CSI: Miami

Crime Wave

Season 3, Episode 8, Aired 11/8/04

Episode Summary

As a huge tsunami heads directly towards Miami, a ten-hour warning gives citizens just enough time to evacuate the city. In the chaos, two people are killed in a parking lot and the evidence leads Horatio to discover a plot to rob a bank timed to take advantage of the evacuation. However, as the CSIs close in on the robbery already in progress, they find that it's a more elaborate crime than they previously thought. In the wake of the storm, Ryan and Alexx discover a body washed up from a local cemetery that may have a different cause of death than originally recorded. Meanwhile, Horatio suspects that Yelina is being physically abused by her boyfriend, IAB's Rick Stetler.moreless

8.6

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Cast & Crew

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David Caruso

Lieutenant Horatio Caine
Khandi Alexander

Chief Medical Examiner Alexx Woods
Sofia Milos

Detective Yelina Salas (Episodes 49+, Recurring Previously)

Fan Episode Reviews (10)

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A tidal wave provides an excellent diversion for a bank robbery.

6.9

"Fair"

By lttleetoile, Dec 27, 2007 Report Abuse

I liked the backdrop for the episode a lot: a tidal wave/tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption! And I also liked how the robbery was actually planned to take place during the next hurricane (something you can always plan for in Florida!), but that the robbers took their opportunity when it was presented with the tidal wave. But I had a hard time following the trail of bodies and tracking how many people were involved with the heist. Also, I must have zoned out when they explained how they got the gold, because I am not sure how that happened.
Oh, and exploding building at the end: Horatio and his Hummer: together, they are invincible. Or at least Horatio is.moreless

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As much as I like this series, I simply have to state that this is a very poor episode. Everything about it is either forced or simply not realistic.

3.4

"Bad"

By CottonButtons, Mar 08, 2007 Report Abuse

From the very beginning, this episode is questionable. It is established that everyone is shopping at a chain hardware store. All the people in the parking lot have carts filled with hardware items. Noone has food or beverages...except the co-ed. She is carrying a bag of oranges..only oranges. She happens to walk by the scene of a murder and is killed. Her important purchase of oranges on her way out of the city ends up leading to her death.

Another unlikely scenario is that a small bank very close to the coastline is still open moments before the wave hits. All other businesses have closed, but this local bank is still open AND customers are still there. Unreal.moreless

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Crime Wave

9.3

"Superb"

By bankscountybabe, Dec 26, 2006 Report Abuse

A man is stabbed in the temple and another woman is stabeed for seeing. The man was at the scene because he's got an orange pulp from the site on his shoes. Elania got hit by Steller. A group of people are going to rob the bankwhile a Tsunami is going on. The main man died because of the crash. H locked everyone in the vault. H threatened Stetler b/c he hit Elania. The bank owner left and went on somewhere but he's suppose to be with his wife. The 3rd robber was caught and riddick is on the move. Gold was upstairs and machine guns were used to cover up explosives.moreless

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Tsunamis, collapsing buildings, a gold bullion heist, it's only the best episode ever...

10

"Perfect"

By malawi69, Nov 23, 2006 Report Abuse

WOOOOOOOOOOOWW!!! at first I thought CSI Miami had been moved up an hour on the timetable, but no it was to compensate for this extended length episode, an hour and a half (commercials included).

This also happens to be the very first CSI.M. episode I watched, I caught it just by random luck, and got hooked right away, like you wouldn't.

We kick off, with a news flash, Miami is gonna be hit by a tsunami in about 10 hours, the city starts prepping itself for the worst, the Lab is lowering the hurricane shielding over the windows, the CSIs however are out to investigate, a curious double murder in a hardware store parking lot, but what's more curious about the murder is that one the corpses a sumo-looking guy, who had a record, was armed and had in his pocket, 4 rounds of 5.7mm ammo, the type used by a P-90 submachine gun, the type the guys from "Stargate SG-1" use, AKA cop-killers coz they are indeed armor piercing rounds. H can't mask his concern about it.

A series of leads end up with Tripp and Eric, at another hardware store where someone just bought the exact same materials the killer left behind where he killed the two people, they aprehend a suspect, but have to later cut him loose for lack of evidence says the DA's assistant. The man's car however leads H and Calleigh to a dog racing track down town Miami, where all the pooches have already been cleared out, but instead they find a mock up of a bank with it's hurricane proof windows and all, they find P-90s, ammo, sketches, etc, everything you need to plan and practice a perfect bank job. Via the size of the glass panes H and Calleigh find, Eric pin points the bank where it's gonna go down. In the nick of time H and Eric arrive at the bank, people on the floor, perps firing the P-90s wildly at the roof, masked man clearing out the register, a typical bank job. H and Eric take the bad guys down, but as the bank manager points out "look at the horizon", H responds: "THAT is not the horizon", quite right it's the tsunami, homing in on everything in it's way, with no time to get to higher ground H and Eric manage to squeeze everyone in to the bank's vault, there weather out the tsunami.

Ryan is also caught by the tsunami, but in a beach-side condo, where his uncle lives, with no time to get out either, he and a neighbor of his uncle stay put in a 30th floor.

The wave passes, everyone get out if their "shelters". H and the bank people made it out ok, the manager's wife however was shot in the leg during the heist, the manager more than shocked is acting weird, H sends Tripp and Eric to follow the manager. H stays at the bank, standard MO after police discharge their weapons, guess who shows up? Yep you know it it's H's IAB nemesis Stetler, after the professional chit-chat, H make a life threat to Stetler, after he noticed earlier Yelina had a black eye, which she like common abuse vics blame don herself, "If you touch her again I'm going to kill you", in the same cool way he tells the bad guys, "you're under arrest". Ryan makes his way to where Alexx is, near a cemetery, where the wave had washed out a couple of caskets, the problem erupts when Alexx finds out that one of the corpses was not embalmed IOW it's murder, when she and Ryan confront the cemetery owner, she realizes there are 12 caskets but there corpses, she gets shaky coz apart from the murder, the owner moved unvisited grave sites corpses to cheaper location so she could resale the expensive space, all this needless to say with out family consent, Alexx and Ryan take the "extra body" to the lab.

Meanwhile Eric has tracked down the bank manager, as he approaches his house he hears screaming, upon entrance he finds the manager pointing a shotgun at a man, and the suspect they had to cut loose earlier wielding a P-90 at the manager, Eric cuts in just in time to see the perp head out with the manager as a hostage, he finds out however the guy on the floor who the manager was pointing at had also been at the bank job, in fact he worked there, the manger had recognized him by his shoes.

Ryan and Alexx, are hitting a dead end, they can't find out how the "13th body" got into the cemetery, one of the A/V guys suggests using a program which recognizes loaded vehicles, they do, and end up finding a guy who had killed his step dad who was always cheating on his mom. One case down one to go.

Further inspection of the bank reveals 20mll in gold bullion missing, the bank job downstair was just a diversion, to get the gold out. After consulting with a profesor specialized in tsunamis, they find out that the gold was smuggled out of the bank, in flotation devise like the ones they use to resurface sunken hips and subs, an aide to the professor seems involved in the whole gold operation. After questioning the aide, who was indeed in league with the first perp, H heads to an abandoned building scheduled to be demolished that evening, H believes he'll find the kidnapped bank manager there, a minute away from the blast H enters the building in his Hummer, he finds him, and while he's securing the manager inside the vehicle, the blast begins, H makes it out in the nick of time, with the manager alive.

H now has enough evidence, to go after the murderer/robber/kidnaper, the professor's aide is in custody now, and H is trying to figure out how to get the gold back, since the whole idea was to put the gold in these flotation devices, the tsunami comes in and takes the gold with back to sea, then it's just a matter of picking it up in the ocean, with the help of the Coast Guard, H finds a spot in the water that's not a GPS, but a beacon. 3 DHS speedboats, one USCG ship, 1 US Customs speedboat, and one USCG chopper, home in on the beacon, upon arrival they find the perp, bringing the gold on board a yacht, with another two bodies, former crimes buddies of his, the perp can't believe it, but H had told him when they cut him loose, "I am going to get you", and so he does.

