#meta: sofia

hi, anon!

i mean, canonically, there is tension between sara and sofia "over grissom" in episode 06x08 "a bullet runs through it" pt. ii—it's just open to debate what the nature of that tension actually is.

whatever its nature, said tension does in this case seem to come mostly from sara's side of things; she's being the aggressor, whereas sofia is more on her heels.

sofia is too distraught over possibly having killed officer bell to have anything else on her mind at the moment than her own guilt. so regardless of if one does or does not believe she has a "thing" for grissom generally, in the scene in question, she's definitely not thinking (or feeling) in that direction; she's just trying to confess what she believes she did to grissom, both in his capacity as her friend and because he is heading the investigation into bell's death.

one way to interpret the scene is to read sara's aggression toward sofia as coming from the fact she doesn't like sofia "sniffing around her man"—i.e., as traditional sexual/romantic jealousy over sofia's close relationship with grissom.

if one were inclined to view things that way, one might interpret the action in that scene as sara coming into grissom's office, finding him and sofia having what seems to be an "intimate" conversation with each other, and immediately getting her hackles up, thinking, "why are they in here alone together? how come she's always trying to get so close to him? nuh-uh! this cannot happen!" and so moving to break their convocation up.

however, it's also possible to read that scene as sara being curt with sofia not because she views sofia as a potential romantic rival for grissom's affections* or believes sofia has come to grissom in that moment due to any sexual/romantic interest in him on sofia's part but rather because she (sara) is aware of department rules and wants to protect grissom from the negative consequences that would come down on him were anyone in authority to glimpse him speaking to sofia at a time when he is technically forbidden by department policy from doing so.

* after all, grissom and sara are already dating by that point, and sara presumably feels assured of grissom's loyalty to her, or else why would she be dating him?

some fans definitely view sara's forcefulness with telling sofia to leave grissom's office in that scene as a product of her "being territorial" with sofia/considering sofia potential competition with regards to grissom—and particularly as sofia's character was originally created by tptb for the purpose of throwing fans off the scent of gsr by acting as a "plausible alternative love interest" for grissom.

personally, though, i don't really view the situation that way.

for one thing, though i am in the minority in this opinion, i don't think sofia is ever actually sexually/romantically attracted to grissom. while the show's writers may have wanted fans to wonder if she was, and while inside of the world of the show, sara may originally (before she and grissom become a couple) have some fears such is the case, i ultimately believe sofia's feelings for grissom are, start to finish, totally platonic; she likes him as a friend and nothing else.

i likewise believe grissom's feelings for sofia have also always been platonic (as he is already fully reconciled to his love for sara by the time he even meets sofia's acquaintance for the first time, and he is, frankly, the most monogamous man in the world).

and, ultimately, i think while sara may have originally, back in early s5, before she and grissom were together, had some fears regarding sofia potentially being interested in grissom, she largely gets over those feelings once she and grissom officially commence their romantic relationship, because, at that point, she realizes grissom's interest is solely in her (and she's mature enough to know even if sofia has romantic feelings for grissom on her side of things, no one can steal your boyfriend from you if your boyfriend doesn't want to be stolen). so by s6, i believe she's no longer on guard when it comes to grissom and sofia interacting; she realizes there's nothing "untoward" going on there, either way.

and especially because by that point, sofia isn't even on team graveyard anymore, so it's not as if she and grissom are working closely together on a daily basis like they were previously.

that so, i tend to view the scene between these three characters in episode 06x08 "a bullet runs through it" pt. ii not as sara getting after sofia for "getting too close to her man" but rather as sara getting after sofia because sofia is breaking department rules, endangering both her and grissom's jobs in the process.

sara walks into grissom's office and sees sofia there and she immediately clocks sofia's desperation and grissom's helplessness and goes, "okay, yeah, this shouldn't be happening. and if grissom can't kick her out—because he's a bleeding heart who can't say no to a friend in need—then i will. (and both of them will thank me for it later, once this case is solved and they both still have their jobs.)"

