This week’s installment of “NCIS” was reminiscent of episodes from seasons past: any significant character or emotional development was traded in for a rather impressive case. The victim in tonight’s episode? A blogger who had made egregious, spiteful claims against NCIS about their suspected cover-up of the death of a Marine who died in a car accident.
When the team arrived at the scene, local detectives had already staked their claim on the crime scene, much to Gibbs’ displeasure. I quickly sensed the potential for an impending fight between him and the city detective, which unfortunately didn’t happen.
Anyway, the case proved to be a difficult yet intriguing one. The result: the dead blogger, Burns, had apparently participated in an investing deal with this guy whose name I do not remember, so I’ll just call him Sandwich Guy, seeing as he owned and operated a sub shop. Anyways, Sandwich Guy was involved in insider trading and was afraid that Burns had figured out something about him that would ruin his business. So Sandwich Guy killed Burns the Blogger. Oh, and NCIS proved that the case they were accused of covering-up — the death of one Lieutenant Arnett — was indeed an accidental death as they had first declared. Why does anyone even bother to challenge Gibbs and his team? No one can win against them.
However, the fact that this episode followed closely the crime drama procedural format doesn’t mean that there weren’t any fantastic one-liners and great character-based moments. There wasn’t much for me and my fellow Tony/Ziva fans to cheer about in this episode. I mean, we were rather spoiled last week with the kiss on the cheek and the longing glances, so I kind of expected that. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t really get all that much Ziva at all in this episode, which was rather disappointing. We did, however, get a nice Jealous Ziva moment, though, when Tony was walking with a female detective through headquarters. I know, Ziva, we’re just as impatient for the two of you to get together. Trust me. It will happen, I promise. Even if Tony says that fraternization in the workplace never works out. Please — they’ve been fraternizing in every sense but the physical form since she first started working at NCIS, so it’s pretty much inevitable.
As for the interaction between other characters, McGee and Tony were hilarious tonight. My favorite scene? The impound lot, without a doubt. I mean, come on. First, McGee shoots out the camera with some concoction involving carpenter’s glue and mayonnaise, and then the two of them break both into the car lot itself and then into the victim’s car. Tony had several great one-liners during this scene, but this one wins the prize: “It looks like a yoga position. An upside-down manatee.” And the fact that they were soon chased by dogs managed to make me laugh, despite it being a horrendous cliché.
Further commentary:
* The Metro RailCard that McGee uses to track Sandwich Guy’s route to and from work. Okay, this is nitpicky, but it bothers me. I’m a NoVa girl; I live only a half-hour, 40 minutes outside of D.C., so I take the Metro often. The farecards are not called RailCards. They’re Metrorail cards. So please just use their real name next time, unless there’s some sort of copyright issue on their name. In that case, TPTB, do whatever you have to do to keep the show on air, because I’d be really pathetically depressed if it were to be canceled.
* Tony’s line about what interrogation technique Gibbs was going to use on one of the victim’s commanding officer/girlfriend: “I think he’s going to lead with the ‘Creepy Uncle’ and then transition into the ‘Father Figure You Can Trust.’” Best. Line. Of. The. Night.
* Ziva’s back to mangling the English language: “That’s total salami!” Oh, Ziva, Ziva, Ziva. Thank God Tony’s there to correct you that it’s not salami but bologna.
* The ending! Oh, my God! Ziva resigning from Mossad and applying to work as a Special Agent exclusively for NCIS? I was practically yelling at Gibbs to just sign the damn form, but, in true TV drama fashion, a fade-to-black happened before my wish could come true.
* The promo for next week had me pretty much squealing in delight and anticipation. Ziva’s going to have to tell the truth about what happened during her time on the freighter/in captivity. And guess who’s going to be there to comfort her? Yeah, you better believe that’s what I’m thinking. And yes, I did wiggle my eyebrows suggestively. Do you have a problem with that?
