Sorry I went MIA last week. I was in the wilds of the Blue Ridge Mountains with an iffy cell signal and iffier lodgings. I’ve returned hale and hearty and better for the grand adventure, and have since given last week’s ep a watch. Read on for a quick, down and dirty recap on how ongoing storylines were affected.
Wilmer Valderrama as Torres in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
Then we’ll get on with tonight’s episode, Trapped.
OK, so last week, in episode five, titled Fake It ’Til You Make It, we learned a bit more about Agent Clayton Reeves’ backstory. In the opening, we see him sitting in on an AA meeting being held in a church. He doesn’t share, and apparently hasn’t. The episode revolves around a woman in his AA group who is kidnapped by an abusive ex. Turns out ex is Naval Intelligence with his hands on a laptop full of sensitive intel. He was apparently planning something nefarious when his girlfriend wised up and dumped him. Ex wasn’t having any of that, hence the kidnapping.
Bishop is the only fellow agent who knows Reeves is in AA, but in the course of the episode, Gibbs and the rest of the crew come to know as well. They respect Reeves’ desire to not talk about it and admire him for getting help. With help from her sponsor, they find Gf and the now deceased Ex. Turns out she killed him in self-defense, but the laptop is MIA.
Duane Henry as Reeves in NCIS. (Photo: Monty Brinton, CBS)
New Agent Jack Sloane is on board to help Gf deal with the fallout from her abusive relationship, in hopes of unearthing blocked memories. From her they find a storage unit and the missing laptop. The time there also gives Bishop and Reeves a chance to talk, and we learn Reeves was abused while in foster care, so his background is far darker than previously hinted at. Reeves stays in contact with Gf, offers continuing support. In the meantime, we learn that the intel on the laptop is even more critical than the Navy was willing to admit. Turns out the most sensitive data had already been transmitted from the laptop, so now the team needs to figure out who the most likely buyer is.
Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Maria Bello as Jack in NCIS. (Photo: Monty Brinton, CBS)
Using GPS from his car, they track Ex to a wee-hours meeting … with Gf’s sponsor? Ruh roh. Turns out Sponsor thought she was dating a whole different guy, not her sponsee’s Bf. So, that’s … uncomfortable. (Didn’t she think it was odd when he went dark on her, you know, post mortem?) Through a series of events, the team learns Ex wasn’t an abusive type at all — the only evidence of that came from Gf — and Gf drugged him before shooting him. The fight and the bruises came from him trying to keep her from shooting him, not the other way around. We learn Gf is the one with the psychotic background, which Reeves is hard-pressed to want to believe. Gf didn’t kill Ex because he kidnapped her, she killed him because she found out he was cheating on her. (So, how was Ex such a loving guy if he was a cheater? I’m confused.)
So, Ex talked to Gf about his work, and after killing him for cheating on her, she figured, hey, might as well make some side money by selling that intel he’s been carrying around. Reeves shows up at the buyer’s meeting, and Gf (who is sipping wine) knows she’s busted. We learn that Gf befriended Reeves so he’d be her backup, then set up the kidnapping as a cover for killing Ex. We learn that she joined AA in the first place specifically so she could get Ex’s other girlfriend to be her sponsor, setting the whole thing up. Wow, wicked. Bishop and Torres take Gf out in cuffs, leaving Reeves staring at her glass of wine.
Throughout the show, McGee (whose baby face has now returned in full force, making the Fu Manchu facial hair look a bit more unfortunate) had been dealing with someone posting an unfortunate meme of him featuring a very unflattering permed-hair photo, which has gone viral. At the end of the episode, McGee manages to track down the person who originally posted the meme … all the way to Paris. He posts a payback meme … of a very unfortunate photo of one former very special agent, Anthony DiNozzo. Nice touch!
And we close, with one Clayton Dante Reeves finally beginning his first share at his group.
Good close, and good ep in terms of backstory growth, but otherwise kind of … well, the word stilted comes to mind. Everyone seemed a bit off their game. Not sure if it was the writing or the directing or both, but no one seemed all that comfortable.
Let’s hope tonight’s ep is a step back in the right direction.
And here we go!
Maria Bello as Jack and Pauley Perrette as Abby in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
We open with two men playing golf. One hits his ball under a grounds-keeping machine and they both wonder where the groundskeeper has gotten off to. (I have an idea! My guess? Dead Guy of the Week, coming right up!) Golfer with the ball at a disadvantage decides to just move the machine to free up his shot (much to his partner’s dismay). Only, gee, there’s something hanging up the machine and it won’t roll forward. I wonder what that could be? To the surprise of absolutely no one, they look under the machine and wouldn’t you know it? Dead Groundskeeper of the Week!
Cue awesome opening theme song and credits!
In the Bull Pen of Orangey Goodness, enter a sunglasses-wearing Torres, who has apparently had a long night. He encounters an uber-perky, nicely suited Palmer, who is there to hit him up to pitch in for his charity cause, Inclusion Town, a playground designed for kids with disabilities and special needs. (I looked it up, and while I didn’t find a link to an actual “Inclusion Town,” it was gratifying to see how many towns are building inclusive playgrounds for kids. Happy news!) Enter Reeves, who tells Torres that each of the team members gave 40 bucks, so he offers to do the same. As he’s entering in the amount on the website, enter Gibbs, who barks at him to grab his gear. Torres hurries to finish and submit the donation, and all we see is “thank you for your generous donation” on the screen, before he rushes to catch the elevator. Ruh roh. What did you do, Torres?
At the scene of the crime, we discover Dead Groundskeeper is also a Navy petty officer, working part time at the golf course to supplement his military income. Bishop questions the two “dew sweepers,” aka the older gentlemen golfers who found (and kind of ran over) Dead Groundskeeper. They were first on the course (hence the nickname) and didn’t know that DG was under the machine when they turned it on. Didn’t see anyone. Palmer says he thinks DG was dead before the Dew Sweepers ran him over.
Wilmer Valderrama as Torres, guest star S. Zylan Brooks and Brian Dietzen as Palmer in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
Gibbs and Torres talk to DG’s boss, who says he was a good employee, but shy and quiet, no friends that he knew of. DG comes to work at four in the morning and Palmer says time of death is about that same time. Irate Boss wants to know when he’ll get his golf course back, and McGee, who finds a rake with missing tines and blood on it, lying on one of the sand traps, tells Boss that his golfers will have to make do with only 17 holes for the time being. This makes Gibbs smile.
Down in, well, I guess it’s Palmer’s Digs now. I need a new name. Palmer’s Pit just doesn’t have a nice ring to it. Have to give that some thought. Anyway, he tells Gibbs that he still believes DG was dead before he was “mulched” (ew!) and the contusion marks on DG’s neck, which was also broken, tends to support that conclusion. Abby enters the convo via monitor to say she found blood on the front of DG’s work shirt that doesn’t belong to DG. To his killer maybe? Another victim? We don’t know yet, as we face a stern-faced Gibbs black and white. (Gibbs looked hale and hearty the first few eps, but he’s looking more aged and weary in last week’s and this week’s ep. What’s going on there? I’m worrying about my team!)
Down in Abby Lab, Abby finally meets new agent Jack Sloane. She’s worried Jack is trying to profile her and has been avoiding her, but they quickly get past that and Jack earns an Abby hug. Abby discovers that the blood on the busted rake tines matches the blood found on the front of DG’s work shirt, meaning whoever killed DG has a nasty rake wound he or she is dealing with. So, there’s that.
Over in DG’s very basic apartment, Torres and McGee discover DG was heavy into ham radios, which makes McGee sentimental and Torres scratch his head. McGee shares that his dad taught him about ham radios and how he had this friend in Copenhagen he talked to for hours. This prompts Torres to share that when he was a kid his dad used to sneak him into cockfights. The two stare at each other, smile and are all, OK, then. Good talk. (Also? Seriously, McGee. For the love of … please, SHAVE. And a little less Brylcreem wouldn’t hurt, either. Google it, youngsters.) They find DG’s ham radio call list right before DG’s dog walker comes in, barely managing to handle her dogs as they face down McGee and Torres with their guns drawn. They get her to watch DG’s dog for a few days.
