S01.E21: Switchback

[thewhiteowl]

Capt Milius returns to Hawaii for a secret prisoner exchange and brings in Jane to be his personal security escort.

[Raja]

Way to many coincidences in pasrt 1. So driver in Manila passes intel to an embassy guard. The Marine flies to Hawai'i on a mission top secret but just happens to get invovled in domestic disputes in his off time. Some random guy radicalized by his wife becomes a super surgeon asassin. Again a curious lack of FBI seeing as NCIS was going after spies.

Oh I guess its a recent production since Russians are the enemy again, making moves in Southeast Asia no less.

[MissLucas]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

Oh I guess its a recent production since Russians are the enemy again, making moves in Southeast Asia no less.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the real culprits will be the Chinese playing Russia and the US against each other (the script predating current events). Yeah, college dude turned perfect assassin was one of many things that requires lots of hand waving. But that's par for the course whenever plots enter the spy-verse. If the show has any weakness (beyond the obvious - s. below) it's that an over-fondness for spooking. Tennant being ex-CIA gives the writers an opening but this is already the second spy arc in the first season.

Not sure hooking up on an assignment is such a good idea. Especially not more or less in front of a very observant asset of a foreign intelligence agency. But I do understand the impulse 😁

As usual the fight choreography was great. As usual the dance between Lucy and Whistler was exhausting. As usual Tennant's family life was well-written - and hooray, a rare sighting of vegan daughter. 

[HurricaneVal]

Oh Enver.....  I think that man could have chemistry with a peanut.  It was nice to see him back, and I liked how Tennant expressed both her annoyance and her understanding of all the cloak and dagger clandestine stuff.

Uncle Ernie was awesome, as was the airport foot chase, and the realization the other assassin was hiding in plain sight, blending in at the airport trundling along with the janitor's cart.  That was nicely done.  Also, that was a prefect depiction of a real brother and sister dynamic....older brother torturing younger sister with burpees just because he can, and then turning completely protective with the mysterious knock at the door.

I wanted to slap the Russian guy chewing the scenery though. 

[blackwing]

The dead guy was a Marine who was an embassy guard in the Philippines.  But once the NCIS team realised they had stumbled into some kind of CIA scheme, wouldn't they have backed off?  I get it's a TV show and all but still.

I'm a bit unclear... the now-dead married couple were Americans who were radicals and believed in helping Russia?  They killed the Marine so he couldn't participate in the prisoner exchange because they didn't want the prisoner exchange to happen?

Their car explodes and the Russians think the Americans did it.  If it wasn't the Russians, who was it?  It seems like the Russians poisoned Commander Kelly before the exchange.

[Andyourlittledog2]

I'm getting seriously tired of the on the job romancing and hook ups. Is it too much for a show about professionals in law enforcement to have them act, I don't know, professional?

This week's Tennant-Milius googly eyes was so unnecessary. The Whistler-Lucy situation is ridiculous (for the record I think Whistler is awful and hope she disappears with a quickness but know that will never happen, sadly). The fact that the whole team are relentless buttinksis is also super annoying.

The Russian exchange spy did everything but twirl his non existent-mustache.  Good lord.

[Maverick]

 I really didn't like the way Joe was written in this.  He's in charge of a top secret mission that's been compromised--a mission that has a friend's life in the balance.  But he still has time to repeatedly hit on Tenent.   Jane was trying to be a little more professional, until she decide that overnight booty call was appropriate while on a tense prison exchange.  She also glanced at the vodka, so I assume they both had a nightcap or two.   Highly unprofessional on a regular mission, but dangerous on a mission like this.   What if someone needed Joe and had to track him down in Jane's room, only to find him buzzed.

 I agree the team can be a little too up into each other's business.   I find Ernie particularly off-putting.  I think they're trying to recapture a little early seasons Abby magic from the mothership but he's really just condescending and arrogant.  

 I'm betting on the Chinese playing both side too.  Bao was such a big plot I can't believe at least some elements and players from that plot won't pop up in the finale.  

[Daff]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:45 PM, blackwing said:

They killed the Marine so he couldn't participate in the prisoner exchange because they didn't want the prisoner exchange to happen?

I’m pretty sure they’re anarchists who have no allegiance to anyone or any country (as she said, “I don’t recognize your law”).  Think “chaos for hire”-name the event, pay us, and we’ll go ruin it. Yes, the murder of the marine was a planned and executed trap. They probably didn’t even know anything about a prisoner exchange. They were paid, did a job, and contributed to destabilizing what they hate. 

[Daff]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:45 PM, blackwing said:

It seems like the Russians poisoned Commander Kelly before the exchange.

SOMEONE poisoned Kelly. Logic indicates the captors, but it’s really unknown, as is motive. 

[VegetasMom]

I wish Whisler would just decide she's done with Lucy and quit with the longing looks.  It's like Lucy is determined to make her suffer, so Whisler should refuse to.  She's already apologized and reached out and Lucy keeps rejecting her.  So, move on, be professional and treat her like any other coworker.  

[Raja]

I still think that a CGIS show was originally pitched for all the Coast Guard invovlement in this show. You would think that a former Pacific Fleet assisitant Chief of Staff working in the Pentagon would have the resources to have his group hop any flight to Manila without depending on a NCIS Special Agent in Charge having a relationship with a Coast Guard Investgative Service agent who can then talk to the local Coast Guard air group which just happens to have a relatively slow turboprop flying to Manila.

[Arthur Jury]

is anybody with me that Capt Milius is the bad guy - in a globalist neocon cabal to stop the prisoner swap to cause chaos and cause public sentiment to encourage war against Russiaas part of the inside trial-miltary war deep state complex ....

[dwmarch]

1 hour ago, Arthur Jury said:

is anybody with me that Capt Milius is the bad guy - in a globalist neocon cabal to stop the prisoner swap to cause chaos and cause public sentiment to encourage war against Russiaas part of the inside trial-miltary war deep state complex ....

I don't think it's Milius but I did get the feeling the bad guys will turn out to be from the US side. Hawaii 5-0 was really fond of that one so I would not be at all surprised to see it show up here.

[RobertDeSneero]

On 5/18/2022 at 3:53 PM, Daff said:

I’m pretty sure they’re anarchists who have no allegiance to anyone or any country (as she said, “I don’t recognize your law”).  Think “chaos for hire”-name the event, pay us, and we’ll go ruin it. Yes, the murder of the marine was a planned and executed trap. They probably didn’t even know anything about a prisoner exchange. They were paid, did a job, and contributed to destabilizing what they hate. 

 

I got the sense that they were anti-American leftists who would do things like infiltrate a legitimate peaceful protest group like Black Lives Matter and try to turn them into riots.  They were believed to be funded by Russia, which has been known to support disruptive elements in an attempt to cause chaos in American politics.  She seems to be what is described as a "tankie", a hardcore pro-Soviet communist of the sort who would find the leftmost edge of the Democratic Party insufficiently radical.  (I say this having known a few who fit that description.)

 

[StarBrand]

On 5/17/2022 at 7:50 PM, Andyourlittledog2 said:

I'm getting seriously tired of the on the job romancing and hook ups. Is it too much for a show about professionals in law enforcement to have them act, I don't know, professional?

Almost every procedural features characters that do this, though, because I guess TPTB believe people won't watch a show without it, or the people that do will get bored.  Law and Order was the only procedural that was never concerned with its characters personal lives, and concentrated solely on...well, law and order.