Episode: Squall, Episode 10.19.
Air Date: March 26, 2013.
The Victim: Commander Brian Haber, USN.
Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: It’s a stormy night on the ocean. We’re on a Navy ship, and an officer is very angry about somebody being out on deck in a legit squall. A couple of seaman aren’t real happy about having to go out and get him either. The seamen are strapped to the rails, but the waves keep knocking them over. They make their way over to a balcony and can see a seaman lying prone on the main deck. Somehow, they make their way down to him and one tells the other to tell the captain they need a doctor. The other looks at the uniform patch on the body and says, “This is a doctor!”
Great special effects for TV.
Plot Recap: In the squad room, the weather report is talking about the squall, which has now dissipated. Tony turns the channel to ZNN to watch Chelsea, an attractive blonde, deliver the weather report. He and Ziva bicker over how shallow he is. Then they switch gears to wonder where McGee is. And from there to Tony’s recent dry spell with the ladies. And then back to McGee. And then Gibbs comes in and announces a murder on the USS Borealis and adds that the ship will be porting soon. He asks about McGee and Ziva tries to cover for him with “doctor visit.” Tony’s simultaneous “overslept” runs that ship aground. Gibbs shakes his head.
McGee is driving a dumpy Tercel-looking thing. There’s a bespectacled kid in his car playing a game console. McGee is playing Big Brother (the outreach program, not the TV show) to this child, who is defensive and wonders why McGee would hang out with him for free. McGee thinks a trip to Colonial Williamsburg will be fun for both, and the kid does sincerely thank him. And calls him Mr. McGee. So that’s something.
Gibbs calls and ruins the moment.
On the Borealis, Gibbs is annoyed that the body has been moved. I guess he didn’t understand the circumstances. Either way, the NCIS agent afloat moved the corpse to sickbay. I don’t think you typically have agents afloat on destroyers, but the team talks about joint battle group exercises near South America. Or something. Either way, regardless of the wherefores, Special Agent Stan Burley, Gibbs’s former protégé, is acting as said agent. He reports to Gibbs that he boarded from his assignment as soon as he could, marked the body, and moved it to sickbay. The scene was pretty much contaminated by the storm.
McGee arrives apologizing. Gibbs takes him to sickbay to check out the body.
Ducky looks at the body, Commander Brian Haber, and has no theories on COD at present. There appears to be a syringe mark on his neck and an accompanying bruise. Ducky thinks the bruise could mean the victim was on the move when he was jabbed. Palmer suggests he stumbled out on the stormy deck in search of help.
The captain summons Gibbs, and a Lt. Mane approaches. Lt. Mane is an admiral’s aide. The admiral came aboard the Borealis during exercises and then his helo was grounded due to weather. Now he has places to be and doesn’t care for Gibbs confining everyone aboard ship. Gibbs couldn’t give less of a shit. He has a crime scene and no patience for flunkies and tells Lt. Mane that the admiral can come talk to him if he has beef.
Which the admiral does. These two men have never met, but they each allow that their reputations precede each other. As they discuss the fact that something besides the storm killed our victim, we see McGee lurking, almost hiding, in the background. Gibbs asks what the admiral wants, politely. The admiral would like to be off the ship and thinks Gibbs can make that happen. McGee approaches and says, “No, dad, he can’t.”
The elusive Admiral McGee. Time for yet another member of the cast to have daddy issues.
McGee emphasizes that the ship is on lockdown. Admiral McSchedule says he has places to be. McGee gets passive aggressive and says he has been hearing that his whole life. The admiral doesn’t quite roll his eyes, but offers a snarky, “Nice to see you too, son.”
We cut to the admiral chatting with Gibbs and McGee in a state room. He says he gets updates from Penelope, McGee’s grandmother. Admiral McRepublican makes sure to disdain her progressive politics and calls her a hippie and a commie. McGee defends Penelope because…look, I’m no liberal, but $%&* this guy.
Gibbs breaks in to ask if the admiral attends all battle exercises. He does not, but joined halfway and boarded two carriers before the Borealis. He was in South America for nine days total. Admiral McHornDog talks about how hot the South American women are and then asks McGee if he’s getting any. In so many words. McGee doesn’t respond and seethes with resentment. It’s as close to hate as a guy like McGee can get.
Admiral McBully keeps on keeping on. He tells McGee he looks like hell and that being good at science and math is good, but MIT isolated him, and he should get out of his contented little world. I fortunately did not have this dad, but I knew people who did have this dad and I can’t imagine anything worse than having to sit here as a grown man and listen to this bullshit in front of your boss.
McGee agrees and asks Gibbs if he can leave. The admiral accuses him of running away, as usual. And then tells him he’s like his mother. McGee defends his mother and, oh wow. Unlike with every other character on this show, McGee’s mother is not dead. She just got tired of Admiral McLoveless and left his ass and re-married a real estate developer.
Gibbs starts getting impatient, and his discomfort is a combination of wanting to back up his agent in the face of a bully, but also not wanting to involve himself in familial mush, but also wanting to solve his damned case.
Which is why it’s a shame that the admiral tries to draw him into it by criticizing McGee for being ungrateful to Gibbs’s face. McGee makes clear that he did have a home and three meals and a mom that cared about him, but Admiral McWorkComesFirst’s family was the Navy.
And here’s the thing: if the admiral weren’t such an overbearing prick, there might be an argument that McGee is ungrateful for the sacrifices the man made to serve his country. But because the admiral is such a self-absorbed, abusive asshole, he doesn’t come off as a guy who sacrificed. It’s not heroic to go where you want to go anyway, even if the destination is one that helps others. In other words, this isn’t a case where two people are talking past each other. If McGee is in the wrong, it’s in not forcefully telling pops to take a long walk off the Borealis deck.
Anywho…
Admiral McPetty agrees that his family is still the Navy and calls McGee, “Boy.” Then he reiterates his need to get off the ship. Good thing he spent the last few minutes giving Gibbs no reason whatsoever to do him a solid. So, the investigation will continue, and everyone will stay put. Admiral McSoreLoser takes his frustration out on his son and says he could learn a lot from Gibbs having stones. At that point Gibbs has had enough, and says, “You stay in your bunk.” He means it literally. But he also means it figuratively. He is raising McGee just fine without input from McGee’s real dad.
McGee is furious as he and Gibbs exchange looks.
Ziva and Burley interview Petty Officer Graves and asks how long he worked under Cmdr. Haber. Nine months is the answer. PO Graves liked him and says being in medical care on a ship is tough. He also says the commander was about to come forward about illegal drug use. He’s not all in on giving details until Burley shouts at him, but he then admits there’s a meth/ADH cocktail going around that seamen are using as a performance enhancer. PO Graves says the commander wouldn’t give him names though.
In the director’s office, Gibbs learns that Vance can only run so much interference. Now that Ducky has Cmdr. Haber’s body in autopsy, the crew can stay confined, but Admiral McConnected and his staff get to go. Because the admiral is on a fast track to a cabinet appointment. Gibbs scoffs at that and says he wouldn’t have someone like the admiral. Vance gets the family tension…and then gets interrupted a lot so Gibbs can vent about the admiral spitting on McGee’s accomplishments. Admiral McThisFuckingGuy is a known commodity because Vance says “We all” know he’s a pain in the ass. Gibbs simply says he has McGee’s back, and Vance is on board with that.
Ziva, Tony, and Burley are investigating Cmdr. Haber’s work area. Burley offers Ziva’s condolences on her father’s death. Shabbat Shalom, Episode 10.11. He also asks if DHS is any closer to catching the man who masterminded Eli David’s murder, Ilan Bodnar. Ziva says not yet.
Tony finds Cmdr. Haber’s medical logs. Burley thinks that the ship’s port in South America plus a nonstop run to Norfolk makes it a drug smuggler’s dream cruise. I’m not sure who’s in charge here (as senior agent and agent afloat for at least the op if not the ship, it probably is Burley), but Burley has no trouble assigning Tony to go through medical logs while he and Ziva go search the ship. You can tell Tony takes exception to this rough treatment. And to Ziva having a handsome man who isn’t Tony dogging her trail.
In autopsy, Palmer is confirming that Burley was Tony before Tony was Tony. Ducky says it’s a reminder that anyone is just one re-assignment away from being Burley and tells Palmer to focus. Palmer doesn’t listen and now he wants to talk about the look on McGee’s face when he saw his old man. Gibbs arrives to enforce focus. Ducky reports a piece of a broken needle that he pulled from the commander’s neck. There are no defensive wounds, so he probably didn’t see the injection coming. Abby will have to determine what was in the syringe. Ducky notes that the needle just happened to hit the carotid artery.
While he’s talking, we get a weird bit where Palmer makes a joke about “eye of newt” probably not being in the syringe. And cracks himself up. And keeps kind of cracking up as the camera moves from his face, laughing, to Gibbs’s face, trying to intimidate him into being less of a cheeseball. It goes on for a while and Gibbs finally turns away, but not unkindly. It makes me wonder if Harmon and Dietzen were messing with each other, and the showrunners decided to leave it in.
In the squad room, McGee is trying to stop Tony from embarking on a path that will result in him putting several rounds in Burley’s chest. Cf. Semper Fidelis, Episode 6.23. Specifically, McGee doesn’t think Burley was flirting with Ziva. But Tony thinks it’s a continuation from their op in Italy the prior year. Playing with Fire, Episode 9.22. Although Burley ended up getting taken down like a punk when the perp hit him with a thrown knife, so not sure why Ziva would be interested.
Still, it’s not a day ending in ‘y’ if Tony isn’t jealous about something. He pretends to be concerned that Ziva is emotionally fragile, but come on…
Gibbs arrives and Tony reports that he found evidence of one seaman making repeated visits to the Borealis’ sickbay: Petty Officer Wyeth, 23, divorced, no kids, three years in the Navy and his only operational tour is on the Borealis. There’s nothing unusual in his medical history, but he has a juvie record for drugs; and he was detained for allegedly providing drugs to another sailor, but the evidence wasn’t there. Gibbs says for Tony and Burley to bring him in.
Naturally, once on the ship, Tony takes the opportunity to tell Burley how fragile Ziva is right now. Tony needn’t be concerned. Burley is engaged to an officer on another ship. He’s excited to not be agent afloat anymore. And talks about it like he’s a beat cop getting ready for retirement. Which, on this show, is like painting a target on your forehead (sorry Kate).
The agents see their man. He runs. Tony echoes the audience when he yells, “Where do you think you’re going?” PO Wyeth hides in a cargo bay. The agents search for him, and, once again, Burley gets taken like a rank amateur, but fortunately this time it’s just a fist and not a knife. PO Wyeth runs away. Or tries to. Tony puts what looks like a paint can into his breadbasket, and that’s the end of that. Tony at least has the decency to help Burley up, but he’s clearly very pleased to have gotten this collar over a man who is not really his rival in any sense.
Back home in interrogation, Tony tells PO Wyeth that his bloodwork is indicative of significant prescription drug abuse. Between that and the juvie priors, he’s looking like our perp. Tony suggests that PO Wyeth was strung out and went to see Cmdr. Haber, and then killed him when he couldn’t get his fix. Wyeth denies it, but he’s clearly feeling the withdrawal. His hand is shaking. He stands up to walk around and twitchily knocks over his chair. Tony makes fun of him, and PO Wyeth admits he knew it was only a matter of time before all this caught up with him.
Tony leaves to join Gibbs in observation. Gibbs agrees with Tony that there’s no way a withdrawing junkie kills Cmdr. Haber with the level of precision in evidence.
In the lab, Abby is stabbing her mannequin with a syringe and trying to recreate the conditions necessary to hit the carotid artery. It’s practically impossible. McGee enters and she wants him to try. He fails too. Abby reports that the syringe was filled with a strychnine cocktail that caused death by asphyxiation. Still, Abby remains impressed with how the drug was administered. She shows McGee a computer simulation of the corridors on the Borealis. There are sailors everywhere, and yet this perp nailed a major artery with his drug attack on the first try. McGee suggests special training.
