The SmarK TV Rant for CSI Miami – Season 3, Episode 3
“Under the Influence”
– Originally aired October 4 2004
“I think you’re hiding something, Jay.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
– Horatio Caine, using his keen mind and sharp wit on the suspects again.
With the shaky season premiere, seemingly written to kill off Speedle, and the much improved second episode that was totally different from the standard CSI formula, CSI Miami was really needing a solid episode with the whole cast, and thankfully this one was a good introduction to the New Guy and a return to form for the show.
The Setup
A woman is leaving a department store and is suddenly flung in front of a bus, suffering enough traumatic injury that she’s dead on arrival when Caine and the CSI crew arrive. However, the evidence says that she was pushed.
The Investigation
As they check out the street where our victim went splat, a patrolman steps up with detailed pictures from the traffic cameras, without even being asked, and Caine is impressed. In fact, it turns out that Officer Ryan Wolfe wants to be a CSI, so H hires him pretty much on the spot and puts him on the next case that comes his way. That next case happens to be Calleigh’s drunken lawyer father turning himself in for possibly killing someone after a night of binge drinking and driving. Wolfe (looking like a scraggier version of Greg Sanders from the original CSI) takes to CSI work like Caruso to brooding dialogue, and he’s all over the truck and bitching at Calleigh to stay away. Smart man. Meanwhile, they discover that the bus victim had a boyfriend played by Jonathan Silverman, and anyone who starred in “Weekend at Bernies” HAS to be up to no good. H doesn’t trust him, and he’s always good when he’s harassing some poor suspect without justification. And when they go to his office to question him, they find the body of one of his co-workers at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Apparently the murderer is a fan of soap operas. Jay, after some questioning, admits that he has a stalker, a crazy ex-girlfriend who won’t let go and wants to kill him (I’ve been THERE, dude), but H thinks that’s a bit too convenient. They track her down and find out that the evidence says loud and clear that she’s behind the killings, apparently doing it on his behalf without his blessing, but when they go one step further and start looking for unsolved murders in the past few months, they make a very interesting discovery about how Jay got his condo five months earlier. I guess he liked the attention after all. Meanwhile, Wolfe and Calleigh follow the evidence of her father’s truck to a construction site, where a dead body awaits. However, it was already dead when daddy got there the night before, so he’s off the hook. Personally I’m hoping they just kill him off and be done with it. Hell, they killed off Eddie Nash on CSI, so why should a loser like Duke survive much longer? The nice thing about both murders — SCIENCE solves the cases this time around, which is what the show’s strong point is. Good stuff.
The Good
– As noted, instead of shock plot twists and courtroom drama, it was good old forensics that broke the case.
– Ryan Wolfe is a pretty cool guy, and H’s “it’s in his blood” line at the end leads me to believe there’s more to the character than meets the eye.
– Jonathan Silverman played a pretty good scumbag ad agent here.
The Not-So-Good
– Still not much role for Delco this year yet, and Alex has been pretty invisible too for some reason. I know that Caruso is the “star” and all, but the supporting cast are all really much more interesting than him and could stand some face time, too.
– Frank Tripp got relegated to babysitting the new guy this week.
