S22.E10: Baker’s Man

[chitowngirl]

After NCIS learns that the owner of Parker's favorite bakery is being blackmailed, they hatch a plan to save her from the perpetrators; tensions heighten when Torres' secret romance is discovered.
 

Airdate January 29, 2025 on CBS

[rr2911]

I thought it was silly that Kasie is baking in her lab.  There is too much scenes involving Kasie.  Now, she's asking questions like she's an agent!  

Kind of a strange look Jess had in the end of the episode.  Does it really bother her that her sister is dating Torres?  Or is it that she might have feelings for him?

I read that they wanted to rekindle Jimmy's and Jess's relationship.  God I hope not!

Last but not least, there is too much Kasie scenes!  Oh, I'm repeating myself.  😁

Edited January 28 by rr2911

[proserpina65]

I didn't really buy that the DC police let NCIS take the case when it had no naval connection whatsoever, but I thought Gary Cole and Melina Kanakaredes had great chemistry so I was okay with it.  Hope they bring her back in the future.

Plus, the drug kingpin referenced the Great British Baking Show!  How could I not love that?

But yeah, too many Kasie scenes.  And I don't care who Torres dates.  I just hope they don't hook him up with Jess because there's been way too much interoffice dating/flirting/harassment on this show.

[BMGepinniw]

8 hours ago, rr2911 said:

Kind of a strange look Jess had in the end of the episode.  Does it really bother her that her sister is dating Torres?  Or is it that she might have feelings for him?

I read that they wanted to rekindle Jimmy's and Jess's relationship.  God I hope not!

Yes, Jess' look at the end was rather odd indeed.  I originally thought she may have realized she had feelings for Torres, but I considered that she may have decided that he would be good for her sister.  However, as both Robin and Jess are histrionic and "can't read the room", I would like to see any entanglement involving the three of them end. 

I also didn't get the Jimmy and Jess coupling, and didn't really watch it all the time during that period.  I may have been watching cat videos on YouTube or something.....  ;-)

I am really understanding the animosity that many are feeling towards Kasie.  She held back giving Jimmy peanut M&M's until he spilled his guts?!  And he caved?  WTF?!!  Grow up dude!  Buy your own candy!  If Kasie is that close with Jess, I kind of get her threatening Torres.  

I agree that Parker and Melina (can't recall her character's name off hand) have great chemistry.  Hoping she makes future appearances.  

[Poohpoohpooh]

Fun fact. I paused on the Eleni driver license. "Eleni" was born 1972.

Gary Cole the actor born 1956. Parker the character born 1960/1961 (from the episode of teen juvie Parker).

Anyway, Melina looks nearly the same as she did in CSI:NY what... 20 years ago?

[buckboard]

I don't recall all this animosity towards Abby when she held Kasie's position and Abby filled up loads of screen time.  At least Kasie isn't cuddling up to her boss like Abby was always doing with Gibbs, behaving like she was his little girl.

[rr2911]

1 hour ago, buckboard said:

I don't recall all this animosity towards Abby when she held Kasie's position and Abby filled up loads of screen time.  At least Kasie isn't cuddling up to her boss like Abby was always doing with Gibbs, behaving like she was his little girl.

I don't think Abby tried to act like an agent.  Maybe there were different writers at that time.  Plus Abby was a lovable character and was the original tech.  Kasie tries to be funny and it just doesn't work in my opinion!

[Skooma]

I like Kasie.  Only good thing left about this show.  Otherwise it is just NCIS: Doughnuts.

[TVForever]

9 hours ago, rr2911 said:

I don't think Abby tried to act like an agent.  Maybe there were different writers at that time.  Plus Abby was a lovable character and was the original tech.  Kasie tries to be funny and it just doesn't work in my opinion!

I BEG to disagree. I might be a member of a very small club, but I always found Abby super annoying. Haven't missed her one minute since she left.

[rr2911]

Just now, TVForever said:

I BEG to disagree. I might be a member of a very small club, but I always found Abby super annoying. Haven't missed her one minute since she left.

The thing we both would agree on is we both have a character that is annoying to each of us respectfully.  You with Abby and me with Kasie.

[Raja]

17 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I didn't really buy that the DC police let NCIS take the case when it had no naval connection whatsoever, but I thought Gary Cole and Melina Kanakaredes had great chemistry so I was okay with it.  Hope they bring her back in the future.

In the "everything I need to know in life, I learned from The Wire "category the real police will say fine you kept the red off of my murder board. The question becomes where the long missing SECNAV falls under their investigative assets now being unavailable for naval services work.

[jabRI]

Sorry, I found this coke/cookie/sugar/inmate/hostage plot line overly complicated, like a lot of their writing lately

 

[proserpina65]

13 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Fun fact. I paused on the Eleni driver license. "Eleni" was born 1972.

Gary Cole the actor born 1956. Parker the character born 1960/1961 (from the episode of teen juvie Parker).

