CSI: Miami--'And They're Offed'

<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>A wealthy racehorse owner named Robert Banyon is gunned down in his luxury viewing suite while watching his horse, Backdraft, pull ahead to victory in the race. Dr. Price finds an entrance wound in the back of his head but no exit would, prompting Horatio to ask her to recover the bullet. Delko and Calleigh sweep the suite and Delko discovers that Banyon's pair of binoculars also functioned as a camera. Calleigh notices a box of pricey truffles from Chicago on a table, suggesting that Banyon had a visitor. The CSIs question Wayne Tully, a businessman from Chicago who owns the truffle company, and he admits to paying Banyon a visit to try to get him to sell him a stake in Backdraft. Banyon refused, saying he didn't need a partner and Tully left. Back at the track, Tripp catches Scott Aguilar, a "stooper," sifting through the trash looking for winning tickets that may have been discarded. While Tripp questions Scott, a patrol officer brings a young boy named Billy Gantry to Horatio, and shows him that the boy had Ryan Wolfe's card on him. Horatio takes Billy back to his home, only to find Ryan and the boy's father, Mark, engaged in a fight with a man sporting a Russian mafia tattoo. Before Horatio can corner and question him, the Russian man cuts his own throat! Ryan tells Horatio that Mark is his Gambler's Anonymous sponsor, and that he's been looking after Billy while Mark sorts out some problems. Ryan insists that Mark isn't involved with the Russian mafia. In the morgue, Dr. Price shows Delko there's no bullet in Banyon's wound and posits that he was killed with a weapon called a captive bolt gun, which is used to kill livestock.<p>Wondering if someone didn't like the way Banyon treated his animals, Calleigh and Delko go to to see his groom, Terrance Chase, who tells Calleigh that Banyon treated his animals right. Nonetheless, when Delko searches the stable, he discovers a captive bolt gun wrapped in a rag hidden in a feed bucket. Jane Bartlett shows Calleigh the pictures from Banyon's camera, which reveal that the jockey riding Backdraft was using an electric prod known as a jigger on him to get him to race faster. Calleigh and Delko question Colleen Flanagan, the jockey, who tells them that Backdraft was unusually sluggish out of the gate and she used the jigger to get him to pick up the pace. Though she begs the CSIs not to tell, Delko informs her it's too late. Ryan is surprised when Trace tech Michael Travers finds a racing program among Mark Gantry's possessions and identifies cocaine on his clothes. Ryan confronts Mark about the program and the drugs, and Mark tells him he's been using "a little" and that he owed the Russian mobster money. Ryan is floored. Though Ryan gets no ID off the dead Russian from AFIS, Horatio suggests trying the immigration database. This leads to an ID: Nicholas Brinks, and a connection to Ivan Sarnoff, the Russian mafia leader who also sponsored Brinks' visa. Horatio questions Sarnoff, but the man says nothing other than that Brinks was a "loyal friend." In the trace lab, Travers identifies a substance on the rag the bolt gun was wrapped in as a special polytrack used to replace dirt at racetracks. Only four tracks in the U.S. have adopted it, including one in Chicago. Horatio and Natalia track down Tully and become even more suspicious when they see the man's bolt gun is missing, despite his apparent surprise at finding it gone. Natalia also discovers a ticket for a different race than the one Backdraft competed in alongside the gun case.<p>Calleigh brings the tox report on Mark Gantry to Ryan, who is surprised to see that Mark had no trace of cocaine in his system. Calleigh theorizes that the cocaine may have been used to dose horses and make them sluggish. She believes Mark lied to Ryan about using in order to cover up a bigger lie: he was fixing races. Calleigh goes back to the stable and examines Backdraft, finding traces of cocaine under his bridle. Ryan confronts Mark, who admits than Ivan Sarnoff came to collect on a three-year-old debt. He tried to force Mark into dosing Backdraft, but Mark claims that though he went so far as to sneak into the stable, he couldn't drug the horse. Ryan promises that Mark and Billy will be able to disappear and escape the Russian mob. Natalia examines the ticket found near Wayne Tully's bolt gun case and finds an odd circular mark on it, which Tripp thinks may have come from the stooper he caught sifting through the trash. A little digging into Scott Aguilar's background reveals that he was the original owner of Backdraft. He tells Horatio and Tripp that he was tricked by Banyon into selling Backdraft, and when he confronted the man about it, Banyon just brushed him off. Tired of seeing Banyon getting rich off of Backdraft's wins, Scott decided to take matters into his own hands and grabbed the first available weapon--Wayne Tully's bolt gun--and killed Banyon. Mark Gantry meets Ivan Sarnoff in a parking garage, promising to fix a race for Sarnoff. Sarnoff says he'll be fixing a lot of races to make up for backing out of dosing Banyon. Before Sarnoff can finish his threat, Horatio comes out of the shadows: he set Sarnoff up. Ryan grabs his playbook and sees pages of fixed races. Sarnoff scoffs at Horatio, promising that the CSI is bringing a world of hurt onto himself and that trouble is coming for him and his team...all of whom he has under surveillance. As Sarnoff's men look on, Ryan helps Mark and Billy Gantry pack up and get out of town, Delko tries to call Calleigh and leaves her a box of truffles and Calleigh takes a ride with Terrance Chase.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>Repetition rears its ugly head in this episode of <i>Miami</i>, highlighted all the more because it follows up last week's much stronger entry. A nemesis who was seemingly untouchable the last time we saw him returns and makes a silly mistake that allows Horatio to capture him, Ryan's in trouble and Calleigh and Eric are dancing around their feelings. Sound familiar? That's because it all is. I realize that seven seasons into the show, not everything is going to feel fresh, and indeed, getting a glimpse into the business of horse racing is intriguing, but most of what happens for the characters in this episode feels stale. We've seen all of this before: Horatio has gone up against supposedly insurmountable evil before and vanquished it so many times I've lost count, Ryan has made so many mistakes in the past that it's about time he exercised more caution and, after seemingly making a breakthrough in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season7/head_case.shtml">"Head Case"</a>, Eric and Calleigh are back to ignoring the elephant in the room--their mutual attraction.<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/and_theyre_offed.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Great review, as usual.

Sometimes things are way too neat and convenient on these shows. The guy just happens to grab the bolt gun from the trailer of the other guy who just happens to be their suspect? It would have been better if he'd seen them arguing or something and thought he'd try to shift the blame. Instead it's just a coincidence. I know they have to wrap things up in an hour, but do they need so many coincidences?

I'm already bored with it. :lol: I know they can't just get together because then where does it go? (Usually downhill, and fast.) But at the same time, they can't continue to drag it out forever after they've brought it to the surface.

It doesn't help that I've seen Andrew Divoff in like five shows recently - even as a Russian baddie on Leverage. :lol:

Can I make a confession? (I'm going to anyway. ) I was watching the episode, and just for the briefest of moments, I thought we might find out that Ryan and Mark were in a relationship. I quickly came back to reality, but for a moment I thought it was a real possibility.

Although I guess that would have been more shocking than Billy being Ryan's kid. :lol: Still, it was all rather slashy.

BTW, how adorable is Travers? *strokes his beard* I feel like I'm cheating on Adam. Don't worry, Adam, your beard will always be the best, even if Travers does have an accent.

 

Is it me or is Natalia getting a little sidelined this season? She is still a member of Horatio's team yet she seems to be stuck doing lab tech duties in the last few episodes (though she does get a couple scenes in the field this episode). But she seems to be the only member of the team who isn't under surveillance at the end of the episode nor do we see what she is doing after work.