S19.E19: The Brat Pack

[thewhiteowl]

NCIS investigates a ring of clever teenage partygoers when a string of break-ins takes place at Marine Base Quantico. While working the case, Special Agent McGee forms a bond with one of the teens, Teagan Fields.

[Poohpoohpooh]

A great "valid" episode as the kids say (especially compared to the last ep, the Torres daytime soap). Great team showing, especially by Parker being his usual funny and charismatic self.

Every show with a silver-haired guy needs an "older women find him hot" trope, and a "kids say he's olddd and uncool" trope. This episode covered both.

NO spoilers ahead:  There are only 2 episodes left (on 5/16 & finale 5/23). I believe KLaw said on an instagram live chat that 5/16 covers a bit of Knight. The finale summary has been released and it's a Parker story, which many are craving to know something about his backstory. I know I am.

[preeya]

1 hour ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

NO spoilers ahead:  There are only 2 episodes left (on 5/16 & finale 5/23). I believe KLaw said on an instagram live chat that 5/16 covers a bit of Knight. The finale summary has been released and it's a Parker story, which many are craving to know something about his backstory. I know I am.

And it will likely end with some kind of cliffhanger.

[Poohpoohpooh]

8 minutes ago, preeya said:

And it will likely end with some kind of cliffhanger.

Oh great point. I'm a new viewer thanks to Parker, and heard that ncis seasons usually end on a cliffhanger. I bet it will be The Raven biotoxin baddie sending another paper note at the END of the finale episode to tell Parker & team "I'm still here."

Back to today's episode: Sean Murray's real life daughter did a fine job. I read a parade.com Murray interview, he said his daughter has acting experience in youth theater and she goes to an arts high(?) school, so she is not completely fresh to acting. The writing to make her bratty (and not putting the dang phone down even when talking to McGee and Knight) was unrealistically (?) over-the-top rude though.

[HurricaneVal]

Uhhhhh....  Doesn't McGee have twins?  Did they just send the spare to Chuck Cunninghamland?

[buckboard]

I'm confused about where this is supposed to take place.  They keep mentioning the kids on the base breaking into houses in Norfolk.  They brought the partyers to NCIS headquarters in D.C. which is 200 miles away.  Later, the girl snuck out of her home and went to a mall in Reston, which is around 25 miles from D.C.,  What's up?

[South]

1 hour ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Oh great point. I'm a new viewer thanks to Parker, and heard that ncis seasons usually end on a cliffhanger. I bet it will be The Raven biotoxin baddie sending another paper note at the END of the finale episode to tell Parker & team "I'm still here."

Back to today's episode: Sean Murray's real life daughter did a fine job. I read a parade.com Murray interview, he said his daughter has acting experience in youth theater and she goes to an arts high(?) school, so she is not completely fresh to acting. The writing

to make her bratty (and not putting the dang phone down even when talking to McGee and Knight) was unrealistically (?) over-the-top rude though.

I liked Teagen.  Her fixity of purpose with her telephone was quite realistic.  Rude?  I reckon that depends upon the viewpoint of the other person in the room.

Slightly off topic, a bit after the episode ended, I caught an episode of Reba from the first season.  In the episode that has Cheyenne and Van going to their prom, there was Katrina Law ( Knight) portraying a high school mean girl.

[HurricaneVal]

32 minutes ago, buckboard said:

I'm confused about where this is supposed to take place.  They keep mentioning the kids on the base breaking into houses in Norfolk.  They brought the partyers to NCIS headquarters in D.C. which is 200 miles away.  Later, the girl snuck out of her home and went to a mall in Reston, which is around 25 miles from D.C.,  What's up?

Magic NCIS folding of the space-time continuum via the Gibbs wormhole.  This is how NCIS agents can take a helicopter from DC to investigate a death on a Navy ship during a crossing the equator ceremony.

[milkyaqua]

Space and distance on TV shows is pretty much a mute point by now.  I always found it funny how, no matter how small San Francisco is, the cops could go from the Marina to China Basin in five minutes.  Now way, even on a good day.  I definitely stopped questioning it on NCIS and other law enforcement shows especially when in reality the cases would be under another precincts or offices domain.  But we're not supposed to question this.

I did like the epi overall.  I didn't even have to mentally tell Torres to stop whining.

[HurricaneVal]

Y'all did catch the little wink to Wilmer's next gig, right?  When he said he used to go to school wearing a mask and carrying a spatula to pretend he was Zorro?  Valderrama all but turned to the camera to say in announcer voice "Catch me, Wilmer Valderrama, in the new Zorro show premiering on Disney Plus sometime next year!" when delivering that line. 

I did not know that the actress playing Teagan was Sean Murray's real-life daughter.  I thought she was quite good, but it really bugged me that she looked so familiar and I couldn't place her.  Something about her profile and jawline just kept tugging at my back brain.  Now I know why!  Sean Murray also had a real caring look in his eye and body language in his scenes with her, so now that really makes sense to me. 

Now, see, that's how you bring your real life into the show.  You build a plausible character relationship to account for any chemistry and lean into it.  You don't shoehorn a winking promo into a throwaway line.  McGee's preoccupation with his young daughter's current issues and his realization that this is only the beginning of an evolving relationship with his baby girl, as well as his well known affinity for and empathy for tech geek computer nerds made it seem natural for him to identify strongly with Teagan on many layers.  That was nicely done.  Do we have new writers?  Or has the absence of Mark Harmon or the addition of new characters energized the writer's room?

[MissLucas]

Well, I thought McGee and Teagan had a really good rapport - mystery solved I guess. I see they are keeping the  Jimmy/Knight ship (dinghy? it's still small) afloat, this time with some additional Ernie. I hope we never get to see those bracelets again, product placement is a necessary evil and I'm glad they kept it at a minimum. Too bad we did not get to see Mom Cop - part 2.

Edited May 4, 2022 by MissLucas

[twoods]

No wonder McGee had such great chemistry with Teagan. She’s a pretty decent actress so hope we get to see her on other shows.

I did see the subtle jealousy that Jimmy had with the NCIS guy talking about Knight. I can get onboard with this as long as it’s a decent buildup. Knight deserves someone nice like Jimmy and vice versa.

[MissLucas]

7 hours ago, twoods said:

I did see the subtle jealousy that Jimmy had with the NCIS guy talking about Knight. I can get onboard with this as long as it’s a decent buildup. Knight deserves someone nice like Jimmy and vice versa.

It would be an interesting pairing to be sure and I'm all for it. It reminds me a bit of Megan and Larry on Numb3rs. If the writers want to go there they will take their time since Jimmy has a kid. That might be one of the reasons Knight is struggling with kids - story potential. Normally I'd be wary of a ship overtaking the show but this season was very good so far and the writing room deserves some trust.

[VegetasMom]

Unless things have changed A LOT, military kids know way better than to get up to trouble like that.  The military parent is answerable to their chain of command for their dependents' behavior.  Think how bad it is when you're in trouble with your parent, then think about how mad the parent will be when THEY get chewed out for it themselves.  The kids were way too blasé about it.  

[LuvMyShows]

On 5/3/2022 at 1:11 AM, buckboard said:

I'm confused about where this is supposed to take place.  They keep mentioning the kids on the base breaking into houses in Norfolk.  They brought the partyers to NCIS headquarters in D.C. which is 200 miles away.  Later, the girl snuck out of her home and went to a mall in Reston, which is around 25 miles from D.C.,  What's up?

On 5/3/2022 at 1:47 AM, HurricaneVal said:

Magic NCIS folding of the space-time continuum via the Gibbs wormhole.  This is how NCIS agents can take a helicopter from DC to investigate a death on a Navy ship during a crossing the equator ceremony.

OK, I know they take liberties, but I still feel compelled to comment on what else they garbled.  So besides what buckboard already wrote. there was a greater problem, which is that originally when they thought it was just a break-in in on-base housing in Norfolk, it would have been handled by the Norfolk base police and NCIS would not have been involved (regardless of which location), especially not with four NCIS agents!  Then once it was determined that it was a bigger, more complex problem, it would have been appropriate for NCIS, but for the NCIS Norfolk Field Office, especially since Naval Station Norfolk is the largest military base in the world!  

Also, when they made a point of saying that they could only release Teagan to a parent or guardian so they'd have to call the uncle, how on earth had she gotten to the three-hours-away NCIS DC office in the first place?

And finally, when they realized that Teagan had "snuck out" to a shopping center in Reston (3 hours from her home in Norfolk, so, nonsensical), they were in the DC office 25 miles away from Reston, as buckboard mentioned, and they were hot on the trail of that mastermind-fake-boyfriend guy.  So they left right away to go get him...except....to get to Reston from DC would take at least 45 minutes to an hour, so the guy would be long gone by the time our agents got there.

As a side note, why oh why was nobody in Teagan's life (looking at you, mom) more skeptical about this boyfriend.  Teagan never having met him, and him cancelling the one time they were supposed to meet, should have sent up a thousand red flags.  Not to mention that she had a quasi-punk vibe and he looked like a typical very handsome prepster, so I would have been suspicious from the very start. 

On 5/3/2022 at 12:59 AM, HurricaneVal said:

Uhhhhh....  Doesn't McGee have twins?  Did they just send the spare to Chuck Cunninghamland?

I took it that because Teagan was a girl, that he was only emphasizing the connection with her at the daughter-girl level, and would therefore have had no reason to mention his son.

On 5/3/2022 at 3:57 PM, HurricaneVal said:

I did not know that the actress playing Teagan was Sean Murray's real-life daughter.  I thought she was quite good, but it really bugged me that she looked so familiar and I couldn't place her.  Something about her profile and jawline just kept tugging at my back brain.  Now I know why!  Sean Murray also had a real caring look in his eye and body language in his scenes with her, so now that really makes sense to me. 

Now, see, that's how you bring your real life into the show.  You build a plausible character relationship to account for any chemistry and lean into it.  You don't shoehorn a winking promo into a throwaway line.  McGee's preoccupation with his young daughter's current issues and his realization that this is only the beginning of an evolving relationship with his baby girl, as well as his well known affinity for and empathy for tech geek computer nerds made it seem natural for him to identify strongly with Teagan on many layers.  That was nicely done.  Do we have new writers?  Or has the absence of Mark Harmon or the addition of new characters energized the writer's room?

Interestingly, I did know that she was his daughter, but saw no resemblance whatsoever, and in fact kept staring at her trying to see if I could find any resemblance!

And unfortunately, I disagree about the relationship between McGee and Teagan.  It seemed forced how quickly he took an interest in her given how little time they actually spent together.  And I did not see any particular chemistry between them.

[Ceindreadh]

I don't get the big deal about McGee's daughter wanting to wear a princess dress every day.  It's only a pre-school and surely they wouldn't have a set uniform at that age.   Now if it had been his son wanting to wear a princess dress, that might have been more interesting, but I suppose they wanted to show McGee stressing out about his daughter growing up to be a rebel like Teagan.

And I guess that all of Teagan's hacking crimes and letting unauthorised people onto the base will be all forgiven once she helped them catch the killer?