Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) has left the building, leaving the show she helped build from day one.

The start of the episode picked right up from last week, with Catherine and D.B. Russell(Ted Danson) now MIA after getting ambushed. The whole team ran around, some knowing the pair was alive, some fearing the worst, and everybody then switching those ideas at least once.

The problem was that we all knew she was alive, and have been told from the beginning that the show wasn't going to kill her off. Don't tease me if you aren't going to put out.

As for the plot wrapping up, well, it wrapped. This story arc has been convoluted from the get go, but it turned out that at least something made sense, and my suspicions about Laura Gabriel (Annabeth Gish) showing up out of the woodwork were well founded. Turned out Laura faked her death last week, and was using her husband's own mercenary team to set him up, then kill him, and then set Catherine up to take the fall for it. Head spinning? Mine was.

Of course, nobody beats Vegas's finest, and Laura would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling CSIs. Plenty wasn't resolved though, like the bioengineered super bugs that I'm betting were a relic of a script where Grissom (William Petersen) made an appearance.

For the most part, the show was serving plot more than rationality. Of course it would be cool if Catherine went to her old strip club, who cares if it makes sense that she went there with a gunshot wound. The story comes full circle! Cue Elton John, and will somebody please raise a baby lion to the sky. And maybe, if we throw in FBI agents, then they can ask Catherine to join the FBI. Perfect! Eureka! Who cares if we already set up a plot point where the Sheriff offered Catherine another job? That's so boring and FBI-lacking.

Regardless, it all led to the bittersweet moment of Catherine's goodbye. Despite spending the whole episode denying that she was leaving (her resignation letter from last week was fake, shocker) Russell called a family meeting and Catherine gave her soliloquy of a farewell speech. I'm curious how much of it mirrored Helgenberger's true feelings, especially as she has seen the show rotate new leads instead of making her the top dog.

It was somewhat touching, but not nearly as heartwarming as it could have been. Perhaps it was because Catherine didn't really say good bye to anyone in particular; it was a group therapy session where she addressed the whole lab. It reminded me a little of Grissom's departure, but mostly because I was disappointed at how little time both of their exits received.

The only one on one time, oddly enough, was Catherine's last scene, and it wasn't with any of the team members she had spent so much time with, but with newcomer Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois). Perhaps Catherine was passing on the attractive blonde CSI torch (until Shue joins that is), but it seemed a forced ‘out with the old and in with the new' attempt. Much rather would have seen Catherine and Nick (George Eads), or even Sara (Jorja Fox) share their parting thoughts.

With Catherine gone, the one major plot development we knew was coming is resolved, and CSI is down another one of its founding members. Nick calling the shots at the start of the episode gave me hope that they'll finally let little Nicky grow up, and he is the only CSI left that has been around from the start of the show.Time will tell how the show shifts without Catherine, but with Russell leading the team by himself, things will hopefully stay at least somewhat interesting.