The Entire Cast
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CSI
Horatio Caine
Horatio Caine
- Played By: David Caruso
- Abusive Parents: His father was an abusive man who killed his mother in front of him. A young Caine killed him in an attempt to save her, but he was too late.
- Deadpan Snarker: Considering how he is the king of Quip to Black, he definitely qualifies.
- Cartwright Curse / Fatal Attractor: He has notoriously bad luck with girlfriends. They always seem to die.
- Character Tic: Turning his body to a side while looking at someone.
- Flanderization: He used to have moments when he would actually emote.
- Friend to All Children: Caine is quite the example of Hard Boiled Detective... but not to kids. Kids always bring out his soft side. And woe betide anyone who hurts a child near him.
- Glasses Pull: Caine's main gimmick, always followed by a Quip to Black and the 'YEAAAAAAAHHHH—' sample.
- Good Is Not Soft: His response to being told an adult film director suspected of murdering one of his stars has two daughters is a great example."Would they be appearing in your movies when they're older? Just out of interest."
- Hard Boiled Detective: Though he's technically on the force, fits this trope to a T.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Seems to be going this way after his near-death experience. He is noticeably more vicious and ruthless, savagely beating a suspect and even letting a man fall to his death as he begged for Horatio to help him. Granted, one man had killed a police officer and was involved in a kidnapping, and the other man was a pedophile with a long history of abducting and molesting young female beauty pageant contestants, but still.Pedophile: [while hanging onto a ledge] I can change - I know it!
Horatio: I doubt that.
Pedophile: [His fingers starting to slip] You have to help me!
Horatio: [Coldly and dispassionately, while stepping away from the man] Do I?
Pedophile: [Falls to his death] - Luke, You Are My Father: He has a son he didn't know about.
- One-Liner, Name... One-Liner: Making a drinking game out of the amount of times Caine does this in the show is just asking for alcohol poisoning.
- Papa Wolf: Hurting kids is a gigantic no-no around Caine. To provide three examples: an Arc Villain that is a murderous pedophile ends up getting a Murder by Inaction by Caine, a man who kidnaps a little girl gets thrown through a window when Caine interrogates him on her whereabouts and a man who brutalizes his family ends up with the absolute shit pummeled out of him by Caine inside of an interrogation room after the episode cut to credits.
- Rabid Cop: Of the CSI leader bunch (Grissom and Taylor et al) Caine is the closest to this trope, with many cases ending with him pulling a *Click* Hello Stealth Hi/Bye, shooting, beating up, or plain threatening suspects. David Caruso's gravel voice helps plenty.
- Red Baron: The dude is so badass, his friends and coworkers often times just refer to him by his initial, H.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Master of Stealth Hi. Quite often appears out of nowhere; the audience doesn't even see him approaching.
- Team Dad: Refuses to let anyone - especially Rick Stetler from Internal Affairs - mess with his subordinates.
Calleigh Duquesne
Calleigh Duquesne
- Played By: Emily Procter
- Ms. Fanservice: She's prone to wearing extremely tight pants and four-inch heels (due to Procter being the shortest cast member at 5'2), which almost always comes with the camera panning back to show her legs. She is the only other cast member apart from Horatio to appear on UK DVD set covers, likely for this reason.
- Southern-Fried Genius: Blonde, gorgeous Southern belle - who knows more about ballistics than the rest of the team combined.
Tim Speedle
Tim Speedle
- Played By: Rory Cochrane
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Speed, very rarely ever Tim or Speedle.
- Jerkass: Definitely has his moments, usually when speaking to women. He tells one victim of harassment that it was her fault, and that she'd led the guy on (she hadn't), and is rude to other female characters (excepting Alexx, Megan, Calleigh and Yelena).
- Killed Off for Real: Speed is shot and killed halfway through the Season 3 premiere by security guards at a jewelry store when his gun jams thanks to negligent keeping.
- Tempting Fate: When walking into a jewelry store with Horatio, Speed discusses expensive cars, disdaining them in favor of his bike. Caine mentions that he might need "something with doors" some day. Speed says he has plenty of time. He is fatally shot not five minutes later.
Eric Delko
Eric Delko
- Played By: Adam Rodriguez
- The Mole: Was working for Internal Affairs during his relationship with Calleigh.
