Directed by Frederick EO Toye
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Zachary Reiter & John Dove
"Indelible" is the Season 8 premiere and the 163rd episode overall. It originally aired September 23, 2011.
On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, everyone remembers where they were on that fateful day. Danny is now a Sergeant and is supervising a group of rookies; while Mac has left the Crime Lab to work at Piper Laboratories trying to identify the DNA of 9/11 victims. Mac prepares for a dedication ceremony while Jo leads the team's investigation of a robbery/homicide case that proves to be more complicated than expected.
Tropes for the episode:
- Actor Allusion: Mac giving a speech at the dedication of the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance in honor of the first responders who lost their lives in the attacks. Gary Sinise had done so at the actual ceremony, and had helped raise funds for the project, along with his Lt. Dan Band.
- At the Opera Tonight: Subverted for drama. The episode opens with a flashback of Mac & Claire getting ready for work on the morning of 09/11/01. He surprised her with opera tickets for that very evening, but, of course, they never got to use them. At the end of the episode, he is revealed to have saved the tickets for 10 years, finally letting go of them in the tide as a way of saying good-bye to Claire.
- Bonding Through Shared Earbuds: In a touching flashback to Mac and Claire's last morning together, he joins her on a bus to work and finds her sitting with her earbuds in. He gestures towards them and, without a word, she pulls one out and gives it to him so they can listen to "Here Comes the Sun" together before he gets off at his stop. They wave as the bus pulls away. She is killed in the attacks an hour or so later, making this the last time Mac ever sees her alive.
- Can't Tie His Tie: Adam has so much trouble with his, Lindsay tells him, "By the time you're done, it'll be the 20th anniversary" and ends up tying it for him.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Although the audience has known since the pilot episode that Claire died on 9/11, it is revealed here that she had made it out of the first tower before being killed when the second one fell.
- Christianity is Catholic: After Mac prays aloud over a deceased first responder, he makes the sign of the Cross...although he's so exhausted, his hand drops and he can't quite finish it properly.
- The Dead Have Names: When a young co-worker at Piper asks Mac about his wife and keeps saying "she" and "her," he snaps, telling the girl that her name was Claire and that the victims are not just statistics - they have names. The girl goes silent and he immediately apologies, saying he knows she doesn't think that. (It being the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, he's more on edge about it than usual.)
- Due to the Dead: The entire team attend the dedication ceremony.
- Flashback B-Plot: Other than Lindsay (who was still living in Montana at the time) and Adam (who shamefully admits to her that he'd slept thru the whole event), the team members are shown in quite a few flashbacks to what they were doing when and/or shortly after the towers fell.note A few examples:
- Mac cuts himself shaving in the present day and recalls having done so exactly 10 years before. Later, he boards a bus and remembers riding one to work that morning with his wife Claire, not having any idea at the time that it would be the last moment they'd be together.
- Sid, the coroner, flashes back to helping with the victims as he writes the current date (9/11/11) on a toe tag.
- Standing on the sidewalk, Jo sees dark smoke from a diesel truck and remembers seeing smoke at the Pentagon from the window of her then-office in D.C.
- Ironic Name: Overlaps with Opposites Theme Naming. Flack and Jo interview two street thugs nicknamed "Black Mike" and "White Mike". Black Mike, who is Black, is really named Mike White; and White Mike, who is White, is really named Mike Black.
- Last Moment Together: This tribute includes a scene of Mac boarding a bus, which triggers a flashback of him watching his wife, Claire, playfully stick her tongue out at him as she rides away on a bus to work on that day. Neither of them could know that she would perish when the towers fell just a short time later.
- New Job Episode: Mac is shown working at Piper Laboratories (where he's apparently been over the summer hiatus) in this episode only. A co-worker asks him about Claire and if she's the reason he switched jobs.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Two suspects are named Mike Black and Mike White. When choosing which guy to question:Jo: I'll take Black Mike.Flack: Great. I got Mike Black. The white guy. [She gives him a questioning look, he grins.] Don't think about. But trust me, it's right.
- Det. Jo Danville and Mac's fireman buddy, Joe Vincent. In this case, tho, they don't cross paths on-screen; Mac is the only one who talks to both of them.
- Two suspects are named Mike Black and Mike White. When choosing which guy to question:
- Shiny Vs Gritty: The present-day scenes are filmed as usual, whereas the 9/11 flashbacks are shown in dark, gritty hues, complete with all the dust and debris that were everywhere in reality.
- Shown Their Work: Writers (including Zachary Reiter who was consulted by the set designers) and crewmembers who were living in NYC at the time described the end product as eerily real. Episode co-writer John Dove, who had been an NYPD officer at the time and whom the designers also consulted, even said they were "too good."
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Adam, who'd been in college at the time, reveals to Lindsay that he'd partied too hard the night of Sept 10, 2001.Adam: I went out the night before with a couple of my buddies, and we had a few too many drinks, and I didn't wake up 'till after 2:00. And by then, the entire world had changed.
- Techno Babble: In just one of the many times Flack calls someone out for it:Jo: That ring around the blood spot is called skeletonization.Flack: Why don't they just call it a ring?Jo: Okay, that's it. Forget it. I give up.Flack: Sorry, it would be much more interesting if you guys used smaller words.
- Theme Tuneless Episode: Subverted, as the tune was there, but it was played *after* the first commercial break instead of in it's usual place before the break, due to just showing the title card as a moment of respect for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
- There Will Be Toilet Paper: Mac nicks himself shaving on the morning of the ceremony, which triggers one of his flashbacks. He is shown getting ready for work on 9/11/01. He had nicked himself that day as well and had asked Claire to hand him a cotton swab...although he'd asked with an ulterior motive. He'd wanted her to find the opera tickets he'd hidden in their swab container.
- Tragic Keepsake: Mac held on to his and Claire's opera tickets for 10 years, finally releasing them into the tide at the close of this episode.
- Very Special Episode: As well as being a 10th anniversary tribute, the episode originally ended with Sinise doing a PSA about the Wall of Remembrance. As of Dec 2019, it was still played at the end of the episode on Amazon's Fire-Stick.
