NCIS – This one shouldn’t have been a one-parter, let alone two

Just when you get all excited for something fun and fanciful to happen, NCIS has to go and ruin everything by turning a potential gold mine of background information into some stupid attempted murder mystery where the killer lacks good motivation for his actions.

The flashback to Leon’s first mission wasn’t the most interesting thing ever — he went from probie to director in only 18 years? — but the potential for development in Leon’s story was enormous. What was his real history with Eli David (Michael Nouri), and in what way did Leon’s entire career trajectory stem from the assignment in Amsterdam?

Then there was the obvious history between Ducky and Former NCIS Special Agent Whitney Sharp (Catherine Dent) … it was mean of the writers to tease us with that tidbit without exploring further. Everyone who traces back to the origins of NCIS share some interesting stories, and I for one wouldn’t mind an episode or two (or more) dedicated to unraveling the most interesting.

I loved how McGee was handling Vance’s assembled VIPs … Former NCIS Special Agent Riley McCallister (Michael O’Neill) snapping at McGee was perfect. But I felt as if we were robbed of any meaningful McCallister/Gibbs interactions. People love Franks (Muse Watson), but I think Michael O’Neill could deliver that relationship a lot better than Watson does.

Unfortunately that’s not to be, especially after Vance stabbed McCallister with the knife that Gibbs left him. But was that really all there was to it? Riley figured Vance was expendable, and he wanted the military to refocus on the Soviet Union instead of the Middle East? That sounds like an old, terrible Cold War novel that should never have been written but was 1,000 times.

Two episodes worth of a season, built up with grand plots, mysteries, back stories, and intrigue, all to have a great guest star tell us that no one would have missed Vance so he was a perfect sacrifice on the alter of the DOD’s budget? Not only that, but had McCallister simply moved on with his life instead of coming back for Leon, he would likely have walked away a free man. Vance said that no one wanted to discover that the dirt was on the inside of the agency, so there’s a chance that Riley would have been afforded the opportunity to flee and never return. To bad for him he didn’t think of that.

The only lingering moment for me in the entire episode was the flashback to when a young Gibbs, Vance, and McCallister all crossed paths — again, hard to believe that was supposedly all of 12 years ago. Anyway, we know that Gibbs was being sent to Paris to kill the Russian, but what we don’t know is the significance, if any, of Gibbs and Vance’s interaction. “I’ll remember” was a pretty innocuous (and dumb) thing for them both to say. Granted it tied into what was said earlier about Vance, but who cares when there’s no point? “I’ll remember that you squashed my breakfast!” Okay … does that mean that in six weeks Vance’ll buy Gibbs breakfast as compensation?

The flashbacks left us nowhere. If they’re being used as springboards for something yet to come, I’m in. Otherwise, they were nothing but a great big tease.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 24, 2010 @ 13:30 EST5EDT