S02.E04: Primal Fear

[thewhiteowl]

When a Navy sailor washes up dead in a sacred, forbidden kapu site, the NCIS team brings CGIS Special Agent Pike to unmask the mystery and catch a possible serial killer on the island. Also, Tennant meets Alex’s new girlfriend.

[Raja]

More Boone family stories. At this point I think we shouldn't have met his daughter as they missed a running joke.

I guess Agent Pike went to a serial killer  seminar on his own dime. How often does the Coast Guard take a lead in such an investigation? It could play like Kate, the black balled Secret Service Agent as a NCIS, or CGIS Agent who settled for the show's star agency. Where as you would think more would be like Agent Percy of New Orleans who moved to the FBI.

The older woman who blew off college, so Janey's son is thinking the same. There is the less than A grade explanation. They took care to emphasize he was 18. I guess she is not a Hawaiian  native as she didn't start with the elder respect when addressing her boyfriend's mom.

[HurricaneVal]

I'm all in on Agent Pike.  Dear show, please use him sparingly so he remains the charmingly competent doofus and doesn't get annoying.

Vanessa Lachey playing Janey being all preternaturally calm but with all those facial expressions over her son's unexpected girlfriend was cracking me up last night.  Especially when handed the glass of wine and Cassandra clinked glasses with her and took a sip and Alex rushed in with a desperate "She's 21!" before the explosion.  You could see Janey's patience wearing thin there at the end as the revelations kept coming about Cassandra's lifestyle and influence on Alex.  This may be a fun ride.

Just please.  Please, please, please, show.....don't turn this into what they did on Young Sheldon with Georgie and have Alex and Cassandra get pregnant.  Please....

[blackwing]

I enjoyed the case of the week, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of Agent Pike.  Pike is such a tool, and the hilarious thing is that he doesn't seem to recognise that he's a dork.  He's like the dork latching on the cool kid Boone.  Boone's exasperation was hilarious.

Re Heather Boone... did we see her on Facetime last season?  I swear Jane was Facetiming with her in the episode where the daughter got kidnapped, and we might have seen an indistinct small face on the phone in the background.  But I'm wondering if we are ever going to see her.

Jane has a lot of patience with Alex's girlfriend.  I would have put my foot down instantly if she handed me a glass of wine and called me by my first name.   She thinks because she is 21 she is an adult and is allowed to treat her boyfriend's mom like they are equals?   I'm surprised that Jane didn't say anything to Alex about that.  She should have told Alex that this woman needs to call her Ms. Tennant.  I know that Jane is worried that she will push Alex away, but at some point, she needs to demand some respect.

Edited October 11, 2022 by blackwing

[Snazzy Daisy]

Kudos to those who have guessed correctly about Alex having an older gf.

Love watching every Jesse/Kai scenes. Their dynamic and chemistry have improved over times.

I can guess who the killer is pretty early on due to HITG! No mystery there. 😵😴

Roanoke-ish vibes…

[StarBrand]

I'm not sure what I was supposed to think about Tennant's son's girlfriend. Were they trying to portray her as being an airhead, or having it be weird for her to have six roommates? These days, if you aren't living with your parents, making great amounts of money yourself, (or at least have a girlfriend/spouse that makes some money to share finances with), sometimes you pretty much have to have that many roommates to afford rent and food for yourself. And then there was the fact that she was (gasp) 21!.  The biggest "sin" appeared to be that the girl thought of  colllege not being necessary, so she "skipped" it, and Tennant seems to be worried about her attitude about life being a "bad influence" on her son.   

BTW, having a post-secondary education is NO guarantee of future success.

Pike can be tolerable in small doses, but boy, is this guy annoying most of the time.

I'm still amazed how the writers make the Lucy/Whistler pairing not an issue. They don't try and shoehorn their drama into every episode. I actually don't mind it at all now.

Edited October 12, 2022 by StarBrand

[StarBrand]

7 hours ago, blackwing said:

I enjoyed the case of the week, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of Agent Pike.  Pike is such a tool, and the hilarious thing is that he doesn't seem to recognise that he's a dork.  He's like the dork latching on the cool kid Boone.  Boone's exasperation was hilarious.

Re Heather Boone... did we see her on Facetime last season?  I swear Jane was Facetiming with her in the episode where the daughter got kidnapped, and we might have seen an indistinct small face on the phone in the background.  But I'm wondering if we are ever going to see her.

Jane has a lot of patience with Alex's girlfriend.  I would have put my foot down instantly if she handed me a glass of wine and called me by my first name.   She thinks because she is 21 she is an adult and is allowed to treat her boyfriend's mom like they are equals?   I'm surprised that Jane didn't say anything to Alex about that.  She should have told Alex that this woman needs to call her Ms. Tennant.  I know that Jane is worried that she will push Alex away, but at some point, she needs to demand some respect.

Sorry, responded to wrong post.

7 hours ago, blackwing said:

I enjoyed the case of the week, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of Agent Pike.  Pike is such a tool, and the hilarious thing is that he doesn't seem to recognise that he's a dork.  He's like the dork latching on the cool kid Boone.  Boone's exasperation was hilarious.

Re Heather Boone... did we see her on Facetime last season?  I swear Jane was Facetiming with her in the episode where the daughter got kidnapped, and we might have seen an indistinct small face on the phone in the background.  But I'm wondering if we are ever going to see her.

Jane has a lot of patience with Alex's girlfriend.  I would have put my foot down instantly if she handed me a glass of wine and called me by my first name.   She thinks because she is 21 she is an adult and is allowed to treat her boyfriend's mom like they are equals?   I'm surprised that Jane didn't say anything to Alex about that.  She should have told Alex that this woman needs to call her Ms. Tennant.  I know that Jane is worried that she will push Alex away, but at some point, she needs to demand some respect.

1 minute ago, StarBrand said:

I did not think the girlfriend showed Tennant any disrespect whatsoever. Maybe she was overeager to get Tennant to like her as her son's boyfriend, but that was about it.  The show seemed to want me to dislike her, but I didn't....

Edited October 12, 2022 by StarBrand

[StarBrand]

12 hours ago, Raja said:

More Boone family stories. At this point I think we shouldn't have met his daughter as they missed a running joke.

I guess Agent Pike went to a serial killer  seminar on his own dime. How often does the Coast Guard take a lead in such an investigation? It could play like Kate, the black balled Secret Service Agent as a NCIS, or CGIS Agent who settled for the show's star agency. Where as you would think more would be like Agent Percy of New Orleans who moved to the FBI.

The older woman who blew off college, so Janey's son is thinking the same. There is the less than A grade explanation. They took care to emphasize he was 18. I guess she is not a Hawaiian  native as she didn't start with the elder respect when addressing her boyfriend's mom.

I don't think Tennant's son was thinking of going the "no college" route. It's what Tennant herself seems to think. 

What I also didn't like was that she more or less forced her son to introduce her to his girlfriend THAT NIGHT!. Like there's a limited amount of time you're allowed not to do so.

[dwmarch]

I thought Alex's girlfriend was going to be much older. Like absurdly inappropriately older. Like he was dating the coroner or something. Now that would have been comedy gold right there.

Not much else to say on this one as it was a cut and paste from the greatest hits of Hawaii 5-0. I'm pretty sure 5-0 even had a plot where someone was pumped full of adrenaline and had to try to stay calm and try not to die. 5-0 also did the Hawaiian sovereignty plot before although I believe they did a little more jurisdictional trampling than NCIS, who achieved results via asking nicely and being respectful. And of course we have the mandatory helpful person from another agency who turns out to be the bad guy in a shocking twist if you have never seen one episode of Hawaii 5-0. As an added bonus we get a hard takedown which I guess means it is okay for cops to blow bad guys away on TV again. NCIS Hawaii has mostly been team non-lethal so far but they must have been possessed by the spirit of Steve McGarrett here.

I agree a little bit of Coast Guard homie goes a long way. What makes it painful for me is that I have already seen years and years of a badly-written character tripping over their own feet while trying to pretend they are an elite profiler. That show is called The Blacklist and I hate watch it so I can snark on it here. Don't be that show, NCIS Hawaii. Please don't be that show!

[Raja]

7 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I thought Alex's girlfriend was going to be much older. Like absurdly inappropriately older. Like he was dating the coroner or something. Now that would have been comedy gold right there.

Not much else to say on this one as it was a cut and paste from the greatest hits of Hawaii 5-0. I'm pretty sure 5-0 even had a plot where someone was pumped full of adrenaline and had to try to stay calm and try not to die. 5-0 also did the Hawaiian sovereignty plot before although I believe they did a little more jurisdictional trampling than NCIS, who achieved results via asking nicely and being respectful. And of course we have the mandatory helpful person from another agency who turns out to be the bad guy in a shocking twist if you have never seen one episode of Hawaii 5-0. As an added bonus we get a hard takedown which I guess means it is okay for cops to blow bad guys away on TV again. NCIS Hawaii has mostly been team non-lethal so far but they must have been possessed by the spirit of Steve McGarrett here.

I agree a little bit of Coast Guard homie goes a long way. What makes it painful for me is that I have already seen years and years of a badly-written character tripping over their own feet while trying to pretend they are an elite profiler. That show is called The Blacklist and I hate watch it so I can snark on it here. Don't be that show, NCIS Hawaii. Please don't be that show!

What got me was the state of Hawaii's lack of response. Sure the latest victim was a sailor so NCIS was on the case but a Coast Guard airman got Agent Pike involved and all those other victims demanded a 5-0 response not just a couple of Park Rangers to help find a witness.

[blackwing]

11 hours ago, StarBrand said:

I did not think the girlfriend showed Tennant any disrespect whatsoever. Maybe she was overeager to get Tennant to like her as her son's boyfriend, but that was about it.  The show seemed to want me to dislike her, but I didn't....

I don't think it's ever appropriate for a child to call an adult by their first name.  I cringe when I hear my kid's friends  referring to a parent as "Jenny" or "Laura", sometimes to their face.  Now if the adult had expressly told the kid "call me Jenny, not Mrs. Jones", then it's ok.  But in this case, Jane had just met her, and in fact, had just learned her name earlier that day.  And Cassandra is already calling her Jane and handing her a glass of wine like they are close friends.  She was basically saying "I'm 21 and I'm and adult, so I'm going to treat you as an equal and not my boyfriend's mother".  That to me is the disrespect, there were boundaries that were immediately crossed.  But we are supposed to chalk it up to her "free spirit" or whatever.  Doesn't fly with me.

8 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Not much else to say on this one as it was a cut and paste from the greatest hits of Hawaii 5-0. I'm pretty sure 5-0 even had a plot where someone was pumped full of adrenaline and had to try to stay calm and try not to die. 5-0 also did the Hawaiian sovereignty plot before although I believe they did a little more jurisdictional trampling than NCIS, who achieved results via asking nicely and being respectful. And of course we have the mandatory helpful person from another agency who turns out to be the bad guy in a shocking twist if you have never seen one episode of Hawaii 5-0. As an added bonus we get a hard takedown which I guess means it is okay for cops to blow bad guys away on TV again. NCIS Hawaii has mostly been team non-lethal so far but they must have been possessed by the spirit of Steve McGarrett here.

I agree a little bit of Coast Guard homie goes a long way. What makes it painful for me is that I have already seen years and years of a badly-written character tripping over their own feet while trying to pretend they are an elite profiler. That show is called The Blacklist and I hate watch it so I can snark on it here. Don't be that show, NCIS Hawaii. Please don't be that show!

Yes, the cold open felt like we were in one of Hawaii 5-0s always great Halloween episodes.  I definitely recall a sovereignty plot and sacred land and native temples and burial grounds before.

I don't recall Pike being quite this quirky.  Thinking of himself as Boone's best pal, inviting himself to Boone's house, texting his wife to exchange hot goss and recipes, etc.  I did like that it was played for laughs, but Boone is a family man and there's probably a reason why we don't really know much about his family.  Pike is single and even though they are about the same age, it seems obvious that Boone wants to separate work from home life.  Which is why Kai has never even been to Boone's house.

You know who else is single and quirky?  Ernie!  I feel like Pike and Ernie should be best friends, since they are both a little odd.  But somehow I think we will find that they despise each other.

