See Also: 'Grave Danger' Episode Guide

The creative staff behind the CSI season finale today explained why they picked actor John Saxon to play the episode's main bad guy, and why Nick Stokes had to be the CSI to face Saxon's wrath.

Director Quentin Tarantino always enjoyed Gil Grissom having to "[match] wits with another mastermind," he explained to the Associated Press (via the Sun-Herald. "I needed a big sequence in the middle with him and Grissom facing each other like [Robert DeNiro] and [Al Pacino] in the middle of Heat. I needed an actor who could really hold his own against [Billy Petersen] in that kind of situation and John Saxon is the only actor to ever steal a movie from Marlon Brando.

Tarantino referred to the 1966 western The Appaloosa, in which Saxon played a Mexican bandit. The actor also played a role in From Dusk Till Dawn, which co-starred and was written by Tarantino, and Saxon made it clear he enjoyed working with him again. "He's so overwhelming enthusiastic," he said. "I think it really is one of his great strengths."

As Walter Gordon, Saxon will be responsible for placing Nick Stokes in the episode's titular "Grave Danger," by burying him alive. Speaking to AP, CSI showrunner Carol Mendelsohn explained why she chose to let this happen to Nick. "I didn't think anyone had more raw emotion inside of them at this point than [George Eads]. I felt that he had something that needed to come out."

Tarantino, who has previously made it clear he knows the CSI characters very well, expanded on Mendelsohn's comments. "t was just kind of perfect for this character, where he falls in the surrogate family," he said. "He's kind of the bastard stepchild. Grissom has never really given it to him 100 percent -- they did an episode at one point about that -- so it was perfect to see him now as the son who has never quite got the attention, but now they maybe are going to lose him and they realize how valuable he is"

For more from Tarantino and Mendelsohn, head over to the Sun-Herald.

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