Eric Delko

CSI character
csi_serie=CSI: Miami
color=#FFFF99
name=Eric Delko
born=December 19 1976 (31)
city=Miami
job=CSI
rank=CSI Level 3
family= Clorinda and Pavel Delko (parents), Marisol Delko-Caine (sister, deceased), two other sisters, Horatio Caine (brother-in-law)
seasons=, , , , , ,
portrayer=Adam Rodriguez
first=Cross Jurisdictions|

Eric Delko (né Delektorsky) is a character on the hit CBS drama "". He is played by Adam Rodriguez.

Background

Eric Delko is the fingerprint, tires and drug identification expert of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, as well as their underwater recovery expert. The youngest of four children, behind three sisters, he has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Miami (and is a former college classmate of wildlife conservationist Jeff Corwin, according to episode 204, "Death Grip" [stated on air] ) and is fluent in Spanish and Russian.

His original family name was "Delektorsky"; his father, a Russian national who had been assigned to Havana during the 1960s, married a Cuban woman, with whom he had three daughters. When his mother was pregnant with him (as mentioned in episode "xxxxxxxxxxx"), his father decided that he wanted a better life for his family, so he moved the clan to Miami not long after, and shortened the family name to "Delko" in an effort at Americanization.

Delko typically acts as the team's frogman when the situation arises -- his boss has even termed him his best diver (episode 402, "Blood in the Water"). In episode 410, "Shattered", his job is endangered when he is busted for drug possession. It is later revealed that he had been buying the drugs for his sister Marisol, to ease the pain she suffered while undergoing treatments for leukemia.

Delko is a Roman Catholic (episode 118, "Dispo Day," episode 506, "Curse of the Coffin" [stated on air] ).

Relationships

Eric has been involved with a number of women, including co-worker Natalia Boa Vista (who at one point thought she might be pregnant with their child in episode 415, "Skeletons"). Despite Natalia's apparent duplicity (he told an FBI agent that she slept with him to get information regarding the lab), he remains protective of her when her ex-husband harasses her at crime scenes under the pretext of performing his duties as crime scene cleanup (episode 513, "Throwing Heat").

He also had a relationship with the unstable Gloria, who in episode 424, "Rampage" [shown on air] , broke the car windows of Natalia (because of Eric's former relationship with her), and also of Marisol (thinking she was Eric's wife). She stole Marisol's purse from the car, and later becomes suspected of being Marisol's sniper shooter when she is found to have been in hotel room below where the sniper shot came from, and when a sniper rifle turns up in the trunk of her car. She ends up having been there with her own rifle to shoot Marisol, but couldn't do it, and then hears the shots from the room above her.

At one point, Delko 'tooths,' that is, text messages someone for anonymous sex, though he later seeks counseling when his badge goes missing after one such encounter (episode 320, "Killer Date"). He has a close relationship with colleague Calleigh Duquesne; they care very greatly for each other - Calleigh is the one by his side when Eric is in the hospital, gravely injured (episode 515 "Man Down") - though their relationship has not moved beyond friendship. Despite any appearance of womanizing on his part, Eric Delko is actually protective of women in general, standing up for them against abusive men ( [shown on air] episode 513, "Throwing Heat," "et al"). In episode 703 we find out that after the shooting Eric started thinking about his future and admits to his therapist that he's been thinking about settling down and he'd like for it to be with Calleigh.

Delko also maintained a friendship with fellow CSI Tim Speedle, who is killed in a shootout when his firearm jams because of poor maintenance (episode 301, "Lost Son"). It had been Speedle that 'welcomed' a rookie Delko to the lab with a friendly hazing (episode 308, "Speed Kills"). Eric is at first deeply resentful of Speedle's replacement, Ryan Wolfe, especially when some of Speedle's previous cases comes under review (episode 306, "Hell Night"; episode 323, "Whacked"). For some time, there is a measure of verbal sniping between the two. At one time, Ryan is called in to a crime scene on his day off when Delko does not come and is injured when a suspect shoots him in the eye with a nail gun. Unsurprisingly, Ryan is upset with Eric, but in the end they work out their differences (episode 408, "Nailed") Eventually, Delko comes to accept Ryan's presence, and they become strong co-workers and friends.

