Of course, many other, earth-shattering things occur over the season as well. For starters, during one early episode, Catherine awakes naked in a seedy hotel room, thinking she has been raped. As it turns out, someone is targeting her family. Her father, Sam, is subsequently killed. Fannysmackin' is an exceptionally disturbing episode where a group of college kids get together late at night and go on a rampage, beating tourists up for entertainment. After a victim dies, Greg finds himself happening upon one of the sessions and although he saves the victim's life, he, himself, takes quite a beating and also runs over one of the perps, killing him. This is another continuing story arc as Greg gets sued by the "victim's" mother and younger brother, who also pop back up in subsequent episodes. We also see Warrick's marriage start to unravel throughout the season, as well.
Probably the most unnerving thing to happen is Grissom's 4-week sabbatical. Not only did several of the CSI's think he was leaving for good (especially Nick), but so did many viewers. Michael Keppler (Liev Schreiber) steps into his spot during this time and brings some very interesting twists to the show. He has a very unorthodox method for catching villains and it involves using trickery and deception on the CSI team. He involves Catherine in this plot and while it is effective, it breeds mistrust among everyone on the team. Over several episodes, we see that Keppler is not what he seems, and although he turns out to be good in the end, we are not sure for a time.
There are a number of special features in this boxed set, including a very interesting featurette on the use of the Cirque de Soleil show "Ka" as a backdrop for the two-part opening episodes, "Built to Kill, Parts 1 and 2." There are also featurettes on the miniature murders and also on "Living Legend," an episode starring someone near and dear to CSI's hearts, Roger Daltrey of The Who. "Las Vegas: The Real Crime Solvers" takes us behind the scenes of the actual Las Vegas CSIs and we get to see who some of the characters were based off of. Its absolutely hilarious to see the real coroner who is clearly the basis for the wacky Dr. Al Robbins.
Suffice it to say that if you're a CSI collector, you'll definitely want this one in your collection. If you missed any of Season Seven's episodes, then run out, pick it up and catch up on the action. Year after year, CSI always seems to bring something fresh to the table and this season is definitely no exception. CSI: The Seventh Season is a must-have for fans.
