A Year of NCIS, Day 264: Parental Guidance Suggested (Episode 12.6)

Episode: Parental Guidance Suggested, Episode 12.6.

Air Date: October 28, 2014.

The Victim: Dr. Valerie Barnes, wife of Commander Ryan Barnes, USN.

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: It’s the annual Halloween episode.  Two kids are walking down the street, discussing whether or not Harry Potter Halloween costumes are stupid.  Benjamin, the boy, thinks Rachel, the girl, should be Hermione.  Because she is a girl and all.  Mr. Curtis, the boy’s dad, chaperoning, eventually gets tired of Benjamin’s nonsense and shuts him down.  And, over his son’s protests, he offers Rachel a ride to the school party the following day since her mom has to work.  They drop the girl off and she thanks them for the escort.

Rachel walks inside and, while Mr. Curtis is lecturing Benjamin on not being a jerk, we hear her scream.  Mr. Curtis runs inside.  Rachel’s mom is dead on the floor.

Will we get yet another NCIS precocious child episode as a side dish to our Halloween episode?

Plot Recap: Bishop and McGee are fighting when Tony arrives. Abby is having a Halloween costume party and Bishop thinks she can come without dressing up.  McGee, rightly, wants no part of that drama and is trying to aggressively urge Bishop to suck less and participate.  Tony instantly takes McGee’s side.  Bishop changes tactics and says she’d love to dress up, but she and her husband Jake can’t agree on a costume.  And now Tony wants to complain about how everyone is coupled up for Halloween.  Bishop suggests Tony take someone named Allison from tech services to the party.  Tony barely remembers her name, but says it didn’t work out.  Bishop and McGee are amazed as this is the sixth woman Tony has dated this month.  Tony calls it a triumph.

Gibbs arrives and calls the team to battle.  The dating conversation continues.  The main thing we learn is that Tony dates too much at work, having run, IT, HR, and accounting.  And that one of the girls had too many cats, all named “Mr. Darcy.”

They wonder if Tony is being too picky.  I say, run Tony.

At the scene, Ducky notes a single gunshot wound in the back between midnight and 2AM.  The agents report that there’s no weapon on scene, no sign of forced entry.  The back door was open when the local LEOs arrived.  The residence wasn’t tossed so it doesn’t look like a robbery went bad.  The victim is Dr. Valerie Barnes, wife of Commander Ryan Barnes, stationed at Little Creek.  As we saw, the body was discovered by daughter Rachel, who is ten, after she returned from a sleepover.  Rachel is outside.  Gibbs sends Tony to track down Cmdr. Barnes and McGee to talk to the neighbor who escorted Rachel home. 

As we know from many previous episodes, Gibbs will deal with the child. Gibbs is surprisingly good with children for such an old grump. 

But first, McGee chats with Mr. Curtis from the opening.  He last spoke to Dr. Barnes the previous evening when she dropped off Rachel.  Mr. Curtis was babysitting because Dr. Barnes had to work late.  Mr. Curtis knows Dr. Barnes well because their kids are in the same grade, but he doesn’t know Cmdr. Barnes that well. The commander not around that much between trainings and missions.  Mr. Curtis wants to take his kid home now, but he does ask what is going to happen to Rachel. 

That’s where we head next.  Gibbs finds Rachel still covered in blood.  She is sad and sitting in her fort.  Gibbs makes conversation about the fort.  Rachel says her dad helped her build it and she wants to know if he is coming home.  She does not want to leave the fort and calls it her “Safe place.”  If the bad guys come back, they can’t hurt her.  Gibbs asks about “they” and Rachel says, “The people trying to kill my dad.”

At the squad room, the team is dialed in on the latest list of suspects and it’s truly an inspiration to watch their efficient and dedicated work. 

Hah!  Kidding.  They’re deciding who Bishop and Jake should be for Halloween.  Tony shoots down Popeye/Olive Oyl and the old farm couple from the American Gothic painting.  He thinks Bishop should step out of her preppy librarian/hot for teacher comfort zone.  Apparently, all her ideas are generic because Tony and McGee guess the next few and she wads up her list and throws it away. 

Gibbs arrives and puts an end to this.  Dr. Barnes is a therapist at a counseling center in Richmond.  Her co-workers aren’t aware of Dr. Barnes having beef with anyone, including patients.  Cmdr. Barnes, the husband, is a highly decorated Navy SEAL with over 30 missions under his belt.  He has been off the grid for survival training, but Tony got word to him, and he’ll be coming to HQ in a few hours.  Per Rachel’s comment, if the commander is being targeted, Bishop thinks the best place for him would be with other SEALs.  Tony is wondering if Cmdr. Barnes has ever been targeted.  McGee confirms he has been.  Cmdr. Barnes took place in the op that captured terrorist Benham Parsa last season (Monsters and Men, Episode 11.14).  But then the names of the SEALs involved were leaked.  There’s a jihad hit list on a terrorist-sponsored website and Cmdr. Barnes, picture and all, is prominently featured. 

Gibbs wants Bishop and McGee to examine the website.  He heads to the conference room to talk to Rachel.

In the lab, we see that Abby has decorated for Halloween, as always. Abby, McGee, and Bishop are working on the terrorist website.  The host company is based in Algeria and won’t turn over client data to the U.S.  But, our leads have never been afraid of hacking something they can’t obtain legally.  And Abby has traced the code for the website to Maryland: a man named Dorian Hobart.  Hobart was dishonorably discharged and joined up with anti-government extremist groups (Hey, let’s call a domestic terrorist a domestic terrorist).  Hobart jumps around, though, so, according to technobabble, they can’t find him.  Unless they lure him out with some fancy undercover work.  McGee suggests he be a dishonorably discharged Marine sniper, because he clearly hasn’t had enough of pretending to be Gibbs (See last episode, The San Dominick, Episode 12.5).  The girls chuckle and suggest something more nerdy and thus believable.  And now McGee’s an electronics expert specializing in detonators.

Gibbs has snacks.  Rachel is hiding under the conference room table.  They bond over hot chocolate.  Gibbs even provides a rare personal detail and talks about how much he loved his mom’s hot chocolate when he was a boy.  Rachel asks if Gibbs’s mom died, and he acknowledges that she did.  When he was about Rachel’s age.  He tells her it’s OK to be sad even though she wants to be strong.  Rachel is angry, and even blames her mom.  She says Cmdr. Barnes trained them on what to do if the bad guys came.  Rachel was on alert and did everything she was supposed to do, and didn’t see anything suspicious.  Gibbs tells her she did good.  Rachel wants her dad and gets antsy and needs a safe space.  So, Gibbs helps build a fort in the conference room.  Gibbs is a master at relating to kids in this way without seeming condescending, so Rachel buys it.  Gibbs promises she’ll be safe.  Rachel asks if he keeps his promises.  Gibbs responds, “Always.”

Since Gibbs has important things to deal with, Tony visits Ducky.  Ducky says Dr. Barnes’s death was instantaneous.  She was shot in the back and the bullet fragmented on impact.  Ducky calls this mode of attack cowardly.  Interestingly, Dr. Barnes had a cheekbone fracture from ten years prior, but there’s no record of it in her medical history. 

Bishop arrives to tell Tony that Hobart took the bait and will meet with McGee at a park.

We move to the park.  Tony, who practices yoga, is leading Bishop in a routine.  McGee is on a bench.  Gibbs is nearby.  Everyone has earwigs.

Hobart approaches.  “Back down to the weapon,” Tony whispers as his latest yoga instruction.  He and Bishop subtly remove their sidearms from under their mats. 

