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RSS'NCIS': Doing The Most Good
NCIS is one of the best shows at not only creating, but creatively revealing major backstories of the principal characters. The powers that be have decided to show that going the Jack Bauer route in obtaining information, especially when innocents are involved, is never the right thing to do. For Dr. Donald Mallard, it's a chance to finally put his tortured soul at ease.
The Spoilers never knew Washington D.C. didn't have a J Street...
A wife and her sailor husband exit a building, eager for when they can be together again. The wife walks away, but before Petty Officer Kevin Lim can depart, out of nowhere comes a clearly upset ex-girlfriend. He mumbles "Cheryl" mere seconds before she stabs the guy in the chest. She runs off, leaving the sailor to collapse onto the cold streets of DC.
McGee gets a package from home, giving DiNozzo and Ziva the urge to peek inside. Their efforts are thwarted when he excitedly returns. Turns out it's his first computer from when he was 11. Gibbs organizes a round-up to the crime scene. During the interview, the wife knows it was Cheryl who stabbed her man. Meanwhile, Ducky and Jimmy are going ten rounds over the young assistant getting lost on the way. The good doctor seems a wee punchy, especially in Jimmy's observation skills department. While this is going down, the gang spread out and find Cheryl in short order. Jimmy is going over how the sailor died when a Persian looking woman goes after Ducky. She shouts phrases in her native tongue while jamming the knife toward him as much as possible. Ziva gives chase, but the woman is gone, only finding the green hijab she left behind. Ducky's not looking too good, but I can't imagine you would either if you had a steak knife protruding through your right hand.
Abby arrives at the hospital in time for a rather clinical rundown of the wounds by Jimmy. Abby is channeling her inner calm for a change. Ducky is being transferred, high on morphine, wanting Jimmy find a substitute medical examiner. Gibbs gives Abby the knife to analyze. At NCIS, DiNozzo is watching cell phone footage of Ducky's attack. After McGee cleans up the video, Ziva is able to deduce the attacker is likely Afghani.
Jimmy's talking to the dead sailor when Dr. Hampton arrives in her substitute role. For whatever reason, Jimmy downplays Ducky's injury to her, except she otherwise seems preoccupied. In the lab, Abby says the chef knife, which she once hawked many years and many careers ago, has many prints and will take a little bit of time to completely analyze.
DiNozzo passes on the translation of the stabber to Gibbs, who promptly takes it to Ducky for an explanation. He fills-in some backstory on his life in the service. It seems the woman was shouting "Bringer of Death" and "You killed my brother." In his own charming way, Ducky admits as much.
The gang has identified the stabber, a Mosuma Daoub who works at a flower shop near where the stabbing occurred. Gibbs wants the husband in for questioning and specifically has McGee retrieve Ducky's personnel file for him. Once in NCIS, her husband has worried for her safety to the extent he's forgetting to send his kids to school with lunches. A quick scan at phone records show she only made one phone call: a call to the Afghani embassy. Recovering at home, Ducky gives a quick history lesson of Afghanistan to Dr. Hampton while Gibbs reviews his file. All he wanted to do in his service was help as many as possible.
Gibbs is waiting by the Washington Memorial when who should show up but the one, the only... Trent Kort! Just in case you weren't already clued in, they don't like each other and have no qualms in restating the obvious. Gibbs wants info on Ducky and his association with the refugee camp. On the other side of DC, DiNozzo and Ziva meet with the Afghani ambassador. Mosuma is being kept in the embassy for protection against Ducky and what we eventually learn is that the good doctor is going to be charged with violating Article 4 of the Geneva Convention: the article pertaining to protection of civilian persons.
Ziva says Duck's not a war criminal, and they're almost certain the stabbing wasn't a revenge thing. Trent goes to Gibbs' basement to deliver the files on Ducky, but includes a bonus package on Vance as well. Once Trent is gone, Gibbs puts the Vance file away and digs into Ducky's, immediately inspecting the included film. After pouring through the files, he visits Ducky's... absolutely sure Dr. Mallard is not on his way to The Hague. He starts the projector, asking Ducky to provide the play-by-play. The first guy being tortured isn't Mosuma's brother, even though Ducky did later deal with that guy. Gibbs wants to focus more on the interrogator himself, and it's here Ducky reveals the guy could literally feel no pain, which made him so effective. The second guy on the film is brother Javid. It's at this point Ducky becomes for more introverted, explaining his only role was to patch up the prisoners after their torture sessions.
DiNozzo finds Mosuma was a normal, calm person until she became aware of Ducky. Gibbs has McGee analyze the interrogator on the film when Dr. Hampton calls, unable to locate Ducky. Naturally, his conscience gets the better of him and he surrenders himself at the embassy. The Afghans want Ducky to stand trial while Gibbs wants Mosuma arrested for the attack.
