seaboe_muffinchucker | Entries tagged with episode

Spring-boarding off the episode that was supposed to remind us of Sandblast, we have this one. Sharif the bomber is back, but sans bombs. This time, it's poison.

Tony is not that stupid, and he's experienced enough with sexual innuendo that it would never take him that long to get Ducky's reference. The writers are feeling the need to make him a jerk again. I guess they've gone so long without hash that they're having withdrawal. At least they're letting him retain his competency.

Gibbs is flirting. He does an Elvis imitation. I wonder how the show would've gone if Mann had been willing to settle for what he could give instead of wanting more from him. I think this romance progresses realistically, and not in a storybook way, They are both older and know what they want. I think if Gibbs' could've given Mann what she needed, he would have. This romance may also be the trigger that starts his conversion into the man who tells Tony "Don't be like me."

Tony appears to have a suspicion as to why Gibbs and Mann are driven to solve this. Ducky is oblivious.

In the Tony and Jeanne subplot, they're setting up a subplot with her ex-boyfriend. It's interesting that both the ex and current are cops (even though she doesn't know Tony's a cop). I wonder if that's why she noticed he missed the drug dealer on purpose.

Why is Sharif going after Gibbs and not Colonel Mann? They both worked to catch him the first time, but he's only fixated on Gibbs.

I don't like this episode. I think his vendetta against Gibbs is overwrought, and the way he goes about it melodramatic. I mean, the third season ended with Gibbs leaving; there's no way the fourth season would end the same way. So the business with him being poisoned didn't crank up the tension for me. The poison money was a clever trick, but not with a poison for which the antidote was so readily available.

Maybe I'm different, but I cannot imagine stepping out of my hotel room for even a few seconds without my key, unless the person I'm sharing the room with is inside. But here, if he'd done that, the murder wouldn't've been discovered.

Ziva's obsession with Tony's health is the subplot of this episode. It's a deliberate call back to her Mossad training (she even says so). Tony's behavior has deviated from his usual pattern and she wants to know why. Like she told Gibbs, she's been trained to push until she gets an answer

I thought the small town atmosphere was all right but not great. The plot wouldn't work without a fair amount of prejudice, starting with the deputy and proceeding on with the neighbor. We only got to know four characters in the town and two of them were bigots.

I wish we'd seen more of the crime scene/ forensic tech. I think she'd make a good match for McGee. It was nice to see McGee mentoring someone, and fun to see the reverse was true as well (the inside of the pocket).

The sheriff was also good; good at his job and good as a level-headed person. His brother, though, was the cliché of a red neck. I thought it was clear that one of the reasons the brother was a deputy was so that his brother could keep an eye on him.

The end of the episode switches back to our long running story arc, with someone with a telephoto lens taking pictures of Tony and Jeanne in bed. Things are heating up.

The mystery is well done and as TV mysteries go, fairly straight forward. I think it works because the audience has a built-in expectation of who the villain is going to be, because of how things turned out in Sandblast.

Current Mood: awake

Her inability to hit the kill switch is a design flaw in Otto. Seatbelts can lock up like that even when the vehicle's programing isn't designed to kills someone.

I think the writers are being rather obvious the way they're setting up the German guy as a suspect. He calls Gibbs stupid, he was the one who found the body, he's trying really hard to convince everyone that she committed suicide—in real life, this would probably mean he either did it or was involved. In TV life, it means he's a red herring. Another bit of TV life: people being tied to the bed for hours and hours without it ending up soiled.

The scenes with Tony and Jeanne are good. Tony is jealous. I can't believe that he doesn't also know how dangerous this is, not because of her father and what La Grenouille would do if he knew, but because Tony is undercover and falling in love. It is a true dilemma for him.

I'm not that great a fan of the Tony singing on the street corner scene. I think it's well done, I just don't think it's very realistic. Anyone walking by could easily figure out who he's watching (even if they might not figure out why). Plus, he does get made by Trent.

I like the scene between McGee and Abby where she's talking about a movie and McGee says "Still not Tony" because she's trying to get him to remember a movie he doesn't know.

Palmer's affair is getting more blatant all the time. I just can't believe that Ducky doesn't know something is going on. I wouldn't put it past him to be teasing Palmer by pretending to be fooled.

As an episode showing us cool things that are really under development, this episode can't be beaten. The automatic car was cool. The method of death was clever. I do like this.

Why are half the men in that initial scene not wearing their breath masks. Do they want to die of lung disease? Actually, this is a case where the TV guys acknowledge the need for safety gear, but don't use it because it would interfere with the filming. If the lead wore that ventilator, we wouldn't be able to hear him clearly.

Agents Sacks and Fornell are back! With a serial killer they can't ID, even with the body. I like Jenny's line about her people making more progress in three days than the FBI did in twelve years. That's the sort of thing that explains why people like Sacks don't like NCIS.

I think Tony and Ziva spend too much time twitting McGee. Ziva's actions are more effective. She also uses Tony's quips to humiliate Tony, rather than McGee (because, of course, G. forbid that anyone other than Tony should be the butt of the humiliating jokes). This all goes on for long enough that I'm with Gibbs when he forbids further mention of the book.

Ducky is still carrying a grudge over the fact that Gibbs quit. Ducky should listen to himself when he tells McGee his coworkers will get over their resentment—except Tony, whom Ducky thinks McGee should watch out for, once he gets to the end of the book. Ducky tells more about the time he shoved a French policeman off a cliff, and Tony remembers the story. It's little details like this that make this show so much fun to analyze.

I like the scene between Gibbs and Ducky. It very nicely deals with the lingering antagonism.

I like Tony's undercover work at the airport, with our introduction to Trent Kort. Tony loses his accent at the end, though. The rest of the team still give him odd looks when he calls the director Jenny. The scene outside Jeanne's door—lovely. When Tony says he's trying to find a way to not screw this up—I think that may be when I really started to like him. He's not play acting there. He's the only one who can hear what he's saying. Of course, when he tells Jeanne that his day has been like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, she has no way of knowing he means it literally.

McGee is jealous of Abby's new boyfriend. Doesn't he know by now that the fastest way to get on her bad side is to act possessive?

I like this episode very much, once the Deep Six references stop. I think it's a good mystery and ends with a very good question.

I like McGee's sister. A woman who goes to the library to study when the police are looking for her is a woman with a strong sense of denial. I like Gibbs' line to her about putting her brother down; what she says is very younger sister like and it's right that he calls her on it.

I like the revelation of McGee's book. I like that he puts his sister first and is willing to resign for her sake. McGee is delightfully awkward trying to resist Gibbs' determination that he shall not investigate (it's nice to see they carry that rule over to Tony as well, in Sins of the Fathers).

I like the scene between Jeanne and Tony when they're talking about why they haven't had sex yet. "If you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you always got, and while what I always got had its perks, I'm looking for something different now."

I don't really like the episode. It's hard to put my finger on why. In terms of the murder, McGee's sister is a red herring (literally, since she turns up on his doorstep covered in blood). Once you remove all the distractions, the mystery wasn't very hard to solve. Maybe it's because the subplot with Tony takes up too much attention. Maybe it's the attitude of the head cheerleader, that a woman deserves to be raped for saying mean things. Anyway, this is another I don't watch often, and rarely all the way through.

Error. Card keys are anonymous. You can't tell from looking at them what they do and don't open. Even if the master key is a different pattern from the guest keys, there's no way to look at it and know whose key it is. Plus, every hotel I've ever been in still uses metal keys for the master keys.

Ziva has switched from giving Tony a hard time to giving McGee one. She's not as harsh with McGee. I do like the way he tangled himself up when she asked whether she had a bag, and he almost said she wasn't a woman and then said she wasn't a normal woman. This could've been hash, but because he catches himself and admits her position has merit, it isn't. In return, she reports to Gibbs that the victim's bag is missing.

Tony is suffering from sleep deprivation, spending late nights out with Jeanne and long days investigating. The premiere of the second cell phone.

