CSI: Miami--'Driven'

See Also: 'Driven' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

Three masked men burst into the Hypnotique Spa and demand all the women go to their lockers and get their purses. A security guard tries to stop them but they overpower him and tie him up, taking his gun. One of the women, Victoria Morena, pulls pepper spray out of her purse and sprays one of the masked men, but the one with the gun shoots her and kicks her in the head. The robbery proceeds and the three men make a getaway in three of the spa patrons' cars. When Horatio and Tripp show up, Victoria is in critical condition but hanging on. Horatio is stunned to learn Marisol Delko was at the spa, and goes to see her. When he sees the large cut on her head, he sends her to the hospital, promising to catch the men responsible. Tripp tells Horatio that all three of the cars stolen have GPS tracking devices. A concerned Delko arrives at the scene, and zeroes in on the massage therapist, Pete, who has blood on his shirt. Pete gave Victoria CPR and revived her, but what was he doing in the women's side of the spa? While recovering the bullet from the shooter's gun, Calleigh discovers a peephole in the wall. Pete admits to watching the women through the hole, but denies taking part in the robbery.

Tripp hauls Billy Robinson, who just tried to check into the hospital with a pepper spray burn to the face. Billy has a set of car keys on him from one of the stolen vehicles, so he's clearly one of the robbers, but he refuses to give up the man who shot Victoria. Ryan and Dan Cooper follow the GPS signal of the Viper to the pier only to discover the GPS has been removed from the car. The third car is discovered on the road and pulled over. Hayden Cruise, the driver, claims he bought the car from a guy named Joe. Back at the lab Ryan and Calleigh compare toolmarks on the GPS unit to ones from dismantled cars in on-going auto-theft cases and match it to one in the case of Carvell Watson, a repair shop owner suspected of running a chop shop. Calleigh goes to his shop and tells Greg Everett, the service manager, that she needs a part for a Viper. When he promises her the part and gets Carvell, Calleigh flashes her badge. There's sad news back at the morgue--Victoria has died of cardiac arrest. Calleigh questions Carvell about the stolen viper doors and the purses from the women at the spa found in the dumpster behind his shop, but Carvell insists he's being set up.

Traces of sucrose and ash from Victoria's hair lead Horatio and Ryan to a burned-out sugar mill which has been turned into a chop shop. Accompanied by a team, Horatio and Ryan burst in on them, and in the melee a man emerges from the back and aims a gun straight at Ryan. Ryan aims his gun but freezes up at the last minute. Horatio shoots the man, and tells Ryan that he didn't have a clear shot at the man. A shaken Ryan repeats this to Rick Stetler when he's questioned about the shooting. Delko examines the body of the man Horatio killed and sees pepper spray on him, indicating they have the second robber but not the shooter, who was standing too far away from Victoria to be hit by the pepper spray. He's also gone over the purses--the women's house keys are missing. Horatio realizes the robbers are planning a second rash of robberies and his suspicion is proved correct when one of the spa victims, Cynthia Gilmore, is found ties up at her home. She recognized the voice of the man as the shooter's voice from the spa. She also has a disturbing piece of information--the man took her BlackBerry and now has the addresses of all her friends.

Delko discovers DNA on the rope used to tie Cynthia up and is surprised to learn it belongs to Javier Morena, Victoria's husband. Javier confesses to tying Cynthia up, but tells Delko it was consensual--they were having an affair. Ryan and Dan Cooper eliminate Javier as a suspect when they discover a camera in a pen belonging to Pete, the peeing massage therapist and compare the height of the shooter in Pete's pictures to Javier's and discover the shooter is a few inches short. Delko and Horatio race to Marisol's house when her security alarm goes off. Marisol isn't there, but a dead man dressed in black is. Delko pulls off his mask to reveal Greg Everett, the service manager at Carvell Watson's shop. Marisol is safe at the station, and after Horatio tells her what happened at her house, he sends her to stay at his place. In the morgue, Alexx hands Calleigh the bullet from Greg's body--it's a .38, a match to the one that hit Victoria. Alexx points out some patterned bruising on Greg's arm, and the pattern from Hayden Cruise's driving gloves.

Horatio confronts Hayden--Greg was the one who sold him the stolen car, and Hayden wanted him dead. At first Hayden only admits to following him the shop to Marisol's house and fighting with him, but Horatio isn't it buying it. Hayden finally angrily admits he couldn't let Greg get away with taking his money for the stolen car. The case closed, Calleigh tries to comfort Ryan about freezing up and not firing at the scene. Horatio tells Marisol the situation is resolved, but Marisol is still unsettled. She's thinking of all of the things she hasn't been doing while she's been fighting her cancer--namely, having a baby. Horatio tells her it's not too late.

