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Thursday 12 July 2012

CSI: Miami - 9.7: "On the Hook" Review


A man fishing attempts to prevent a boy from jumping from the bridge, before he is shot at by a sniper. Horatio investigates and as usual there's more going on beneath the surface.

A man fishing attempts to prevent another from jumping off the bridge and calls for help.   He's then shot at by a sniper.   Delko (Adam Rodriguez) questions Brad (Geoffrey Blake) as if he's in charge all of a sudden.   With Calleigh (Emily Procter) hiding behind the Hummer.   Brad doesn't know the origin of the shots and is taken into protective custody.   Shane (Collins Pennie) insists he wasn't going to jump.   Horatio (David Caruso) points out that the scuff marks on his shoes will match the railings.   Shane had to be involved somehow cos he wasn't shown for nothing.   Horatio doesn't get a very good one liner this time either.  Hey what's going on when he doesn't get to say something witty anymore.   Thinning out in that department then.

Walter (Omar Miller) and Ryan (Jonathan Togo) process the boat and Walter gets one up on Ryan for a change - good to see some of their old banter back from season 8.   Walter doesn't find any grooves on the round, a .223  and their search radius will be at least 100 yards.   Delko goes diving.   Walter tells Ryan to take the swamp and he'll take the rocks cos he's got allergies.   Ryan refuses cos of his shoes so Walter tells him he'll take the rocks and Ryan can take the swamp.   Ryan agrees before he realizes what he just said.

Calleigh has to direct Delko to the rounds under the water and finds the rounds were shot from a larger rifle.   They separated in flight so no grooves were left on the bullet, known as sabots.   These increase the length of the range so they'll have to triple their search area.   She calls Walter with this news and he figures out where the shooter was elevated on a building.   Here he finds the dumped rifle.   Tripp (Rex Linn) and Ryan question Haywood (Lamont Thompson) Brad's former business partner.   He's suing Brad but it's apparent he's not the shooter.   Ryan claims he could do something irrational but as he's clay pigeon shooting, his hands will be covered in GSR.   If it had been Haywood he wouldn't have missed.

Tripp recalls Shane and Tracy (Chelsea Tavares) from when he arrested them for shoplifting.   His probation officer Neil (Jaime Gomez) says Shane's in counselling.   Neil was my suspect straight off.

Calleigh examines the rifle and doesn't believe Haywood is the shooter, as he was inexperienced and didn't know how to use the gun and so he could have left DNA from his eye behind on the glass.   Which matches Dario (Joseph Julian Soria).   Another chase scene with Delko (I won't go into that again after my comments in previous episodes, sufficed to say you know where my loyalties lie when it comes to chase scenes, different show, CSI:NY and characters!)  Horatio just had to be waiting for him around that particular corner again.   Dario isn't into murder.   Brad doesn't know Dario.   Delko says he doesn't have a motive for the shooting which means someone made him do it - considering there aren't that many suspects, that was an obvious statement.

Shane rips apart furniture at home.   A disturbance call from his neighbour is answered by Horatio and Tripp.   Horatio had to say "Shoot Frank."  Shane recalls Brad was on the phone and mentioned Vic, which Horatio immediately differentiates as Vig.   Shane heard that from all the way up on the bridge.   Horatio calls Ryan again (his go-to guy) and gets him to check Brad's phone records.   Leading Walter and Ryan to a building rented by Brad under the company's name.   Brad is a bookie which Ryan knows all about.   See his gambling past never really leaves him.   Ryan knows a lot about this Walter comments, but Ryan says that's "in the past."  Walter doesn't question him further on it.   Such is there relationship, he takes Ryan's word on it.   Walter also finds rice paper in a bucket.   Rice paper is water soluble and it's a way to get rid of evidence, so it's used by bookies for bets.   (Clue for later.)

Horatio prevents Brad from leaving and could charge him with bookmaking now, when he notices a flash from a train.   Seconds later shots rain through the lab.   Never heard a train pass by there before as we do in this episode.

