The entertainment world was rocked today when it was discovered that George Eads, who plays Nick Stokes on the CBS drama CSI, would be leaving the show. Of course, Eads has left the show a couple times in the past, but always made his return. However, it is beginning to sound like this will mark the end for our favorite Texan crime solver.

For fifteen years, we have watched Nick Stokes grow as an investigator and a person who cares about his friends and co-workers, as well as the people who he helps in solving cases. There have been plenty of changes in the history of the show, as his departure means Eads will be the last original cast member to have stayed on the show for this long (while Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) has been on the show since the beginning, he wasn’t made a regular until later).

TheCelebrityCafe.com wanted to celebrate the long history CSI has had with the character of Nick Stokes, from his early beginnings to very recently during his work on the Gig Harbor case. We’ll be able to follow the story of Nick Stokes to the end of the season, but let’s take a look at some of the top ten moments from Nick during his time on the show.

Image courtesy of Jean Catuffe/INFphoto.com

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10. Turn, Turn, Turn

Nick has been known to be very emotional when it comes to cases he is part of. In one episode of CSI, a victim turns out to be a girl he saw over the years when he investigated crimes at the hotel where she often was. He has a touching moment with a co-worker in the end when he wonders if he could have done more for her.

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9. Singing

Nick is not only known for being a great investigator, and very hot, but he can sing a tune, as seen in a clip when a lab technician makes him sing in order to get results from a report she was running.

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8. Gunpoint

In an early episode of the show, Nick was held at gunpoint by a suspect, leaving him shaken. It was just one of many instances in which Nick went through trauma.

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7. Stalker

Speaking of trauma, Nick must deal with a stalker in another early episode from the show. He doesn’t realize that a stalker who killed a murder victim has also been watching him and at one point, he is thrown out of the window of a house.

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6. Gumdrops

In an episode of CSI directly after Nick’s kidnapping, you can see there are still residual effects from what happened when he gets aggressive with a suspect.

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5. Playing dead

One of the season 10 episodes saw Nick getting shot by an assailant. In order to save himself, he played dead before shooting the suspect multiple times. The video below is a collection of Nick Stokes scene through season 10 and the particular moment he is playing dead is around the 3:30 mark.

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4. Car

One of my favorite episodes from the show is “Rashomama,” in which Nick’s car is stolen, and to make matters worse, it has evidence from a shooting at a wedding. This causes problems for Greg, Sara, and Nick, as it directly affects their ability to make sure they can investigate the case all over again.

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3. Buried alive

In season five, Nick was kidnapped and put in a coffin-like box that was buried underground. The team went through hoops to save his life, and Nick was put through trauma as he considered suicide and also had fire ants crawling all over him.

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2. Losing a friend

Nick Stokes was best friends with another CSI named Warrick Brown. At the end of season eight, Warrick is shot and killed by an undersheriff Jeff McKeen, who was attempting to mask his corruption and wanted to eliminate Warrick so he wouldn’t find out about him. Nick was devastated after losing his friend and at one point when he catches McKeen, it’s all he can not to shoot him. The clip below shows Nick at Warrick’s funeral.

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1. Friendships

Nick has been a great friend to his co-workers in the crime lab and they all get along very well. One of friendships he has had is with Greg Sanders, who started as a lab tech before becoming a seasoned investigator himself. The clip below is from one of their earlier interactions with each other when Greg surprises Nick by revealing the victim was killed with a biotoxin.