but, of course, ymmv—and lots of people's do, as, like i said, i am definitely in the minority with regards to my views on sofia.

as for whether or not sara might ever "get territorial" with sofia or whether there would ever be tension between them elsewise, other than in the aforementioned scene, as i've alluded to previously, i think if it happens at all, it a) happens in early s5, when sofia first joins team graveyard, prior to when grissom and sara commence their romantic relationship, and, b) is mostly a one-sided thing, coming from sara toward sofia, as opposed to being more mutual.

like i said, i don't believe sofia ever is actually attracted to grissom herself, so she certainly doesn't view sara as a potential rival on that front (and, indeed, she may remain largely oblivious to the fact sara has any romantic feelings for grissom anyhow).

so if there is any tension, it's all coming from sara's side of things.

and if it does come from sara's side of things, then i think it comes mostly pre-gsr get-together in late s5/early s6.

as i talk about in this post,

while before they are together, [grissom and sara] both experience jealousy whenever the other person shows any kind of potential sexual and/or romantic interest in someone else (or even when someone else shows any kind of potential sexual and/or romantic interest in the other person), they do so largely because of how helpless they feel, given their very particular "i'm in love with this person, but i can't be with them" situation. it's the type of deal where they're going, "i'm in love with him/her, but i can't lay any actual claim to him/her, so i just have to stand back and watch this flirtation happen, and i can't really say anything about it or intercede. maybe this interaction will go somewhere or maybe it won't, but either way, i'm uncomfortable because the outcome is completely out of my hands and annoyed because i can't take any similar action to express my interest in him/her myself." so that's why we see grissom get upset about greg asking sara out to dinner, sara dating hank, etc. and sara bristling about grissom hanging out with jane gilbert—due to insecurity and a sense of being stuck. they're anxious because they know that someone else could potentially "take away" their one true love from them, and they can't object in any kind of meaningful way.

but, as i say in the linked post, later on, after they officially become a couple, they're no longer in that same kind of precarious position—and so i think that jealousy evaporates.

so maybe between episodes 05x09 "mea culpa" (when sofia first joins team graveyard) and 05x14 "unbearable" or thereabouts, sara may feel some of that panicked, "oh god! she's getting close to grissom when i cannot do the same" jealousy toward sofia, causing her to act territorial toward her.

but i don't think those feelings on her part would persist very long after that point—not once it becomes apparent to her grissom's affections actually fully lie with her; not once she realizes how much of a "nonthreat" sofia actually is.

and, indeed, i think we see very little canonical evidence of sara having jealous feelings toward sofia from about mid-s5 onward; that storyline very much cools off right around the time when the gsr storyline heats up.

though, fwiw, outside of any potential jealousy over grissom sara may feel toward sofia, i do also think sara just doesn't really like sofia being on team graveyard very much in a more general sense because she views her an an interloper and resents the fact of ecklie breaking up the team and foisting sofia onto their shift ("replacing" catherine, nick, and warrick), so for as long as sofia remains a csi, there may be some lingering resentment toward her on sara's part.

i also think sara often gets on edge around any woman she perceives as a "pretty popular girl" type due to some of her own insecurities, and sofia definitely fits that bill for her. that so, i believe not all of the tension between sara and sofia has to do with grissom, even in the early days (see, for example, their confrontation in episode 05x10 "no humans involved"); there's also an interpersonal element to it, and particularly as i also think sara just plain doesn't "get" sofia or gel with her on a one-to-one level. so, again, sara may still occasionally be prickly to sofia, even post-s5. however, i don't think that prickliness is always a sign of lingering jealousy on her part. sometimes it has little to do with "the grissom of it all" and is just solely about sofia herself.

but, again, that's just my take, and other people may certainly see things differently.

as for fic with the premise of there being jealous tension between sara and sofia over grissom, as my answer here probably reveals, that particular premise isn't my personal cup of tea, so i don't have any recs to offer in that regard.

however, i'll put it out to my followers who perhaps enjoy jealousy storylines a bit more than i do. if you have any suggestions for the anon, could you drop them in the replies? please and thank you!

