Carlos Bernard cast in CSI Miami for season-long arc

CSI: Miami‘s Horatio Caine (David Caruso) is no stranger to formidable foes, but this season his opponent will be quite a doozy. 24 alum Carlos Bernard has been cast as Horatio’s spectacularly wealthy season-long nemesis, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.

“We’re going to slowly position Horatio in opposition to a very subtle, but powerful, political patriarch,” co-executive producer Barry O’Brien tells us. “He’s kind of a Donald Trump meets the Kennedy family. …There will be a very high-octane relationship between the two. A hero is as heroic as his opposition is deadly, so we’re really going to go there with this character.”

Bernard’s character, which hasn’t yet been named, is all the more ruthless because he uses his political sway to keep his depraved serial killer son safe from the law.

“We’re going to discover that over the course of the season that they may be pulling a lot more strings politically than meets the eye,” O’Brien says.”That will be a driving theme through season 10 — that Horatio may not completely understand the face of evil that is facing him. … Horatio’s fight for justice might just get compromised.”

Besides his work as Tony Almeida on 24, Bernard has also recurred on The Young and the Restless and ABC’s short-lived Scoundrels. His recent guest-star appearances include roles on Burn Notice and as the villain in the upcoming Charlie’s Angels reboot.

CSI: Miami returns Sunday, Sept. 25 at 10/9c on CBS. Bernard’s arc is slated to kick off in late October.