csi: miami
going under (2/24)

The fifth season of the hit crime drama continues on Five this week. In tonight’s episode, the CSIs investigate a motorcycle gang connected to gun smuggling, while Calleigh is placed in jeopardy when her car is rammed off the road.

The peace and quiet of one of Miami’s most exclusive districts is shattered by the revving engines of a motorcycle gang. Amid the confusion of the circling bikes, a man plunges to his death from an apartment balcony into a street café below. Calleigh arrives on the scene and is surprised to learn that the dead man, Billy Gault, did not commit suicide. “He wasn’t a jumper, Calleigh,” Alexx tells her. “He was shot.”

Calleigh gathers evidence and decides to take a shortcut back to base, only for her car to be rammed off the track and into a swamp. As the vehicle sinks to the bottom, the windows crack and water begins to drain inside. Calleigh takes a deep breath and smashes the window, flooding the car with a blast of water before swimming to safety.

Horatio and Delko arrive with paramedics and search the scene for clues as to the identity of the second car. Calleigh confesses that the DNA and fingerprint evidence in her vehicle is ruined. “Someone doesn’t want that evidence to see the light of day,” Delko says. However, lab techs are able to read a water-stained note amongst the evidence that leads them to a biker named ‘V-Ray’.

V-Ray is a member of the ‘Crypt Kings’ motorcycle gang that is known to be involved in drugs and arms dealing. The biker refuses to cooperate but the police use a series of microphones around the city to track the gang’s movements through the roar of their engines. The trail of motorbike noise leads the cops to a warehouse, where suspects are rounded up. Amongst the members of the gang, Calleigh spots Jake Berkeley, an undercover cop who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. In order not to blow his cover, Calleigh makes a show of arresting him.

Back at the station, Berkeley explains to the CSIs that Billy Gault was in fact another undercover officer: his partner, Ken McCarthy. “We were both investigating an ongoing criminal conspiracy,” he says, but refuses to give details. McCarthy’s widow proves to be more helpful when she gives Horatio a memory stick belonging to her husband that contains files on the Crypt Kings. On the stick, there is a list of weapons that the gang was selling, including an unidentified gun known as ‘CS’.

Calleigh returns to the apartment complex where McCarthy was shot and attempts to establish the location of the gunman. She finds gunpowder residue at a spot in front of the building, but the angle would seem to be impossible. Calleigh quickly deduces that ‘CS’ must stand for ‘Corner Shot’: “It’s a high-tech restricted weapon,” she tells Frank Tripp. “The Israelis were working on a prototype.” This specially-adapted holster allows an ordinary weapon to fire at right-angles. “So it’s a gun that shoots around corners?” Frank asks. The CSIs now know the Crypt Kings’ secret weapon – but who was buying it?

Meanwhile, Boa Vista and Delko have identified the vehicle that knocked Calleigh into the swamp and traced its driver: Angela Downey, girlfriend of the Crypt Kings’ leader, Hawk Reed. The CSIs know that Hawk told Angela to waylay Calleigh in order to destroy the crime scene evidence, and they know that he is behind the shipment of CS guns – could he also be responsible for McCarthy’s murder? The charge looks highly likely, until part of the murder weapon is traced to none other than Jake Berkeley. Is there more to this case than meets the eye?