part ii of this series.

one character at a time after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

hi, anon!

i hope you're having a good day—or night now—too!

if you're referring to the scene at the phone booth, i don't think sara is mad at sofia there at all (though sofia is definitely miffed at sara for being "late").

instead, i think what's going on there is that sara is being aloof because reasons.

check it out:

within the universe of the show, the events of episode 06x11 "werewolves" take place primarily on 01.03.06 and 01.04.06.

when the team is initially called in to process the victim's residence, it is, according the call log on the victim's phone, sometime after midnight on 01.03.06. they remain at the victim's residence processing until after sunrise that same morning.

sara is present for this action, as is grissom. however, thereafter, sara quickly drops from view throughout the middle part of the episode, during the remaining daylight hours, as does grissom (after he attends the victim's autopsy with doc robbins back at the lab). neither one of them then resurfaces in the episode again until after nightfall.

since both of them are conspicuously absent from the action taking place during the daytime hours at the lab, i think it's fairly safe to assume that they go home together at that time and remain there between approximately 10am and 10:30pm or so.

why they get to go home while the rest of the team is pulling a double, we can't say for certain; maybe they've both already used up all their overtime hours for the month, or maybe they were coming off a previous double from the day/night before.

maybe they'd worked the new year's eve and new year's day shifts while everybody else got those nights off.

in any case, during the hours while they are away from the lab, presumably during the afternoon/evening of what is regularly swing shift on 01.03.06, sofia tries to page sara to come process the payphone booth. however, sara does not respond to sofia's pages until sometime around the start of the next graveyard shift, circa 11pm on 01.03.06.

now.

in s1 and s2 of the show, we are shown that not only does sara always leap to respond to her pages, but she also sometimes shows up to work even when she hasn't officially been paged (like in episode 01x07 "blood drops," when she hears about the collins homicide over her police scanner and shows up to the scene of her own volition). only in s3, specifically when she is dating hank, does sara ever respond late to a page (see episode 03x03 "let the seller beware")—a marked change in her behavior, contingent on her for the first time ever having "someplace better to be" than at work. however, once she and hank break up, she then resumes her typical "always eager to show up to a scene" mo, as we see in episode 04x14 "paper or plastic?"

—at least until this episode, 06x11 "werewolves," takes place.

that so, the fact that sara doesn't immediately respond to sofia's page and buzz right over to the phone booth during her off hours in this episode is telling—and especially taken in conjunction with the episode timeline, as we've previously established it.

the subtle implication is that baby girl doesn't respond to sofia's page because she's got someplace better to be during her off-hours than at work.

she's home with grissom.

most likely at home in bed with grissom.

she's not answering that phone for anything.

the sara of the past would've come in early when called upon, but the sara who is secretly dating the love of her life and is blissfully happy spending all of her free time with him isn't going to show up until the start of her assigned shift.

not unless she has to.

not when she's, uh, busy.

of course, given the whole "secret dating" thing, she also can't tell sofia why she didn't drop everything to come in early to work—hence her aloofness during her and sofia's conversation.

all things considered, i read sara's interaction with sofia as follows:

sc: (annoyed) “i’ve been waiting for you.” 

ss: (evasive) “sorry. i headed out as soon as i got your page.” 

sc: “really? 'cause, uh, i left a voicemail several hours ago.” ss: (momentarily looks caught, then awkwardly sidesteps sofia’s insinuation sans comment, wearing a false smile) “what’s up?”

she isn't mad at sofia. she's just sidestepping the real reason why she ignored sofia's pages over the course of several hours.

his name is gilbert, and he's very distracting.

and to that end: i honestly think that by this point in the show, sara has gotten over whatever old jealousy she used to have for sofia anyway, because, frankly, at this late date, there's nothing really to be jealous of (if there ever even was something to begin with).

even if there had been some spark of attraction between grissom and sofia in the past—and it's definitely debatable if there ever was or if sara was simply reading signs where there were none—grissom and sara are now very much together and in love and sharing a life, with sofia nowhere in the picture.