Introduction of Abby's boyfriend, Marty. Unfortunately, this is going to be a short lived romance as the actor died. They did a very good job of introducing him, and it was nice to see that there's a piece of equipment that Abby doesn't have. It's also quite realistic that budget realities mean she isn't likely to get it in the near future, either. Where it departs from reality is that Marty walks away from a very expensive piece of machinery without a thought when he and Abby decide to go bowling.

Also the introduction of Palmer the sex machine. He and Lee go at it like rabbits. Palmer—unsurprisingly—is a very bad liar. I have a very hard time believing he's actually putting anything over on Ducky.

Michelle Lee does a very good job under cover for an agent who appears very nervous around weapons. However, at the end, she makes two rookie mistakes (that the villain does not take advantage of). She's standing too close to him, and she looks away while pointing her weapon. He could've kicked it out of her hand and taken her hostage before the other agents could shoot. Lee was a very good character and the work she does during season four and five makes the revelation that she's a mole strike even harder in season six.

There are pieces of this I really like, and it certainly takes on social issues, if a little superficially. They manage to combine sex trafficking and homeless vets in a single episode. I can't remember if they revisit sex trafficking, but the homeless vets issue is revisited in season eleven.

Lines I liked in this: What McGee's said about Tony's people being Long Islanders, Tony's rebuttal to the claim that the Chinese invented pasta, when Gibbs uses on Mann the correction Tony used on him, when Tony says "I don't frigging (or freaking) know" when Ziva asks why he's following her.

Flout authority, not flaunt authority.

Is this the last episode in which Gibbs and Abby exchange sign language?

I like Tony's interaction with Josh. Tony doesn't want to tell him what to do, he just wants Josh to stop and think first, rather than act without thought. He doesn't try to feed him platitudes (except in the conference room scene). That Tony succeeds in getting Josh to reconsider (although he seems a little surprised that he did) shows Tony's increased maturity. That Gibbs let him try shows Gibbs' increased confidence in that maturity. It's at times like these that I can believe that Gibbs used to be very like Tony.

First episode where we see Jeanne (whose name has not yet been mentioned). Tony's much more serious around her, right from the beginning. First, because he's working. I don't think that he ever quite forgets he's playing a role, which makes me wonder—if she'd been able to forgive him for not being Tony DiNardo*, would their relationship have lasted? Would he have retained the maturity he displayed in her company, or would he have revealed the side that teases Ziva and delights in giving McGee a hard time? Second, because he really is falling in love with her.

I'm trying to figure out why McGee's poison ivy doesn't feel like hash. Even when Tony films him with his camera (which could potentially be very humiliating), I thought it was funny. Maybe because there are no threats to show it to others or to put it on YouTube. Plus, when he says—to Gibbs—that he should've just said no to the order the check out the woods, Gibbs doesn't slap him down for it.

Gibbs seems like his old self here (finally). He's comfortable in his investigative skin again and he's made his peace with his inability to retreat like a hermit to Mexico and tell the world to go away. The nasty edge to his put downs (especially to Tony) is gone.

I like it that Tony's the one to spot the bomb in the warehouse. He's the only one who looks up. It's interesting, though, Gibbs gets mad at Ziva for going in to disarm the bomb, but doesn't say anything to Tony for following her. Then, of course, Ziva has to twit Gibbs about what he said when it's time to disarm the other bomb. By the way, what happened to rule nine? She had to ask Tony for his knife. Then again, maybe she doesn't carry an army knife which (serendipitously, for this episode) Tony does.

Continuity error: Sharif says the customer was buying Ring-Dings. Gibbs tells McGee to ID anyone buying a Slurpee. Abby does, however, look at the Ring-Ding customers.

The "my son, Tony" line has gotten notice, but not a lot of commentary so far as I've noticed. First (and most obvious), Gibbs is not old enough to be Tony's father (all indications are that he is 12-15 years older than Tony). Second, when Gibbs says that, he's playing a part, trying to find an opening that will lead Abraham into conversation so Gibbs can find out what he needs to know.

Was Abraham's alliance with the terrorist group real? I mean, part of it was clearly Sharif setting those men up as a distraction/ decoy. But Abraham seemed very easily led, so it's possible he would get involved in such a group without realizing the implications.