McGee starts to leave. But Abby, as always, (Enemies Foreign, Episode 8.8; You Better Watch Out, Episode 10.10), is the Difficult Dad Whisperer. Although, most of the time, she urges reconciliation. Here she wants McGee to stand up to his dad. She thinks it will be liberating. McGee says no one talks to Admiral McKnowItAll. They just listen.
McGee gets a call, and we shift to the squad room. Where we see Adam, McGee’s Big Brother assignee, sitting at McGee’s desk. Adam is not speaking. Just staring. Tony figures this is because Adam is hot for Ziva. Weirdly, Ziva is more creeped out by the kid than Tony lowering the squad room’s workplace appropriateness bar yet again.
McGee arrives, and I’m not sure how this Big Brother thing works. I thought McGee and Adam were taking a day trip to Colonial Williamsburg. But apparently they were meeting other kids and staying at a hotel. Adam skipped out because he got roomed with a bully and took a bus to McGee’s work. Many, many heads will roll over this one. But entirely off-screen, so we don’t have to care. Adam says his roommate is a bully who doesn’t have time for nerds like Adam. McGee promises that Adam is not a nerd. Tony, holy shit, disagrees and tells Adam he is a nerd, but he should own it.
And…I gotta be honest…that’s not bad advice. “Find YOUR people” is Rule #15 in my own personal set that I inflict on dispense to my children.
McGee shuts Tony down but agrees that at some point Adam has to stand up to bullies. Of course, then he gives the “You’ll work in Silicon Valley, and he’ll have peaked in high school” speech. Which isn’t wrong but is a bit too cliched for my tastes. I don’t feel like it would motivate a real kid. But it motivates Adam. McGee then points out- also cliched but also correct- that most bullies are cowards.
Gibbs walks into the squad room, but stops to listen. Then he gets a call from Burley.
On the ship, Burley has been looking at surveillance footage and thinks he has found the moment of poisoning. You can’t see the killer, but later, PO Graves snuck into sickbay and appears to be removing data from the computer. Ziva provides background. PO Graves became a hospital corpsman after failing Navy SEAL training. He excelled in hand-to-hand combat but couldn’t handle the pressure. So maybe PO Graves is our dealer/murderer.
Vance is letting Admiral McJerk drink from the director’s liquor cabinet. The admiral dismisses his aide so they can talk turkey. The admiral would like to know if McGee is ever going to amount to more than an overpaid paper pusher. So, he knows how to endear himself to Vance too, it seems. Vance lets the rage ripple through him for a second. Then he explains that “Special Agent McGee,” with emphasis on the title, is a valuable asset to the team. He tells him he should be proud. Admiral McPedantic asked for an assessment not a lecture. In fairness, Vance gave him both. And now Vance wants to know why Admiral McAbsent is suddenly interested in his son’s career path. Admiral McLush guns his liquor and tells Vance to have a good day. He thinks Vance should teach McGee some of his boxing moves, which is a douchey comment to make about one’s son even if we assume there’s no implied threat to Vance.
Ziva and Burley are on the ship and, somehow, cannot find PO Graves. Burley gets a call and tells Ziva that a crewmember is being evacuated from the ship with a ruptured appendix. They exit onto the deck and see an ambulance. Which they then open at gunpoint. PO Graves is in there and the EMT gets upset because it’s an emergency transport for PO Graves’s appendicitis. Problem is the order was signed by…Cmdr. Haber. Clever, but not clever enough.
Gibbs in impressed. In interrogation, he asks what PO Graves was running from. Then he shows him the pics of the computer tampering. And tells him half the crew gave him up. PO Graves says he was trying to get rid of the paper trail re: the drug dealing. Which makes Gibbs wonder why PO Graves was the one who brought up the drug cocktail to begin with. PO Graves denies killing Cmdr. Haber, though. Gibbs senses more to the story and hopes whoever PO Graves is covering for is worth it.
