About NCIS 8x24 "Pyramid"
So this one started out okay and then meandered steadily into WTF territory...
(slightly disjointed, I hope you'll forgive me)
The 'Yup, that worked' part~
I think it's very interesting that Tony's first reflex is to run out and look for EJ, but when Gibbs calls him back and tells him to stay put, he does it without thinking twice. He doesn't even look after Gibbs once, he concentrates completely on Cade. Would the same almost rational scene have happened if Ziva had been taken at this point? Hell, no. No way. (Side note: Good for EJ that Gibbs had a hunch and went outside instead of searching the building, huh?)
Also interesting that (in stark contrast to last week's episode and Ziva's quite unexpected meltdown) the moment EJ becomes vulnerable and loses it for the first time, she pushes Tony away - quite physically, slapping his hand away when he tries to touch her in the women's shower.
Ziva, on the other hand, keeps being open to Tony, keeps showing her emotions - her simple "I'm worried" when she can't contact Ray is so much more than she has given him in six years. She's finally letting him into her head and her heart. And he keeps reassuring her, tells her "We'll find him".
For some reason McGee's "I'm not a dream" to Abby made me go awwwwww. Loved the whole exchange between them. Loved unnerved and tired and vulnerable Abby. Loved McGee trying to be sensible. That little head tilt where he just lays it all out, and the way she hugs him when she gets it. Seriously, I was never really into that pairing, but this scene made me melt. <3
"You know I have a limited attention span." I did mention that I'm actually a sucker for Kort, right? <3
"We're all worried about Ziva." (Like hell you are, blondie.) "I know. It's just different for some of us." And yeah, that's it, exactly. He's more worried than the rest. He wants her back. He can't lose her. He's almost losing his shit because Ziva is missing, in stark contrast to how he was when Cobb took EJ. And gee, look at her face, her little curious frown - she gets it. She suddenly gets that there is more going on than she thought at first.
Love Vance's modifications of his office, hee.
I like that EJ gets benched eventually. Even Uncle SecNav lost patience with her incompetence, goody.
Love Palmer's flinchey reaction when encountering Cobb. And I lovelovelove that Palmer's engaged to Breena! <3 And the silent interaction later between Palmer and Gibbs, oh my! Just perfect! <3
I adore Ziva's "We'll find her" when EJ is missing, mirroring Tony's earlier words.
"Very sorry to see you go, of course." - "Yeah, right." *snorts* For some reason I actually adore McGee and Cade together. I think these two could work together nicely. ;)
The funeral scene made me cry hard. I kinda had a hunch about the ornaments Gibbs had been working on, but seeing them on the coffin, man, that killed me. (Side note: I wonder why Ziva wasn't at the funeral.)
The 'WTF where you thinking?!' part~
"Find him, warn him, tell him to protect his ass!" Uhm, Gibbs? You do realize that you have Ray's cell phone number? That you could at least try to just, like, call him...?
Okay, so WHY the flying fuck do they suddenly all go out of their way to tell EJ that it wasn't her fault, that she's a good agent, that she could have done nothing to... blah bla... IN WHAT REALITY IS THAT TRUE???
It WAS her fault, for disobeying a direct order and not staying put until backup had arrived. It WAS her fault to not stay with her wounded agents and protect them but go hunt the serial killer instead. It WAS her fault for staring at a stupid toy instead of being cautious when she knew the killer's MO all too well. I'm sorry, Mr. Glasberg, but you're trying to dish me a load of crap here. Me no likey.
"Cobb's doing this because he has to." I need to check the timeline again, but when again was that project? How long did it take until Cobb started killing? They are mixing up two completely different interpretations here - one is the poor programmed soldier who is just re-living his training and trying to cope with his trauma through killing, the other is the methodical, organized mastermind seeking revenge. Too bad they could never decide what kind of killer they wanted to make him.
I also doubt that a true serial killer would change his MO this drastically in such a short amount of time. "Heyyy! I got your attention, now let the mindless slaughter begin!"
I have severe problems with EJ and the microchip implant. It doesn't really surprise me that she isn't one of the good guys (and there clearly is some hidden agenda involved here because she went straight for the thing and wasn't the least bit surprised to find it), but this seemed like the same sort of hints-dropping GG already did in the season premiere, throwing in a bunch of references that are not connected to the immediate storyline, but will come in handy later. And yeah, I love storytelling that builds up and up, but this is just getting a bit too much here.
