The episode begins with Horatio (David Caruso) rushing back to the lab, with Starling (Roger Bart) repeating a quote from Hamlet: "Revenge delayed invites madness." Don't know if that was a jibe at himself or the CSIs wanting to bring him to book for the murders of his faculty members. Why didn't Delko (Adam Rodriguez) think about shooting out the window for air, instead of opting to carry out Calleigh (Emily Procter) and failing miserably in the attempt and dropping on top of her at one point. No, it was left to Horatio to save the day and them and for Natalia (Eva La Rue) to find Jesse (Eddie Cibrian). Also when last we saw them none of the CSIs had their lab coats on. And what happened to the lab extra in the green jumper who was propped about all over the place in the season 8 finale.
They made a miraculous recovery after inhaling the halon gas which Delko describes as poisonous, no after or side effects for either one of them, so all the CSIs managed to crawl out into the hallway except for Jesse. Natalia was the most distraught when she found Jesse, especially when she couldn't revive him and Horatio telling her "he's gone." What a cop-out Jesse going like that, as are all the episodes where one of the CSIs gets killed off, viz Speed (Rory Cochrane), who was shot in Lost Son. Here Jesse just hit his head when he fell and casually, or coincidentally fell over the vent, inhaling the brunt of the gas.
ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) removes Jesse's clothes and comments his autopsy would have been even fuller if Horatio hadn't shot out the window. He believes Jesse died from cerebral hypoxia. Horatio explains oxygen deprivation, to clarify for those who don't know what that is. There was no trace of any toxic gases. He also suffered subdural hemorrhaging, hitting his head when he fell. Horatio takes Jesse's badge, he'll deal with his things. All the evidence they had amassed against Starling has been destroyed or compromised. Ryan (Jonathan Togo) looking rather trim, says they have his gun, but Calleigh shoots that down (no pun) by adding the gun isn't linked to him. Tripp (Rex Linn) says he doesn't know how Starling got the gas when he was behind bars but they'll find out. Obvious answer being he had an accomplice and no surprises for guessing who, as Melissa (Kristen Hager) immediately comes to mind. He was her mentor after all and so they were closely associated.
Horatio deals with Starling in no uncertain terms and tells him his name, Jesse Cardoza. Starling has no regrets or remorse and only replies Horatio can't stop what's about to come. Horatio tells the CSIs they need to get Starling for Jesse's murder and with all his past killings he left clues. They start with the note Horatio was given and with Melissa. Natalia has the dubious honour of trying to question Melissa who just wants to conveniently drive away and is deliberately evasive. She wanted to be so helpful for her thesis when she was trying to get one over them, but now she doesn't have a word to say, not even after she's been told Starling killed a police officer. That'll change.
Nikki (Alexandra Adi) tells Calleigh the note was printed on an inkjet printer, which uses wet ink so they could match it to Starling's printer. Well he wasn't so clever using his own printer for starters. Ryan is in the ventilation duct and finds traces of halon, which Horatio says is a fire repressant. Delko adds it's been banned. They open up the AC unit to find tanks of the gas. Someone got into the AC system and again we're shown Jesse falling near the vent. Not very good security for a crime lab if that can happen so easily. In custody, Starling manages to remove one of his cuffs. The lettering under the rust on the tank shows it belongs to Dade University. Horatio being rough with Starling and the rest of the suspect's in this episode, don't get to see him heavy-handed very often, but still can't match the hands-on approach they had with Horatio when he used to help out int he lab, which is missed, cos these days he doesn't do much, except stand around, which is where the producers make their mistake.
Walter (Omar Miller) asks why no one's cleaned Jesse's face; he's still being processed. They had a basketball game today which Walter would've won. As we get flashbacks to them paying ball from the season 8.10 episode, Count Me Out. His mother wants him returned to California and Horatio will make that happen. He begins to clean Jesse's face and finds a piece of glass. The glass was from the room and so he tells Natalia he wants to now where it came from. The glass is tempered and there are roller marks on it. The glass matches Starling's camera as there's another flashback to Jesse falling down , talk about rubbing it in. Dave (Wes Ramsey) tells Walter the server's down and Jesse gave him a memory card to check. Deleted photos can still be obtained from the card.
Ryan says there was 6% concentration of halon in Jesse's blood, so they can add to the area of a same sized lab and work out when Starling set off the gas and where he was at the time. It takes 5 seconds to get to 6%. Ryan does the math, or at least most of it for Delko, and they work out it took 35 minutes, "before we all fell down." As Delko says, but he wasn't even here. Ryan says Starling was teaching, so he had an accomplice, well that took long enough and the first thought they have is of Melissa. Who is tied up in her house with a gun rigged to the door, she had to have rigged it herself. Horatio got to the the second floor pretty easily. If Starling was meant to be so clever than all of them put together it's a wonder he didn't realize they would find out what he's done, they solved all his clues too. She says a man was waiting for her when she got home and the gun belongs to Keith Garwood (Channon Roe) a janitor at the university, who was the dupe, the patsy.
