Our first post-Catherine episode of CSI, "Tressed to Kill," may have also been the most eerie offering so far this season. I can safely say that I didn’t see the murderer being a mama’s boy, with a hair fetish, fulfilling a desire to make women over in her image and then kill them.

This episode officially creeped me out, and I don’t think I will ever be able to listen to Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl” again without the images of the first victim popping into my head. 

I also have to give full props to Charlie Brewster.... I mean William Ragsdale. Although he played a schmuck recently on Justified, I didn’t see him being the culprit; my money was on the son Adam Kemp (David Gallagher) from the moment he and his vapid mother came on screen. 

I knew going into this episode it was going to be a transition episode with Catherine was gone, yet Elizabeth Shue's Julie not yet on board. Transition episodes usually involve the characters all reminiscing about the exiting character so we know they really are gone.

What I was surprised by was how many references or discussions about Catherine there were, including Russell calling her at the end. I love Danson as DB, but this is the first scene he has done on CSI that I felt could have been better. It would have had more of an impact had he being doing it face-to-face with another character such as Brass. After all, Brass and Russell made up almost all our best quotes this week anyway. 

Maybe I’m a cynic when it comes to exiting characters. I know Catherine and DB bonded over her last few episodes, but having him attempt to play on that connection felt forced and awkward to me. Maybe if they had done one cut away to Catherine on the other end of that conversation it would have worked better.

Did anyone else feel like Sarah’s attempt to comfort DB seemed far from genuine? Granted, being “comforting” has never been Sarah’s strong suit, but balanced against DB, there was something kind of flat about it. Sorry, Sarah, I’m sure you’re great at poker with your expressionless face.  

Let’s hope the dynamics all change for the better next week when Julie Finley joins the team. Of course, I've enjoyed nearly everything she did in the 80s and 90s (except for the Back to the Future movies,) so there every chance I’m going to like her right from the start. Anyone else looking forward to Shue's addition to the show?

Jim G. is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.