NCIS Last Man Standing - Commentary and meta and all that stuff

[mhalachai]

So I watched NCIS 6x01 The Last Man Standing at the crack of early this morning, and was THROWN FOR THE DAY. LIKE WHOA.

I will now supply my thoughts and wisdom about the episode for you all. Yes, it's about that revelation.

Aside from the team getting back together and the really obvious retcon they pulled to get over the season five cliffhanger, I was totally floored by the last ten seconds of the show. It was Michelle Lee after all! What the hell?

So she's working with someone... but who? A few people sprang to mind, who I promptly dismissed, but here's some rational and thoughts:

Jimmy Palmer: I had the initial thought that they were in it together, but then I was all like, this is Jimmy Palmer. What was interesting to me was when talking with Gibbs and Vance, he said he ended it with Lee because he felt like he was being used. WHICH HE WAS, so she'd have an excuse to go back into that building. Paint closet indeed. Anyway, Palmer is always surrounded by Ducky and he's too much of a goober for that to be an act. Note also that she was probably the one to keep their relationship private and not take it home (ie not in the morgue). Maybe she knew it might be a good cover if she was ever suspected? Give up an embarrassing relationship as a reason for her discomfort?

However, I suspect that Jimmy will be the key to bringing Michelle down, or at least exposing her. Last season, he showed some real courage under the weird exterior, and he's rather observant at times. I thin he may be the one to finally see something to trip her up. That would be poetic justice. Or at least pretty cool.

Leon Vance: It'd be nice and neat, that he was a bad guy, but there's too many risks being taken. 1) he put Michelle in with the others on Gibbs' team, and everyone knows not to underestimate Gibbs at finding things out. 2) he had McGee working on that computer all summer... unless Vance was trying to get at the files to. But why?

Besides, I think that Vance would/will be a more interesting antagonistic protagonist for the team than being a traitor. Because that's what we're talking about. Treason.

Ducky Mallard: Maybe this is the season where Ducky finally reveals himself to be an undercover Russian spy. Doubtful because of the epicness of the win involved.

All in all, I doubt the wisdom of her partner, because who the hell texts DO THEY SUSPECT YOOOOO? to an unlocked cell phone in a room full of cops? Dumbass.

Next stop: Now what?

I hope with all my hopey heart that this is the season's arc. If Supernatural can Go There with the, um, Big Good, NCIS can finally go for an arc where the epic villain is within. But we need motion and action!

Here's more of what I want.

I want someone to stand up for Langer. I want his former FBI partner or boss* or someone to bang in and say "this man was a good man, if a bit of an asshole, and he was not a traitor to his country" and demand answers and make Gibbs realize that something's off. (*I haven't actually seen Tribes where we first meet Langer so I have no idea what happened in there or if that might contradict my words here. But I doubt Gibbs would have given him the OK to join NCIS if Langer had been a useless agent.)

(Because in Lee's last-second-of-the-show recollection scene in the elevator, we see that Langer had his hand on his gun in that room, and I theorize that's because he's just figured it all out. Lee was the only one who could have put the card in Keating's bag - because it certainly wasn't Langer. She knew the layout of the building, knew where she was going, and in that instant he figured it all out. But it was too late and he got shot to death.)

I want Gibbs not to be satisfied with what happened. I want something to nag at him until he realized that something's just a little off.

I want Keating to be slotted down into the basement in McGee's old place, and to break that encryption like the good little curly-headed boy genius he is.

I want Abby to find evidence in Langer's death to make her go hmm (Like, I dunno, the bullet in Langer will come from the same gun as from the dead Navy guy in the trailer? They were pretty blatant that they got the bullet there... I might need to go re-watch that one thou).

I want this show to continue to rock.

Lastly, I want a musical episode. NCIS meets Cop Rock for the lulz.

Quote squees:
(I'm paraphrasing because I'm too tired to re-watch)

Abby: I miss them so much!
Gibbs: You had lunch with McGee last week!

McGee: I really miss you and Ziva.
Gibbs: And Tony?
McGee: *pauses* Yeah, him too.

Character squees:

-Tony talking to his "pa" back on the "farm" about "Tim". Oh, Tony.
-Ziva singing! I wish her dress would have been more greenish so I could call her the Chartreuse Chanteuse because nothing's better than a really bad pun.
-McGee is the best thing ever. He's so awesome and don't take guff from nobody. Not even Gibbs. Well maybe a little.
-And did you notice that McGee remains the only one who will interrupt Gibbs in interrogation? True, this time it was to get at the Director, but still.

I love my navy cop-tastic show.

Comments

[booster17.livejournal.com]

Okay, after this squeeing review, I actually downloaded and watched my first ever NCIS episode. Not bad, not bad at all - and nice to have actual faces to go with the character names. :)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Excellent! NCIS is one of the only shows I watch (maybe even the only show) that employs logic and reasoning and consequences to their bullshit. You don't think it'd be so hard to find that on television, and yet...

[booster17.livejournal.com]

One thing I particularly liked about that ep was the way it deliberately played with our knowledge of tv tropes - ie the first suspect is never the bad guy. By putting Michelle Lee out there as Suspect number 1, then clearing her, sets us all up to suspect Langer. Makes me I wonder just how many people were screaming at her "Don't go off with Langer alone!". :D