Hobart sits down and asks if McGee is “Tim.”  Then he wants to see the goods.  He starts to leave with the “detonator” and the team converges.  Of course, then McGee gets tackled by a woman out of nowhere and Hobart suddenly has a gun out too.  But not in an, “I’m a crook” way.  More in a FLETC-trained way.  The NCIS agents have their guns out too.  Well, most of them.  McGee looks like he got the wind knocked out of him.  Tony makes a crack, and the woman recognizes his voice.  She calls him, “Spider.”  He recognizes her at Keates, from his old days on the Philly police force.  She wants a hug.  Gibbs is super-annoyed and says nobody gets to move until he has answers.  This whole bit is funny because Tony keeps lowering and raising his gun in response to the various people on the scene and Weatherly plays it well.  In any event, we learn that “Keates” is Zoe Keates, and now ATF.  And also an undercover fake terrorist.

We return from break and Keates explains that Hobart is Special Agent Marston.  The real Hobart is Keates’s target and she was after him for supplying arms to terrorist groups.  “Was” being the operative word because, when Gibbs and Tony apprise Keates of Hobart’s connection to their murder case, Keates says they have had Hobart in custody for two months.  But they kept the arrest under wraps and maintained the website for authenticity. 

Bishop thinks this play caused the Barnes family unnecessary risk and, in light of the corpse in autopsy, Gibbs is short on patience with Keates’s assertions that they would have stepped in if the Barnes family had been in danger.  He smarmily tells her she missed her cue.  She calls him John Wayne and spends some time overcompensating over how good she is at her job and who is Gibbs to say otherwise?  Tony squirms uncomfortably, like he’s watching his parents fight.  Gibbs doesn’t fight, but simply points out that Dr. Barnes was shot with a .38, close range, single round at her residence.  Keates thinks that’s out of character for terrorists, who are usually drama queens and want to send a message.  She suggests the murder is too quiet and Gibbs should be looking for a suspect closer to home.  Gibbs smiles thinly, agrees with her, and leaves to take a call.

McGee’s ribs are smarting.  Keates apologizes but figured she couldn’t risk letting an “explosives expert” hit his switch.  Tony laughs and says that excessive force was always Keates’s style.  We learn that they were rookies together in Philly before Tony went to Baltimore.  Keates also laughs and says commitment was never Tony’s thing.  The “Spider” nickname is a reference to Goodfellas because Tony, as a rookie, had to be the gopher.  He figures that’s why he left.  Keates calls it tucking tail and running and there’s an undercurrent of hostility there, but McGee and Bishop seem to miss it.

Gibbs summons the team to return to HQ.  There, we see Cmdr. Barnes in autopsy, viewing his wife’s body.  Gibbs offers condolences.  The commander angrily bangs on a table.  He’s angry because he was always prepared to die himself, but never thought his family would be endangered.  Gibbs isn’t sure there’s a connection between the two.  He asks if Dr. Barnes had problems with anyone or any recent behavioral changes.  Cmdr. Barnes admits that, as a SEAL, he’s gone too much to be the kind of husband who notices things like that.  Or father.  Cmdr. Barnes suggests Gibbs find the perp before he does.  Gibbs suggests in return that the commander focus on his daughter.  Cmdr. Barnes at least purports to take the advice and asks to see Rachel.

In the lab, Abby has the mannequins out again.  But this time, it’s so Bishop can tell the story of Tony and Keates.  Abby thinks that the body positioning indicated serious history.  Bishop calls it a definite spark.  And McGee agrees that he’s never seen Tony act like that around someone since…then he pauses, and he and Abby look at each other.

Bishop asks who.

“It’s complicated,” they say in unison.

Bishop gets it and lets it go, but suggests that if Tony is looking to fill a void, Keates might be good for him.  They all plot to push things along, but then move to business.  Abby shows the agents the bullet that killed Dr. Barnes.  It fragmented significantly because it degraded from being stored improperly.  Abby thinks she can make a 3-D image of the bullet and then maybe they can find a match in the database. 

Cmdr. Barnes and Rachel are leaving, and he gives Gibbs a hotel location where they will be until they can get back into their crime scene house.  Gibbs asks Rachel if she wants to take the fort with her, but Rachel says she has her dad and that’s all she needs.  Cmdr. Barnes thanks Gibbs for keeping Rachel safe and Gibbs responds, more to Rachel, that, “A promise is a promise.”  Rachel happily waves goodbye.

