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RSS'NCIS': Nuthin' But A "V" Thang
"NCIS" Director Leon Vance has been vastly underused this season, so the producers decided to advance his storyline quite a bit. He also has the one rule I would like to implement someday: keep the home life and work life separate. It might just keep me from looking like Taylor Hicks by the time I reach his age.
The Spoilers missed the gang... they even watched Fat Albert earlier in the day to reintroduce the concept of the gang.
I think the writers are feeling a little cramped in DC, as this episode opens in Chicago to a call girl readying to entertain a client. The real gentleman is tranquilized right outside her door, so imagine her surprise when Leon Vance is already in her room. With Ducky and Jimmy hard at work on the autopsy of the man of interest, Vance and Gibbs do a little one-on-one videoconference; the director passes responsibility of the woman (Tara) to Gibbs and the gang while he investigates the murder of Tyler Owens, a former Marine. Let's just say the mood was tense at best.
Back in the Windy City, Vance and his team begin questioning everyone boxing around them. Ziva notices the missing dumbbells while the director becomes chummy with his former mentor, Ike. It seems a Mr. Joe Banks wasn't very appreciative of Tyler, so he most definitely had the motive to take him out. The brilliant idea from Vance is to take Tara to DC, so Banks has no choice but to pursue the matter on foreign turf. Kids, that's what we call the rope-a-dope. Speaking of Tara, she uses her excellent powers of deduction to determine DiNozzo is hiding a pain only true love can cure.
If I knew sign language, I could then tell you exactly what Abby and Gibbs were saying. Long story short: five slugs were found while the body was weighed down with the missing dumbbells. Also, Ducky does the dramatic reveal that Tyler wasn't really a Marine!
Tara offers to help DiNozzo in the love department, but Ziva effectively kills that moment. In her time questioning Tara, Ziva shows off her beau. Tara suggests our favorite Mossad agent look for love a little closer to home. Meanwhile, Vance multitasks: first, he learns from Ducky that Tyler went down fighting. His Spidey sense tells him Gibbs was recently there, so his next stop is the lab where Abby and Jimmy aren't so great in masking the Old Spice and sawdust. No prints can be had from the dumbbells, but random bird feathers were found instead. Vance then makes his way to Tara, who has figured out his master plan to lure Joe Banks to DC. Those two have quite the history, it seems.
Casa de Vance, where Papa returns home with gifts for the children: mints for her and boxing gloves for him. Even Leon received a "gift" in the form of a Leroy Jethro Gibbs house call. They exchange pleasantries about how not to use the position to advance personal agendas. It seems Vance is about to get medieval on him... until Mrs. Vance asks the hubby to remove the toothpick and invite his guest to dinner. The family Vance first met at a University of Maryland basketball days (Go Terps!) during the Len Bias days.
The next day, Joe Banks finally arrives in DC. Vance's evil plan worked! Once in an interrogation room, the two talk a big game, yet each man is mostly puffing out his own chest. The big piece of news here is that Banks and Tara are married, which sends Vance into a tizzy. It doesn't help when Tara is less than supportive of him in his time of need. Good news is that he begins piece together clues from his visit to the boxing hall... most notably; the kid he was mentoring took a jacket belonging to Tyler. Abby confirms the feathers came from said jacket. He calls Ike to hunt down the kid named Spit, except he's already dead by the dumbbell rack. I guess you become a high-risk target when you go around the 'hood bragging you killed a boxing legend.
We end with Vance eulogizing Tyler in the ring, Tara sending DiNozzo on his way to finding true love by opening himself up more often, all while Gibbs intently stares at Vance's CIA file, debating whether or not to open the Pandora's Box of the military world. He doesn't open it... yet.
On the next all-new NCIS, the gang battles their biggest foes yet: kids!
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What a waste of an NCIS episode!
Director Vance = Yawn
Director Vance backstory = Yawn
Director Vance's upbringing on the mean streets and in the boxing clubs of Chicago = Yawn
(Did they pursue this storyline because his name is Rocky?)
Hell, even a hooker with a heart of gold and mob boss couldn't ****e up this story.
I guess the big mystery we're left with is OMG, what's with the detached retina on the dead guy and Vance's wife thinking HE'S the one with a detached retina! Is Vance really Tyler Owens or vice versa? Dun-dunnn!!!
Please, NCIS folks, let's not have another Director storyline. The whole Jenny/Frog thing was just annoying and boring and went on for far too long.
Stick with the gang. They're what makes the show.
Okay, end of rant. =)
The last comment (quisquilian) is so right. Vance is the most boring character this show has introduced. They shouldn't give him dialog--let alone an entire ep. And he's a lousy actor.
Yes - what we are left to wonder is who the director really is and WHO has the detached retina.
You'd think that you'd bother to mention that when recapping the show Brendan ?
And I was confused by the whole hooker thing. She's married to this guy who appears to have some money, but she's a hooker ?
Sort of a non-episode, really...
NCIS is known for case-closed episodes, not open-ended WTF? ..
How could a career military man or legendary boxer fake the other man's identity? And at what point could they have switched without people noticing?
Somehow got the impression that Call Girl Tara was Vance's sister (?). And why, exactly, is a reformed mobster comfortable with his wife continuing to go on 'dates'?
This whole episode seemed off -- as if written by interns practicing fan-fic.
this episode might set a record for the most black people in a CBS show since 'good times' or 'jeffersons'
Yeah, I have to agree with the others, Brandon, why didn't you mention the big plot point about the detached retina and possible switched identities? Did you change the channel before it got to that? And I got the impression that Tyler wasn't dead, at least not yet, because Gibbs asked Vance, "How is he?" and Vance said, "It doesn't look good." I liked seeing Vance and his family at home, though. It looks like he has a nice family and I think it helped the Gibbs/Vance relationship. I liked the episode.
I couldn't wait until Jenny was out of the program. Terrible mis-casting and her successor is worse!
Let's get a director who is stree smart and has NCIS recent expeerience. I really would vote for Gibbs' mentor and first boss who's retired down in Mexico. I LIKE HIM!
Leon Vance is a terrible character and the only reason he has been underused is that the writers painted themselves in the corner with him from the start in broad-stroked, limited dimensional qualities. It's not the actor; this is blamed on the producers. Vance should have been Gibbs' foil - and he is not.
I like Vance as well as any director, and liked seeing his family. But the story was very poor. It sure didn't make sense. Why would the Chicago police turn the case over to NCIS anyway? Why drag everything back to Washington? Why is a wife of a wealthy ex- gang boss still turning tricks? Is Tony so upset by his bedroom problems that he can't function on the job anymore? Just another bad episode, there have been a lot of those this season.
That was one of the lamest non-reviews I've read. Did you watch the show while doing your chores?
The guy knocked out in front of the hotel room door was Tara's bodyguard. That's why his back was to the door. We're left to ***ume that Tara's servicing a client but what if she thought she was meeting her husband for a romantic rondez-vous?
Gibbs on the other hand was being left out of the investigation until he butted his way in. DiNozzo was asked to take care of Tara not "Gibbs and his team".
The big deal for me was the fact that Vance and the dead guy apparently switched places at some point in their life for who knows what reason and it's not even mentioned in the review!?
Please try better next time.