CSI Files
Captain
<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>
You rock, mama! :beer:
