S02.E08: Curtain Call

[thewhiteowl]

When a naval officer is murdered while moonlighting in community theater, the NCIS team recruits a familiar face to help lead them to a ruthless international killer. Also, Kai enlists Whistler to open an investigation into an old friend turned criminal.

[blackwing]

I enjoyed this episode overall, even if I didn't remember Charlie 1.  Apparently he was in the season finale last season?  No recognition at all from me.  I liked him here, he is competent and I found his brand of operations a bit irreverent and funny.  Wouldn't mind seeing him turn up again, and he could be a potential match for Jane since Milius seems to have completely disappeared.

I noticed that Yasmine Al-Bustami's name was missing in the credits.  Is this common?  I thought most network shows, even if an actor doesn't appear in the episode, their name still gets listed?  I know that cable or streaming shows often only list the actors who are in the episode, "Game of Thrones" and "The Crown" are two shows I can think of that do this.

Is she in fact leaving the show?  Or temporarily gone?  Is the actress pregnant or working on some other project?  If not, it does seem odd that the show seems to be giving her a forced vacation.

I thought Whistler without Lucy was fantastic.  Her interaction with Kai about his drug cartel friend was great.  She was poised and confident and in charge, the way I would expect an agent of her level to be.

Jesse and Kai work great together, the team is really gelling.  The whole interactions between Jesse and Kai about "The Pirates of Penzance" were hilarious.  Jesse chiding Kai for not knowing what he is talking about ("now you're just making yourself look stupid"), Kai chiding Jesse for finding his theater people when they busted in on that commercial, etc.  I particularly loved the opening conversation when Jesse was telling Kai about his experience with theater.  "Gracie was in a play in 5th grade.  Brutal."  Noah Mills has great delivery, the way he said "brutal", I felt his pain.  Every parent who has sat through some painful band concert, school play, spelling bee, awards ceremony, etc could surely relate.

Jane to Charlie 1: "well, you know my full name, and I just know your boy band name".  Particularly hilarious since Vanessa's husband was in a boy band.  Charlie 1 even kind of resembles Nick Lachey a little if you squint.

The only negative of this episode for me was Alex and Cassandra.  I still absolutely hate how this woman calls her "Jane".  Even as a grown middle-aged adult, I never call the parents of my friends that I grew up with by their first names.  They will always be "Mr." or "Mrs."  This woman is 23 and because she is an adult, she thinks that gives her the right to call Jane by her first name?  Jane is her boyfriend's mother, show some respect.  The fact that she thinks she is adult so they are on equal footing really indicates how wrong this relationship is.  I noticed they specifically said that Alex is 18, but he's still in high school!

Jane really should set the ground rules, starting with calling her "Ms. Tennant".  I half-expected Cassandra to tell Jane that she forgot to pack pajamas so found "this old rag of yours in your closet and didn't think you would mind if I wore it".  Ugh.  I'd kick her out of the house so quickly.
 

[Impish Dragon]

55 minutes ago, blackwing said:

The only negative of this episode for me was Alex and Cassandra.  I still absolutely hate how this woman calls her "Jane".  Even as a grown middle-aged adult, I never call the parents of my friends that I grew up with by their first names.  They will always be "Mr." or "Mrs."  This woman is 23 and because she is an adult, she thinks that gives her the right to call Jane by her first name?  Jane is her boyfriend's mother, show some respect.  The fact that she thinks she is adult so they are on equal footing really indicates how wrong this relationship is.  I noticed they specifically said that Alex is 18, but he's still in high school!

Jane really should set the ground rules, starting with calling her "Ms. Tennant".  I half-expected Cassandra to tell Jane that she forgot to pack pajamas so found "this old rag of yours in your closet and didn't think you would mind if I wore it".  Ugh.  I'd kick her out of the house so quickly.
 

Being 18 and in high school doesn't bug.  It depends on when his birthday is.  As for the rest, I agree.  It disrespectful to call the parent of the person you are hooking up with anything other than Ms/Mrs./Mr/Whatever until you are given permission by that person to do so.  Alex is also being disrespectful if her being there is against the rules of the house.  Yes he is an adult but he stated he knew the rules.  If he didn't like them, he should have acted like the adult he wants to be treated like and talked to his mom about establishing new rules/boundaries.

[HurricaneVal]

I'm almost wondering if Cassandra is playing this game on purpose.  I wonder if Alex has asked her to tone it down, or said something like "Mom doesn't want anyone over while she's gone", so Cassandra is doing all this in order to get under Tennant's skin because she enjoys the power play.   There's just something about the character that makes me think she's needling Tennant, just because she can.

It still makes no sense to me plot-wise, but the standoff at the unfinished safe house was awesomely blocked out and filmed.  I really like it how for three out of four episodes, they have Tennant being the wise team lead, directing the team from the office, conducting probing interrogations, and making insightful deductions based on the evidence that is all flowing to the command center, and then on the fourth episode they show Tennant absolutely kicking ass out in the field.

[Raja]

My they could have done without plot point had to be Agent Lem, Alan being moved up to the murder squad from financial crimes in Lucy's absence. Janey however did bring it after a couple of lackluster shows this season.

[Maverick]

 I don't remember Alan (or Charlie 1 for that matter) but I was annoyed at yet another quirky character.  

[RobertDeSneero]

13 hours ago, blackwing said:

I noticed they specifically said that Alex is 18, but he's still in high school!

Are you perhaps not American (Canadian?) and not aware that kids usually turn 18 during the senior year in high school in the US?

[Daff]

12 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I'm almost wondering if Cassandra is playing this game on purpose.  I wonder if Alex has asked her to tone it down, or said something like "Mom doesn't want anyone over while she's gone", so Cassandra is doing all this in order to get under Tennant's skin because she enjoys the power play.   There's just something about the character that makes me think she's needling Tennant, just because she can.

It still makes no sense to me plot-wise, but the standoff at the unfinished safe house was awesomely blocked out and filmed.  I really like it how for three out of four episodes, they have Tennant being the wise team lead, directing the team from the office, conducting probing interrogations, and making insightful deductions based on the evidence that is all flowing to the command center, and then on the fourth episode they show Tennant absolutely kicking ass out in the field.

I don’t think so. She’s a flighty nut-job who has wrapped Alex around her little finger. First time he doesn’t go along with her whacky ideas, I think he’ll begin to realize how manipulative she can be. 
As for the safe-house under construction, the bad guys wanted to know the location of all the safe houses. They knew the architect/builder would be at the unfinished one, so they planned to abduct him and get that information from him. 

[Daff]

6 hours ago, RobertDeSneero said:

Are you perhaps not American (Canadian?) and not aware that kids usually turn 18 during the senior year in high school in the US?

Probability wise, it should actually be half and half. If your birthday falls July to December (6 months), you can enter K at age four, which results in graduation at age 17. There are other factors, though. Parents delaying entry, repeating a grade, etc. 

[Raja]

7 hours ago, Maverick said:

 I don't remember Alan (or Charlie 1 for that matter) but I was annoyed at yet another quirky character.  

Charlie 1 was their contact to Philippine Special Forces on that mission. When Alan was talking about a mission before even after seeing the IMBD credit it still doesn't ring a bell

[blackwing]

7 hours ago, RobertDeSneero said:

Are you perhaps not American (Canadian?) and not aware that kids usually turn 18 during the senior year in high school in the US?

No I'm well aware of that.  I turned 18 during my senior year, as did most everyone except for those with summer or birthdays or those who had skipped grades or something.  I think the reason why they mentioned he was 18 is because 18 is considered a legal adult.  And I think this line was to make it seem a little less squicky that a 23 year old is sleeping with an 18 year old.  They are both consenting legal adults.  But my issue is that even though he's 18, he's still in high school, and I find it squicky that a 23 year old woman who is presumably working and adulting is sleeping with a kid that's still in high school.

[mythoughtis]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

No I'm well aware of that.  I turned 18 during my senior year, as did most everyone except for those with summer or birthdays or those who had skipped grades or something.  I think the reason why they mentioned he was 18 is because 18 is considered a legal adult.  And I think this line was to make it seem a little less squicky that a 23 year old is sleeping with an 18 year old.  They are both consenting legal adults.  But my issue is that even though he's 18, he's still in high school, and I find it squicky that a 23 year old woman who is presumably working and adulting is sleeping with a kid that's still in high school.

