Re: Paul/Brass #2
My feeling since Grissom left is no, the writers have no idea what to do with Brass. Grissom was the straight man to Brass and without him around, Brass doesn't have anyone to play off. He and Catherine used to have a great dynamic but now even that's gone. I thought they might go down that path with Ray but they built that rapport with Doc and now Brass is out in the cold. It's not really all that surprising he'd be the one the writers would target to do what he did. I mean, can you see any of the others doing it?
Based on that, I can't say I was completely surprised by what Brass did but I'm definitely not happy the writers went down this path with him because I do think it is OOC. But he's been mostly OOC since S10. FWIW, he was emphatic about protecting "his" team and Ray is part of his team. What Brass did wasn't right and while I do think it goes against what he's stood for his entire career, I think he'll go to the wall for people he cares about: his daughter (remember Ellie and the trouble he almost got into there) and his team. And yes, I think this is partly driven by guilt over Warrick. If he gets in trouble, well, he's not going into it blind. He gave Catherine the opportunity to rat him out but she didn't do it. I do think though that this is setting up PG's exit. I can't believe he'd sign on for yet another year of the bicoastal commute.