I can’t read this thread because I’m a couple episodes behind, but I’ve been watching. First part of the season seemed off, but the recent episodes have been quite good.
Okay, NOW I remember…
[spoiler]This was a Sixth Sense plot. There was even a moment in Gibbs’ workshop when Mike said something about ghosts and Gibbs said, “I see them,” while looking right at Mike. At that moment, I knew Mike was a ghost, and I watched the rest of the show with that in mind.
When I said above that a TV/movie cough is always the indicator of a serious disease,* I was just seconding the person who said he was probably ill or something and CHOSE to die violently for strategic/plot reasons.
*What disease, of course, depends on the era and context:
19th century: tuberculosis,
Rural setting: black lung disease or pesticides from crop dusting,
20th century urban: lung cancer,
Gay film: AIDS
Etc. [/spoiler]
**ThelmaLou **-
I’m pretty sure that when Gibbs was talking to Franks and said “I see them,” that was the real, living, pre-shoot-out Franks.
Of course, I’ve been wrong before.
Tim, well, the whole show was a confusing flashback sort of thing… can’t bring myself to watch it again to straighten out the chronology.
You can tell by the clothing, and the lighting. They made him look very different in his two different, er, conditions.
By the by, my favorite part of the entire episode was when Franks was asking Gibbs if Tony had hooked up with the new agent yet. He used a classic Franks-ism: “I figured they’d be making sheet music together by now!”
Easy to tell them apart (living vs. dead) - The dead one looked frailer, hunched over and coughed every other line - the Gibb’s image of him was strong, stood straight and never coughed.
I knew the moment he ‘appeared’ in the rain he was already dead - there was something about the look in Gibb’s eyes.
As far as the ghosts Gibb’s sees, I believe that was Live franks, and he was reffering to memories, not actual ghosts - basically Gibb’s being haunted by the past and not be able to let go when he needs to. This whole season has been about that - thanks to the cartels actions.
I think that show was the only time I’ve ever found myself afraid of Gibbs. He was ruthless, devious, and cruel enough to set Paloma up to be murdered by Alejandro, and to trick Alejandro into killing his own sister. I remember when the episode ended all I could think was, “That was COLD.”
There’s absolutely something in Vance’s past that’s not kosher, whether it’s a switched identity, which was broadly hinted at, I’m not sure. Remember that Gibbs had Vance’s CIA file, and didn’t (for whatever reason) read it. Either he knows what it says, or he knows that if had read it, it would’ve forced Vance’s hand and instead of their uneasy alliance, they’d have become full on enemies.
The tall dude definitely wasn’t when Blondie (can never remember her name, really cannot stand her) dragged him out, he was groaning and half sat up under his own steam, but the black dude seemed to be toast and Blondie didn’t even try to check on him before setting out after P2P again.
Same creator, but Bellasario isn’t running NCIS any more, and Shane Brennan doesn’t seem inclined to dip into the Big Bag of Bellasario Tropes too much. Note that certain political aspects of NCIS have changed substantially in the last couple of seasons; no coincidence that the show no longer has an avid Republican showrunner.
Gibbs is, for as much as are meant to empathize with all of his (man)pain, and look at him as a flawed-but-just hero, is really kind of a sociopath. He’s a stone cold killer, who’s got absolutely no qualms about eliminating someone’s life, or arranging for someone else to do so, when that person “needs killin’” and there’s no legal way to get it done. And seems to enjoy it.
And the arranging is the rough part. This is the second time we’ve seen him to arrange for one sibling to kill another to save his own life. (And perhaps other peoples’ as well long term, but his own immediately.) And Ziva has carried around killing her own brother all these years, and somehow feels like she’s beholden to Gibbs for it!
We’re supposed to think of the ex-wife he shares with Fornell (Diane) as an awful person. But Gibbs described the day she closed her hand in a car door as a “good day.”
The man has, in a lot of not great ways, a core of ice.
re: tumbledown -
Don’t forget that Ziva was under Eli David’s orders to kill Ari, altho she had hoped to ‘save him’ and that others were ‘wrong’ about him.
