SPOILERS: 'NCIS' season finale: Confused, but amused
'NCIS' season finale: Confused, but amused
May 20, 2009, 06:00 PM | by Mandi Bierly
Categories: 'NCIS', About Last Night, Television
I have a feeling there might be some disappointed Tiva fans out there today, but here's hoping you read our interview with Cote de Pablo in which she flat-out said that there would be no kissing -- just gun-wielding anger -- in the season 6 finale.
Obviously, we have to start with that ending. If you haven't watched the episode yet and intend to, FLEE NOW! They gone? Good. So who do you think that is, torturing a nearly unrecognizable Ziva (well done, makeup department) and asking her to "Tell me everything you know... about NCIS"? Is it a member of the terrorist cell in Africa she's trying to bring down now that she's back working with the Mossad? Is it a member of the Mossad turning on her? Or is it a member of some other group that I'm not smart enough to identify? I've guessed on plots from this show before and failed, miserably, so I'll leave it to you.
All I'll say is that I believe Ziva stayed behind in Tel Aviv not just because she doesn't trust NCIS, but because she also doesn't trust her father. She needs to figure him out first, because when he betrays you, it involves death. I think she knew Gibbs would leave her behind if she gave him an ultimatum -- her or Tony. Her had was there, listening. Assuming Ziva's dad isn't behind her torture, will the Mossad and NCIS have to work together to get her out alive? (I'm not entertaining the thought that de Pablo won't be back for more than the season 7 premiere.) Will Mossad cut and run, proving to Ziva that Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the one person you can always trust? No idea. All I can hold on to is my Abby-like faith in Gibbs. Whatever Vance was trying to accomplish by telling Gibbs that Ziva's father sent her to kill her half-brother Ari -- and that's the real reason she took Ari's life to save Gibbs' four years ago -- he won't fall for it. Unless it's somehow true, and then he'll realize that Ziva has changed. Unless she hasn't. (Even I felt the sting when she told Gibbs that her blown-up apartment wasn't her home.) I'm so confused, y'all. Let's move on to why I'm amused....
We got a lot of nice character touches last night. Such as when Vance told the Mossad not to worry about Gibbs slipping out past their security -- knowing Gibbs, he was just going on a coffee run. And he actually was. And when Ziva's father told her that he wasn't expecting her to arrive for another hour because of traffic and she responded "I drove." And, of course, when Abby said that she's always wanted to go to Israel. It's third on her list, after the Galapagos Islands and Dollywood.
We also had the humorously addressed question of why Tony was able to defeat Michael Rivkin, when we all know that Mossad agents are badass. It hadn't registered with me just how drunk Rivkin was. As we found out when Ziva took Tony to the ground (!), she wasn't so much upset that Tony shot Rivkin but that he shot-to-kill. Why four bullets to the chest when one in the knee would have subdued an inebriated and injured man? Honestly, were I in that him-or-me situation, I would've unloaded all the lead I could, assuming all those hours spent playing Time Crisis II would've taught me how to fire a weapon. But I'm not a senior field agent who's been trained to show restraint and judgment. And I'm not jealous of Rivkin's relationship with Ziva.
Where's your head at on the NCIS finale, folks? And while you're answering questions: How does Gibbs get those boats out? How are you feeling about CBS picking up the sister series NCIS: Los Angeles? I liked the two-part "Legend," so I'll be happy to watch Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J this fall. I just don't know about the title. I mean, for a show that (a) hates being confused with NCIS and (b) wants to make it clear that the spinoff is actually very different from the original (it's about undercover ops, not forensics), I'm not sure that particular title format was the smartest idea....
Photo Credit: Eric McCandless/CBS
source: http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/ncis-season-fin.html
