Permanent Vacation

Season 6, Episode 8, Aired
EDIT

Episode Summary

A family is in Miami vacationing from Canada when one of their sons is killed.
8.6
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Great
189 votes
  • Your Rating: 10
    "Perfect"
  • Your Rating: 9.5
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 9
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 8.5
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 8
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 7.5
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 7
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 6.5
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 6
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 5.5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 4.5
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 4
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 3.5
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 3
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 2.5
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 2
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 1.5
    "Abysmal"
  • Your Rating: 1
    "Abysmal"
Rate It

Watch Online

Amazon
Buy
iTunes
Buy

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

See All

  • A man from Canada is in Miami on vacation with his wife and two sons. As the family is getting ready to head back home, the older of the two sons is shot and killed in one of the hotel's elevators. Horatio and the team begin their investigation.moreless

    7.0
    "Good"
    By meathead704, Nov 04, 2011 Report Abuse
    The Writers Guild of America strike is already beginning to take its toll on the CSI shows. I am beginning to see a wave of recycled storylines from one show to the next. I have seen this storyline before in not one, but two episodes of CSI: NY. One of those episodes aired just a few days prior to this one. OK, the point that the quest for revenge can backfire and have disasterous consequences has been made several times already. It's time to move on to the well written and original stories that make CSI and its spin-offs great.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    0 1

  • Well, this is the episode that I'd name "Chain Reaction"!

    7.0
    "Good"
    By ewkatal, Jul 20, 2008 Report Abuse
    Most spiritual teachers or philosophers in the world say that evil actions imply more evil because the are simply bad. I think it was a great example that they are right.
    All the people of dead boy's family were revengeful and all got punished for their actions. The chain reaction is especially terrifying when you realize that each step costs a life of a guilty/innocent person. To me it was more of a philosofic episode. Not too much action and no personal plots (which is good because they rarely mix up well). That's what I like at CSI Miami -- the TPTB risk a bit to change the form of a show at times and they do it nicely (but just for a one ep.!).
    I feel sorry for that family. They in fact do have p e r m a n e n t v a c a t i o n. You see, sometimes a tragedy causes another tragedies and ends up as a hecatomb... extremely sad, but true.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    2 0

  • A canadian family's vacation is destroyed when one of them is murdered.

    5.0
    "Mediocre"
    By exweb, Nov 15, 2007 Report Abuse
    CSI: Miami continues it's downward trajectory this season with another episode that provides the only reason I hope for a long writer's strike. This off-key installment had me looking at my watch as it lurched awkwardly from scene to scene only to reveal an extremely obvious perpetrator. The long drawn out "shocking" final sequence was exactly the opposite. I knew what was going to happen and afterward I checked to make sure I actually hadn't seen this episode before and just forgot about it. Sure enough, the CSI: Miami writers did not prove me wrong. Bang! And with that, the best part of this episode final came: the credits.

    A few questions as we autopsy this corpse of an episode. Firstly, why did they make the family canadian? I was intrigued at first. Maybe the perpetrator had a hatred of all things canadian? Were they connected to a case in Canada? Was this prelude to Bruckheimer's next series, CSI: Calgary? No! It was to make canadians look like a bunch of rude, dysfunctional, fornucating, gun toting murderers. What? Secondly, what was with Dean Cain's (playing the canadian father) weird overacting? The "you wished it was me father-son" angle was poorly acted, out of place and has been used in a thousand other bad plots. The only reason a rational person would act like this is if they had something to do with the murder. This would have been cool. But noooo. I had to suffer through that scene for nothing.

    One blessing this episode: No Kyle. However, this only makes me fear the return to that disaster of a plot all the more. The only reason why I return every week is to see just how far this show will fall. Hopefully after the strike the writers will get to work and bring this show back from the abyss.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    3 3

  • Actually a pretty good script.

    8.5
    "Great"
    By saleblanc, Nov 14, 2007 Report Abuse
    Okay the concept of a tourist being killed on vacation not unique. Which is fine. The creative link to local gangs was a little bit of a stretch. The adoring under brother was a sentimental touch. Overbearing belittling father, not a surprise. The big surprise was that the mother pretty much disappreared for most of the episode. Until she showed up to see her own form of justice. I liked the bellhop have individual punch shapes to indentify them. I thought it was very creative. I wondered with the interaction of the father & son, if the father hadn't egged his surviving son to go after the man thought to have taken out the golden one. It ended up being gang related, not surprising. Also no surprise is H saving another kid in trouble.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    0 0

  • .....of how not to react to a tragedy in your life!!