All is safe and well, and H is on his way out to dinner with a lady, the DA's assistant, the same one that tried to pin a homeless man's murder on Ray Jr. and made him release the perp earlier in the episode.

WOOOOW!!! Awesome episode, from now on when you wanna measure a CSI episode, any CSI (LV, M or NY), you say "...it was good, I'll give it 4 Crime Waves"moreless

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The tsunami storyline was a little unfortunate, given the reality of what happened soon afterwards, but this is a fun heist storyline with more than one twist.

7.5

"Good"

By qstevie, Aug 20, 2006 Report Abuse

Miami is threatened with a tsunami and everyone is getting out of its way - except for a guy in a supermarket car park who has an asthma attack which is exacerbated by someone thrusting a skewer into his temple. As the panic builds, it becomes obvious that someone is planning a bank heist and using the natural disaster to cover it up.

It's an odd episode - just when you think you've worked it out, another twist comes up and poses more questions. The pictures of the tsunami and its effects are, I guess, pretty good for a TV show, but they still don't have the feeling of danger that the hurricane episodes did.

Once again David Caruso gets to act with his sunglasses and you could swear he should be wearing his underpants over his trousers, as he gets to save the bank employees and customers. Except he might just as well be ordering a pizza for all the gravitas he puts into the role.

Good story, some good effects, but not a classic.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- 5.7 Bullets Horatio: Frank take a look at this bullet, 5.7, 28mm not from this gun. Det. Tripp: That's a monster calibre, it could penetrate up to 48 layer of Kevlar. When Frank says that the 5.7 round is a "monster calibre", he's actually wrong, 5.7 in inches, is just .22 cal, that's actually one the smallest calibres that exist (compared to a policeman's standard issue Beretta 92 96 pistol which fires a 9mm round). How ever he's right about the bullet's piercing power. 5.7 bullets are AP (Armour Piercing) rounds. Unlike normal handgun bullets which have a round tip, 5.7's have a cone shaped tip and the bullet cartride has high muzzle veolcity and low recoil, and were desinged to be effictive against modern body armor. These bullets are commonly referred to as "cop killers", for they can easily penetrate a policeman's standard issue bullet proof vest, as well as military grade bullet proof vests and helmets. The weapons that fire these type of bullets are mainly two: the FN P90 (the submachine gun the robbers use at the bank) and the FN Five-Seven pistol (so called for it's calibre). Edit
- GOOF: At the dog racing tracks Horatio asks Manny if he knows the man from the photo, he asks him "familiar?". When you ask a Spanish speaking person "familiar", you actually mean "relative" (as in family member). If you want to ask a Spanish speaking person about someone they know, you'd commonly say "conocido" Edit
- Goof: Tsunamis are not a single wave but several huge waves over a period of hours, yet only one wave is shown in this episode. Edit
Notes
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- International Episode Titles: Germany: Die Todeswelle (Death Wave) Czech Republic: Vlna zločinu (Crime Wave) Edit
- Original International Air Dates: Czech Republic: September 25, 2007 on TV Nova Greece: April 12, 2008 on SKAI Edit
- "Crime Wave" earned a Golden Reel nomination in the "Best Sound Effects and Foley for the Long Form " category. (Long form because the episode was 90 minutes) Edit
Quotes
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- Horatio: It's still time for you to evacuate. Calleigh: Just following your lead. Edit
- (Miami's about to be hit by a tsunami, and the Lab investigates a double murder) Det. Tripp: Two bodies and the wave hasn't even hit yet. Horatio: Well evacuations tend to make people crazy Frank. Edit
- Horatio: Frank take a look at this bullet, 5.7 28mm, not from this gun. Det. Tripp: That's a monster calibre, it could penetrate up to 48 layer of Kevlar, something tells me this guy was planning something big. Horatio: And not alone… Frank it turns out the wave is not the only thing about to hit Miami. Edit
Allusions
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