the last bit of tension we see to that end between sara and sofia is in episode 06x08 "a bullet runs through it" pt. ii, which takes place, in-universe, several months before this episode does. thereafter, there are never any additional implications that sara still considers sofia a threat. their interactions are just neutral.

so anyway, that's my take: sara isn't nursing any kind of grudge with sofia in this episode; she's just trying to hide the fact that she had her phone on silent and didn't check her messages because she was at home getting absolutely railed by her boyfriend.

she's dodging, and not particularly gracefully.

hi, anon!

honestly, since the show never actually provides us with much insight into sofia's inner world, it's a matter of headcanon as to whether or not one believes she has a crush on grissom. certainly, there is about equal evidence to suggest that she does as to suggest that she doesn't.

personally, i don't headcanon that she does, for reasons i talk about here and here, if you're interested.

tl;dr: while i think that grissom's "eccentric professor" persona intrigues her and that she eventually comes to value him both professionally and as a friend, i don't necessarily read sexual/romantic interest into their interactions. the few times she makes innuendos around him, i believe they're largely inadvertent on her part—something that happens because she's socially awkward as opposed to because she is expressing genuine interest in him. that's just my take, though, and your mileage absolutely may vary.

however, regardless of whether or not one believes that sofia ever has a crush on grissom, i'm fairly confident that she doesn't believe that his dinner invitation in episode 05x14 "unbearable" is a date or else her reaction to it would very much be different than what in canon it is.

as i talk about here,

one of grissom’s biggest hang-ups against being with sara is his deep-seated fear of (what he views as) his own unlovability, we can’t discount the fact that another big reason he declines her so many times throughout the years prior to s5/s6 is because department rules do not allow for any kind of romantic/sexual relationship between them, and he doesn’t want to damage his career.

the lab’s policy on the matter is clear: “members of the same forensic team may not engage in a romantic relationship.”

and here’s the thing: for as much as said policy would apply to any romantic/sexual relationship between grissom and sara, it would apply just as much to any romantic/sexual relationship between grissom and sofia, as well—and grissom knows as much.

if grissom isn’t allowed to date sara under the rules, then he also isn’t allowed to date sofia under the rules.

if it would potentially damage his career to be with one much younger subordinate, it would potentially damage his career to be with another much younger subordinate equally so.

grissom only eventually decides to risk breaking the rules and suffering the potential consequences of being with sara because he’s so deeply in love with her, which makes the opportunity cost worth it to him.

not so with sofia.

whether or not one actually believes he might possibly be attracted to her—and i personally don’t—it is a fact he’s never in love with her.

as we know from things he says in episode 07x24 “living doll” and “immortality,” sara is the only person he has ever romantically loved; ipso facto, he’s never been in love with sofia.

grissom wouldn’t risk his career in order to ask sofia on a date, not when she’s nowhere near being the love of his life—and especially not when, again, by s5, he is very much aware of and reconciled to the fact that sara, by contrast, is.

that so, just the fact that he invites sofia to dinner at all tells us that he’s not framing the invitation as a date—i.e., it tells us that he doesn’t feel there is any risk in him doing so and he wouldn’t be at all affronted were word to get back to the administration of what he had done. in his own mind, he obviously feels that what he is doing is 100% permissible under the policy. he doesn’t have any compunctions about it.

