CSI Files
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<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 swingers party hosted by former Chief of Police Rittle ends in tragedy when Rittle is murdered and his wife and young daughter are abducted by his killer. The CSIs find Rittle's car abandoned in an airport parking garage with the body of a man named Jason Doyle in the trunk. When the CSIs get reports of a girl matching Sasha's description in Miami, Florida, Grissom dispatches Catherine and Warrick to process her. Detective Horatio Caine, head of the CSI team in Miami, finds Sasha in a remote location and immediately makes a connection with the girl. When Catherine and Warrick arrive on the scene, he's able to coax Sasha into talking with them and handing over a bullet she found after she escaped her kidnapper. In Las Vegas, Nick and Sara identify the kidnapper's date: a showgirl named Tiffany Langer who was trying to break into high society. Tiffany recalls little about the man other than that he had a sickly sweet smell, but Grissom is able to coax her into giving up the man's name: Adam Van Der Velk.<p>At the scene, Warrick discovers a sedative pill and Horatio finds evidence that the killer urinated in the woods where Sasha was found. When Horatio learns the FBI is tracking the killer as well, he squares off against Special Agent Dennis Sackheim, who tells him their suspect targets wealthy couples staying at the Shore Club in Miami. Calleigh Duquesne has tragic news: a submerged car has been found, with the body of Mina Rittle, naked and wrapped in saran wrap, in it. Alexx Woods autopsies the body and discovers a sticky substance in the woman's orifices. With Catherine in tow, Horatio goes to the trendy Miami club Hives, where high-end honey is sold alongside alcohol. He takes a sample and brings it to Tim Speedle to compare. It's a match for the substance found on Mina Rittle's body. Calleigh scours the receipts from customers who purchased bottles of the $500 honey and finds one from the day before, from a limo driver named Gordon Daimler. Daimler tells Horatio and Catherine that he bought the honey for a customer of his, but that he didn't get the man's name. Horatio looks over Daimler's limo; when he turns on the air conditioner, he's able to smell a sickly sweet smell.<p>Working with Tiffany and Dr. Robbins, Grissom is able to identify the smell as one emitted when a person is suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis. Grissom puts in a call to Catherine and tells her to look for someone who has recently purchased synthetic insulin. Catherine has the records pulled up and one name stands out: Gordon Daimler. The Vegas and Miami CSIs rush to the home of Dylan and Sissy Corwin, Daimler's current clients. They find signs of a struggle and a shooting, but the couple and Daimler aren't there. Speedle notices the Corwins' boat is missing. Horatio calls the Coast Guard and rushes to the scene when the boat is discovered only to find the FBI already there, prepared to fire on one of the two figures they've spotted through their heat detection technology. Horatio convinces them to stand down and is proven right when only Dylan Corwin, cradling his wife's dead body, is found on board. Horatio recalls the Corwins also had a plane and he and Catherine head to the airport just in time to stop Daimler from escaping in it. They arrest the man and Catherine and Warrick head back to Las Vegas while Horatio pays Sasha Rittle a visit, telling her that her parents fought like heroes for her.<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>A new series was launched with this engaging, fast-paced episode, which wastes no time in getting to Miami to introduce the audience to Horatio Caine. Right from the get-go, Horatio makes an impression, one vastly different from that of Gil Grissom. Could anyone imagine Grissom as comfortable with a child as Horatio is with Sasha? Horatio's ease with children and his ability to reach them is something that will recur throughout the series; it's one of the character's hallmarks. Thus Horatio's introduction to the audience is not in the midst of a shootout--something that unfortunately becomes all too common in the series' later years--or even hunting down crucial evidence, but in a hunt for a little girl. Nor does Horatio find her with an entire patrol unit at his back; he wanders off on his own after finding a barrette in the dirt. The scene emphasizes another hallmark of the character: his intuitiveness, and how much that informs his job.<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/cross_jurisdictions.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>