I liked it. I really liked it.
I appreciated that the show gave me a sense of "the hunt" for a killer, from botched investigations from long ago to last-ditch modern efforts to catch him - an idea perhaps reinforced by Keppler's cat-and-mouse-game metaphor. I felt really invested in this particular investigation. And Ned "Dr. Dave" Beatty made for one very cagey rat that did his best to thwart Our Heroes - an idea perhaps reinforced by the mice-in-the-box scene. NB was incredibly good - he gave me the willies. I wasn't even sure that he could be the killer at first; he seemed so grandfatherly and genial. The fact that I could still feel that persona even as he was refusing to identify the Jane Does - in a gentlemanlike manner, no less - made shivers go up and down my spine. I'd ordinarily be pissed that they didn't give us the scoop on why this guy had a need to kill the girls, and why only every decade or so... but in this case, it's all part of Dr. Dave, Creepy yet Grandfatherly Dentist. His affable refusal to give the CSIs satisfaction makes him memorable, in my book.
One thing I'm really appreciating about CSI lately is that the guest stars are so memorable. Here we had the sloppy cop whose wife had a difficult birth, the thorough cop-turned-PI who envied the current generation of CSIs with the vast arsenal of scientific weaponry at their disposal, the heartbroken parents insisting that the little girl on TV couldn't be their daughter, the bored guy in the storeroom, the office assistant at the dental office.... Someone is taking a great deal of trouble to make those people come alive, and I for one am grateful for the life it brings to the show. Las Vegas is starting to feel like a real city... more than just hookers and gamblers.
Liev Schreiber? Is one TALL friggin' SOB. He might be taller than Gary Dourdan, even. I like that he seems an enigma, but in a completely different way from Grissom. Grissom has seemed dark at times over the series, but more in terms of his curiousity and willingness to explore the darker, seamier side of human life. Keppler is dark, but in a way that suggests to me that such darkness has been thrust upon him, so to speak - either through circumstances that emerged, or through some kink in his own nature that he did not choose. While I think Grissom ultimately has a handle on his darkness, Keppler... well, I'm not so sure. But he intrigued me enough to want to find out, and I am very excited about that.
I liked Catherine very much here - can we have her be this professional all the time? And the conversation between Brass, Catherine, and Keppler after the credits felt very real and natural. Someone did a damn good job of dialogue in this episode.
I caught that look of "Aw, shit," on Sofia's face when she mentioned the word "autopsy" in front of the distraught parents - immediately you knew she wanted to take it back. Great acting on LL's part. So I think Sofia was short with Doc Robbins because she herself had just screwed up with the parents... which is not an admirable reaction, of course, but a human one nonetheless. Kind of like how Doc Robbins sometimes gets short with SuperDave or the CSIs when he's pissed off, come to think of it.
AAK! PROMOS!!! *gasps in anticipation*
all our regular cast members are all so rivetng and fantasic, & wonderful & good looking.. he just doesn't fit in and what's missing oh, I know GRISSOM.. the story was Ok, and the Doc whistling, and Sofia telling him to stop 