This is another episode I think is very good. The premise makes sad sense and they do a good job with both the primary (bombing) and secondary (Josh) plots. Things are resolved while still leaving a thread hanging.

*I think Ziva is wrong in that the question is not whether Tony could be DiNardo for the rest of his life, but rather could Jeanne love DiNozzo?

The camera work at the beginning, giving us the victim's eye-view, is very good. We know right away (because a woman dressed as Cleopatra is carving a pumpkin while listening to a horror movie) that it's Halloween. That gives us an expectation for what is going on that turns out not to be what it seems like the first time we see the character who has been holding the camera, so to speak.

When Tony and Ziva tease McGee it doesn't feel like hash because they are wearing parts of the costume, too—in fact, they look sillier than he does.

First hint about McGee's book, when he mentions shopping at the Armani store. Tony says "since when can you afford Armani?" but in earlier seasons, Tony himself wore designer suits. They also drop a hint about Jeanne without saying a word about her in that Tony doesn't try to flirt with the pediatrician.

Gibbs is very much in a teaching mood. He not only demonstrated the broken neck thing for McGee, he asked his opinion of the scene. However, he reverts to his nastiness of late when Ziva loses the mother. I thank the writers for not making it Tony for once who attracted the wrath of Gibbs.

I liked Ziva's conversation with Ducky, especially when she gets off-track talking about bears eating their young. He's a good sounding board. That she does talk to him and admits she may have screwed up shows how much Ziva has changed since the beginning of season three. It also introduces another possible villain.

Continuity error: how does Ziva know the glitter is from Sarah's costume? She never saw her, and being told "she's dressed like a princess" doesn't mean there's glitter on her costume.

The woman playing the sister does a really good job of camouflaging who she really is. I was totally flummoxed the first time I saw this episode. It's not an easy thing to do, play a character who isn't what she seems without dropping clues left and right that there's something odd going on.

And, of course, we have Abby as Marilyn Monroe. Need I say more? Well, probably not, but I will anyway. Seeing this makes me believe that Pauley is a natural blond. Most of the time when I look at her, the black hair suits her so well I can't imagine her with any other color.

Tony's Halloween story concerning his spacesuit costume was fun, especially at the end. It does say something about his home life, though, in that neither his father or his stepmother of the moment appear to have been aware that he even went trick-or-treating until he got back.

His comment "I don't do Halloween" contradicts his statement in either the first or second season that he loves Halloween. On the other hand, I can see him having loved Halloween (especially the practical jokes) until he became a cop.

This was an episode I really liked. The team worked as a team throughout, there were almost no ill-natured comments by anyone, to anyone, no hash that I noticed and definitely no put-downs by Gibbs as have been par for the course lately. Also, there was no murder to be investigated for once. Yes, there was a death, but it was self-defense and easily dealt with.

The first time I saw this, I was taken completely by surprise by the murderer (although not by the reason). I realize one mystery cliché is that the least likely suspect did it (so that the story will last long enough, mostly, I sometimes think), but the key word there is suspect. Before you can figure out who dunnit, the suspect has to be on your radar. In this case, the murderer was not even on my radar.

Best line in the episode goes to Ducky: "Personally, I prefer a good shag ... from a criminal investigative standpoint." In this episode Ducky treats Gibbs more like old Gibbs, although he is clearly still angry with him, which Gibbs recognizes as he is still calling Ducky Dr. Mallard or Doctor. The nastiest scene between the two of them is when Ducky interrupts the interrogation. Ducky is great in this episode.

Tony has not completely adjusted to having Gibbs back. On the other hand, he doesn't always need Gibbs to tell him what to do. In fact, Gibbs on occasion lets Tony give orders.

Re Gibbs comment that mold spreads from the bottom up, this is not precisely true. If the source of water is on top, the mold would spread from the top down.

Ziva on McGee's shoulders is reminiscent of Kate on McGee's shoulders. He seems to being having less difficulty with Ziva than he had with Kate, but that might be because his eyes are open.