—hence the way in which he makes the invitation itself: straightforwardly, without any of the hemming and hawing and awkwardness one might expect if he were really “putting himself on the line.”

that grissom openly asks sofia to eat with him without any hesitation or display of hang-ups tells us that for him, it’s a very lowkey deal. he’s essentially viewing it as a “work function,” and that’s why he can be so calm and uninhibited about it—to say nothing of how open.

just as grissom would likely be aware of the fact that he and sofia could not actually date each other per department policy, certainly sofia (as someone who had been an acting shift supervisor prior to her demotion) would be, as well.

whether or not she actually ever has a crush on grissom before being placed on his team, i think that once he becomes her boss, she knows that he is absolutely off-limits to her in that sense.

and even with her intention to leave csi and switch over to working at pd at the time that grissom makes his dinner invitation, as a young woman with aspirations toward advancement within the lvpd hierarchy, she would still be cognizant of the optics of having a romantic relationship with an older male supervisor on the department payroll (and especially one who had at one point been in charge of overseeing her, even if he weren't her direct supervisor anymore).

she would no sooner try to date grissom than she would try to date brass or ecklie.

she knows it's best to keep her personal life out of the workplace so that no one can even begin to question the legitimacy of her professional attainments.

she is much more like catherine, who carefully curates her professional reputation and would hate to do anything that might cause others to question her "worthiness" to hold the positions she does (such as, for example, by having a sexual/romantic relationship with a prominent man in the department), than she is like sara, who is chronically impolitic and willing to throw caution to the wind in order to follow her heart, never mind how doing so might affect her professional prospects.

and especially because, again, even if she once did or even currently does have a crush on grissom at the time when episode 05x14 "unbearable" is taking place (which is, again, debatable), it would be just that: a crush.

she's not in love with the guy like sara is.

so while for sara, it's 100% worth it to put her career on the line for the sake of having a relationship with her one true love, for sofia, it very much wouldn't be for the sake of just getting to know better someone she's a little bit attracted to (maybe).

all of the above so, i tend to believe that had she any sense that grissom's invitation included an offer for anything more than just an "okay, so you're quitting my team. let me take you out for a bite to eat to wish you well and show you that there are no hard feelings (and maybe make one last-ditch appeal to get you to reconsider so that i'm not left high and dry with only three criminalists on my team including myself)" thing, her reaction would not have been to meet him with that amused smile that she gives at the end of the scene.

rather, she would have done something to indicate awkwardness or even affront and probably quickly (though politely) declined him, perhaps even reminding him of the departmental policy on romantic relationships between coworkers.

she cares too much about her career to put it on the line for gil grissom, so the fact that she accepts his invitation and does so with amusement or even "you're so delightfully weird" whimsy written across her face suggests that she doesn't believe she has any reason to be wary of what he is offering her.

it is just a shared meal between two work friends (where they, for the most part, are going to discuss her career prospects) and nothing she would be reluctant to have to explain to ecklie or one of the department higher-ups, were it to become known to them.

she reads grissom's intentions in making the invitation as being thoroughly platonic right from the get-go—which is a good thing, because that's exactly what they are.

while the writers intend to make the audience question the nature of their outing (and grissom's motivations for making the invitation in the first place, particularly in light of the events of episode 05x13 "nesting dolls"), within the world of the show, i tend to think both grissom and sofia are on the same page re: the fact that the meal is something that is professionally allowable for both of them right from the start.

by this point in their professional relationship, where they have been members of the same forensics team for about 3½ months in show time, they know where they stand with each other, and they're both comfortable with it.

—or at least that's the way i read things.

like i said, ymmv!

contd.:

Hello! I am the same person who asked the question about Sofia and the dinner date. I forgot to ask, when you were watching live, what opinion did you have about the Grissom/Sofia potential love interest? I never got to watch it live, so I am curious as to how the audience reacted then. Thank you!

hi, anon!

oh, that dinner is definitely 100% platonic—and the way that we know that it is is not only by the (long) ex post facto information we get from sara in the reboot but because of when and how the invitation is made in real time in the original.

for one thing, while it is of course open to debate when exactly grissom and sara actually do get together in vegas—whether in the second half of s5 or the first half of s6—what isn’t debatable is that by s5, grissom is very much romantically focused on sara and sara alone. 

though in earlier seasons, he would occasionally attempt to distract himself from his interest in her by making romantic overtures to other women, by s5, he’s no longer in the business of doing so.

the events of episode 05x13 “nesting dolls” don’t come about out of the blue; there is a clear ramp-up to them, starting at the end of s4, when grissom makes the personal decision to start being more transparent in his feelings for sara so as not to cause her additional emotional pain. to this end, we see that throughout the beginning of s5, grissom is very openly affectionate with sara and supportive of her. 

while he is not yet certain that they are ever going to have any kind of official romantic/sexual relationship outside of work (and in fact, in his typical pessimistic way, doubts that they will, at least until the events of episode 05x12 “snakes” give him reason to perhaps believe otherwise), he is fully intent on being there for her however he can. it’s not his mo at that point to try to pretend that his heart lies anywhere but with her.

