Sara's Fate Hangs in the Balance in 'CSI' Season Premiere

The entire first episode of CSI's eighth season premiere was dedicated to the fate of one of its own and Grissom's (William Petersen) love interest -- Sarah Sidle (Jorja Fox). Sara, the latest and last victim of the miniature killer, was kidnapped and left for dead pinned under a car in the desert.

In the end, Sara lives. Not the outcome I wanted, so maybe that's why I didn't care for this episode.

However, I have to give the show credit. They kept you on the edge of your seat waiting to find out if Sara would survive. And because of the contract dispute, there was a real possibility of Fox not returning to the show.

Still, despite the suspense, I couldn't bring myself to root for Sara. The episode had a lot of flashbacks detailing how Sara got put into the live action version of the miniature. Scenes that we would've probably scene in the season finale had Fox showed up for filming.

Personally, I was more interested in learning more about the serial killer and Sara's fate than in relieving how she got there. The one thing I wanted to know was how Natalie (Jessica Collins) got Sara under the car. And they only showed us the tail-end of that scene.

It looks like Natalie used a jack to lower the car onto Sara, making me ask if you wake up to a car slowly being lowered onto you wouldn't you make sure that you moved your limbs so they would be pinned under the car.

I thought it was an interesting point that if Sara had had faith in her co-workers and stayed with the wreckage when she escaped from the car, she would have been found a lot sooner and in better health. Was that a little jab at Fox for her lack of being a team player?

Looks like next week will focus on Grissom and Sara's relationship as an internal investigation will be launched to look into the fraternization. Since I'm not a fan of their relationship, I'm not looking forward to it. However, I'll still tune in for the rest of the cases.

Overall, I think the episode was well made. But when you spend the summer hoping that Sara doesn't survive so the team can get a little shake up (and Grissom can finally hook up with Lady Heather), it was a disappointing premiere.

CSI airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.