Berserk Button: Drug dealers, especially those who sell to young people, and scientists who sell their integrity for personal gain.
And anyone who tries to hurt Sara
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He quotes Shakespeare, loves crossword puzzles, and races cockroaches for fun.
Can Not Spit It Out: His feelings for Sara in the first couple of seasons, even being so unsure about a possible commitment to the point where he rejects her initial advances.
A Father to His Men: His paternal leadership style, especially visible with Greg, Nick and Warrick especially right before Warrick gets killed, and afterwards.
Flanderization In regards to his stoicism. In the first season, he was prone to bouts of anger (once slapping a coffee pot of Ecklie's hand, enraged) and happiness (even—gasp—smiling! With teeth and all!). By Season 3, his character was shaped into being level-headed at all times, even in normal conversation. Justifiable in that he starts to retreat emotionally during his struggle with his hearing loss.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Especially in the earlier seasons. Despite his intelligence and expert grasp of human nature, Grissom lead a very isolated life, and rebuffed most opportunities of interaction outside of the workplace. He even turned down Sara's initial dating requests in Season 3.
Married to the Job : For most of the series, at least until he married Sara. Catherine used to tell him to take his head out of his microscope once in a while.
Papa Wolf: Pretty much the only way to get him riled up is to either threaten one of his teammates, especially Sara, or do anything to endanger children
Platonic Life Partners: With Catherine. They are obviously best friends, but there's also no hint of sexual chemistry between them.
Serious Business: Racing cockroaches. One of the first time we see him take some time off and puts Catherine in charge is when he goes to a conference to race his vermin. It doesn't go so well ("Stage fright.")
Silver Fox: Despite his nerdiness and aloofness, he still gathers a lot of female admirers (in-universe and out), even when he shies away from the unwanted attention.
Heroic Bastard: It's established early on that she was raised by a single mother, but it's only later that she learns her father is Sam Braun, who leaves her a chunk of his casino after he dies.
Mama Bear: Messing with her daughter? Big mistake. The same applies to her team members
Ms. Fanservice: She used to be a stripper, way back in the day (and not an Old Shame for her, even when a DA tries to use it against her in court). She's had a couple of Toplessness From the Back scenes and an interrogation where she unbuttoned her blouse every time her suspect gave her an answer.
Scare 'Em Straight: In response to Lindsey's reckless hitchhiking, her mom drags her into the morgue to view a dead hitchhiker (to Dr. Robbins' disapproval).
Commuting On A Bus: As of season 10, she's on the line...she's listed as a series regular, but only appears in a certain number of episodes per season.
Dark And Twisted Past: Her mother killed her father, who was abusive to both her and her mother. She ended up in foster care.
Hint Dropping: Tries this as a tactic while trying to court Grissom. She once told Hodges (who was fretting about a possible grey hair) that she finds grey hair rather sexy, while standing next to Grissom. Eventually, she point-blank asks him out, which he refuses. After a couple of more years, he eventually comes around to Glad You Thought of It.
May-December Romance: with Grissom; the actors are 16 years apart in real life. Not that it matters to Sara, who as mentioned above, has a thing for silver foxes.
Put on a Bus: She's taken a round trip, having come back to assist the team when they're short-staffed in the most recent season.
The Bus Came Back: She's an official series regular again for Season 12.
Second Episode Introduction: Comes in to help the team per request of (who else?) Grissom in the second episode following the death of the Naïve Newcomer and stays on board.
UST: For YEARS with Grissom before Season 6 ended with the above trope.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Shortly after becoming a CSI he stops sporting his normally wacky hairstyles, to show how he's matured.
Genius Ditz: In earlier seasons. While he does act like an idiot he's very good at his job, and has extended knowledge on coin collection and Old Vegas.
Cowboy BeBop At His Computer: He is not Grissom's replacement, instead coming in on the bottom rung. Though that doesn't explain why he got to be first in the opening titles, something his character really hasn't earned.
He's a Renaissance Man; he's only a Level 1 CSI (though he works his butt off to get quickly promoted to Level 2) but he used to be a medical doctor (so he assists in autopsy's more than most) and a criminology lecturer (so he occasionally provides a criminal profile). He's underqualified as a crime scene investigator but he makes up for it with a broad range of skills. Plus he's Laurence Fishburne.