Ryan and Walter check out the station, they're left to do all the grunt work these days, with Delko barely lifting a finger to gather evidence anymore.   Walter again notices the absence of grooves on the bullets.   Ryan thinks they should check the track where Walter finds a piece of wood and Walter comments he's found one sniper today, here goes his second.   Ryan finds pieces from a  hardware store dumped in the trash and Walter gets oil on his gloves.   Ryan finds casings without stria.   Horatio finally in the lab, we know that's him and if you didn't recognize his hands/arms then you'd be surprised to see him there too.   Made a change.  

Horatio puts the pieces together to reveal a gun pipe.   Walter points out the barrel was the wood, door hinge was the hammer, where the spring creates force to activate the primer and the nail was the firing pin.   Ryan says there were no manufacturer's branding explaining the absence of any marks on the bullet.   Horatio posits any mistake will render it dangerous and it's untraceable, until now.   He recalls Shane.   Someone put him up to it.   He has a burn on his arm and he was threatened.   He and Dario were both working for someone.  

Tripp finds they weren't in jail at the same time, but they do have Neil in common.   As I said.   Dario asks for his probation officer, Neil.   Dario was played and threatened he'd find himself back inside accused of drug dealing.   Neil gave him the ammo and the gun but there's nothing concrete to put him away.   As Tripp says it's one felon's word against another.   Shane went to the bridge to prevent the shooting, that was obvious too.  Neil threatened Tracy with jail and Neil provided him with plans to build a gun.   How pathetic was that putting it down on paper and yet he didn't want him to buy a store rifle.   He left the plans in the sink.   It's Mr Wolfe on the retrieval trail again, what's wrong with Delko getting his hands dirty.

Calleigh claims if the pigment is left in the tissue then the forensic light will pick it up and the writing is matched to Neil.  Who  is about to rape Tracy when Horatio arrives just in the nick to save her.   Horatio: "I am loaded with evidence, my friend."  As he points his gun at him.   Then proceeds to throw him out the window to show him what the next 30 years will be like for him inside.   Shane tells Tracy he has to go away for doing something bad.   Horatio puts his shades on in a satisfied pose.

Horatio there to save the day is hardly a surprise anymore, but neither was him throwing Neil out the window.   Hey he could argue Neil resisted arrest.   Point being it's not Horatio's first portrayal of 'crossing the so called thin blue line'.   In an earlier episode in 6.17 To Kill A Predator where a TV show uses a sting operation to expose men who prey on teenage girls, where Horatio catches a man connected with the show about to prey on a girl and approaches the suspect with menace in his face.   He was trying to seduce the teen and here Neil was about to rape her.   In that episode we're not actually shown what Horatio does to him as we fade out.   The episode All In signified Horatio's turning point in his character after he was out for revenge for Marisol in Rio.

CSI:Miami seems to be delving into another era of of action hero episodes and away from the solid forensics.   Delko closely following Horatio's lead in demonstrating such "toughness" too.   Though Horatio's action in calling Ryan to check on Brad's phone records appears to be justified since it's in his interests to find out who the shooter was.   Walter got more to do this episode and it took me to the end to realize Natalia (Eva Larue) was absent!   Viewers may recall Jaime Gomez from Nash Bridges.

Snipers, shootings, chase scenes, seen them all before not only in CSI:Miami but also CSI:NY.   The shooting of the lab was reminiscent of CSI:NY episode 7.21 Life Sentence.  when the lab was shot to smithereens.   Also in CSI:NY 2.6 Youngblood, Flack (Eddie Cahill) and Mac (Gary Sinise) can't work out what sort of a gun the killer used as the blast is unusual.   The GSR pattern doesn't seem to match any conventional weapon until they determine that  a home made gun was used.   Also a sniper in season 7.7 Hide Sight of CSI:NY.

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