Gil Grissom - Parallelism With Sherlock Holmes

Parallelism With Sherlock Holmes

Gil Grissom has a more than passing similarity to Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, Grissom is dispassionate with a fierce devotion to logic and little regard for societal norms of behavior; Grissom once smashed mustard jars in a grocery store to illustrate a theory ("I-15 Murders"), much as Holmes once practiced spearing a pig in a butchers to determine how strong a man would have to be to transfix a man with a harpoon.

Grissom possesses a Moriarty-like nemesis, Paul Millander, whom he pursues in several episodes ("Pilot", "Anonymous" and "Identity Crisis"). Coincidentally, "Paul Millander" has the same initials as "Professor Moriarty." There's also a woman, Lady Heather, in whom he takes an unusual interest. Their relationship is similar to that of Irene Adler and Holmes. Both Irene and Lady Heather enchant Holmes and Grissom with their beauty, their wit and their resolution. Lady Heather often wears Victorian-style dresses, referencing Holmes's era ("Slaves of Las Vegas", "Lady Heather's Box," "Pirates of the Third Reich," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix").