NCIS aired the penultimate episode of its twelfth season last week, and the episode continued the arc started in "Troll". It was also revealed who the significant loss was that was teased in various interviews and spoilers.
Goode reveals that The Calling started as part of their terrorist group, but it became less about religion and more about damaging the system so the faction broke off. Goode wants them stopped as well, and reveals that the guy Bradley had been chatting with is Sadiq Samar, who is great at recruiting others. Bishop finds an old warehouse that was bought by Samar, so her, Gibbs and Tony go check it out. They find the murder weapon used to kill Ensign Wilt and also find the boy that Gibbs saw at the crime scene. The boy has a gun, but Gibbs calmly approaches him and manages to talk him out of doing something he would regret. The boy turns out to be Luke Harris, who was reported missing by his adoptive parents. Luke refuses to talk to Gibbs, but the team learns that his real parents are from Iraq and that Luke is bullied at school. Luke was also communicating with Samar, and the latter also told him to go the building. That building has a storage bunker underneath it, so Abby, Bishop and Tony head to the building. Abby learns that Samar has been experimenting with linking the S-mines to one another and being set off by a pinpoint laser.
Meanwhile, McGee and Dorneget have been sent to Cairo to represent NCIS at an Interpol meeting. They learn that Matthew Rousseau has been captured and is being transported on an aircraft carrier, and McGee volunteers to interrogate him. In the US, Gibbs uses Agah Bayar's mother to blackmail him into helping NCIS. Meanwhile, Ducky gives a profile on Luke and finds a handbook from The Calling that urges members to take out anyone close to them that is not a fan of The Calling's ideologies. In Luke's case, that means his parents and he already wrote a letter to them, but he didn't finish it. When Gibbs shows it to Luke, he finally starts talking. However, Abby has found another chat with Samar that says Luke is a traitor. So when Gibbs takes Luke to see his parents, he finds both of them dead.
This was an excellent episode and a pretty dark one too. We already saw last week how Bradley was driven to destruction when he blew himself up. This week, we got some more insight into how the terrorists operate and how they recruit children like Bradley and Luke. It's really dark to use the vulnerability of teenagers against them to turn them into doing these dark things, but sadly it's what happens in the real world as well. With Luke's parents now dead, it is of great importance to help him resist The Calling's influence on his life. Besides Luke's story, we also have another dark storyline in this episode: the death of Ned Dorneget. More about that in a minute, but the death scene itself was perfect. Dorneget saved as many lives as he could, but he had to give his own to do so. The music that accompanied this and the previous scenes, also fit like a glove in the tone of the episode. There were several other exceptional moments in the episode. Most notably was Gibbs seeing the six dead agents at the airport. See the picture below, and for those wondering, from left to right: Paula Cassidy, Mike Franks, Kate Todd, Dorneget, Jenny Shepard, Christopher Pacci. It was an emotional moment for Gibbs and also a great reference to previous seasons. Another interesting moment was Gibbs telling Luke a story about Kelly.
And now regarding Dorneget's death. Honestly, I am glad it was him and not someone else. Due to all the interviews and spoilers that teased a significant loss, I was genuinely concerned it was a major character. I went back and forth between thinking a series regular would die or a major recurring character would die. I even considered Fornell and Ziva as possibilities. Now that I know it was Dorneget, I can only say one thing: this death was incredibly overhyped. Even though he is a recurring character, we have not seen enough of him to really care about his death. I, for one, don't mind his death and am just glad it was just a minor recurring character. Obviously Dorneget appeared in four episodes prior to returning this season and he was mentioned on various occasions throughout seasons 9-12, but he is really not a significant loss to me. It might be a big loss for the team and the agency, but not to me.
What did you think of "The Lost Boys"? Do you think it was a good follow-up to last week's episode? What are your thoughts on the arc in general? Do you agree that it's pretty dark to recruit children through the dark web? Were you surprised that Dorneget was the significant loss? And lastly, are you looking forward to the finale? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.
The season finale airs Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS. Here's a promo for the episode:
