<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>Picking up where <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season7/target_specific.shtml">"Target Specific"</a> left off, a badly beaten Ryan Wolfe is dropped off by the Russian who tortured him and ordered him to compromise the evidence collection in the murder of a broker. Though Ryan held up under torture, when the Russian threatened the life of Billy Gantry, the young son of Ryan's sponsor Mark, Ryan gave in and promised to do whatever he asked. Ryan cleans himself off and goes to the crime scene: Ian Warner, a foreign currency exchange broker, has been found murdered in his office. Ben Porterson, the security guard on duty at the building, tells Delko, Calleigh and Ryan that he locked the building down as soon as a tenant mentioned hearing an alarm. Horatio and Tripp race to the roof, but there's no sign of the killer. Tripp questions Cynthia Lang, Warner's assistant, but she claims she didn't hear anything as she was in the lobby at the time of the murder. She notes that Warner kept two million dollars in U.S. currency in his safe. At the scene, Ryan discovers a bullet casing and covertly pockets it. On the roof, Delko investigates a small pool filled with purple water and determines the coloring is from the dye packet from a suitcase of money. Delko determines that the man must have parachuted from the roof and, with the help of Dave Benton, determines the man's trajectory was to the roof of a shorter building. Delko goes to the building and recovers a piece of the man's parachute. Epithelials on it belong to a man named Jim Colton. Delko has the man brought in for questioning, but just before going in to interrogate Colton, Ryan gets a message--a video of an abducted Billy Gantry. Ryan joins Delko in the interrogation and mentions Colton's job at a sporting good store as a possible explanation for how his DNA got on the parachute. Delko is angry at Ryan for making what he deems a rookie mistake, but Ryan presses on, suggesting they have nothing substantial on Colton and need to release him.<p>Ryan processes a piece of the shirt he was wearing when he was abducted and finds sucrose and calcium phosphate on it. He gets a call from Mark Gantry, who is upset that Ryan has taken on his debt. Ryan asks him about the last time he saw Billy, and Mark tells him it was that morning when he dropped the boy off at school. Ryan warns him not to go after the boy. Calleigh catches the tail end of the conversation, but Ryan brushes her off. She asks for help going over the items from the safe the two million dollars was stolen from, and Ryan promises to join her soon. Ryan searches a database and comes up with a print profile for Ben Porterson, the security guard. He creates a set of fake prints matching the guard's and, when Calleigh isn't looking, uses them to make prints on one of the items of the safe. The print leads the team to bring Porterson in and test him for GSR. When he pops positive, they arrest him for the murder despite his proclamations of innocence. When Horatio finds Mark Gantry at the station asking about his son, Ryan's game is up: he admits that Billy has been abducted, and tells the team leader that he slowed the investigation down. Horatio tells Ryan to leave Billy to him. In the lab, Calleigh finds Porterson's gun is clean and looks closely at the GSR pattern, suspecting it was transfer and not the result of Porterson firing a gun. Ryan touches the jacket without gloves, leading Calleigh to react with anger at his careless mistake. When she tells him she thinks he's keeping something from her, he storms out angrily.<p>Calleigh and Delko sit down with Porterson, telling him they know he didn't shoot Ian Warner. When asked about the GSR being transferred to his jacket, he admits to an indiscretion with Cynthia Lang, whom he claims came on to him. The pair question Cynthia, who scoffs at the idea of an affair with Porterson and refuses to submit to a DNA or GSR test. Horatio visits Billy's school and looks at video footage from the security camera, which shows Billy being abducted by a man in a white van. A partial plate number leads Horatio to a warehouse owned by Sweet Keys Sugar where he discovers Jim Colton digging a hole to hide the two million dollars in. Horatio shows him a picture of Sergei Patrenko, a fellow Russian murdered by the very men both he and Colton worked for and tells Colton he's next. Horatio convinces the man to drive him to the location where Billy is being held. Horatio enters the rundown building and kills the man holding Billy, freeing the boy. Back at the lab, Calleigh and Delko pore over the evidence when Ryan approaches with the bullet casing in hand. Angrily at him for withholding evidence, the two send him away. Delko finds a print on the casing that matches Cynthia. She defiantly tells Calleigh and Delko that Ian Warner was killed for failing to show the proper respect for the right people. Horatio reunites Billy Gantry with his father and tells Ryan that the Russians underestimated him. Ryan tells Horatio that the Russians are trying to break the team, and Horatio boldly replies, "I say bring it on."<p><b>Analysis:</b><p>"Wolfe in Sheep's Clothing" is a mixed bag: while it's an exciting story because of the personal stakes for Ryan, it's also at times frustrating and hard to believe. At the crux of it is the leap in logic that the audience is supposed to take with regards to Ryan and his decision not to tell anyone what's going on with him. While he makes the point several times that he's being watched, it's hard to believe that he couldn't have pulled Horatio aside to ask for his help before resorting to taking evidence and falsifying results. It's hard to sympathize with Ryan when he's lying to his colleagues and framing an innocent man, even if it is in the name of keeping his sponsor's son safe. But Ryan isn't a stupid character--he knows that the people he's dealing with are dangerous and are just as likely to kill Billy Gantry as they are to free him if Ryan complies with their demands. Given that the whole episode is built upon Ryan's decision to try to placate the Russians rather than turning to his friends for help, the audience really needs to believe that this is a choice that Ryan would make, or that he would feel he has to make, and that's something that's never quite sold in the episode.<p>Ryan has a history with Horatio that suggests that Ryan certainly could have come to the CSI leader with his problem. It was Horatio who first took a chance on the then-patrolman who wanted on to his team back in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season3/under_the_influence.shtml">"Under the Influence"</a>, and after Ryan was fired in season five, it was Horatio who vowed to Ryan that the team wouldn't abandon him in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season5/kill_switch.shtml">"Kill Switch"</a>. Indeed, even as recently as last season, Horatio showed just how much trust he has in Ryan when he turned to Wolfe--not Calleigh or Delko--to help him fake his own death in <A class="link" HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/miami/season6/going_ballistic.shtml">"Going Ballistic"</a>. While Calleigh and especially Delko have been hard on Ryan at times, Horatio has shown him patience, compassion and understanding. For Ryan to look at lying to the team and tampering with evidence as his only options doesn't speak to the relationship that has been built up between the characters over the past four and a half seasons. While I might have bought Ryan not feeling he could trust anyone on the team back in the third or fourth season, it's a much harder sell in the seventh. And if Ryan is clever enough to come up with a covert way to plant fingerprints on evidence from the safe, he's smart enough to sneak a message to Horatio--one person he should know by now he can trust.<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/wolfe_in_sheeps_clothing.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
Excellent review, as usual. I wasn't a fan of the back and forth at the beginning between Ryan getting beat up and Calleigh and Eric getting ready for work. It did nothing for me. But I get what you said about showing the contrast between the two situations. It was just a bit hard for me to keep track of everything that was happening to Ryan when I kept rolling my eyes at the other stuff. I hope they have some consequences for Ryan about what happened this week, but somehow I doubt they'll be severe. Miami is bad about making up its own rules to allow for exciting storylines with no real fallout. I am interested to see what happens from here out with the Russian mob stuff - I'm annoyed by the cliche nature of the whole thing, as well as the fact that they seem to have their fingers in every single pie in the city. However, I guess we'll see how it goes. If they're targeting the whole team, I can't help but wonder who is next. BTW, I said "bring it on" several seconds before Horatio said it. Sometimes the dialogue on this show can be very predictable.
I ´ll enjoy the episode. I agree with Ryan´s choice, if he for example, had wrtitten a messsage for Horatio in invisible ink, maybe Horatio would find Billy sooner, or the russians would have realised he didn´t obey and kill Billy. That´s was a risk he couldn´t take. However, the episode has some holes. Why aren´t Calleigh and Eric told the true about Ryan´s kidnnapping? Why they don´t suspect his strange bejaviour has something to do with the russian mob targetting the team? Why we don´t know the labrats, Natalia and Tara opinion about this? I hope this will answered in next new episode.
I'll agree Ryan shouldn't just be forgiven but in the same breath, Ryan has a right to still feel like an outsider. Speedle's death hit the team hard and how the team treated him at first was uncalled for. Delko still does not treat him anywhere near as nicely as he treated Speedle, which, given his own shortcomings with IEB and his job, are unfair. Yes, what he did was wrong and he should not be forgiven right away but in the same breath, Delko and Horatio committed a far worse crime, one they've arrested countless people for. People that have taken the laws into their own hands to avenge their loved ones. Ruiz was a scumbag but nonetheless, Delko and Hortatio went down there illlegally and murder an man who is innocent until twelve citizens say otherwise. If that can be forgive, so can Ryan's trangressions.
I really enjoy your reviews. That was the biggest thing I had a problem with. Ryan couldn't very quietly come to Horatio? After all, I think it's been established that those two share a bond. I mean, come on! Horatio picked Ryan over Delko to help him fake his death. It's obvious that Ryan is picking up much of H's ways of doing things. And then there's the medical side of the torture. I'm guessing that Ryan was hit in the face repeatedly. And two or three of his teeth were supposedly yanked out. Yet he still had that pretty face. And he was talking normally. My husband and I have helped treat assault victims. They have cuts, bruises, swellings, bald patches, etc. And those who have had teeth knocked out will bleed from the mouth when they try to talk. A "professional" dungeonmaster (for lack of a better term) would have gone to great lengths to leave absolutely no marks or evidence. We're probably talking electric wires to a tender location or something like that. But I agree. We were glued to the TV the whole time. Even toward the end, when it was "SUPER H TO THE RESCUE!!" I also got the impression that Calleigh and Delko were becoming too absorbed in each other to really try to work with Ryan. It was almost like now that they're living together and absorbed in each other, they had an "us vs you" mentality toward him. But overall, one of the better epis this season.
I liked the storyline as a whole becouse I saw another side of Ryan but he should have told Horatio the truth.It's like doing something wrong for the right reason. When Ryan wants,he can be part of the team.He talked to Natalia about E/C and is clear that he and calleigh are close.But he just likes to do everything by himself.
I'm going to disagree with the statement that Ryan feels like a member of the team--they way they talk to him, etc. is completely different from the way they talk to each other. In a way, I felt that Horatio went to Ryan to fake his death because he wanted to protect Calleigh and Eric in a way that he doesn't need to protect Ryan. Every time Ryan has reached out to Eric, he's been rebuffed, and aside from replacing Speed, I can't see anything in the episodes that justifies that. He's also almost always called by his last name, much more than the rest of the team. And he DID spend a year on the outside when he was kicked out, and therefore he should be allowed to be on the outside. But most of all, he knew that telling anyone could risk Billy's life. How much would you want to talk to anyone if you knew opening your mouth in the wrong place could lead to a child you know, love, being shot? I will agree though that the medical stuff was done HORRIBLY. He had blood all over his face--how does that not even translate into a bruise?
^IMO the way Calleigh asked Ryan what was wrong,means that she is a true friend to him.He and Natalia are also very friendly.And even with Eric,the relationship has improved a lot.So I think he feels more part of the team then in season 3.
OMG - HOW GUD WOS THIS EPISODE OK YEH RYAN WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF ORDER FOR FRAMING THE GUARD BT I UNDERSTAND HIS REASONS N IN SUM WAYS HE REDEEMED HIS SELF BY GIVING THE CASING IN AFTER BILLY WOS SAFE - KNOWING THAT THIS SITUATION CUD HAPPEN AGAIN - ONE THING I DID NOTICE WHICH TIES IN WITH WOT THE ANALYSIS SED RYAN IS STRUGGLING WITH THE DECISION HE MADE TO DELAY THE INVESTIGATION N WOT HIGHLIGHTS THAT IS THE FACT THAT AFTER THE GUARD IS ARRESTED N HORATIO SPEAKS 2 RYAN N DELKO, RYAN CANNOT LUK AT HORATIO AT ALL, HE'S AVOIDING ALL EYE CONTACT WHICH SAYS 2 ME THAT HE REALLY RESPECTS HORATIO N LUKS UP 2 HIM WHICH IS Y I FINK HE DOESNT TELL HORATIO BOUT THE SITUATION HE DOESN'T WANT 2 HAVE 2 ADMIT WOTS HES DUN OR WOT HAPPENED 2 THE PERSON HE RESPECTS THE MOST - DUNNO IF NE1 AGREES WIV ME BUT IF U DO POST IT.
How come Ryan isn't held accountable? We've come a long way from season 4 and I don't understand why it is so that Ryan isn't held accountable for his actions when he himself and H for the matter have vowed to protect the credibility of the lab? Isn't that the reason Ryan lost his job in the first place?