Analysis:

"Driven" is a caper episode, but the focus seems to be more on the stupidity of the victims as opposed to the cleverness of the conspirators. Three men come unarmed to a spa and not only manage to get the women at the spa to do what they want, but also overpower an armed security guard and take his weapon. They take the women's purses, with their car keys, house keys, and wallets inside, but apparently none of the women think to get the locks on their houses changed in a hurry because hours later the assailants have moved on to home invasions, and get into at least two houses. I'm all for seeing clever criminals, but I think the way it's written here, it's more that the victims lack common sense than that the criminals are masterminds.

Certainly what we see of the three conspirators doesn't suggest they're geniuses. Eamon Behrens, who has a memorable turn last year in CSI: New York's "Tanglewood" as mob boy Johnny Lucerno, plays Billy Robinson as a sullen troublemaker who unwisely drives one of the stolen cars to the hospital and seeks medical treatment for pepper spray burns he got during the robbery. The second conspirator goes down in a blaze of glory after aiming a gun at a cop. And Greg Everett, who falls for Calleigh's act, gets into a scuffle with Hayden Cruise, and, rather than shooting him with the gun he has, is pulled into a physical altercation. Criminal masterminds these guys aren't.

One thing that did surprise me, pleasantly so, was that Victoria's husband Javier wasn't involved in the robbery. As soon as he appeared on screen asking Delko if he could see his wife's body and in shock at her death, I figured he was the shooter. At one point there was even a flashback to the moment of the shooting and I thought the man behind the mask had eyes similar to Javier's. Javier proved to be a great red herring though, and the a-ha! moment when his skin cells were discovered on the rope turned out to be nothing more than a false lead. It was an effective mislead.

Not as effective was Marisol Delko's involvement in the case. While it looked promising in the beginning, by the end of the episode, I was left scratching my head. Marisol comes across as more and more childlike with each epsiode she appears in. In "The Score" she naively purchases so much marijuana that it's considered a felony. I bought that because it seemed that Eric had been sheltering her and taking care of the pot buying for her. Before seeing "The Score," I didn't know how large a purchase of pot would have constituted a felony, either.

But my jaw dropped last night when Marisol lamented not having a child and then she and Horatio essentially agreed to have one together. That Marisol might regret not having a child before she got sick is entirely believable, but I was awestruck, and not in a good way, by a woman who would want to bring a child into the world knowing she's gravely ill. Teriminally ill, if we're being exact, according to Eric in "Silencer". It's somewhat selfish of her to decide to have a baby that she won't be around to raise. Not to mention, most likely physically impossible if she is undergoing either chemotherapy or radiation treatment for her cancer, both of which would adversely affect her reproductive system.

And what's Horatio's motivation in all of this? Though he clearly has warm feelings for Marisol, and it does seem like there is an attraction between them, I haven't gotten the sense that they're that close. I was downright surprised and a little puzzled when Horatio wouldn't let Delko go to the hospital to see his own sister, insisting instead that he would go and let Delko know how she was doing. And in the end, when Marisol and Horatio have made this big, life changing decision, they don't kiss or even embrace. It's hard to picture a relationship between them when they're both so formal.

Delko and Natalia's on-going issues are being handled much better, with small interactions here and there. It's clear these two are on the rocks from their brief exchange when Delko goes to see Valera about a DNA sample and Natalia is there. He awkwardly apologizes for being short with her and she tells him she just wanted to know how Marisol was. It's not spelled out, but it gives enough for the viewer to surmise she probably called Delko when she heard about Marisol being at the spa, and he blew her off. The awkwardness between these two is palpable, but it's also very realistic and characteristic of a relationship that petered out but the two people still have to see each other at work and find a way to get along in that setting.

Ryan has an interesting moment as well when he freezes up in the middle of a shootout. It was unexpected and effective--Ryan has been having a tough year, and no doubt this moment is only going to make him fear for his job more. At the end of the episode, we're not quite sure why Ryan froze up, but then, neither is Ryan. The moment echoed Ryan's predecessor, Speedle, who didn't freeze up but had his gun freeze up on him twice, with the second time leading to his death. Like he was for Speedle, Horatio is as quick to cover for Ryan as he was for Speed, telling Ryan that he didn't have a clean shot and repeating it twice so that Ryan knows this is the story he has to tell to IAB. And he does so, to Rick Stetler, who despite sometimes appearing to be sympathetic, is and probably always will be the enemy in Horatio's eyes.

Calleigh has some great moments in the episode as well, and she's practically glowing when she makes up the story about the Viper for Greg's benefit, trying get him to offer her an illegal car part. She also compassionately councils Ryan at the end of the episode, reminding him that it's been a while since he's been on patrol and it could be that being thrust back into a situation he hasn't encountered in a while could be jarring. She tells him when she shifted back to the night shift at one point she felt she has lost her night vision, and it threw her. The scene is a nice reminder of why Calleigh is the heart of this show, so beloved by all her co-workers.

On a lighter note, it seems like Ryan's sweatervests are long gone! In this episode he's sporting a tight navy blue T-shirt and showing off some nicely muscled arms. Clearly Ryan has decided to give Delko a run for his money as the toned office babe.

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