NCIS – Recap & Review – Dead Reflection

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NCIS
Dead Reflection

Original Air Date: Apr 12, 2011

Maria – Sr. Reviewer
maria@thetwocentscorp.com

The thrilling case of the Port to Port killer takes a backseat this week whilst Agent Barrett’s team focuses on it. This means that we actually get to see Agent Barrett’s team! It also means that the NCIS agents we know and love are busy with another case: murder inside the Pentagon.

The case looks open and shut as McGee shows security tapes that show Petty Officer Donner murdering Lieutenant Junior Lauren Ross. Surely, it can’t be that simple!

It isn’t. As well as dealing with personal emotions and tensions that arrive with EJ Barrett and her team, the NCIS team we know and love still have to find Donner. They talk to the victim’s roommate who reveals the victim, Lauren Ross, was having an affair with a married man but she can’t confirm that it’s Donner. Then they talk to Donner’s wife who hasn’t seen him for a few days. Tony and Ziva stake out Mrs. Donner’s house and notice she is comforted by another man, Commander Nelson Tunney. Ziva and Tony interrogate Tunney, who was Donner’s old boss and lifelong friend after Tunney saved Donner’s life. Things take an interesting twist when Donner is eventually found: he died before Ross was murdered!

The professional and personal are very intermixed this episode, so as well as the previous paragraph, imagine the tensions that come from EJ and Tony having a relation that Gibbs has warned EJ about but hasn’t spoken to Tony yet, even though Tony knows he must know because he’s Gibbs; Ducky trying to serve EJ and Gibbs; Ziva confessing to Tony that her ex-boyfriend CIRay has tried to get in contact with her but she hasn’t read his messages; EJ’s team member Gayne Levin casually correcting Tony on a movie reference; and EJ’s other teammate, Simon Cade, a jock with an IQ of 160 who speaks multiple languages and is very tall and broad, picking Abby up for a date right in front of McGee. To add insult to injury, McGee then finds out about EJ and Tony’s relationship where he was previously clueless. Yikes! It’s a wonder anybody is able to focus on the job.

The job in this instance means solving the mystery of how a dead man was able to be in the Pentagon to kill a woman. Donner died of natural causes but the body had been moved afterwards. Donner’s wife also had texts from his after his death.

The team looks at what else “Donner” did in the Pentagon apart from murder Ross that day. He went into a restricted area just before. Tony is a little distracted though, so he can’t answer the question Gibbs asks him. That’s when Tony decides to confront him after work… in Gibbs’ basement. Tony mentions that he expected a headslap, almost wanted one, but he never got it. Gibbs remains cold throughout. Tony tells Gibbs how much EJ means to him, he explains that NCIS doesn’t have a policy against it, and technically Tony and EJ aren’t even on the same team but Gibbs just barks: my team, my rules. Then the conversation is interrupted by Abby calling.

Abby has been able to use the security footage and tweak it so she can read Ross’ lips, she can reconstruct the conversation “Donner” and Ross had before he killed her. Ross realized it wasn’t Donner and that’s why the impersonator killed her. Still doesn’t explain who the killer is though.

Wow! DiNozzo must be serious about EJ if he’s splitting food with her, but he does tell her that they have to cool it around the office. She understands completely and calls him on it “You mean around Gibbs.” She then proceeds to tell Tony that he’s scared of Gibbs. Tony gladly admits it. Then she confesses that she isn’t. Tony says she should be. I think most fans would agree. I don’t approve of Gibbs’ behavior in this particular instance, but I definitely fear him.

Yay, Ducky and Abby together in Abby’s lab: I love seeing them two together! Ducky reexamined Donner’s body and found a substance in his ear canal which Abby then identified as the stuff used to make a mold. Once it’s revealed that it definitely is an impersonator wearing a mask you can count on Tony to make a Mission Impossible reference, but I didn’t expect Special Agent Gayne Levin to correct him. Tony admits defeat and I find myself loving Agent Levin despite the fact he has had such a small role so far. That might just be me though.

McGee is able to track down a department of the CIA that creates realistic disguises, including lifelike masks and silicone molds. They worked with Agent Tunney and his covert ops team, which Donner still wanted to be a part of though his health would never let him. Agent Cade overhears Tunney’s name and mentions that Tunney and his unit were under investigation for the murder of a Tribal Leader in Afghanistan, but Tunney denied being near the place. Cade got all that from a file he just glanced at! Photographic memory is another reason for McGee to be jealous of him.

Miles Hogan is the man who made the mask and he admits that Donner was dead when he made it. Hogan explains that Tunney commissioned the mask after Donner’s death, saying that Donner was part of a sting and that if he couldn’t make the drop off then a whole undercover operation would have been for nothing. McGee and DiNozzo go to check out Tunney’s office and let a guy who is obviously wearing an old man disguise get past them, even Gibbs lets him get through. Thankfully, Tunney wears some rather powerful cologne that Tony was able to recognise and the team are able to chase him down.

With Tunney caught, motive is the only thing left to be explained. This is revealed when the Agents are able to track down what sensitive information “Donner” handled before he killed Ross. Tunney, as Donner, replaced a file about the murder of the Tribal Leader in Afghanistan with a report that stated he was a hundred miles away from the village the night he was killed. Tunney’s prints are the only ones on it, not his CO, not the file clerk. It was a cover-up, but Donner died of a heart attack before he could do it so Tunney had to do it himself. Ross was just “collateral damage”.

With that case wrapped up, the episode ends on another shocking note: Autopsy Gremlin Jimmy Palmer is allowed to come out autopsy, accompanied by EJ Barrett. He tests the eyeball on MTAC’s security scanner, and MTAC opens!!!

I adore Barrett’s team, more than I like Barrett. I think Barrett is too Gibbs-like for her own good and there can only be one Gibbs. Not sure I like what they’ve done with McGee this episode, jealousy is ugly yet understandable but on top of that, they’ve made McGee clueless about EJ/Tony, which is once again understandable because he doesn’t pay that much interest in Tony’s love-life but it could come across as petty and stupid. Still, I love McGee. I don’t like Gibbs in this episode, but I don’t think you’re supposed to. Like Tony admits, there’s a fear element to him. I have no idea how the EJ/Tony relationship is going to play out, or how I want it to.

The relationship stuff is well-performed, frustrating, slightly messy but realistic yet the main question on my mind is: who does the eyeball belong to? What are your theories about the eyeball? Do you prefer the relationship stuff or the case stuff? Do you regard this episode as an interesting case or do you think it’s just filler until we get to the Port to Port case? Please, tell us your TwoCents by clicking that reply button and leaving a message.

If you’re on Twitter, you can always @ me your thoughts of this episode or any other NCIS episode: @MariaTV101