—and especially not after the events of episode 05x13 “nesting dolls,” when he comes to understand sara in a much more intimate way and bonds with her on a level that he never has before.

that so, it isn’t his prerogative to make passes at other women at this time—including sofia (regardless of whether or not sofia might be romantically/sexually interested in him).

while the writers outside of the universe of the show may have wanted to tease a potential grissom/sofia romantic connection in order to throw people off of the gsr trail, within the universe of the show, grissom himself is never thinking along those lines. he likes sofia as a friend and has an excellent working relationship with her as her supervisor, but by the time he meets her, he is already fully reconciled to the fact of his love for sara, and he really only has eyes for her.

in that sense, grissom asking sofia to dinner has to be a platonic thing just purely by when it falls on the gsr timeline.

for another thing, we can also tell that the invitation is platonic based on both the fact that grissom makes it at all AND how he goes about doing so.

though of course one of grissom’s biggest hang-ups against being with sara is his deep-seated fear of (what he views as) his own unlovability, we can’t discount the fact that another big reason he declines her so many times throughout the years prior to s5/s6 is because department rules do not allow for any kind of romantic/sexual relationship between them, and he doesn’t want to damage his career.

the lab’s policy on the matter is clear: “members of the same forensic team may not engage in a romantic relationship.”

and here’s the thing: for as much as said policy would apply to any romantic/sexual relationship between grissom and sara, it would apply just as much to any romantic/sexual relationship between grissom and sofia, as well—and grissom knows as much.

if grissom isn’t allowed to date sara under the rules, then he also isn’t allowed to date sofia under the rules.

if it would potentially damage his career to be with one much younger subordinate, it would potentially damage his career to be with another much younger subordinate equally so.

grissom only eventually decides to risk breaking the rules and suffering the potential consequences of being with sara because he’s so deeply in love with her, which makes the opportunity cost worth it to him.

not so with sofia.

whether or not one actually believes he might possibly be attracted to her—and i personally don’t—it is a fact he’s never in love with her.

as we know from things he says in episode 07x24 “living doll” and “immortality,” sara is the only person he has ever romantically loved; ipso facto, he’s never been in love with sofia.

grissom wouldn’t risk his career in order to ask sofia on a date, not when she’s nowhere near being the love of his life—and especially not when, again, by s5, he is very much aware of and reconciled to the fact that sara, by contrast, is.

that so, just the fact that he invites sofia to dinner at all tells us that he’s not framing the invitation as a date—i.e., it tells us that he doesn’t feel there is any risk in him doing so and he wouldn’t be at all affronted were word to get back to the administration of what he had done. in his own mind, he obviously feels that what he is doing is 100% permissible under the policy. he doesn’t have any compunctions about it.

—hence the way in which he makes the invitation itself: straightforwardly, without any of the hemming and hawing and awkwardness one might expect if he were really “putting himself on the line.”

that grissom openly asks sofia to eat with him without any hesitation or display of hang-ups tells us that for him, it’s a very lowkey deal. he’s essentially viewing it as a “work function,” and that’s why he can be so calm and uninhibited about it—to say nothing of how open.

as i talk about in this post,

the way i see things, the fact that grissom takes sofia out to dinner in episode 05x14 “unbearable” but won’t take sara out to dinner in episode 03x22 “play with fire” is actually indicative that he doesn’t have a thing for sofia, whereas he does have a thing for sara.

