Sara Sidle

Main Character: Las Vegas
Name	Sara Sidle
Gender	Female
Birth Date	September 16, 1971
Family	Gil Grissom (husband, Seperated) Laura Sidle (mother) Unnamed father Unnamed brother
City	Las Vegas
Job	CSI
Rank	CSI: Level 3
Specialty	Materials and Element analysis
Status	Alive
Portrayed By	Jorja Fox
First Appearance	"Cool Change"

Sara Sidle is a Crime Scene Investigator at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. She is a Level 3 CSI.

Sara used to work on the night shift for night shift supervisor Gil Grissom and assistant supervisor Catherine Willows. Sara married Grissom (although she retained her maiden name) and left the Crime Lab to join a research team in Costa Rica (The Happy Place).

She returned to the lab at the start of season 10 and currently works with the team under D.B. Russell. She maintains a long-distance relationship with Grissom.

Personality

Sara loves her work, and is as obsessed if not more so with her work than Grissom. For instance, in "Blood Drops", Grissom does not call Sara but she arrives on the premisces because she was listening to the police scanner from her home: "I heard on the scanner. Quadruple [murder]. Figured you might need a hand".

She is passionate about her cases and often lets her emotions get ahead of her, especially in cases that involve violence against women. This can be both a benefit and a difficulty when working a case. Her passion moves her to go beyond the call of duty (she spent hours searching through missing persons reports to identify a Jane Doe) but can also cause her to be inappropriate with suspects and insubordinate with her superiors. She has a problem with authority, and was almost fired when she argued with Catherine Willows and Conrad Ecklie. ("Nesting Dolls")

At first, her work appeared to be her life, and she had no outside interests or hobbies. ("You've Got Male") Her hobbies were all work related (listening to her police scanner and reading forensic journals). ("Too Tough to Die") She preferred to work with corpses over live people and was not sure what to do with children - as was evident in her awkward interactions with Brenda Collins, a child who survived a family massacre. ("Blood Drops")

Sara's forthright attitude often rubbed people the wrong way. She butted heads with Catherine Willows when they first met and they had to work together on the Holly Gribbs case. Their differences still cause occasional friction , but they've become good friends.

Perhaps because of her traumatic childhood, Sara has demonstrated compassion and empathy for victims of domestic violence and fury against their abusers. ^{[citation needed]} When a serial killer was on the loose, selecting victims much like herself, she went as far as to offer herself as bait. ("Strip Strangler") Her temper flared up when she felt justice was not being served to those women.

She also has a soft spot for animals. ^{[citation needed]} After seeing Grissom conduct an experiment using a pig, she became a vegetarian, and she put in additional time on a case involving a slaughtered gorilla. ^{[citation needed]}

She has changed over time. She decides to pursue outside interests after identifying too closely with a victim who ordered from catalogs and ate take-out ("You've Got Male") which resulted in her having a relationship with Hank. However, when Hank betrayed her ("Crash and Burn") and she found out he had another girlfriend, who was injured in one of her cases, she refused to give him a second chance. A close call in a lab explosion motivated her to ask Grissom out when she realized that she could have been killed. ^{[citation needed]}

In more recent seasons, Sara seemed to be on a downward spiral as her memories of her childhood surfaced. Cases became more difficult for her emotionally and at the end of the fourth season she was caught driving under the influence of alcohol and Grissom was called in. ("Bloodlines") While not charged, she was humiliated in front of her supervisor.

She later lost her temper with a suspect, and then with Catherine and Ecklie. ("Nesting Dolls") When there was talk of her being dismissed, Grissom stepped in and went to Sara to find the real reasons for her behavior. She admitted she had a problem with authority, chose men who are emotionally unavailable and had a self destructive streak. His further probing revealed that her mother killed her father. It seems that Sara's father was abusive and her mother finally snapped and killed him; it is revealed later is season 11 that Sara's mother, Laura Sidle, was actually schizophrenic ("House of Hoarders"). Sara grew up believing that violent behavior and subsequent trips to the emergency room to have injuries treated was normal. She didn't find out otherwise until she was taken into foster care. She worried that she might have inherited a tendency to violent behavior and asked Grissom if he thinks there is a "murder gene". Grissom told her he doesn't think violent behavior is inherited. After her father's murder, Sara became "the girl whose father was stabbed to death by her mother."

