SWAK (02x20)
This episode has repercussions that carry through the rest of the series. Well, one repercussion, anyway. Tony's bout with the plague comes up a number of times during the series
The camera work at the beginning, when Tony opens the envelope, works really well. I like the way Gibbs stands on his desk to announce the evacuation. Kate calls the emergency line while McGee watches in horror.
I'm not found of the Honey Dust scene, although for once it has a purpose, which is as a lead in to the idea that the P.O. might've screwed up.
McGee has a good line about Abby and the Pachinko machine. Abby serves in this episode as a delaying agency. So does Ducky, to a certain extent. It's of only limited use. Gibbs (understandably) has no patience for Palmer here. I like both his "well no, Palmer, crossbows if you think that would work better." And "I wouldn't either."
Why did they let Kate stay with Tony after diagnosis? At that point, the bacteria were still alive, so Tony was contagious and, as Ducky himself said, Kate's immune system was already compromised.
It's very sad that Mariette Hartley's character is so focused that she can't believe her own daughter in the face of her personal prejudices. Not to mention that her daughter was so afraid of her that she didn't feel she could tell the truth.
There's no way Tony went from high fever, struggling to breathe even with oxygen to basically normal in a few hours, so the ending bugs me big time. They did such a good job in Twilight and even the first two episodes of season three showing that he was still recovering that it really, really annoys me that they screwed up the ending to Swak so badly. I mean sure, after the scene with Gibbs, we know Tony won't die (because he promised Gibbs), but he still had antibiotic resistant pneumonia. He would've been on oxygen for days, and on breathing therapy for a long time after that.
The timeline also has its problems. It's morning when this happens, and (supposedly) night when it ends. That's 12 hours, and there is no sign that more than one night passed (to make it 24 or more). The life-span of the altered Y. Pestis once a victim was infected was 32 hours. They were dead by the time Gibbs confronted Dr. Pandy. That's saying it took them about 30 hours to ID Mariette Hartley as the sender. Really? It took them 30 hours to pull up a case file, call in Cassie (who arrived in 15 minutes, remember), have her remember the case and tell Gibbs who it was? It should have been harder to come up with her name. Then I'd believe it took them 30 hours to find her.
I think they're supposed to be more distracted by the idea that the obvious suspect isn't the right one, which would help the timeline.
Yes, I've thought about this a lot. I really like the episode. I think the acting is great, particularly Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly and David McCallum. For once, they have Kate being nasty in a good cause: she knows letting Tony think she's sick and telling him he's weaker than she is would distract him and that he would automatically fight to prove her wrong. Although, when she makes the crack about Tony not being afraid, I think Tony already knows he's sick. Right after the conversation, he wipes his forehead. Lots of sweat is TV shorthand for a fever.
Note, when I'm watching the episode, I don't think about most of this stuff (except the last scene stuff) because it's so well paced and well acted. These are icebox errors (look it up under "fridge logic").
The camera work at the beginning, when Tony opens the envelope, works really well. I like the way Gibbs stands on his desk to announce the evacuation. Kate calls the emergency line while McGee watches in horror.
I'm not found of the Honey Dust scene, although for once it has a purpose, which is as a lead in to the idea that the P.O. might've screwed up.
McGee has a good line about Abby and the Pachinko machine. Abby serves in this episode as a delaying agency. So does Ducky, to a certain extent. It's of only limited use. Gibbs (understandably) has no patience for Palmer here. I like both his "well no, Palmer, crossbows if you think that would work better." And "I wouldn't either."
Why did they let Kate stay with Tony after diagnosis? At that point, the bacteria were still alive, so Tony was contagious and, as Ducky himself said, Kate's immune system was already compromised.
It's very sad that Mariette Hartley's character is so focused that she can't believe her own daughter in the face of her personal prejudices. Not to mention that her daughter was so afraid of her that she didn't feel she could tell the truth.
There's no way Tony went from high fever, struggling to breathe even with oxygen to basically normal in a few hours, so the ending bugs me big time. They did such a good job in Twilight and even the first two episodes of season three showing that he was still recovering that it really, really annoys me that they screwed up the ending to Swak so badly. I mean sure, after the scene with Gibbs, we know Tony won't die (because he promised Gibbs), but he still had antibiotic resistant pneumonia. He would've been on oxygen for days, and on breathing therapy for a long time after that.
The timeline also has its problems. It's morning when this happens, and (supposedly) night when it ends. That's 12 hours, and there is no sign that more than one night passed (to make it 24 or more). The life-span of the altered Y. Pestis once a victim was infected was 32 hours. They were dead by the time Gibbs confronted Dr. Pandy. That's saying it took them about 30 hours to ID Mariette Hartley as the sender. Really? It took them 30 hours to pull up a case file, call in Cassie (who arrived in 15 minutes, remember), have her remember the case and tell Gibbs who it was? It should have been harder to come up with her name. Then I'd believe it took them 30 hours to find her.
I think they're supposed to be more distracted by the idea that the obvious suspect isn't the right one, which would help the timeline.
Yes, I've thought about this a lot. I really like the episode. I think the acting is great, particularly Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly and David McCallum. For once, they have Kate being nasty in a good cause: she knows letting Tony think she's sick and telling him he's weaker than she is would distract him and that he would automatically fight to prove her wrong. Although, when she makes the crack about Tony not being afraid, I think Tony already knows he's sick. Right after the conversation, he wipes his forehead. Lots of sweat is TV shorthand for a fever.
Note, when I'm watching the episode, I don't think about most of this stuff (except the last scene stuff) because it's so well paced and well acted. These are icebox errors (look it up under "fridge logic").