Gibbs joins Tony in the squad room.  Tony determined that Dr. Barnes’s facial fracture was caused by a serial killer: George Burton.  Burton was apparently a cannibal in addition to being a murderer.  But he got loose during a pretrial evaluation in 1999 and Dr. Barnes, the forensic psych on scene, took a hit before Burton was restrained.  Burton is incarcerated, but Dr. Barnes, after no contact for over a decade, visited him in prison two weeks previous.

Gibbs and Tony visit Burton.  Tony introduces himself and Burton notes that he likes Italian and licks his lips.  Tony is gonna let Gibbs take this one.  Gibbs shows his badge and Burton makes the connections, assuming that Dr. Barnes is dead.  That’s all a bit convenient for Gibbs, and Tony suggests that Burton had one of his unbalanced pen pals do the job Burton couldn’t do while locked up.  Burton says Dr. Barnes was one of the few people he respected, and he would not have killed her.  Gibbs shows a photo of Dr. Barnes’s banged up face after Burton got her last time.  Burton calls it an unfortunate incident.  He figured an outburst would help his insanity plea and further states that if he’d wanted to kill her, he would have done it then.  Gibbs wants to know about the visit.  Burton says Dr. Barnes was dealing with another patient with similar behavior to Burton’s, and she wanted advice.  But not another killer.  Worse, says Burton, and he applauds when Gibbs suggests a sociopath.  Burton says sociopaths do anything to get what they want and anyone who gets in their way is just an obstacle to be eliminated.  Burton suggests Dr. Barnes went poking around in the wrong head and that a dog turned on its owner.  Burton didn’t know the patient’s name, but he did know that Dr. Barnes was very scared.

In the squad room, we need some comic relief after that last scene, so Bishop is falling asleep while sitting on a desk.  She exposits that they have not located a suspect from Burton’s tip. 

Keates arrives with coffee and a muffin for McGee.  She reports that she checked and there has been no terrorist chatter with regard to the Barneses.  The agents apprise Keates of the murderous psych patient lead.  They compiled a list of all of Dr. Barnes’s patients with violent histories: three are inpatients, two have ankle monitors, one has been out of the country.  Keates talks in riddles and cliches, but suggests they look for someone more understated.  After all, sociopaths aren’t necessarily violent in all situations.

Keates makes to leave and Bishop sprints to the elevator to play matchmaker.  She asks for Keates’s thoughts on classic movie marathons and home-cooked Italian meals.  Keates thinks Bishop is coming on to her and politely declines, leaving before Bishop can explain.

Tony jogs into the lab asking why Abby needed to see him so urgently.  Abby closes the door to her office and hugs him.  Then she tells him to remember the hug before moving into intervention mode.  Abby knows the past year has been hard for Tony, and for all of them, but they’ve never talked about it.  Tony doesn’t need to talk about it.  Abby says that’s the problem.  Abby knows the real Tony and the fake happy-front Tony.  Tony begins deflecting and earns a headslap.  Abby says nobody is buying Tony’s random dating schtick.  They all think he’s lonely.  And they know why: Ziva.

Finally, someone says her name.

Abby tells Tony to say her name.  Tony clinches up.  But he says it.  Abby says they all miss her.  But she left them.  And it hurts and it sucks, but that’s reality and Tony has to face it. Tony has faced it may times.  Ziva said no, she hasn’t come back.  Tony has accepted that.  Abby disagrees and says Tony can’t keep putting his life on hold waiting for Ziva to come back.  Because she probably never will.  Tony gets that, and it doesn’t make it any easier.  He says the truth is, he misses his friend.  Abby reminds him that he has friends and Tony says he knows.

The computer interrupts this very good scene.  We have a bullet, and the striation patterns match a .38 already in the system.  It was an accidental firearm discharge at a residence, no injuries, no charges.  But the gun is registered to Nathan Curtis, the Barnes’s neighbor.  Tony groans and says this is why he doesn’t trust his neighbors.

Curtis is in interrogation, and not happy about it.  He seems shocked at the murder weapon being his gun.  He starts and then stops and then talks about how he had just left the Marine Corps a year prior and was having adjustment issues.  The firearm discharge in the police report wasn’t an accident.  Curtis admits he tried to kill himself but the gun misfired.  He went to Dr. Barnes for help.  She couldn’t treat him because they’re friends, but she set him up with one of her colleagues.  After the incident, Curtis didn’t trust himself with a gun in the house, so Dr. Barnes locked it up in her husband’s safe until she was ready to have it back.  Curtis swears he forgot about it.  McGee is unimpressed, and asks if Curtis forgot about the heated exchange that Curtis and Dr. Barnes reportedly had outside Rachel’s school.  Curtis says something was going on between Dr. Barnes and Cmdr. Barnes.  Dr. Barnes was on edge whenever Cmdr. Barnes was around, so when Curtis saw bruises on Rachel, he confronted Dr. Barnes.  Curtis didn’t report it because Dr. Barnes convinced him he had it all wrong. 

Bishop breaks Rule #22, the least enforced rule about never interrupting Gibbs in interrogation.  Like many others before her, she is neither murdered nor even chastised.  Gibbs steps outside with her and Bishop reports that Cmdr. Barnes’s alibi has a hole in it.  Nobody had eyes on him for at least four hours after the team racked, and his training grid location would have been an easy trek for a SEAL to the Barnes home.  Gibbs tells Bishop and Tony to bring in Cmdr. Barnes.

That’ll be fun,

Bishop and Tony arrive at the hotel where Cmdr. Barnes and Rachel are supposed to be staying.  The front desk said they checked in, but nobody has seen them.  They approach the room door and see a “Do Not disturb” sign.  Tony listens and can hear a TV inside.  He takes one for the network team and plugs CBS sit-com The Big Bang Theory.  Tony knocks and announces, and you can tell he’s not relishing the idea of taking on a SEAL.  I’m not sure why Gibbs didn’t send a little more of a force.  Tony tells Bishop she can take the door.  She levels two kicks into the door to know effect.  Tony wonders what the hell she’s doing and reminds her that she has a key card from the front desk.

Way to alert the death machine inside.

Hah, we actually see an episode of The Big Bang Theory on the room TV.  That may be a way to alert the viewers that Tony and Bishop are not about to be ripped to shreds by a trained special forces commando.  This is not the kinds of shock-for-shock’s sake show that airs a goofy sitcom in the background while the leads get stomped.

Based on the condition of the room, nobody has stayed there.  Tony announces that Cmdr. Barnes played them,

Back at HQ, McGee can’t get hits on Cmdr. Barnes’s phone or credit card.  A BOLO has been issued.  Bishop suggests that Rachel, at 10, is old enough to have a phone.  McGee gives it a shot.  It works, and McGee has them on I-95 north. 

At a rest area, Rachel is crying and wants to go home.  Cmdr. Barnes has his gun handy and suggests to a stealthily approaching Gibbs that it’s not a good idea to sneak up on him.  Tony has Gibbs covered.  As does Bishop.  They surround Cmdr. Barnes and Gibbs says they can talk if he lets Rachel go.

Cmdr. Barnes has no idea how things got so screwed up, but he thinks it’s too late.  Rachel is sobbing.  Cmdr. Barnes kisses her and slides the gun forward.  He puts his hands behind his head and admits to killing his wife.  He tearfully apologizes to Rachel as she sobs.  The team secures Rachel and Tony cuffs Cmdr. Barnes. 

Wow, that was easy.  Except there’s still almost 9 minutes of run-time left.   

Gibbs visits Ducky.  His Gibbs sense is tingling.  Ducky doesn’t like it either.  He has Rachel’s medical records, and she has been hurt a lot.  Ducky calls it severe abuse.  Gibbs doesn’t like what he sees, though.  The dates of the abuse correspond to when the commander was overseas.  So, the killer wasn’t the abuser.

