About NCIS 8x17 - "One Last Score"
ETA: Yes, I know exactly why they are doing this. I also know exactly what will probably come out of it. Does that knowledge make any of this go down any easier? Fuck, no.
The few good things~
The whole shower dialogue with Ziva and McGee was totally amusing. *Loved* how his single eyebrow went up when she pressed her nose into his chest.
The kid retelling the smoochies? Okay, I laughed out loud at that.
"He'd be terrible at customer service." Yup, that's Gibbs. :D
Duckman & the Psycho scene was made of awesome. The gremlin avoiding spoilers? Yup, even more win.
"You knocked?" Okay, that was so deadpan of Vance that I had to pause and gasp for air while cackling. Definitely my biggest laugh of the season so far.
"EJ - LJ. She's new. He's old." If by the time that line happened I hadn't already been as irritated as Ziva by the newcomer, it may have even amused me. The thing I liked about the first two sequences with EJ was actually watching Ziva's hackles rise every time EJ opened her mouth. Her spider sense is tingling big time, and yeah, there's something up. And heck, yes, it felt good to finally see a jealous Ziva, too, when all we got so far was jealous Tony, again and again. (I have to admit, the scene when she slapped him hard with the inventory list to snap his attention back to her? Yeah, very satisfying IMO.) Liked how the scene continued down to the lab, how they were bickering. Yeah, Ziva was totally overreacting, but I *am* pretty sure she'll have a good reason for that besides the jealousy. (see last part for speculation details)
Tony admitting to the team he had been offered and Ziva saying "I never heard you say that." For some reason, this was a nice touch. She didn't go blabbering around after McGee spilled the beans on that one a couple of eps back.
Ziva getting excited about Faulkner's desk! ♥ I adore this woman. And I adore the scene after that even more, when Tony starts rambling about how he prefers the movies, and Ziva, who has just totally talked herself into excitement, drops her hand and stares at him like he's a lunatic. That looks so utterly cartoony it made my geek heart swell. ♥
Tony and McGee circling in autopsy. Also, "Grand Theft Otto"? Hee! ♥
The big pile of horse shit not so good things~
Okay, the kids in the beginning - kinda cute, even though the tweets from Jesse Stern about it being almost line by line like his first kiss (minus the body) spoiled a bit of the fun for me, sigh. Add the fact that the guy is even using the line Jesse has in his Twitter profile... yeah, that. Blatant self-insertion always made my skin crawl. And not in the good way.
"What about you, David? When do you feel like showering?" - "After just about every conversation with you, Tony." Yeah, that line was a slap to the face, and not just to Tony's. It wasn't necessary, and it didn't work for me at all. And you know what I hate about it the most? That for the first time she sounded like Kate would have. And that stinks, big time.
The desk delivery by Ziva? Hm. It's evidence, yet no gloves. Also, "Careful!" and yet she banged it into the wall just before? Not sure what this was all about.
Uhm, how do they know again about Leona's secret, one-of-a-kind bookkeeping binder...?
The car chase scene? Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's an hommage. It was still boring. *sigh*
And Jesus fucking Christ, that shower scene? CREEPY MUCH, TONY??? I mean, hellooo, you're showing up while there's a female co-worker whom you've "met", like, five times max is TAKING A GODDAMN SHOWER. How in the world is that not bordering on sexual harrassment and creepy as hell, no matter how many "signals" you might have gotten from her??? (In between the huffing and anger, let me insert that I had time to notice a continuity error - the scene starts out with the occupied shower to Tony's right side, the next cut has EJ to the left of him. Scratch that, I overlooked that the first shot is in the mirror.)
And yeah, this pile of no good shit has me up the wall because where the fuck was that coming from? If they'd done that one or two more EJ eps down the road, maybe. But like this, after looking at her maybe five times?