Delko was also friends with audio-visual lab technician Dan Cooper, and they are seen in one episode watching a beach volleyball tournament together with a group of bikini-clad women. When Cooper unwittingly reveals their activities to Natalia, she becomes offended at Eric. This incident helped lead to their breakup (episode 415, "Skeletons"); however, Delko's friendship with Cooper ended when he and Calleigh Duquesne discovered Cooper had stolen Tim Speedle's credit card.

Delko was Horatio Caine's brother-in-law when Marisol married Horatio, but their family bond was tragically severed when Mari succumbed to the gunshot wound she suffered at the hands of a Mala Noche sniper (episode 424, "Rampage"). Together, Eric and Horatio pursued the man (Antonio Riaz) who ordered Marisol's murder all the way to Brazil. There, Eric engaged Riaz in hand-to-hand combat, which ended when Horatio arrived and stabbed Riaz to death with the man's own knife (episode 501, "Rio").

Other Significant Events

During a night of clubbing with friend and colleague Tim Speedle, Delko is caught in a devastating nightclub fire set by the bouncer. Delko feels guilty that he couldn't save more victims, even though his efforts are heroic as he shepherds terrified clubgoers to an emergency exit. Despite the trauma of the incident, he insists on working the scene with the rest of his team (episode 122, "Tinder Box").

In episode 409, "Urban Hellraisers", Eric is taken hostage with others at a bank when a group of armed teenagers show up to rob it. When a 19-year-old gunman moves to rape a teenage girl, Delko opens fire, killing him. Two other bank robbers see him and start shooting with automatic Tec9's before fleeing.

In the episode where Marisol is murdered (episode 424, "Rampage"), Eric is also hit in the arm with a bullet.

In episode 513, "Throwing Heat," Eric finds himself being sued for $250,000 in personal injury after intervening in a heated and physical argument between a man and his wife in a bar. Despite the fact that they are later determined to be scam artists (and the husband's subsequent murder), Eric settles with the wife rather than take it to court, so as to prevent more scrutiny of the lab, particularly in the case of Delko and Horatio's less-than-official trip to Brazil earlier in the season. At the end of the episode, Eric signs papers authorizing his wages to be garnished, and starts arrangements to work extra shifts to cover the garnishment.

In the final minutes of episode 514, "No Man's Land," Eric is shot in the leg and then the head during a shootout with men hired by escaped murderer Clavo Cruz. In episode 515, "Man Down", he is rushed to the hospital, where he flat-lines. After every other attempt at revival fails, an adrenaline injection to the heart brings him back. Following a tense surgery, he remains in critical condition in the hospital. It is revealed that most of the bullet is still lodged in his temporal lobe, and that he may suffer permanent damage to motor skills, speech and memory. This is evident as he consistently asks to see his sister Marisol despite the fact she has been dead for months, and he also has no memory of being shot by Cruz's men. Coroner Alexx Woods explains to the rest of the team that while Eric is alive, he may not be the same Eric they knew. Indeed, Eric's return to work several weeks later is difficult, and he is frustrated with the slow steps he must take, relearning basics and making rookie mistakes. He almost lets a killer escape when he makes a simple but crucial error on a blood-presence test, mistaking H₂O and H₂O₂ in order of application, which yields a false positive as a result. However, Eric later provides the insight to find the murder weapon, and thus a perpetrator (episode 516, "Broken Home"). Eric experiences such difficulties as double vision, which interferes with his performance in episode 518, "Triple Threat". When Ryan gently points out doubled evidence markers, Eric snaps at him in frustration, but Wolfe is not offended, as he remembers his own vision problems after being shot with a nail gun the previous season (episode 408, "Nailed"). Eric's memory lapses apparently cover only the six months or so prior to his injury, and as such he no longer recognizes the woman who sued him. This is used by a lawyer in an attempt to prove his incompetence (episode 521, "Just Murdered").

In episode 604, "Bang, Bang Your Debt," a full three years after Tim Speedle's death, Delko, still feeling the effects of a head injury suffered in "Man Down" (episode 515), suffers from vivid hallucinations of his deceased friend.

In episode 611, "" Eric Delko has flashbacks about his near-death experiences and panic attacks due to his fear and anxiety.

In the episode 703 "How does that make You Kill Delko's therapist is murdered and as he and Calleigh are going through the files, Calleigh read where Eric has quoted "After I got shot, it really put things in perspective. Made me think about my future, settling down. It'd be nice if it were Calleigh."

Notes

ee also

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* Adam Rodriguez