The Season 6 premiere of NCIS was only slightly above average. They randomly threw characters in, took characters out, and had a convoluted plot. However, the occasional humourous scenes salvaged it from a total write-off.
<Overview from tv.com>
After Director Shepard’s death, Vance has split the team up. Gibbs and his new team are investigating the murder of a high-ranking petty officer who was selling classified information to someone in NCIS. The officer tried to reveal his source to Vance but he was killed before he was able to. Vance has split up the team so that they could all gather intelligence on finding out who the mole is within NCIS.
In the meantime, McGee is running his own computer intelligence team in the sub-basement, Ziva is working undercover in Morocco, and Tony is working in the USS Seahawk. There are three suspects that Vance wants investigated and they are all assigned to Gibbs’ team. They consist of Lee, Langer and Keating. As part of the investigation, Palmer confesses that Lee suspiciously logged into the strategic office, where the murdered petty officer worked, but Lee has a legitimate alibi. Gibbs finds a stolen security clearance badge in Keating’s backpack when he questions him. The badge belonged to the petty officer.
During the interrogation of Keating, Lee goes with Langer to see what computer archives the card accesses. While they are there, Langer pulls out his gun. Cut-scene to Gibbs getting a call from Lee telling him that Langer is the mole as shots are heard. Shortly after, Gibbs, Vance, and McGee arrive to find Lee on the ground, shaking uncontrollably and holding her gun. Langer is dead, shot by Lee.
In the end, Ziva is recalled and McGee is re-assigned back to Gibbs’s team. Happy scene.
As Lee is in the elevator getting ready to leave, she receives a text message that reads, “Do they suspect?” Lee staged the whole thing; she is the mole. A flashback shows her shooting the petty officer through a pillow, taking the security badge and planting it in Keating’s pocket. We also see her shoot Langer in cold-blood and then shooting the glass with his gun to make it look like he shot at her. In the elevator, she responds to the text with a simple “no.”
Alright, this is where I shine.
- Who the heck were those three in Gibbs’ B-Team? We know Lee, I have the sneaking suspicion that I’ve seen Langer before, but who was Keating? Ronan Keating? I wish. Though they did do a good job of making us wish for the A-Team back.
- If the Director had such fears of the three being a spy, why would he put them together with Gibbs? Is he Internal Affairs now? I know he’s good and all, but usually a spy would be something for a department, or at least a team, to handle. Not one guy, not even Gibbs.
- And it would be a good idea for Vance to tell Gibbs first, eh?
- And again, if Vance was so worried, he should have put the three under constant surveillance. That would have caught Lee in the murder and avoided all this mess.
- How on earth did the men who planted the bomb in Morocco manage to get out of the club without getting injured? The bomb apparently went off almost immediately after they exited, and was powerful enough to cause near-structural collapse. They must have been moving at the speed of light or be made of steel or something.
- We are suspicious of the three agents, yet when we turn our backs to interview one, the others run off? Isn’t there an entire building full of agents who could monitor the bullpen for half an hour?
- I know this may have occurred to others in pervious seasons, but how come the entire NCIS department of Washington only has one ME (and one assistant) and one lab rat? Don’t they have enough money? No wonder taxes are so high.
The mystery wasn’t really a mystery at all, though it had an interesting premise: B- . The conclusion did have an interesting twist (Lawyers are actually spies!), and brought Ziva and McGee back to the team. B+. However, overall, the dearth of characters nearly killed it, and the whole thing seemed convoluted. B.
Quote of the episode: “Tell Agent Gibbs that he can send the B-Team in now!” – Donald “Ducky” Mallard
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The Suspension of Disbelief 