- Mysterious Parent: His biological father is a very dangerous Cuban gangster.
- Put on a Bus: To be on Ugly Betty. Returned when it got cancelled.
- Revenge Before Reason: During one case, he and Tripp escort a suspect to the lab: he is a football rising star who woke up next to a dead girl and tried to flee. He admits it was wrong to run, but swears also he is innocent and that he did what he did because he panicked. As they approach the CSI office, many reporters are waiting outside the building, so he begs them not to expose him to the media so blatantly, as it would ruin his image and career for nothing. Eric and Tripp, however, do not believe his version, and the former declares that his attempt to escape is proof of his guilt, so from now on everything is on him, and he needs to know that. Too bad the boy eventually turns out to be innocent, but by then his football career is already in serious jeopardy thanks to what Eric and Tripp have done. And worst of all? Neither of them is shown to be remorseful for acting completely inappropriately (although it is suspicious, to run away from police is not proof of guilt) and ruining a boy's life, all because they were clouded by prejudice.
Ryan Wolfe
Ryan Wolfe
- Played By: Jonathan Togo
- All Love Is Unrequited: Holds a massive torch for Boa Vista for most of the series, but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings.
- Eager Rookie: When he first joined the lab, he was intent on proving himself to Horatio as much as possible. This results in him having a tendency to be competitive against his co-workers, which rubs them off in the wrong way for a while.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Occasionally. He's usually called on it, though. Even so, he's proven to be a very capable cop, and extremely compassionate when he needs to be.
- Last-Name Basis: Horatio calls everyone else by their first names. Ryan, tho, is always "Mr. Wolfe."
- Yank the Dog's Chain: He seems to finally be building up a good relationship with newcomer Sam in the final season and is on track for a Happy Ending. Then she betrays him by leaving him behind to take the blame for killing her boyfriend in the very last episode.
Natalia Boa Vista
Natalia Boa Vista
- Played By: Eva LaRue
- The Mole: When first introduced, she is actually a Mole for the FBI, reporting on the Labs activities while posing as an assistant Genetic Analyst. After getting to know and befriend all of the CSIs and seeing them all as the good cops and even better people that they are, reveals her status to Horatio, and sides with her friends, quitting her job at the FBI, and becoming a CSI herself.
Maxine Valera
Alexx Woods
Alexx Woods
- Played By: Khandi Alexander
- The Coroner: She's the team's Medical Examiner season 1 to 6.
- My Nayme Is: Spelled with one too many x's.
- Put on a Bus: Alexx leaves the morgue in Season 6 to become an ER doctor. She's occasionally appeared since then, usually when one of the team have been injured in the line of duty. She returns for a few appearances past that.
- Team Mom: Mostly to the unfortunate victims who arrive in the morgue, but she's also the most compassionate and sympathetic team member, always willing to lend an ear/support her colleagues.
Tara Price
Tara Price
- Played By: Megalyn Echikunwoke
- The Coroner: She's the team's Medical Examiner in season 7.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She replaces Alexx Woods as The Coroner of the team in season 7, and is very similar in appearance to her.
- Put on a Bus: Gets arrested for stealing drugs from the morgue (mostly due to her character being seen as a
Replacement Scrappy).
Jesse Cardoza
Jessie Cardoza
- Played By: Eddie Cibrian
- Fair Cop: Very easy on the eyes.
- Killed Off for Real: He dies during Bob Starling’s gas attack on the lab in the Season 9 premiere.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appears for a single season.
Megan Donner
Megan Donner
- Played By: Kim Delaney
- Advertised Extra: She featured prominently in ads and was supposed to co-star as a protagonist along with Caine, but the character gets Put on a Bus after 10 episodes in season 1 due to Kim Delaney allegedly not having any chemistry with David Caruso.
- The Mourning After: Her detective husband died on duty and she never quite got over his death. The series starts with her coming back after a six-month leave, but she quits 10 episodes later, telling Caine working there reminds her too much of her dead husband.
Walter Simmons
Walter Simmons
- Played By: Omar Benson Miller
- Big Fun: He's a chubby guy with a friendly personality and a sense of humor.
