S17.E13: Sound Off

[thewhiteowl]

The team must determine if a death at a drone testing site was murder or an accident.

[Katy M]

the case was pretty interesting, but I'm getting a little sick of the "propaganda of the week."  This week it's Deaf people should be allowed in the Military.  

Speaking of which, (sorry I've already forgotten everyone's names), I found the main guest character completely selfish.  Yes, I understand this was her whole life.  But, a disability is going to be 100x more a liability if your team doesn't know about it.  If the drone guy had known she was Deaf, he would have run up to her, instead of just yelling from behind.  OK, that didn't actually get anyone killed, but it's the principle of the thing.

So, Palmer thought Ducky-lite was enthusiastic, but I thought the guy who was all about cutting up dead guys was pretty enthusiastic:)  And why was that first squeamish girl trying to get a job assisting an M.E.  That would be like me trying to get a job assisting an M.E., and I can assure that's not going to happen.  And, like Palmer, I don't really get what happened at the end.  Is Palmer so great that he needs a less great assistant?  If Ducky were dead I would have assumed that was his ghost sending a message.

[Linderhill]

I agree about Palmer's potential assistants, that was quite ridiculous.  What was also ridiculous was that so called hiring process.  I know its TV but that was no way realistic.  Its a government job, there's mandatory posting for openings, screening by personnel, interviews (by more than one person) and then a background check.  This is law enforcement, there's no way that skeevy guy would have made it past the initial screening.  I also couldn't quite figure out why Ducky Jr. wouldn't stick around.  

The case? it was fairly interesting but I agree with @Katy M about the deaf lady being a hazard by not sharing her disability.  She also learned to lip read really well really fast.

[scorpio1031]

So does Bishop need glasses, or does she think that squint is threatening while she is interrogating suspects?

[Xeliou66]

I liked the case of the week, it was very interesting, but I also didn’t like the heavy handed propaganda about deaf people being allowed in the military. I wish they would be less heavy handed about stuff like this, the scene with Kasie ranting was ridiculously preachy. 

The case was enjoyable with a nice plot and nice stuff for everyone to do, I didn’t really care about Palmer’s search for a new assistant and was unsure of what it all meant in the end, but it did give Palmer some nice scenes and I really like how he’s grown over the course of the show. 

[HurricaneVal]

I loves me a Palmer episode!  Harried and exhausted and venting Palmer at the top of the show was awesome.  He was so in his own zone, that it literally took a *thwack* from a baseball bat to re-establish the Gibbs intimidation factor. 

As ridiculous as the interview process for an assistant was, I'd really like to see this search extended over several episodes, with less ridiculous applicants.  I think it would be a great running B or C plot to see how the candidates interact and eventually wash out.  As much as I enjoyed Ducky!Lite, that was a caricature, not a character and would not have worked long term. 

Then, eventually, we could come full circle, and a fully recovered and rehabilitated Gerald will appear and slide right into his old position like donning a favorite bathrobe.

A girl can dream.....

Edited January 22, 2020 by HurricaneVal

[Katy M]

I think next week's case should be about the creepy assistant-wannabe killing and hacking people.  (not really)

[scorpio1031]

40 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

I loves me a Palmer episode!  Harried and exhausted and venting Palmer at the top of the show was awesome.  He was so in his own zone, that it literally took a *thwack* from a baseball bat to re-establish the Gibbs intimidation factor. 

As ridiculous as the interview process for an assistant was, I'd really like to see this search extended over several episodes, with less ridiculous applicants.  I think it would be a great running B or C plot to see how the candidates interact and eventually wash out.  As much as I enjoyed Ducky!Lite, that was a caricature, not a character and would not have worked long term. 

Then, eventually, we could come full circle, and a fully recovered and rehabilitated Gerald will appear and slide right into his old position like donning a favorite bathrobe.

A girl can dream.....

I loved Gerald!  That would be so awesome.