Maria Bello as Jack in NCIS. (Photo: Cliff Lipson, CBS)
Over at the supply house, Reeves and Bishop talk to a somewhat harried supply house owner (who tells them she got the place in her divorce, seems very annoyed by that) as they follow up on calls the supplier made to DG before he died. She seems upset to hear DG died, but his orders were just business as usual, and she is so busy she more or less brushes them off. Nothing to see here, Reeves gets a call that they’ve found DG’s car, and off they go.
Down in Abby Garage, they’ve set up DG’s ham radios and McGee explains to Torres, who calls them a “dork machine,” how ham radios were once a lifeline in times of crisis. He explains that after Hurricane Katrina, ham radios were the only way first responders could communicate. Torres says, “OK, less dorky.” Heh. McGee signs on and communicates with last guy DG spoke to, who doesn’t seem surprised to hear DG is dead. He says DG was involved in something dangerous, but they don’t get an answer to what that was, exactly.
Over with Reeves, Bishop and Gibbs, they arrive at the location of DG’s car, only, no car. The local cop swings back by, says it was there when he called it in, then goes racing off again, something about a stolen shopping cart. Bishop wonders why someone would drive over 40 miles away from the crime scene to a dumpy strip mall. Gibbs heads off and talks to the vet, whose clinic is in the strip mall, assuming if our killer was injured, one doctor is as good as another. Vet tries to evade questioning, pretends to be outraged at the idea that he would treat a human … until Reeves finds the broken rake tines and bloody gauze pads in the trash. Vet says he can’t tell them anything, or Killer will, well, kill him.
In interrogation, we learn Vet treated a guy with a bullet wound once, had his license suspended, never did again, until Killer came in that day, threatened to kill him. Vet knew he’d bleed out if he didn’t help, so he did. Sloane watches from the other side of the glass. Gibbs tells Vet he saved the life of a killer. Vet says he didn’t know. Vet seems to be telling the truth. No security cams at the clinic, so Gibbs sends Vet to work with a sketch artist. Gibbs talks to Sloane, who says that Killer knows what he is doing, so this probably isn’t his first rodeo. He’s not a two-bit thug. Still no idea why Killer killed DG.
Guest star S. Zylan Brooks as Catherine Scott and Brian Dietzen as Palmer in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
Up in the Bull Pen, Palmer wraps Torres up in a hug, thanking him for his generosity. Torres just wants his personal space back and agrees to show up at the opening if Palmer will let him go. He tells Reeves that he gave 50 bucks to the charity, but we all know he didn’t type in the right number of zeroes. The only question is, just how much did he give?
Down in Abby Garage, McGee is still on the ham radio, trying to get in touch with that same guy again to get more info. He’s having no luck and asks Sloane to help him. She understands that some ham radio operators are a unique breed who only communicate with others via the anonymity of a ham radio. He plays a tape of his convo with “Richochet,” which is the code name or handle of the guy who last spoke to DG. It doesn’t offer her much to work with, so she asks to go explore DG’s apartment and see if anything else might help her profile him and get them a lead.
In the Bull Pen, Torres is trying to talk to his credit card company after being denied a bagel purchase using the card. He gives up in frustration with the automated service, as Reeves comes over and says he just found out that Sloane used to be in the Army. Uh, OK. He knows she was in PsyOps, dealing in psychological warfare. Bishop and Torres give Reeves a hard time for digging into Sloane’s past, and Reeves counters that surely they want to know what makes her tick. Torres says mostly what he wants to know is who she roots for in the Army-Navy game. Groan.
Down in Palmer’s Place (eh, still not it), Gibbs comes in and Palmer tells him that DG definitely died of a broken neck, but was possibly choked unconscious first. Palmer assumes it’s easier to break the neck of an unconscious guy, and Gibbs confirms that is true, giving Palmer a moment of pause. Heh. Then we get Abby on monitor again, and … what’s up with her and Gibbs doing all their chatting over the monitor? Abby says she found cocaine all over DG, even in his shoes, like he rolled around in it. Where she didn’t find it, was in his system. He was clean. Palmer says, “I’ve never done cocaine before, but I think he was doing it wrong.” Gibbs and I both think, Oh, Jimmy. Fade to black and white.
