Directed by Allison Liddi Brown
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Zachary Reiter & Bill Haynes
"Exit Strategy" is the 22nd and final episode of Season 7 and the 162nd overall. It originally aired May 13, 2011.
After having a brush with death, Mac decides to tackle his last cold case: a bodega robbery from 2002. Sheldon discovers evidence that links it to a missing little girl. Danny takes the Sergeant's exam.
Tropes for the episode:
- Bulletproof Vest: During the opening, Mac, Danny and Don are shown wearing vests and getting ready to apprehend a perp.
- Call-Back: In the opening, Danny kisses a picture of Lucy before sticking it in his vest pocket, Mac kisses his crucifix before dropping it down his shirt, and Don stares at his badge before clipping it to his belt. Half-way through the episode, the three men repeat their rituals before going after another suspect.
- Christianity is Catholic: Mac's crucifix is shown twice.
- Continuity Nod:
- The name "A. Burn" and the date "Nov 2002" can be seen on the cover of the cold case folder, revealing that Mac and Aiden, who was killed in Season 2, had worked together for approximately 2 years before the series began.
- In the second episode of Season 1, "Creatures of the Night," Mac told Stella he had nine folders from unsolved cases on the corner of his desk, but that "there used to be 12." This case is the last one from that pile.
- End-of-Series Awareness: Due to the possibility that the series would not be renewed, certain things were included:
- Lampshaded by the episode title, "Exit Strategy."
- Mac hints to Jo that he might retire. Danny takes and passes the Sergeant's exam in hopes of running the Lab someday. Adam is being his usual goofy self. Sheldon leaves for a date.
- During the final autopsy, Sid says, "Time of death, between 7 and 10 p.m. Friday night." Those four hours were the airtimes of the show across four North American times zones at the time.
- For the first and only time in the series, Mac turns off *all* the lamps in his office before leaving.
- The episode ends with him standing on the sidewalk looking to his left at the camera before turning to his right and walking away from it, and thus the audience. The song playing over this scene is "Holding On and Letting Go" which speaks of "one door swinging open, one door swinging closed."
- Heroic BSoD: Having faced death yet again, Mac sits in a team meeting, not really paying attention to the discussion. He gets up and walks down the hall in a daze.
- Riddled and Rattled: A young man who had been coerced by his partner-in-crime to kidnap a toddler from the scene of a robbery-homicide ended up raising her as his daughter while on the lam. Once he's tracked down during the episode's climax, a SWAT team, thinking he's reaching for a gun, opens fire on him and riddles him with bullets as Mac shouts in vain for them to hold their fire. From his standpoint, he alone could see the young man was actually reaching for his keys. The man falls to the ground and as he lays dying, his last words to the girl are that she can finally go home.
- Series Fauxnale: Due to uncertainty whether the series would be renewed, changes in Mac, Danny & Lindsay's lives were hinted as possibilities.
- String Theory: Jo sees the bulletin board in Mac's office with string connecting a series of points and tells him he's "really going old school." He explains that he's dealing with a cold case in which the suspect's whereabouts were originally tracked that way, so he's picking up where the original investigation left off.
- That One Case: The bodega robbery is the last open case file on the corner of Mac's desk, having gone unsolved for more than 8 years. He tells Jo it was the first case he was assigned upon becoming head of the Lab. Right before he turns off his lamps as the episode ends, he sticks the folder in his cabinet, implying that his work is done.
- "What Now?" Ending: Two storylines, both of which panned out in the 8th season premiere.
- At one point, Mac tells Jo he thinks he's done his share of good. At the very end, he is seen (for the ONLY time in the entire series) turning off all the lamps in his office, leaving it completely dark before he goes home for the night, implying that he won't be back.
- Near the end, Danny tells Lindsay that he's passed the Sergeant's exam, setting up a change for their future as the promotion would mean he has to leave the lab.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: One of the kidnappers takes off with the four-year-old girl rather than shoot her as his accomplice demands.
