About NCIS 10x20 - "Chasing Ghosts"
I'm late, yes. But I did manage to finish this before the new episode, so hey. ;) It's not quite a full-blown review. I'm concentrating on three major things and some additional thinky thoughts. Rest assured, the next one will most likely kill a lot of my brain cells and provoke something a lot more lengthy. ;)
Let's start with the one thing that is so obvious I am surprised people are even trying to find a plot-related explanation for it: it was not a time jump at the end of the episode, it wasn't a flashback - the editor fucked things up, plain and simple. It didn't take Nicole Mirante-Matthews's confirmation on Twitter for me to know that. Apparently the guy in charge (or the studio) thought this plotline would be easier to digest for the average viewer if they got the case plot first and then the subplot, without intermingling them, so he/she completely disregarded wardrobe and emotional continuity and just lumped the Ziva story into one big fat scene at the end. (Btw, dear editor - you're an idiot. Kindly stop doing this kind of shit, kthnxbai.) Personally, I will always watch this episode with the intended order of things in mind - Tony discovers Ziva's shenanigans at the end of day one, they're extremely tense and dancing around each other during day two, and at the end of day two she tells Gibbs. Hell, maybe I'll make a fan-edit of it one day, just so I can watch it the right way, because the rest of the episode makes so much more sense that way.
Abby: Who knows what kind of mayhem is gonna pop up after the sun goes down?
So, if you watch the scenes in the way they were intended to be (and disregard the one voice-over line by Gibbs that was added saying that the case is closed), Abby's comment suddenly hits hard, because yeah - the discovery of Ziva's secret, that's the mayhem that's popping up later that night... Also, there's that whole underlying tension in the interaction between Tony, Ziva, and McGee on day two. And Gibbs scrutinizing Ziva the next day - again, if you edit the discovery scene into its original place, yeah, there's a fucking reason he's scrutinizing her like he does. Now that Tony shoved the boss's nose into something being up and now that the boss knows something happened or Tony would have told him, 'Naww, false alarm'- it's almost like he tries to will her to spill the beans.
As for the discovery scene itself - oh, dear god, now that was a rollercoaster par excellence! At first, when Tony uses that intimate Ziva!voice and tells her he wants to help, my poor heart melted away. And then Timmy's voice, and... jesus.
So, yes, usually Ziva is my girl and I really, really suffer whenever she does, but this time? God, Tony. That face of his, that expression! *sobs* I swear, I felt every tiny bit of hurt he felt in that single moment. That whole thing - it was just painful, plain and simple. Because I, like Tony a few episodes earlier, felt like saying, "I thought we told each other about things. The things that... matter."
Do I understand why she told McGee and not Tony? Hell, yes. Because McGee is supportive and doesn't question her and doesn't think much of hacking a bit here and a bit there (too much experience with breaking cyber law since he joined this team, really). And McGee is her friend, and he's harmless, and he's easier to control. Tony, on the other hand - well, the second he shows up, he plays the cold shower and says, are you fucking kidding me, doing this dangerous shit? Granted, I believe he handles it like this mostly out of spite and pain, but yes - he would have been the voice of reason where McGee failed to be, he would have interfered with her revenge plans, he would have tried to talk sense into her and maybe get her to lay low and back off. And the thing is - maybe he would have even succeeded. She took the easy way out and avoided a lot of temptation that Tony's presence would have meant for her... on many, many levels.
Also, there's still the fact that some part of her was most likely very well aware of the risks involved, no matter how hard she "prettified" them. And let's face it, as much as a friend McGee is - she could and would never risk Tony over this. Do I think she would have purposely sacrificed McGee to get her revenge? No, definitely not. But I do think he is the one she could actually live without. (Side note: if you think about it a little closer, Tony pretty much did the same thing when he needed his own revenge - he volunteered McGee for the mission in Somalia. In the end, in both situations, McGee consented, but the fact remains that they both put him in danger for the sake of revenge. Which is something they would never do with the respective other.)