How the heck is *that* supposed to "revive Tony's spirit" and "bring back the old Tony"? Whoopee, he's scoring again, finally. Gee, that's really a big accomplishment with a self-proclaimed slut. (Just for the record, this is in no way a double standard. Tony is as much of a slut. We just like him better, for the most part, so we cringe, but we let it slide.)
Yeah, I have big problems with EJ, mostly because I have, in general, big problems with people barging in on an existing chemistry and not working out. (Oh, shut up already, anti-Ziva people. Six years and soaring ratings have pretty much shown she works out just fine.)
Additionally, I have a hinky feeling about all of this, much like Gibbs and Ziva seem to have, but I'm pretty sure that is actually intentional. Yes, of course she is there to shake up the team, we get it. She is also just hired for four episodes and has already a pilot for a new series scheduled for fall, so she's in this season and that's it.
Does this mean this whole shebang was *less* of a slap to the face? No. I felt just as annoyed as back when I had to watch Gibbs make a move on M Allison.
Does this mean I feel less insulted that Tony has shoved Rule #12 in Ziva's face time and again as a lame excuse, but now that pretty MSue EJ with the dramatic bullet scars says, "Hey, it's okay!", he throws that overboard and screws a co-worker like it's no big deal at all? No. I felt just as annoyed as back when I had to watch Tony fall for a reporter he has never met.
It's still a slap to the face, and it still feels out of character, and yes, it may all be in the bigger sense of drama and great big things to come, but even I feel tired of the jerking of my chain. Guess what, TPTB - even the most exciting game of push and pull gets boring after a few years. BECAUSE IT'S NOT FUCKING GOING ANYWHERE.
And finally, the thing that almost pains me to say, because I was seriously hoping I wouldn't have to: I think MW is not exactly a bad director. But he also isn't exactly a good one. (And yes, I do realize painfully that I'm in a very, very small minority here.)
See, I have the same problems with this episode that I have with Quentin Tarantino's "efforts" - contrary to the rest of the known world, I think that man is highly overrated as a director. Because piling up references and "hommages" to stuff you found fascinating as a youth? Does not make a good movie. Just like a collection of a gazillion quotes and playful lines and "hommages" does not make for a good and captivating NCIS episode.
So, yeah, the "Raiders" warehouse had me chuckle, geek that I am. But after the fifth or so quote or movie reference? I got boring. Really, really boring.
And yeah, I already went into this kinda wary because I knew that, basically, this would give us how MW views his character currently. And based on various interviews and, for instance, the fact that he loved the Tony in "Obsession", I was already bracing myself for a Tony I would not like very much. And yeah, it's almost like we got the same kind of narrow-minded, too-tightly focused Tony we had in "Obsession". And it's really not a Tony I like.
The foreshadowing & weird symbolism~
Cutbacks for the Government, huh. Possible team shortenings and layoffs. I'll point to my previous theory now that either Tony or Ziva will receive a job offer from Ray.
When they walk in with the stutterer, Ziva walks kinda funny, and if you look closely, you see that she's actually sticking reaaaally close to that yellow line directional thingie on the floor. She, literally, walks the line, and in that scene, it seems strangely intentional.
Now, as a non-native speaker I wasn't completely sure about the connotations of that phrase, so I looked up what urbandictionary.com had to say to it, and I have to admit, it makes me curious:
1. To maintain a fragile balance between one extreme and another. i.e.: good and evil, sanity and insanity, decency and decadence, etc.
2. To behave; to abide by the the law and/or to abide by moral standards; to walk a straight path of decency by following the rules; to "walk the straight and narrow."
Tony during the stakeout going on about the man going to work each day, punching the clock, same in, same out - are we going back to "A Man Walks Into A Bar" here, with him thinking about the future?
EJ and the chair in interrogation - can be taken either of two ways. Go take your pick, I can't decide which one to go for yet:
a) She is brought in to uncover things that should have been obvious before, but weren't noticed in all the years.
b) She comes in and seizes whatever is available to make herself comfortable.
EJ, the former cheerleader. Meet Tony, the former team captain. Geez, cliché much? (I'm not too familiar with these American "rituals", only by pop trivia - isn't there this unspoken rule that the team captain always goes out with the cheerleader?)
The file Vance closes when Gibbs walks in - Metro PD file, interesting. EJ sure is there for a reason, yeah, yeah. (Can you tell by now I'm already tired of this?) Too bad even the high res screenshot doesn't reveal anything legible so far.
The whole shower thing coming up again and again - starting with the bullpen talk about showers, about hitting the showers once the work is done, then ending with *gag* shagging in the shower. Possible connotations of things clinging, of getting rid of work or the smell of it, who knows what they were actually going for there. There sure was a reason for that, but so far my mind refuses to wrap around it properly.
Hitting things fixes them. So, hm. This is actually the only thing that I am willing to interpret in a T/Z foreshadowy way. Because not too long ago I stated the fact that these two are so stuck in their own routines and anxieties by now that they will need an outside influence to kickstart things for them and to trigger things. So yeah, they basically need a hit, a headslap, a trigger. And most likely this whole fiasco was part of the trigger happening right in front of us.
One of Jesse Stern's live tweets from last night seems to go that way, too:
Hey, at least he is acknowledging there is something to come between. (Yeah, I know. Baby steps and silver lining and all that jazz...)
The way this could still work out sort of okay~
Most of this goes into theorizing land, based on what already happened and the few spoilers we have so far.
So, in a way, EJ is the same kind of charmer and nosy parker Tony is. She's definitely a player. She likes the boys, and she takes what she wants. And yeah, yeah, I get it, all uncomplicated and therefore, intriguing.
Do I think this will be a serious thing? No, mostly because I don't think EJ sees it as something serious. Does this make me accept it a little more smoothly? Fuck, no. Especially after MW's interview in which he proclaimed EJ "real" and Ziva was slummed in with the ones that are... well, not.
One reason I think they brought her in is that, in a way, Tony needs this - he needs one of his infatuations to end on his own terms. Jeanne? Pretty much screwed that up from the very beginning. The reporter? She died before he could get over it.
This is the first time he "falls" for someone and she's sticking around and is willing and accessible... and yeah, maybe she'll stick around just long enough for him to realize that the quick infatuation is not what he needs and that it doesn't lead him to what he wants. Just this one time, he needs to end this shit, on his own terms, not have it ended by fate. He needs to learn this is not for him.
By now I am pretty sure that they want to build up to the season finale by having people at a doubt if Ziva will return - with Cote's contract being up and no word about a renewal yet, with the team cutting in the series, with Tony concerned about his future and Ziva being shoved into situations where she's forced to think about hers, pondering "something permanent"... yeah. Pretty sure they'll make her snap over Tony screwing EJ (sorry, I can't bring myself to call this "dating") and then they'll have her (threaten to) run off with Ray.
Sounds dramatic and angsty, all right. Does it sound interesting? Not one second. Because there's a point where all things are overdone, and I'm really, really tired of this. And I'm pretty sure that's not just me.
The other thing I picked up repeatedly was the shift in dynamics between Vance and Gibbs. I think there's a reason for that episode when Vance told him to do the paperwork and Gibbs refused to do it. I also think there's a reason they had these stand-offish scenes this time. And I still think SecNav is hot on Vance's ass.
So, what could happen that would rile a lot of people up? Hm. What if somehow Gibbs is forced to actually take over Vance's job for good? (SecNav is a bastard with a mean sense of humor, so it's not that far-fetched.) What if EJ is there to actually take over Team Gibbs, instead of leaving that to Tony? (Keep in mind that she already is team leader, he has declined the promotion.) Or, maybe, they end up competing for Gibbs's job and that, in the end, brings out Tony, the professional? Because he maybe still wants this team and isn't willing to share?
I had a few more theories about the whole EJ thing, but I'm afraid I lost them in the rage. Sorry about that. Will post them if they come back to me.
