S18.E07: The First Day

[thewhiteowl]

NCIS investigates the murder of a Navy officer who was killed while driving home a recently released inmate; Gibbs helps Palmer deal with a personal trauma.

[Grizzly]

WTF they killed Breanna?! Damn can't anyone be happy on this show? I haven't cried that much in a long time.

Seems like Carter will go into the food service industry. If Chopped has taught me anything, he will fit right in in a kitchen.

[Runningwild]

I hate that they killed off Jimmy’s wife. And it had to be COVID! Ugh. No!! Why can’t I watch TV to get away from reality?

[NYGirl]

Poor Jimmy.   I gasped when he said it.  I read that they wanted to kill of someone with COVID and they didn't want to kill any of the main characters.  I think Jack could have gone and we wouldn't care.  Or is that just me?

Here's the link:  https://www.etonline.com/ncis-fans-react-to-heartbreaking-reveal-jimmy-palmers-wife-died-of-covid-19-160358

I loved Torres' apartment and the fact that there wasn't much flirting with Bishop.

As far as Kasey..why do they feel the need to make the character in that job quirky?  She is not as bad as Abbie though

[Xeliou66]

I liked this episode - I don’t know why they killed off Palmer’s wife but I like Palmer a lot and this was a really good feature for him, I loved the scene between him and Gibbs in the morgue at the end, that was very well done, I really like how the Gibbs/Palmer relationship has evolved over the years and I liked Gibbs comforting Palmer as he knows what he’s going through, and the ending scene was nice as well. 

It was nice seeing Ducky briefly as well, I guess Ducky (and the actor who plays him) are staying home due to the virus, I wish Ducky could’ve been there at the end though when everyone gathered to support Palmer, Jimmy is like a son to Ducky so I wish he could’ve been there in person. 

The case was good as well - I did predict who the killer would be about halfway through, but it was a good case and investigation. 

What I didn’t like was the hints of romance between Torres/Bishop - it’s been going on for a bit I know, and while unlike others I don’t dislike Torres or Bishop, I don’t think they have any chemistry and I don’t like romance between main characters on crime shows.

Don’t really care that Jack’s leaving, I can take or leave her, she hasn’t made much of an impression on me in the episodes I’ve watched. 

But yeah I thought this was a nice feature for Palmer and I wonder how much more they will deal with his wife’s death going forward. 

[jaimesommers]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

WTF they killed Breanna?! Damn can't anyone be happy on this show? I haven't cried that much in a long time.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. Dang it. I wasn’t expecting that at all. 

[Magnumfangirl]

First episode I've ever turned off.  I refuse to watch actors wearing masks.

[HurricaneVal]

THEY KILLED OFF BREENA????!!!???  

The one sunshine yellow, positive character on this show?  

I lurves me a Palmer-centric plot line, BUT NOT THIS!!!

I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING.😭😭😭😭

That said, I also love how the Gibbs/Palmer relationship has evolved over time.  Those are always my favorite moments.

I also love how Torres always surprises us.  The apartment was a little unexpected, but the takeout cartons in the fridge were not.  That all was a nice character note.  I'm not fond of Wilmer V. as a person, but I do like Torres.

My biggest quibble, though, is I found this whipsawing through the timelines to be very difficult to track.  I seriously thought I'd missed an episode with some sort of bombing or hostage situation or something when we learned Breena was dead.  This isn't The Umbrella Academy where playing with a timeline is expected.  This episode was a giant record scratch after the prior ones   

It took a while to catch up, and then I kind of appreciated it, but this would have made more sense as a season premiere, then do the "Gibbs shot McGee" and "Gibbs got the cut over his eye working a questionable vengeance op with Fornell over finding Emily's drug dealer" flashback episodes later.  Just sayin'....

[twoods]

That was brutal and heartbreaking. I know we didn’t see Breena much the past few seasons but it was nice to have one nice character and one happy marriage that was drama free. Too bad the writers had to kill off another spouse, and it was unnecessary because she could have just gotten very sick. Why can’t you guys have one happy, drama free character? WHY?

