CSI: Miami--'10/7'

See Also: '10-7' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

An explosion at a warehouse party during a DJ's set brings the Miami CSIs to the scene. Detective John Hagen tells Horatio that three people were killed in the blast. The warehouse was being used for a spontaneous party, but the explosion came from the building next door. When Horatio and Hagen venture through the hole in the wall, they find the body of another man. Ryan Wolfe is on his way to the crime scene when he's stopped by Erica Sikes, an attractive young reporter who thanks him for the tip about the explosion. Inside, Hagen is questioning a man from the warehouse, Matt Young, who saw a man named Scott Owens arguing with Gary, the DJ, shortly before the explosion. Horatio and Ryan explore the scene and Ryan discovers a mercury switch, which was responsible for the bomb's detonation. Horatio surmises the music from the DJ's speakers set off the bomb. When Ryan finds an altimeter switch, Horatio concludes that this was the bomber's workshop.

In the autopsy room, Alexx tells Horatio that she found a piece of plastic with wire inside in the back of the bomber, Brandon Miller. She also shows Horatio that Brandon was stabbed with a knife before the explosion. Horatio calls Calleigh and tells her to look for the knife at the scene. She goes into the room where the bomber's workshop and notices a spot where the dust hasn't covered the floor, indicating something was removed. While she sifts through it, someone comes up behind her and puts a gun to her head. She hear the click of the gun, and then the sound of the person walking away. She jumps up and looks for the person, but she only encounters Delko.

Alexx finds potassium iodide in Miller's blood, causing Horatio to realize that the bomber was making radioactive bombs. Ryan tells Horatio the bombs are being made with TNT and Horatio is able to track the TNT used to a staff sergeant named Tim Stoddard, who sold the TNT to Miller to pay for his gambling debts. Stoddard denies stabbing Miller. Delko runs the prints on the knife, and though he gets a hit, the database tells him he's not authorized to see the result. Horatio inputs his password and comes up with the result: his own brother, Ray. Sure enough, Agent David Park shows up soon after Horatio's search to tell him that Raymond had infiltrated a Columbian drug ring using drug money to make dirty bombs. He also tells Horatio that Raymond missed his last check in.

Erica corners Ryan to ask for leads in the case, and though he refuses to comment he does let slip that the lab is testing a sample of potassium iodide. Aaron Peters shows Horatio that the LED piece found in Miller's back isn't from a bomb, but used in a hip Miami bar called Club Freeze. Matt Young, the suspicious party-gower, was at Club Freeze and happens to have potassium iodide on him, which he claims he takes for a thyroid problem. In the ballistics lab, Calleigh is preparing to listen to the sound of various guns being cocked to try to identify the one the was held to her head. A concerned Delko cocks the guns by her ear. She recognizes one of them, a rare Ruger. She's determined to find the gun.

Horatio questions Matt, who proves to be a militant who views America as a corporation. He spots Yelina through the window and makes a reference to Ray, Jr. Horatio runs out and asks Yelina where Ray, Jr. is. She calls her mother who tells her that Ray, Jr. never got home from soccer practice. Horatio is forced to tell Yelina that Ray is alive and that Ray, Jr. could be in danger. Hagen informs Horatio that Matt escaped from custody. Horatio races to his car and discovers Ray inside waiting for him. Ray explained that the Feds forced him to work undercover after they discovered he was a dirty cop. He tells Horatio that he killed Brandon Miller because he found out Ray was a cop. Horatio informs him that the rest of the bombers have his son.

Horatio and Hagan go through Matt's apartment and finds a soccer schedule and a numeric code on a piece of paper. When Matt's landlord brings them Matt's car information, Horatio realizes the model has Onstar and can be tracked. He tells Hagen he'll take it from there in order to protect Hagen. Hagen is visibly upset but finally relents and leaves. Horatio and Ray track the signal from Matt's car and locate him at a warehouse. Matt and another man are standing over Ray, Jr. Horatio and Ray exchange shots with them; Matt goes down but Ray is hit as well. The other man escapes and Horatio rescues Ray, Jr. and sends him outside before he can spot his father.

Calleigh and Delko are watching Erica Sikes' news broadcast, which contains information about the potassium iodide and possible dirty bomb threat. Delko suspects Ryan of leaking the information and blames him for the panic going on in Miami right now. Hagen comes to see Calleigh in the ballistics lab, depressed about his career. He tells her he hasn't felt like a hero lately. She suggests they get coffee as friends and goes off to finish something in another part of the lab. Suddenly she hears a gun cock--the exact same one that was held to her head--and Hagen shoots himself. Calleigh is shaken, but she notices something in Hagen's pocket as he's being wheeled away on a gurney and pulls it out. She realizes that John took it from the bomber's workshop, hoping to be a hero, and that's why he held the gun to her head.