Gibbs asks about sociopaths like George Burton and suggests they’ll do whatever they need to do to get what they want.  Ducky agrees- impulsivity, no regard for consequences, no remorse, skillful at deception.  Gibbs figures Dr. Barnes knew the symptoms, but didn’t go to the police because she was protecting someone closer to home.  Ducky doesn’t think Cmdr. Barnes demonstrates any signs of being a sociopath.  Gibbs is ahead of him and says, “That’s because he’s not our killer, Duck.”

Yeaaaahhhh…they’ve systematically eliminated everyone else…so it’s not a surprise to see Rachel in interrogation.  Gibbs appears and she asks if they’re going to build another fort.  Gibbs says playtime is over.  Rachel plays dumb.  Gibbs is not dumb.  He dug under her fort and found the murder weapon.  Rachel shifts gears and icily says she didn’t have time to bury it deeper.  She had to get back before Curtis realized she snuck out. 

Gibbs is grim.  He asks what happened.  She tells him not to look at her in that manner.  Appropriately creepy music plays in the background.  Gibbs says she wants to help Rachel and Rachel scoffs that her mother said the same thing.  Rachel was going to be sent to a special hospital.  And she doesn’t need help.  She hates that word.  And she hated Dr. Barnes.  Gibbs asks and Rachel admits she doesn’t hate her dad.  She says things were always better when he was around.  Gibbs suggests she injured herself so he’d come back from missions.  Rachel admits that sometimes this worked.  But Cmdr. Barnes would never stay as long as she wanted.  Unless her mom was gone.  Rachel says her mother brought in on herself by constantly making Rachel feel broken.  “Getting rid of her was the best solution.”  Rachel says her father didn’t understand either.  We’re allowed to see through the two-way mirror into observation, where Cmdr. Barnes stands silent and sad as Rachel figures he’ll come around eventually because she’s his sweet little girl.  Then she casually asks Gibbs for another juice.

It’s night in the squad room, Tony is wearing a tux.  He is going to Abby’s party as Bruce Wayne.  McGee is angry because he has a Robin costume and now he’ll look silly.  Although, frankly, agreeing to go as Robin in the first place was silly.  Why would you be that subservient to your co-worker, even your mildly senior co-worker?  And Robin?  Even my six-year-old refuses to be Robin if he can choose to be Batman.

Bishop arrives dressed as Sandy from Grease.  The boys are impressed.  Tony has stuff to do, but he will meet them there.  McGee and Bishop leave and Tony sidles over to his desk.  He opens his desk and pulls out a nice watch to add to his ensemble.  We see Ziva’s Star of David necklace inside the desk, (See Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Episode 11.1).  And so does Tony.  He handles it thoughtfully.  Then puts it back.

We hear the elevator, and, somehow, Zoe Keates got into the NCIS building after hours.  She sees Tony is down and asks if it was a rough day.  Tony finally admits, unprompted, to having a rough year, but says it’s a long story.  Keates says she has time, and it can be like old times, them walking their beat while Tony rambles about nonsense.  Tony wonders why Keates never bothered to call him after moving to DC.  Keates looks shocked and says she never knew where he went.  One day they were patrolling in Philly, and the next, he was just gone.  He up and left.  Tony is sheepish but admits it.  He clarifies that it wasn’t her.  She agrees and says he needed to find his own way.  But she also thinks she deserved better.  Now it’s his turn to agree and to apologize.  She accepts and is happy that he’s happy.  Even if he works in an ugly orange room.  He calls it home and asks if she found what she was looking for.  She calls herself a work in progress.  Tony invites her on a walk, and she can do the talking.  He does wonder if they can leave the “Spider” nickname in the past.  She says there’s not a chance and he can get over himself.

Quotables:

Tony: Well, there’s a lot of fish in the sea.

McGee: Not at the rate you’ve been fishing.

Tony: What can I say, McGee?  Women find me…a-lure-ring.

