Hey, guys! I'm sorry I'm so late, but I have to admit I totally forgot to write the recap this time. I'm in college now, with tons of homework and essays to write, and since I don't write for SpoilerTV since May or June, the fact that I needed to post a recap last Wednesday was totally erased of my memory. Now, let's skip the forgiving part because this episode is too cool to be forgotten after five days we watched it (and I watched it three times to do the subtitles, and one to write this review. *-*).
This post contains a few spoilers for future episodes, I'm warning you. But this is SpoilerTV, so forget what I said and please read the recap below. Thank you. :)
So, finally the so awaited season premiere begins, with the classic Previously on NCIS I love and missed so much! I liked that the intro made almost clear what we were sure during the episode: they are not going to keep that Abby-confronting-Gibbs storyline, and I very much appreciate it. Pedro Hernandez’s murder was necessary and I wouldn’t mind to discretely destroy all the evidences that prove Gibbs did it. Plus, the echoes of Paloma’s threat on Papa Gibbs… Goosebumps, dude. (Yeah, I’m that weak).
Then we see Paloma entering Jackson’s store, and there’s a shooting, and I love him. He’s amazing. I wish I were as tough as he is, because he’s like… 70 and would kick my ass anytime. Sixty years from now, I’m probably going to be a retired lawyer who writes recaps for a yet-to-be-released American TV show. And probably won’t be able to use a Winchester to defend myself. Another thing I noticed a while back but didn’t have the opportunity to bring up is how Papa Gibbs looks like Carl Fredericksen, the old man in Disney’s movie Up. Their faces, the way they walk, the cane, the way they speak, they both can fly (Gibbs was a pilot, Carl flies his house)… Anyway, this has nothing to do with the episode. I’ll move on.
A new opening! I love new openings, I feel like they are sort of a gift from the producers. Something like “Thank you for your patience in waiting for four months to watch it again!” We have Gibbs smiling, Tony in a Horatio Caine moment with his sunglasses (hot) plus the scene where he saves Gibbs under the water (I love that scene), Ziva being cute and dangerous, Abby just being cute, Timmy in his friend’s online wedding and (the best part) flying his fake jet pack! Vance and Ducky are normal, but I missed both of them too. Yeah, I thought the new opening deserved a whole paragraph.
It’s been a while since the shooting in the store, Jackson is living in Jethro’s house since then. He wants to go home, but I agree with Gibbs when he doesn’t allow it. I would never sleep at night knowing that a crazy Mexican drug dealer chick wants to kill me. I’d rather live with my federal agent, boat builder and anti-social son for sure.
I really, really wanted to see that shooting in Mexico more closely, not in a videotape at the office… Why didn’t they show it right after the shooting in Stillwater? I love action scenes, and it’s been a while since Tony was in one. I knew something wasn’t right last season when Vance sent Tony to Mexico during Ziva’s citizenship ceremony. And I was right. “Observe and report”? Come on! Alejandro knew it all the time, and I just can’t see how the hell Tony got out of there alive. Only if the target was only Franks, which is kind of dumb, because Tony is also one of Gibbs’ beloved ones. “Let it go, DiNozzo.” With no news from Franks? Yeah, right.
Vance mentioned the SecNav, which reminds me of how much I dislike him. And as every good character that I dislike, I miss him. I wish he comes back this season with Trent Kort [who showed up at NCIS:LA and it was pretty cool!].
No Arizona for now, DiNozzo. West Virginia. I’m learning a lot of geography from tv shows. Now I know there’s a state called West Virginia and that it has borders with five states. Thanks, Tony.
The case they are investigating soon turns out to be related with Paloma Reynosa, and Tony is the one informing Tim, who’s in Canada, about it in MTAC. Tim is wearing super weird winter clothes, there’s a horse harassing him and Tony making fun out of it! McGee is begging to go back to D.C., poor Probie. Another nickname for Tim: McMountie, who says Paloma is trying to keep her business working while she’s on the run and wishing getting on a killing spree. She’s crazy, dude.
Palmer is becoming more and more like Ducky. Padawan Palmer talks A LOT just like his Master Mallard. We have a word in Portuguese for that, it’s called “verborragia”, a mix of “verbo” (verb) and “hemorragia” (hemorrhage), when one can’t really control the word flow that comes out of the mouth. I do it a lot, drive my mom crazy.
Papà DiNozzo can use IM! That’s cute, but not a surprise, as even my grandmother and my five-year-old cousin do that. Good hint for us: we’ll see Robert Wagner soon! And it seems Senior already knows Tony knows about his money problems. A bit of family drama is cool, as we know so little about the agents’ families.