Gibbs finds McGee in the squad room. He’s running through PO Graves’s emails. Nothing so far. Gibbs tells him to go home. Gibbs says, “You know, I kind of liked him.” McGee, shocked, thinks Gibbs means Admiral McIronBritches, and says he’s a blowhard but has good qualities too. Gibbs was totally talking about Adam, though. Gibbs asks how long he has been doing Big Brother. McGee says a few months. Gibbs offers the rare compliment and says it’s a good thing McGee does. McGee wonders if he should keep doing it, though, and figures Adam would be better off assigned to someone else given McGee’s work conflicts. Gibbs sternly asks who it would be better for. McGee figures both, since Adam doesn’t understand what it is he does for a living. Gibbs tells him to let Adam know who he is. McGee is no longer sure who they’re talking about, but Gibbs leaves.
McGee and Admiral McTooBusy are walking…on the Mall maybe. The admiral would like to know why McGee called. McGee just wanted to talk. Admiral McHolierthanThou asks if that’s what “You NCIS people do,” but McGee says it’s what sons do. He says his life is good and he’s doing good work, and the admiral should know this. Admiral McSubliminal suggests that McGee’s mother doesn’t care for how much they fight. McGee asks if they have spoken recently. The admiral has not, but he knows her feelings. McGee tells him to change things.
Ahhhh…Admiral McTooLittleTooLate gives it the old college try. He talks about a time he built McGee a sandbox for his fifth birthday and McGee played in it so long and hard that he fell right asleep. And the admiral just sat there and watched him and…emotional reserves exceeded. He shuts down, calls it a different time, and gets saved by the aide from having to have a real moment with his son. Admiral McVeryBusy&Important has to go to the White House, but he offers a glimpse of warmth and asks what McGee would say when he was shipping out. “Watch out for the bad guys,” McGee replies. The admiral smiles and leaves. McGee stares after him.
In the squad room, Tony and Burley report to Gibbs that PO Graves got $10k deposited into his bank account. They’re still trying to ID the source. But, Tony has an inspiration that Cmdr. Haber may have made the switch from a clipboard to electronic records and maybe there’s a clue there. If they can locate the commander’s tablet. McGee arrives just in time to shoo Burley away from his computer. And locates the tablet, at John Hamilton University.
Tony and McGee head to JHU. McGee can track the tablet within 50 yards. But Tony wants to talk dads. And between, Gibbs, Ziva, and himself, it’s not like “daddy drop-ins” are new. Tony says dads start out as heroes and end up disappointing. McGee asks if he should skip to hugs and signet rings. Tony thinks that would involve skipping the part where McGee painfully begins to understand the old man’s flaws. McGee gets that they share flaws (really?), but figures Admiral McOblivious never will.
They get back to tracking the tablet. It’s at a pick-up basketball game. One of the players is (justifiably) defensive about federal agents checking their bags without a warrant. But there’s probable cause and, importantly, Tony is better at dishing trash than the player and ends up with the advantage. The player denies stealing military hardware. He says he found it in the trash and hands it over.
In the squad room, Abby, Tony, and Ziva discuss McGee’s dad. Ziva says these things take time and she says McGee is lucky to still have time.
McGee has examined the tablet. He pulls up the sign-in sheet and the last person is a Henry Newbolt. Who happens to not be on the ship’s crew manifest. Because he’s a dead British poet. And one of Admiral McLiterate’s favorites. It’s a pseudonym and Gibbs tells his agents to being the admiral in. McGee begs. But Gibbs says that Admiral McSilverTongue has spent his life talking his way out of things, and this is about answers. He could just as well be innocent.
Pffft. Gibbs just wants to step on the admiral’s throat a bit.