[MissLucas]

1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

As ridiculous as the interview process for an assistant was, I'd really like to see this search extended over several episodes, with less ridiculous applicants.  I think it would be a great running B or C plot to see how the candidates interact and eventually wash out.  As much as I enjoyed Ducky!Lite, that was a caricature, not a character and would not have worked long term. 

Sounds pretty much like what Bones did with mixed results.

And I'm sorry but if you're going suddenly deaf there's no way you can go on with your life with nobody noticing. Lip reading is one thing (and that's difficult enough) but a lot more depends on hearing than just communication with others. Anyone who's ever had one or both ears blocked will notice how disorientating it can be to navigate everyday chores without hearing all the random noise. This lady was operating on a level that made her almost the equivalent of Daredevil.

[chitowngirl]

I always enjoy Katie Leclerc and immediately knew what the problem was when I recognized her. She is hard of hearing IRL and usually plays someone who is. But I always forget she has a lovely speaking voice. In Switched at Birth and in The Big Bang Theory, she does not speak as fluently.

[LuvMyShows]

On 1/21/2020 at 9:03 PM, Katy M said:

And, like Palmer, I don't really get what happened at the end.  Is Palmer so great that he needs a less great assistant?  If Ducky were dead I would have assumed that was his ghost sending a message.

Yep, my thoughts exactly,

23 hours ago, Linderhill said:

I agree about Palmer's potential assistants, that was quite ridiculous.  What was also ridiculous was that so called hiring process.  I know its TV but that was no way realistic.  Its a government job, there's mandatory posting for openings, screening by personnel, interviews (by more than one person) and then a background check.  This is law enforcement, there's no way that skeevy guy would have made it past the initial screening.  

Also, the idea of bringing someone on temporarily could never happen that quickly even if the person already worked for the same agency and had all the necessary clearances, which I seriously doubt those candidates did.

23 hours ago, Linderhill said:

She also learned to lip read really well really fast.

I could see her having become good at it over the three months that it had been since the injury if she really 'studied' every day after work.  But the problem is that she would have been doing terribly at it for the first day, weeks, and month when she started, and that would definitely have been discovered.

[Rambler]

I appreciated the reminder to always keep your tea kettles nice and polished so you can see people sneaking up behind you.

[ForReal]

On 1/22/2020 at 11:35 AM, HurricaneVal said:

...it literally took a *thwack* from a baseball bat to re-establish the Gibbs intimidation factor.

I thought that was directed at the agents, who were kicking back, enjoying coffee, relaxing, and hoping they wouldn't have a crime called in. Everybody enjoys a little down time, but they should have snapped to, as professionals, without it requiring a bat thwack on the desk. I have to think Ziva, Tony, and McGee would have been less lax.

[Sake614]

On 1/23/2020 at 9:37 AM, Rambler said:

I appreciated the reminder to always keep your tea kettles nice and polished so you can see people sneaking up behind you.

Off to polish my tea kettle 😀

[immortalfrieza]

On 1/22/2020 at 3:38 PM, MissLucas said:

Sounds pretty much like what Bones did with mixed results.

Mixed results... and then they kept piling more and more "Squinterns" as they were called, constantly rotating them around, and didn't know when to stop, rather than just pruning them down to the good and well received 2 or three and leaving it at that.

Palmer's assistant hunt this episode was like that distilled into a single episode. Even worse, with 1 utterly unqualified for the position (at least all of Bones' Squinterns could actually DO their jobs even if a lot of them were insufferable) 1 an obvious budding serial killer, and 1 just a caricature of Ducky who despite that was good at his job and then we get to the bad part just leaves for no real reason. Besides, Palmer has been the sole ME (and Ducky would leave for long periods on top of that) for a long time now and never had any issues with completing his work. It seems like Palmer just had to suddenly have problems he never had before to have the episode occur.

Edited February 8, 2020 by immortalfrieza