Adz! Welcome back! *hugs* Squeeing over WP's hotness in "Ending Happy" just didn't feel right without you!
LOL at
SxS's "GSR Disorder." I guess you could say that this thread is definitely a carrier, hey?
Mr. B, we
so need to see a picture of you in the hat. I don't care if you draw it in stick figurines... We'll still get the gist of it!
Butterflylove did anybody else think the dude with the arrow in the picture of his wife reminded you of Grissom?
You mean, the guy
whose dead wife's picture got a frakking arrow in the forehead?! GAH! Don't say things like that! I'm on tenterhooks as it is!!
And now for something completely different (seeing as you all just can't shut up over that stupid promo): I wrote this in the debate thread as an argument against the "Grissom is with Sara, therefore he's a yucky unethical doodoo-head" sentiment that I see bandied about so often on the boards (often without any sort of rationale attached, I'll add). It struck me that it might give us food for thought over here, as well. So read, and enjoy:
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As for the "unethical" nature of the relationship, I think that depends exactly on how you define what is "right" and what is "wrong" in this context.
For the sake of argument, let's assume that there are, in fact, rules that prohibit the dating of supervisors and subordinates in the Vegas lab, and that these rules are actually enforced (that is, the lab doesn't do what a lot of law enforcement workplaces do and simply turn a blind eye to it because A, they live and work in an environment that encourages extreme closeness between work colleagues, and B, they know that rules governing human relationships almost always fail because when it comes to each other, people are going to do what they want to do - or, heh,
who they want to do). That would have to be in place before you'd have any grounds for calling Grissom's behaviour "unethical" - and so far, we don't know that this is the case - but we'll assume that it is, for now.
If I remember correctly, didn't Grissom make the following quote to the priest in "Altar Boys?"
"I believe in God. In science. In Sunday supper. I don't believe in rules that tell me how I should live."
(You can find this conversation at
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a3172/index-12.html )
This says to me that Grissom, a man who in "Double-Cross" admits that he has some sort of spiritual faith as well as faith in science, nevertheless does not believe in blindly following rules set down by an institution that governs that faith - in this case, the Church.
On top of that, according to the conversation with Catherine given above, he is a man who believes in adhering to the
spirit of the policies and procedures of his workplace rather than the
letter. This is why he's willing to handle things internally when he believes that it will allow him to keep good people that have learned their lesson, rather than follow these P&Ps strictly and get his people in more trouble than, as he thinks, their behaviour deserves.
Therefore, in light of this, why do people think that Grissom would never, never, never date a woman at work that he's
fallen in love with? That he would never date a woman at work
casually, I can see. That's precisely what such policies and procedures in the workplace are designed to handle - to erase workplace tension and potential harassment suits due to supervisors and subordinates not being careful enough about making decisions to sleep with each other. Because the majority of workplace liaisons are going to be one-night-stands or casual affairs or marital affairs or relationships that parties have jumped into without really thinking about what they're doing, it's far easier to simply ban such liaisons rather than try to help these people deal with the repercussions of them.
Therefore, the letter of the law is: No relationships under any circumstances. But the letter of the law does not take into account that, sometimes, a supervisor or a subordinate in a workplace might really, really click. They develop a closeness that is not mercurical, groundless, or shallow. They genuinely fall for each other. They're in love. It's genuine, serious, and deep.
Really, there are few among us who are so "ethical" as to throw a relationship that significant away because a workplace rule says that you're not allowed to date them. In that sense, Grissom is as human as the rest of us. Moreover, Grissom is a romantic; we can see that in the fact that he writes love letters with Shakespearian sonnets, in the way that he confesses he doesn't want to have sex if it doesn't come with love. And he has fallen in love with Sara, as he told us last Thursday night. Therefore, putting this together with his beliefs that institutions should not tell people how to live their lives, it makes perfect sense to me that Grissom does not see his relationship with Sara as unethical. If he felt less about her, then it would be. But he doesn't - he loves her deeply, and therefore that trumps manmade rules that portend to govern human relationships and interactions. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Grissom thought that, once he realized that he
did love her, that it would in fact be unethical
not to pursue it. "This above all: to thine own self be true" is a "rule" of life that I can see Grissom taking very seriously, indeed.
Now if you want to argue that he's handling the situation incorrectly - that he should step down as supervisor, or switch to another shift, or that Sara should switch to another shift, if they really intend to make this relationship work - and that
this is where Grissom and Sara are being unethical, then I just might agree with you. I think it's perfectly understandable, mind you, but it's a conclusion whose argument makes sense. However, I strongly suspect the reason they haven't done any of the above is:
---A, the graveyard shift is considered to be the "cream of the crop" of talent (wasn't this reinforced again in "Lab Rats", with Grissom and Robbins snarking on the day shift?), and it would be putting a well-oiled team at a disadvantage to suddenly transfer one of their members out - especially seeing as the two members in question had already been smoothly working together for years (I would argue five) before getting into any sort of relationship.
---B, it's been established several times that between working overtime on the job and going to court and having to eat and sleep, our CSIs have very little time for personal lives. I watched "Harvest" last night - that was the one with the little girl who was basically a organ field for her sick older brother, right? - and Nick was saying that this was the reason he hadn't had time to take his firearms test again. If Grissom and Sara end up on different shifts, exactly when are they going to see each other? They'll be working different cases, working different hours. And while it might be nice to work out a timetable where each one sleeps while the other is working so that they can spend the eight hours off they have in common together, I can tell you from experience that the human body does
not work like a well-oiled machine that you can turn on and off with a switch, especially when you work nights. The common complaint that I hear from couples on different shifts is that they never get to see each other. It causes enough difficulty in an established relationship; it'd be disastrous on a new one. Therefore, Grissom and Sara may have decided that they have a better shot at staying together by working the same shift - at least for now.
---C, in the final analysis, this is a television show and Grissom and Sara are fictional characters. Grissom and Sara still work the same shift because the show needs them to work the same shift in order to tell its stories. That said, if TPTB are wise about it, then they will show the fallout from this down the road.
I'm not saying that Grissom and Sara shouldn't face consequences for keeping their relationship a secret. Just because I'm convinced that Grissom does not think he is doing something unethical in the grand scheme of things, and because I'm sympathetic to that point of view (hey, I'm a romantic too), does not mean that Ecklie or the Undersheriff or a few other people in power are going to feel the same way. In fact, the few clues we've been given this season - Grissom and Sara's alarmed look at Ecklie's enigmatic statement in "Built to Kill II", Sara's comment that she hates deception and thinks it eventually comes back on a person in "Redrum" - say quite loudly to me that TPTB do not intend for that aspect of GSR to be swept under the rug. There are consequences to the decisions that we make, especially when they go against the rules of an institution in society - some of the greatest love stories in literature hang upon that fact. I fully believe that, while Grissom and Sara are not doing anything "wrong", they will nevertheless have to pay a price for their relationship. I'm quite looking forward to it. That's what puts the meat into relationship stories.
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What do you think? Are Grissom and Sara being unethical - even a little bit? How will the team react? How will the higher-ups react? How do you see the show handling the GSR when they are eventually outed?
I kind of hope it is in "real" time though!
