Ncis 12/06/05

Cafe Society
1

This is possibly the worst ep of NCIS I have ever seen. Generally NCIS is tightly plotted and does a good job of making its characters believable. But this ep sucked big time.

First of all, one of the key scenes in the denouement was set up by idiot behavior on the part of two main characters – I’ll spoiler box it for you:

Tony and the Probie let the gal who’s just there for a one-week assignment leave their vicinity when they’re at the serial killer’s dumping ground, despite the fact that they’ve just discovered a fresh body so they know there’s a copycat killer. A copycat killer who could be anywhere … including AT the dumping ground. The first thing they would have done under ordinary circumstances would be to say … “nobody goes off alone, we all stick together”. So of course newbie gal is captured immediately by the copycat. Tony and the probie aren’t that stupid, the writers just NEEDED them to be that stupid so they could set things up, which of course meant it was glaringly obvious that newbie would be grabbed. Idiot plot.

Later in the show, there’s an extraordinary scene, which should probably also be spoiler boxed:

Newbie gal, whose hands are cuffed behind her back, squares off with her killer in an isolated farmhouse. Her captor is taller than her and appears to weigh at least 30-40 pounds more than her. I figured she’d buy time for her rescue by fighting and/or running away. The scene ends with the two of them readying to fight. But I don’t know what happened after that, because the next time we see her, she’s back at the office with the gang, apparently unharmed. Was she rescued? Did she escape? Did she manage to talk her way out of it? I dunno. This reminds me of the SF story Harlan Ellison recounts where a mighty barbarian hero is trapped in a pit in part 1 of a story. For hour after hour, he strove to escape, to no avail. His doom is certain as part 1 closes. Then part 1 opens with the words: “Then he gathered up all his strength, and with a mighty leap he hurled himself out of the pit.” I’d say newbie gal’s appearance in the closing scene was a mighty leap, too.

Unusually bad writing for NCIS. Par for the course in a lot of other series.

2

Regarding your first spoiler …

As soon as she wandered off, I said aloud to the cat “She’s totally getting kidnapped or dead.” Tony and McGee are usually not that stupid–Tony’s an ass much of the time, but still good at his job, and McGee may be a little twitchy sometimes, but he also knows the rules. Stupid, stupid moment.

Second …

I was kinda pissed about that, as well. When we saw Cassidy at the end, she’s a little beat up and has her arm in a sling, and all we find out is that lawyer-dude is dead. I definitely would have liked just a bit more clarification.

I didn’t think it was an absolutely godawful episode, but I am accustomed to tighter storylines than that. But I love any episode with an extended Abby/McGee scene.

3

I assumed she was rescued, but you’re right, the ending needed some explanation. A line of dialogue would have been enough, we didn’t have to see it happen.

I was okay with her being taken though. It’s unlikely that the copycat was going to hang around with three officers on the scene. That’s the implausible part – that the guy was there in the first place, not that she was kidnapped.

Nice creepy episode, otherwise.

4

I am not going to bother with spoilers, since that was the second time this season that episode was re-ran. I had no problem with Cassidy just showing up at the end. She says right after she stands up that he doesn’t know how to handle a woman that can fight. And she does know how to fight.

5

I agree fully with Lok.

The lawyer guy is accustomed to frightened college girls. Cassidy was the first victim trained in combat. He was totally outclassed. (I figure a high kick to crush the larnyx…)

6

Well, that’s your hypothesis. We don’t know. And I still think it was a mighty leap.