(no subject)
GUYS. YOU GUYS. WAS THIS NOT
THE BEST EPISODE
EVER?
EVEREVEREVER?
IT WAS!
THERE WAS SO MUCH TEXT. AND SUBTEXT. AND TEXT!
I LOVED IT
A LOT.
I LOVED IT
LIKE GIBBS LOVES TONY.
LIKE TONY'S FATHER LOVES TONY.
LIKE TONY LOVES HIS FATHER.
LIKE TONY LOVES GIBBS!!!!
(LIKE ABBY LOVES MCGEE. DID YOU SEE THAT?
THEY LOVE EACH OTHER A LOT. AND I BET DINOZZO SR. TRIED
TO LOOK UP HER SKIRT AND MCGEE WAS ALL, "UM, NO."
OR MAYBE NOT. ID ON'T KNOW. I'M AL IITLE DRUNK ON SQUEE.)
YOU GUYS THEY WERE EATING STEAK TOGETHER ON THE COUCH AND THEN
THEY WERE DRINKING BEER AND TON MOVED THE PILLOW
AND AND AND
THEY CLINKED BOTTLES
YOU GUYS THEY CLINKED BOTTLES
AND I MADE NOISES OUT LOUD
I AM STILL MAKING NOISES OUT LOUD
IT WAS AWESOME.
I'M VERY SORRY FOR YELLING. I WILL TURN MY CAPSLOCK OFF SOON.
SOON.
BUT NOT TODAY.
MAYBE TOMORROW. WE SHALL SEE.
ETA, the morning after: While my, uh, squee-thingy up there does sum up how I felt while watching it (insert your own squealing and flappy hands at each line break for full effect), it doesn't quite capture the complexity of the episode. There were a lot of layers, and it's going to take me a few days to process them all.
My favorite part (perhaps because it was so unexpected) was the idea of Tony-as-conman. Shortly after we met Sr, I was taken aback by how like Tony he was, particularly in the interrogation room scene with Gibbs. It was a little freaky, actually, because his mannerisms and the look in his eye reminded me almost exactly of how Tony looks when he's trying to get himself out of some mess while undercover. Even after that, though, I wasn't expecting the conman reveal, and I honestly haven't managed to wrap my head around what it means for Tony that he out-conned the conman. How much of that is nature and how much is nurture?
I was reminded of the Gus Bricker ep, actually, where Tony is so gleeful about going undercover and he gets so into it. And while I do still think that maybe there's an element there of unconscious happiness at being able to show things undercover that he'd otherwise have to keep hidden, I also think much more of his happiness in that situation was glee at being able to run a con. He really likes being someone else for a while, and he made the whole thing seem fun and exciting. All these years, Tony must have thought he was the black sheep of the family because of these larcenous feelings (lol, Robert Wagner) that he must have thought were a great embarrassment to his family, but really he is exactly like his father! So much angst! Please excuse me while I have another ~squeeplosion!~. ♥ ♥ ♥
Sr's magic power is not being a business man, but rather conning people. He failed at the first and fell back on the second and scraped by that way. So Tony's magic power, too, is conning people, except he uses his powers for good instead of evil. His life seems much better than his father's, though, and not because he's a cop and therefore on the side of all that is Good and Right. It's because Tony has someone he can trust and on whom he can rely. Tony's father seemed completely alone; was that what led him to seek out Tony? Maybe he wanted someone to talk to, and realized there was no one at all except the son he loved but with whom he had no contact.
I wonder how Tony would have turned out if his mother were still alive. She sounds a little freaky (in the crazylady way, not the sexyfun way), but would she have been a stabilizing influence, or just one more alcoholic in the house? I wonder if they lost their money after she died, either because she was the source of the money or because Sr was buried in his grief. I wonder if he even loved her, or if their marriage was one big play for money, too. Was Sr's disappointment in Tony's career choice because he wanted his son to come in and save the family business?
It's very easy to dismiss the B plot in an episode like this, but I really liked that as well. I'm curious about what happened with the family -- did the father find a new appreciation for the son he almost lost, even though said son was an obnoxious twat; or, despite what he said, did he side with the son who tried to murder his own brother because there are some behaviors that are just too much for a parent to take? (I'm, uh, very happy that my own parents do not ascribe to this philosophy! *ahem*) What does this mean for Tony and his father and for Gibbs and the child he lost? So many questions, so few answers!
I loved that, at the end, Tony tried to hide what he did from even Gibbs. He really is a little clone of his father; he understands him and he helped him keep up the pretense and OMG the tears in his eyes as he really saw his father for the first time. ♥ ♥ But he didn't try to hide what he did too hard, because deep down he seems to have recovered some of the faith in Gibbs that he once lost. I could write pages on this... maybe that will be my next post.
Also! (This is the end, I promise.) (For now.) Tony finally heard his father say, "I love you," when he no longer needed to hear it, just like he heard Gibbs say he was proud of Tony after he stopped needing that approval. OMG. *smishes them*
I have many many many more thoughts, both serious (Gibbs and Sr; GIBBS AND TONY!! The plague, you guys, the plague!) and shallow (Ducky's hair looked very nice in the interrogation room scene), but I really have to get ready for work. I love Tony's father, though. He's like a living, breathing AU. Also, trust fund! Yay, trust fund!