Some cool back story for Horatio Caine in this early episode of CSI: Miami where once again Delaney must bring Caruso down a notch when he immediately suspects the two wives in the bomb murder of a Colombian importer possibly guilty of corrupt activities currently under investigation. The importer's American wife (his other wife lives in Bogotá) awakens to find her husband with a pipe bomb attached around his neck, perhaps set to go off if a specific ransom isn't paid. The very best in bomb diffusing, Al Humphreys (Lou Beatty, Jr.), thinks he can take care of this neck pipe bomb but a trigger, when light hits it as a drill hole is made, causes an instant explosion that Horatio wasn't expecting. You see, Al was H's mentor, teacher (H mentions how Al taught him everything he knows), and friend. Al's loss inspires H to hit the crime scene hard--a mess of bomb wreckage, which left the importer without a face (and melted internally)--but it will be a difficult task finding anything that could, through evidence, lead the CSI team to a bomb-expert killer. H ties the bomb murders (and a later bomb scare, including a kid on a BMX bike, and a lady in her home with a bomb neck device filled with sand) to someone aiming his sights at the Miami bomb squad! Delaney and Caruso get a lot of the episode's attention (thankfully, later seasons successfully disperse the love around to all the characters of the cast) once again, especially when it concerns Horatio's keeping his head in the game and emotions in check. While Al's death is a driving force in H's efforts to solve the bomb murders, Delaney is that voice of reason that reins him in from targeting the wrong people (the wives, Delaney notices distinctly, have no idea who each other are, no clue that they were married to the same man, and that their links to evidence found at the crime scene are simple feminine products many women wear; it turns out that the chemicals involved pertained to a wig made for men!), helping him to look at the evidence/case objectively. H's quick thinking and calm resolve in diffusing the package bomb found in the basket of a kid's bike is especially a neat moment; it also is a peek into his work prior to becoming head of CSI Miami-Dade police department. Delaney even questions why he'd leave the work since he was so ace at it, but living that close to the edge, H felt the science of the CSI was a healthy benefit, far more rewarding than diffusing bombs. Still, admittedly, I'm growing a little weary of Delaney's maternal scolding of Horatio, always reminding him of his duty, treating him sometimes like a pupil needing a ruler across the hand. In this episode, H does thank her for keeping him in line and from making a mistake he might regret when convinced that the wives were the bomb-making culprits. The ending, with the straw diffusing a neck pipe bomb, is rather sweet. The first couple seasons, for whatever reason, don't seem to get much airtime on cable channels carrying CSI: Miami, but the beginning episodes are kind of fun, if a bit too beholden to the two stars and less on the supporting cast of CSI personnel.
Review of Losing Face