I liked seeing a different side of Torres, and it was also nice to see the point of view from someone who has been in prison for half his life. His marveling at hands free sinks and Alexa, and worrying about protecting his daughter. 
 

I did not like Gibbs’ doe-eyed looks at Jack after he found out she may leave. Please don’t go there show (so of course they will).

[Gramto6]

The link to etonline (above) says Breena died of Covid but I don't remember any reference to that in the show. Did I miss something?

[Dr.OO7]

What is with this show's sick fascination with killing off its women/love interests? Jeez.

I still haven't forgiven them for ruining Jake's character, but at least he was still breathing when he left (though I'm still certain that Qasim's--ANOTHER love interest who kicked the bucket--storyline was intended for him, so it would likely have happened anyway).

Edited February 10, 2021 by Dr.OO7

[Gramto6]

5 minutes ago, Dr.OO7 said:

What is with this show's sick fascination with killing off its women/love interests? Jeez.

I still haven't forgiven them for ruining Jake's character, but at least he was still breathing when he left (though I'm still certain that Qasim's--ANOTHER love interest who kicked the bucket--storylone was intended for him, so it would likely have happened anyway).

I love Jamie Bamber (Jake) and was so sad how his story worked out. Never put it together that the Qasim storyline might have been meant for Jake. Glad it wasn't Jake! Sorry, not sorry...

[Dr.OO7]

6 minutes ago, Gramto6 said:

love Jamie Bamber (Jake) and was so sad how his story worked out. Never put it together that the Qasim storyline might have been meant for Jake. Glad it wasn't Jake! Sorry, not sorry...

Same here. Though I will begrudgingly admit that as much as it would have sucked to have yet another Jamie Bamber character get killed off, Jake dying would have had far more emotional impact and validated Bishop's vigilante actions rather than some guy she and the audience barely knew.

Back on topic. . .

This is awful. It's like the happier a character's marriage/relationship is--Vance, Bishop, Palmer, etc--the more likely that it's doomed. I'm surprised Delilah's lasted this long. 

At least she wasn't murdered, so we don't have to suffer through some story about PALMER going rogue to find her killer and Gibbs turning a blind eye to that.

[Gramto6]

6 minutes ago, Dr.OO7 said:

Same here. Though I will begrudgingly admit that as much as it would have sucked to have yet another Jamie Bamber character get killed off, Jake dying would have had far more emotional impact and validated Bishop's vigilante actions rather than some guy she and the audience barely knew.

Back on topic. . .

This is awful. It's like the happier a character's marriage/relationship is--Vance, Bishop, Palmer, etc--the more likely that it's doomed. I'm surprised Delilah's lasted this long. 

At least she wasn't murdered, so we don't have to suffer through some story about PALMER going rogue to find her killer and Gibbs turning a blind eye to that.

True, but Delilah's now in a wheelchair after the attack.  So close call but not quite saved either...

Edited February 10, 2021 by Gramto6

[cambridgeguy]

Season 20 plot - Palmer starts dating again!  Hopefully he doesn't go the Gibbs route and end up with a bunch of ex-wives.

As for this season, on the one hand, Palmer can't go rogue and track down a killer.  On the other hand, he can go nuts whenever someone tries to downplay Covid and pass it off as the flu.

[mertensia]

Man, Jimmy's breakdown reading the letter at the end was hard to watch. In fact, his entire disintegration as the episode proceeded was hard to watch.

Arepas! I love arepas.

[Chaos Theory]

This entire series is about loss and moving  on from it.  Look at the main big boy character GIbbs.  His whole thing is his wife and daughter’s murder.  It’s his overriding story.   How does someone move on from that?    They don’t.   Not really.   It’s the old saying if you’re going through Hell you keep going.   So every so often another character loses something.   But GIbbs is always there to walk them through Hell.  
 

This episode it is Palmer.  I get the show wanting to deal with Covid being just a huge deal in the world.   Palmer is actually the perfect person.  He is a main character.     It really wouldn’t have worked with anyone else.  We know  enough about his wife but it’s Palmer who we care about.   