Freudian Excuse: Played with. His father was apparently violent, and Raymond worries that he may become that way himself. He also has a gene that has been associated with violent behaviour. On the other hand, when faced with Serial Killer Nate Haskell, who has the same gene and his own abusive father, he testifys in open court against his attempt to use this card, and afterwards Haskell admits to him that he decided in his youth he'd blame it on those things if he were ever caught.
Handicapped Badass: He might need a cane to get around, but he can be a pretty mean fighter when he has to be.
The Lab Rat: Sort of, although he's a mortuary rat rather than a lab rat.
Mr. Exposition: His autopsies often reveal further background on the murder victims.
Sympathetic Adulterer/Your Cheating Heart: Reveals in season 12 that he cheated once, essentially just to see if he had the guts to. It nearly ruined him and his wife, and they've been faithful ever since. It's really kind of adorable.
Deadpan Snarker: On Vegas' staggeringly-high murder rate: "We're very competitive!"
Dirty Cop : Originally a big subversion of this, stating how he refused to be bought or get dirty, but now drifting into that territory as of the end of season 11. He covered for Ray when Ray killed Nate Haskell, and was reluctant to help catch a killer who was killing other killers.
Mr. Exposition: He's the man who gives both the team and the audience information on the latest victim of the week.
Parental Issues: He still loves his daughter despite knowing that she's not his. Her... not so much, to the point that when Brass is shot he gives power of attorney to Grissom rather than to her.
A Day in the Limelight: The B-plot of one episode featured Ecklie handling the investigation himself when the main characters were unavailable.
Ambition Is Evil: The real reason he was such an ass to Grissom and the team was because he thought that Grissom had the same ambitions he did. Once he realized that Grissom and the team wouldn't keep him from fulfilling his goals, he eased off considerably.
Big Bad: Arguably, of season five. He never does anything illegal, but his antagonistic actions drive the overarching plot of that season.
Da Chief: He starts out as the day shift supervisor, then becomes director of the lab, and is later promoted to undersheriff of the entire department.
Reasonable Authority Figure: When Nick was Buried Alive, Ecklie pulled some strings to gather the ransom his kidnapper, and relations between him and the night shift have mostly thawed since then. Ecklie came into his own as Asst. Director, where his talent for juggling the top brass and news media have proven to be an asset to the team.
The Rival: To Grissom, who deplores Ecklie's careerism.
Smug Snake: Pre-"Grave Danger." He took utmost pleasure in seeing Grissom's team humiliated, and even worked to get Nick convicted of murder once purely out of spite.
Ambition Is Evil: Brass recalls that when he was made a detective, McKeen invited all of the new detectives over to his (suspiciously large) house for a barbecue. When Brass let him known that he wasn't such a careerist that could be bought like that, he was never invited again, and had to watch over the years as all the others at that barbecue were promoted above him.
Clueless Detective: Doesn't always get or appreciate the abilities of the CSI's or what they do which bites him in the ass when he tries to frame someone else for murder.
Implacable Man: Crashes his car at high speed when shot by his paranoid passenger, and drags himself away from the wreckage to bleed out...and lives,despite his best efforts.
Good People Have Good Sex: In a series that conforms to this trope to an almost unfortunate degree, she remains the one notable aversion. Her practices still make her dark and troubled, however.
Hot Mom: When we first meet her, she already has an adult daughter, looks about 25 tops, and makes the until-then-completely-asexual Grissom's eyes bug out of his head. In later seasons, she becomes a grandmother without losing much of her good looks.
The Vamp: Used for good! In her third appearance, she sleeps with Leon Sneller, the guy who killed her daughter to get evidence from him to give the team.
What Could Have Been: Reportedly, William Petersen (who is also Executive Producer of the show) once wanted her and Grissom to end up together.
Whip It Good: Used horrifyingly in "Pirates of the Third Reich" when she captures Sneller, ties him to her car, and proceeds to try to whip him to death. Grissom talks her out of it.
