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'NCIS': Alphabet Soup For The Soul
Never one to rest on laurels, the NCIS team tackles gruesome tortures, closeted skeletons, and in DiNozzo’s case, a yearning for a certain Mossad Liaison. Toss in one of my favorites from Hill Street Blues and you have one quality FBI crossover episode.
These Spoilers use words like honor, code, loyalty.
A woman returning from a morning jog arrives home to find her Honda has a flat. She goes next door to get the neighbor’s help, but when he doesn’t answer the door, she heads out back to the garage… only to find the guy hanging, tied up and bloody.
Ziva abruptly ends her flight reserving, Hebrew-filled phone call, much to the delight of DiNozzo. Before she can really give him the razzing he deserves, Gibbs tells the gang to pack a sack lunch as they’re off to investigate the dead Marine. We come to find Lance Corporal Rob Brewer bled to death just days before he was to begin his third tour of duty in Iraq.
In the lab, Abby’s quite fascinated with mold found on the rope to the point that she has to catch her breath before she tells Gibbs that fingerprints from the toolbox match a Sergeant Jack Kale, our dead Marine’s former squad leader. The good sergeant had to retire because of a blood disorder and the subsequent bad reaction to medication for it. After my bad reaction to a certain pain medication last week, it’s surprising that I haven’t been forced to retire yet.
The gang hasn’t been able to find much on Sergeant Kale until McGee gets a hit on medical records. Kale is on an experimental drug, Mepolizumab, which conveniently is shipped directly to the patients by the manufacturer. Gibbs and DiNozzo head over to the address in question. After they bust in, it turns out the FBI is already there, led by one Senior Agent Tobias C. Fornell. They’re protecting Kane as he is a witness for the prosecution in a big deal trial. Gibbs fixes Kane a sandwich and asks how his fingerprints got on Brewer’s toolbox. It’s Kane’s toolbox, and he’s not sure why Brewer is dead or why his tools were used.
The gang attempt to investigate the case Fornell is working, and Moby Dick references aside, determine a Rick Azari is the big case Kane is a witness for. Seems Kane was the only witness to Boss Azari’s murder of a drug dealer. The kids will have to work fast; Kale gets Witness Protection upon the conclusion of the trial, meaning if he did it, he gets away scot free.
Meanwhile, Ducky’s examination of the dead Marine shows Brewer was systematically tortured… maximum pain but not death. I think Ducky knows a wee bit more about torture than I’d like to think about. I’m pretty sure Palmer would agree.
Special Agent Fornell arrives at NCIS to confront Gibbs. Just one month prior, two Marines saw Kale arguing with Brewer about a third Marine, Private First Class Michael Strauss. Gibbs apparently has done his homework on Azari and his apparent connections to Fornell.
DiNozzo can’t help but to show up McGee by “proving” that good old-fashioned detective work can beat out the razzmatazz of computers any day. Kale called his mother every Sunday for four years, but when he went into protective custody, the FBI gave him a clean cell phone to use. Once they find the new number, everyone (except Gibbs) is surprised to see it on the move to Strauss’ house.
Gibbs and Fornell arrive to the Strauss residence to find Kale just leaving… out the window. Once they catch up to him, he claims not to have “done it.” By done it, he means killing Strauss in the exact same manner Brewer was. Ducky discovers Strauss was very recently killed, but not soon enough to be killed by Kale.
Later, Gibbs just happens to meet up with Rick Azari himself. The slick, suave crime boss taunts Gibbs to the point of becoming a stereotype of a stereotype.
DiNozzo just can’t stand that Ziva won’t dish on her activities while separated from the gang. He snoops around her desk for clues about her planned trip to Tel Aviv, but to no avail. Frustrated, he even tries to pawn off his assignment to McGee with no suck luck. He does however, finally, unearth one clue… a picture of a mystery man on a boat. DiNozzo takes it to Abby for analysis, but she’s determined the rope in both cases is from the same moldy source. DiNozzo instead turns her attention to more information of Azari, including where phosphor from shoes came from.
Gibbs is interrogating Kale, wondering why he left the safe house. The violent argument was over Strauss’s use of drugs. Kale tried to keep a lid on it, but when he retired, it became Brewer’s job… much to his disliking. The Marine then tells of what he witnessed in the Azari case: a tale of what turns out to be too-good-to-be-true vision of a mob hit from 60 feet away, in the dark no less.
The story is this: Kale claims he saw Strauss attempt to score coke with a trailing Brewer trying to stop the deal from going down. Instead, Kale fabricated the story to save the two from a court-martial and preventing them from redeploying overseas. Fornell is beside himself, seeing a most golden opportunity to nail Azari go out the window.
Just as quickly as Kale is put back into protective custody, he busts loose and makes a beeline for the courthouse. Gibbs and Fornell arrive just as Abby confirms the rope mold is from Azari’s Virginia Beach house. Once Azari arrives, Kale appears out of hiding with a gun pointed straight at the mob boss. Azari does nothing but taunt Kale to shoot him. After much hesitation, Kale actually pulls the trigger… three times. Fornell laments that Azari got off easy; Gibbs laments that he couldn’t save Kale from doing the wrong thing.