Tom Loman
Tom Loman
- Played By: Christian Clemenson
- The Coroner: The team's Medical Examiner for seasons 8 to 10.
- Fake Guest Star: Despite being the new ME and Alexx and Tara's permanent replacement, a role that's usually given main credit casting, he's only ever cast as a guest star.
- I Know Madden Kombat: One episode reveals he's an ace tennis player, and the knowledge is used in helping to solve a case.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: When he shows the picture of his girlfriend to the team in the finale, everyone is impressed he managed to nail a "model beauty".
Samantha Owens
Samantha "Sam" Owens
- Played By: Taylor Cole
- Action Girl: She's introduced as a lab tech, but was an ace marksman in the academy which earns her a promotion as a detective where she can work in the field.
- Accidental Murder: She ends up killing her boyfriend Josh by hitting him with a bottle while he's attacking her. But she fails to be a Sympathetic Murderer when she leaves an injured Ryan behind to take the blame.
- Affectionate Nickname: Calls Walter "Teddy Bear".
- Badass in Distress: She's kidnapped by the drug dealer working for Josh and Vogel in the last episode, who uses her as a getaway driver at knifepoint. But she manages to escape the situation mostly by herself by driving off a bridge, as the ensuing crash kills the dealer, but leaves her wounded.
- Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome: She's exposed as Josh's killer in the end because Ryan finds a piece of glass stuck to her boots after the car crash. Meaning she has been wearing the same boots she had the night of the crime for several days and didn't even think to clean them up.
- Dude Magnet: Walter, Eric, and Ryan are all shown to be attracted to her.
- Frame-Up: She ends up being framed of tampering with evidence by her boyfriend Josh under the orders of Vogel who wants to discredit Caine's CSI team.
- And then attempts to pull one of her own when she murders Josh, albeit In Self Defense, and leaves Wolf, whom he'd just worked over, to take the blame for it, sending any sympathy that might have been had for her flying out the window.
- Fake Guest Star: Despite appearing in over half of Season 12 and receiving major focus, she is only credited as a guest star.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Both Eric and Ryan take notice of her good looks.
- Idiot Ball: While Sam could possibly be forgiven for accidentally running evidence, her response to being framed for evidence tampering smacks of this. She confronts her boyfriend about it, putting herself in danger, and ends up having to shoot him in self-defense. Had she just called 911/Caine and explained herself, she might have been found justified since he had just badly beaten Ryan. If she had just left it alone in the first place as Horatio ordered her to, the lab would have eventually uncovered the truth and possibly cleared her of any wrongdoing. Instead, she flees the scene, leaving Ryan to potentially take the blame. On top of that, she doesn't even bother to change shoes, which is what ultimately gets her caught. The bottom line, she completely forgets that she's surrounded by an entire lab full of highly trained, experienced forensics experts.
- Love Triangle: At first she looks to be in the center of one between Eric and Ryan. But when Eric steps down, and she and Ryan get a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension while working together, it's revealed she already has a boyfriend.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her reaction when Wolfe calls her out for basically framing him for her boyfriend's murder is to start profusely apologizing. While she seems sincere in her remorse, Wolfe clearly isn't having it.
- Old Friend: She and Walter became friends back when they were working the night shift together.
- Resigned in Disgrace: Narrowly Averted. After Sam accidentally ruins a vital piece of evidence by accident, she gets majorly chewed out by Boa Vista who basically orders her to quit. Sam almost does, but a pep-talk from Walter encourages her to stay and try to redeem herself by trying to find evidence another way, which she does.
- Likely played straight in the series finale. It isn't shown whether she's given the choice to resign or is simply stripped of her badge and duties after being arrested for murder and attempting to frame Wolf. Given that Horatio's patience with her for jeopardizing the entire lab had already worn thin, it's probably the latter.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: She's a new member of Caine's CSI team added in the final season and ends up being the last murderer they catch when she kills her boyfriend and leaves Ryan to take the blame.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Boa Vista rips her a new one for ruining a crucial piece of evidence and all but tells her to quit. She later does it to Sam again, thinking she had willingly tampered with evidence to protect her boyfriend although that was a Frame-Up. Wolfe, the only one who defended her to the end, later gets his chance at this after Sam murders her boyfriend in self-defense but leaves Wolf, who had just been beaten into unconsciousness, to take the blame.
