AceShowbiz -

Mac Taylor is ready to enter the dating zone in upcoming episodes of "CSI: NY". Megan Dodds has been booked to appear in five episodes of the CBS crime drama series as a major love interest for Gary Sinise's detective character. She will first appear in the twelfth episode of the currently airing season 8.

The Jess Harkins of "Detroit 1-8-7" is set to tackle the role of Christine. She and Mac met when the latter first moved to New York and decided to join the police department. Executive producer Zach Reiter revealed, "Mac was in the police academy with Christine's brother. So there's a familiarity and an association from way back when."

On the two's relationship when they meet again, Reiter told TV Guide, "This is a woman all these years later who reaches out to reconnect, more or less to say, 'I read about what you did for the [Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance] and the survivors of 9/11.' It snowballs from there."

"We'll see the courtship," Reiter further teased. "If one exists. There are aspects of that relationship that become a little bit complicated, but what we're hoping is to see whether Mac can successfully move on from Claire. It's fun to see him awkwardly go through that."

Reiter said that they have been preparing for this storyline for Mac since the season premiere, by featuring the "moment where Mac releases the opera tickets into the ocean and symbolically says goodbye to Claire and that chapter of his life." He added, "We were hoping that he would be able to move on romantically. It would be a shame if a guy like him could not find love in his life."