)
The fourth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 25, 2003 and ended May 20, 2004.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:...
and fifth
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 5)
The fifth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 23, 2004 and ended May 19, 2005.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
seasons, Sidle seems to be on a downward spiral as her memories of childhood resurface, with cases becoming more difficult for her emotionally. Also, the fact that Grissom decided to promote Nick Stokes
Nick Stokes
Nicholas "Nick" Stokes is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by George Eads. Nick has appeared in every episode except for "Blood Lust" from season three, "Jackpot" and "Butterflied" from season four, "Committed" from season five, and "Spellbound"...
instead of Sidle, did not help. Season Four concludes with Sidle being stopped by a traffic cop. Although she is driving under the influence
Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...
, she is not charged, but Grissom, as her supervisor, is informed of her arrest. He arrives at the station to bring her home, and finally seems to notice her emotional state. Later, in season five
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 5)
The fifth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 23, 2004 and ended May 19, 2005.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
, she loses her temper with a domestic abuse suspect and then argues with supervisors Catherine Willows
Catherine Willows
Catherine Willows is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Marg Helgenberger, who has received two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for the role...
and Conrad Ecklie
Conrad Ecklie
Conrad Ecklie is a fictional character on the television series CSI played by Marc Vann. He was employed as Assistant Director of the crime lab of Clark County, Nevada until he was recently promoted to Undersheriff of the Las Vegas Police Department...
, which results in her suspension. Following this incident, she admits to Grissom that she has a problem with authority, has chosen emotionally unavailable men (like Grissom), and has a self destructive streak. Sidle then opens up to him and reveals her family story; it is during this season that she apparently starts bonding with Grissom. During the subsequent seasons (sixth
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 6)
The sixth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005 and ended May 18, 2006.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com....
and seventh
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 7)
The seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 21, 2006 and ended May 17, 2007.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-References:...
), after it is revealed that they are in a relationship, she appears to be happier and on a more even keel.
In CSIs eighth season, when Fox decided to leave the show, both she and the writers decided not to kill the character, so as to leave the door open for a possible comeback. Consequently, Sara Sidle is submerged into depression after she is abducted in the season seven finale (she is rescued in the first episode of the new season), and, even though she accepts Grissom's marriage proposal on the season's fourth episode, she shows signs of burnout
Burnout (psychology)
Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest. Research indicates general practitioners have the highest proportion of burnout cases; according to a recent Dutch study in Psychological Reports, no less than 40% of these experienced high levels of...
during the subsequent episodes, breaking down on the season's seventh episode, leaving Las Vegas with only a goodbye letter for Grissom in which she tells him she loves him, and a good luck note for Ronnie Lake (played by Jessica Lucas
Jessica Lucas
Jessica Lucas is a Canadian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Melrose Place, She's the Man and Cloverfield.-Early life:...
) . In the letter she states that ever since her father's death she has been living with "ghosts" and that she now needs to go away and deal with them before self-destructing.
In the season eight episode "You Kill Me", Grissom indicates he has talked with Sidle and that she is in San Francisco visiting her mother.
Promos for the season nine premiere announced that actress Jorja Fox would return as Sara, and showed her in three clips. However, Sidle left again after the second episode. She appeared again in the final scene of the tenth episode of season nine when she appears to be working on a research team in Costa Rica, where Grissom joins her after leaving CSI.
During the tenth season, Sara is brought back by Under-Sheriff Ecklie to aid the lab, which has undergone staffing cuts as a result of Warrick's death and the resignation of his replacement, Riley Adams. Adams was revealed to have resigned as a result of Catherine's poor management and lack of teamwork; when Catherine reveals this to Sara, Sara reminds Catherine that Grissom had her (Catherine) as a number two, prompting the promotion of Nick Stokes to Assistant Supervisor.
Relationships
Sara Sidle's romantic relationships have been largely unsuccessful. In the first seasonCSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 1)
The first season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000 and ended May 17, 2001. The first season was rereleased Blu-ray, May 12, 2009.It is the only season of the CSI franchise that was broadcast in 4:3 ratio...
she named a college boyfriend, Ken Fuller, with whom she had an unsatisfactory relationship, also saying that they had joined the Mile high club
Mile High Club
The Mile High Club is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have sex while on board an aircraft in flight. There is no known formally constituted club so named...
(Unfriendly Skies). In season seven
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 7)
The seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 21, 2006 and ended May 17, 2007.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-References:...
she mentioned a college boyfriend who cheated on her. It is unclear whether Fuller was also the boyfriend who cheated on her. In the third season
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 3)
The third season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 26, 2002 and ended May 15, 2003.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:...
she had a casual relationship
Casual relationship
A casual relationship, colloquially known as a fling, is a physical and emotional relationship between two people who may have a sexual relationship or a near-sexual relationship without necessarily demanding or expecting the extra commitments of a more formal romantic relationship...
with Hank Pettigrew, who was an emergency medical technician
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
. He was involved in several of her cases, but they later broke up after she found out Hank had a longtime girlfriend.
