CSI: Miami--'Bloodlines'

See Also: 'Bloodline' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

Horatio receives a frantic call from Anna Sivarro, a call girl who has woken up in a hotel room next to the dead body of the man she was entertaining, businessman Doug Lansing. Horatio sends Anna back to the lab with Natalia Boa Vista so that her bloody clothes can be processed while Alexx examines Doug, who was scalped by his killer. Anna recalls getting woozy and passing out, so the CSIs question Jesse Starks, the room service attendant who brought them food, but he denies any involvement. The tox report from both Anna and Doug's systems reveals both were drugged, and the blood pattern on Anna's shirt corroborates Anna's story that she was passed out when Doug was killed and his blood pooled. Delko is suspicious when he sees that Doug emptied the mini-bar of its contents, and he corners Ross Miller, the bellman who restocked the mini-bar. Delko discovers a hefty stash of cash in the trunk of Ross's car, and the man admits to lifting it out of the mini-bar, where he had caught Doug hiding it, when he entered the room and found Doug and Anna passed out. He denies killing Doug.

Natalia finds a pin on Doug's body that he got from Supervisor Scott O'Shay as a gift of thanks for a campaign contribution. O'Shay claims Doug was a friend and says he was giving a speech at the time of Doug's death. Tripp finds out there was more than friendship tying Doug and Supervisor O'Shay together when he learns that Doug and O'Shay are making money off of casinos on Native American reservations. Horatio realizes Anna has been moving the money for O'Shay and she admits she's been doing it for two years. She refuses to tell the CSI what O'Shay has on her until she discovers her house has been robbed and a book listing a deceased call girl's clients is missing. Thanks to a videographer, the CSIs are able to find the thief, Louis Sullivan, but he won't tell them who paid him to steal the book. Inside the book, the CSIs find the names of prominent Miami citizens, including O'Shay and a man named Karl Bennett, whom Horatio calls and learns is the father of Anna's three-year-old son. He confronts Anna and she admits to helping O'Shay so that he would send money to her son.

The CSIs follow up on another name in the book, Reggie Veston, who runs the Kipayo Indian Casino, and question him and his wife in the death of Doug Lansing. Both deny involvement, and Horatio confronts O'Shay, who he thinks is blackmailing Reggie with the contents of Anna's book. O'Shay threatens to turn the pressure on Horatio's team. Calleigh and Delko go to Reggie's bungalow and find the man dead, stabbed in the face. A piece of confetti from the casino with traces of raspberry hairspray found on the body leads them to Mrs. Veston. She learned about her husband visiting a prostitute and stabbed her husband in a fit of rage. When Natalia tests the blood of everyone questioned in the Lansing case, she learns Jesse Stark is one-sixteenth Kipayo, making him eligible for part of the casino's profit--before Lansing interfered. Jesse admits he overheard a phone call Lansing made talking about who gets money from the casino and who doesn't, and when he returned to the room later and found the two passed out, he scalped Doug in a fit of rage. The case closed, Horatio tells Anna to stay away from O'Shay and not to let her life get away from her again.

Analysis:

Horatio is at it again--saving a beautiful woman from an evil man and even herself in the process. The fallen woman with the heart of gold is one of the oldest archetypes in the book, but it might have helped matters if Anna Sivarro actually had a personality. There wasn't much to her in "A Grizzly Murder" save for initial spunk when she told Horatio she didn't need help, which of course turned out to not be true in that episode, and isn't true here, either. The episode opens with a frantic call from Anna to Horatio for help, and she remains a veritable damsel in distress throughout.

Horatio is more than willing to help her, despite her reticence about telling him her secret. Apparently, Horatio's notion of justice is somewhat selective because he remains sympathetic to Anna--and indeed, doesn't arrest her--even after he learns she's been moving money for the corrupt O'Shay. Given Anna's sad situation with her child--apparently the custody arrangement is such that she never gets to see or even contact him--I suspect this isn't the last we've seen of her. If we do have to see her story have a happy ending, I hope it's less clichéd than what we've seen so far.

Supervisor O'Shay has once again slipped through Horatio's fingers, so I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of him either. Ed Begley, Jr. is too good an actor to be wasted in a cardboard sneering evil politico role. Though he's not responsible for either murder, Horatio knows O'Shay has been laundering money from the Native American casinos, but presumably he doesn't have the evidence to prove it or else O'Shay would have been led away in cuffs at the end of the episode while Horatio looked on.

I'm all for Horatio having a nemesis; the drug lords last season really didn't cut it. But the reason Riaz never made much of an impression was because he was two-dimensional, and I worry that the same thing will happen with O'Shay. Horatio has only ever really had one worthy adversary, and that's the complex, troubled Rick Stetler. At various times, Stetler has opposed, reached out to, competed with and even sympathized with Horatio. David Lee Smith's sympathetic performance has always helped his clashes with Horatio feel realistic. Sadly, Stetler is absent in this episode, but hopefully he'll turn up again this season.

Natalia Boa Vista shows some spunk when Horatio tells her to examine Anna's clothes and she expresses skepticism about Anna's story, which Horatio obviously believes. It's a rare moment when one of the CSIs offers an opinion contrary to that of the fearless Miami leader, so it's both refreshing and unexpected to see Natalia openly questioning Anna and Horatio's faith in her. Horatio's faith is admittedly a little blind--Anna is a prostitute making money drops for a corrupt public servant. In "A Grizzly Murder" she lied about being at the crime scene because she didn't trust cops. What exactly about her inspires Horatio's confidence that she's a good person? I'm with Natalia on this one, though of course Horatio was proved right.

Delko seems slightly more self-assured in this episode, but I'm pretty sure I noticed him limping in the lab at one point. Adam Rodriguez is doing an excellent job with the details; even though Delko is back on the job and he appears to be functioning pretty well all things considered, it's moments like Delko's limp or when he struggles with a detail that remind us of the gravity of Delko's injuries, and the possible long lasting repercussions.

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