<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Russian mob leader Ivan Sarnoff starts to eat his lunch and is soon coughing up blood. He's taken in an ambulance to the hospital, but on the way there, a car and an SUV cut off the ambulance and force it on to a set of train tracks--right in the path of an oncoming train. The train strikes the vehicle, sending it spiraling. In the melee, Sarnoff grabs a gun and flees--firing at both the police car that has arrived and the people in the two cars that cut off the ambulance. Sarnoff escapes, and Horatio arrives just in time to see Officer Jeff Harris, the man guarding Sarnoff, die at the scene. Horatio confronts Gregor Kasparov, Ivan's number two, but the man claims he wasn't involved and that he's been behind the bar all day long. Yelina Salas, undercover as an assassin for Kasparov, backs him up--and throws a drink at Horatio, prompting him to have her arrested for show in front of Kasparov. In the privacy of the interrogation room, Yelina tells Horatio that the Russians just lost a shipment of guns to federal agents. Sarnoff was the one who set up the deal with the guns from jail. Concerned for Yelina's safety, Horatio gives her a GPS tracker with a panic button. Calleigh and Delko have identified the owner of the silver BMW: Anthony Green. Green tells the CSIs that he was carjacked the afternoon before and insists that he had nothing to do with the attack on the ambulance that morning. Though the primary VIN number has been scratched off of the SUV, Ryan locates a secondary VIN number on it and links the car to a Jacob Yarovski. Yarovski tells the CSIs that Sarnoff bungled the gun deal and the Russians decided to eliminate him. They used rat poison to draw him out of the jail with the intention of killing him publicly to make an example of him.<p>Calleigh continues to examine the images recorded at the scene during the attack on the ambulance and finds a disturbing one: Delko's father, Alexander Sharova, behind the wheel of Anthony Green's car at the scene. Calleigh confronts Delko, who defends his father and insists he wasn't involved. Calleigh warns him not to talk to his father, and urges him not to cross the line. Yelina meets Kasparov in the Everglades and finds his associate digging a shallow grave. Kasparov tells her to make sure Sarnoff ends up in that grave--or else she will. Sarnoff abducts a doctor named Sarah Fordham and forces her to treat him. After he lets her go, she tells the CSIs that he won't survive the rat poisoning without real treatment. She gives them the bandages he left behind and Ryan recognizes the logo of Sarnoff's boxing club on them. Horatio and Ryan pay Peter Morenko, who is running the club now, a visit, and he offers to set up a meeting between Horatio and Sarnoff. Horatio meets with Sarnoff, who tells him they have a common enemy in Kasparov and offers his help in bringing the man down. Horatio wants Sarnoff to go back to jail to pay for the death of Officer Harris. Sarnoff refuses and runs off before Horatio can catch him. Delko meets up with his father at a pier and asks him about the attack on the ambulance. Sherova admits he was there but claims he was forced to be. Delko urges him to get out while he has the chance, but Sherova insists that he would be killed if he left.<p>Calleigh receives an anonymous tip about Green's car and the team brings the vehicle in. She's suspicious Delko may have had something to do with it, and warns him that if he did, he's an accessory. Delko deflects her questions and Calleigh goes to help Ryan search the car. The two find an ATM receipt from Green's account from the day of the ambulance attack, which contradicts Green's story that his car was stolen the day before. Tripp and Horatio confront the man about the discrepancy, but Horatio is distracted by a call from Yelina, who tells him the Russians are attempting a gun heist in Biscayne. When Ryan arrives at the location, there's nothing there; Yelina was given bad information to divert the team from the real target--the MDPD. The Russians are trying to steal their guns back. Calleigh and Ryan rush to the warehouse and enter a shootout. Calleigh is shocked when she fires at a car and catches sight of Delko driving it, with his father in the passenger seat. The panic device Horatio gave Yelina sends out an alert, sending Horatio to Kasparov's bar. He finds the Russian dying, and Kasparov tells him Sarnoff beat him--and took Yelina. Horatio leaves Kasparov with a gun to finish himself off and pursues Sarnoff and Yelina, chasing them in a parking garage. He manages to head them off, shooting Sarnoff and rescuing Yelina. The team finds Sherova in the Everglades, slumped over his car, but Delko is nowhere to be found. Sherova doesn't remember what happened, but he knows the blood on his clothes isn't his. Horrified that she may have shot Delko, Calleigh stumbles off, telling Horatio that she can't lose Delko.