Ziva is bitchy enough to Tony so far this season that I wonder how he ever came to fall in love with her. Her comments directly to Tony are almost all put downs. At least her Chippendales comment is an equal opportunity insult. It appears, in this episode and others, that Tony keeps spare clothes in the office. Why don't the others? Both Gibbs and now McGee have borrowed shirts.

Tony was doing so well by asking after Lee—then he dropped her like a rock when Gibbs showed up. Shows he still has a long way to go before he'll be a grown up.

I think this is a good mystery, due mostly to the twist of the murderer being the one to dig the body back up. The minor characters (even the victim) are well drawn and fun to watch. Siri in particular, with her determined naivety.

Undone by circumstance, and a lot of bad luck.

Ziva thinks all men are liars. Tony once told Kate all men are liars. I don't think of this as a continuity error, as Tony's responses to things like this are always situational, and dependent on his relationship with the person making the statement. He tells Ziva that women want men to lie to him, so they do.

When Gibbs puts Tony down, he asked if Ziva told him how to recognize a liar. No, Kate did. At least, Kate did first.

Can we please have the Tony who isn't less competent than Ziva back? I'd think he'd seen enough fake IDs as a cop to be as able as Ziva to recognize them. And what's with McGee and Ziva deliberately ignoring Tony? Are they still punishing him for not being Gibbs as a team leader? Puke duty (without gloves at first) serves them right.

Gibbs speaks Russian; why didn't he try his language on the captive? Ziva speaks French, German, Italian, Turkish (from another episode), Arabic, Russian, Hebrew and English. That's eight, so there's one missing, other than the language of love.

Ducky says "25 years of slicing and dicing." That's a strangely short period of time, unless he was not an ME in his earlier career. I'm in my mid-50s and I've been working for 30 years; however old Ducky is, he's older than me.

Third time Tony gets knocked out. This time by the person he's guarding. Please, please give us competent Tony back. After a number of episodes with very little hash, this one is full of it. Gibbs' backyard needs some attention.

Tony calls the director Jenny, which definitely catches Gibbs' attention.

...and, yet again, it's Tony who kicks in the door. I swear he does it more often than anyone else.

It doesn't surprise me that Mike waited until the bad guy dropped his gun to shoot. He's clearly in the habit of doing as he pleases, and he's been retired a while. Even before that, we know he bent protocol.

I don't find this case particularly compelling. Some of the details are interesting, like the puked up bullet, and the bad luck that led to the killer being caught in the first place. On the whole, though, it's pretty pedestrian. While it's nice to see Mike Franks back, the episode overall is okay, but not great.

Tony is nosy; I think that's why he's a good cop, actually. Grading himself as a solid B...minus is interesting. Revealing, in that he can clearly see himself as he is and not as he pretends to others to be. It's definitely an interesting set up to offering him a promotion. It's also interesting to me that Jenny looked surprised when he said that.

His reaction to the promotion offer is very Tony. The writers did a great job with that. I mean, we all know Tony can't be promoted unless Michael Weatherly decides to leave the show (or reduce his involvement).

First mention of La Grenouille. First warning that there is something that Tony is in danger of getting too deep into. First mention of Tony's mystery girlfriend.

Gibbs is not threatened by what Tony did while he was gone. I don't really think Tony is threatened by Gibbs either. Why is Ziva so bitchy about it? I think she really resented Tony being in charge and she was looking forward to Gibbs squashing him. I think McGee was also looking to Gibbs to squash Tony, or at least support McGee putting Tony firmly back in his place as a clown. I do like that McGee realized, despite Tony laughing it off, that he (McGee) had in fact screwed up and hurt Tony.

Gibbs seems to be more into teaching in this episode. He has been an NCIS special agent almost 16 years. His time in Mexico (or perhaps it's that his lost family is no longer a secret) has humanized him.

Ducky is still being nasty to Gibbs. "All my friends were there" makes it clear he no longer considers Gibbs a friend.

I like what Jenny has to say about Tony to Gibbs; I do think it need to be said. He needs to see that others see Tony as more than a goofball. I don't think Gibbs is right that the whole world will know when Tony thinks he's ready for his own team.