During the first seasons, coroner David Phillips
David Phillips (CSI)
David Gregory Phillips is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by David Berman, who also serves as head researcher for the series....
, laboratory technician Greg Sanders
Greg Sanders
Gregory Hojem-Sanders, is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Eric Szmanda. Greg appeared in every episode, with exception of "Blood Drops", "Fahrenheit 932", "Crate N' Burial" and "Too Tough To Die" from season one, "Cross Jurisdictions" from...
, and fellow CSI Nick Stokes
Nick Stokes
Nicholas "Nick" Stokes is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by George Eads. Nick has appeared in every episode except for "Blood Lust" from season three, "Jackpot" and "Butterflied" from season four, "Committed" from season five, and "Spellbound"...
occasionally flirted with her, but nothing more than friendship resulted from those flirtations.
Gil Grissom
Since CSIs first seasonCSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 1)
The first season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000 and ended May 17, 2001. The first season was rereleased Blu-ray, May 12, 2009.It is the only season of the CSI franchise that was broadcast in 4:3 ratio...
there were hints that both Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom
Gil Grissom
Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom, is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by William Petersen. Grissom was a forensic entomologist and the night-shift supervisor of the Clark County, Nevada CSI team, investigating crimes in and around the city of Las Vegas...
were interested in each other romantically; in fact, the show's producers initially introduced Sara Sidle as a future love interest for Grissom. However, during the show's first three seasons Grissom flirted with other female characters, and when she asked him out to dinner he rejected her, saying that he didn't know what to do about what was going on between them.
In season four, Grissom's true feelings were revealed in "Butterflied", an episode that centers entirely around Grissom exploring his attraction to Sidle when confronted with a dead woman who bore a striking resemblance to her. In this episode, Grissom admitted that he was unable to risk his career to be with her. In this season Sara Sidle apparently developed a drinking problem, which Grissom acknowledged in the season finale. In the next season, Sidle was suspended for insubordination and told Grissom about her tormented childhood. He refused to fire her and has her working with him in almost every episode from season six and season seven.
Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
," an attempt to include more drama and romance to the show to compete with the medical drama Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
, which airs in the U.S. at the same time. By resolving the sexual tension between the two characters, critics posited that the show might appeal to some of Grey's younger audience. This has been denied by the writers. In one interview, producer Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn is a TV writer, notable for her work on the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Education:Mendelsohn grew up in Chicago. She attended the Latin School Of Chicago. Also she went to Smith College, but later transferred and in 1973 graduated from Cornell University...
said that she has never been able to see Grissom with any other character other than Sidle and that this episode was seen by the writers as the right time to reveal the relationship. Jorja Fox
Jorja Fox
Jorja-An Fox , is an American actress, musician and songwriter. She first came to prominence as a guest star on the television drama ER, portraying the recurring role of Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent...
and William Petersen
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He portrayed President John F...
have also said that the relationship between their characters is not new.
Throughout season seven
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 7)
The seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 21, 2006 and ended May 17, 2007.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-References:...
the audience saw Grissom and Sidle as a couple, but the relationship was kept secret from the others in the lab until Sidle's abduction by The Miniature Killer
The Miniature Killer
Natalie Davis is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Jessica Collins....
in the season finale, during which Grissom reveals to the team that Sara is the only person he's ever loved. In season eight
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 8)
The eighth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 27, 2007 and ended May 15, 2008. Only 11 episodes had been completed and aired before the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Only six more episodes were made after the strike, for a total of only 17 episodes, which...
, they become engaged to be married, but this storyline is left inconclusive when Sara leaves Grissom with a note three episodes later.
A season eight scene showed Catherine Willows visiting Grissom's apartment, updating him on a case. While he is in his bedroom, she snoops around and finds a woman's dressing robe in his closet. She then notices the photograph of Gil and Sara together on the fridge. When Grissom emerges from his room, she asks him "How long have you and Sara been together?" He tries to make a quick exit. When she tells him she's always thought he was a lonely bachelor, he just laughs and leaves. This scene was cut from the episode for time constraints.
In the tenth episode of season nine, "One to Go", Grissom is seen walking through a rain forest, holding a GPS System that places him in Costa Rica. He spots a bug on a leaf, but continues on. He comes across a camp, where Sidle is seen taking a picture of a monkey in a tree. Sidle then sees Grissom, who then removes his backpack and walks into Sidle's arms and greets her with a kiss.
In "Family Affair", the first episode of Season 10, Sidle returns to work in the laboratory on a temporary basis, revealing that she and Grissom are now married and have been living in Paris while Grissom conducts a seminar at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
.
In "The Two Mrs. Grissoms", Sara attends a party for a school for the deaf. She then gets a call from Grissom during a Taiko drum performance. It was revealed that Grissom was in Peru consulting for the government. She then meets Grissom's mother, Betty, and two deaf professors, at which one of them ends up dead in a car explosion.
Grissom's mother ends up criticising Sara for not spending much time with Grissom.
At the end of the episode, she is shown talking with Grissom on a webcam, eventually having his mother walk into the office. Grissom then said that he will return to Vegas to have dinner with Sara and his mother.
