CSI: Miami--'Golden Parachute'

<p><i>With the </i>CSI<i> franchise in reruns for the summer, CSI Files is taking the opportunity to go back to the beginning, offering reviews of episodes from the early seasons of </i>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation<i> and </i>CSI: Miami<i>, many of which aired before the site's 2003 founding! The retro reviews will run for the duration of the summer until new episodes of the franchise start to air in the fall.</i><p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>A small jet with eight people aboard crashes in the Florida Everglades. Horatio Caine and his team are the first on the scene, and Megan Donner, the woman who used to have Horatio's job, arrives soon after, reminding Horatio that the feds have jurisdiction over the scene. The CSIs quickly learn the crash wasn't an accident: Calleigh discovers a bullet in the plane's wreckage. Horatio presses on, making two shocking discoveries: a woman's body 5 miles away from the rest of the wreckage, and one survivor is discovered: Scott Sommer, the president of the insurance company to whom the plane belonged. The woman is identified as Christian Maria Calucci, Sommer's senior accountant; the team also discovers an empty briefcase with her name on it. Alexx notes that there are no friction burns on Christina's body, indicating she wasn't wearing a seat belt when she was thrown from the plane. Horatio notices odd marks on one of Christina's hands. At the scene, Calleigh examines the door of the plane and notices scoring around the bayonet pins. She suspects they have been tampered with but when they talk to the man who distributed the pins, he admits they were old and had to be shaved down to fit the plane. When Horatio realizes the plane only achieved a 4000 ft. altitude, he surmises that someone on the plane opened the door.<p>The CSIs question Scott Sommer in the hospital after learning his company was under investigation by the SEC. Sommer at first claims to have been in his seat, but under pressure from Horatio admits he wasn't. He tells Horatio and Megan that Christina had been drinking and opened the door and jumped from the plane. He insists he tried to stop her, and appears genuinely baffled when asked about a gunshot. After learning Christina attempted suicide several months earlier, Horatio suspects she may have been a whistleblower, but Megan reminds him it's just a hunch, not fact. They turn to the prints on the plane door belonging to Christina and Sommer. Horatio thinks Christina was holding on. Speedle and Delko are charged with recovering the plane's black boxes, which Speedle correctly surmises were stolen by the fishermen who called in the plane crash. The team listens to the recordings on the black box, noting the lack of a gun shot. Horatio dispatches Speedle to Christina's apartment and Calleigh to solve the mystery of the gunshot. Speedle discovers a courier receipt from the morning Christina left, and Calleigh learns that the bullet isn't a bullet at all but a rivet that shot into the pilot's chair when the door opened. It was Christina's shoe that killed the engine--it flew from her foot as she fell right. Horatio and Megan recreate the accident and realize that the marks on Christina's hand were from the fire extinguisher which Sommer used to strike her hand in order to make her let go of the door. When the CSIs go to arrest Sommer, they find him hanging from his balcony, dead. Horatio tells Christina's mother that she sent papers chronicling the company's wrongdoing to the SEC on the morning of her death.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>The first bona fide <i>CSI: Miami</i> episode delves into the Everglades, a large area of wetlands found in southern Florida. Is there any setting that could be more effective in reminding viewers that this new <i>CSI</i> show is taking place in a region far different from that its parent show takes place in? Climate-wise, the lush, green Everglades are a far cry from the sandy, dry desert climate of Las Vegas. With all eyes on the new spin-off, the show was charged with the task of staying true to the basics of <i>CSI</i>--the evidence is what makes the case--while finding its own footing and distinct voice in its freshman year.<p>In an effort to bring a little gravitas to the more "fanciful" <i>Miami</i>, the character of Megan Donner was brought in to be the Grissom to Horatio's Catherine. Unlike Horatio, who goes by his gut, Megan is more focused on the evidence, reminding the CSI that he needs to have the evidence to back his theories up. The dynamic between the two was clearly meant to ape Grissom and Catherine, with a role reversal--in this case, the man is the one guided by his instincts, the woman the more practical and cautious one. Much has been made of Delaney's exit from the show only ten episodes into the first season, but I think Horatio Caine is a character who could certainly use a more reserved character balance him. Loose cannons are interesting, but if not reigned in a little bit they tend toward being over-the-top. Could the <i>X-Files</i>' Mulder have been as effective if he didn't have Scully to ground him and cast a skeptical eye on his more outlandish theories?<p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45\%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full reviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/reviews/csi/golden_parachute.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Wow, so many things I hadn’t thought about when the show first aired. The opening move, the Everglades, so we’d know this is not gonna be anything like Las Vegas. Then the role reversal for Megan and Horatio versus Grissom and Cat; I wonder why they never replaced Megan. It would be interesting, given all the city hall enemies H has made coupled with his recent erratic behavior, if they brought in another high ranking CSI to balance him. But they’ve got so many unfinished story threads going already (another unique “quality” of Miami), that it would be too confusing right now. Thank you for the reminder of this long ago first Miami stand-alone epi. (The first intro was the crossover with CSI)

 

One thing I had hoped to see was Calleigh fill Megan's shoes after she left. While the first two seasons did have episodes where Calleigh does sort of balance Horatio, it seems the writers dropped this in later seasons. This also highlights another difference between the two shows. Miami has been largely dominated by episodes with only an A plot. Since Horatio began dominating the show, I haven't many episodes where Calleigh is heading a second case that forms a B plot.

Its interesting to note that CSI:NY was able to get their two leads to emulate the relationship on the original show. It makes me wonder how things might be different if Megan Donner had appeared on the pilot episode since both CSI and NY both established their leads right off the bat.