Directed by Alex Zakrzewski
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Zachary Reiter & Pam Veasey
"Near Death" is the 18th (and finale) episode of Season 8 and the 180th overall. It originally aired May 11, 2012.
A robbery goes wrong just as Mac enters a pharmacy and he is critically wounded. As he hovers between life and death, the rest of the team frantically race to find the person responsible.
Tropes for the episode:
- Adventures in Comaland: While in surgery, Mac subconsciously visits his coworkers, having conversations, hugging them and even sharing a shot of whiskey with Adam.
- After-Action Healing Drama: Mac is rushed to the hospital after being shot and is taken straight to surgery right past Jo who is screaming for someone to tell her what's going on. Flack has to reassure her that he's in good hands. Much of the episode focuses on his time in and out of consciousness while in the OR and his recovery room.
- Afterlife Antechamber: Mac's perceived activity while unconscious takes place in various rooms of the Crime Lab and at the precinct.
- Ancestral Name: At the hospital, Christine tells Jo that Mac's middle name (Llewellyn) was passed down through his mother's side of the family, which is Welsh.
- Christianity is Catholic: Christine prays over Mac with a rosary while he's in recovery.
- Cop Killer Manhunt: The team go after the perp just as determinedly as if Mac had been killed.
- Dead Person Conversation: Mac's series of conversations with others while he's in the coma start and end with his late wife Claire visiting him, first in the Lab's hallway to tell him what happened, and lastly in his office to tell him he can't leave with her.
- Discovering Your Own Dead Body: A variation. When Mac visits Sid during his "limbo" period, he finds the man about to remove a sheet from a body. He asks Sid to wait and wants to know if that's himself on the table. Sid says, "Only if you've given up." They continue talking, but the body is never shown.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: When Jo is frustrated by all the questions on Mac's hospital paperwork, Christine tells her that his middle name is Llewellyn. She knows because her brother, Stan, had been Mac's partner back in the day, and had teased him relentlessly.Jo: Mac Llewellyn Taylor?? Good Lord.
- End-of-Series Awareness: Due to possible cancellation, certain things were included:
- Lampshaded by the title, "Near Death."
- After going thru 6 months of recovery, Mac returns to work in the final scene via Feet-First Introduction, which is a Call Back how he was originally shown in the Backdoor Pilot on CSI: Miami.
- The song playing at the end is Macy Gray's "Coming Back to You" which says "I've been here before, I'll be back for more. Maybe this time I can stay." (Renewal was announced four days after the original air date.)
- Flatline: During Mac's operation, one of the nurses shouts, "He's flatlining!" as a long beep sounds from his heart monitor. He is subsequently shocked back to life.
- Given Name Reveal: In spite of Mac's military records, Marine ID, etc. being shown and referenced off and on over the past 8 seasons, prior to now not even his middle initial was known to any other character or the audience, much less his entire middle name of Llewellyn.
- How We Got Here: The timeline starts with Mac lying on the pharmacy floor and backs up to 12 hours earlier after the opening credits.
- In the Back: Mac looks over his shoulder at the young woman who enters the pharmacy after him, asks her if she has a phone, and tells her to call 911 and tell them a man (the robber)'s been shot, not realizing the guy is her boyfriend. As he turns to face forward again, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out not a phone, but a gun, and shoots him directly in the back.
- It Is Not Your Time: Claire tells Mac he has "another tour of duty" and that he can't leave with her because he's "not invited."
- Left for Dead: Mac's shooter leaves him, the pharmacist, and the robber lying on the floor. Two of the three are indeed deceased.
- Miranda Rights: Flack's variation to the shooter? "Shut up! That's short for 'You have the right to remain silent!'"
- Near-Death Experience: Mac flatlines during surgery and goes into a coma during which he hallucinates encounters with various people.
- Paranormal Episode: The action bounces back and forth between what's really happening and what's going on in Mac's subconscious for a good portion of the ep.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Mac's subconscious encounter with the Messer family ends with Lucy toddling off, Lindsay following her, and the two men standing side by side staring out the window and saying:Danny: I love you, Mac.Mac: I love you, too, Danny.
- Series Fauxnale: Much like the year before, renewal was in question at the time. Mac's limbo conversations are used to tie up loose ends and give hints about some of the characters' futures:
- Mac tells Jo he'll miss her friendship, but that she'll do a fine job without him. She says she could, but that she doesn't want to.
- Danny and Lindsay speculate about moving out of the city and thus leaving the Crime Lab.
- Mac tells Adam he'll be a great CSI one day.
- Sid tells Mac to hang around for the groundbreaking of a university building his pillow invention is financing.
- Mac tells Flack he knew about him shooting Angell's killer all along, and why he let it go.
- Mac asks Sheldon if Camille is "the one."
- Sheldon reminds Mac that he could still be a father some day...
- Snowy Screen of Death: In scenes of the Lab during Mac's out of body experience, all the computer screens shown display static instead of their usual maps, test results, screen savers, etc.
- Time Skip: The episode closes with Mac arriving at a crime scene "Six Months Later." Everyone's joyful reaction makes it clear this is his first foray back into the field...getting his back into his living once again.
- Unbroken Vigil: Christine keeps vigil at Mac's bedside after his surgery (apparently after all of the team have gone home).