Now, please link me some good stories for brain bleach. Thanks. *pulls out the vodka*
The few good things~
The whole shower dialogue with Ziva and McGee was totally amusing. *Loved* how his single eyebrow went up when she pressed her nose into his chest.
The kid retelling the smoochies? Okay, I laughed out loud at that.
"He'd be terrible at customer service." Yup, that's Gibbs. :D
Duckman & the Psycho scene was made of awesome. The gremlin avoiding spoilers? Yup, even more win.
"You knocked?" Okay, that was so deadpan of Vance that I had to pause and gasp for air while cackling. Definitely my biggest laugh of the season so far.
"EJ - LJ. She's new. He's old." If by the time that line happened I hadn't already been as irritated as Ziva by the newcomer, it may have even amused me. The thing I liked about the first two sequences with EJ was actually watching Ziva's hackles rise every time EJ opened her mouth. Her spider sense is tingling big time, and yeah, there's something up. And heck, yes, it felt good to finally see a jealous Ziva, too, when all we got so far was jealous Tony, again and again. (I have to admit, the scene when she slapped him hard with the inventory list to snap his attention back to her? Yeah, very satisfying IMO.) Liked how the scene continued down to the lab, how they were bickering. Yeah, Ziva was totally overreacting, but I *am* pretty sure she'll have a good reason for that besides the jealousy. (see last part for speculation details)
Tony admitting to the team he had been offered and Ziva saying "I never heard you say that." For some reason, this was a nice touch. She didn't go blabbering around after McGee spilled the beans on that one a couple of eps back.
Ziva getting excited about Faulkner's desk! ♥ I adore this woman. And I adore the scene after that even more, when Tony starts rambling about how he prefers the movies, and Ziva, who has just totally talked herself into excitement, drops her hand and stares at him like he's a lunatic. That looks so utterly cartoony it made my geek heart swell. ♥
Tony and McGee circling in autopsy. Also, "Grand Theft Otto"? Hee! ♥
The big pile of horse shit not so good things~
Okay, the kids in the beginning - kinda cute, even though the tweets from Jesse Stern about it being almost line by line like his first kiss (minus the body) spoiled a bit of the fun for me, sigh. Add the fact that the guy is even using the line Jesse has in his Twitter profile... yeah, that. Blatant self-insertion always made my skin crawl. And not in the good way.
"What about you, David? When do you feel like showering?" - "After just about every conversation with you, Tony." Yeah, that line was a slap to the face, and not just to Tony's. It wasn't necessary, and it didn't work for me at all. And you know what I hate about it the most? That for the first time she sounded like Kate would have. And that stinks, big time.
The desk delivery by Ziva? Hm. It's evidence, yet no gloves. Also, "Careful!" and yet she banged it into the wall just before? Not sure what this was all about.
Uhm, how do they know again about Leona's secret, one-of-a-kind bookkeeping binder...?
The car chase scene? Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's an hommage. It was still boring. *sigh*
And Jesus fucking Christ, that shower scene? CREEPY MUCH, TONY??? I mean, hellooo, you're showing up while there's a female co-worker whom you've "met", like, five times max is TAKING A GODDAMN SHOWER. How in the world is that not bordering on sexual harrassment and creepy as hell, no matter how many "signals" you might have gotten from her??? (In between the huffing and anger, let me insert that I had time to notice a continuity error - the scene starts out with the occupied shower to Tony's right side, the next cut has EJ to the left of him. Scratch that, I overlooked that the first shot is in the mirror.)
And yeah, this pile of no good shit has me up the wall because where the fuck was that coming from? If they'd done that one or two more EJ eps down the road, maybe. But like this, after looking at her maybe five times?
How the heck is *that* supposed to "revive Tony's spirit" and "bring back the old Tony"? Whoopee, he's scoring again, finally. Gee, that's really a big accomplishment with a self-proclaimed slut. (Just for the record, this is in no way a double standard. Tony is as much of a slut. We just like him better, for the most part, so we cringe, but we let it slide.)
Yeah, I have big problems with EJ, mostly because I have, in general, big problems with people barging in on an existing chemistry and not working out. (Oh, shut up already, anti-Ziva people. Six years and soaring ratings have pretty much shown she works out just fine.)
Additionally, I have a hinky feeling about all of this, much like Gibbs and Ziva seem to have, but I'm pretty sure that is actually intentional. Yes, of course she is there to shake up the team, we get it. She is also just hired for four episodes and has already a pilot for a new series scheduled for fall, so she's in this season and that's it.
Does this mean this whole shebang was *less* of a slap to the face? No. I felt just as annoyed as back when I had to watch Gibbs make a move on M Allison.
Does this mean I feel less insulted that Tony has shoved Rule #12 in Ziva's face time and again as a lame excuse, but now that pretty MSue EJ with the dramatic bullet scars says, "Hey, it's okay!", he throws that overboard and screws a co-worker like it's no big deal at all? No. I felt just as annoyed as back when I had to watch Tony fall for a reporter he has never met.
It's still a slap to the face, and it still feels out of character, and yes, it may all be in the bigger sense of drama and great big things to come, but even I feel tired of the jerking of my chain. Guess what, TPTB - even the most exciting game of push and pull gets boring after a few years. BECAUSE IT'S NOT FUCKING GOING ANYWHERE.
And finally, the thing that almost pains me to say, because I was seriously hoping I wouldn't have to: I think MW is not exactly a bad director. But he also isn't exactly a good one. (And yes, I do realize painfully that I'm in a very, very small minority here.)
See, I have the same problems with this episode that I have with Quentin Tarantino's "efforts" - contrary to the rest of the known world, I think that man is highly overrated as a director. Because piling up references and "hommages" to stuff you found fascinating as a youth? Does not make a good movie. Just like a collection of a gazillion quotes and playful lines and "hommages" does not make for a good and captivating NCIS episode.
So, yeah, the "Raiders" warehouse had me chuckle, geek that I am. But after the fifth or so quote or movie reference? I got boring. Really, really boring.
And yeah, I already went into this kinda wary because I knew that, basically, this would give us how MW views his character currently. And based on various interviews and, for instance, the fact that he loved the Tony in "Obsession", I was already bracing myself for a Tony I would not like very much. And yeah, it's almost like we got the same kind of narrow-minded, too-tightly focused Tony we had in "Obsession". And it's really not a Tony I like.
The foreshadowing & weird symbolism~
Cutbacks for the Government, huh. Possible team shortenings and layoffs. I'll point to my previous theory now that either Tony or Ziva will receive a job offer from Ray.
When they walk in with the stutterer, Ziva walks kinda funny, and if you look closely, you see that she's actually sticking reaaaally close to that yellow line directional thingie on the floor. She, literally, walks the line, and in that scene, it seems strangely intentional.
Now, as a non-native speaker I wasn't completely sure about the connotations of that phrase, so I looked up what urbandictionary.com had to say to it, and I have to admit, it makes me curious:
1. To maintain a fragile balance between one extreme and another. i.e.: good and evil, sanity and insanity, decency and decadence, etc.
2. To behave; to abide by the the law and/or to abide by moral standards; to walk a straight path of decency by following the rules; to "walk the straight and narrow."
Tony during the stakeout going on about the man going to work each day, punching the clock, same in, same out - are we going back to "A Man Walks Into A Bar" here, with him thinking about the future?
EJ and the chair in interrogation - can be taken either of two ways. Go take your pick, I can't decide which one to go for yet:
a) She is brought in to uncover things that should have been obvious before, but weren't noticed in all the years.
b) She comes in and seizes whatever is available to make herself comfortable.
EJ, the former cheerleader. Meet Tony, the former team captain. Geez, cliché much? (I'm not too familiar with these American "rituals", only by pop trivia - isn't there this unspoken rule that the team captain always goes out with the cheerleader?)
