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Safe Harbor
Original Air Date: Oct 18, 2011
Maria – Sr. Reviewer
maria@thetwocentscorp.com
There was a shootout in a boat containing illegal immigrants. It’s joint jurisdiction between the Coast Guard and NCIS, so CGIS Special Agent Abigail Borin joins the team. Can they find the killer, prevent a disaster and avoid a political situation? On a personal note, the team tries to find the perfect woman for Gibbs.
Gibbs has been throwing himself into his work, living at his cubicle and living off of takeaways. His work ethic has been impacting his colleagues too, as McGee, DiNozzo and David were called in by him when the work could have waited. Seems like Gibbs is lonely, but when Tony suggests finding him a new woman, Borin appears from nowhere, coffee cup in hand (sound familiar?) and says that is the last thing Gibbs needs. Then she and Gibbs inform them about the case.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Ben Cooper was shot and killed whilst investigating a ghost ship. His partner, Kyle Sterling survived the shootout but didn’t witness anything. The crew from the boat is missing, yet the cargo is bootleg cosmetics such as soap and perfume. Not drugs or weapons, or anything you’d usually expect to be smuggled. Ducky is checking the body of Ben Cooper when he hears Morse code coming from below decks. Gibbs and company go and investigate… and uncover an entire Lebanese family: Mother, Father and two adult sons.
Whilst Tony is still determined to find Gibbs a girlfriend (Team Bibbs ie: Gibbs/Borin has been dismissed but Borin does have some girlfriends who may be perfect for him,) Ziva is busy interrogating and ultimately befriending the mother, Mariam Bawali. They bond over maternal instincts. Which reminds me, are we ever going to hear from Ziva’s boyfriend CIRay again?
Abby has uncovered a startling discovery… by investigating the human waste left behind. Yes, that’s right. Abby went through the ship’s faeces to discover that there was no crew, just the Lebanese family. But which one fired the gun? And will the violence really end there?
Director Vance makes it clear that he doesn’t want the immigrants to set foot on US soil, but only because he wants to avoid letting the Sec Nav Clayton Jarvis involved. Jarvis is sniffing around anyway. We still don’t know Jarvis’ deal. I’m looking forward to see how the Sec Nav arc plays out.
DiNozzo, Borin and McGee are treating operation G-Day as a case of its own. They spend a lot of time searching for the perfect woman for Gibbs, including putting all the candidates up on screen and discussing why they are viable or finding flaws that eliminate them from the investigation. It’s a nice, light b-story.
Ziva gets the heavy stuff. She’s grown quite attached to Mariam, and is disappointed to realise that Mariam lied to her about the crew and neglected to tell her that she had a daughter who was killed. Mariam then lies further by saying that she shot the Coast Guard by accident, mistaking him for a pirate. She gets all the details wrong, but Ziva understands why Mariam lied. Mariam wants to protect her family.
Borin and Gibbs handle the Bawali sons. They let them know that the mother confessed. The shorter son, Hakim, says that she must have done it if she confessed, yet the taller son, Rafiq, does not buy it and believes she must have been coerced. To muddy the waters even further, Abby and McGee uncover the fact that the father was involved in the bombing of a coffee shop in Lebanon that was frequented by US Servicemen. That was 27 years ago. Once a killer, always a killer?
Tony is busy questioning the father, Farid. Farid is busy doing the “laundry” when Ziva comes down, having received Abby’s message. Farid throws the laundry water onto the floor and some of it splashes on Tony’s pants. This makes for quite a funny scene later when Tony convinces Borin to help him get the stain out, right in the middle of the bullpen. Vance’s stone face in that situation had me in absolute hysterics!
Vance isn’t happy Gibbs has brought the father to NCIS interrogation. Vance never seems happy nowadays. I want Vance to be happy. It’s hard to imagine him being a sweet family man because he’s all intense and tormented at work. He’s forced to play the bad guy a lot and never seems to catch a break. I wish we could see the other sides to him again.
Borin and Gibbs are amazing to watch. Even Borin is watching Gibbs interrogate Farid, and she’s taking notes. “Space invader. Nice move. I’m gonna use that.” Borin can’t just watch when Farid asks why they care so much about the death of one man, the coast guard. Gibbs gives a knowing look to the glass, Vance offers to hold Borin’s coffee and she goes in there. Farid soon admits that it was his son, Rafiq, who killed the Coast Guard officer.
Ziva is still on the ship, trying to talk some sense into Mariam. The doors lock, trapping them in the room. Ziva looks out and sees an unconscious Coast Guard officer. Mariam still is reluctant to believe it was a member of her family who locked them in.
Abby has come up from her lab to take a look at Tony’s pants. She chops the stain off. She later rings Gibbs whilst the team is in the car on the way to the ship. McGee has to put her on speakerphone. Abby announces that the stain on Tony’s pants was pure distilled glycerine. The cosmetics onboard are being used to make a bomb! The fuel and cargo onboard the ship and surrounding ships would create one gigantic explosion.
The team arrive just as Ziva has found another exit. She tells the team that it is one of the sons. Gibbs replies that it’s Rafiq. However, Rafiq is tied up. Hakim is the killer, but Mariam is still reluctant to believe. Ziva wants to get Mariam to safety, yet Mariam refuses to leave. She talks to Hakim. Mariam is no longer going to be blind to her family’s antics. She redeems herself by talking her son down, admitting her grief over the death of her daughter but explaining that violence is not the way forward.
The episode ends with Tony, Tim, Ziva and Borin telling Gibbs about the perfect woman they have found for Gibbs. Gibbs informs them that he’s already dated her, and it didn’t work out. “There’s nothing more boring than perfect.”
This episode made me cry, but in a cathartic way. The episode seems to revolve around loneliness, grief and family. There were no bad guys, just grieving ones who couldn’t let go of their pain and anger. It’s a scary thought that Gibbs could ever feel lonely, yet Gibbs tells Ziva at the end “You’re never alone if you have kids” and then he kisses her on the forehead. Awww.
What do you feel about Gibbs’ relationship with his team? Do you think Borin is an interesting character, or do you think it’s a cop out by having her so much like Gibbs? What are your feelings towards the Bawalis? Please, leave your TwoCents about this episode in a comment. I’d love to read them.
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