I don’t know what I first liked about the idea so much, but a part of me has been passively (as in not really thinking about it again until tonight) hoping that Ducky was still dating McGee’s grandmother, Penelope Langston (Lily Tomlin). It was probably due to the potential for an increasingly uncomfortable McGee being taunted by the rest of the team (read: Tony) … which, you have to admit, is a pretty decent reason in and of itself.
So I was mildly disappointed when we learned that, while Ducky has been seeing a woman regularly, it wasn’t Penelope. But okay, since we were being given the opportunity to actually meet her and see the two of them together — and she even met Gibbs! — I was willing to let go of the Penelope thing. In the first place Ducky stories are great, and him with a lady friend is all the more awesome. Bring it on!
Which, I suppose, made me even more ill-prepared for the twist that was ultimately awaiting us: Ducky’s girlfriend Mary Courtney (Cheryl Ladd) turned out to be the killer! Why? Because weeks back Ducky had complained about how unlikely it would be for him to see something new at work. What’s a loving girlfriend to do? Why, bring your amore something he’s never seen before! In this case, that was a murder victim literally drowning in his own skin. Super!
Was it a fun twist? Not really, and for two reasons. One, could she really have hidden the super crazy not only from Ducky but also from all the people she worked with in and around the mental health profession? And two, did Ducky really land a girlfriend again after all this time only to have her go nuts and be institutionalized? Can’t the guy catch a break in love?
And I sort of felt as if the case was only partially worked through before Gibbs caught a whiff of Mary and the team went running. Had his instinct been wrong, they’d have been practically nowhere with the case. That was kind of unusual for an episode of NCIS. Weird.
Some of the fun stuff:
Bad case, but solid character episode. The show’s often a mixed bag … so I’ll take it.
As soon as I saw Cheryl Ladd, I was sure she was the killer. I didn’t think they would add her as a regular to the cast of the show.
It annoyed me that they turned what might have been a very nice storyline for Ducky into just another psycho-killer-of-the-week thing.
I also wish Palmer would stand up to Gibbs just a bit. It’s tiresome to see him always wilt and slink away whenever he gets The Look.
*POST AUTHOR*
I wonder if there’s an idea in place to grow the Gibbs/Palmer interactions into something. Either Palmer finally going off on him, or an episode where we see Gibbs’ true feelings for Jimmy, as we’ve seen between Gibbs and everyone else over the years.
Wasn’t there an episode a few seasons back that already did that? Where Jimmy knew who the murderer was and stopped the guy with the car, or something along those lines?
*POST AUTHOR*
There’s definitely something that sounds vaguely familiar about that.. I had Palmer’s wedding in mind more than a case, but I do think we’ve seen other sides to their relationship … just not lately. :)