Edited February 10, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[MDL]

I thought the ep was a bit disjointed. Nonetheless, some thoughts/questions:

 

I guess the masks are needed to "acknowledge" Covid, but why can they remove them as soon as they get off the elevator.(Real life reason, not "TV visuals" reason??)

Is Torres rich, or do NCIS agents make a lot of money? How else would he be able to afford that apartment??

Hated Palmer's wife dying. Was that mentioned earlier? Thought the memorial service at the end was touching.

Did Bishop hold onto Torres arm/elbow part way through the scene?

 

[Katy M]

I'm only watching non-covid tv so I gave up on this about 15 minutes in.

But, this is the first epi I recall seeing anyone wearing masks.  this isn't the first post-Covid epi they shot.  And, Jimmy's wife dies of Covid, yet everyone runs around in the office maskless.  What  a kick at Jimmy.  And, they said she had been dead 2 months.  Does that mean it's been 2 months since the last epi.  Because he was just rearranging his morgue to deal with McGee last week. Or the week before.  I feel like I may have forgotten the last epi.

1 minute ago, MDL said:

Is Torres rich, or do NCIS agents make a lot of money? How else would he be able to afford that apartment??

I forget the details, but there was an epi early on in his tenure which explained that he had a lot of money for some reason.  I think it was that he didn't have to spend any while undercover so he accumulated a lot.

[Callietwo]

When Jimmy mentioned Breena being dead, we were like WTF, did they air this episode out of order and I started googling but no, this was the episode that we learn about it and found it made no sense. 

I lost total track of anything that happened in the show.  I have no idea who was who as far as guest characters because I couldn't get passed this announcement.  I didn't even realize the guy in  Torres apartment (that was his apartment, I thought it was like a safe house) was someone released from prison.  I thought it was some undercover dude.  Why was he allowed to be in the viewing room when someone else was being questioned by Gibbs? 

So many questions.  I guess I might have to rewatch if I want to make sense of it all.  But damn, poor Breena.  Poor Jimmy.  😞

 

[enoughcats]

So I can add Breena to my list of "Briefly appeared on NCIS and I can't wait for them to bring her back in a more meaningful way," who I'll never see again.  

Well, she's another I will never see again.  I would have watched a spin off where she divorced Jimmy and the NCIS misfits, went to a small city and earned her living as an almost too nice Real Estate agent as her daughter grew up. Even bring her very memorable Dad along for the ride.

[eel21788]

14 hours ago, Grizzly said:

WTF they killed Breanna?! Damn can't anyone be happy on this show? 

It was time to add another member to The Widowed Fathers Club. Being the wife of someone who works for NCIS must have a higher mortality rate being a logging worker or fishermen (most dangerous professions in the US).

Edited February 10, 2021 by eel21788

[eel21788]

9 hours ago, twoods said:

I liked seeing a different side of Torres, and it was also nice to see the point of view from someone who has been in prison for half his life. His marveling at hands free sinks and Alexa, and worrying about protecting his daughter. 

Don't they have TVs in prisons? Who hasn't seen a commercial for Alexa or a hands-free sink?

[eel21788]

3 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

This entire series is about loss and moving  on from it.  

That didn't become the theme until season 3 when Gibbs suddenly had a dead wife and child who only Ziva knew about.

[eel21788]

14 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

The link to etonline (above) says Breena died of Covid but I don't remember any reference to that in the show. Did I miss something?

Jimmy made one comment to Gibbs about a long hospitalization where he wasn't allowed to see her or have a chance to say good bye. CV wasn't specifically mentioned other than Jimmy overzealously handing out sanitary wipes. 

Edited February 10, 2021 by eel21788

[MDL]

Quote

His marveling at hands free sinks and Alexa, and worrying about protecting his daughter. 

A quick laugh: when Torres commanded "Alexa.....etc." MY Alexa, located near the TV answered " I don't know what that means"

[threebluestars]

I wish they had recast Breena (actress retired from acting), and had Breena get COVID, but have lasting effects from it and Jimmy has to deal with that. There are a lot of people out there dealing with the after effects, that could have been a big impact on Jimmy without killing someone off.

[Slider]

7 hours ago, MDL said:

I guess the masks are needed to "acknowledge" Covid, but why can they remove them as soon as they get off the elevator.(Real life reason, not "TV visuals" reason??)

On that note, why are two people in a car not masked, but when the dude gets ready to get out to see his daughter (where he's going to start living!) he puts one on, and she has one on AT HER OWN HOUSE!

ETA: Did Torres mention that his sister made the food in his fridge?  Hey, at least they are recognizing he has a sister, since she's been completely forgotten since Torres' first episode.  Progress.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Slider
ETA Line

[eel21788]

1 minute ago, Slider said:

On that note, why are two people in a car not masked, but when the dude gets ready to get out to see his daughter (where he's going to start living!) he puts one on, and she has one on AT HER OWN HOUSE!

I thought the same thing. They're going to be living together, but they need to wear masks around each other all the time? Yeah, right! That's worse than the height of the AIDS epidemic when you had to keep your toothbrushes segregated. 

[basiltherat]

Team Gibbs is in their own little family bubble, so they only mask when they might encounter any non-Gibbsians.  Two dudes in the car were on opposite ends of the car.  Dude getting out of car masked up because he was meeting not only his daughter, but her baby as well.  In other locations, plexiglass was there.

[secnarf]

I wish they would do the masks properly. There is no way their team would be permitted to not wear masks around each other. If one goes down, they all go down. If they are wearing masks and distancing, etc, the likelihood of them all going down decreases. Especially important when in a car together.

I would have been happy to just completely ignore COVID on TV, but I understand why many shows are choosing to acknowledge it. However, if they are going to do so, I really wish they would do it properly.

[LuvMyShows]

Totally unrealistic that they would ever for a second have concluded that the bullets were meant for the ex-con.  Obviously whoever did the shooting would have known that the ex-con was in the passenger seat (since in order to have come upon him in the car to shoot him, they had to have known that the car trip originated at the prison, when the ex-con was being released and picked up by someone driving the car), so the shooter wouldn't have only done the shooting to the passenger.  

[Runningwild]

9 hours ago, MDL said:

A quick laugh: when Torres commanded "Alexa.....etc." MY Alexa, located near the TV answered " I don't know what that means"

Same here! I kept telling her “Nothing!” Or “Alexa, stop.”

On another note, I hate the mask wearing. I can’t understand people in real life wearing them, I sure can’t understand people on TV wearing them. 

[twoods]

7 hours ago, Slider said:

On that note, why are two people in a car not masked, but when the dude gets ready to get out to see his daughter (where he's going to start living!) he puts one on, and she has one on AT HER OWN HOUSE!

ETA: Did Torres mention that his sister made the food in his fridge?  Hey, at least they are recognizing he has a sister, since she's been completely forgotten since Torres' first episode.  Progress.

I thought it was because both Torres and the guy were tested so that is why they were maskless in the car, but he wore a mask to protect his daughter and baby anyways (and she was wearing a mask to come out and meet him, not that she was wearing one at the house). Also why they take their masks off when they got off the elevator- they were rapid tested prior to entering the building and it was negative so it’s okay. I know that’s not how it works in real life, but it was a TV excuse so the actors were not wearing masks the entire episode. 

[Chaos Theory]

21 hours ago, eel21788 said:

That didn't become the theme until season 3 when Gibbs suddenly had a dead wife and child who only Ziva knew about.

Yeah but we are in season 18 now and it’s been the story are since season 3.  It’s the same thing as saying you ship  a particular pairing on a show because they we’re together in season 1 and 2 but the show is in season 6 and they haven’t been together since then.   The show might have gone with the tortured GIbbs plot when the show changed focus from Kate to Ziva. 

[MissLucas]

Well, I had skipped a couple of episodes and thought I had missed Breena's death. Looks like it came out of nowhere. The writing for Palmer is often uneven but whenever the show decides to give him a decent plot instead of using him for comic relief it pays off ending in some of my favorite episodes.

And of all the shows I follow that acknowledge COVID this is so far the one who did it best - despite some inconsistencies with mask wearing. Compare that to shows where out-of-the-bubble characters appear on the doorstep masked and remove the mask when entering the house *you know who you are*

Torres had a pretty sweet apartment. And I googled the recipe for Arepas - they looked delicious.

Edited February 11, 2021 by MissLucas

[Slider]

10 hours ago, twoods said:

I thought it was because both Torres and the guy were tested so that is why they were maskless in the car, but he wore a mask to protect his daughter and baby anyways (and she was wearing a mask to come out and meet him, not that she was wearing one at the house).

But that's my point - why wear one to "meet him" if they are going to be living together immediately thereafter?  It's dumb.  If they (TPTB) are going to do masks for Covid sake, then have some smarts about it.

[Linderhill]

On 2/10/2021 at 2:58 AM, Dr.OO7 said:

At least she wasn't murdered, so we don't have to suffer through some story about PALMER going rogue to find her killer and Gibbs turning a blind eye to that.

I was kind of surprised that Vance didn't try to help Palmer out since he is part of the widowers club there at NCIS.  His wife was just as brutally and senselessly murdered as Gibbs.  I'm not a big Palmer fan but that last scene did move me.  I was kind of spoiled about Breena's death since stupid yahoo had an article about the episode with the title proclaiming that Palmer was dealing with his wife's death from Covid.

Quote

Well, she's another I will never see again.  I would have watched a spin off where she divorced Jimmy and the NCIS misfits, went to a small city and earned her living as an almost too nice Real Estate agent as her daughter grew up. Even bring her very memorable Dad along for the ride.

Except that Breena was a mortician so she would have had to be a too nice funeral home director.  

[Sake614]

I was totally lost when everyone was talking to Jimmy about doing things by himself. Then the almost throw away line about Breena and I’m thinking ‘wait, what? Breena died? Did I miss an episode or three? I mean, what the actual fuck? Why Breena? The last couple of scenes undid me and I bawled like a baby. But I still don’t like it.

[UncleChuck]

Quote

I was totally lost when everyone was talking to Jimmy about doing things by himself. Then the almost throw away line about Breena and I’m thinking ‘wait, what? Breena died? Did I miss an episode or three? I mean, what the actual fuck?

I know.  I had to pause the episode on the DVR, then go online to figure out what I had missed and when...  Then I learned that I had not missed anything so I could go back and resume watching the episode.

[secnarf]

4 hours ago, UncleChuck said:

I know.  I had to pause the episode on the DVR, then go online to figure out what I had missed and when...  Then I learned that I had not missed anything so I could go back and resume watching the episode.

This is what I did too. Then I found out I hadn't missed anything but that she died of COVID, which I don't think had been said onscreen yet.

I did completely miss that there was a time jump between last episode and this one, as well.

[Xeliou66]

On 2/12/2021 at 12:25 AM, Linderhill said:

I was kind of surprised that Vance didn't try to help Palmer out since he is part of the widowers club there at NCIS.  His wife was just as brutally and senselessly murdered as Gibbs.  I'm not a big Palmer fan but that last scene did move me.  I was kind of spoiled about Breena's death since stupid yahoo had an article about the episode with the title proclaiming that Palmer was dealing with his wife's death from Covid.

I thought about Vance as well - it would’ve been nice to have had a scene or a line about Vance knowing what Palmer was going through, but I guess since Vance and Palmer have never had much of a relationship and are rarely in scenes together they didn’t do it. Would’ve been nice if Vance had shown up at the end when everyone gathered to support Jimmy though. 

