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Die by the Sword
Die by the Sword
Season 8
Number 13
Writer Melissa Scrivner-Love
Director Matt Earl Beesley
Original Airdate January 18, 2010
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Previous Episode: Show Stopper
Next Episode: In the Wind

Die by the Sword is the thirteenth episode in season eight of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

A man is chopped in half, and the lab tries to tie the case to a Japanese mobster, who seeks custody of his biological son, who was adopted by the victim. Meanwhile, Natalia's hearing loss nearly makes her a victim during the investigation.

Plot[]

A frantic man flees from a motorcycle-driving assassin, running into an abandoned warehouse to escape his pursuer. The rider catches up with him and slices him in half! When the CSIs arrive at the scene, Dr. Loman determines the murderer used a sword, and Travers analyzes small flecks of metal left behind to determine the sword used was a Japanese katana. Jesse suspects a Japanese gang known as Sikiru, who are known for cutting off the fingers of disobedient members, are involved. He reviews the files on the gang, pointing out their leader, Takashi Yamada, to Walter. Horatio and Jesse track Yamada to Club Bonsai, where they find the gang leader getting a new tattoo. Yamada doesn’t deny his involvement with the gang, but he shows the CSIs that he’s missing three fingers–making it physically impossible for him to even hold a katana, let alone use one. Horatio points out that the men in his gang are more than capable, but with no further evidence, the CSIs turn to the victim, Russell Turner. Turner taught social studies at a local school and coached football–hardly a likely target for a gang. Ryan, Natalia and Tripp pay a visit to Turner’s home, and Ryan is shocked when a Japanese teenager wielding a katana steps out behind Natalia–and she doesn’t even notice! Ryan catches the kid, who identifies himself as Kenny Turner–Russell’s adopted son. Ryan spots blood on the katana and Tripp takes the boy into custody. Natalia thanks Ryan for looking out for her and he angrily tells her she needs to seek treatment for her hearing problem–or someone is going to get hurt.

Horatio questions Kenny, who tells the CSI that he and his dad were having dinner at a restaurant when his dad’s expression suddenly changed and he told Kenny to run. Kenny saw the man on the motorcycle chasing his dad and followed–only to find his father dead in the warehouse, a bloody sword at his side. He took the sword and fled. Kenny shows Horatio a picture of a man who came to the house to threaten his father on his cell phone, and Horatio recognizes former MDPD detective John “Sully” Sullivan. Sully is working private security for Yamada, and he won’t tell Horatio why he went to Russell’s house. Horatio wonders if the boy could be related to Yamada, and Natalia points out that she didn’t find any legal adoption papers for Kenny. Recalling that Yamada was getting a tattoo applied with bamboo, he sends Walter back to Club Bonsai to get the bamboo in the hopes of pulling DNA off of it. Natalia runs the DNA and finds that Yamada is indeed Kenny’s father. Horatio questions the man, who says his son was stolen from him and he’s been looking for him ever since. Yamada vows to get his son back. Across town, the boy is being driven by Tripp when their car is run off the road. A woman tries to take Kenny, but Tripp calls it in and stops her. Calleigh arrives at the scene and notices tattoos on the woman indicating she’s Sikiru. The woman denies it–she says she’s Kenny’s mother. She tells them she was raped by Yamada at fifteen and got pregnant. She gave her son to Russell, a man who helped her when she fled to the United States, so that the Sikiru wouldn’t get their hands on him. She changed her name to Susan Lee and didn’t hear anything from Russell until he called her two days ago saying there was trouble.

Horatio approaches Sully again, but the ex-cop defends his new boss. Calleigh and Jesse process Russell’s clothes, and Calleigh smells pine needles on them. She and Ryan go back to the scene and discover the same smell in the warehouse–coming through in the water. Calleigh suspects the smell is used in a pesticide, and that it would be found on the killer. Jesse and Horatio examine the Sikiru men and find one, who is newly missing a finger for speaking with them earlier, with pesticide on the back of his neck. The man, Akio Okanagi, says he did what was necessary to save Yamada, and that the gang leader will get his son back. Puzzled as to why Yamada is so determined to get his son back after fifteen years, Calleigh looks up his records and is surprised to find his blood type changed from A to O. Recalling that a liver transplant can change a person’s blood type, she realizes because of Yamada’s extreme method of getting tattoos, he might be in need of yet another liver transplant. Tripp informs the CSIs that Yamada has taken Kenny, and Horatio goes to Sully to tell him what’s happened, getting Sully to relent and tell him where Yamada has gone. Horatio catches Yamada and gets him to let the boy go, but Yamada fires his gun at the CSI, causing Horatio to fire back, killing the gang leader. Kenny tells Horatio that he misses his father and is afraid of going into the system, and Horatio offers another alternative: going to live with his mother. Susan tells the reluctant boy that she’s thought of him every day since she gave him up, and he finally embraces her. Natalia finally gives in and goes to get her hearing checked out. The doctor tells her she has noise-induced hearing loss, but has also discovered an older injury, one he suspects was caused by domestic abuse. Natalia denies it, but takes the brochure about domestic violence that he hands her.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Christian Clemenson as Tom Loman
  • Christopher Redman as Michael Travers
  • Brad Leland as Det. John 'Sully' Sullivan
  • BooBoo Stewart as Kenny Turner
  • Brian McGovern as Russell Turner
  • Roger Yuan as Takashi Yamada
  • Lewis Tan as Akio Okanagi
  • Michelle Krusiec as Susan Lee
  • John Newton as Doctor Marshall
  • Kenny Knoll as Yakuza
  • G.R. Claveria as Tattoo Artist (uncredited)
  • Karah Donovan as Child Advocate (uncredited)

Goofs[]

  • The Japanese mafia appears in this episode of CSI under the name of Sikiru (シキル). In fact, the real name of the Japanese Mafia is Yakuza (ヤクザ) or Gokudo (極道).

See Also[]

CSI:Miami Season 8
Out of TimeHostile TakeoverBolt ActionIn Plane SightBad SeedDude, Where's My Groom?Bone VoyagePoint of ImpactKill ClauseCount Me OutDelko for the DefenseShow StopperDie by the SwordIn the WindMiami, We Have a ProblemL.A.Getting AxedDishonorSpring BreakdownBackfireMeltdownMommie DeadestTime BombAll Fall Down
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