Minor CSI characters
Sam Belmontes
Sam Belmontes
- Played By: Cristian de la Fuente
- The Lab Rat: He's a Chemical Analysis lab tech for seasons 1 and 2.
Tyler Jenson
Tyler Jenson
- Played By: Brian Poth
- The Lab Rat: He's the Audio/visual and multimedia lab technician for seasons 1 to 3.
Cynthia Wells
Cynthia Wells
- Played By: Brooke Bloom
- The Lab Rat: She is a Questioned Documents Lab Tech from season 2 to 5.
Carrie Delgado
Carrie Delgado
- Played By: Nicole DeHuff
- The Lab Rat: She is a blood evidence technician in season 2. She was a fan of "Quincy, M.E." as a child, influencing her to become a criminalist.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She only appears in season 2 due to DeHuff dying from pneumonia.
Joseph Kayle
Joseph Kayle
- Played By: Leslie Odom Jr.
- The Lab Rat: A lab tech who works in Fingerprints in seasons 2 to 4.
Aaron Peters
Aaron Peters
- Played By: Armando Valdes Kennedy
- The Lab Rat: He's a Trace Evidence lab tech for seasons 3 and 4.
Nicole Talcott
Nicole Talcott
- Played By: Kimiko Gelman
- The Lab Rat: A DNA lab tech that temporarily fills in for Valera in season 3 after she is suspended.
Daniel Cooper
Daniel "Dan" Cooper
- Played By: Brendan Fehr
- The Lab Rat: He's the Audio/Visual and multimedia lab technician for seasons 4 to 6, replacing Tyler.
- The Resenter: After being forced to resign by Calleigh, he begins to hold a personal grudge against her, and ends up leaking personal information about her online, which results in her being kidnapped by criminals, something he didn't intend. Feeling guilty, he turns himself in in order to give CSI info to help catch the criminals.
- Resigned in Disgrace: During season 6, he is discovered to have stolen and used a credit card that belonged to the late Tim Speedle, much to the outrage of Eric and Calleigh, and Dan is forced to resign from the lab in disgrace.
Jim Markham
Samantha Barrish
Samantha Barrish
- Played By: Jessica Szohr
- Brainy Brunette: An intelligent lab tech with long dark hair.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Upon meeting her, Ryan immediately takes notice of how attractive she is.
- The Lab Rat: She is a lab tech who becomes the temporary head of the Audio/Visual Lab after Dan's resignation in season 6.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appears in 3 episodes in season 6.
Dave Benton
Dave Benton
- Played By: Wes Ramsey
- The Lab Rat: He's the Audio/visual and multimedia lab technician for seasons 7 to 10, replacing Dan.
Michael Travers
Michael Travers
- Played By: Christopher Redman
- The Lab Rat: A British Trace Analyst that works in CSI from season 7 to 10.
- I Know Madden Kombat: He has background knowledge about horse racing which is helpful in solving a case.
Nikki Vega
Nikki Vega
- Played By: Alexandra Adi
- The Lab Rat: A lab tech who moves to Miami from another crime lab in season 9.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appears in 2 episodes.
Police
Yelina Salas
Yelena Salas
- Played By: Sofia Milos
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her final appearance is in the Season 7 finale, when she assists Horatio with an escaped and dying fugitive. Although she was advertised as being billed for more guest appearances, her character and her son's character were dropped with no announcement instead, invoking Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
Raymond Caine
Raymond Caine
- Played By: Dean Winters (Season 3), Christopher Stapleton (Season 5)
- Dirty Cop: He becomes this after getting hooked on drugs while undercover.
- Faking the Dead: His death is faked so he can go even deeper undercover.
- Killed Off for Real: Beaten to death in “Rio”.
Rick Stetler
Sergeant Rick Stetler
- Played By: David Lee Smith
- A Dick in Name: Richard Stetler is one of the most recurring Jerkasses in the cast and the few times Caine called him "Rick" instead of "Stetler" were definitely meaning a different diminutive for "Richard".