Gibbs and Fornell make peace in the end as they head in to debrief the director. Something tells me this isn’t the last we’ll see of Joe Spano.
Next time on NCIS, it a Halloween event with Abby in the crosshairs!
Yes they share an ex-wife, but did Fornell have to bring it up once an act? Do you think Abby needs to dial up or down the geek? What will become of DiNozzo and Ziva?
'm ready to see Ziva and Tony hook up but where do you go from there? Maybe keeping the tension between them is a good thing. I definately think Abby needs to tone down the geek. I dont know how this show hooked me but I do enjoy it.
Brooks | Oct 22, 2008 4:59:02 AM | #No, Brooks: Ziva and Tony should never hook up. I rather they develop personal lives outside the office because it's actually more fun when they compete on that level. It was great when Tony was dating that doctor a season or two ago, driving Zeva into the green jealous zone not because she wasn't with Tony but because it's not her who is committed in a relationship.
Samuel | Oct 22, 2008 5:24:01 AM | #ZIVA IS SO HOT....LAST YEAR ZIVA IN A BIKINI !....THIS YEAR DANCING IN A SEEDY CLUB ! MORE ZIVA PLEASE !
WHOLETRUTHY | Oct 22, 2008 8:26:20 AM | #I'm lost. Why was it necessary to torture the witnesses?
BonnieW | Oct 22, 2008 8:53:23 AM | #Should they cancel NCIS what part of NO do you not UNDERSTAND!!!!
Mark | Oct 22, 2008 9:35:03 AM | #I have watched NCIS since the beginning and its the best show on T.V. right now. And remeber Fornell didn't know who Gibbs was in the beginning they just wrote that in the show later in the season.
Jimmy | Oct 22, 2008 10:11:10 AM | #I liked Abby's fascination with the mold. I am so curious about why Ziva needs to go back to Isreal. Tony and Ziva were very funny together last night. I also liked when Tony tried to pawn his job off to McGee. Fornell has never really interested me and the case couldn't really keep my attention, but the team interaction was great as always.
Penny | Oct 22, 2008 11:22:20 AM | #Fornell is a good foil for Gibbs, but I'm glad he's not all the time. His smirk makes me want to punch him. :)
Nice job on the recap, Brandon. Much better than last week's.
I keep wondering if the folks on the show have either not met many Marines or (in the case of Bellisario, who was one) have forgotten what they were like. Two Marines captured without putting up much of a fight, apparently? I know they're still human and all, but sheesh. You'd think their training would keep them from being taken so easily.
BonnieW: it wasn't necessary, they just did it to get information. Supposedly mafia types do that. Not that I've ever met any, you understand. :)
And Mark---what are you smoking? Was there an invisible friend of yours that wrote a post that the rest of us can't read? Or are you just a doofus? Nobody said NCIS was getting canceled so back away from the keyboard, muchacho. :P
Anyway, good episode, MUCH better recap and I'm really looking forward to the Halloween episode next week!
Kara Mel Apples | Oct 22, 2008 12:16:21 PM | #I couldn't figure out why torture was involved, either. Thought I must have gotten distracted and missed something - not an episode that held my interest. Seemed like it was an excuse to show nasty stuff (very PG-rated torture, as torture goes, but still too gross for 8pm viewing).
I have no desire to see Ziva and Tony romantically linked. You'd think that her English would be perfect by now, given all the languages she speaks. Can't say that I find her mistakes particularly funny, wish they'd drop it.
Maureen | Oct 22, 2008 12:52:36 PM | #Joe Spano played a different
FBI char in his first appearance on the show. He didn't appear as Fornell until the second season.
I like the byplay between Gibbs and Fornell but I agree they shouldn't overuse the Fornell char.
Good recap!
I assumed the witnesses were tortured to find out how much they'd seen/what they knew/who they'd talked to before being killed so they couldn't testify.
I love the Gibbs-Fornell dynamic. He's a good character to have show up a few times each season and gives NCIS an opportunity to interact with other agencies in a meaningful (to the viewer) way.
No one quoted the "Why are you showing me mold porn?" line? Come on! I <3 Abby and McGee.
I like the interplay between Tony and Ziva right now. I'm not sure whether they're really interested in each other romantically or if, as one commenter suggested, they're competing and that's where the jealousy arises. I definitely don't want to see them rushing into something... in fact, I think it would be more entertaining to watch this build up over the season, culminating in their realization of what's going on between them, and then followed by an awkward period as they try to not act on that interest before anything really happens. :) Draw it out!!
Chelsea | Oct 23, 2008 4:12:24 AM | #Ok, correction. I checked the
episode guide and he is listed as Fornell in "Yankee White".
But there is no connection
between Gibbs and Fornell in
that they don't seem to know each other. And Fornell does appear in a later episode that
year.
No! No! No! No! Do not put Tony and Ziva together! The show does not need it.
Trupen | Oct 23, 2008 12:02:42 PM | #Why do the writters feel the need to bring romanace into all the crime drama shows...we can watch daytime TV if we want to watch soap operas. This is my favourite show right now...used to be CSI until they hooked Grissom and Sarah up - ugh!
HH | Nov 12, 2008 4:31:50 PM | #
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