Ziva comes back from Miami and she’s tan! And tells Tony she has no bikini marks, which brings back memories from Season 3, when Ziva would say anything to annoy Tony, like letting him believe she could be a lesbian. Those were good times, Tony’s reactions were very funny, and it wasn’t different this time.
Mike Franks is alive! Missing a few pieces, but alive. Thank God, I really like that guy. He’s all old school fed, a bit macho, but still a family guy and, above it all, loyal to his family, friends and values. You can’t simply kill off a character like that. He calls Gibbs “Probie”! Come on, no one is up to do that and survive! “Do what you got to do for family”. The unspoken rule. You’ve got to look up to this guy after that one.
The way Abby and Ducky found out where the bad guys had been, by analyzing the food they ate and the bug bites they had, that was soooo CSI. It’s very not NCIS-esque, weird. I can’t even decide if I believe that could actually be done in real life or not. LOL
Timmy is back from Canada, very white, very happy and… Very thin! Come on, what the hell is this diet Sean Murray is doing?! Is he sick? Drug addict? No, he doesn’t look like a sick or addicted person. But it’s shocking how he’s getting thinner and thinner, and I’m worried about Sean’s health. Soon he’ll weight like me, but I’m a lot shorter and younger. And I’m a girl. Be careful, Sean.
Eli David tries to contact Vance during the entire episode. This smell like future problems. Ausiello said something about a double episode exploring that storyline in a close future, and I’m looking forward to see that. Michael Nouri is a fantastic actor (which means that, as a villain, he gives me the creeps).
Then, Tony is making fun of Tim again about Canadians. I didn’t even know Canadians had an accent, so these jokes were not very funny for me. Only for Americans, I guess. Heard some Canadians got offended. I tell you what: Tony is not a person to be taken seriously when he’s not completely focused on the job, so let it go. ;) But I have to admit: Tony singing like Celine Dion was fantastic!
Only NCIS can make a crime scene in a butcher shop funny. Was he seriously checking the prices of the meats while taking photos of the dead body? Funny and disgusting, Anthony!
Ziva’s got a new male friend. And Tony’s watching them. That seems dangerous, since Tony shot and killed the last male “friend” Ziva got. Hide him, Zee! LOL
Then that son of a beach Alejandro Reynosa shows up at the headquarters? He has got to be planning something, and he is. Planting a bug and threatening Abby’s and Ducky’s lives, those Wonder Twins, as Tony called them, are playing with a huge fire called Gibbs, and they can’t come out of it alive or free. Alejandro hides behind his Government cover and pretends he doesn’t know anything about the attack on the agents guarding Gibbs’ house. If Vance hadn’t stopped him, Gibbs would’ve shot Alejandro right there, I’m sure. Well, he didn’t, which is good, because he came up with a plan that fixes the situation brilliantly.
We all know Shane Brennan said we’re going to have origin episodes for two characters this season, one of them is Abby. The other one I hope it’s Tony, since we already know how Vance (sort of), Ziva, Tim, and now, Ducky (he told Abby in this episode), came from, Tony is the only one left! Brennan said we’d probably get flashbacks. I’m going crazy about that possibility, it’s going to be awesome!
It was nice to see Tony interacting with Vance. Looks like Vance trusts him as a very capable agent, and I appreciate it. Especially after Vance said last season I guess, “agents should be more like McGee (book smart) and less like DiNozzo (street smart)”. I couldn’t disagree or hate him more, but now he’s compensating it with his awesomeness as a leader.
I hate killers that can’t look at the victim’s face, cowards. Shooting thousands of times at a building is totally coward, and Alejandro eventually finds out why. Paloma gets killed by his revengeful hands, and Team Gibbs + Family are safe! Even the Boss' career, because Vance hid the report Abby wrote about Pedro Hernandez’s death, and I don’t think anybody who knows that will ever talk about it again.
Mike goes back to Mexico, to Amira and Leyla. Gibbs goes back to Stillwater with Jackson and that beautiful line is brought to surface again: “Do what you got to do for family”.
And the episode ends with a mysterious “I found him” by Eli David to Director Vance. Who the heck is “him”? I have no idea, but I’m sure about one thing: if Mossad found him, him is in serious trouble. THAT is a grreat way to wrap up a season premiere, isn't is? I give it a 9 out of 10, because it's still not like my favorite premieres, which are 10/10.
That’s it, guys. I don’t have the ability to write short essays, so I hope a few citizens are patient enough to read it all and write a comment about:
b) Is Carl Fredericksen a 3D version of Ralph Waite?
c) Who could possibly be him?
See you next week! ;)