IOW, yeah, Gibb’s helped set up the final shot, but had Ziva had ‘other orders’, Gibb’s would be gone.
re: Vance - When he took over the directorship, they very obviously had him shred some piece of paper from his personel file, and there is definitely something with the ex-boxer friend (The reason Vance quit the Marines was due to an eye injury, one the dead guy was confirmed to have had)
Bumping, because we just had the season finale.
Cobb looked awfully happy as he lay there dead. Think he got what he wanted?
Has Kort “gone rogue”, or was he always?
And poor Tony! Yet AGAIN he’s being put in the position of having to lie to his team mates. And another mole? Are you kidding me?
What was the item that the new team leader cut out of the dead guys arm? How in hell did it tie into the episode?
Yeah- what ABOUT that? How come Ducky didn’t notice that slit? The whole thing made me wonder if EJ was going to pull a gun on Gibbs’ team at the end.
That new SECNAV is a real horse’s butt, ain’t he? And Leon thought he’d finally gotten a boss he could be chummy with. C’est la vie.
But more importantly, Tony has changed his hair a little. I don’t like it. Too wide on the sides.
Bets on it tying into something showing up next season, ***and ***in with the new mole?
Do we know that Ducky missed the slit? I don’t recall hearing him giving an autopsy report. Plus, when the cause of death is (a) damned obvious and (b) witnessed, how likely is it that he’ll be looking for other information? Ducky’s good, but he’s not superhuman. Plus-plus, even if he does notice it and puts it into his report, there’s no tying it back to EJ, since she cut it out before the autopsy. As far as anyone knows, that could be something Cobb did, and unless it left material behind, there’s no telling what it was about.
There was something ‘odd’ running on Abbies computer during McGee’s scene with her - so its hard to say - they like planting seeds, thats for sure - and the item from the dude’s arm looked alot like that thing they put in dogs for identification - an RFID chip.
The look on Tony’s face is what I’m wondering about - the mole obviously will not be one of the regular crew, it will be someone yet introduced (or an agent we see in the background) .
If the mole is one of the regulars, my guess would be Palmer. He had a relationship with the previous mole, and the late-night dalliances with her would have been a perfect cover for gathering information.
OK, this made me nuts a little. It seemed to be more focused on wrapping up season/laying groundwork for next season than the P2P killer.
He’s portrayed as a genius, plans six steps ahead, infiltrates NCIS, and then his end game is to stand there and be shot? Seriously what was his plan other than that. And if that’s all he wanted he could have gotten to that point way before.
And a new Secretary of the Navy comes in and 15 minutes later dips down to or three levels to have an agent root out a mole? In their own organization? Who they apparently know who is, which kind of makes the rooting out portion kind of short.
Then in the relationship bucket we’ve got Tony-EJ, Tony-Ziva, Ziva-Ray, Abby-McGee, Abby-whatshisname, Ray-Cort, and since they’re in TelAviv we can throw in Ray-Eli, Cort-Eli and Ziva-Eli.
The way this is shaping up Episode 6 is going to be a documentary of the NCIS team appearing on Dr. Phil.
“So, Jethro, how’s that working for you?”
P.S. Mike did have lung cancer, so offered himself as a sacrificial lamb, as it were.
No much colder than when he flat-out executed a guy in the first season by blowing up his RV.
Gibbs is fun to watch and sort-of a force for good, but he’s not a nice person by any means.
Another Gibb’s moment -
Walking the GangMembers thru the evidence of how gangMemberA killed the boss and 3 firsts and a Marine FirstSeargeant, then telling them ‘of course, I can never prove this in court’ and then hand delivering gangMemberA to the gang later that evening.
Exactly what I thought. Cobb definitely died with a smile on his face.
fwiw, i think the mole is either the blonde whatshername gal (remember the rfid chip she took out of her agent’s arm) or possibly kort. both are a little too obvious, but i agree there was a LOT of seeding going on for next season’s opener, so who knows? i doubt it will be a regular cast member, tho god knows i’m no expert on writing tv shows.
agreed! lordy, i hope there’s something a lot more twisty intended for that plotline as opposed to another ‘tony goes undercover to root out the evildoers.’
oy vey. i had more than enough of that with the frog’s daughter’s plotline. epic mega-YAWN. the only time i’ve ever gotten bored with the series in all the time it’s been on tv.
tho, mind you, kate got on my nerves pretty fast…