On one performance evaluation, Grissom gave her an outstanding rating, but said she needed to improve her ability to prioritize. ^{[citation needed]}

She appeared to have resolved some of her difficulties in sixth and seventh season episodes and has resolved to move past them. ^{[citation needed]}

Abilities

Sara's forensics specialty is materials and element analysis. ^{[citation needed]}

Early Life

Sara was born in Tomales Bay, an hour and a half outside of San Francisco. Her parents were ex-hippies who ran a bed and breakfast, where she preferred to associate with the adults over the children. Her intellect, energy and curiosity were much greater than that of a typical child. She was a perfectionist. It seemed that the roles of parent and child were reversed. They told her to relax and take it easy, and she in turn responded by creating business models for their bed and breakfast so they could take it public and franchise it.

Sara's mother (Laura Sidle) murdered her father in 1984, and Sara was subsequently taken into foster care. Sara was in the system "for a while" and became familiar with the feelings of helplessness foster children feel (No Humans Involved). She remembers being the child whose father was murdered by her mother. She cannot remember the name of the social worker who took her away from the murder scene, but remembers being unable to let go of her hand. (Nesting Dolls)

Sara's mother was admitted to a mental hospital for evaluation after she killed Sara's father. Sara was taken to visit her there and found the whole experience very disturbing. (Committed)

In high school, Sara preferred to befriend teachers over students and she often ate alone in the library. Her physics teacher inspired her interest in science. She graduated as valedictorian at age sixteen, having aced all of her exams. ^{[citation needed]}

She was accepted among the early admissions of Harvard University with a large scholarship. She found it to be a freeing experience because she felt she was finally among her equals. She graduated at the top of her class with a Bachelor of Science in Theoretical Physics from Harvard. ^{[citation needed]}

Sara decided to pursue an advanced degree from University of California, Berkeley. She graduated with Master's degree. While in graduate school, she started a Work-study position at the San Francisco Coroner's office. She chose to stay on and worked her way up to a CSI Level 2. In order to keep up with new developments, she audited lectures and seminars with local universities. ^{[citation needed]} Gil Grissom met Sara at one of his entomology lectures, where she asked him for advice and he took interest in her curious nature. He suggested they keep in touch.

Season One

Gil later called Sara in from San Francisco to help with the Holly Gribbs case—an on-duty homicide of a rookie CSI. After the case was solved, the newly appointed supervisor Grissom invited Sara to stay on as a permanent member of the Las Vegas, Nevada night shift. He trusted her, and because she was new to the team, he had her investigate allegations against Warrick Brown.

Season Two

Sara has a soft spot for animals, and became a vegetarian after she saw Grissom conduct an experiment on a dead pig.

Season Three

Sara continues dating Hank until she discovers he is cheating on her.

Season Four

Sara opens up to Grissom about her past. In the season finale, she is pulled over for a D.U.I.

Season Five

We discover Grissom's very intimate feelings for Sara.

Season Six

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Season Seven

Sara and Grissom continue their relationship throughout the season. Sara is abducted by the Miniature Killer in the season finale.

Season Eight

Sara is rescued in the season premiere but a few episodes later she leaves to bury the ghosts of her past.

Season Nine

After finding out about Warrick's death, Sara returns to Las Vegas to support her friends and help lay Warrick to rest. After Warrick's funeral, Sara leaves Las Vegas once again.

Season Ten

Now married to Grissom, Sara returns to Las Vegas once again to assist the short-staffed crime lab.

