S03.E07: The Next Thousand

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

When a Marine is murdered during training on the Big Island, the NCIS team tracks the suspect deep into the woods and discovers a disturbing secret.

Air Date: April 15, 2024

 

[Raja]

We get Casualties of War, only instead of a chaplain and JAG going for justice that Michael J. Fox, in the form of the Gunny, did it himself.  I was suspecting the Lt Col as soon as he showed up alone and staked out Janey. He reminded me of a retired Marine father  on The Closer whose scout sniper son went on a Punisher like vengeance mission and the father decided to handle matters himself like the Gunny did here.

Janey coming out of her concussed dream talking about finishing the story made me think of Wrestlemania of all things where that was the storyline. Was thinking about the runaway mom, or her surrogate in Maggie the actual point?

Sam in the field probably took the big guy Boone's role in the finale fight. For the investigation phase, your big so prior service CID or NCIS had me thinking that I still think of  Noah Mills as a Special Forces medic on the short lived series The Brave.  Now if that bartender didn't know what to make of super fed  Kate, what she would have made of tiny Lucy?

[dwmarch]

I think this is the darkest episode of the series yet. I guess it makes sense to exclude Lucy's bubbly personality from this one although I really do wish they would drop at least a single line to say she has the day off or she's doing some training elsewhere or something.

The friendships on this show are some of my favorites and I like seeing Tennant and Whistler in the spotlight here. I also appreciate that the coroner knows when to be silly and when to be serious.

Having said that, one thing in the "you can't be serious" territory is the implication that Jane's mom might be a secret agent. What if she was a CIA deep cover agent and that's why she had to leave her child? Will she be back just in time for the finale, to get the drop on Maggie? Has it been long enough since Hawaii 5-0 did this exact same plot?

Almost forgot the park ranger from the beginning of the episode. She was fun, I hope we see her again. Most of the characters in this show are so gung-ho about going into dangerous situations. It's nice to see someone who is all "hell no!" when a killer with military training is on the loose.

[Raja]

On 4/9/2024 at 11:13 AM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Synopsis:

Air Date: April 15, 2024

 

I get that SERE students would have their headgear stripped off but giving the conditions you think all those agents would pack and wear their hats.

[blackwing]

It was super obvious to me that the colonel was the bad guy as soon as he appeared onscreen.  However, I thought he was the one killing the marines.  I didn't figure that Osborne was actually killing them, but only because colonel told them to kill Osborne first.

I am confused about the ending, so we are supposed to be left wondering if the woman in the cabin is actually Jane's mom and is alive, or if Jane hallucinated it all?  If she is really alive then this strikes me as shades of Doris McGarrett.  It'll be too much if she's alive and is a secret agent and is off chasing Maggie.  Maggie seems to kind of be this series Wo Fat, turns up just when you don't want to see her.  I don't want to see her ever again but I know she will be around until the series eventually ends.

2 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I think this is the darkest episode of the series yet. I guess it makes sense to exclude Lucy's bubbly personality from this one although I really do wish they would drop at least a single line to say she has the day off or she's doing some training elsewhere or something.

The friendships on this show are some of my favorites and I like seeing Tennant and Whistler in the spotlight here. I also appreciate that the coroner knows when to be silly and when to be serious.

I agree that it would be nice if they had a throwaway line about Lucy.  Lucy seems to be the only character who regularly disappears altogether from the episodes.  I know that when she was on Agent Afloat, the actress was actually on the mainland doing other work.  But it seems odd that she is just randomly gone sometimes, unless the episodes are aired out of order and she actually does have other work somewhere and she was gone for half the season.

[Snazzy Daisy]

I love that 3x07 is dark and intense. There’s also a mention of Gibb’s Rule #20 - always look under.

I also love Ranger Jo and her no-nonsense attitude. 💪🏼

We can tell early on that Lt. Col. Reed is a bad guy and there’s more to the story of Osborne being weird and erratic.

Concussed Jane Tennant hallucinating about her missing mom. Please don’t turn this one-time thing into an espionage arc ala Doris McGarrett.

The conversation between Sam and Ernie gets intimately weird really quickly. 😬

This is the first time Kate is paired with Sam. Kate is OK but Sam continues to be boring.

