Eric Delko

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

Background

Eric Delko is the fingerprint and drug identification expert of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, as well as their underwater recovery expert. A Miami native and the youngest of four children, behind three sisters, Delko 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") and is fluent in Spanish and Russian. His father was a Russian whose original name was Delektorsky, likely shortened when he came to the United States with Eric's Cuban mother (episode 108, "Slaughterhouse"). Eric Delko typically acts as the team's frogman when the situation arises. In episode 410, "Shattered", Delko's job is endangered when he is busted for drug possession, but it turns out he had been buying the drugs for his sister Marisol, to ease the pain of her leukemia treatments. Eric is a Roman (Cafeteria)Catholic (episode 118, "Dispo Day," episode 506, "Curse of the Coffin").

Relationships

Eric has been involved with a number of women, including the somewhat unstable Gloria (who almost shot Marisol with a sniper rifle when she suspected that Marisol was Eric's wife); co-worker Natalia Boa Vista (who at one point thought she might be pregnant with their child); and others. Despite Natalia's duplicity (she was revealed to have 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. At one point, Delko 'tooths,' that is, text messaging someone for anonymous sex, though he later seeks counseling when his badge goes missing after one such encounter (episode 320, "Killer Date"). He has the closest relationship with 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 (episode 513, "Throwing Heat," et al).

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, to the point where Eric lends Ryan money for a date with Natalia Boa Vista (with whom Delko had just broken up).

Delko is Horatio Caine's brother-in-law for a brief moment when Marisol marries Horatio, but their family bond is tragically severed when Mari succumbs to the gunshot wound she suffered at the hands of a Mala Noche sniper (episode 424, "Rampage"). Together, Eric and Horatio pursue the man (Antonio Riaz) who ordered Marisol's murder all the way to Brazil. There, Eric engages Riaz in hand-to-hand combat, which ends when Horatio arrives and stabs Riaz to death with the man's own knife (episode 501, "Rio").He is also the hottest character,and is very sexy.

Other Significant Events

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", Delko 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 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.

In the final minutes of episode 514, "No Man's Land", Delko 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", Delko 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, Delko 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 Delko 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. As coroner Alexx Woods so aptly describes it, Delko is alive but he may not be the same Delko 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. However, Eric later provides the insight to find the murder weapon, and thus a perpetrator (episode 516, "Broken Home"). Delko 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"). Delko'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 sleezy lawyer in an attempt to prove his incompetence (episode 521, "Just Murdered").