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CSI: Miami Recap - Episode 6.21 Going Ballistic

by Jonathan on May 19th, 2008

Episode 6.21 Going Ballistic
Air Date: May 19, 2008

How tense can an episode be? This CSI: Miami episode is so full of twists, we have a lot to wonder about, over the summer.

Manny Ortega flies out of the window of a high rise. The team shows up, suspicious because jumpers don’t jump through glass. The team’s new medical examiner, Shannon Higgins, arrives. When she shouts out that he may be alive, gunshots ring out. She’s hit in the head, killed on the spot.

Juan Ortega comes to identify Manny’s body. He tells Eric that they were close, when they were younger, but had grown apart, ever since Juan became successful, while Manny struggled.

Wolfe and Vista search the vacant unit from which Ortega flew out of the building. Vista finds blood that matches that of an ATF agent, Evan Caldwell. Caldwell tells Horatio that he has been tracking Manny Ortega in relation to illegal munitions sales. Manny had refused to tell Caldwell who the ammo supplier was.

Eric and Calleigh determine the source of the shots, atop a parking garage. There, they find plenty of casings, as well as several unspent rounds, all oxidized, and a broken piece of a weapon, indicating a round blew and may have injured the shooter.

Horatio questions Ron Saris, who showed up at an ER with powder burns on his neck. He claimed to have had a round/weapon mismatch problem at the range. Ron talks –seemingly a bit threateningly- about protecting family. Horatio sports a tough face, as Ron talks about Julia and Horatio’s son, Kyle. Ron claims to have dumped his gun, since it was useless.

Eric runs prints from the casing to find Brad Gower, a previous offender. Horatio and Tripp storm into Gower’s office, and question him about his prints on the casing at the murder scene. Gower claims that his prints would be on a lot of ammo, since he does quality control in his munitions supply company. He claims that the DOD contracts him to supply U.S. allies.

As Calleigh is checking the oxidized ammo, she answers Tripp’s phone call. While she’s on the phone, a round rolls off the counter, fires on impact with the floor, and causes a fire. Eric shows up, after the fire is under control. He helps Calleigh find the one uncompromised unspent round. It’s a Soviet bloc round, manufactured in 1969. The bullets lack the stabilizers found in modern ammunition. So, Gower is selling cheap, illegal, outdated rounds, for a quick profit.

Tripp and Horatio are on the scene to arrest Gower. They also find a 9mm weapon with a cracked grip. Manny offered Brad Gower some brand new prototype, the most dangerous kind of ammunition. When Brad followed Ortega, and saw him talking to ATF agent Caldwell, he had to remove him, before he turned him over and took over the cheap ammo. Manny leaped from the building, instead of letting Gower shoot him. Gower shot at Ortega’s body, when he heard the M.E. yell that he might be alive.

As they escort Gower out of his office, a shot is fired from a passing vehicle, killing Gower. The single entry wound, and numerous exit wounds tells Calleigh that Gower was hit by a fused alloy round. She indicates that they haven’t seen this type of ammo in town. It can penetrate body armor, or cause significant damage to the un-armored.

Caldwell tells Calleigh says he was really after the dangerous fused alloy rounds, not the stuff on its way out of the country. He had shaken down Manny Ortega for info on the alloy rounds. He turns over a list of buyers to Calleigh.

Ron Saris is on the list of buyers. Horatio, of course, questions Ron. His alibi for the Gower shooting is his wedding with Julia. Ron claims not to be buying up the ammo.

Ron: Hypothetically, if I were buying up all the bullets, I’d be using it for only one thing, and one thing only.
Horatio: Is that a threat?
Ron: Don’t flatter yourself. Although, it would be a lot easier on Kyle, come Fathers Day.
Horatio: Ron, you’re gonna be dead by Fathers Day.

Horatio warns Julia that Ron is after her money. He tells her not to go back home. He tells her that once she is out of the way, Ron will go after Kyle, the only thing between Ron and the money. Julia agrees to meet Horatio at the airport, that evening. He’s arranging to send them out of the country. Kyle isn’t happy with Horatio’s plan. He’s upset that, after spending most of his life not knowing him, now he’s not going to be around.

The team catches up with the dumped Lexus from the drive-by. Ryan tells Calleigh that the vehicle has been cleaned up –no prints or other physical evidence. Calleigh, though, checks the navigation system. The phone number stored in the Bluetooth settings of the nav system point to Colin Madison, one of Brad Gower’s employees.

As Calleigh questions Madison, Ryan excuses himself for an appointment elsewhere. He can’t say what. Madison says that a man came in thinking he was Gower. The man gave him a round to use to kill Brad. He said he wanted him to kill Brad. He knew the guy meant business, so he Madison, in return for a deal, implicates Ortega’s brother, Juan. Ortega won’t tell how much of the fused alloy ammo is on the streets. He also warns Horatio that he should watch out, because taking Ortega down will make a lot of people angry.

An hour before they are to meet at the plane, Julia leaves Kyle to “do something”. Kyle thinks it strange, since they’re supposed to meet Horatio.

Horatio is waiting by the plane. Someone hits him with one bullet. In an obvious bit of symbolism, they even hit his signature sunglasses. He lies twitching on the ground.

Ryan is walking outside the crime lab building, when he receives a text message: It’s done.

Horatio lies still, eyes open, on the airfield’s apron.

[Now, we may know why Khandi Alexander is still in the credits. Has David Caruso never seen an interview with William Shatner, or any of the other cast of the original Star Trek?]

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