S19.E16: The Wake

[thewhiteowl]

A gruesome mishap at a Navy petty officer’s gender-reveal party leads NCIS to the case of a missing teacher that was popularized on a true crime podcast.

[Linderhill]

the whole episode was sooo much idiocy.  Cognitive bias is real and no way would the agents be able to work that case.  It would be an automatic mistrial if it got that far.  And there is no way Torres would be able to just do a podcast dealing with their cases, it would never make it past public relations for the agency.

[Poohpoohpooh]

This episode finally gave us substantial Parker-Torres interaction that wasn't negative. Unfortunately Parker's chemistry with Torres is his worst imo. Maybe because their humour styles are too different. Parker = sharp & deadpan. Torres = funny in a whiney way???

It was passable, but Parker has already shown great chemistry with McGee, Palmer, Knight, Vance and even Kasie.

Interesting enough case and pacing. There were only 3 suspects, not counting the innocent widower husband.

So Parker is "into having hobbies". Either it's a plot device that he's a bit of an encyclopedia for any future cases, or it's to further paint him as a Gibbs-opposite, or it shows his character and how he can't sit still. Or something.

[rr2911]

This episode was fine.  I'm just tired of Kasie.  There making her out to be almost an agent.  She's coming out more, even more than Abby imho.  Even she mentioned to Torres that the case he had mentioned as being his was actually "hers"!  Huh?  She's not an agent!  I would more than ok if there was another "mishap" in her lab.

[stonehaven]

Kinda gross episode. I was distracted by the widow actor as I swear I saw him on 911 earlier in the evening.

I am so sick of Torres whining. I love seeing McGee in the Senior Agent spot. 

 

[HurricaneVal]

Sigh.  Back to whiny ego-man Torres.  I did like how affronted he was that he was referred to as "Flores" in the podcast.  That was funny.

At first I had the sister pegged as the killer.  Then the other "friends of the family" couple walked in and I went "*BINGO*  J'accuse!!!"  It was fairly obvious.  But without that we wouldn't have gotten the tense scenes with Knight during the standoff, or with the team in interrogation.  I thought the episode was a nice introspective turn, we are all consumers of media, and those True Crime podcasts and shows like Tiger King and the whole Robert Durst thing are an obsession for a lot of people.  Minds get made up based on how the stories are presented.  Which is fine when we're talking fiction here, but for real life stores, with real people....it is a real grey area.  And people really do get hurt.  I think the writers tried to show that, but such a concept might be a little too deep, or too awkwardly presented, or something, for this show.  It was a good attempt at trying to do something bigger, but there just wasn't a lot of meat to the story to compel us along.  Maybe if it wasn't a podcast, but a TV show where we could have seen the docudrama footage and the spin, that would have made a better point than a podcast that we the viewers couldn't see. 

The actor who played the grieving husband did a nice turn.  In the scene in the bedroom, he does a good job with his performance turning from a killer who is going to shoot himself because he was caught, to a grieving husband who just wants to end it all and is tired of being accused of murdering the woman he loved.  The scene at the cemetery was also well acted.  Nicely done, anonymous "any guy" guest star!

Sooooo......  Parker's hobby is....hobbies?  Didn't we know that before?  Something he talked about with Gibbs when they bonded?  But I like it.  I like that it gives an insight into his character, that he likes to jump from one obsession to the next.  Does this indicate that he's still searching for something that will fill a hole in him, and has been unsuccessful, or does this just mean that he's got an insatiable curiosity and just wants to explore everything, all the time, so he tries to limit himself to one obsession at a time?

We're now sixteen episodes into the season.  Will there be any Gibbs episodes before the end?  I'm OK with that, I don't miss Gibbs nearly as much as I thought I would.  I actually miss Tony more, but I don't know if that's because Torres annoys me and Parker intrigues me as their "replacements."  It is jarring though, when you hear Mark Harmon's voice come on with the bumper "Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode" and you go "Oh yeah.  Gibbs.  Huh."

Edited March 22, 2022 by HurricaneVal
Commas are important. Just ask Grandma.

[milkyaqua]

Decent epi and yes it was obvious that when the couple walked into the sister's house that one of them was the killer.

Torres and his whine are never welcome.

I did like Knight's scenes with the husband and how the story ended with he and the wife's sister coming to some sort of reconciliation.

I like that Parker is curious and has hobbies.  Casey can still be a bit much and yes, Torres wanting to do a podcast about NCIS cases, not going to happen.

[Grizzly]

Wasn't there an earlier episode where Parker distracted some woman by talking about birds while McGee hacked his way into her security system?

[Daff]

Well. This episode had a really different feel to it-and it was not comfortable at all. About halfway through, I suspected that it was the music, along with the whole “podcast” garbage. I don’t EVER remember noticing background music on NCIS. The music in this one actually irritated/aggravated, while trying to watch events develop. In hindsight, 

4 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I think the writers tried to show that, but such a concept might be a little too deep, or too awkwardly presented, or something, for this show. 

you might be correct-they tried to show us the harm social media can promulgate, albeit, awkwardly. All I know is that in all the years I’ve been watching and re-watching, no other episode ever felt like this one. 