I was glad it was Gibbs that talked to Palmer though and comforted him - that scene was really well done and I really like how te Gibbs/Palmer relationship has evolved - in the early seasons Palmer just seemed to annoy Gibbs and Palmer seemed afraid of Gibbs, I like how their relationship has evolved to one of mutual respect and friendship. Palmer’s character has come a long way and I enjoy when he gets a bigger role. 

[immortalfrieza]

On 2/9/2021 at 9:47 PM, Magnumfangirl said:

First episode I've ever turned off.  I refuse to watch actors wearing masks.

Seconded. I'm sick of all these shows bowing to real life and sticking COVID in there. This is fiction, we watch it to get AWAY from real life. Especially since they are not particularly consistent about when they wear those masks or not. On set they can easily make sure all the actors and extras have been tested before shooting, there's no reason to even acknowledge COVID happened at all.

On 2/10/2021 at 8:34 AM, Callietwo said:

When Jimmy mentioned Breena being dead, we were like WTF, did they air this episode out of order and I started googling but no, this was the episode that we learn about it and found it made no sense.

Personally, for me it would help a lot if Breena was someone who was actually on the show on occasion. It's hard to care about someone dying who we never saw and whose only role on the show was "Jimmy's wife we occasionally hear about in passing." The only reason I even remotely cared was because of seeing Jimmy so obviously broken up about it. It didn't help that it literally came out of nowhere. "Oh BTW, Jimmy's wife we never see died two months ago. It was never brought up in any episodes around when it was supposed to have happened but there you go."

On 2/10/2021 at 2:04 AM, Gramto6 said:

True, but Delilah's now in a wheelchair after the attack.  So close call but not quite saved either...

Like Delilah for instance. She actually appears a couple of times a season since Mcgee met her and thus it would be a lot easier to have actual emotional weight if she were to die. Though at this point she's been around far too long to ever think she would be killed off.

On 2/10/2021 at 7:22 AM, MDL said:

Is Torres rich, or do NCIS agents make a lot of money? How else would he be able to afford that apartment??

Maybe Torres is yet another NCIS agent who live in a murder apartment!

[M.CoatesworthHay]

On 2/10/2021 at 10:32 PM, Runningwild said:

On another note, I hate the mask wearing. I can’t understand people in real life wearing them

I'm pretty sure people wear them in real life because we're in a pandemic and masks help reduce transmission of the virus. 

I also thought I had missed an episode. Had to go and check online what was going on. It was quite jarring the way they told the audience about Breena's death. 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by M.CoatesworthHay

[Runningwild]

23 hours ago, M.CoatesworthHay said:

I'm pretty sure people wear them in real life because we're in a pandemic and masks help reduce transmission of the virus.

Seriously? I wasn’t questioning why people wear masks. It’s usually mandated. 
 

I wear hearing aids. I can’t understand what people are saying when they are wearing masks. 
 

Good Lord. 

[mythoughtis]

I also thought I’d missed something, but then I caught on.  We hadn’t seen Breena in years, and the actress  isn’t coming back, so I think it was a nice touch to reality to use Covid as the reason.  We haven’t seen any show that I watch actually deal with the fallout of Covid. Plus maybe it’s a PSA shoutout to get some nonbelievers to wear masks in real life. 
The only so often wearing masks at the office  is annoying though - my work required us to wear them if we left our desk or someone came to our desk and we all had cubicles with 6 ft tall walls.  The bullpen is open and they should be wearing masks there.

Jack rethinking her future during the Covid isolation was also true to life.   I decided that it was time to retire since I actually enjoyed working from home ... other than the working part.  So when  we had to go back into the office in June I found myself ready to go home and stay. Dec 31 was my last day and the last six weeks were again working from home. 
 
When this shows ends, I’d like the last scene to be Gibbs meeting Jack on a beach similar to the ending of Shawshank a redemption ...without the long bus ride though. 

 

 

[M.CoatesworthHay]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:59 PM, Runningwild said:

Seriously? I wasn’t questioning why people wear masks. It’s usually mandated. 

The phrasing wasn't clear that you couldn't understand *people speaking* while wearing masks. I read it as not understanding why people wear masks. Thank you for clarifying.