grissom can’t take sara out to dinner in s3 specifically because he has feelings for her, and she has feelings for him, and that makes any relationship they would have outside of work prohibited, seeing as he is her supervisor, and she his subordinate. grissom can’t go out with sara without it being an inherently romantic and sexual thing. their relationship is already established on those grounds. it would be a date, and it would mean trouble, so he can’t even allow himself to go there even though, in his heart of hearts, he really wants to.

not so with sofia.

grissom is comfortable taking sofia out to dinner at a time when he is technically her supervisor, and she his subordinate, specifically because there is nothing romantic or sexual about their relationship at all; their interactions are strictly platonic, and there is no danger of either one of them misconstruing the situation for something other than it is.

grissom sharing a meal with sofia outside of work is no different than grissom sharing a meal with catherine or brass outside of work.

—and part of why that’s so is because, by the events of episode 05x14 “unbearable,” grissom is already set on sara; he knows he is in love with her and that he wants to be with her, and he’s taking steps toward making that happen.

so sofia? she’s just a friend. she’s not even on his radar as a love interest. he takes her out because he wants to convince her to stay on his team...

to continue on from here,

for grissom, there is nothing at all romantic behind the invitation he extends [to sofia]. he is acting in his capacity as sofia’s supervisor and trusted friend. the purpose of the shared meal is so he can offer her career advice and entreat her to stick with team graveyard, where she is very much needed.

... grissom feels at liberty to ask sofia out to dinner specifically because he understands their relationship as platonic. if he felt at all like meeting up outside of work could be considered by either one of them (or by someone looking on from the outside) as a date, he likely wouldn’t go there.

that he has no trepidation whatsoever about asking sofia to join him suggests that grissom considers the stakes very different than when sara asks him out to eat in episode 03x22 “play with fire.” whereas going out with sofia (for him) is the same as going out with brass or catherine, going out with sara two years earlier isn’t; because of his feelings for sara, any sort of “extracurricular” interaction between them carries all sorts of expectations and romantic implications.

—which, of course, is the other thing.

by the time episode 05x14 “unbearable” takes place, grissom is finally both fully aware of and ready to accept and act on his feelings for sara. while it’s uncertain how exactly he defines their relationship at this point—to what degree they are physically intimate during the events of episode 05x13 “nesting dolls” is, of course, a matter open to conjecture—i think that, at the very least, he understands their connection as both romantic and personal and is aware of how significant it is that sara chooses to confide her deepest secrets in him.

so tl;dr? we can tell that grissom’s dinner with sofia is platonic in nature, both because by that point in his development, he wouldn’t be interested in romantically pursuing anyone but sara AND because his behavior surrounding the dinner speaks to the fact that he views it as a professional function—a chance for him, as sofia’s supervisor, to try to talk her out of quitting her job and leaving him short-staffed at a time when he already is so (with catherine, nick, and warrick working swing shift).

what sara later says in csi: vegas only serves to confirm that post-episode 05x13 “nesting dolls,” grissom is fully invested in his romantic relationship with her.

as for my experience with watching grissom and sofia’s interactions while they were originally airing back in 2005:

honestly, little eighteen year-old aroace me kind of failed to pick up on the implication that there could have even potentially been anything romantic going on there. i think i missed the original airing of episode 05x07 “formalities,” which is far and away the most flirtatious/“shippy” episode where she interacts with grissom, so by the time i was seeing her later on in s5 (in episodes 05x09 “mea culpa” and 05x10 “no humans involved”), i was lacking some of the context for her and grissom’s dynamic, and between that ignorance and my thick gsr goggles, i just really didn’t catch whatever “grissom/sofia could be a romantic ~thing~” vibes that the writers were trying to throw down.

when it got to the point where grissom was asking her out to dinner, i didn’t know exactly what to make of that moment, as it kind of occurred out of nowhere for me, but as nothing really seemed to come of the invitation thereafter—from that point on in s5, grissom and sofia don’t really have many significant personal interactions going forward—and since, by comparison, there were a lot of significant gsr moments throughout the remainder of s5, i guess i just kind of shrugged it off as a weird, one-off anomaly and went on merrily shipping gsr.