The file Vance closes when Gibbs walks in - Metro PD file, interesting. EJ sure is there for a reason, yeah, yeah. (Can you tell by now I'm already tired of this?) Too bad even the high res screenshot doesn't reveal anything legible so far.
The whole shower thing coming up again and again - starting with the bullpen talk about showers, about hitting the showers once the work is done, then ending with *gag* shagging in the shower. Possible connotations of things clinging, of getting rid of work or the smell of it, who knows what they were actually going for there. There sure was a reason for that, but so far my mind refuses to wrap around it properly.
Hitting things fixes them. So, hm. This is actually the only thing that I am willing to interpret in a T/Z foreshadowy way. Because not too long ago I stated the fact that these two are so stuck in their own routines and anxieties by now that they will need an outside influence to kickstart things for them and to trigger things. So yeah, they basically need a hit, a headslap, a trigger. And most likely this whole fiasco was part of the trigger happening right in front of us.
One of Jesse Stern's live tweets from last night seems to go that way, too:
Hey, at least he is acknowledging there is something to come between. (Yeah, I know. Baby steps and silver lining and all that jazz...)
The way this could still work out sort of okay~
Most of this goes into theorizing land, based on what already happened and the few spoilers we have so far.
So, in a way, EJ is the same kind of charmer and nosy parker Tony is. She's definitely a player. She likes the boys, and she takes what she wants. And yeah, yeah, I get it, all uncomplicated and therefore, intriguing.
Do I think this will be a serious thing? No, mostly because I don't think EJ sees it as something serious. Does this make me accept it a little more smoothly? Fuck, no. Especially after MW's interview in which he proclaimed EJ "real" and Ziva was slummed in with the ones that are... well, not.
One reason I think they brought her in is that, in a way, Tony needs this - he needs one of his infatuations to end on his own terms. Jeanne? Pretty much screwed that up from the very beginning. The reporter? She died before he could get over it.
This is the first time he "falls" for someone and she's sticking around and is willing and accessible... and yeah, maybe she'll stick around just long enough for him to realize that the quick infatuation is not what he needs and that it doesn't lead him to what he wants. Just this one time, he needs to end this shit, on his own terms, not have it ended by fate. He needs to learn this is not for him.
By now I am pretty sure that they want to build up to the season finale by having people at a doubt if Ziva will return - with Cote's contract being up and no word about a renewal yet, with the team cutting in the series, with Tony concerned about his future and Ziva being shoved into situations where she's forced to think about hers, pondering "something permanent"... yeah. Pretty sure they'll make her snap over Tony screwing EJ (sorry, I can't bring myself to call this "dating") and then they'll have her (threaten to) run off with Ray.
Sounds dramatic and angsty, all right. Does it sound interesting? Not one second. Because there's a point where all things are overdone, and I'm really, really tired of this. And I'm pretty sure that's not just me.
The other thing I picked up repeatedly was the shift in dynamics between Vance and Gibbs. I think there's a reason for that episode when Vance told him to do the paperwork and Gibbs refused to do it. I also think there's a reason they had these stand-offish scenes this time. And I still think SecNav is hot on Vance's ass.
So, what could happen that would rile a lot of people up? Hm. What if somehow Gibbs is forced to actually take over Vance's job for good? (SecNav is a bastard with a mean sense of humor, so it's not that far-fetched.) What if EJ is there to actually take over Team Gibbs, instead of leaving that to Tony? (Keep in mind that she already is team leader, he has declined the promotion.) Or, maybe, they end up competing for Gibbs's job and that, in the end, brings out Tony, the professional? Because he maybe still wants this team and isn't willing to share?
I had a few more theories about the whole EJ thing, but I'm afraid I lost them in the rage. Sorry about that. Will post them if they come back to me.
Now, please link me some good stories for brain bleach. Thanks. *pulls out the vodka*