Tyler determines the piece of paper found at Matt's apartment is the weather forecast, including wind speeds, for that afternoon. Horatio rushes to Carillo Park just in time to stop the helicopter carrying the bomb from taking off. The bomb's timer is already set and Horatio looks carefully at the wires before cutting one of them, which disarms the bomb. Returning to the station, he tells Yelina that she needs a break, and she counters that he does as well. She smiles when he hands her tickets to Brazil. In the ballistics lab, some of Hagen's blood from the ceiling falls on Calleigh, and she puts the gun down and leaves, pulling her nameplate off the ballistics roster as she does. Delko smirks grimly when he seems Ryan on the news, but leaves before he seems Ryan praise his colleagues. Horatio takes Yelina and Ray, Jr. to the airport where a plane awaits. But to Yelina and Ray, Jr's surprise, it is Ray, who was wearing a vest when he was shot rescuing Ray, Jr., who is going with them, not Horatio. Yelina hesitates, then goes off with Ray as Horatio looks on.

Analysis:

Miami promised an explosive finale, and technically, the show delivered. But when explosions start to feel routine you need a little more going for your finale. I can think of three other explosions in Miami's three season run off the top of my head, and two of them occurred this season. One wish I have for Miami's fourth season is that it be toned down, at least back to the level of the first and second seasons, when the show felt much more believable.

Raymond Caine's return, which has been foreshadowed and hinted at for weeks, disappointed somewhat. We only got one really good scene between the Caine brothers and after three seasons, the audience wanted more. But where is there time for a heartfelt reunion amid kidnapping and shadowy Columbian drug lords trying to explode a radioactive bomb over Miami, which doesn't make sense in the first place. Why would the drug dealers want to wipe out so many of their clients? The plot was an excuse to bring Horatio and Raymond together, but the payoff--one brief confrontation followed by Ray yet again faking his own death--wasn't worth the thin plot.

Even David Caruso, who had such a powerful reaction to the news that his brother was alive at the end of "Killer Date" isn't given much to work with. He's barely able to chide Ray before they're off to rescue Ray, Jr. And after all is said and done, rather than confronting his brother about either Ray's choices or his own feelings for Yelina, Horatio hands off the woman he loves to his brother.

And what is with that? Yelina was thrilled at the prospect of going off with Horatio, even after she'd learned Ray was alive, and even practically suggested it by reminding Horatio that he, too, needed some time off. After the previous week, when she sent Stetler packing with a black eye, I thought we were finally going to get a clear picture of Yelina as a woman with her own wants and desires, a woman who is able to take care of herself and her son when need be. But instead, we see the character take several steps back when Horatio basically hands her over to Ray, who, not only let her believe she was a widow but prior to that was unfaithful to her. And what does Yelina do? Rather than marching her son on the plane and leaving both Caine brothers in the dust, goes passively to Raymond while long-suffering Horatio looks on. Talk about disappointing--Yelina barely even looked conflicted.

The plot that didn't disappoint was the resolution of John Hagen's story, sad as it was. In season one of Miami, Hagen was a confident if somber cop who pursued Calleigh steadfastly. Things seemed to be going well until he insulted her father and lost her in the show's second season. He returned in the third season from a break from his job (for psychological reasons) and has seemed alternately haunted, broken and desperate. He focused a lot of his energy on Calleigh, and it's apparent when she gently turns him down that it's just one more way in which he feels he's failed. Hagen has never been comfortable with Calleigh's strength: he felt the need to guard her in "Body Count", despite the fact that she claimed she was able to take care of herself--and, indeed, proved it later on in the episode. Calleigh not needing a hero is one more blow for a man who wants nothing more than to be a hero to someone.

The expression on Hagen's face when he holds the gun to Calleigh's head suggests that in some ways he is tempted to pull the trigger; if he can't have and protect her then no one can. But as deeply disturbed as he is, Hagen is in no way evil, and in the end he turns the gun on himself. Holt McCallany has done an admirable job of portraying the haunted Hagen's gradual downslide into depression and hopelessness.

I'll admit, when I heard Calleigh was going to quit ballistics, I was concerned. Was this going to be another abrupt and unsupported action that made no real sense (like Yelina going off with Ray after being ready to leave with his brother?)? But in the end I bought Calleigh leaving, even if I'm not entirely sure why she did. I don't think it had to do with Hagen holding the gun to her head--Calleigh has been in tough situations before, and she knows the dangers that come with the job. I wouldn't be so quick to pin it entirely on Hagen's death, though that obviously has something to do with it. Is Calleigh, like Hagen, tired of trying to be a hero? Did this case put such a sour taste in her mouth that she feels the need to be done for now? I hope it's something that will be explored next season when she is inevitably drawn back into the fold in one way or another.

The mounting tension between Ryan and Delko has also been set up well for next season. The fact that Delko only catches Ryan in front of the cameras and leaves before the younger CSI praises the work of his colleagues suggests that the friction between the two is only going to grow in the upcoming season. We've never seen a real rivalry between CSIs that wasn't based on friendship and mutual respect (as with Delko and Speed, or Nick and Warrick on CSI), so I'm interested to see how far the resentment and hostility will be taken. How will these two behave towards each other now that they no longer have Calleigh as a buffer?

Despite the failings of the main plot line, "10/7" has set up plenty of interesting scenarios for next season. How will Horatio and Yelina interact with Raymond back in their lives? Will Ray come back to his old life or will he have to stay underground (and possibly away from his family) because of a continuing threat from the Columbian drug cartels? And how is the team going to get Calleigh to come back? I for one can't wait to find out.

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