Admiral McOfficious is in interrogation, but stands by the door and refuses to sit. He also refuses to disclose his whereabouts until Gibbs brings up Henry Newbolt. Now Admiral McParanoid wants to know who’s behind the glass. And Gibbs can’t resist twisting the knife a little. “You scared he’s gonna see you break?” Admiral McKissMyAss tells Gibbs that his relationship with McGee is none of Gibbs’s “damned business.” Gibbs is fed up, though. He says the admiral makes McGee feel like he’s nothing, but the admiral is the one with nothing. Admiral McPatriot tells Gibbs to respect the uniform and the life it provided for his family. Gibbs asks why lie, and why avoid his son? The admiral takes a seat. He says he’s sick. He says it’s “stage four,” and no one can know. He wasn’t feeling well, and knew Cmdr. Haber was top notch. So he boarded the Borealis. Cmdr. Haber gave him something for the pain, but he knew what was causing it. And he was gonna report it to NAVCENT, Gibbs concludes. Admiral McGetsIt says doctor-patient confidentiality is a little different when it comes to national security. Which is also motive. Admiral McFinallyHonest admits he’s been a lousy father and a son of a bitch. But he’s no murderer.
McGee is observing. And that’s a tough way to learn your old man is about to get a sea burial. We see a tear fall down is face.
Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva brief Vance in his office. They conclude that since Admiral McSecretive didn’t even tell his own son about his diagnosis, whoever killed to cover it up had to be extremely close. Gibbs says to run background on Lt. Mane, the aide. Vance even offers Tony his computer. Tony pulls up Lt. Mane’s file and he has a black ops background. There’s also a letter in his file from the Admiral. Which makes clear that if/when Admiral McPromotion heads to the White House, Lt. Mane is going with him. The converse is also true. And there’s your motive. Gibbs tells Tony to trace PO Graves’s pay off to Lt. Mane.
We join Lt. Mane. Gibbs joins him too. Lt. Mane blows him off and tells him to make an appointment. Or tries to. But Admiral McThereAreLimits is there too, and his aide has some ‘splainin’ to do. The admiral conducts the interrogation. He asks if he has treated Lt. Mane well and Lt. Mane says, “Like family,” which makes McGee, also present, bristle. Admiral McLecture says it’s not easy being a member of this family as he expects the best: honesty, integrity, loyalty. And he wonders where those traits were when Lt. Mane offed Cmdr. Haber. Lt. Mane is broken enough to confess. Gibbs moves in with the cuffs and the lieutenant says he was only doing it for the admiral. Then he starts to flip out and says that “You taught me that commitment to success comes first.”
“I was wrong,” Admiral McEpiphany says, and McGee closes his eyes with disbelief and reopens them in a low-grade spit-take. Either way, the admiral is not going to stick around for messy endings and gets in the car. He also likely doesn’t want to see Lt. Mane cry. Gibbs and McGee share a glance that says, “This is probably the best you’re/I’m gonna get.”
Back at HQ, Gibbs asks McGee what he decided. McGee isn’t sure since he doesn’t know how sick his dad is. He might give him a call. Again, Gibbs is talking about Adam. McGee will continue to be Adam’s Big Brother. He’s even going to take him to a theater showing of a B-horror movie. Gibbs thinks that’s awful, but also that Adam is a lucky kid.
McGee asks Gibbs if he made the right decision with his father. To be the bigger man? Gibbs asks. He figures maybe it’s time Admiral McTerminalWithRegrets learns from his son. And, like that, the old man calls. McGee doesn’t take the call, but does leave to call his father back.
The two men meet on the Mall again. They discuss Admiral McNotification telling the other family members about his diagnosis. The admiral is on board with calling McGee’s sister. His mom, not so much. But McGee thinks she’d want to hear from her ex given the circumstances. The admiral says, “Apologies are hard for me.” Justifiably unimpressed, McGee says, “They’re hard for everybody, dad.” McGee cites Rule #6 about apologies being a sign of weakness. Admiral McConfirmationBias likes the sound of that, but wants to know what he can do. McGee invites his dad on a walk. The admiral thinks McGee’s mother would like this. McGee agrees.
Quotables:
(1) Palmer: I keep thinking about the look on Agent McGee’s face when he saw his dad.
Ducky: Yes. We certainly can’t pick our fathers, Mr. Palmer. But the real tragedy occurs when our fathers do not pick us.
(2) Admiral McGee: You going to tell me why you called, or am I supposed to guess?
McGee: I called for this.
Admiral McGee: You called me to take a walk?
McGee: Yep.
Admiral McGee: Is that what you NCIS people do?
McGee: No, Dad, it’s what sons do. You know, my life is good, and I’m doing good work right now. Just thought you might want to know that.