- Inspector Javert: Most if not all of his appearances involve him barging into whatever plot is happening in a constant search for Caine's team (and especially Caine) being either criminally incompetent or just plain criminal, up to and including forcing members of Caine's team to try to play mole. It is unsubtly implied that he keeps doing this because of his beef with Horatio over not getting promoted to Lieutenant.
- Internal Affairs: He's one of the MDPD's Internal Affairs officers, something he uses to constantly barge into the crime lab looking for corruption.
- Put on a Bus to Hell: In his final appearance, it is disclosed that for all of him trying to sniff out Caine as a Dirty Cop, he is one himself, stealing vehicles impounded by the MDPD to sell off and having a District Attorney assassinated to keep it under wraps. He is arrested and never seen again.
- The Resenter: Horatio made Lieutenant faster than Stetler. Stetler decides to believe that Caine accomplished this via corruption.
DAs
Darren Vogel
Darren Vogel
- Played By: Malcolm McDowell
- Amoral Attorney: He is not only very good at helping his clients but also threatening his clients to help his other clients. He's also not above framing CSI for tampering with evidence in an attempt to close down the lab.
- Asshole Victim: He's kidnapped along with Sam and put into a Hostage Situation by one of his dissatisfied drug dealer clients and ends up heavily injured when Sam crashes the car.
- Blackmail: He's an attorney that blackmails his own clients after he helps them hide all their dirty secrets.
- Back for the Finale: He's the antagonist for one episode in season 8, building up a rivalry with CSI. He comes back for the last two episodes to be the final antagonist of the series.
- Final Boss: He's the final antagonist of the series in the last two episodes, by hashing a plot to have the lab closed.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After the car crash, we see him being taken away by medics still alive, with an oxygen mask attached to his mouth, but no mention is made if he survives or if CSI ever manages to nail him down for something.
Josh Avery
Josh Avery
- Played By: Ryan McPartlin
- Cool Boat: Sam mentions he inherited a fancy boat that he didn't like talking about with her. Ryan finds it suspicious a man would never take his girlfriend on a ride on his fancy boat and has it investigated. It turns out He's using it to smuggle narcotics.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Uses his connection to Sam to gain access to the lab to implant false evidence on Vogel's orders.
- The Mole: He is actually working for Vogel, and sabotages Sam's work in Vogel's behalf.
- Romantic False Lead: He's introduced as Sam's boyfriend just as she and Ryan start getting close, and he seems to be better than Ryan in every way. Naturally he turns out to be in Vogel's pocket, and frames Sam for tampering with evidence to discredit the lab and free Vogel's client.
- Victim of the Week: Ends up being the final victim of the show when he turns up dead in the series finale.
- Would Hit a Girl: Ends up attacking Sam after she shows up shortly after he confronts and knocks out Ryan. She ends up killing him while fighting back.
Civilians
Marisol Delko
Marisol "Delko" Delektorsky Caine
- Played By: Alana de la Garza
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She's a Head-Turning Beauty and her good looks aren't' affected in the slightest by the fact she's had six months of chemotherapy.
- Delicate and Sickly: She is diagnosed with cancer and because of the painful treatments, is left weakened enough that her brother Eric has to start helping her to eat. Eventually, he resorts to bringing her marijuana to alleviate her pain and nausea, but that gets them both in heaps of trouble with the FBI, CSI and drug dealers, and she ironically ends up being killed by a hitman sent by the drug dealers.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Is mentioned by her brother Eric back in season 1, but only makes an actual appearance in season 4.
- Killed Off for Real: She's killed by a hitman on the day of her wedding.
- Love Interest: For Caine in season 4, although most of their relationship occurs offscreen.
Kyle Harmon
Kyle Harmon
- Played By: Evan Ellingson
- Forced into Evil: He gets blackmailed by Rick Bates to kidnap Kathleen Newberry.
- Good-Looking Privates: He joins the Army in season eight, and he looks quite fine in the uniform.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blond and a Nice Guy.
- Important Haircut: He gets one in his second episode in order to look more mature and responsible while testifying in court.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: He is emotional and impatient, while Horatio is The Stoic and almost unnaturally patient.
- Parental Abandonment: His father doesn't know about him until he's sixteen; his mother left him with his grandmother when he was young; and his grandmother died sometime later, causing him to live in foster homes for a while.