Back in the Bull Pen, Torres has figured out that he sorta kinda forgot to put the decimal in when typing in 50 bucks. Meaning he donated a big $5,000. Yikes. Enter Gibbs, and we learn from Bishop and Reeves that they can find no connection of any kind between DG and cocaine, from any angle. Reeves comments on how he went to DG’s apartment and the only thing he found was Sloane, bagging evidence. Gibbs doesn’t respond to that. Torres gives the sketch artist drawing of Killer to Gibbs and says McGee is still trying to raise Ricochet on the ham radio.
Back in the garage, Sloane is going through DG’s yearbook. Only three signatures, both his jobs allowed him to work alone, and she found anxiety medication in his apartment as well. He also had a birthmark on his face. McGee says how it’s hardly noticeable, but Sloane counters that kids can be cruel and some folks never get over that. She plays DG’s outgoing ham radio message and it’s very confident and gregarious, the total opposite of who he was in public. McGee wonders if, given DG used a play on his name for his handle, as does McGee (The InTiminator. Oh, Timmy.) that maybe Ricochet did, too. Looking at the list of ham radio operators within range of DG’s radio signal, they find one named Richard and go to check it out.
Maria Bello as Jack and Pauley Perrette as Abby in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
Torres goes down to talk to Palmer and explain that he over-donated. He explains how he’s been saving for a full year to buy a super-moto dirt bike and how it was an honest mistake. Palmer understands, but it’s still awkward and he agrees to give back all but the $50 Torres meant to donate. Palmer goes to text the charity directly to ask for the money back, but Torres realizes he needs to do that in person.
We skip over to Ricochet’s place. He’s a serious introvert, and Sloane bonds with him over his dog. Turns out the dog was one that the dog walker had the day before, who reacted so strongly to McGee and Torres having their guns out. Turns out the dog reacted the same way with DG. Ricochet explains how he adopted the dog after he was terminated from working for the TSA. So, a drug dog. That explains a little. They borrow the dog and promise Ricochet it will be OK. They take the dog to the golf course where he proceeds to lose his drug-sniffing cool by the sand pit. Well, that’s one way to roll around in the stuff! Fade to a barking Benji black and white.
In Abby Lab, McGee, Bishop and Torres have been put to work helping Abby separate the cocaine from the sand. Bishop looks at the tools they have and is all, “We’re going to use colanders?” McGee corrects her, saying it’s a sieve. Prompting Torres to say, “Colanders drain, and sieves strain.” At their collective look of surprise, he shrugs and sheepishly says, “HGTV.” HA. Better. After three rounds of sifting through the sieves, they’re left with the cocaine. More than enough to kill for. Abby also ran the sketch artist drawing through all the employees of the company who supplied the sand to the golf course (same company as harried supply company owner) and hit on a match. Our team heads out to round him up.
Torres and McGee are off to track down Supply House Guy, while Bishop tells Gibbs that they think the supply house is smuggling it in via Mexico. The supplier buys their sand from a quarry in Mexico, so Bishop opines that they lace it with cocaine, ship it across the border, separate it back out, then ship the sand on to the supply house. Only someone screwed up and shipped unsifted sand their way. Which DG then unwittingly purchased, hence all the calls to him from the supply house. Ricochet’s dog tipped DG off to what was going on, so Supply House Guy had to take him out. Gibbs gets a call and McGee and Reeves picked up Supply Guy, at the bus station, with a one-way ticket to Toronto. Opposite direction from Mexico, for sure. Too late, Supply Guy.
Supply Guy has rake puncture wounds, Vet giving him up, and every other kind of evidence, which Torres and McGee present to him in interrogation. Supply Guy won’t talk, says he won’t be safe anywhere if he does, especially in prison. McGee guesses Mexican drug cartel? On the other side of the glass, Sloane tells Gibbs Supply Guy is a worker bee in this setup, not management material. Torres talks to SG in Spanish (we get subtitles) and he explains that the owner (harried woman) gets calls from Mexico, some guy named El Gato, tells her what to order from the quarry, and she does it. SG says now El Gato will send someone to kill them both. Sloane tells Gibbs that Harried Owner won’t talk to them, either, she’s too scared. (Explains why she looked upset when she heard DG was dead. One step closer to her.) Gibbs says he can use that fear against her.