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>The action-packed "Seeing Red" moves at a brisk pace--but would we expect anything else from <i>Miami</i>? The show thrives on action, but even though this entry has its share of over-the-top moments, it's never less than entertaining. I admit, I had high hopes for Sarnoff, especially after his meeting with Horatio. He had the chance to rise above the typical <i>Miami</i> villain: <font color=yellow>Andrew Divoff</font> always gave layered performances as the Russian mob leader, and his willingness to work with Horatio--at least until the CSI wanted to send him back to jail--suggested a crafty shrewdness that made him interesting. Alas, instead, he inexplicably tries to abduct Yelina Salas and ends up getting gunned down by Horatio, presumably fatally. It's too bad the character was never explored in any more depth; the problem most of Horatio's enemies have is that they're too cardboard, and too easily finished off in the end. What did Sarnoff want with Yelina anyway? Are we to presume he knew she was a PI, and connected with Horatio, or was he just trying to make Kasparov's death more agonizing? There's no real obvious reason for him to take her--other than to give Horatio a pressing reason to kill him.<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/seeing_red.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
Final review of the season! Thanks for sharing all of them with us, Kristine - 74 reviews since September. You rock, mama! :beer: I'll be interested to see how this storyline wraps up in the fall - where is Eric, and what (if any) consequences is he going to face for his involvement with what happened in this episode? What will happen to his father? And what is the whole truth about Anthony Green's involvement? Etc. I'm personally hoping the storyline with Tara isn't over. They never really did much with her, and writing the character out now feels like a waste. Why create a character just to get rid of her before you really use her for anything? I guess we'll see if they get a new coroner next season or if she'll be back. (I just hope they don't bring her back as a villain trying to blow Ryan up in his car or something.) Either way, I hope we get to see Kyle in the morgue again next season - I was starting to like how they were including him in episodes that way. It was good to see the character without needing family drama or teenage angst to set the stage. (Let's just hope he doesn't replace Tara. :lol
I don't get it. In the previews after the other CSI finales last week, Horatio was shown asking "Do you have a God Ivan?" and then shooting Ivan while he's flat on his back. On the station here in Madison, WI, that scene was not in the show. He shoots Ivan once in the shoulder (very not fatal) and then he and Yelena drive off to find Delko. And the part where Calleigh says she can't lose Delko wasn't there either. She's walking toward Horatio at the edge of the lake all distraught and then it cut to the credits. Weird. BTW, Tara is definitely gone. I wouldn't be surprised if Delko is gone too. Networks are killing off expensive characters left and right to save money because they are desperate. The only reason Dollhouse got renewed is that Joss Whedon agreed to massive per-episode budget cuts. Scripted network TV is dying--only one new show (The Mentalist) was remotely successful ratings-wise this season and almost every returning show lost audience, often in double-digit percentages.
I have the worse luck with this show. My fav ship never happened (and never will ), the ship what i hate is happen, my fav character don't get normal storylines, the characters i used to like now annoying me and i dislike them a lot. I prefer Eric leave, but with my bad luck, he is stay, no doubt about that The final is frustrating me, where is strong gorgeous Yelina we all love? Where is Horatio's concern about her? She maybe was dead by his fault!