[MissLucas]

I thought the actor playing the husband did a really good job and his scenes with Knight were great. Speaking of Knight - who did she lose recently? She wasn't speaking about Gibbs. I wonder what's up with new IT guy. Didn't care about the whole Podcast subplot - yeah, that would be a problem in RL. But it was nice to hear that Knight and Kasie hang out off-work. Torres being Torres is just something I ignore thinking the character is on his way out (though that's not official):

Apparently the not-date went well, Jimmy had a nice smile for Knight when she entered.

 

[HurricaneVal]

Knight lost her entire team.  She was the only survivor of an op that went wrong, so she's carrying a lot of survivor guilt.  I think that's why she was attracted to/nervous around Palmer--they've both lost people close to them, though as close as team members can be, I don't think they are exactly husband/wife close.  That's also how she achieved empathy with the husband, he was also a grieving soul.

 

Oh yeah!  I meant to mention that....  What was up with the computer guy?  Yeah, I know, he was being hazed, and that in and of itself was kind of funny, but when he handed the jump drive to Kasie and she just put it straight in, didn't anybody want to go "WAIT!!!!!  ASK FOR HIS BONA FIDES FIRST!!!!!  THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME THE LAB HAS BEEN INFILTRATED!!!  REMEMBER CHIP???" and I half expected the whole lab to go down.  Maybe that will come back later, Torres will go down to the cyber section and ask to see whatshisname because  he's got a minor computer problem and McGee isn't around and they'll all go, "who?" and then the virus will hit the NCIS computers with a ransonware attack to release this or that federal prisoner.  Eh, maybe it was just a non sequitur humorous hijinks scene that was just there and has no plot implications whatsoever.

[LuvMyShows]

15 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I thought the actor playing the husband did a really good job and his scenes with Knight were great.

I wonder what's up with new IT guy.

Apparently the not-date went well, Jimmy had a nice smile for Knight when she entered.

I don't generally get impressed at the acting of the non-regulars but I was with this one, and interested that others felt the same way.

That IT guy thing was stupid, and I really hope it goes no farther.

Wish they had told us about how the non-date went.

Edited March 23, 2022 by LuvMyShows

[secnarf]

12 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

Oh yeah!  I meant to mention that....  What was up with the computer guy?  Yeah, I know, he was being hazed, and that in and of itself was kind of funny, but when he handed the jump drive to Kasie and she just put it straight in, didn't anybody want to go "WAIT!!!!!  ASK FOR HIS BONA FIDES FIRST!!!!!  THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME THE LAB HAS BEEN INFILTRATED!!!  REMEMBER CHIP???" and I half expected the whole lab to go down.  Maybe that will come back later, Torres will go down to the cyber section and ask to see whatshisname because  he's got a minor computer problem and McGee isn't around and they'll all go, "who?" and then the virus will hit the NCIS computers with a ransonware attack to release this or that federal prisoner.  Eh, maybe it was just a non sequitur humorous hijinks scene that was just there and has no plot implications whatsoever.

I had the same thought - I do remember Chip! Very weird thing to insert if it doesn't come back later.

[chitowngirl]

Next weeks crossover episode: those don’t make me watch Station 19 and they won’t make me watch NCIS Hawaii. Just stop it

[LaylaGirl]

On 3/22/2022 at 6:56 PM, HurricaneVal said:

Yeah, I know, he was being hazed, and that in and of itself was kind of funny, but when he handed the jump drive to Kasie and she just put it straight in, didn't anybody want to go "WAIT!!!!!  ASK FOR HIS BONA FIDES FIRST!!!!!  THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME THE LAB HAS BEEN INFILTRATED!!!  REMEMBER CHIP??

And there was an obvious camera shot of Kasi putting the drive in the computer - I thought for sure something bad was going to happen.

[LuvMyShows]

Forgot to mention that it annoyed me they acted like Parker owed Billy because of how Billy helped out Parker in juvie, but Parker would never even have been in juvie if Billy hadn't talked him into committing the crime in the first place!!

[UncleChuck]

On 3/24/2022 at 2:13 AM, LaylaGirl said:

And there was an obvious camera shot of Kasi putting the drive in the computer - I thought for sure something bad was going to happen.

They need one computer in the lab that is NOT CONNECTED to any system.  No network, no WI-FI, no bluetooth--just old school stand alone computer.   Then they could safely open any new drive to determine if there was a danger.  But they'll never learn...

[Linderhill]

On 3/25/2022 at 11:16 AM, UncleChuck said:

They need one computer in the lab that is NOT CONNECTED to any system.  No network, no WI-FI, no bluetooth--just old school stand alone computer.   Then they could safely open any new drive to determine if there was a danger.  But they'll never learn...

my thoughts exactly!  it's obvious that the showrunners don't ever bother keeping track of past developments in previous seasons.

[Driad]

On 3/25/2022 at 11:16 AM, UncleChuck said:

They need one computer in the lab that is NOT CONNECTED to any system.  No network, no WI-FI, no bluetooth--just old school stand alone computer.   Then they could safely open any new drive to determine if there was a danger.  But they'll never learn...

On Scorpion someone put a mysterious thumb drive into a connected computer, but that show was basically a live action cartoon, which NCIS is not supposed to be.