Translate

Wednesday 16 May 2012

NCIS - 8.1: "Spider and the Fly"



Gibbs aims to settle the score with Paloma and her brother Alejandro as she goes after Gibbs' father; whilst attempting to secure a route for her drug cartel.

 Paloma (Jacqueline Obradors) arrives at Gibbs' (Mark Harmon) father's store continued from season 7.   He tells her to leave and pulls a rifle on her, firing a warning shot.   He was raised on a farm and tells her he isn't like Gibbs, but Gibbs is more like him.   She leaves and orders men to fire on the store.   Of course he's not going to hang around.   Jackson Gibbs (Ralph Waite) is at Gibbs' house, getting him to eat breakfast, the most important meal of the day; which is what Gibbs' mother used to say.   As for the agents outside the house, again apparent that his father is there.   Jackson has been here for months and had his storm cellar to hide in back at the store.

Tony (Michael Weatherly) watches the surveillance video on Alejandro (Marco Sanchez) in Mexico, escaping when ordering someone to fire shots.   Tony realizes it was a trap.   Gibbs tells him watching the video won't change it.   Tony: "Hard to observe when you're being shot at."  He wonders if Vance (Rocky Carroll) is angry at him as he stands behind him.   SecNav wonders why they can't locate one drug dealer.   Ziva (Cote de Pablo) is in Mexico and McGee (Sean Murray) is in Canada.   Hey McGee actually got to go somewhere so much for his complaining he doesn't and Tony's left in the office, after his trip to Mexico floundered.   Vance comments Paloma could be anywhere and Gibbs adds, "could be across the street."  Well he was right about that, or should I say his gut was right.

There's a DB in Virginia, a reservist and they're headed for the Blue Ridge Mountains.   Hey that was home to The Waltons, funny that should be brought up here.   Two DBs on the ground.   Ducky (David McCallum) determines the captain was shot on the ground.   Palmer (Brian Dietzen) says they shot each other and asks where the guns are.   Tony finds the captain recorded his flights and plays the video back to reveal Paloma.   TOD was 9 hours ago.

McGee talks to Tony from Canada and gets pushed by the horse.   Tony: "Poor McMountie."  Tony teases as usual.   McGee has been working unlike certain other people.   Gibbs: "Certain people here have been working."  The helo was headed to Canada.   Palmer takes over Ducky's story and tells his own about driving to the Florida keys and liked the key lime pie.   Ducky mentions insect bites which are unique to their locale.   The DB had bites and he checks his stomach contents to work out their destination.  Well Abby (Pauley Perrette) does that.   Tony gets an e-mail from Senior, his father and he can't discuss his situation now.

Ziva returns to Tony's description of looking barmy.   She doesn't know what that means.   She was working just like McGee.   Tony asks if he sees tan lines, she doesn't have any, she just lay in the sun in the morning before leaving.   Hmm, so what was she up to indoors that she didn't get any tan lines?   Mexican drug shipment came by boat to Florida and she found this out before she left and Alejandro visited the mayor.   Tony adds the Wonder Twins were busy referring to Paloma and Alejandro.   Gibbs' instincts were right and Jackson wants him to come back and fix the store with him after.

Mike (Muse Watson) shows up too, using the back door.   He spent time recovering at a convent and he felt close to God.   He took on Bell's men in Mexico and took some out, they shot his finger and he wouldn't miss Paloma's revenge.   Mike: "Do what you have to for family." Gibbs: "What rule is that?"  Mike: "unwritten one."  Strange Gibbs asking what rule that is when he got his rules, or at least the idea of rules from his wife, Shannon.   His one perfect wife I should say.   Abby asks the agent guarding her on his advice about dog collars.   She found the food trail went all along the south of the country, en route to Canada.   Abby is concerned Paloma knows things about Gibbs and he needs to find her.   He's got a plan.   McGee returns from Canada, you know just add a couple of Mounties in the background to show a feeling of being in Canada, ha.   Tony: "prodigal probie returns."  He's not the probie anymore.   He asks why Ziva is so tanned (cos they just returned from the Summer hiatus!)  She winders why he's so pale.   He's always been like that.   McGee waits for his welcome from Gibbs before getting to work.

Vance gets a call from Eli David and tells Gibbs it's need to know.   Gibbs: "I don't." [Need to know.]  Tony and McGee check out  a DB drug dealing butcher in Maryland.   Vance wants Jackson moved to a safehouse and was thinking that cos of his wife last season, when the rogue Korean agent was after him.   McGee drives under the speed limit and Tony senses a change in him.  He's more French Canadian and has to get Celine Dion in.   Paloma killed the butcher and his store was a front for dealing.   Jackson has been working on the dolls house for two months now.