Great review as usual. All I'd like to say that I didn't find Yelina that wimp. Well yeah she cracked me up when she fell down in the bar, but I didn't see that wimp you say she was when Ivan wanted her in the car. I mean she tried to react. All I can say about Yelina is that yeah she's not represented as a strong woman, but she has never been, quite honestly. I mean I've never seen her shooting someone, I've never seen her punching someone & yeah she was beaten up, presumebly by Stetler. So I think that in this episode she was the usual Yelina Salas, a normal woman who...oh look at her...she was a detective & now she's a PI. Unfortunately, they've never written her as a strong woman , but yeah I agree w/ you that she looked evern more fragile than she has ever been. I mean also when she threw champange to H....IDK I didn't find her that....strong. You could sense she was acting. It's too bad b/c Sofia Milos is a great actress & she proved it more than once especially when she had to convey w/ Yelina once she founds Ray is actually dead
I totally disagree with you about the Yelina character. When Gregor lead her to the shallow grave, she did not show whimpiness. And, when Ivan grabbed Yelina to go in parking garage, her firearm fell out of her purse. She had no means of lethal protection, until… of course… our H-ERO showed up. You know, as well as the rest of us, that it was written that way so H could save the day. :thumbsup: Sofia Milos is a great and beautiful actress and I love her character and how Yelina got to be in the H-Action in this episode. I could not stop laughing when I saw Yelina through that drink on H in the bar. :lol: Sofia and DC interact so well together and have much screen appeal, and that could return if the writers made it so. Her character needs to come back permanently on the show. For the most part, you could have called much of S7 the C&E “soap opera” show. There is only about 44 minutes in an episode and in many S7 episodes 25 minutes of screen time was spent on either Calleigh or Eric, or Calleigh and Eric. This focus made Natalia and Frank like just recurring characters, and Tara was never even given a chance by the writers. H-screen time was significantly reduced, and H-fans got less H one-liners which we love. Also, so much of the H-time was wasted on the “she-devil Julia” character. Let’s see… she first was a feminine fatale, then bipolar, now wacko delusional cougar, what next? Her character has hurt and not helped the credibility of this show. I just hope the writers can remove her character. Maybe, let her exit with Ron. The Kyle character has potential, but just placing a high school kid in the lab did not make sense. I would like to see Kyle start attending Miami U. (maybe studying Criminal Justice) and have to deal with incidents and issues people his own age have to deal with. Then H could do the parental thing in helping Kyle cope with the issues, etc. I think the writers realized they could show characters outside of work, but hopefully know this is a CSI and Cop action and procedural show and the other outside stuff cannot be the focus of the show or the main focus of episodes. They need to bring back the great team dynamics of the early seasons and give more screen time to other members of the cast.
I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth about Yelina. She's never been wimpy in my eyes, nor was she in this episode, imo. I think she is just that type of woman who uses her strength through different actions than the typical "fighting" actions. We don't see her shooting at people or chasing them down - never have - & I don't think we're supposed to. Yelina is portrayed as a very "lady-like" woman, & she carries herself in a different manner (alot like Natalia, imo) than the more "rough around the edges - gun slinging" Calleigh. Yelina tends to use sex-appeal as her weapon of choice, & I believe her strength is just played out differently than the norm on this show, which again is usually shown (in a female sense) in Calleigh. Different people, different women - if they were all portrayed in the same light with the same rugged strength it'd be boring....& it'd be a bore if we all had the same opinion, so there ya go! I'm with ya'. On a sidenote: I saw this article with Megalyn "can't pronounce last name"/Tara, & she made the comment that when she was hired, the casting director said she "didn't fit the role, but let's have fun". Not sure how old or new the article was, but perhaps tptb decided the fun was over. All the same, I never warmed up to her character so I can't say I'll miss her.
Thank you for explaining what I was trying to do, something which, OFC, wasn't that succesful since I was too sleepy while writing that post :lol:. That's exactly my idea on Yelina :thumbsup: Me too me too. Hope we won't have another finale centered on E/C like this in the future WOW I guess their period of fun is really short. Even if she could never replace my Alexx Woods, I did enjoy her character....too bad that now we're looking for another M.E. ...now I really hope that, at least, he's going to be a hot guy :devil:
In all fairness , most woman paired with H are usually damsel in distress so he can be all super Hero.When the show started Horatio and Calleigh had a more equal relationship but when he became super H,things changed. I agree about tara.If she leaves,it's a waste of screentime becouse I was not invested in her to care about if she was fired or not. Eric is different becouse I know that he will be OK but I still can't wait to watch.Like Calleigh,I can't lose him.