Season Eleven

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Season Twelve

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Season Thirteen

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Relationships

In the third season she had a boyfriend, Hank Peddigrew, who was an emergency medical technician. He was involved in several of her cases. Later in the season, Sara broke up with Hank after finding out that he was dating someone else. Lab techs Dave Phillips and Greg Sanders had crushes on her, but she has viewed them as friends. At the end of the season six finale and established relationship between Grissom and Sara is exposed to the audience. The remainder of the team is unaware of their ongoing relationship throught the seventh season. Season seven finale Grissom exposes their relationship to the team after Sara is abducted by the miniature killer. Season eight Grissom proposes to Sara, prior to Sara leaving the crime lab due to burn out. Grissom leaves the lab to reunite with Sara in Costa Rica during the ninth season. Sara returns the lab, married to Grissom who is currently traveling doing consulting work. They maintain a long distance marriage, finally separating in the thirteenth season due to the strain of it all.

• Catherine and Sara
• Sara and Greg
• Sara and Ecklie
• Sara and Warrick

Appearances

CSI:Crime Scene Investigation
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	#
Season 1	-	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A		22
Season 2	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A		23
Season 3	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A		23
Season 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A		23
Season 5	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	25
Season 6	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A	24
Season 7	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A	24
Season 8	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A								7
Season 9	X	X	-	-	X	-	-	-	-	X	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A	4
Season 10	X	X	-	X	X	-	-	X	-	X	-	X	X	X	X	-	X	-	X	X	-	X	X	N/A		15
Season 11	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A			22
Season 12	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	N/A			22
Season 13	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A			15
Total																										249

Trivia

• Has a small tattoo on the top of her foot (where the shin meets the foot).
• She is trained in weaponless defense. (Strip Strangler)
• Was a former smoker but used Nicorette to quit (Cool Change).
• Although she quit smoking, she still habitually carries a cigarette lighter. (Face Lift)
• At one point Sara would rather be at work than just about anywhere else. In her free time she listened to the police scanner, read forensic journals and ordered out. However she has since branched out and gotten hobbies and interests outside of the job. ^{[citation needed]}
• Has diastema. ^{[citation needed]}
• She likes dead body cases, especially those with just bones ("what a rush"). ^{[citation needed]}
• She loves working with Grissom's Red Creeper fingerprint powder ("This stuff rocks"). (Anonymous)
• She wants to be cremated, not buried. (Friends and Lovers)
• Hates bees. (Sex, Lies and Larvae)
• She can deal with nearly everything involved with being a CSI without flinching, but spit makes her nauseous. (Fight Night) 
• She liked beef jerky, but then after Grissom's post-mortem maggot experiment with a pig, became vegetarian. (Face Lift)
• She is open to theories such as Spontaneous Human Combustion. (Face Lift)
• Occasionally likes to sing while she works. (Too Tough to Die)
• She is a member of the Mile High Club, meaning she had sex in an airplane at an altitude of over one mile. It was on Delta flight #1109, Boston to Miami, in March of '93 with Ken Fuller (hazel eyes, organic chem lab major) and she told Grissom that the experience was overrated... in every aspect. (Unfriendly Skies)
• Unlike the passenger of that Las Vegas Air flight, she could never take another life. (Unfriendly Skies)
• Drives a Toyota Prius. ^{[citation needed]}
• Sara once worked three weeks straight without a day off. (Table Stakes)
• Puts sugar in her coffee. (Too Tough to Die)
• Likes Chilean Sea Bass. (Table Stakes)
• Vomited at first autopsy. (Down the Drain)
• Generally she wears slacks and tops, but is a little more casual than Catherine. ^{[citation needed]}
• In her CBS character profile, Sara is an only child and that her parents are "ex-hippies". In a CSI episode, Sara tells Gil Grissom that she once found a bag of weed under her "brother's" bed and ratted him out to their parents. This difference can be explained by her time in the foster care system. ^{[citation needed]}
• Used to waitress at Chuck E. Cheese (Kiss-Kiss, Bye-Bye)
• Thinks "geeks should be revered." (Compulsion)
• Is an agnostic who has more faith in science than in a higher power. (Double-Cross)
• Occasionally believes that God was invented so people would have someone to blame for their mistakes (Double-Cross)
• In series 11 (House of Hoarders) she reveals how her father died. When she was a child, her schizophrenic mother had a turn and stabbed Sara's father in the heart.
• She doesn't believe in traditional weddings which would explain why the team didn't receive invitations to her and Grissom's wedding.