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Blood in the Water
Blood in the Water
Season 4
Number 2
Writer Sunil Nayar
Director Duane Clark
Original Airdate September 26, 2005
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Previous Episode: From the Grave
Next Episode: Prey (Miami)

Blood in the Water is the second episode in Season Four of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

When a rich family is trapped on a burning yacht in shark-infested waters, the CSI's must investigate how it happened.

Plot[]

The Gannons are on their yacht, but it's hardly a peaceful sailing trip. The yacht is burning and Julie Gannon is calling for her father, Ken, who is trying to steer the burning boat with his wife Laura by his side. Julie, distressed, grabs a life jacket and jumps overboard into the shark-infested sea, despite the protests of her brother, Luke. After she is pulled under, her brother jumps in to rescue her. Both Gannon children are missing when the CSI s arrive at the yacht, which is rapidly sinking. While Delko takes a dive looking for clues as to the fate of the Gannon children, Ryan and Calleigh board the sinking ship, noticing some glass and a liquid pattern, indicating an accelerant, which Ryan posits came from the galley. Both CSIs suspect a Molotov cocktail was used to set the boat aflame. The yacht continues to rock and realizing it's about to go down, the CSIs snap a few final shots and flee. Underwater, Delko has discovered a rip current that could have dragged Luke and Julie away, as well as a moved marker.

The Gannons recall seeing another ship in the area, the Helen B, but they refused its captain's offer of help because salvage boats charge exorbitant prices after a rescue. Horatio tracks down the Helen B and speaks with her captain Rex Hoby who confirms that the Gannons refused his help. When Horatio posits that Rex moved the channel marker and threw a Molotov cocktail at the Gannon's boat, Rex claims he would never destroy a boat and risk the profit from salvaging it. Back at the lab, Ryan is trying to recreate the pour patterns from the liquid from the yacht, and determines that a Molotov cocktail couldn't have been responsible for the explosion on the boat. The substance that started the fire was cooking oil.

With Dan Cooper's help, Eric follows the riptide's course and discovers the body of a young man, but when the CSIs show the body to the Gannons, they say that he's not Luke. Alexx sees burn marks on the body, indicating he was on the boat, but when she autopsies him she determines that he was shot and killed before he was put on the boat. After talking to Calleigh, who admits to him that Hagen's death propelled her to quit ballistics, Ryan brings the thumb of the dead man to Delko for printing. Delko gets a hit in the immigration records: Damon Loughlin, who was in the country on a student visa. Mrs. Gannon recognizes the name: her daughter Julie was seeing him. He was house sitting for the Elias family, and a trip to the Elias house reveals their crime scene when the CSIs discover a huge bloodstain in the entry hall. Calleigh finds a shell casing, which she hands to Ryan. Julio Elias tells the CSIs that 10 million dollars in gold bars is missing from his house, and his daughter Tia's laptop was stolen as well. Calleigh asks about the Elias's connection to the Gannons, and Tia tells her that she used to date Luke.

Horatio goes back to the Helen B and finds Rex Hoby with a trunk that contains the Elias' gold. He's even more surprised to discover Luke Gannon on the ship, safe and sound, with Rex. It was Luke who granted Rex salvage rights to the yacht. Horatio thinks Luke planned this out: he killed Damon, stole the gold, and then jumped into the ocean under the pretext of rescuing Julie, but really so that Rex could pick him up and they could split the profits once the ship sank.

Back at the lab, Aaron Peters and Ryan discover THC and cooking oil on the glass the CSIs recovered from the yacht. Ryan puts it together: someone put cooking oil in a bong, which ignited when the person who the bong belonged to lit up. Ryan questions Luke, who the bong belonged to. He thinks his mother put the cooking oil in the bong, because she hates that he smokes. Delko finds a print on the bong that doesn't match any of the Gannons, and it leads the CSIs to Tia Elias. Ryan asks her about her breakup with Luke, and she tells him that she caught Luke in bed with another girl—his own sister, Julie. Ryan tells her what she did is manslaughter.

Horatio becomes suspicious of the Gannons, and when Delko runs them, he discovers the Gannon children aren't children at all, but an unrelated young man and woman in their 20s, with long rap sheets. Ken Gannon has one as well. Horatio talks to Laura Gannon, the only innocent in the whole "family" and tells her that Ken is a con man who used her to gain access to the yacht club so that he could steal Julio Elias' gold. Laura is distraught, but Horatio tells her they have the advantages, since Ken and the "kids" don't know the CSIs are on to them yet. Horatio confronts Ken with the information, and tells him that he believes Ken posed as a widower with two children in order to seduce the recently widowed Laura. Ken tells Horatio that he has no proof, and Horatio decides to look into the death of Laura's first husband.

Calleigh, dissatisfied with the new ballistics tech, Jim, and the fact that he hasn't processed the casing from the Elias house yet, takes it off his hands. She finds some skin fused to it and takes it to DNA. The DNA proves to be Luke's, who claims that his sister shot Damon after Damon pulled a gun on them. Luke tried to pick up the casing afterwards, but it was hot and burned him and he dropped it.

Frank Tripp tracks down the car that Phillip Reynolds, Laura's first husband, died in. He takes it from the man who now owns it and brings it back to CSI, where Delko examines it and discovers it was tampered with. He removes some duct tape from the car, and discovers a single print beneath several layers. Horatio confronts Ken Gannon: he rigged the car so that the cruise control came on and the breaks failed at the same time, causing Phillip's car to speed up and crash. The print matches Gannon, tying him to the crime.

Laura Gannon laments being duped, and tells Horatio all that she wanted was a family. He responds that family is what everyone wants, as he watches his own family, the CSI team, interacting.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Rex Linn as Frank Tripp
  • Eva LaRue as Natalia Boa Vista
  • Brendan Fehr as Dan Cooper
  • Joshua Leonard as Jim Markham
  • Boti Ann Bliss as Maxine Valera
  • Armando Valdes-Kennedy as Aaron Peters
  • Patrick Fabian as Ken Gannon
  • Francine Swift as Laura Gannon
  • Corey Sevier as Luke Gannon
  • Jennifer Holland as Julie Gannon
  • Troy Curvey Jr. as Rex Hoby
  • Nicholas Di Nardo as Damon Loughlin
  • Jordi Caballero as Julio Elias
  • Anahi Bustillos as Tia Elias
  • David DeSantos as Luis Cruz
  • Tom Schmid as Philip Reynolds
  • Natalina Maggio as Onlooker/Rollerblader (uncredited)

Major Events []

  • Ballistics Lab Tech Jim Markham is introduced for the first time.

See Also[]

CSI:Miami Season 4
From the GraveBlood in the WaterPrey (Miami)48 Hours to LifeThree-WayUnder SuspicionFelony FlightNailedUrban HellraisersShatteredPaybackThe ScoreSilencerFade OutSkeletonsDeviantCollisionDouble JeopardyDrivenFree FallDead AirOpen WaterShockRampageOne of Our Own
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