But even despite knowing all this - this whole scene hurt like a motherfucker. To me, it was a small wonder that Tony didn't start yelling and rolling insults off his tongue, because yeah, in that scene? He was dangerous. He was this close to losing it. And god, yes, I feel him. It wasn't even so much the fact that Ziva kept this from him - it's weird to say this, but we're almost used to that from her, and I know how she rolls and that handling things this way worked better for her heart. No, the fact that makes me so insanely angry is how McGee acted during their earlier talk: when he knew all too well what was actually going on behind the scenes, he was openly mocking Tony, calling him stalkerish, telling him it was all in his mind etc. Throwing him off the trail? Fine. But mocking him for his justified concern and calling him borderline stalkerish when he was actually right? That's not buddies. That was a shitty way to act, especially when Tony trusted him like this. (It wouldn't really surprise me if Tony were to cut back on pouring his heart out to McGee now. Which, imo, would also be justified. But hey, I'm someone with bad trust issues.)
And the final thing that sparked a lot of discussion was the case file that was, quite obviously, chosen carefully to mirror Ziva's emotional state in this and the past few episodes: the woman whose husband is gone and she just wants things to happen and people to act and her husband backbackback while she doesn't have a choice but to stand aside and leave acting to others. Ziva identifying with that woman more and more during the investigation - yes, that much was glaringly obvious. And still, it surprises me that I saw not a single comment on just how far this mirroring storytelling actually went in the end.
Lt. Daniels: I was tired. I was bitching about stupid stuff. Ten seconds later none of that mattered. All that mattered was that my husband was gone. Gone.
Granted, the last time Ziva talked to her father, it was about things that were far from "stupid stuff", but yes, that scene was a heavy slap in the face because yeah, that's most likely how she must feel - that the issues she had with her father didn't matter anymore, because now he is gone, and all she wants is to get him back. And that's the scene that drives home a certain point much better than all the preaching Abbys could: he was her father, after all. No matter how big a bastard he was, no matter how often and how badly he betrayed her, there is still a part of her that does want him back.
Lt. Daniels: Your best isn't good enough. Not for me. (...) I'm sorry. I know you're all working hard, but I don't know how much more of this I can take.
And this - this may be my favorite scene of this whole analogy. The moment where Ziva tries to reach out, to comfort Callie, but the other woman doesn't let her. Because that's the moment this whole subplot was actually built for: the moment where Ziva gets a taste of how everyone else around her feels these days. They want to help, they want to comfort her, and they're really, really doing their best to get the bastard... but she fights them off and keeps them out and doesn't let them help. Not in the way they want to.
The analogy thickens during the bathroom talk with Callie, when she admits that things were really bad behind the scenes, but despite that, she still loved him. (I'm sure we can all agree that - currently - that's mostly how Ziva feels about Eli: the love she once felt for him is completely overpowering all reason and all the bad things at the moment.) And once again, Ziva tries to comfort her, maybe even tries to share her own feelings, but gets rejected before the gesture takes off completely:
Lt. Daniels: And what am I doing? Nothing. I'm just sitting here, waiting for you guys to try and get him back.
Ziva: It is hard to let others take over.
Lt. Daniels: Well, I'm not that girl, I don't let others take over, I fight for what I want.
Sounds awfully familiar, yes?
Now, up until that part most people followed the analogy beautifully. But you know what? I think this actually goes a lot further. And I think they gave us a whole bunch of hints about the finale arc in the way the rest of this story played out.
Back when "Shabbat Shalom" aired I voiced a theory towards the end of my episode discussion that maybe it wasn't a straightforward killing after all. That maybe Eli was the one who had put these things into motion himself, with Bodnar's help, possibly - to set himself up as the sacrificial lamb, whose slaughter would serve to provoke a war. Because these were the ways Eli knew best, and the ways he knew worked - ever since he sacrificed Ari's mother so his son would get the perfect background to become an inside man in Hamas. And you know what? The more stuff happens and the more I hear, the more firmly this belief settles in me. Because it makes so much sense in the greater context, and because my spider sense tingles like mad when I think about the few hints they threw us and the fact that the second-to-last ep is called "Double Blind". Why, you ask? Look at the definition: a double-blind study is "an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects of the experiment nor the persons administering the experiment know the critical aspects of the experiment; a double-blind procedure is used to guard against both experimenter bias and placebo effects." Most likely we are still in the middle of the study, and both sides don't have all the necessary information about the killing yet... and, imo, it's very, very likely that Bodnar was just part of a bigger thing and that he isn't really the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Doubtful? Unrealistic, you say? I don't know. Because this is the moment where I'm driving the point home that the case may have told us a lot more about the outcome of this season than we suspected. Let's look at the profile our autopsy boys piece together about the suspect...
Ducky: Which leads us to our suspect, Darryl Orton. State records list him as a tortured soul. Born into poverty, third of nine children to Glenda Jean Orton.
Gibbs: Put up for adoption.
Palmer: And the case workers said that he was told his whole life that he was a total waste of space.
Ducky: Which leads to feelings of worthlessness and despair. He thinks he doesn't deserve to be here. As a result, he lives a life without fear.
Palmer: Death doesn't scare this guy. Not much does.
Ducky: In other words - we fear you're headed for a violent showdown.
(...)
Gibbs: Craves a sense of belonging, wants a real family.
Palmer: The one that he has is a total dysfunctional mess.
Now, especially with the scene they chose for the "previously on NCIS" montage and Ziva getting all angry about Bodnar "fancying himself a part of Eli's family"... boy, my suspicion meter goes through the roof here! Remember him talking about how his own father never had time for him, but Eli always did? YEAH, THAT WHOLE FRIGGIN PROFILE DESCRIBES BODNAR PERFECTLY. In other words - we fear you're headed for a violent showdown. *whimpers*
Ah, but now, let's take this another step further and think about the fact that the clear-cut, perfect little suspect... didn't do it in the end. That he was just a hired goon, easily sacrificed for the "greater good", so to speak.
If all of that isn't enough to convince you, I'll gently nudge you back to Lt. Daniels and her similarities with Ziva: the way there was trouble in the relationship at first, but in the light of tragedy she ignored it all and focused on the love... and then, well, it turns out that her husband was a douchebag after all. That her need to get him back, to forgive the bad things, to focus on the love... was actually a misguided urge because he really was a bastard and had it all planned out.
Gibbs: The crime scene was staged.
Nope, I can't see it any other way now. The more stuff happens onscreen, the more likely my theory seems. And you know what, if they actually pull this one off? They will manage to finally create something that comes close to the buildup of the whole Ari arc. And I will whimper and curl up in a corner and die a thousand fiery deaths because of GG's extraordinary amount of awesome.
Random love fest:
Tony knowing what Ziva likes and doesn't. Tony's own version of ninja senses tingling as soon as she comes in. Tony obviously being very aware of Ziva's smell. ♥
Jimmy being pissed off because Ducky tells him profiling is "beyond his reach". Him speaking up and not swallowing his hurt down (and yes, you can see that he was actually hurt at first) and telling Ducky, well then, teach me! I *love* that so very fiercely - that he doesn't want to be the eternal probie, that he wants to learn, that he wants to grow and tackle the more challenging tasks. And I love that Ducky agrees. Yeah, he's growing himself a fine successor indeed!
Tom Morrow back - yeah, I loved that guy. Fiercely. He was a bastard and a badass, but for some weird reason he still feels like the most life-like director to me, if you know what I mean.
Also, the title was so many levels of perfect that I lack the words - people, relationships, revenge, love, truth... there were so many ghosts chased here, it would take ages to dissect every level in which this metaphor fits, really.
And now, at the end of my disjointed ramblings - is it Tuesday yet? *sucks thumb* *waits for sneak peek*
Let's start with the one thing that is so obvious I am surprised people are even trying to find a plot-related explanation for it: it was not a time jump at the end of the episode, it wasn't a flashback - the editor fucked things up, plain and simple. It didn't take Nicole Mirante-Matthews's confirmation on Twitter for me to know that. Apparently the guy in charge (or the studio) thought this plotline would be easier to digest for the average viewer if they got the case plot first and then the subplot, without intermingling them, so he/she completely disregarded wardrobe and emotional continuity and just lumped the Ziva story into one big fat scene at the end. (Btw, dear editor - you're an idiot. Kindly stop doing this kind of shit, kthnxbai.) Personally, I will always watch this episode with the intended order of things in mind - Tony discovers Ziva's shenanigans at the end of day one, they're extremely tense and dancing around each other during day two, and at the end of day two she tells Gibbs. Hell, maybe I'll make a fan-edit of it one day, just so I can watch it the right way, because the rest of the episode makes so much more sense that way.
Abby: Who knows what kind of mayhem is gonna pop up after the sun goes down?
So, if you watch the scenes in the way they were intended to be (and disregard the one voice-over line by Gibbs that was added saying that the case is closed), Abby's comment suddenly hits hard, because yeah - the discovery of Ziva's secret, that's the mayhem that's popping up later that night... Also, there's that whole underlying tension in the interaction between Tony, Ziva, and McGee on day two. And Gibbs scrutinizing Ziva the next day - again, if you edit the discovery scene into its original place, yeah, there's a fucking reason he's scrutinizing her like he does. Now that Tony shoved the boss's nose into something being up and now that the boss knows something happened or Tony would have told him, 'Naww, false alarm'- it's almost like he tries to will her to spill the beans.
As for the discovery scene itself - oh, dear god, now that was a rollercoaster par excellence! At first, when Tony uses that intimate Ziva!voice and tells her he wants to help, my poor heart melted away. And then Timmy's voice, and... jesus.
So, yes, usually Ziva is my girl and I really, really suffer whenever she does, but this time? God, Tony. That face of his, that expression! *sobs* I swear, I felt every tiny bit of hurt he felt in that single moment. That whole thing - it was just painful, plain and simple. Because I, like Tony a few episodes earlier, felt like saying, "I thought we told each other about things. The things that... matter."
Do I understand why she told McGee and not Tony? Hell, yes. Because McGee is supportive and doesn't question her and doesn't think much of hacking a bit here and a bit there (too much experience with breaking cyber law since he joined this team, really). And McGee is her friend, and he's harmless, and he's easier to control. Tony, on the other hand - well, the second he shows up, he plays the cold shower and says, are you fucking kidding me, doing this dangerous shit? Granted, I believe he handles it like this mostly out of spite and pain, but yes - he would have been the voice of reason where McGee failed to be, he would have interfered with her revenge plans, he would have tried to talk sense into her and maybe get her to lay low and back off. And the thing is - maybe he would have even succeeded. She took the easy way out and avoided a lot of temptation that Tony's presence would have meant for her... on many, many levels.
Also, there's still the fact that some part of her was most likely very well aware of the risks involved, no matter how hard she "prettified" them. And let's face it, as much as a friend McGee is - she could and would never risk Tony over this. Do I think she would have purposely sacrificed McGee to get her revenge? No, definitely not. But I do think he is the one she could actually live without. (Side note: if you think about it a little closer, Tony pretty much did the same thing when he needed his own revenge - he volunteered McGee for the mission in Somalia. In the end, in both situations, McGee consented, but the fact remains that they both put him in danger for the sake of revenge. Which is something they would never do with the respective other.)
But even despite knowing all this - this whole scene hurt like a motherfucker. To me, it was a small wonder that Tony didn't start yelling and rolling insults off his tongue, because yeah, in that scene? He was dangerous. He was this close to losing it. And god, yes, I feel him. It wasn't even so much the fact that Ziva kept this from him - it's weird to say this, but we're almost used to that from her, and I know how she rolls and that handling things this way worked better for her heart. No, the fact that makes me so insanely angry is how McGee acted during their earlier talk: when he knew all too well what was actually going on behind the scenes, he was openly mocking Tony, calling him stalkerish, telling him it was all in his mind etc. Throwing him off the trail? Fine. But mocking him for his justified concern and calling him borderline stalkerish when he was actually right? That's not buddies. That was a shitty way to act, especially when Tony trusted him like this. (It wouldn't really surprise me if Tony were to cut back on pouring his heart out to McGee now. Which, imo, would also be justified. But hey, I'm someone with bad trust issues.)
And the final thing that sparked a lot of discussion was the case file that was, quite obviously, chosen carefully to mirror Ziva's emotional state in this and the past few episodes: the woman whose husband is gone and she just wants things to happen and people to act and her husband backbackback while she doesn't have a choice but to stand aside and leave acting to others. Ziva identifying with that woman more and more during the investigation - yes, that much was glaringly obvious. And still, it surprises me that I saw not a single comment on just how far this mirroring storytelling actually went in the end.
Lt. Daniels: I was tired. I was bitching about stupid stuff. Ten seconds later none of that mattered. All that mattered was that my husband was gone. Gone.
Granted, the last time Ziva talked to her father, it was about things that were far from "stupid stuff", but yes, that scene was a heavy slap in the face because yeah, that's most likely how she must feel - that the issues she had with her father didn't matter anymore, because now he is gone, and all she wants is to get him back. And that's the scene that drives home a certain point much better than all the preaching Abbys could: he was her father, after all. No matter how big a bastard he was, no matter how often and how badly he betrayed her, there is still a part of her that does want him back.
Lt. Daniels: Your best isn't good enough. Not for me. (...) I'm sorry. I know you're all working hard, but I don't know how much more of this I can take.
And this - this may be my favorite scene of this whole analogy. The moment where Ziva tries to reach out, to comfort Callie, but the other woman doesn't let her. Because that's the moment this whole subplot was actually built for: the moment where Ziva gets a taste of how everyone else around her feels these days. They want to help, they want to comfort her, and they're really, really doing their best to get the bastard... but she fights them off and keeps them out and doesn't let them help. Not in the way they want to.
The analogy thickens during the bathroom talk with Callie, when she admits that things were really bad behind the scenes, but despite that, she still loved him. (I'm sure we can all agree that - currently - that's mostly how Ziva feels about Eli: the love she once felt for him is completely overpowering all reason and all the bad things at the moment.) And once again, Ziva tries to comfort her, maybe even tries to share her own feelings, but gets rejected before the gesture takes off completely:
Lt. Daniels: And what am I doing? Nothing. I'm just sitting here, waiting for you guys to try and get him back.
Ziva: It is hard to let others take over.
Lt. Daniels: Well, I'm not that girl, I don't let others take over, I fight for what I want.
Sounds awfully familiar, yes?
Now, up until that part most people followed the analogy beautifully. But you know what? I think this actually goes a lot further. And I think they gave us a whole bunch of hints about the finale arc in the way the rest of this story played out.
