S21.E06: Strange Invaders

[chitowngirl]

After discovering a Navy pilot's body riddled with unusual wounds, NCIS' investigation draws the team into the rabbit hole of UFO conspiracy theories.

[VanillaBeanne]

I liked this one.  Well it was a standard episode - a plot of the week I was only mildly interested in but good camaraderie scenes with the team, which I why I watch.  Then they figured out the AI was modeled after that man’s son.  And it became a tear jerker. 

Edited April 2 by VanillaBeanne

[Grizzly]

I'm with Delilah, I'd have voted to shave the goatee. And I'm noticing lately that McGee has been wearing sneakers. He's usually in dress shoes.

That guy kidnapping Torres was creepy. And the logistics didn't work. How did the radio guy leave the group without McGee and Knight noticing?

 The AI guy was sad. And I don't mean to appear heartless, but can't he build another facsimile?

Since we couldn't get a classic Halloween episode, this April Fool's will do.

[Poohpoohpooh]

This episode had 3 writers, 1 of which is the ncis showrunner himself (since the Gary Cole seasons). He is a good writer (the hard-hitting Parker scene, the unusual Vance-Parker-diner lol-scene).

Unfortunately he isn't great at strategizing the arc of the seasons, like this season. Don't mean to make this too Real Life, but we all know good accountants who don't become the best CFO right?

Interesting bread crumbs: is AI-daddy a Big Bad (actor can pull it off)? Did they set up the season finale? (I think yes). Is Curtis a Big Bad mole? Why is he guesting so much when Kasie could cover all his techspeak exposition?

[Sake614]

I really liked this episode and was a blubbering idiot when the CFO didn’t want to hit the kill switch because it would mean ‘losing’ his son all over again. And I thought the ending was pretty funny.

[Daff]

13 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

This episode had 3 writers, 1 of which is the ncis showrunner himself (since the Gary Cole seasons). He is a good writer (the hard-hitting Parker scene, the unusual Vance-Parker-diner lol-scene).

Unfortunately he isn't great at strategizing the arc of the seasons, like this season. Don't mean to make this too Real Life, but we all know good accountants who don't become the best CFO right?

Interesting bread crumbs: is AI-daddy a Big Bad (actor can pull it off)? Did they set up the season finale? (I think yes). Is Curtis a Big Bad mole? Why is he guesting so much when Kasie could cover all his techspeak exposition?

Forgot for a minute who that geek was in the dungeon. Then I remembered McGee was invited to work with them earlier this season (big honor). Then I figured since it was AI, they had to defer to “cyber” unit. Kasie is more of an all around lab rat brainiac. I’m sure if she wanted to, she could easily work with the geeks, but she’d be bored.

[VanillaBeanne]

1 hour ago, Daff said:

Interesting bread crumbs: is AI-daddy a Big Bad (actor can pull it off)?

Yes,  that actor was very strong.  Loved his crabby interactions with the cantankerous Granny AI, and, wow, his interactions with his son AI just slew me.  But I would hate for the writers to negate the impact of last night’s tale of parental loss by making that parent evil.  But perhaps they can use him again to find the bad guy.  

[MissLucas]

Delilah is crazy, McGee (and Sean Murray) looks so much better with the goatee. This is the Riker-effect all over again!

Good episode - AI creator was a good actor. I loved cranky gran. And now I think it's time to re-watch Person of Interest.

[Daff]

19 hours ago, VanillaBeanne said:

Yes,  that actor was very strong.  Loved his crabby interactions with the cantankerous Granny AI, and, wow, his interactions with his son AI just slew me.  But I would hate for the writers to negate the impact of last night’s tale of parental loss by making that parent evil.  But perhaps they can use him again to find the bad guy.  

@VanillaBeanne, I did not say that. You copied someone else out of my post. That said, whippy granny was pretty funny.

[VanillaBeanne]

Sorry about that,  Daff.  I just used the quote function without even checking.  But I would be miffed too if someone misattributed a comment to me so will remember to check next time I quote. 🙂 

Edited April 3 by VanillaBeanne

[LuvMyShows]

I watched this yesterday on-demand, and now that it's the next day, I have a question. Did they ever resolve the actual issue of how he was murdered? The creepy kidnapping guy only did basically the special-effects stuff to scare him, and didn't shoot him. So were we supposed to conclude that the shots came from a drone, given how they showed the angle coming from way above? And that the timing of the drone shooting at the exact same time as creepy guy was doing his thing, was just a giant coincidence? If so, then what about the whole bullet mystery?  Jimmy said the wounds did not look normal, and also no bullets were found. If the drone killed him, then how did the bullets get picked up? And that still doesn't explain anything about the wounds being so mysterious. Did I miss something that explained any or all of this?

[proserpina65]

On 4/1/2024 at 10:52 PM, Grizzly said:

I'm with Delilah, I'd have voted to shave the goatee.

I like the goatee, which surprises me because usually I'm not a fan of them.  But my take on that storyline is that it's Tim's face and he's the only one who gets to decide what to do with it.

I liked the episode up to the moment when it turned out the element must be extraterrestrial.  Mainly cause I hate that "aliens did it" crap.

Edited April 3 by proserpina65

[rr2911]

4 hours ago, LuvMyShows said:

I watched this yesterday on-demand, and now that it's the next day, I have a question. Did they ever resolve the actual issue of how he was murdered? The creepy kidnapping guy only did basically the special-effects stuff to scare him, and didn't shoot him. So were we supposed to conclude that the shots came from a drone, given how they showed the angle coming from way above? And that the timing of the drone shooting at the exact same time as creepy guy was doing his thing, was just a giant coincidence? If so, then what about the whole bullet mystery?  Jimmy said the wounds did not look normal, and also no bullets were found. If the drone killed him, then how did the bullets get picked up? And that still doesn't explain anything about the wounds being so mysterious. Did I miss something that explained any or all of this?

I'm with you on this.  We never knew what exactly killed the victim.  That chemical that was found on the victim and to be not of this earth was thought to be created by the company who had control of the drone.  But Kacie said in the end that the company who controlled the drone had failed in duplicating that chemical.  

I think it was an "April's Fools" episode.  I even wondered if this drone storyline might show up later in the season.  Then I realized it was April 1st.

The X-Files used to have episodes that were not part of the main storyline.  They were standalone episodes.  So I think we were led to believe that what killed the guy was an alien ship.

 

[LuvMyShows]

20 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I liked the episode up to the moment when it turned out the element must be extraterrestrial.  Mainly cause I hate that "aliens did it" crap.

Reminds me of how I feel about Scooby Doo...in the original cartoons, every time there was an alien or otherworldly person or occurrence, it was always due to someone in a mask or some special effects someone had rigged up. But in 1987 and 1988 there were three movies that, according to Wiki, "featured the characters encountering actual monsters and ghosts rather than masqueraded people." And then in 1998-2001, there were four movies, featuring real zombies, witches, ghosts, and alien invaders. Blasphemy!!

And just to tie it all back to NCIS, Gary Cole was in Scooby Doo! He had an ongoing role as Mayor Fred Jones, Sr, who is the father of Fred(die).  And apparently he also played Shaggy's dad in an episode of a spin-off called Velma.

You're welcome!

 

[Johannah]

It bugs me when people say something doesn't exist just because they never heard of it.  It's happened a few times to me.  Just because Kasey, or even anybody in NCIS, thinks nobody but that one company can/has synthesized whatever that stuff was, doesn't make it true.  They know everything that everybody on Earth is doing?  Can't believe nobody said, "That you know of..."