The pay phone. Contrast this to the episode in a later season where the payphone has been ripped from the phone booth because no one uses pay phones any more; cell phones have driven them out.

I do like this episode. I like the two crimes for the price of one. I like it when Gibbs gently points out to McGee that Mike Franks still calls him probie.

So Emily's what, about seven? Yet by her next appearance she looks to be fourteen or so. She aged seven years in four. Hmmm.

Did the writers make Tony such a jerk in the initial bullpen scene so that we would be happy to see Gibbs come back and put him in his place?

Why was Tony's laptop in the car in the first place? I can't see any reason for it to be there except to let Paulsen steal it.

I did like it when Fornell and Gibbs turned to Tony and Gibbs said "you're the boss" because for once this new Gibbs didn't sound like he was trying to put Tony in his place. I hate the stupid campfires. They exist only to make it look like Tony was desperately trying to differentiate himself from Gibbs.

I also like Ducky being nasty to Gibbs (nasty for Ducky, anyway). Gibbs deserves it. He's snubbing his old team while depending on them to help him solve the crime. I can see why Abby wants him back, and maybe even McGee and Ziva, but why in the world would Tony want this man to come back and take over his job? For this episode, I am not in Camp Gibbs.

I love that McGee came through in the end, identifying where the money was.

I liked the mystery here, even though I don't necessarily think the writers did the best job of setting it up. They were so much more involved in bringing Gibbs back that they slacked off on development of the mystery plot.

The car chase at the beginning really threw me off. I couldn't figure out what Ziva was doing.

The scene with Abby so excited to see Tony was cute, but why did he have to put down McGee with his gift? And he forgot Lee but wouldn't admit it. Sigh. Even as team leader the writers won't ease up on Tony as jerk.

My initial reaction to Gibbs' return is "if he's going to be like this, they don't need him." He was positively nasty to Tony. I also didn't like it when Tony and Gibbs were doing things in unison. It didn't ring true to me.

Agent Slacks is a more complicated than he seemed to be at first. He's a movie fan, he dislikes Tony as much as Tony dislikes him, yet they can't resist talking movies.

I don't know that I like this episode. The mystery is only okay, and watching Tony get pushed back into second place whenever Gibbs was around was painful. For all the build up of the secret scheme to help Ziva, they barely got to do anything because Gibbs and Ziva just went off on their own.

Current Location: Somewhere under the rainbow
Current Music: Red River Valley

Ducky's story about his mother forgetting him on the ferry makes me think of Tony being left in Hawaii. Yet another sign that my two favorite men on this show might have more in common than it seems at first glance.

Why are they giving Gibbs oxygen? Were his lungs damaged? Hospitals do not go around putting patients on oxygen for no reason. Except on TV. A nasal cannula is TV short hand for "this person is very sick." They put them on everyone.

I like that when Tony is confronting Jenny he doesn't let her reduce him to tripping over his own tongue as happens to him so often. For once the writers showed some respect for the character, even though it doesn't even last through the end of the scene. I like his description of the matters under discussion "you take care of the big picture and let me handle the two reeler."

This and part one are very difficult shows to watch. I think the actual mystery part is well done. I think the people who think secrecy is more important than lives are assholes, and if I'd been Gibbs, I'd've resigned, too.

We get more emotion out of Gibbs in these two episodes than all the rest of the series put together. These are also the first big Gibbs' back story episodes. I confess, I don't like the flashback sequences (like the ones where he remembers being wounded). Part of it is the way they're filmed. I know this show deals with serious topics, and I'm glad they do. However, I watch it to be entertained and if a scene makes me too uncomfortable (for any of a host of possible reasons), it's not entertaining. These are the scenes I mute or look away from.

The beginning movie discussion does a good job of misdirecting our expectations. It seems like it's going to be the usual mystery. Then the bomb goes off. I have to say that I find Gibbs injuries somewhat unrealistic. That big a bomb in that small a room? He should've been killed instead of just having superficial burns and abrasions. No intracranial bleeding, yet he's in critical condition? I think there are other shows that do a better job of matching the injuries to the reports.

