It seems to be the same song and dance with "CSI" this season: good ideas, disappointing execution.

The odd thing is that, despite this, the show is arguably the best it's been since Grissom (William Petersen) left, and now, not long after D.B. Russell (Ted Danson) started to warm up to the team (and me), the show is preparing for the exit of another key cast member.

Strangest of all is that this episode was advertised as the lead up to Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) leaving the show, except she was barely in it. She didn't appear until almost halfway through, and had only marginal screen time after that. Perhaps the show is preparing for her departure by getting us used to her not being around? We've only got two episodes left with her, and it was weird that she was so diminished. Aside from Catherine, Nick (George Eads) and Sara (Jorja Fox) were both also missing from the episode, which makes me wonder if an even bigger shuffling of the deck is in the cards.

Regardless, I was really excited for this week going in. I'm torn when the show focuses around a crime scene that has personal stake for someone in the department, as it usually turns out to be campy and unbelievable, but this time around it was well worth it. Coroner Dr. Robbins (Robert David Hall) has been on the show from the start and I've always been a fan, and this is -- as far as I can remember -- the most in-depth look we've ever been given into his character.

The only problem was it just didn't dig deep enough.

The episode started off with Robbins' wife calling 9-1-1 reporting that she found a friend of hers dead, naked, in her bed. Of course, tensions always arise when the CSI's have to investigate one of their own, and the alleged affair/homicide didn't help any. Robbins and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) had some really good interactions here, where Brass played the cynic who had previously gone through an affair, and now trying to look out for Robbins.

In one of Catherine's only scenes it was revealed that Robbins had actually cheated on his wife in the past, but what could have been an interesting point was dropped nearly as soon as it was mentioned. I liked the details about Robbins' personal life that we got, though I was hoping for more about his leg accident. (But I also didn't know until I looked it up today that Hall isn't acting--he has two prosthetic legs.)

Amidst all the hustle and bustle, the CSIs managed to track down the dead man's colleague, a fellow genealogist who helped the team try to figure out why someone would want her coworker dead. It turned out that he was researching the lineage for one of his clients who hoped to find a male relative to walk her down the aisle, but ended up uncovering one too many skeletons in the family's closet.

In the end everything wrapped up pretty tidy, with Mrs. Robbins' name cleared and an 11h hour twist that rotted the proverbial pumpkin: Patrick O'Toole(Matthew Walker) committed the murder because he had finally been introduced to his family , and it turned out that the reason he was put up for adoption in the first place and never met them was that his brother was actually his father. Kind of a bad realization to have late in life, I suppose. But, the week wrapped on a happy note, with both Mr. and Mrs. Robbins making up, making out, and apparently moving on.

While I hate to be a cynic on such a romantic occasion, I was a tiny bit disappointed that Mrs. Robbins had nothing to do with the murder. I'm not wishing doom on Dr. Robbins, and actually felt bad for the guy through most of the episode, but it was slightly anticlimactic. I also really wanted to get more at his character given this was a rare glimpse into his world, but it still was nice to get a look into one of the long time "CSI" characters that doesn't get the limelight that often. But, given all the places they could have taken it, I felt a little let down, even though I never saw the family incest-twist coming.

With this messy affair behind them, the show now breaks for a month and will return with the final two episodes with Catherine. Grissom is supposed to come back for the farewell, which has me excited. Here's hoping that the show brings its A game to the farewell of its longest leading lady and puts an end to this mediocre streak. Here's hoping they send her off with the farewell she deserves.