Mercurial ex-homicide cop Horatio Caine (
David Caruso) heads a crack group of Florida-based forensic criminologists in season one of CSI: Miami. Adding to Horatio's mood swings is the return to the CSI unit of Megan Donner (
Kim Delaney), former head of the unit, who has a habit of challenging every move that her successor makes (Megan would exit the series after ten episodes, claiming that working around dead people made it difficult to overcome the demise of her husband). Caine gets along better (but not much) with the other members of the team: ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne (
Emily Procter), streetwise Tim Speedle (
Rory Cochrane), and underwater-recovery specialist Eric Delko (
Adam Rodriguez). Then there's coroner Alexx Woods (
Khandi Alexander), who makes no secret of the fact that she considers every member of the CSI -- and probably everybody else in Miami -- her intellectual inferior. The team's first assignment finds them trying to figure out why the body of a presumed victim of a plane crash in the Everglades showed up five miles from the crash site. In later episodes, Caine leads an investigation of an alleged serial bomber; the team ponders a possible connection between a wealthy family and a burned, befouled corpse (thereby opening up a very old wound for the sensitive Caine); three CSIers look for motives in the death of a male exotic dancer; Caine and Speedle seek out the reason that the naked body of a murdered hooker was meticulously cleaned with cardmom soap; and in an Emmy-winning episode, a case against the husband of a prominent politician leads to a desperate search for a thrill killer. ~ All Movie Guide