I watched it this morning and wasn’t wowed. It struck me as being a bit of a mess. I could have done without the case which bored me when I was interested in the flashbacks.
But as usual with NCIS it was so cryptic I couldn’t make any sense of it. I think Kate living and having babies rather outweighs whatever minor angst the show seemed to have about Ziva still being with Mossad – that was her initial choice after all and she seemed to enjoy it well enough. At least she’s ALIVE and making her own choices. And she didn’t seem too upset about those choices. She was having a fine old time leading Tony a dance in interrogation.
Someone said that in the scene in the basement with beardy!Gibbs being depressed and drunk that Tony had died but that was so unclear that really I think it’s supposition although it does make sense of that scene a bit more, and the way they kept referring just to Kate re the baby and not to Tony. Otherwise it’s just a giant WTF moment for me.
I don’t understand Gibbs’s relationship with his mom or why she left. Was she ill? An alcoholic? Does ‘left’ mean ‘died’? Why was Gibbs’s dad changing her bedsheets every day? Was he dating other women while she was dying? Or drunk? IS she even dead? WTF was it all about? Why couldn’t they clarify all this and make it clearer? I don’t think NCIS’s repeated lack of clarity makes it CLEVER. Clever is something like the pilot episode of Touch where a gazillion disparate strands came together by the end and made sense, while still being complex. NCIS is just LAZY – it feels to me like it never wants to spell anything out in case it wants to retcon itself or alter its facts and continuity at some later date.
I thought DM completely outclassed everyone else in this episode, with some truly stellar acting. It’s criminal how little Ducky gets used when DM is such a class act.
I wish GG had dispensed with the boring case and just gone with the diner/flashbacks. There were some really nice bits in there – for example the Shannon/Kelly stuff and finding out it was them or Gibbs – although really valuing his contribution over any they might have made was a tad crass. Kelly might have grown up to be a doctor and cure cancer or something! Or Shannon might have written a best selling novel!
I loved the Kate bit but it seemed to me that was an outtake from SWAK judging by those pyjamas she was wearing. That makes sense of the utterly waspish portrayal in a moment where that kind of shrewishness really doesn’t seem appropriate or likely. She’s a new mom introducing her lovely baby to its dad for the first time! However annoyed with him she might be about missing the birth, you’d think she’d be overcome with love and joy in that moment!
The Tim plot was a big ‘so what?’ for me. The show has ruined Tim over the past few seasons. I used to really like him but now he seems so dull and colourless. He used to write novels and have a personality! He wanted to date Abby! He was funky and amusing and interesting. Now he’s positively anorexic in both appearance and character. He’s either solving computer tech stuff or being whiny. I thought it was telling that the show seems to think that Gibbs’s ‘team’ consists of Tony and Ziva – that’s what Mike said to Gibbs. “Tony and Ziva and your team”, making the others some kind of secondary afterthought. Tim doesn’t even rate a mention, much less Abby and Ducky. No surprises there as that’s the way the show has gone in recent seasons but that’s also why I don’t like it anymore.
The inclusion of Ari and Jenny and various others seemed utterly random when they weren’t actually USED. I wouldn’t have minded them being there and saying nothing if there had been some point to them but there didn’t seem to be. Vance and Ari playing chess seems to be the kind of stupid idea that sounded cool but makes no real statement within the context of the episode – and nor does it make any sense, either.
And superhuman Gibbs is back at work the day *after* being shot in the shoulder? At least when Ari shot him he looked like he was in pain and he was out of action for awhile. Another WTF moment for me.
This is the last NCIS episode I’ll watch. I’m really so over this show. When I’m not dodging Tiva anvils, I’m wondering what the hell happened to the Tony and Gibbs I fell in love with. They really are long gone I think.
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