More about Abby's family—her uncle Charlie got his leg caught in a nutria trap. Now, I've heard of nutria before, but I had to go see what a nutria trap looks like. They look to be the same kind of trap that's used to capture feral cats. I'm not sure how or why getting your leg trapped in one would lead to a trip to the hospital. As funny as it is, this scene is the over the top Abby the child. As such, I find it disappointing.

When push comes to shove, Tony is nice. He depends too much on Gibbs to tell him when he's crossed the line; still, as this episode shows, he can control his sense of humor. His stress shows when he's reporting to Jenny and becomes very formal.

Someone complained that they got a different actress to play his daughter in one of the later episodes, and all I could think was "of course it's a different actress; how could you think it wouldn't be?"

There are touches of humor in this, despite the seriousness of what is going on, and for once the writers keep them delicate (Abby's scene excepted), like when Ducky and Palmer are standing in identical poses considering the remains of the bomber. Ducky actually snaps at Palmer, which is a nice and fairly subtle way of showing how much this has tipped them all off balance.

This episode has the Jessica Alba line. If you don't know what that means, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog.

How much time is passing? In the MTAC scene, Tony is wearing the same clothes he had on at the hospital and (possibly) at the ship.

McGee is so lost. He doesn't know what to say to Abby. She's upset that Ziva and McGee are not taking this all as hard as she is and in the same way. Poor McGee, escaping from the women he runs, literally, into Tony, who isn't in the mood for it. Using McGee's tie to stop the nosebleed is very Tony & McGee.

This is the first time we've seen real emotion from Ziva. First episode with Mike Franks. Ducky's mother's brother was named Carkin.

Tony knows he's not Gibbs. Emotionally, he needs to act like Gibbs to prove to himself that Gibbs will come back. I think the others sometimes forget that Tony is more than just an irritating clown. I would say this is the first episode where they were forced to acknowledge that. For example, when Tony is talking about From Russia With Love and doesn't seem to be paying any attention to what Ziva's doing, then shushes McGee and turns at just the right moment.

This episode ends just as Gibbs wakes up, not knowing Ducky. Temporary traumatic amnesia.

So he was alive when Ziva manhandled him into the elevator but died on the ride up. I just realized that I've never watched the beginning of this before. I'm not sure how I managed that. I also didn't realize Cassie was in this. She seems to specialize in drug cases.

It's interesting to me that Ducky asked Tony how she was and not McGee. In fact, he seems to have waited until McGee walked away. That's probably an illusion. He probably asked the nearest team member.

Abby's fascination with the crime scene may be understandable, but it's a little over the top, even for her. She's generally so sensitive to the feelings of those around her (overly so, IMO), it's strange that she intrudes the way she does on Ziva and Gibbs.

Ducky's parents were divorced! OMG! Actually, I don't know why it should shock me; my grandparents were divorced in the 1930s. Maybe because the way he's written he seems to have come from such a stable family. It's a shock to discover it wasn't.

This is very well paced. I know what's going on and I still find it very tension inducing.

Tony tries to make Ziva feel better by teasing her about her crazy ninja skills; McGee by comparing her experience here with his in Probie. I like that even though she rejects his comfort, saying she doesn't need it, she tries to comfort him in return—and then he turns the comfort back on her. Very well done, McGee.

Gibbs is treating Ziva and Cassie very similarly in keeping them at headquarters (although for different reasons). As an aside, the two actresses are very similar body types and are wearing their hair in the same style (more or less).

Ziva is worse at sitting still than Tony is.

The scene in Abby's lab with the tarot cards, and Abby and Tony both saying the same thing about the cards is not exactly humor, more a lightening of the tension. Tony's experience is showing again when he tells McGee that they don't have enough time to search 50 square miles.

It's nice to see they let Jenny get so close to freeing herself. It reminds the viewer once again that she was a field agent for a long time. Plus, it's a refreshing twist on the damsel in distress trope. I grant you, this is the second episode in a row that they've done that, but I don't mind.