Okay, so I sort of get that Ziva tells EJ she's going to see her boyfriend to make that woman back off. What I don't get is the smile when she's in front of his hotel room. What I don't get is the "We need to talk" after she's been avoiding just that for weeks. What I don't get is that she'd prefer something inside the box, and when exactly did they get back together again so he was even in a position to make promises? Sorry, but this was the kind of sloppy storytelling I don't care much about.
Speaking of sloppy storytelling... was it ever explained how Cobb got all that highly sensitive information he constantly used in his favor? "'Classified' never stopped Cobb before." THAT is supposed to explain it all? Uhm, no, sir. Viewer with a brain is not satisfied with that...
Cobb itself as a character? Lame. Yeah, yeah, they threw in some markers to explain what he did, but in the end, most of it just didn't make sense. For instance, the whole Samson story. Maybe I'm just being dense today, but I don't get the point - neither in the original story Cobb recalls (what kind of lesson WAS that anyway?) nor in why he chooses this analogy for the missing Ziva.
How exactly did Cobb know Ray's phone number, and even more importantly - why? How did he manage to snatch Kort before the final showdown? Why was he so damn lucid during that showdown? He seemed rather trying to follow his own reasoning for doing things a certain way, not like someone trapped in trauma and conditioned behavior.
And the actual showdown felt just as lame, IMO. That guy has three guns trained on him, he desperately wants to hurt the SecNav, and he still opts for firing blindly instead of taking EJ out and causing at least some pain?
"Come back anytime, Special Agent Barrett." Uhm, no. Please don't. I don't want to lose any more agents, thank you very much. (In other words: Why is everyone suddenly bending over backwards to pamper her spoiled, incompetent ass???)
The whole Ray/Ziva/box scene made me gag, to be honest. He gives her a promise? A promise of what, actually? That they would talk? Right, that's why he lies to her barely two lines after he said it! Best groundwork for a relationship based on trust, right...
The last scene... okay, color me confused, but wasn't the P2P storyline supposed to propel them into next season? How is that supposed to work if it gets wrapped up neatly? How is that supposed to work if the things that are going to happen in the next season are hinted at in a scene that is, so far, completely disconnected from the serial killer plot?
Where do we go from here?~
So, they sort of left both Tony's and Ziva's tries at relationshipping out in the open, with an option to make a reappearance next season - and I frankly don't care too much for either of them. I'm tired of plot elements.
That said, both of these things seemed more terminated than hopeful to me. With Tony and EJ, the way he assumes she'll leave for Rota again, doesn't seem too bothered by it and then thanks her the way he does, which seems like a very final way of addressing someone. Oh, of course he mentions bumping into her maybe, but seriously? No. I doubt we'll see much of her in the relationshippy way. To quote Tony, "No sense walking away from a good thing", after all. And then he WALKS AWAY FROM HER.
Ziva and Ray - well. I'm still kinda annoyed about the way they just threw him back into the mix, sort of like "Oh, she talked to me once, now I've got a real chance again and can push things!" I hate the empty box and the equally empty promise. I hate that he still plays her (and by now I don't think he's actually emotionally invested here at all, he's just doing another job). I hate that he doesn't trust her and that, to an extent, he's playing her.
Do I see her going all gooey inside and going for it and giving him one more chance? I doubt it. That last scene, with him getting the text and Ziva watching his face the whole time - she knows he just lied to her again. She *knows*. She's not going to be stupid enough to ignore that.
And then, finally, the end scene that was completely out of left field and left me not happy at all. Strictly business!Tony with the gelled hair and the shifty eyes, ready to turn all sneaky at a moment's notice. The fuck, Mr. Glasberg? What is that supposed to accomplish?!
Partly, I like the idea that Tony skips the promotion (= Rota) willingly and still jumps higher in the hierarchy. He's suddenly entrusted with Black Ops material. Whoa. Way to go, DiNozzo.
On the other hand, why? What exactly happened that the new SecNav chose *him* to be trustworthy enough for this kind of delicate procedure?!