it was only years later, upon subsequent rewatches, that i started to understand better how the writers had been using grissom/sofia as a ship tease (and, really, a red herring to throw people off of the scent with gsr).

of course, even though i was naïve about how the writers were framing grissom/sofia as a potential romantic pairing at the time when s5 was originally airing, other fans weren’t.

in gsr circles, she quickly became a public enemy, starting with her very first appearance in episode 05x07 “formalities,” and she only became more beloathed as the season went on. her and grissom’s interactions in episode 05x14 “unbearable” in particular prompted outrage.

people hated her then—and even to this day, there are many gsr fans who cannot stand her at all.

romantic grillows and kessom shippers also didn’t care for her or her potential relationship with grissom, viewing her as an interloper.

while there were some fans who shipped grissom/sofia, honestly, i don’t think the pairing was ever popular, as, by that point in the series, most fans already had their preferences for whom they shipped grissom with (whether it were gsr, grillows, kessom, or slash ships, like grissom/nick) and resented sofia as the newcomer potentially “swooping in.”

to this day, there is only one romantic grissom/sofia fic on all of ao3.

Why do you think Grissom looks so weird and nervous in "a bullet runs through it" when Sofia is in his office? When Sara walks in, he looks a little guilty and scared. It's because of Sara?

hi, @sassylittlewoman!

he's acting awkward because sofia isn't supposed to be there.

more discussion after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

hi, anon!

i have a meta on that exact topic here, if you're interested.

the tl;dr version is that while i think that canon is at least somewhat ambiguous on the matter, my personal view is that she isn't into him that way.

my take is that she is intrigued by grissom before she formally meets him because she's heard all sorts of things about how weird he is from various sources around the lab, and she kind of can't believe that someone that eccentric could actually be real. then once she gets the chance to partner with grissom herself (see episode 05x07 "formalities"), not only is she delighted to discover that he is both real and just as weird as advertised, but she also finds herself pleasantly surprised by how easy and even fun he is to work with, contrary to what ecklie may have told her previously.

while there are fans who view sofia's general smileyness around grissom and some of the potentially provocative things she says in his presence when they first meet (“don’t worry. i’m wearing underwear—as far as you know”) as evidence that she is romantically attracted to him, i personally don't think that sofia ever has a crush on grissom or views him as a potential romantic prospect and would argue that those cues instead indicate a) her amusement at what a curiosity he is, and, b) her own social awkwardness.

i also don't think that her willingness to confide in him or the fact that she agrees to go out to dinner with him in episode 05x14 "unbearable" are evidence that she is romantically interested in him but rather just show that she comes to trust grissom a lot (particularly on a professional level) and views him as a friend.

to my mind, whatever chemistry exists between sofia and grissom is purely platonic and based in a sense of "oh, hey, you're actually kind of a kindred spirit" on both her end and his.

though sara later becomes jealous of sofia and considers her a potential rival for grissom's affections, i believe she's off the mark and seeing shadows where there are none, both in the sense that grissom has no romantic interest in sofia AND in the sense that sofia has no romantic interest in grissom.

though the show never explicitly addresses the matter, which means that it is still open to interpretation, i just personally don't see signs that sofia's interest in grissom is anything other than collegial.

while i think that outside the universe of the show, the writers very much wanted people to question the nature of sofia and grissom's relationship and feelings for each other, inside of the universe of the show, there's just not enough there to make me think that sofia has any intentions with grissom other than just to work with the guy and be a good friend to him.

hey, anon!

i very much understand that sofia is not everyone’s cup of tea—and especially not in the gsr fandom. 

personally, i’ve always kind of had a soft spot for her.

to me, sofia is just someone who is trying to do the best with what she’s got, and she doesn’t always go about things in the right way, but her flaws aren’t coming from a place of malice; she’s just being messy and human, the same as anyone else on the team.

in regards to your questions in particular, let’s take ‘em one at a time after the cut, okay?