                                    -Here at A Year of NCIS, we appreciate a good dad joke.

Time Until Sexual Harassment: About 2 minutes in, Tony doesn’t understand why a woman he dated in NCIS’ HR department never laughed at the emails he sent her.  When McGee points out that these emails were offensive, Tony calls the woman “judgmental.”

At roughly six minutes in, he refers to Bishop as having a “hot for teacher” comfort zone for costumes.  That’s pretty mild, and may be more about an American Halloween cultural predilection for the generically risqué than Bishop herself.  But she squirms all the same.

Tony Awards: Geez, buckle up. 

Kids fight over HarryPotter costumes.  Tony compares Bishop and McGee to Holyfield v. Tyson and the famous ear-biting incident.  Despite the previous episode where Bishop did not know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, she is able to compare McGee to Bruce Banner, of The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) fame. 

Tony’s reference to Mr. Darcy is from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  There’s no way Tony has ever read the book, so we’ll assume he has seen the movie from 2005.  He makes the obvious comparison of Burton to Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs (1991).  He compares Bishop to the Demi Moore character in GI Jane (1997) (a movie that will now forever be associated with Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars).  He quotes from Dirty Dancing (1987) when he says nobody puts McGee in a corner.  His party costume is Bruce Wayne, from any number of Batman comics, shows, and movies.

Bishop considers Popeye and Olive Oyl from the old Popeye cartoons and comic strips as a Halloween costume for her and Jake.  Other pop culture/historical possibilities include Cinderella/Prince Charming, Antony/Cleopatra, Bonnie/Clyde, and Romeo/Juliet. They ultimately settle on Danny and Sandy from Grease (1978).

Tony has been reading Sting’s biography.  He says he listens to Happy by Pharrell and watches The Big Bang Theory.  We see an episode of the latter in the hotel room, and IMDB.com credits it as Episode 6.23, The Love Spell Potential.  This one aired on May 9, 2013, about five months prior to the current episode.

Zoe Keates’s John Wayne reference doesn’t need explanation.  Well, I dunno.  Maybe I have younger readers.  John Wayne was an actor who played the quintessential old school Western cowboy archetype.  His influence on pop culture cannot be overstated. I think he’s great, but you don’t have to Google far to find dissenting opinions.

Zoe describes Tony’s “Spider” nickname as being from Goodfellas (1990).

Abby Road: Abby helps Tony cope.

McNicknames: None that I caught.

Ducky Tales: Ducky references Robert Ford, but doesn’t provide the usual loquacious background.  I actually had to Google, and Ford is the man who shot Jesse James in the back.  Do better, Duck-man.  I shouldn’t have to do your job.

Bishop Be Crazy: Bishop sits on a desk and even naps there.  She takes the path of most resistance, trying to kick in a door over using a key.

The Rest of the Story: Geez, buckle back up.

-Bishop and Jake can’t agree on anything.  Pretty much every reference to him this season has involved them fighting over something.  Except for the time Bishop was bragging about all the sex positions they’ve tried.  Choke Hold, Episode 12.4.

-Tony is remarkably single right now.  He references McGee’s girlfriend Delilah, still stationed in Dubai since Page Not Found, Episode 11.20.  Abby is dating a National Mall cop named Burt (not to be confused with Bert, her stuffed farting hippo).  She met him in Kill the Messenger, Episode 12.2.  Tony just ended things with Leia Pendergast (Choke Hold, Episode 12.4), as we learned in The San Dominick, Episode 12.5.

-The precocious child that only Gibbs can communicate with is a common theme on this show.  See, e.g., Honor Code, Episode 3.7, Child’s Play, Episode 7.9.

-Gibbs’s mom, Ann, died of cancer (well, self-administered hospice, if we’re putting a gloss on it) when he was a boy.  The Namesake, Episode 10.5.  We “met” her in Life Before His Eyes, Episode 9.14, and last saw her in the flashbacks accompanying the death of Gibbs’s father in Honor Thy Father, Episode 11.24.

-In real life, unless the targeted perp is desperate for money or a complete amateur, you can’t set up a sting in a single day.  Even crooks do their due diligence.  Of course, if the people on the other side of the sting are also agents and assume you’re the idiot, it probably goes faster.

-Tony had a stint on the Philly PD before he moved to Baltimore.  This was first mentioned way on back in High Seas, Episode 1.6.

-The undercurrent in the lab discussion is obviously about Tony missing Ziva.  But they don’t say her name…until they do.

-Gibbs has a history with serial killers.  Mind Games, Episode 3.3.  He does not play their stupid games.

-Tony gets a headslap.  From Abby.

-That is some serious meta-commentary from Abby about Ziva (read: actress Cote de Pablo) leaving the show.  And probably slightly directed at fans who were almost certainly still complaining.

-Tony is not lying when he tells Bishop that he usually suspects the spouse.  Although, “spouse” usually means wife.  See, e.g., Sins of the Father, Episode 9.10.

-A parent willing to take the hit to protect a child is something we’ve seen at least once before, and recently.  Page Not Found, Episode 11.20.  Kids killing their parents is also not unheard of here, and that even happened on a previous Halloween episode.  Code of Conduct, Episode 7.5.

-You would think the angle of the shot would have clued Ducky or Abby in.  Was Rachel smart enough to stand in a chair when she shot her mom?

-The Grease references are especially poignant as of this writing because of the recent death of Sandy herself, Olivia Newton-John.

-Tony dressed as Travolta in Cracked, Episode 8.6.

-The ugly paint color in the squad room comes up from time to time.  I think the first time they focused on it occurred in Recovery, Episode 10.2.

-Strong, albeit subtle, stance by the show on mental health recovery.  A vet tries to kill himself, but the psychiatrist trusts his recovery enough to let him care for her daughter.  Not everyone who gets low is a kook, or damaged/dangerous for life.

-That said, who lets a known sociopath spend the night at someone else’s house?  No wonder Benjamin was such a jerk in the opening.  Rachel probably shoved lit matches up his ass.

-We will see ATF Special Agent Zoe Keates again.  Which is good because otherwise that was a really strange use of a character.

Casting Call: Rachel is Millie Bobby Brown in an early, pre-Stranger Things appearance.  She’s a cut above, especially as child actors go.  Her sobbing scenes when the team approaches her father are very good.  Her heel turn is less impressive, but still shows range.

Speaking of amazing range, George Burton is played by Bronson Pinchot, who played Balki, the lovable fish-out-water foreigner on 80s sit-com Perfect Strangers.  I disliked that show, even as a kid.  Accordingly, I love the idea of Balki being a cannibal serial killer.  It works for me to think that his Perfect Strangers character was a role he was playing to scout out potential victims; and that he ate Cousin Larry and the two 80s blondes.  Pinchot does a great job here.  He’s just enough over the top but stops short of chewing the scenery.  Weatherly plays off him well, too. 

Man, This Show Is Old: Nothing really dates this one.

MVP: Gibbs and the Gibbs-sense broke the case.

Rating: This one was chunky with references and continuity.  And sometimes an enjoyable episode can still be a slog to write about.  But, it’s pretty good overall.  It’s easy to forget that Pauley Perrette has a lot or range, and her scene with Tony is excellent.  We got a nice twist on the “Gibbs & the precocious child” trope, and Millie Bobby Brown worked the creepy well enough to not take me out of the episode.  The reveal was even somewhat surprising (until it became inevitable) because I thought the mom was abusive and this was going to be a story about how abuse victims still (unfortunately) go to jail when they kill their abusers. 

I admittedly can’t speak to the psychology on this one.  Can a sociopath love her father this much?  Can a sociopath commit self-harm even in pursuit of an objective?  Can a sociopath be made to “feel broken?”  It’s not enough to dent the episode, but it was enough to make me ask questions.

Seven Palmers.

Next Time: A fraudulent charity promises false hope to the families of servicemembers KIA in Vietnam.

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.