So, different ways this mole plot *sighs* *yawns* can play out - the obvious one being that we're talking about Ziva. Which, yes, would even make sense in a certain way. Which could be implied by the text message Ray gets. Which would *seriously* piss me off, though, and would probably kill a lot of my interest in this show. Because I can't stand the thought of them carefully rebuilding my girl just to throw her in front of the bus for cheap thrills.
EJ would be a nice "suspect", too - the chip implant already showed there's something more going on with her. She's also ambitious enough to maybe do this sort of thing. Plus, Tony is sort of close to her, so she wouldn't be suspicious = reason for appointing him. (Yeah, I'd like this version better than the first one, but hey, I'm a little biased here.)
Do I think it's someone from the team? I don't know yet. Part of me thinks it's exactly the kind of shit Glasberg would pull. The bigger part hopes that he remembers his own words - that his real goal was to bring the team closer together. I don't care much for having them torn apart just when they are a family like that.
I can see Gibbs being a suspect, tbh. Not being the culprit, mind you, but after the shit with the Reynosa cartel? There are still some issues unresolved. I can see Vance, although I don't see why they had this talk with him present in the first place then.
And (as unpopular as this opinion may be) I actually wouldn't be surprised if it would turn out to be McGee. Because if anybody has the means to get to those secrets? It's him.
Now, I don't want it to be anyone from the team, trust me. And I think if it were, Tony would have reacted much more strongly. On the other hand, this sort of thing is easily explained if he were just playing along to find evidence his team mate is just being framed etc.
So where are we right now?
At a point that doesn't feel like a season finale at all. And at a point that felt way too much like any old procedural to me to be enjoyable. This wasn't really NCIS. This wasn't the show I fell in love with. There was too much stuff thrown in and too little resolved. There were plot holes the size of Alabama. There were things that didn't quite add up. And a lot of these bored me to death.
Positive points of this mess: I'm not gnawing my fingernails off over the summer. And it has actually given me the perfect hook-up to wrap up my "Blood" series and still stay in canon with it. <3 Well, at least until the new season starts. ;)
Now, can the final episode of "Chase" please turn out a little more enjoyable? Thanks.
(slightly disjointed, I hope you'll forgive me)
The 'Yup, that worked' part~
I think it's very interesting that Tony's first reflex is to run out and look for EJ, but when Gibbs calls him back and tells him to stay put, he does it without thinking twice. He doesn't even look after Gibbs once, he concentrates completely on Cade. Would the same almost rational scene have happened if Ziva had been taken at this point? Hell, no. No way. (Side note: Good for EJ that Gibbs had a hunch and went outside instead of searching the building, huh?)
Also interesting that (in stark contrast to last week's episode and Ziva's quite unexpected meltdown) the moment EJ becomes vulnerable and loses it for the first time, she pushes Tony away - quite physically, slapping his hand away when he tries to touch her in the women's shower.
Ziva, on the other hand, keeps being open to Tony, keeps showing her emotions - her simple "I'm worried" when she can't contact Ray is so much more than she has given him in six years. She's finally letting him into her head and her heart. And he keeps reassuring her, tells her "We'll find him".
For some reason McGee's "I'm not a dream" to Abby made me go awwwwww. Loved the whole exchange between them. Loved unnerved and tired and vulnerable Abby. Loved McGee trying to be sensible. That little head tilt where he just lays it all out, and the way she hugs him when she gets it. Seriously, I was never really into that pairing, but this scene made me melt. <3
"You know I have a limited attention span." I did mention that I'm actually a sucker for Kort, right? <3
"We're all worried about Ziva." (Like hell you are, blondie.) "I know. It's just different for some of us." And yeah, that's it, exactly. He's more worried than the rest. He wants her back. He can't lose her. He's almost losing his shit because Ziva is missing, in stark contrast to how he was when Cobb took EJ. And gee, look at her face, her little curious frown - she gets it. She suddenly gets that there is more going on than she thought at first.
Love Vance's modifications of his office, hee.
I like that EJ gets benched eventually. Even Uncle SecNav lost patience with her incompetence, goody.
Love Palmer's flinchey reaction when encountering Cobb. And I lovelovelove that Palmer's engaged to Breena! <3 And the silent interaction later between Palmer and Gibbs, oh my! Just perfect! <3
I adore Ziva's "We'll find her" when EJ is missing, mirroring Tony's earlier words.
"Very sorry to see you go, of course." - "Yeah, right." *snorts* For some reason I actually adore McGee and Cade together. I think these two could work together nicely. ;)
The funeral scene made me cry hard. I kinda had a hunch about the ornaments Gibbs had been working on, but seeing them on the coffin, man, that killed me. (Side note: I wonder why Ziva wasn't at the funeral.)
The 'WTF where you thinking?!' part~
"Find him, warn him, tell him to protect his ass!" Uhm, Gibbs? You do realize that you have Ray's cell phone number? That you could at least try to just, like, call him...?
Okay, so WHY the flying fuck do they suddenly all go out of their way to tell EJ that it wasn't her fault, that she's a good agent, that she could have done nothing to... blah bla... IN WHAT REALITY IS THAT TRUE???
It WAS her fault, for disobeying a direct order and not staying put until backup had arrived. It WAS her fault to not stay with her wounded agents and protect them but go hunt the serial killer instead. It WAS her fault for staring at a stupid toy instead of being cautious when she knew the killer's MO all too well. I'm sorry, Mr. Glasberg, but you're trying to dish me a load of crap here. Me no likey.
"Cobb's doing this because he has to." I need to check the timeline again, but when again was that project? How long did it take until Cobb started killing? They are mixing up two completely different interpretations here - one is the poor programmed soldier who is just re-living his training and trying to cope with his trauma through killing, the other is the methodical, organized mastermind seeking revenge. Too bad they could never decide what kind of killer they wanted to make him.
I also doubt that a true serial killer would change his MO this drastically in such a short amount of time. "Heyyy! I got your attention, now let the mindless slaughter begin!"
I have severe problems with EJ and the microchip implant. It doesn't really surprise me that she isn't one of the good guys (and there clearly is some hidden agenda involved here because she went straight for the thing and wasn't the least bit surprised to find it), but this seemed like the same sort of hints-dropping GG already did in the season premiere, throwing in a bunch of references that are not connected to the immediate storyline, but will come in handy later. And yeah, I love storytelling that builds up and up, but this is just getting a bit too much here.
Okay, so I sort of get that Ziva tells EJ she's going to see her boyfriend to make that woman back off. What I don't get is the smile when she's in front of his hotel room. What I don't get is the "We need to talk" after she's been avoiding just that for weeks. What I don't get is that she'd prefer something inside the box, and when exactly did they get back together again so he was even in a position to make promises? Sorry, but this was the kind of sloppy storytelling I don't care much about.
Speaking of sloppy storytelling... was it ever explained how Cobb got all that highly sensitive information he constantly used in his favor? "'Classified' never stopped Cobb before." THAT is supposed to explain it all? Uhm, no, sir. Viewer with a brain is not satisfied with that...
Cobb itself as a character? Lame. Yeah, yeah, they threw in some markers to explain what he did, but in the end, most of it just didn't make sense. For instance, the whole Samson story. Maybe I'm just being dense today, but I don't get the point - neither in the original story Cobb recalls (what kind of lesson WAS that anyway?) nor in why he chooses this analogy for the missing Ziva.
How exactly did Cobb know Ray's phone number, and even more importantly - why? How did he manage to snatch Kort before the final showdown? Why was he so damn lucid during that showdown? He seemed rather trying to follow his own reasoning for doing things a certain way, not like someone trapped in trauma and conditioned behavior.
And the actual showdown felt just as lame, IMO. That guy has three guns trained on him, he desperately wants to hurt the SecNav, and he still opts for firing blindly instead of taking EJ out and causing at least some pain?
"Come back anytime, Special Agent Barrett." Uhm, no. Please don't. I don't want to lose any more agents, thank you very much. (In other words: Why is everyone suddenly bending over backwards to pamper her spoiled, incompetent ass???)
The whole Ray/Ziva/box scene made me gag, to be honest. He gives her a promise? A promise of what, actually? That they would talk? Right, that's why he lies to her barely two lines after he said it! Best groundwork for a relationship based on trust, right...