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By irriewel1402, Nov 14, 2007 Report Abuse
    This was a nice episode, that had me changing my mind about the murderer about 5 times!
    The story wasn't that new - visitors to a city (country) getting hit by gang terror. But what made it interesting was the family's reaction. The father's first reaction of shock and grief was soon replaced with a need for revenge. And the way he spoke to his youngest son during the interview with Horatio showed that he was totally losing it. In my opinion, it was his words to his son ("You let your brother down; you let me down.") that made his younger son attack the bellboy/construction worker. And what good did that do him, the man being innocent!
    And then there's the mother killing the killer. When she first asked to be allowed to speak to him, I thought she portrayed her sorrow very well, and I was pretty sure then already that she was going to do him harm. You could see it in her eyes. And when she put the pocket watch into her bag, I thought a gun was going to come out. I was actually surprised when she just walked away. Good acting on her part!
    About the team - well, I thought they all did well to portray the shock of the moment. Especially Natalia! Her reaction to being the first on the scene showed just how vulnerable one can be when the scene hasn't first been "sanitized" by the ME. I also loved Eric in this episode. (And it has nothing to do with how sexy he looked in those pants and jacket!) Somehow he showed a lot of ... something, that made him seem very involved. The scene in the warehouse where he confronted the killer was beautiful. He obviously knew that Horatio and the other cops were there, but still one got the feeling that he wasn't going to let the killer get away, even if it meant his own death. And Horatio being the one to "save" Eric - it shows the special bond between the two. It's not over emphasized, or spoken of directly - it's just in the body language, and the eye contact. The writers are doing a good job of portraying that bond.
    And of course, Horatio going to the bellboy asking him to help the boy who attacked him. That was a nice touch, though not really unexpected. One sort of comes to expect of Horatio to be the saviour of the underdog!
    Finally, on a different note: The technology they use - expecially that "table" where they analize the pictures, fingerprints, etc - is very advanced. I was wondering if these kind of stuff really exists? It really does look like a very big improvement on some of the older systems used.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    0 0
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Emily Procter and guest Dean Cain worked together before in an episode of Cain's series Lois and Clark when she appeared as Lana Lang in the episode, Tempus, anyone. Edit
    • Having apparently not learned her lesson in episode 5x01 Rio; in which a suspect was shot dead by one of the victim's relatives after she inadvertently suggested that he was guilty. Natalia does the very same thing again at the end of this episode, with exactly the same consequences. Edit
    • Goof: When Natalia is swabbing the gun for sweat, we are given a glimpse inside the gun, where a small pool of sweat is shown. In the Miami heat, the sweat would have dried up hours earlier, not all that long after the shooting took place. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • International Episode Titles: Czech Republic: Doživotní prázdniny (Perpetual Vacation) Edit
    • International Airdates: Denmark: March 21, 2008 on Kanal 5 Venezuela: April 2, 2008 on AXN United Kingdom: September 23, 2008 on Channel 5 Switzerland: October 12, 2008 on TSR1 Austria: October 13, 2008 on ORF1 Germany: October 14, 2008 on RTL Norway: October 14, 2008 on TVNorge Czech Republic: October 13, 2009 on TV Nova Edit
    • Featured Music: Gimme More by Britney Spears 28 Theme by John Murphy Gravity by You Are I Am Ragged Old Flag by Johnny Cash Electronic Performers by Air Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Horatio: That bike was seen leaving a murder scene this morning. Frank: It means it's states evidence. Vasco Torres: Take it, it's yours. Frank: Well, by setting that fire you're interfering with an ongoing murder investigation. Vasco Torres: It's my property. You can't arrest me for trashing my own bike. Horatio: It's your property. Did you drive it this morning? Vasco Torres: Nah, not today. Horatio: Who did? Vasco Torres: See, that's why I love my neighbors. We share everything. We all ride that bike. Are you gonna arrest us all? Horatio: Yeah, I am. Edit
    • Horatio: Let's not do something you're going to regret, Mr. Partney. Roger Partney: Somebody's gotta pay for this. Horatio: And somebody will if you let me do my job. Roger Partney: That's not good enough. I want him to suffer. Edit
    • Eric: The hotel manager tells us that you're each assigned a distinct shape so the hotel knows who's punching what tag. Luis Mendoza: Yeah, for accountability. Horatio: So account for yourself, Luis. Luis Mendoza: Why would I kill someone? Horatio: Because you live in Cobra Familia territory. Luis Mendoza: I'm not in a gang. Horatio: Maybe this was your ticket in. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • The victim (Brian) is seen wearing a Livestrong braclet. Livestrong was launched in May of 2004 as a fund-raising item for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, founded by cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Were created in an effort to raise $25 million for the Lance Armstrong Foundation this target was achieved within 6 months, and there have now been 70 million Livestrong bands sold to date. Individual bands sell for $1 each. Edit
    • Alexx: (Upon seeing a camera near the crime scene) Look at that, I'm on You-tube. This is in reference to the popular video sharing website created in February 2005. Its content consists of video clips submitted by the general public. You-tube is now owned by Google. Edit

Show Forums

See All
Last Activity
Replies

Watch CSI: Miami Full Episodes

See All

Related Shows

Season 6 Episodes

See All
Ep 21
Going Ballistic
Ep 20
Down to the Wire
Ep 19
Rock and a Hard Place
Ep 18
Tunnel Vision
Ep 17
To Kill A Predator
Ep 16
All In (2)
Ep 15
Ambush (1)
Ep 14
You May Now Kill the Bride
Ep 13
Raising Caine
Ep 12
Miami Confidential
Ep 11
Guerillas In The Mist
Ep 10
CSI: My Nanny
Ep 9
Stand Your Ground
Ep 8
Permanent Vacation
Ep 7
Chain Reaction
Ep 6
Sunblock
Ep 5
Deep Freeze
Ep 4
Bang, Bang, Your Debt
Ep 3
Inside Out
Ep 2
Cyber-lebrity
Ep 1
Dangerous Son

Contributors

Become a contributor
More
Less

TV Listings

Full Listings
BROWSE | Shows | Videos | News | Listings | Forums | People | Photos | TV.com Blog

CBS Entertainment | About TV.com | About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Ad Choice | Terms of Use