Agreed.  I believe most parents would still feel the same way if the 18 year old was female and the 23 year old male.  The high school student, living at home, provided for by parents  versus a 23 year old is a problem, because 18 isn’t really an adult in terms of maturity in that situation, just legally.    
In addition, I do not think most 23  year olds would  be interested in a high school student, not old enough to drink, with a curfew, and we know Cassandra drinks. 
 

[dwmarch]

14 hours ago, Raja said:

Charlie 1 was their contact to Philippine Special Forces on that mission.

He's not in the episode for very long. He pops out of a van to grab someone and later on he's with Tennant on the Navy ship for a scene. I thought he was a Navy SEAL because he dropped some dialog that I hear on SEAL Team all the time. In any case, interesting to see him again and fun that I got to learn about Task Force Orange, another Tier 1 Special Forces outfit that likes to change names on a regular basis. Although in this episode they tag him as a contractor and I am not sure if that lines up with his previous appearance. Why would NCIS have called in a contractor rather than an actual Navy SEAL?

So we had characters specifically calling out the jurisdictional issue involved in having NCIS go to Mexico. And how do we resolve this conflict? Hawaii 5-0 style, we ignore it completely! Tennant just says "I'll go" as if that somehow grants her the jurisdiction she needed. Was this her way of saying she's still part-time CIA so it's okay? Or did she call Steve McGarrett and ask him what he would do?

Now I am not a parent and I am generally loath to give parenting advice. But as regards Tennant's son what the fuck did you think was going to happen, Jane? The way she rides herd on that kid he's probably never been laid in his life. She's lucky he waited until she was out of the country.

So for building safehouses, the US has one single dude and he works alone? And it has never occurred to anyone that bad guys might wish to kidnap this fella? He's only made it this far through sheer luck?

[Raja]

15 hours ago, blackwing said:

No I'm well aware of that.  I turned 18 during my senior year, as did most everyone except for those with summer or birthdays or those who had skipped grades or something.  I think the reason why they mentioned he was 18 is because 18 is considered a legal adult.  And I think this line was to make it seem a little less squicky that a 23 year old is sleeping with an 18 year old.  They are both consenting legal adults.  But my issue is that even though he's 18, he's still in high school, and I find it squicky that a 23 year old woman who is presumably working and adulting is sleeping with a kid that's still in high school.

They hammered home that he is 18 in the other appearance also. Just to take a call to a HPD colleague off the table along with any audience ick factor. Given the franchise history I half expect Cassandra to be a Black Widow agent targeting the chief Navy detective/spy at Pearl Harbor through her son. However with everything she has done has been to grate on Janey I am thinking the young couple gets kidnapped at some point

[Snazzy Daisy]

Charlie 1 was the operative who captured Dr. Dunne in Manila and brought him to Jane and Capt. Milius.

[theredhead77]

On 11/24/2022 at 1:09 AM, Raja said:

Given the franchise history I half expect Cassandra to be a Black Widow agent targeting the chief Navy detective/spy at Pearl Harbor through her son.'m 

I've had this feeling for awhile; things aren't what they seem with Cassandra and she's working to alienate Alex and Jane, maybe to turn Alex into a spy, or maybe as a way to spy on Jane. 

[HurricaneVal]

On 11/23/2022 at 9:57 PM, dwmarch said:

So for building safehouses, the US has one single dude and he works alone? And it has never occurred to anyone that bad guys might wish to kidnap this fella? He's only made it this far through sheer luck?

Yeah....I had that problem too.  There's just the one guy?  Who does it all?  With the autonomy from our government alphabet agencies to do it all?  Design, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, drywall, finish carpentry, security provisions, etc.  It must take him a year working alone to get all that done, which seems to be a long time for a singular valuable asset to be off the grid from his handlers and vulnerable to the bad guys.  That's why I said it didn't make sense to me plot-wise, but maybe I should have said logic-wise instead.