The last scene... okay, color me confused, but wasn't the P2P storyline supposed to propel them into next season? How is that supposed to work if it gets wrapped up neatly? How is that supposed to work if the things that are going to happen in the next season are hinted at in a scene that is, so far, completely disconnected from the serial killer plot?
Where do we go from here?~
So, they sort of left both Tony's and Ziva's tries at relationshipping out in the open, with an option to make a reappearance next season - and I frankly don't care too much for either of them. I'm tired of plot elements.
That said, both of these things seemed more terminated than hopeful to me. With Tony and EJ, the way he assumes she'll leave for Rota again, doesn't seem too bothered by it and then thanks her the way he does, which seems like a very final way of addressing someone. Oh, of course he mentions bumping into her maybe, but seriously? No. I doubt we'll see much of her in the relationshippy way. To quote Tony, "No sense walking away from a good thing", after all. And then he WALKS AWAY FROM HER.
Ziva and Ray - well. I'm still kinda annoyed about the way they just threw him back into the mix, sort of like "Oh, she talked to me once, now I've got a real chance again and can push things!" I hate the empty box and the equally empty promise. I hate that he still plays her (and by now I don't think he's actually emotionally invested here at all, he's just doing another job). I hate that he doesn't trust her and that, to an extent, he's playing her.
Do I see her going all gooey inside and going for it and giving him one more chance? I doubt it. That last scene, with him getting the text and Ziva watching his face the whole time - she knows he just lied to her again. She *knows*. She's not going to be stupid enough to ignore that.
And then, finally, the end scene that was completely out of left field and left me not happy at all. Strictly business!Tony with the gelled hair and the shifty eyes, ready to turn all sneaky at a moment's notice. The fuck, Mr. Glasberg? What is that supposed to accomplish?!
Partly, I like the idea that Tony skips the promotion (= Rota) willingly and still jumps higher in the hierarchy. He's suddenly entrusted with Black Ops material. Whoa. Way to go, DiNozzo.
On the other hand, why? What exactly happened that the new SecNav chose *him* to be trustworthy enough for this kind of delicate procedure?!
So, different ways this mole plot *sighs* *yawns* can play out - the obvious one being that we're talking about Ziva. Which, yes, would even make sense in a certain way. Which could be implied by the text message Ray gets. Which would *seriously* piss me off, though, and would probably kill a lot of my interest in this show. Because I can't stand the thought of them carefully rebuilding my girl just to throw her in front of the bus for cheap thrills.
EJ would be a nice "suspect", too - the chip implant already showed there's something more going on with her. She's also ambitious enough to maybe do this sort of thing. Plus, Tony is sort of close to her, so she wouldn't be suspicious = reason for appointing him. (Yeah, I'd like this version better than the first one, but hey, I'm a little biased here.)
Do I think it's someone from the team? I don't know yet. Part of me thinks it's exactly the kind of shit Glasberg would pull. The bigger part hopes that he remembers his own words - that his real goal was to bring the team closer together. I don't care much for having them torn apart just when they are a family like that.
I can see Gibbs being a suspect, tbh. Not being the culprit, mind you, but after the shit with the Reynosa cartel? There are still some issues unresolved. I can see Vance, although I don't see why they had this talk with him present in the first place then.
And (as unpopular as this opinion may be) I actually wouldn't be surprised if it would turn out to be McGee. Because if anybody has the means to get to those secrets? It's him.
Now, I don't want it to be anyone from the team, trust me. And I think if it were, Tony would have reacted much more strongly. On the other hand, this sort of thing is easily explained if he were just playing along to find evidence his team mate is just being framed etc.
So where are we right now?
At a point that doesn't feel like a season finale at all. And at a point that felt way too much like any old procedural to me to be enjoyable. This wasn't really NCIS. This wasn't the show I fell in love with. There was too much stuff thrown in and too little resolved. There were plot holes the size of Alabama. There were things that didn't quite add up. And a lot of these bored me to death.
Positive points of this mess: I'm not gnawing my fingernails off over the summer. And it has actually given me the perfect hook-up to wrap up my "Blood" series and still stay in canon with it. <3 Well, at least until the new season starts. ;)
Now, can the final episode of "Chase" please turn out a little more enjoyable? Thanks.