S02.E18: Bread Crumbs

[thewhiteowl]

When Tennant interrogates a suspect during his helicopter transfer and the helicopter crashes, she must utilize her skills to save herself and the other passengers.

[Raja]

24 minutes ago, thewhiteowl said:

When Tennant interrogates a suspect during his helicopter transfer and the helicopter crashes, she must utilize her skills to save herself and the other passengers.

. The survives a helicopter crash made me think of in the water with the dunk tank features in movies. So with Lucy's fear of water I guess we are talking about a skill picked up in the CIA  and something a Marine like Agent Holman could have had for one his focused episodes

[Snazzy Daisy]

NCIS: Hawaii | 2x18 Promo & Sneak Peek "Bread Crumbs"

 

 

 

[Raja]

So it was take a few incidents from Vanessa's past flip her father from US Air Force to Navy to build Janey's story. But there was lots of nits to pick on this one. We see SAC Tennant lead from the field 20 somethings times a year but we need Boone on the desk and that big office disappears as it looked like a COVID era production at the HQ. 

With a helicopter missing all those Coast Guard search and rescue types being nonchalant in the background we get that small team searching for an escaped prisoner. But worst of all in a franchise that normally gets the agency and rank jumble right, calling the "Deputy" US Marshals "agent"

[dwmarch]

I really like the team dynamic in this episode although I wish they had at least mentioned Lucy. But it was great to see everyone rallying for Tennant with even Cmdr. Chase and Boom Boom showing up to help even though they weren't actually asked.

I also liked that this was an episode with a nice, tight timeline. The whole situation unfolds over a short time period and unlike Hawaii 5-0 we don't spend half the episode with the team having no idea what is going on. Instead, the helicopter is about five minutes late and they are starting to investigate already.

It was great that Ernie went to sit with Alex. How often do we see situations in these kinds of shows where the children are instant orphans when the parents are in trouble? I liked that we had a character think of the impact this would have on Tennant's kids and actually being proactive in addressing it. Now, I feel as though the real Navy would have real people who do this as an actual job rather than seconding this duty to the IT guy (who can second his duties to the Bomb Disposal guy) but that's nitpicking. I still appreciate that we saw the effort.

[BluBarbi98]

I don't expect a lot from this show, but Ernie going to unnecessarily tell Jane's children BEFORE they knew anything made me really dislike him this episode. I get having that conversation if there was something her son could have done to help with the investigation, or if it had been a few hours at least and she was still unfound, or if they were religious people who would like that info so they could pray about Jane's situation but it was none of that. Ernie told Alex who then proceeded to spend the rest of the episode sitting at a table and worrying and bringing him food. 

I love Boom-Boom and am always happy to see him but I wish he had an actual purpose this episode. I didn't miss her but where was Lucy? 

[ColJackOneill]

19 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

I really like the team dynamic in this episode although I wish they had at least mentioned Lucy. But it was great to see everyone rallying for Tennant with even Cmdr. Chase and Boom Boom showing up to help even though they weren't actually asked.

I also liked that this was an episode with a nice, tight timeline. The whole situation unfolds over a short time period and unlike Hawaii 5-0 we don't spend half the episode with the team having no idea what is going on. Instead, the helicopter is about five minutes late and they are starting to investigate already.

It was great that Ernie went to sit with Alex. How often do we see situations in these kinds of shows where the children are instant orphans when the parents are in trouble? I liked that we had a character think of the impact this would have on Tennant's kids and actually being proactive in addressing it. Now, I feel as though the real Navy would have real people who do this as an actual job rather than seconding this duty to the IT guy (who can second his duties to the Bomb Disposal guy) but that's nitpicking. I still appreciate that we saw the effort.

I really liked this episode, and it’s for all the reasons dwmarcn articulates.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Sam the US Marshall, he looks so familiar. At first I thought he’s Will Putnam (OMITB) only then to realize he’s actually Richie Wheatley (L&O:OC).

Little Janey looks so much like Julie, good casting.

I feel for Alex. It’s so kind and thoughtful of Ernie to be there for him for emotional support and also a distraction.

This is my fav scene! 🥺

 

[Raja]

2 hours ago, dwmarch said:

 

It was great that Ernie went to sit with Alex. How often do we see situations in these kinds of shows where the children are instant orphans when the parents are in trouble? I liked that we had a character think of the impact this would have on Tennant's kids and actually being proactive in addressing it. Now, I feel as though the real Navy would have real people who do this as an actual job rather than seconding this duty to the IT guy (who can second his duties to the Bomb Disposal guy) but that's nitpicking. I still appreciate that we saw the effort.

I think NCIS Forensics uniform shirts put Boom Boom and Bam Bam  in the lab techs of all specialties Abby role, we just saw it once. Bomb technician being the additional duty.

I do wonder how the armed forces handle notifications for civilian employees and contractors 

Edited April 11, 2023 by Raja

[blackwing]

3 hours ago, BluBarbi98 said:

I don't expect a lot from this show, but Ernie going to unnecessarily tell Jane's children BEFORE they knew anything made me really dislike him this episode. I get having that conversation if there was something her son could have done to help with the investigation, or if it had been a few hours at least and she was still unfound, or if they were religious people who would like that info so they could pray about Jane's situation but it was none of that. Ernie told Alex who then proceeded to spend the rest of the episode sitting at a table and worrying and bringing him food. 

I love Boom-Boom and am always happy to see him but I wish he had an actual purpose this episode. I didn't miss her but where was Lucy? 

I didn't care for that either.  Why did he have to immediately leave to sit with Alex?  He would have been more useful working with the team in the office.  It was completely extraneous, we really didn't need to get Alex's reactions to his mom being missing.

Also, the fact that Ernie went to sit with Alex just highlights the absence of Julie.  Why was Alex home anyways?  It seemed to be a weekday, since they pointedly told us that Julie was on a school field trip.  Shouldn't Alex have been in school also?  And Julie seems to be about 13 or 14 now, certainly she is "old enough" to also be told that her mom is missing.  Why wouldn't they have called the school and given Julie the option to leave the field trip?  I'm so tired of all the excuses they make for Julie not being around.  This show should just take a page from "Superman and Lois", which doesn't even bother to explain anymore why the younger Cushing daughter is never around.  Either that, or write her out.

I did like seeing Kai and Whistler together in the field, but honestly, the head of the local NCIS goes missing, how come an entire squadron of agents wasn't sent?

[Raja]

57 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I didn't care for that either.  Why did he have to immediately leave to sit with Alex?  He would have been more useful working with the team in the office.  It was completely extraneous, we really didn't need to get Alex's reactions to his mom being missing.

Also, the fact that Ernie went to sit with Alex just highlights the absence of Julie.  Why was Alex home anyways?  It seemed to be a weekday, since they pointedly told us that Julie was on a school field trip.  Shouldn't Alex have been in school also?  And Julie seems to be about 13 or 14 now, certainly she is "old enough" to also be told that her mom is missing.  Why wouldn't they have called the school and given Julie the option to leave the field trip?  I'm so tired of all the excuses they make for Julie not being around.  This show should just take a page from "Superman and Lois", which doesn't even bother to explain anymore why the younger Cushing daughter is never around.  Either that, or write her out.

I did like seeing Kai and Whistler together in the field, but honestly, the head of the local NCIS goes missing, how come an entire squadron of agents wasn't sent?

Alex is on a gap year after his baseball career ending injury and is waiting on the Navy to send him to the academy or any pre course they might have.

[MissLucas]

Well, for a change we get a NCIS character with mummy issues - so that's new. Whistler and Kai made a good team, it's really unfortunate that Whistler has better chemistry with almost every character than with her actual love interest. Of course YMMV but I always enjoy her working in the field with anybody but Lucy.

The Ernie stuff was a bit weird but I think they wanted to give Alex a voice about having to grow up with a mother on a dangerous job. His line about her returning with bruises and him never asking about them was really well-written.

[blackwing]

44 minutes ago, Raja said:

Alex is on a gap year after his baseball career ending injury and is waiting on the Navy to send him to the academy or any pre course they might have.

Are you sure?  I thought he was playing baseball for his high school team, he got injured which ended his dreams of a college scholarship and baseball career.  This season, Cassandra showed up, and she was talking about him taking a gap year and they would travel around Europe.  But usually the gap year would begin after he graduated from high school.

I don't recall the show ever saying he graduated from high school... I feel like it would have been mentioned or we would have seen Alex in his cap and gown.  So my impression was that this was his last year of high school.

If he is indeed graduated from high school and on his "gap year", what is he actually doing?  Seems like he's just sitting at home and doing absolutely nothing.  He babysat his baby sister, with Jane's help.  But he doesn't seem to be doing anything else productive.  At least go volunteer somewhere or get a job at the local shave ice place.

[HurricaneVal]

Doesn't Jane have two children?

Anyways, I actually liked that Ernie went to the house.  He's like an adjunct uncle to Jane's kids, and of course--even though it is probably against policy--he was thinking of them and Jane and went directly to the house.  Those were some powerful scenes between Ernie and Alex, particularly the one linked above talking about not talking about Jane's bruises, and Ernie setting aside the comforting answers and telling it like it is, but in a kind way.  There was good chemistry between those actors.  I liked how even though it was very serious, Alex's eyes lit up a little when Ernie shook the imaginary Magic-8 Ball.  Just in that one bit you could surmise an entire history between Uncle Ernie and a much younger Alex and sister playing around with stuff like that.  Ernie is an interesting character, sometimes he's too quirky to tolerate, but when he's being serious, you can see he piles on the quirky because it is his defense against a highly empathic nature.

I also really like the whole "rally the troops, circle the wagons, Jane's missing....oh noes, helicopter crash!" action we got with the whole team.  The scenes in the jungle with Whistler and Boone (or was it Kai?) were great.  Whistler recognized immediately that their bad guy was disappearing down the path with a hostage, and it was her plan to get ahead and act all lost.  Even though Boone (Kai?) didn't 100% get what she was going to do, he was still backing her play.  Earlier, Whistler had been shown to be a little trepidatious about doing undercover work, and while this wasn't really UC work, it was playing a scene for the bad guy for distraction, and Whistler did it very convincingly.  It was a good scene.

Good episode.  I like Jane in the field.  I also like that as a nod to her actual position at NCIS, she mostly is in her office directing the investigations and not out the field.

[Twilight Man]

8 hours ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

Sam the US Marshall, he looks so familiar. At first I thought he’s Will Putnam (OMITB) only then to realize he’s actually Richie Wheatley (L&O:OC).

Little Janey looks so much like Julie, good casting.

Speaking of casting (and where have I recognized that person from before)

That was Kurt Yaeger as little Janey's dad.

You probably remember him best as Sullivan, the charming military vet and leg amputee who befriended Kensi

when she was temporarily disabled (only to be a wolf in sheep's clothing as he was secretly plotting to kill her),

but he also appeared in the other two NCIS shows as well,

making him the first "character actor" to appear in all four NCIS shows.

[transitfan]

6 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I also really like the whole "rally the troops, circle the wagons, Jane's missing....oh noes, helicopter crash!" action we got with the whole team.  The scenes in the jungle with Whistler and Boone (or was it Kai?) were great.  Whistler recognized immediately that their bad guy was disappearing down the path with a hostage, and it was her plan to get ahead and act all lost.  Even though Boone (Kai?) didn't 100% get what she was going to do, he was still backing her play.  Earlier, Whistler had been shown to be a little trepidatious about doing undercover work, and while this wasn't really UC work, it was playing a scene for the bad guy for distraction, and Whistler did it very convincingly.  It was a good scene.

.

It was Kai with Whistler.  Boone was at HQ, essentially as acting SAC.

[crowsworks]

No Lucy? Gee you mean she didn't swim from island to island and pole vault over the volcano while single handedly taking down the bad guys.

[dely]

I really missed Lucy in this one.  Especially in the second last scene (at the office) when "the gang" was gathered, coming down from their adrenaline rushes and Tennant said something about knowing what "this" was about (I'm assuming she was referencing the team's closeness-Ohana).

Am I missing something here?  A couple people upthread also mentioned her absence, but I haven't seen anything explaining why?  If there's something going on with the actress, could someone fill me in or post a link to info?

At least when she was Agent Afloat there was a reason for the character's absence, but even then she got worked into a couple eps. <sigh> ... why do characters I like always disappear? 

[CheshireCat]

Why do networks find it so appealing to start an episode with something that will happen later in the timeline and then have the so-and-so-many-hours earlier after the opening credits? What's the point?

Also, what was the point of including Alex in this episode? I thought Ernie said Alex might know something but he never asked Alex anything, did he? So, why did Alex need to be excluded? Yes, it was nice of Ernie to think of him but I don't think it made much sense to tell Alex at this point and telling him didn't add anything to the story.

If you're law enforcement and/or military on Hawaii, wouldn't you know the areas terrain and therefore know that caves/holes in the ground leading to caves are a possibility and that your best chance at finding someone who's missing is probably a large search party that includes rescue dogs?

I'm also a bit puzzled about the flashbacks. Not sure what purpose they served exactly. They sort of tied into the story but it's not like they were needed to advance the story.

Was Jane checked out by paramedics? Wouldn't she likely have a cracked rib or two or would the vest have protected her? After she fell, I thought she may have fractured her pelvic bone, considering where she seemed to be in pain and how much pain she looked to be in.

With that said, I'd like to echo the positive comments that have been made: the tight timeline was great as was that they immediately caught on to what was happening and the team dynamic was good. I also liked that apart from the opening sequence they didn't include any unnecessary drama. It was all very cut-to-the-chase, characters were injured but alive, the injuries were treated as best as they could be treated, everyone was aware of their predicament but no one was hanging by a thread and bleeding out any second while the team frantically was searching for them and finding them with only seconds to spare.

I liked a lot of the dialogue and how they set things up as well (eg, at the beginning when Kai was level-headed enough to tell Boone that he needed to get back to HQ as acting boss. The conversation felt logical and realistic as did many others). Boone also seemed convincing in his role as acting boss; he knew what to do but he was still assisted by everyone on the team because he's not usually in charge. (Although, I liked him in charge but that's probably largely due to him being my favorite character 😉)

The episode had a really good pace. It was over before I knew it.

 

[RobertDeSneero]

55 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

Why do networks find it so appealing to start an episode with something that will happen later in the timeline and then have the so-and-so-many-hours earlier after the opening credits? What's the point?

This is a standard narrative technique called "in media res".  It's so old that there is a Latin name for it. The idea is to hook the audience by starting in the middle of the action and make them curious about how things got there.

 

 

[Raja]

6 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Why do networks find it so appealing to start an episode with something that will happen later in the timeline and then have the so-and-so-many-hours earlier after the opening credits? What's the point?

Networks remain in broadcast schedule and not stream on my own schedule modes, they still fear that during this hour you would turn the channel to the other network. While finding a body to start an episode is the Law & Order trope  other shows can't get away with such a set start.

6 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Also, what was the point of including Alex in this episode? I thought Ernie said Alex might know something but he never asked Alex anything, did he? So, why did Alex need to be excluded? Yes, it was nice of Ernie to think of him but I don't think it made much sense to tell Alex at this point and telling him didn't add anything to the story.

 

6 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I'm also a bit puzzled about the flashbacks. Not sure what purpose they served exactly. They sort of tied into the story but it's not like they were needed to advance the story.

We were not just getting the case of the week but adding to the Janey legend of spy turned mom and cop. And with Alex heading off to be a Midshipman they just might be doing a solid for Kian Talan before his acting  opportunities get more scare. And as Mahina Napoleon gets older her parents might allow more time acting so we would see more of Julie to show Janey as mother.