So, all you're saying here is that Gil's a hypocrite for getting mad at Catherine doing this, yet he's the one who was sneaking around and dating/sleeping with a co-worker behind everyone's back.
Well, sleeping with a coworker is in absolutely no way comparable to being involved with a suspect. Basically, two coworkers can sleep together ("behind eveyone's back" because it's nobody's business) everyday and work fine (like it effectively happened with Grissom and Sara). Being involved with a suspect on a case you're investigating automatically taints the investigation.
In Nestling Doll, Sara was suspended for an argument she had with Catherine. Catherine could have gone to Eckley and asked him NOT to suspend Sara since it was a personal argument between her and Sara. She refused even after Greg had pleased with her saying “Sara has always been there for us”. Later, she asked Grissom, “What are you doing about it?” (She knew Eckley asked Grissom to fire Sara) Grissom had looked at her in dismay.
If you remember, Sara's behavior did cost them any cooperation with the husband in that interview. She became offensive towards the guy and blew any chance the guy would tell them anything. And, if you re-watch the scene with Cath & Sara in the hallway, you'll see that Catherine's voice was fairly quiet when she was asking the question. It was Sara who raised her voice for everyone to hear.
Doesn't matter how quiet Catherine's voice was, she - as the boss back then - should have taken the discussion to her office. Sara's behavior was wrong and she deserved to be suspended, but Ecklie basically wanted to
fire her because she said rude stuff to him, which is again, bad and deserving of suspension, but never ever at the levels of something that deserves firing - like blowing up the lab, for example - and Catherine not only didn't try to make him realize he was overreacting, but she was also supporting Ecklie and got mad at Grissom because he prevented the firing to happen, as if he hadn't interceded for Catherine before. If there's something awful about a person, is when that person demands mercy and then denies it to others in similar circumstances. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
The problem with Sara and basically the rest of the main cast, is that she's measured with real life standards, while the others are measured with TV standards. Everybody has made mistakes (if this was the real world, none of them would have a job anymore, starting with Grissom), and she's not the exception. But Cath blew the lab, Warrick's actions allowed a CSI newbie to be killed, Nick has lost a truck full of evidence, told the details of a case changing the killers' MO (by the time of the promotion stuff - that alone justifies Sara's whining), Brass killed a fellow cop (unintentionally, but still), Grissom hid his impending deafness and has abandoned crime scenes, etc... all of that with barely any consequence. Yet Sara raises her voice and gets suspended and almost fired (by the way, she was right about the husband). If she was measured with the same standards as everyone else, she would have gotten at most a "Get away from here at the count of three, Ms. Sidle!". You can say she's a whiner, and she's spoiled, and she's annoying and rude, but being a rude whiner who's spoiled and annoying is nothing when you put it in perspective. At least she has never actually ruined an investigation or killed somebody, which here is like being a saint or something.
But I agree with Kaylyne on the rest of her post. IMHO, Grissom doesn't deserve the name of
supervisor. He's maybe a leader, he's definitely a master, a teacher and an inspiration for those who are around him, but as a supervisor he's lame. While Catherine isn't nearly as inspiring as him and probably not such a leader, she's really good for the job that really needs to be done as a supervisor. If it weren't for Catherine, they would probably not even have social security or updated evaluations or raises, or they wouldn't be able to attend the seminars and stuff they need to go to. They wouldn't even have Grissom as a supervisor because he would be deaf as a post by now. In Season five she showed she wasn't ready for the position
back then, but four years have passed and she has changed, without stopping to be who she is (thankfully). It wouldn't be fair for some X character to come and become supervisor when she has seniority and has proved she can do the job effectively. I think the would make a great lab director, she's good at all things administration.
Hodges - he's so underrated. Brown nose and all, he deserves a little respect. He's showed more integrity than he's credited for: when Nick joked that Sara received gifts from Grissom and they didn't, Hodges went straight to the case instead on commenting further on it. In You Kill Me, he gave Grissom assertive advice according to the little information he had, and he was the only one who talked to Grissom upfront about the subject, and gave him what he needed at the moment - some distraction. Not to mention all the main cast owe their lives to him sinc ehe was the one who found out about the bomb that was ready to explode in Grave Danger. Without him, they would have been all wiped out from this planet. He could be flaunting about it, yet he doesn't. Just for that, they should stop treating him like dirt.