Abby works her magic using facial recognition software with a screen capture from the film. The gang finally put a name to the disfigured face: Marcin Jerek. Gibbs sets up Ducky and Marcin for a one-on-one at the embassy. Along with Mosuma, they watch through two-way glass. It's quite the back and forth... Marcin certain he did the right thing; his inability to feel pain his greatest asset. Ducky admits overdosing Javid to end the suffering. As it turned out, Marcin indeed wanted nothing more from Javid except to entertain himself. Mosuma cannot watch anymore, knowing who the real killer really is. Ducky is released from Afghani custody, emerging to see Mosuma leaving. He may be free to go, but his soul is still tortured.
Back at NCIS, Jimmy wants to know what kind of man Ducky is, but before Dr. Hampton can explain, the Duck returns. He tells Jimmy to take the rest of the day off, smell a rose or two. If nothing else, Dr. Mallard has inspired me to do the same. We end with a shot of Ducky breaking down into a mess of emotions.
The next all new NCIS is in two weeks... we'll see you then!
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what I am curious abut is the thread with the old computers of McGee, why would they spend screen time on them if not for a setup of something else
This was a great episode. I actually cried at the end with Ducky. What a horrific thing that was to be involved in and be forced to make those life-altering decisions. Good episode. I didn't even watch America Idol last night because NCIS and The Mentalist were on. :)
Love this show and the characters, but seriously, I can't believe an 8 year old girl could recognize Ducky 30 years later with just one look, and be convinced without any showdow of a doubt, that this was the man who killed her brother.
What I am interested in is the envolope given to him by Kort that had Vance written on it that Gibbs put in a drawer, I always suspected something fishy with him and keep waiting for his story to unfold
Kathy, when something that traumatic happens to an 8 year old, it's something that is maybe burned into your brain. Either that or you stuff it so you won't think about it. But possibly it is somthing you never forget. She could have seen his name somewhere and followed him... one never knows
It isn't as though the brother was killed in front of his eight-year-old sister. He died in a foreign doctor's care after being tortured.
The connection seems awfully vague. Surely she should ***ume he died as the result of torture since I doubt Ducky announced that he had administered a deliberate overdose. This seems like blaming the paramedics who attend the scene of an automobile accident.
I love David McCallum (Ducky), but was disappointed in this show. The story line really didn't make sense. As pointed out before, how did the 8 year old girl know Dr. Mallard administered a overdose? Wouldn't she much more likely to remember the man who tortured her brother, especially since he had only one eye. How did she even know what happened, as it was all in secret. Perhaps more will come from it later (the Vance folder, of course) but not a good show. As far as McGee having his old computers sent to his office, want was that about? Wouldn't he have them sent to his home? Odd. Dr. Hampton acted odd through out the story as well. Strange show.
Showing my Trekker geeky self here...the one-eyed man who was the camp torturer was also the warden in charge of the Rura Penthe penal colony on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He must not act much, because those are the only two things I've ever seen him in. He's scary.
When I was eight, I watched a man choke his teenage son nearly to death across the street from me. To this day, I could describe every second of it, including what the father was wearing (white T-shirt, black denim shorts, white tube socks, dirty white tennis shoes) and what he looked like. Trauma does indeed burn details into your memory, but your memory can also fool you. This is why I believe the woman who stabbed Ducky thought he was the one who had killed her brother. She saw something, and while it was likely just as vivid as the day it happened, time p***ing has a way of tricking you...including thinking somebody else committed the act. Kids don't always understand everything they see, and so their young minds tend to fill in the blanks, often with incorrect information (how many kids, upon hearing the song "Bad Moon Rising" thought the last line of the chorus was, "There's a bathroom on the right."?).
In reverse, I'm sure Ducky's memories of that time are just as vivid, but with different details burned into his mind. He probably either never saw the little girl who became the woman who attacked him, or if he did see her, she was not important to the events he witnessed/experienced, and so he blocked her out of his memory.
I agree that the episode was a little messy (the whole computer thing with McGee was yet another needless doofus moment for a character that should be long past that portrayal by now), but I thought they handled the overall subject matter very well. David McCallum is understated as an actor, but when he has the chance to shine, he does.
By the way, details presented in this show are supposed to have more importance in later episodes (such as the packet of information with Vance's name on it). NCIS often does this, so fear not...I'm sure all will be explained. But for the love of all that is holy, can the writers show McGee as a grown-up already? Sheesh.
Kara Mel Apples - Old Mr. Pain was portrayed by William Morgan Sheppard, who has had a long acting career in the UK and USA. He's a wonderful character actor. Check out his CV: www.imdb.com/name/nm0792003/.
And you're right about McGee's characterization: he needs to get a pair between his legs and get a life already. Geeky and 32 is plain sick.
Good, I didn't miss a scene in which they explained how the woman knew Ducky and would recognize him after all these years. It didn't even seem like Ducky's job there would give him many opportunities to come into contact with the citizens so I was a bit confused.
Chuck (above poster), I ***ume McGee had the package sent to work because he's not home to sign for it.