Mike is frustrated and they need to go to Paloma.   Gibbs says it's hard to take him seriously when he keeps getting body parts blown off.   Ziva laughs at an e-mail from her friend which arouses Tony's curiosity which isn't hard to do.   She has a friend who is a man.   Alejandro arrives at NCIS.   Vance is creeping up on Tony now, like Gibbs.   Vance is angry his men fired on his agents and Alejandro protests he was in as much danger as Tony.   He wants Paloma out of business but wants her extradited to Mexico, so she can just walk free and he's here to plant a bug.   As if Vance wouldn't know that when he did that himself last season, planting the bug to listen in on Gibbs and Alejandro.

Tony has things he'd like to say to Alejandro which Ziva believes would get him arrested.   Gibbs concludes it wouldn't be the first time.   Gibbs saw a cat smile like Alejandro once.   Oh come on did Alejandro really think anyone would believe he was being sincere, he and Paloma are family after all and as Mike said you do anything for family.   Poor Abby had to walk in at that point and is adamant she sent him the report.   He threatens Abby to drive carefully, the roads are dangerous.   He should threaten Gibbs not his people.   Vance adds he needs to be shown out before he hurts Alejandro.   Why didn't Abby and Ducky stay at work, when Ducky finds a doll on his car and so does Abby, which she recognizes as a Mexican Day of the Dead doll.   Paloma calls with another Tennessee Williams quote: "Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead."  McGee traces the call to Gibbs' house where one agent is killed and there's a doll inside.   There that's what Gibbs said, she could be across the street and she was.

Vance and Gibbs drive to that same studio street set used in many seasons and Gibbs tells him Paloma's got a fight.   Alejandro calls the ambassador and Vance hangs up and lets him go.   He meets Paloma in the ally who says it's time to avenge their father.   Gibbs places a black band over his badge for the dead agent.   He can stop this but he needs Jackson's help.   Vance and Tony speak about the location of the safehouse in his office, on purpose.   Alejandro makes a call on his phone which McGee monitors and Vance calls Alejandro for a meeting.

Ducky tells Abby about the first case he and Gibbs worked on.    One sailor stabbed the other and thought his actions were justified.   Abby likens that to Gibbs twenty years ago.   Ducky recalls Winston Churchill's speech from 1940, "This was their finest hour."  Saying the "hour is upon us." Vance agrees on Paloma going to Mexico and Tony comes in with a fake message, which Vance leaves in his file on the desk and leaves Alejandro alone in his office, something he wouldn't ordinarily do.   The Message reads: "Paloma Reynosa killed."  That was a foreboding.   Yet Alejandro falls for it.   Alejandro removes the bug.   McGee blocks his phone signals.

Alejandro fires on the safehouse and shoots Paloma.   That was coming.   She mentions the spider and the fly and she fell for it too, Gibbs being the spider of course.   Anyway that was the only option available especially given what she knows about Gibbs.

Vance gives Mike a plane ticket as Amira and Layla are waiting for him; so what happened to his in-law, Shakarki, Layla's mother then from season 7's Outlaws and Inlaws who was also staying with him?   Gibbs helps Jackson repair the store.   Gibbs: "Do what you have to for family." Which appears to be the theme of this episode.   Vance files away Abby's report on Gibbs, thought there was only one copy and gets a text from Eli David: "I found him."

So begins another saga of what that cryptic text means and yes we're a year behind again!!  Glad the Reynosa story was laid to rest as much a possible as it was getting tedious now.   Until it's brought up again.   Paloma didn't turn out to be quite the formidable foe she thought herself to be and neither was Alejandro.   Both full of hot air and needed other people to do their work for them.   They thought they were calling all the shots as far as exacting revenge for their father but how wrong could they be.

Plenty of possible future story arcs or just one off episodes being touted here: the most obvious being Vance and Eli, with the possibilities of who "him" could be.   Vance is up to more secretive business and does Ziva know he's in touch with her father so often and so closely, even though he and Eli are friends.  Eli probably gets reports about Ziva from Vance.   Why would Vance need Eli's help in locating, "him?"  At least it appears that way.   Tony's father, Senior and the need for him to discuss his situation.  Also Ziva's mysterious man friend from Miami, anything to do with her father?

Vance putting the report away like that wasn't really hiding it. Sometimes it is best to hide things in plain sight, but is this one of those times?   Will there be more mention of Vance's personal file again?   Gibbs' line of thinking Mike was dead, "Thought you were dead." Mike: "I got better." Alludes to one between Gibbs and Fornell in season 2 when he returned after faking his own death.   Also in 7.15 Jack Knife, Fornell once again faked his own death.

Mounties as we know don't wear the red uniform for work, but only for ceremonial purposes and Tony's mention of the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, both comicbook superheroes and made an appearance in a season 9 episode of Smallville.   The Spider and the Fly, a poem by Mary Howitt.

No comments: