Okay, this is long, so bear with me.
I watched the "Burned" ep last night and now I'm very nearly 100% convinced that Ryan and Horatio planned for all of that. When Stelter told Ryan that he was fired, Ryan said "What I did, I did to protect everyone in this lab."
Then the way that Ryan and Horatio looked at each other as Ryan was leaving the building... those looks weren't "I just got fired, oh crap" from Ryan or "I'm disappointed in Wolfe." from Horatio. Those looks seemed to me more like "Now on to the next phase."
My thinking is that someone against the lab went to those poker games and Ryan went in undercover, but in order to make it look and sound legit, Horatio had to act like he didn't know what Ryan was up to and they had to go through that whole fired scenario. Horatio probably told him that he'd get him his job back legally without revealing their undercover work.
After Speed died, it was apparent that there were leaks in the department (and I'm not talking about Natalia's stint as the mole). I'm thinking that Horatio got Ryan to come work at CSI while doing the UC work (from the very beginning. Why would H ask Yelina to recommend someone? Ryan also worked patrol so he might know a little about UC work that your average CSI would (not that patrolmen necessarily do UC work). Plus the comment that H made that being a cop is in Ryan's blood makes me think that someone closely related to Ryan (father, grandfather, maybe his uncle Ron) may have been a cop at one point and a well respected one at that... and this is why Horatio wanted Ryan on his team.
I think that maybe Ryan's news job was a coverup to get bad guys to maybe trust him. Think about it... first job- news business, second- gun range, next he was working for the DA or county clerk or something like that. All of these places could be where the leaks were coming from. Well, the leakers could go to the gun range anyway or leak info to reporters. The bodyguard thing was just cause Ryan was the only one available that H knew could be trusted... plus the family was high profile if I recall and may have socialized with some of those people who were the leaks.
I dunno, it just seems to me that Ryan's being doing UC jobs all along (on the side). I think possibly Valera's firing could tie in as well. Ryan was trying to find the mole at the time, right? If so, then maybe someone thought it was Valera and they had to get her "fired" to see if that fixed things, but of course when it didn't she was rehired cause she wasn't the leak. And if I'm remembering wrong and the mole was already known when Valera was fired, maybe someone thought she was leaking things, but then realized it wasn't her, so she got her job back.
One thing I don't get: Stetler told Ryan that because of his actions, he put everyone at risk and old cases were being reopened and bad guys were back on the streets. Was this just Stetler being over-dramatic? Why would Ryan's gambling cause old cases to be reopened and criminals to be released? It's not like he was actually taking bribes or anything. He basically told that guy where to get off when the guy tried to blackmail him and then he asked Natalia to take over so as not to compromise the investigation. Why would that cause old cases to be looked at again?
Also, in "Burned", Ryan said he had to look into an old case before asking Nat to take over for him. Maybe that wasn't just an excuse. maybe there was some truth to that. Horatio already knew Yelina had been following that guy... so I'm sure Ryan would have heard this too... so why would he go meet that guy, give him money knowing that Yelina was following the guy? That's another thing that makes me think he was UC.
Plus, Ryan told the guy he didn't have 10,000 dollars to pay him and then he later shows up with the money? I think there was a big UC thing going on there. Horatio really didn't look that surprised about the video and his only reply to Yelina saying maybe Ryan had a good reason was "what if he doesn't?" He couldn't let Yelina know the truth 'cause he had to involve the least amount of people possible... plus he also wanted to protect her and her son. Raymond's issues put them in danger and H couldn't let that happen again.
So, I think signs point to Ryan having been doing more UC work than we originally thought. Maybe Jake was originally going to do it, but then his cover got blown, so Horatio got Ryan to do it instead. What's a better cover than a bitter former cop/CSI or disgruntled employee or whatever? The news thing made him look bitter and disgruntled to his former colleagues (namely Eric :lol: ). That was his in... to the UC assignment.
H & Ryan's talk about Ryan's issues with that guy seemed like it was all for show to me. Their facial expressions were all for show cause H knew Stetler was watching. The news thing would be seen by many and possibly by whomever they were trying to catch at the time. maybe that someone approached Ryan offering a deal and then Ryan eventually got his job back, but they had to space it out like they did so that the perps wouldn't know that Ryan had been UC. With Ryan being officially fired by Stetler, there was less chance of his UC being blown than if he had remained a cop during that time.