worst nightmare? not so much.

[emeraldsong]

Not a whole lot to say about last night's episode, except that it was old-school, awesome NCIS.  :-)  
 

• This was definitely a Dead Petty Officer episode.  Well, OK, it was a Child in Peril episode.  Those count as old-school too.
• Team banter!  Yes please.
• Headslap!  Gibbs sneaking up behind Tony!  ::happy dances::
• Competent!Tony is still here!  I am savoring every bit of Tony screentime that doesn't make me squirm in embarrassment.  Hopefully there will continue to be lots of it.
• "If that was intended to hurt my feelings, you have succeeded."  Awwwww.  ::pets the Tony::
• Poor jealous Jimmy!  I'm so glad we're going to see more of him this season.  The "writing on the wall" bit made me giggle.
• Abby and the bells!  That is SUCH an Abby move.  And after Chip, can you blame her?
• Gibbs is mellowing, and I think I like it.  I love seeing him smile in the new opening credits.  I can't remember which episode it was last season, but there was a point when he said to Ducky "I'm a happy guy," and he sounded like he meant it.  
• Zach saw the interns as beginning to usher in a new era.  Even if we never see them again, they represent Gibbs having "raised his first hatchling" (yes, he said that!) in Tony.  There's not really any more Gibbs can teach Tony about the job; it's time for him to nurture some new blood.  Well, Gibbs-style, anyway...I don't think that particular definition of "nurture" is in the dictionary.
• I'm trying to figure out what happened to kick-ass!Ziva. Mason took her down SO quickly...unless that was meant to show us just how uber Mason himself is?
• I'm still trying to warm up to McGee.  I like him, don't get me wrong, but he still has that smugness that drives me nuts.  It doesn't seem to be as strong in this episode, though, so maybe they're scaling it back a bit.  And the moment with him and Tony - "You get it now?  It's fun, isn't it."  Loved that.  :-)  

It wasn't an OMG AMAZING episode, nor did it need to be.  Having Very Special Episodes every week dilutes their impact, as I think we've seen.  This was just good, regular old NCIS.

Plus, Fornell is back next week!!!  Love him so much.

We also got to watch the Criminal Minds season premiere, which was extremely awesome.  It made my skin crawl.  I think the only other bad guy that's creeped me out as much as Billy Flynn was Foyette, and for different reasons.  Foyette was pure evil; Flynn was pure...well, creepy is the best word I can think of.

And go, JJ!  I am going to miss her so much.  She's not my favorite character, but she brings a balance to the team that I think is necessary.  We'll see how it works without her.