Admiral McGee: I’m sure your mother doesn’t like this.
McGee: She loves going for walks.
Admiral McGee: Not that… this, us.
McGee: You lost me.
Admiral McGee: The fighting, Tim, the fighting.
McGee: Have you talked to her lately?
Admiral McGee: No. But I know her. She’s never liked it when we…
McGee: So change it.
Admiral McGee: Your fifth birthday… I built that sandbox out back. You played so long and so hard, you fell right asleep. And I was just standing there… looking at you, and…
McGee: And what?
Admiral McGee: That was a long time ago, different time.
(3) Tony: College campuses always bring back memories… good and bad. Kind of like fathers.
McGee: How long you been sitting on that transition, Tony? That’s subtle.
Tony: Well, between Gibbs, Ziva and myself, there’s no reason to beat around the bush when it comes to daddy drop-ins.
McGee: Yeah, because those all went so well.
Tony: Two out of three ain’t bad.
Time Until Sexual Harassment: 20 minutes or so, when Tony explains that a teenage boy is sexually attracted to his female co-worker in front of said teenage boy.
Ziva-propisms: None today.
Tony Awards: Ducky references Singing in the Rain (1952). Palmer references The Love Boat. Ducky mentions Downton Abbey. Tony says that PO Wyeth’s bloodwork makes Sid Vicious look clean. He maaayyyybe makes a reference to Shakes the Clown (1991) and compares Ziva to a Bond girl.
Abby Road: Abby keeps between the lines.
McNicknames: I bet you’ve had enough of those for today. Tony calls McGee “Tim Tebow.”
Ducky Tales: Ducky talks about how easily his cousin Beatrice bruises.
The Rest of the Story:
-Tony has had dry spells before. See Knockout, Episode 6.18.
-Burley first appeared waaaaayy on back in High Seas, Episode 1.6. He last appeared in Playing with Fire, Episode 9.22, where he got stabbed.
-Admiral McGee has been a notable but absent presence over the years. He appeared via voice in The Penelope Papers, Episode 9.3, but his reputation as a schmuck and a hardass preceded him before that.
-McGee’s grandmother is Penelope, from the aforementioned episode.
-McGee does have a sister, but we haven’t seen her since Twisted Sister, Episode 4.9.
-Poor Burley. His first appearance involved meth use on a ship too. High Seas, Episode 1.6. Get the guy some variety.
-Ducky seems to imply that Burley somehow fell out of favor with someone and was banished to sea. High Seas, Episode 1.6 seemed to make it clear that Burley didn’t want to work with Gibbs anymore because he thought he’d outgrown him. Certainly, Gibbs seems to still like Burley. But maybe Burley pissed off Director Morrow (on the one day of the week he came to work) and Gibbs didn’t have enough leverage to protect him. Still, the idea that the guy is a permanent agent afloat despite not wanting to be afloat is not credible. Tony certainly got the job as punishment (sort of, as Vance also had other objectives) in Agent Afloat, Episode 6.2, but it strains credibility to believe it’s like a dungeon.
-Is Admiral McMenace threatening Vance with that boxing moves comment? See Knockout, Episode 6.18.
-Like Tony, Burley attended Ohio State University.
-This is the second episode in the last three that has referenced John Hamilton University, which has apparently replaced Waverly as the NCIS universe’s go-to fake college. See Red Cell, Episode 2.20 and Twisted Sister, Episode 4.9.
-Tony’s father gave him a family signet ring in You Better Watch Out, Episode 10.10.
-I’m not non-literate, and I even majored in British Lit in college, but Sir Henry John Newbolt (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) is new to me.
-We continue the trend of NCIS’ nearest and dearest being suspects.
-Rule #6: Never apologize. It’s s a sign of weakness. Of course, McGee wasn’t there when Gibbs told Ducky that apologies between friends are OK. Smoked, Episode 4.10. That exception would certainly apply here. But this late in the game, the actions are way more important than the words.
-Admiral John McGee does not appear again. Well, not this version. A younger version shows up in a flashback down the road. And, well…but that’s for later.