William Petersen
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He portrayed President John F...
has said that what Grissom loves about Sidle is her tenacity. "She's a bulldog. And he always saw that in her. And he always knew that subconsciously the only person who'd be able to give him a second look is someone who's not willing to take the first look for granted." On her side, Jorja Fox
Jorja Fox
Jorja-An Fox , is an American actress, musician and songwriter. She first came to prominence as a guest star on the television drama ER, portraying the recurring role of Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent...
has said that "The story of Sara and Grissom is a little like a fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
. And most great fables don't really have 100 percent resolution."
Public reaction
Grissom and Sidle's relationship has been the subject of intense debate in the press and on-line forums, between fans of the romantic relationship and those who believe the romance detracts from what was once a show devoted mainly to mysteries and a forensics laboratory.In early August 2007, upon rumors of Jorja Fox
Jorja Fox
Jorja-An Fox , is an American actress, musician and songwriter. She first came to prominence as a guest star on the television drama ER, portraying the recurring role of Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent...
leaving the show, a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
campaign started. Thousands of fans donated to the cause, and they had a plane flying over the Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
of Los Angeles weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a "Keep Jorja Fox on CBS" banner for a month. The online forum Your Tax Dollars At Work, which has about 15,000 members and has organized the campaign, created another campaign that includes mailing the show's producers a dollar, so as to keep Fox on the show. By October 5, 2007, more than $3,500 had reportedly been mailed to the Universal Studios from forty-nine countries. The campaign had started less than a week before, on September 29, 2007.
Though the effort garnered media coverage, it was announced in late October, 2007 that Jorja Fox's final appearance as a full cast member would be in the episode Goodbye and Good Luck, which aired on November 15, 2007. Both writers and Fox have said that they believe that Sara Sidle "will be back" sometime in the future. Fox and CSI writer Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn
Carol Mendelsohn is a TV writer, notable for her work on the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Education:Mendelsohn grew up in Chicago. She attended the Latin School Of Chicago. Also she went to Smith College, but later transferred and in 1973 graduated from Cornell University...
chose to donate the money sent to the studios to CASA
Court Appointed Special Advocate
Court Appointed Special Advocates is a national association in the United States that supports and promotes court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children in order to provide children with a safe and healthy environment in permanent homes. The program is similar to, but is not a...
, a national association that supports and promotes court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children.
CBS initially confirmed that Jorja Fox would be returning to CSI in the tenth season for the season premiere and four subsequent episodes. Recently, however, executive producer Carol Mendelsohn has amended that Fox's tenure on the show has, at the moment, been extended indefinitely. CBS states that the season premiere will deal with where life has taken Sara and what brings her back to Las Vegas.
Video games
Jorja Fox voiced Sara Sidle in the first two CSI video gamesCSI (video games)
The CSI franchise has been the basis of a number of video games. A total of eight games based upon the Las Vegas team have been created. Two games based around the spin-off series CSI: Miami and one for the CSI: NY series have also been created. 369 Interactive developed the CSI games until 2004,...
, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (computer game)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a computer game based on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television series. The game was developed by 369 Interactive, published by Ubisoft, and was released for the PC in 2003...
and CSI: Dark Motives
CSI: Dark Motives
CSI: Dark Motives is a computer game based on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television series. The game was developed by 369 Interactive, published by Ubisoft, and was released for the PC in 2004...
. The other two video games, CSI: Hard Evidence
CSI: Hard Evidence
CSI: Hard Evidence is a computer game based on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television series. This is the fifth CSI game released, including CSI: Miami....
and CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder
CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder
CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder is a computer game based on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television series. Unlike the previous CSI games, this game was developed by Telltale Games, rather than 369 Interactive...
, are dubbed by Kate Savage. Rachel Robinson
Rachel Robinson
Rachel Robinson is a former nurse and the widow of baseball player Jackie Robinson. She was born in Los Angeles, and attended the University of California, Los Angeles. There, she met Jackie in 1941, and they married in 1946. A baby, Jackie Robinson, Jr., was born to her in November 1946...
voiced Sara in the ninth CSI game, CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
CSI, Fatal Conspiracy is a video game based on the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television series. It's the ninth CSI game released, including CSI: Miami and CSI: NY...
.
Episodic appearances
These are the episodes Jorja Fox appeared in as her character Sara Sidle during her role as a recurring cast member:- Season 9CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 9)The ninth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on October 9, 2008 and ended May 14, 2009.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-References:...
: "For Warrick", "The Happy Place", "Leave out All the Rest", and "One to Go" - Season 10CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 10)The tenth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 24, 2009 and ended May 20, 2010. Jorja Fox returned for 15 episodes as a special guest star.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-References:...
: "Family Affair", "Ghost Town", "Coup de Grace", "Bloodsport", "Lover's Lanes", "Better Off Dead", "Long Ball", "Internal Combustion", "Unshockable", "Neverland", "Irradiator", "World's End", "Take My Life, Please!", "Doctor Who", and "Meat Jekyll".
Further reading
- Marrinan, Corinne and Parker, Steve, Ultimate CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006), DK Publishing, Inc.