This is one stunning landscape shot. 💙

[MissLucas]

I was so proud of having figured out the A-plot early on that I got blindsided by the B-plot. It took me ages to figure out mystery lady was Tenant's bio Mum issues finally bubbling up in the form of a concussion induced hallucination. I've been waiting for that to happen ever since disappearing mum was mentioned for the first time yet did not see it coming here - despite the show bringing up Tenant's surrogate Mum issues earlier on. Well played show, well played. Also: good work by Daniela Ruah.

Fitting episode for some subtle Gibbs call-backs. And I enjoyed Sam and Whistler working together - that was a dynamic we hadn't seen before. Did we get an in-world reason for Lucy's absence? 

Nice bit of continuity with the shoes in the last scene.

Landscape shots were truly stunning, but there were some brutal, disorienting cuts between jungle and volcanic environments. 

3 minutes ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Please don’t turn this one-time thing into an espionage arc ala Doris McGarrett.

Yeah, I thought about that too. But since the shows live in the same universe (just ignore Katrina Law's characters) I hope they'll go in a different direction. Also: Tennant already has a shady spook Mum in Maggie.

[transitfan]

20 hours ago, blackwing said:

It was super obvious to me that the colonel was the bad guy as soon as he appeared onscreen.  However, I thought he was the one killing the marines.  I didn't figure that Osborne was actually killing them, but only because colonel told them to kill Osborne first.

I

At the end, when the Colonel showed up in his dress uniform and then was indignant when Jane accused him, I got a flashback to Col. Jessup from A Few Good Men.  I guess all Marine colonels are the same 😂

Kinda appropriate, as A Few Good Men inspired JAG which inspired NCIS 🙂

[Raja]

22 hours ago, blackwing said:

I am confused about the ending, so we are supposed to be left wondering if the woman in the cabin is actually Jane's mom and is alive, or if Jane hallucinated it all?  If she is really alive then this strikes me as shades of Doris McGarrett.  It'll be too much if she's alive and is a secret agent and is off chasing Maggie.  Maggie seems to kind of be this series Wo Fat, turns up just when you don't want to see her.  I don't want to see her ever again but I know she will be around until the series eventually ends.

I think it is pretty sure that she wasn't actually there. But rather due to the house cleaning when Kate showed up mom was on Janey's mind.

I have to admit that I wasn't seeing mom as a Doris McGarrett. With the line about losing her looks, which she hasn't, I was thinking more the war bride/mail order bride stereotype that once in America that wife of the soldier or junior NCO is all of the sudden getting men of higher social rank going after her and would be trade up. Leaving that sailor in this case, or 90 day fiancé petitioner in the lurch.

So unknown siblings is more like Steve and Wo Fat than another spy in my thinking.

[Raja]

On 4/16/2024 at 4:37 PM, MissLucas said:

Yeah, I thought about that too. But since the shows live in the same universe (just ignore Katrina Law's characters) I hope they'll go in a different direction. Also: Tennant already has a shady spook Mum in Maggie.

Going back and remembering the young Janey  origin story was young Vanessa in the navy instead of the USAF they have set up a story where the actress has to deal on screen with the trauma of her mother trading up and dropping Vanessa off with her father and ghosting her. Vanessa Lachey must have asked for this story line so which way does she want to go with the story?

[sskrill]

On 4/16/2024 at 8:55 AM, dwmarch said:

I think this is the darkest episode of the series yet. I guess it makes sense to exclude Lucy's bubbly personality from this one although I really do wish they would drop at least a single line to say she has the day off or she's doing some training elsewhere or something.

The friendships on this show are some of my favorites and I like seeing Tennant and Whistler in the spotlight here.

Almost forgot the park ranger from the beginning of the episode. 

Yeah this story was a bit too dark for me.  We all know these things happen but I don't need my entertainment including gang rape/murder.

I typically don't watch these types of shows, and other than this I have never seen an NCIS epsidoe.  They're awful at disguising the bad guy but maybe all NCIS is like this? I always know immediately who he is and I am absolutely terrible at guessing things like that.  

I wonder why Yas keeps disappearing? Maybe she's working on another project?  

I liked the park ranger but she was totally miscast. That woman is absolutely not the person who's going to choose spending her days wandering around the woods. She would have been better cast as a local PD officer they run in to while trying to get some local intel.

[MissLucas]

7 hours ago, sskrill said:

I wonder why Yas keeps disappearing? Maybe she's working on another project? 

She was probably working on 'The Chosen'.