See Also: 'Man Down' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

Picking up where "No Man's Land" left off, doctors are able to resuscitate Erik Delko, who barely clings to life after being shot twice, once in the leg and once in the head. Calleigh and Ryan process the scene where Delko was shot, and question a security guard named Keeler who arrived late on the scene. He tells them he recalls passing a man running down the stairs of the parking garage. Horatio uses the GPS tracker in the money he gave Clavo to track him down, but he finds the tracker abandoned on the beach--along with Kathy Gibson. She tells Horatio Clavo kidnapped her, but Natalia identifies a wound on her body as being from a hacksaw used to remove Clavo's cuffs. She admits to helping Clavo escape, and Horatio tells her that she'll be charged with murder if Delko dies.

Tripp tells Horatio that General Cruz is in town, and Horatio suspects Clavo has broken out of jail to exact revenge on the man he thought was his father. His hunch proves right when they go to Cruz's house, but Clavo is already there. He shoots Cruz and escapes, and the general dies in Horatio's arms. Natalia is surprised to discover an uncut diamond in Clavo's wake. Calleigh and Ryan get a DNA match off a jacket in a trashcan at the scene to Tanner Wilcox, the man fleeing the scene of the rooftop shooting, but he proves to be a dead end when they learn he was there stealing from cars, not shooting at the CSIs. The teller from Horatio's bank contacts him to tell him the funds placed in his account were transferred by a man named Joseph Trevi. Horatio confronts the man and accuses him of bankrolling Clavo, suspecting it's about the diamonds. It proves to run deeper than that when the CSIs learn Trevi is Clavo's biological father. Trevi admits Clavo gave him the diamonds and that he sold them for 45 million, which he has no intention of sharing with Clavo. Horatio calls Clavo to tell him Trevi gave him up, but Clavo refuses to surrender.

Natalia is able to determine that the diamond Clavo had is from Sierra Leone. She questions Audrey van der Meer, a buyer for Duncroft Diamonds, but isn't able to get any information out of her. The CSIs learn Audrey sponsored a work visa for a diamond cutter, and when they go to her shop, they find the diamond cutter and his whole family slaving away in a back room. Audrey is arrested. When Calleigh and Ryan realize the gun Delko was shot with is a shotgun, they haul Keeler back in and test his other hand for GSR and learn he's the shooter. Clavo paid him a hundred grand to shoot at the CSIs. Clavo arrives at the department, gun in hand, forcing Horatio to shoot him down. Horatio tells Delko, who is recovering, that they got Clavo, and is forced to tell him why his sister Marisol isn't at his bedside.

Analysis:

"Man Down" actually manages to do what few concluding episodes do: live up to the excitement and stakes set up by the first half. From the first few minutes, when the hospital staff desperately attempts to revive Delko, who has flatlined, to the end when Clavo Cruz faces off with Horatio, the episode is every bit as gripping as the first installment.

When Delko was shot, twice, at the end of "No Man's Land", it was pretty clear he wasn't going to be up and walking in the next episode. Indeed, after the hospital staff successfully gets his heart beating again, Delko spends the rest of the episode in a hospital bed, regaining consciousness only halfway through the episode.

All of that is rather predictable, but what isn't is Calleigh's pronouncement: "He's different." It's an unexpected twist for a CSI show, and it could take Delko, and the show's viewers, down an interesting path if she's right. So far, the only evidence we see of how he's altered is his memory: Delko doesn't remember his sister, Marisol, is dead. It would have been better if it had been Calleigh who had to tell him about his sister's death, rather than Horatio, simply because having Horatio be the one to do it makes the moment as much about Horatio as it is about Delko, since Marisol was married to Horatio. It's a sad moment all the same, though Delko probably doesn't realize that Horatio is grieving as well.

Calleigh and Delko share a wonderful connection that's thankfully been revived in the past few episodes. Emily Procter and Adam Rodriguez have a sparkling chemistry that is evident whenever they're on screen together. Rodriguez didn't get to do much other than lie prone in this episode, but Procter did enough for the both of them, staying strong for Delko and keeping her own fears about him being changed by the injury at bay until she was out of his presence.

Horatio has his hands full with another family drama involving Clavo Cruz, this time involving both the man Clavo thought was his father, and his actual father. Both reject Clavo in one way or another. The general renounced him in "Identity" and does so again in this episode with his obvious disdain for the man he once thought was his son. In "Identity" it really did seem that the General's only reason for kicking Clavo to the curb was that Clavo wasn't his biological child, and he pays for it in "Man Down" when Clavo fatally shoots him in the chest.

Joseph Trevi, Clavo's biological father, funnels him funds but eventually turns on him as well, giving him up to the police when he sees no other option for himself. Trevi is played with an elegant cool by Joaquim de Almeida, who made a splash in the third season of 24 as the sinister villain Ramon Salazar. de Almeida is equally slick here, and he gives Clavo up with little emotion.

That leaves Clavo with someone he sees in an odd way as a father figure-cum-nemesis: Horatio. Of all the people in his life, Horatio is the one who has never given him up or thrown him over, even if that simply means Horatio has done his job and pursued Clavo doggedly 'til the end. Horatio is the only one who has shown the kind of interest Clavo craves--unflagging, unwavering, unchanging.

Gonzalo Menendez plays up Clavo's desperation for a father figure in his final scene, when he confronts Horatio with only one purpose in mind: to force the CSI to kill him. Clavo is essentially out of options, having been betrayed by his biological father, so he turns to the one man he can get attention from one last time. David Caruso makes it clear that Horatio takes no pleasure in killing Clavo, and because Clavo was a rarity on a CSI show--a complicated, wholly human bad guy--the viewer is sorry to see him go as well.

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