Three canisters of gas are missing and Horatio, again losing his cool, tells him the murder of a policeman carries mandatory death sentence. Garwood's not talking since he doesn't want to be his fourth Vic, that should have been fifth; if you count all of the Vics, including the professor who survived when Natalia saved him. Calleigh feels the rifle round weight is wrong. The gun powder has been replaced with sand, so the gun wouldn't fire, which Delko says is lucky for Melissa. Starling repeats "tick tock" whilst in solitary. Nikki says the note had shiny areas on the paper, which makes Horatio think of invisible ink, which fluoresces under UV light. Symbols have been drawn between the words which Horatio calls a cipher. Natalia says different cultures depicted such symbols and the Mayans depicted 'end of days' as Horatio says. Natalia mentions bubonic plague, prompting Delko to recall what was written on the cologne bottle in 8.24 All fall Down.
The server's down so they have to look through the books, manually, whilst Horatio just stands by and doesn't help. The symbols read: 'Man Marks Earth Ruin'. Travers (Christopher Redman) repeats the Byron poem it's from, but he doesn't know what it means. Horatio finsihes: "but his control stops at the shore." There's a bomb at Pier 25, near the Byron Hotel. The bomb threat turns out to be a hoax, with 'poof' written inside the box, cos it's a distraction by Starling who is about to escape en route to prison, again that was apparent. Tripp gets knocked around in yet another escape attempt by car. They just happen to take him to prison already, thought they would have waited till the case was over. There's gunfire from the van and again that was firing automatically. Since if Starling rigged the rifle to fire automatically in 8.24, then he'd have done that again now; as Calleigh confirms it was a remote-rigged rifle. Delko ask the silly question of how this was done when Starling and the accomplice were in custody, since duh, they have the wrong accomplice.
Horatio recalls Melissa had dud bullets aimed at her cos she wasn't meant to die. Walter and Dave find deleted photos of Starling and Melissa together on the memory card. Horatio tells her she gassed his lab for Starling and all the evidence points to her. She's taking the fall for him, but suddenly she wants to deal, whereas before she had nothing to say to Natalia. Starling is making his getaway on a yacht, thought he'd have left by now and yanks the wire from her. She killed a cop fro him and Starling thought she was smarter than that and admits she wouldn't have been able to gas the lab unless he told her how. She shows him the real wire on her belt. Tripp arrests him for Jesse's murder. Horatio: "Jesse Cardoza was our friend."
Calleigh gives Jesse a Saint Christopher to send him on his way, dressed in his uniform. "Have a safe trip." They find Walter playing basketball, they knew he'd be here. Delko: "We're always here for each other." Ryan's on Walter's team cos he and Calleigh bet money and he's going to throw the game. Ryan still talking about gambling. Horatio throws a basket for Jesse, "this is for Jesse."
Shame to see another CSI leave the show in such a manner, seems everyone has to be killed off. But Eddie Cibrian was a particularly great addition to the show. Now who's going to find their clues and point them in the right direction. His character of Jesse was particularly compelling and passionate, in that he was a CSI who cared about the Vics and solving crimes. It was a pity he had to be killed off since his part could have been left open. Also Adam Rodriguez returning to the show. I don't have any qualms about making my feelings known and Delko was one character I never was into since CSI:Miami began and it was sad that one actor had to leave to be replaced by a cast member who never really left the show back in season 8. Jesse was a little like Speed and his character was more interesting and had potential, just as Jesse did. Speed questioned the job and their reasons for doing it, when at the end of the day, some criminals got away. Delko more or less accepted the job. Adam's photo in the opening credits, replaces Eddie's at the end.
Anyway Walter had a touching farewell with Jesse when he cleans his face. Both happy and bitter sweet moments too. Only fitting that a newer cast member Omar, like Eddie, was to share this scene with him, since they both got on so well. Any fun scene was spared until the end as Jesse's mother wanted him back home. No mention of a mother before now as is always the case. First Jesse lost his wife and then we lost Jesse. Next episode he'll be all but forgotten.
As for the storyline, well Starling was going to be caught by hook or by crook, it's the nature of the show and had to be done for justice for Jesse. Starling's so-called intelligence was no match for the forensics and the CSIs and at the end of the day, that of an accomplice. Emily being hidden behind set pieces and not being shown full view in front of the camera to mask her pregnancy.
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