Brian Dietzen as Palmer in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
At the supply house, Torres goes in, all slicked up, gun tucked in his waistband, posing as El Gato’s hired hand, to make Harried think she’s in for it now. Torres does a pretty good job. Harried is sure buying it. Torres gets her to call El Gato to beg for her life, and as soon as she puts the call through, he takes her phone, then calls his team in. Then he tells Harried he’s NCIS and, oh, yeah, you’re under arrest. She’s even more Harried now. McGee takes the phone so they can trace the number.
Up in Sloane’s office, she’s hanging a photo of a giant wave, crookedly, which Gibbs would fix, but she’s all, “Close enough,” and says it’s not like she’s building a boat in her basement. Heh. She also has a giant Rorschach print, which Gibbs says looks like a butterfly. She says he can do better. He says giant moth, she says better. She tells him she hopes to finish moving into her office, where she also hopes to be for a long time. She dumps out a big thing of lollipops. Gibbs helps himself to a red one, which she notes, but doesn’t explain the significance, if any. Gibbs tells her they tracked El Gato to the Suarez cartel and the DEA has him. Case closed. Sloane comments on how they nabbed a killer and shut down a major cocaine supplier, while sucking on a yellow lolli, and how that’s not bad for a few days’ work. Gibbs says she is working well with the team. She counters with, “Most of them,” while Gibbs is staring at the print. “Ladybug,” he offers. She looks at the print, squints, then looks at him. “You’re not very good at this, are you?” HA. Gibbs just smiles.
Brian Dietzen as Palmer and Wilmer Valderrama as Torres in NCIS. (Photo: Sonja Flemming, CBS)
We end the night at Inclusion Town. (Where we all know what’s going to happen, and we’re going to like every second of it, too!) Torres is watching all the kids, from those in wheelchairs to others using crutches, laugh and play on the specialized playground equipment. Palmer comes over and introduces the founder of the charity to Torres. She puts him at ease and tells Torres not to worry about the mix-up with his credit card, that they can refund his money, not to worry. Torres keeps looking around at all the kids and tells her there was no mistake. She gives him a big hug and returns to talking to some of the parents. Palmer puts his arm around Torres’ shoulders and asks Torres about the dirt bike. Torres says he can get one next year, then tries to get Palmer to stop with the hugging, but he just hugs him more and they both end up laughing. Fade to a delightful black and white.
Definite improvement over last week, and a lovely ending, yet … something seems, I don’t know, unbalanced with the new team dynamic. I can’t pin it on any one person, and newcomer Maria Bello is doing her job, it’s just, with Quinn gone and Ducky out of the picture, Abby seems a bit flat, as does Gibbs (I’m still not getting why they’re not doing scenes together), so it just feels like the show has lost what bit of zip and charisma it had when the season opened.
Your reactions to Maria’s addition to the show were fairly broad, from love to, well, not much love. But what do you think about the season in general? The plots, the cast dynamic … drop me your thoughts to donna@donnakauffman.com.
And while you’re at it, you can enter this week’s fab giveaway! My brand-new e-novella, The Inn at Blue Hollow Falls (book No. 1.5 in my brand-new Blue Hollow Falls series), hit the shelves yesterday and so far, the response has been truly gratifying. I’d love to send you a copy! Interested? To enter this week’s giveaway, it’s easy: Send me an e-mail with “I want my very own copy of The Inn at Blue Hollow Falls” in the subject line, and you’re in. If you want to include your thoughts about the season thus far, please do! I’ll announce the winner in the recap for next week’s episode, Burden of Proof.
The winner of my previous giveaway, including an e-copy of The Inn at Blue Hollow Falls, AND a signed print copy of the first book in the series, Blue Hollow Falls, goes to Theresa Huling! Theresa, e-mail me at donna@donnakauffman.com so I can set up delivery of your prizes!
Until next week …
Donna Kauffman is the USA TODAY bestselling author of 70-plus titles, translated and sold in more than 26 countries around the world. Born into the maelstrom of Washington, D.C., politics, she now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, thankfully surrounded by a completely different kind of wildlife. You can check that out for yourself and more at www.donnakauffman.com. She loves to hear from her readers (and NCIS viewers!). You can write to her at donna@donnakauffman.com or visit her on Facebook or Instagram.
MORE ON HEA: See a fun Down & Dirty interview with Donna and read what she learned while writing Blue Hollow Falls
EVEN MORE: See more of Donna’s NCIS posts