CSI: Miami - Rio (season premiere)

(S05E01) I love this show and I'm thoroughly excited that it's back. I still think it's the best in the CSI franchise and after last year's cliffhanger, this is the one premiere that I've honestly been looking forward to. We pick up right where we left off, with Horatio and Delko in pursuit of Antonio Riaz, the drug kingpin responsible for the death of Horatio's wife (and Delko's sister) Marisol. Riaz has fled the country thanks to the deal he cut with the Feds. Next stop? Brazil.

Once in Brazil, the local authorities essentially let Riaz go because the charges against him in the States no longer hold up in Brazil. The Feds wiped the charges in exchange for Riaz's info on the Male Noche gang. So he's a free man but Horatio and Delko were waiting for him.

At this point, the episode got a little cheesy and way too far-fetched. But that's what I've come to love about CSI: Miami. The corniness is what makes it so great. Now it never occurred to me that since this episode was taking place in Brazil, that Yelena and Ray might make an appearance. After all, we haven't seen them since they fled the country with their son Ray Jr. at the end of season three. Naturally, H has a hunch that Ray must be working for Riaz and Yelena confirms it. What great luck!

Wrong. Horatio and Delko find Ray hanging from his feet, bloody and cut up. He died minutes later. At first I was upset that Dean Winters didn't reprise the role, but I suppose I would have turned it down too for twenty seconds of screen time followed by a last breath. Now at this point, I'm asking myself, "Why is Ray involved with Riaz? What does this have to do with anything?" The answer was actually fairly well conceived... at least I thought so.

Back in Miami, this guy named Matos was Riaz and the Male Noche's biggest rival. There's no way Riaz was going to head back to Florida and hit the guy. So he sent Ray Jr. (with a stomach full of heroin pellets) to lure Matos and take him out on the pretense that Matos had Ray's father hidden away somewhere. Ray Jr. had no idea his father was already dead. Make sense? Horatio was able to stop Ray Jr. in time so all ended well. Yelena came and got her son and I hope they'll stick around for a while. I'm sure there were some Surface fans out there glad to see Carter Jenkins back on TV too.

Oh, I almost forgot. Horatio did kill Riaz. The scene was straight out of Street Fighter II for Super Nintendo. Right down to the helicopter pad and canned Spanish music. The whole sequence was laughable and I loved every second of it.

Meanwhile, back in Miami, we found out that Natalia has been upgraded to a CSI. She worked a case, on a provisional basis, with Wolfe and things didn't turn out so well. She was a bit loose with her language and an innocent man was shot because of what she said. It was a nice way to highlight her unpreparedness for this job but it also gave weight to Wolfe's belief that she doesn't deserve the promotion at all. She was, after all, the mole last season. I'm not too sure I like this upgrade either.

Overall, a very satisfying premiere. It stands alone and didn't really set up any future storylines, but I'm sure that next week we'll get some. CSI: Miami was great as a serialized show last season, focusing more on continuing storylines. I hope the same trend goes on this year.