That said, one CSI will enjoy a bit of a personal life this season--Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), who'll begin seeing nightclub owner Chris Bezich (Nicholas Lea, Krycek from The X-Files) in "Early Rollout." The other CSIs, particularly the re-energized Grissom, will remain as married to their jobs as ever--although the latter's unspoken interest in Sara will be tested in "Butterflied."

Other episodes of note include "Feeling the Heat," with Stacy Edwards and Arye Gross, "Jackpot," with Henry Czerny and Re-Animator's Jeffrey Combs, and the instantly infamous "Fur and Loathing," which was written by Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) and centers on the death of a "furry." As Grissom explains to Willows, "furries" are a "tribe of people who prefer to interact as furry animals." Stahl also penned "Getting Off," about the death of a clown, and continues to come up with some of this still-groundbreaking series' most colorful scenarios. --Kathleen C. Fennessy