-Stan Burley has one more appearance in him.
-Believe it or not, Chelsea the Weather Girl appears in two more episodes.
-I don’t think you can be active-duty military and have a Cabinet position. Perhaps they meant the JCS?
-Having met all of the cast’s parents now (except Abby’s, both of whom are deceased), we see how Gibbs, with his domineering but distant nature, came to preside over this Island of Misfit Toys. He’s enough of a dick to feel familiar to his emotionally abused agents, but he manifests gobs more loyalty to said agents than Senior, Eli David, or Admiral McGee could ever hope to have or express.
Casting Call: Admiral McGee was expertly played by Jamey Sheridan. He was in Law & Order: Criminal Intent for years, and played Robert Queen, Oliver’s dad, on Arrow.
Man, This Show Is Old: Tony references Tim Tebow’s habit of taking a knee and praying after scoring touchdowns. At this point in time, Tebow was trying to make it in the pros and his kneeling and praying were weirdly controversial. I’ll leave it to better minds than mine to determine whether that was because of secular antipathy to religion in the media, or because Tebow’s evangelical fan base tended to be annoying in their faith-based insistence that Tebow was a better pro quarterback than his stats indicated.
I will, however, freely admit, even as a Georgia fan, that Tebow is one of the most impressive college quarterbacks I’ve ever watched. I also enjoy him as a sportscaster.
The show routinely makes references to old movies and TV. We have a whole category for it, after all. But Ducky mentions Downton Abbey, which was airing at the time of this episode, and was a cultural phenomenon.
Clipboards. Chuckle.
Tony references using hand sanitizer before getting on Vance’s computer. That will never ring the same way again.
MVP: McGee broke the case by solving the Newbolt clue and volunteered the information about his loved one in an open forum (not a given on this show). He also found a way to make some peace with his McBastard of a father.
Rating: I wish I could say that Admiral McAsshole was too cartoonish to be believable, but…he’s not. The actor and the show did a good job here. If anything, it’s impressive that they resisted all temptation to mellow out the admiral until the depression over his cancer kicked in. That level of hardcore dickishness and self-absorption tends not to manifest itself in half-measures, so it was nice to not see the admiral yield at all until he yielded completely.
As to Lt. Mane’s motive for murder…I don’t love it. You kill a guy so you can have a job in the White House, as the subordinate of a main guy in the White House? Even dying, Admiral McFriendsinHighPlaces can probably get you on that track with some other fella. Careers in government are long, and there was plenty of time for Lt. Mane to make his bones. Killing a doctor to keep a cancer diagnosis quiet is something a crazy person would do. And I feel like a crazy person would have outed himself long before getting to the career level Lt. Mane achieved.
Still, this was a great episode. It had fantastic dialogue. The characterization and thematic structure were excellent, as McGee navigated his father, while getting cover from his surrogate father in Gibbs and his surrogate cranky old uncle in Vance. The decision to include Adam the Big Brother mentee and thematic metaphor ended up being brilliant in its subtlety. And while fear of death is sort of a cheap way to promote character growth even in real life, cancer was about the only plot development that could have made the admiral sympathetic.
And finally, it was fun to write about. You’ll forgive me.
Nine palmers.
Next Time: The team searches for a kidnapped military spouse. And the hunt for Ilan Bodnar continues.
Shameless Plugs:
–A Year of NCIS has a Facebook page.
–If you like what you read, please share with friends.
-If you enjoy this blog, please keep me in mind for contract writing work. I can be reached via comment on this site or at albarfie@hotmail.com. Put NCIS in the subject line and you’ll stand out from the spam.
-If you want to talk about something that’s not related to Gibbs and the gang, download Chuck, the world’s best sports app, and friend me there for sports discussions.
Alex Barfield is an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. When not practicing law or writing about NCIS, he chases his children around, volunteers at his church, grumbles about exults over Atlanta sports (Go Dawgs! Go Braves!), and looks for other television shows to obsess over. He can be reached at albarfie@hotmail.com or on Twitter at @AlexBarfield1 or on Facebook.
A Year of NCIS 