CSI - Season 8 Premiere

Season seven of the ABC show "CSI" ended with a typcial television cliffhanger - a character in mortal peril. Usually, viewers will sit through the summer wringing their hands, hoping their hero or heroine pulls through. But like any good CSI episode, they ended their season with a twist - but it might not have been intentional. When we left last season, investigator Sara Sidle was trapped under the car in the desert, a victim of the Natalie, the season long stalker alson known as the Miniature Killer.

The only sign of life from the Sidle at the end of the season finale was a twitch of her hand.

Instead of hordes of anxious viewers hoping for her rescue and recovery, Sidle's situation left the shows fans divided right down the middle. Some, mostly in response to her sudden and slightly creepy, in a "daddy issue" sort of way, love affair with boss Gil Grissom, wanted her dead and buried. Problem is there was also an equal amount of romantic fanatics that completely bought into the love affair and wanted the tortued twosome reuinted.

As Season eight begins, one faction or the other is bound to be rejoycing while the other throws inanimate objects at their plasma screens.

So whose crying and whose high-fiving?

Here's how it went down . . .

The episode enfolded in with the CSIers stepping up their fight to find Sara followed by a series of flashbacks that detailed her kidnapping by Natalie.

Nick uncovers Natalie's creepy lair and accesses her computer. He finds a series of maps and searches that help narrow the team's search to the western dessert. Also on the case, Katherine finds a taser bullet left behind at the scene of the kidnapping. Now they know how Sara was taken.

Back at HQ, Grissom is left to keep the faith with talk of "warm bodies being easy to find in the desert" and just when it couldn't get worse - a news report mentions flash floods.

Meanwhile, trapped under the car, Sara gasps as water starts to rush in.

Also at HQ, Natalie is being examined by a team of psychiatrists. They think she could be in the middle of a psychotic break and it could be months before she's able to answer questions.