[Raja]

13 hours ago, StarBrand said:

I'm not sure what I was supposed to think about Tennant's son's girlfriend. Were they trying to portray her as being an airhead, or having it be weird for her to have six roommates? These days, if you aren't living with your parents, making great amounts of money yourself, (or at least have a girlfriend/spouse that makes some money to share finances with), sometimes you pretty much have to have that many roommates to afford rent and food for yourself. And then there was the fact that she was (gasp) 21!.  The biggest "sin" appeared to be that the girl thought of  colllege not being necessary, so she "skipped" it, and Tennant seems to be worried about her attitude about life being a "bad influence" on her son.   

BTW, having a post-secondary education is NO guarantee of future success.

Pike can be tolerable in small doses, but boy, is this guy annoying most of the time.

I'm still amazed how the writers make the Lucy/Whistler pairing not an issue. They don't try and shoehorn their drama into every episode. I actually don't mind it at all now.

It's a generational distinction. If the girlfriend is of the same generation as Alex then a correct informal address, outside of mainland, Northern and Western America is auntie not first name for his mother. On H5-0 in his first appearnces Kono called ex con, snitch Kamekona "uncle" before reverting to North American standards for most of the series.

[Maverick]

There are too many quirky characters on this show.  Ernie, Pike, Bam Bam, Ernie's ex girlfriend.   Even Lucy and Whistler to a degree.   Apparently being off kilter is a side effect of living in paradise.  

[blackwing]

30 minutes ago, Maverick said:

There are too many quirky characters on this show.  Ernie, Pike, Bam Bam, Ernie's ex girlfriend.   Even Lucy and Whistler to a degree.   Apparently being off kilter is a side effect of living in paradise.  

And don't forget probably the weirdest one of them all... Commander Chase.  But the coroner characters on this kind of show are always portrayed as being a little out there.

[MissLucas]

Between this episode and the mothership's episode of the week I just scratched all national parks off my hypothetical 'places to visit' list. To be fair after watching the full run of H5-0 Hawaii  has already been removed from that list for good. Damn hotbed for serial killers and terrorists!

The weirdest thing about Alex's plot was how he's holding a book when reading! Boy needs an appointment with an opthamologist or a neurologist ASAP! Cassandra's okay, though I was a bit surprised by her recommendation of E. Tolle, but apparently he's cool again. Anyhow, the age difference isn't that big and if she's the craziest girlfriend Alex ever brings home Tenant can count her lucky stars.

Somehow I had completely forgotten about Pike (seriously even after watching this episode I have no idea when he had shown up before) - so when they talked about the Coast Guard's best agent I expected to see agent Borin *sigh*

Kai just won back some points with me for recognizing the Tibetan prayer, not sure it makes up for not knowing Top Gun but it's a start.

[immortalfrieza]

On 10/12/2022 at 12:32 AM, dwmarch said:

And of course we have the mandatory helpful person from another agency who turns out to be the bad guy in a shocking twist if you have never seen one episode of Hawaii 5-0.

If this was Hawaii 5-0, literally every supposed good guy who wasn't on the team would turn out to be a bad guy, especially if they were a love interest. Whistler would turn out to be a Russian drug lord or something, Alex's girlfriend would be in the mob and dating Tennant's son to fish for info, and Captain Milius would be a deep cover spy for the KGB. And all of them would somehow end up working for a bad guy that's been a constant thorn in the team's side that should've gotten shot dead several seasons ago. Because it's impossible to have healthy romantic and even familial relationships on that show. Ever.

On 10/12/2022 at 12:32 AM, dwmarch said:

I agree a little bit of Coast Guard homie goes a long way.

Just wait until he starts to become popular specifically because he's a bit of lightness every once in a while, then the writers notice and start shoehorning him into every last episode they can possibly justify it in an attempt to boost ratings, missing that the man is interesting because he's used sparingly and so just becomes extremely annoying.

Quote

What makes it painful for me is that I have already seen years and years of a badly-written character tripping over their own feet while trying to pretend they are an elite profiler. That show is called The Blacklist and I hate watch it so I can snark on it here. Don't be that show, NCIS Hawaii. Please don't be that show!

Honestly I think it was Criminal Minds they were making fun of there. The fact that their profiling criminals works all the time on their own show but is extremely ineffective and just a bunch of guesswork in real life.

[Maverick]

 I just realized the actor who plays Neil played Oliver Crane, the social media reporter from the Checkmate arc on NCIS: New Orleans.