I liked this episode a lot. Ziva figuratively chewing her nails to her elbows at not being able to contribute, Tony being competent and serious, McGee showing more self-confidence and, of course, Jenny being strong and unbowed. I never thought too much about her as director, and when I did it was after she entered her obsessive stage. I'd forgotten how good she was her first season.

The woman at the start is just not a believable character for me, even in the very short amount of time she spends on screen. No woman I know would go back to a hotel she'd decided was not up to standard, unless there was absolutely nowhere else to stay.

I've been reading other reviews of this series over the years, and I'm not the only one who has noticed that Tony is always the butt of the hash. It's gotten old already, in season three. By the time they finish (assuming they actually start spreading the hate), this horse will have been pounded to a pulp.

Tony's analysis of the crime scene was great. His experience shown through. Even Gibbs acknowledged how good it was, ending with a sarcastic comment that seemed to be directed more to Ziva and McGee than to Tony.

Favorite line (in the face of Jenny's insult) "Hey!... Ma'am." Of course, then the writers pound it into the ground by having just about every other character chip in with the same refrain.

Abby prefers to deal with things herself. She's been set up like that from the beginning, and this episode really hammers it home. I like the way the men get so het up because she didn't say anything (especially Gibbs and Tony). I also believe her reason for keeping it from Gibbs is very much in character.

I have to say that when she opens the door of McGee's apartment to her stalker, she's being incredibly (and un-Abbily) stupid. She doesn't even ask through the door who it is.

Gibbs punishing McGee for letting Abby out of his sight by taking away his chair is cute. Yes, I said it: Gibbs did something cute. I like the way Gibbs lets drunk Abby talk herself out of thinking this is her fault.

The tools the other women gave Abby to defend herself are touching and very reflective of the varying personalities. Then Ducky gives her the whistle, too. All of which she uses on the guy (I think). I have to say, though that I didn't think Tasers worked like that. I don't think I want to find out.

Why do they leave this guy hanging? What did they do with him? They can't just let him go without endangering Abby. Clearly nothing they will do will convince him she doesn't love him. But they never follow through.

I thought this was interesting. More misdirection as to who is doing what.

I would say that the way Ziva touches Tony's hair right at the beginning was not necessarily scripted. It's a cute little business.

I choose to think it was not the cat shooting through the pet door that caused Tony to draw his gun, but the bloody footprints which he noticed before Ziva did. Tony is good at his job. He must be, or Gibbs would've fired him long ago. So this business of having his younger colleagues constantly showing him up is annoying.

It's true, though, Tony and animals do not go together well. Which is probably why (when we finally see his apartment) it turns out he has fish. His childhood pet were sea monkeys. I choose to believe that the mother who drank them was not his biological mother, but the first in the long string of his stepmothers.

It's interesting that Gibbs has Tony tell Palmer about investigating suicides as murders. Did it really save anything not to do it himself? Weird.

I love the way McGee just can't walk by the blackboard with the error on it. He handled himself well while he was being insulted by the commander of the unit. I love the way he bitched about it to Abby later, though.

Palmer gets to do the external examination all by himself while Ducky goes off somewhere. He almost gets to start the actual autopsy, but Ducky arrives (with his mother in tow) in the nick of time. Thanks to the presence of his mother, we find out that Ducky has (or had) an Aunt Gloria.

Nina Foch is spectacular in her second and last appearance as Ducky's mother. As yet another example of Hollywood casting younger women as older, she was only nine years older than David McCallum.

The search and destroy scene is well filmed and cut together. You don't have to watch every second of their search to know how very thorough it is, and how very tired everyone but Gibbs is. Which is why McGee falls asleep and tempts Tony. That's one of the Gibbs slaps I think is funny and appropriate.

Parts of the surveillance scenes are funny, like when Ziva is going to pour water in Tony's lap and the resolution of the chase. Others are not (guess). Ziva offering the piano lessons is just nice, although as we know from seeing his apartment, Tony probably doesn't need lessons. Most people don't put a baby grand in their living rooms if they're not going to use it.

This episode clearly made very little impression on me the first time I saw it, as I had no idea who the bad guy would turn out to be on this rewatch. This indicates that the mystery is probably fairly banal. Which it is, though watchable.