Sara_Grissom_Fan, basically -
This is the scene you saw:
DOCTOR: We're both scientists, Mr. Grissom, so let me tell you the science. You've got otosclerosis. Basically, this means a bony growth has begun to form around the base of the stapes. What this does is prevent the stapes from moving and passing vibrations to the inner ear effectively neutralizing sound waves.
GRISSOM: (nods) It's hereditary -- my mother.
DOCTOR: Most doctors think so. But there's no way to know when it's going to show up and there's no way to reverse it once it does.
GRISSOM: Right. How long do you think?
DOCTOR: (shakes her head) I don't have that answer.
Which was, as you say, in the season two finale,
The Hunger Artist.
After that, it progresses through Season 3. He has trouble in the court room with his hearing in 3x02
The Accused is Entitled. We see he's taking some lip-reading classes in 3x04
A Little Murder. He has his hearing tested after forcing himself to hand a case over to Nick and Warrick in 3x10
High and Low, and in the same episode we see him secretly researching the condition on his computer. Lady Heather calls him on his hearing problem in 3x15
Lady Heather's Box. I think that's all we get (someone can feel free to correct me here) until we see him looking up an ENT Doctor at the end of 3x22
Play With Fire (just before Sara asks him out) and then in the S3 finale - 3x23
Inside The Box - he goes to see Doc Robbins:
(GRISSOM sits in the chair while ROBBINS finishes looking at his ears.)
ROBBINS: Boy, I wish you'd come to me sooner. Your condition's pretty far along. Why did you wait?
(GRISSOM sighs.)
GRISSOM: I hoped it would go away.
ROBBINS: Doesn't your mother have this condition?
GRISSOM: Yeah. It's hereditary. I know. I wasn't rational.
ROBBINS: Look, Gil, I'm not going to preach to you. You came to me, but ... Doctor to Doctor ... there's a chance the bone deposits have spread into the inner ear, in which case, your hearing loss will eventually be permanent. If I were you, I'd schedule surgery as soon as possible.
Then, of course, at the end of that episode, Grissom goes in to surgery, and by the S4 Premiere his hearing is back to normal (as seen in 4x01
Assume Nothing):
(Off screen, we hear a faint, electronic whirring sound. The camera cuts to CATHERINE'S black bag and kit on the floor off to the side. GRISSOM looks over to her things.)
(CATHERINE turns to answer it.)
GRISSOM: I think your cell phone's vibrating.
CATHERINE: (turns back to look at GRISSOM) You heard that?
(GRISSOM goes back to looking at the wallet.)
GRISSOM: Mm-hmm.
(CATHERINE reaches for her phone and smiles at GRISSOM.)
CATHERINE: You're back.
(Distracted, GRISSOM doesn't hear her.)
GRISSOM: Huh?
(CATHERINE smiles as she answers her phone. GRISSOM squints ... or winks at her.)
There are of course other moments throughout the season where his hearing goes on and off, but that^'s your basic timeline. I'm pretty sure it wasn't mentioned again until Greg's line in 6x19
Spellbound:
GREG: You heard about the strip club?
GRISSOM: I hear about everything, Greg.
GREG: Then that ear surgery paid off.
Which, I think, was somewhat confusing to all of us, including Grissom
(as to how he knew, when apparently noone did back at the time it was around - except Cath and Al who don't seem like the type to tell).
ANYWAY - From all of that, and the fact it hasn't posed itself as a problem since...I gathered that
had Grissom not had the surgery and the bone had found its way all the way into the inner ear (as Robbins mentioned it was in danger of doing)
then there would be no way of reversing it, and he'd have been screwed. However, it seems Grissom had the surgery to remove the bone mass
just in time, and so his hearing has remained fine since then. Whether the bone is going to grow back or not, remains to be seen. I'm not familiar enough with the condition to be able to say if that's possible/probable/whatever.
So that's as much as I can say as to how much it'll affect Grissom in the future. I'd say Mama G wasn't so lucky in that medicine may not have advanced far enough for her to have been so lucky, either that or she just didn't get it checked out in time, hence her becoming permanently deaf.
As far as Sara knowing about his condition? I'd say if Greg knows,
she knows Plus everyone on the team seemed to notice something was wrong in the
TAIE courtroom scene. But yeah - as to whether Grissom and Sara have spoken about it together really depends on how far along in their relationship they are. If Grissom's been able to speak openly about what he'd like his death (and pre-death) to be like, however, I'd say chances are pretty high that they have (not that we've seen it onscreen, anyway).
Sara's picked up on a few 'secret' things we/he may not have realised anyway. Like her obvious allusion to Lady Heather in 6x24
Way To Go when they were talking about corsets - as she'd never had anything to do with Lady Heather, none of us really knew how clued-in Sara was on the whole thing. She's a smart lady, though - and I'd say she knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she got into a relationship with Grissom - and I think we all know of and can agree on the large strength of her feelings for him.
But yes, back full circle to
Hunger Artist - the "moth to a flame" and "I've got a gal named Sara" moments, not to mention their symmetry in movement below the billboard (soon after the MtaF bit) makes that it an excellent GSR episode. We do love it so