Back when "Shabbat Shalom" aired I voiced a theory towards the end of my episode discussion that maybe it wasn't a straightforward killing after all. That maybe Eli was the one who had put these things into motion himself, with Bodnar's help, possibly - to set himself up as the sacrificial lamb, whose slaughter would serve to provoke a war. Because these were the ways Eli knew best, and the ways he knew worked - ever since he sacrificed Ari's mother so his son would get the perfect background to become an inside man in Hamas. And you know what? The more stuff happens and the more I hear, the more firmly this belief settles in me. Because it makes so much sense in the greater context, and because my spider sense tingles like mad when I think about the few hints they threw us and the fact that the second-to-last ep is called "Double Blind". Why, you ask? Look at the definition: a double-blind study is "an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects of the experiment nor the persons administering the experiment know the critical aspects of the experiment; a double-blind procedure is used to guard against both experimenter bias and placebo effects." Most likely we are still in the middle of the study, and both sides don't have all the necessary information about the killing yet... and, imo, it's very, very likely that Bodnar was just part of a bigger thing and that he isn't really the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Doubtful? Unrealistic, you say? I don't know. Because this is the moment where I'm driving the point home that the case may have told us a lot more about the outcome of this season than we suspected. Let's look at the profile our autopsy boys piece together about the suspect...
Ducky: Which leads us to our suspect, Darryl Orton. State records list him as a tortured soul. Born into poverty, third of nine children to Glenda Jean Orton.
Gibbs: Put up for adoption.
Palmer: And the case workers said that he was told his whole life that he was a total waste of space.
Ducky: Which leads to feelings of worthlessness and despair. He thinks he doesn't deserve to be here. As a result, he lives a life without fear.
Palmer: Death doesn't scare this guy. Not much does.
Ducky: In other words - we fear you're headed for a violent showdown.
(...)
Gibbs: Craves a sense of belonging, wants a real family.
Palmer: The one that he has is a total dysfunctional mess.
Now, especially with the scene they chose for the "previously on NCIS" montage and Ziva getting all angry about Bodnar "fancying himself a part of Eli's family"... boy, my suspicion meter goes through the roof here! Remember him talking about how his own father never had time for him, but Eli always did? YEAH, THAT WHOLE FRIGGIN PROFILE DESCRIBES BODNAR PERFECTLY. In other words - we fear you're headed for a violent showdown. *whimpers*
Ah, but now, let's take this another step further and think about the fact that the clear-cut, perfect little suspect... didn't do it in the end. That he was just a hired goon, easily sacrificed for the "greater good", so to speak.
If all of that isn't enough to convince you, I'll gently nudge you back to Lt. Daniels and her similarities with Ziva: the way there was trouble in the relationship at first, but in the light of tragedy she ignored it all and focused on the love... and then, well, it turns out that her husband was a douchebag after all. That her need to get him back, to forgive the bad things, to focus on the love... was actually a misguided urge because he really was a bastard and had it all planned out.
Gibbs: The crime scene was staged.
Nope, I can't see it any other way now. The more stuff happens onscreen, the more likely my theory seems. And you know what, if they actually pull this one off? They will manage to finally create something that comes close to the buildup of the whole Ari arc. And I will whimper and curl up in a corner and die a thousand fiery deaths because of GG's extraordinary amount of awesome.
Random love fest:
Tony knowing what Ziva likes and doesn't. Tony's own version of ninja senses tingling as soon as she comes in. Tony obviously being very aware of Ziva's smell. ♥
Jimmy being pissed off because Ducky tells him profiling is "beyond his reach". Him speaking up and not swallowing his hurt down (and yes, you can see that he was actually hurt at first) and telling Ducky, well then, teach me! I *love* that so very fiercely - that he doesn't want to be the eternal probie, that he wants to learn, that he wants to grow and tackle the more challenging tasks. And I love that Ducky agrees. Yeah, he's growing himself a fine successor indeed!
Tom Morrow back - yeah, I loved that guy. Fiercely. He was a bastard and a badass, but for some weird reason he still feels like the most life-like director to me, if you know what I mean.
Also, the title was so many levels of perfect that I lack the words - people, relationships, revenge, love, truth... there were so many ghosts chased here, it would take ages to dissect every level in which this metaphor fits, really.
And now, at the end of my disjointed ramblings - is it Tuesday yet? *sucks thumb* *waits for sneak peek*