<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>A forest service worker out on a romantic rendezvous is shocked when a bleeding man falls out of the foliage. Detective Tripp identifies the man as Vince Koslov. Dr. Price determines the man was stabbed, but also finds something shocking in his stomach: a large section of human flesh! From the tattoos on the flesh Koslov consumed and on his own neck, Horatio realizes they're dealing with the Russian mafia. Calleigh and Delko trace the blood trail back and discover a second man's body--clearly the man who Vince bit into. Delko notices a sticky substance on the man's hands and thinks it comes from tape used by fighters. Their victim is identified as Andrew Brodsky, but his prints aren't on the knife that killed Vince. Delko gets a partial print match to a man named Greg Donner, who works at Diver Tech Supply. The man recognizes the knife and claims he sold it to a beautiful woman. Donner got her name and number: Cassandra Gray. The CSIs catch her leaving Oceanside Travel, having just purchased a plane ticket. When they ask her about Vince, she immediately confesses to killing him. In questioning her, Horatio learns Andrew was her boyfriend, but he's skeptical of her insistence that she killed Vince. The CSIs swab Cassandra's hands and find glass, leading them to think she fell while running--and was perhaps being chased. Tripp uncovers a Russian mafia-owned fight club, and the CSIs go to the gym and question the owner, Ivan Sarnoff, who insists he runs a legal club. Ryan finds a rather large pool of blood under one of the mats on the floor, and runs it through the system, getting a match to a man named Nathan Madden, whose wife Susan reported him missing two days prior. The CSIs question Susan, who recalls her husband arguing with a man named Jason Weller.<p>Natalia tells Calleigh Weller is in the wind, and the CSIs uncover a housing scam: the Russian mob was buying beach-front dock property for a fraction of the cost and turning them over for a tidy profit. Nathan owned one of these "slips" and was refusing to sell. The CSIs track down Nathan's missing boat and find arterial spray on it consistent with Andrew Brodsky's murder. The inside is wiped down, but Ryan finds shoe prints matching a shoe called the Surf Glide--which happens to be sold at Diver Tech Supply, where Greg Donner is employed. Donner killed Vince, after Vince killed Andrew for not following orders. Donner admits to borrowing Nathan's boat while Nathan was inside the club fighting for his slip, but Donner won't tell the CSIs who Nathan was fighting. Cassandra was a loose end he was hoping the CSIs would take care of for them. Horatio turns back to Cassandra, who admits she's afraid of the mob. She and Andrew witnessed someone dumping a body outside the club; Andrew pretended to shoot her and told her to run to protect her. Horatio puts her in witness protection and sends Calleigh and Delko to the club, where they discover Nathan Madden in the dumpster. A print on his body leads them to his killer: Ivan Sarnoff. Horatio confronts Ivan, but the man claims Jason Weller killed Nathan, and Weller steps up to take the fall for his boss. Horatio assures Susan Madden she's safe, and vows to Ivan that he'll bring the mobster to justice.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>The title is a little misleading--Vince is more of a raging psychopath than a cannibal. Who really takes a bite out of someone to kill him? It's over-the-top in the way only <i>Miami</i> can get away with, but like previous titles this season, it does stick in one's mind. Unfortunately, the title also promises a more exciting episode than the one that's delivered: I went into the hour expecting, well, a raging cannibal, and got a Russian mob story. It's kind of sad when a Russian mob story is a let down, but with all the gang stories <i>Miami</i> does, the Russian mafia is just one more big, bad crime syndicate that Horatio is determined to go up against...and bring down.<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/raging_cannibal.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
Horatio goes against the Big Bad from a gang who basically tells Horatio he'll be in a heap of trouble if he messes with them, Horatio vows to take down the gang, and he eventually saves the day and takes down the Big Bad - and it rarely (if ever) gets mentioned again, even though presumably the Big Bad had connections elsewhere. Seen it. Granted, the whole Mala Noche deal with Marisol dying and Horatio being called back to Brazil, where he then took down a dozen gang members on motorcycles without even getting a hair out of place or a mud stain on his shoes, was slightly different than the usual - it's still been done. There really has to be a way to have Horatio be the hero without trotting out the same old thing. But then, I guess he can't be an everyday hero like the rest of the police force - he's HORATIO, defender of justice and protector of women and chillunz. Oh, I'm sure Horatio's team will uncover something else by the end. They're probably using giant magnets to pull satellites out of the sky or something like that. I swear, sometimes I think this show is Twenty Minutes Into The Future. Since they made a point of bringing it up in this episode, I'm guessing this won't be the last we hear about Delko's Russian heritage before the season is over.