Anyway, Melina looks nearly the same as she did in CSI:NY what... 20 years ago?

She's obviously been genetically blessed.  Okay, she may have had some work done, but if so, it's very natural looking.

11 hours ago, rr2911 said:

I don't think Abby tried to act like an agent.  Maybe there were different writers at that time.  Plus Abby was a lovable character and was the original tech.  Kasie tries to be funny and it just doesn't work in my opinion!

Abby's cutesiness did eventually get on my nerves, but otherwise, I agree.  She mostly knew what her job and place in the system was and stuck to it.

2 hours ago, Raja said:

In the "everything I need to know in life, I learned from The Wire "category the real police will say fine you kept the red off of my murder board. The question becomes where the long missing SECNAV falls under their investigative assets now being unavailable for naval services work.

That is true enough on tv.  Not so much in real life where one agency might welcome the help of another but wouldn't be so happy to just hand over a case.  It's just one of the things I have to accept about tv crime shows.

21 minutes ago, jabRI said:

Sorry, I found this coke/cookie/sugar/inmate/hostage plot line overly complicated, like a lot of their writing lately

 

It was rather overcomplicated but I excuse it for this episode because of Parker's chemistry with Eleni.  Interesting (to me anyway) side note: the character Kanakaredes played on Guiding Light, which was the first place I ever saw her, was also named Eleni.

[Raja]

18 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Fun fact. I paused on the Eleni driver license. "Eleni" was born 1972.

Gary Cole the actor born 1956. Parker the character born 1960/1961 (from the episode of teen juvie Parker).

Anyway, Melina looks nearly the same as she did in CSI:NY what... 20 years ago?

As I'm not really a regular watcher did Parker leave the FBI because he hit mandatory retirement age, and the Navy gave him a waiver to keep going?

"These drug dealers aren't the brightest criminals". How dude thinks he can just hold federal agents for hours without someone showing up even before Parker's call came in as slave labor had me scratching my head.

[Poohpoohpooh]

On 1/29/2025 at 5:04 PM, Raja said:

As I'm not really a regular watcher did Parker leave the FBI because he hit mandatory retirement age, and the Navy gave him a waiver to keep going?

"These drug dealers aren't the brightest criminals". How dude thinks he can just hold federal agents for hours without someone showing up even before Parker's call came in as slave labor had me scratching my head.

Do you think this show covers any kind of serious issues like aging, ageism, or taxes? 

[Raja]

1 minute ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Do you think this show covers any kind of serious issues like aging, ageism, or taxes? 

Well after they did go through the American citizen requirement for Ziva I knew for a while they went the other way with Gibbs tried to bluff off the real-life mandatory retirement age for federal law enforcement and the physical liabilities that come with fighters getting older. It is hard to give up a popular cast member in order to keep a show on the air. I just read the age given for Special Agent Parker and wondered if that was a reason given for the latest transfer to NCIS? 

[Skooma]

As I recall Parker was originally trying to catch Gibbs.  The whole escape to Alaska thing.  Then all of a sudden he took Gibbs' place.  But why would an FBI agent with no experience in another agency cut ahead of more experienced NCIS agents?

In short, nothing made sense at all.  Typical TV.

[chessiegal]

12 hours ago, Raja said:

I just read the age given for Special Agent Parker and wondered if that was a reason given for the latest transfer to NCIS? 

In the real world, the mandatory retirement age for all federal law enforcement agents is the same. It doesn't matter what agency you are with. Extending an agent's ability to function as a sworn officer can be done but my recollection is that it is not easy. Most of the federal law enforcement agents I knew were happy to take their nice retirement money and go to work in the private sector in security jobs. Some even started their own security businesses. They don't call them "Special Agents" for nothing. 😄

[proserpina65]

On 1/30/2025 at 9:47 PM, Poohpoohpooh said:

Do you think this show covers any kind of serious issues like aging, ageism, or taxes? 

It certainly didn't bother addressing sexual harassment, so why touch on the others?

[LuvMyShows]

turning into a sterotype that the first personintroduced is gulity, even if 

On 1/28/2025 at 3:45 PM, proserpina65 said:

I didn't really buy that the DC police let NCIS take the case when it had no naval connection whatsoever, but I thought Gary Cole and Melina Kanakaredes had great chemistry so I was okay with it.  Hope they bring her back in the future.

I knew as soon as it was Melina Kanakaredes that there was no way she was going to be a bad guy!

On 1/28/2025 at 10:31 PM, buckboard said:

I don't recall all this animosity towards Abby when she held Kasie's position and Abby filled up loads of screen time.  

Speaking for myself, my objection with Kasie stems from how they initially brought her on, as someone working with Ducky editing his book, although according to something I saw on Reddit, he did mentioned that she was at the top of her class in forensics. Studying forensics in school is an ENORMOUS step away from performing all the various types of forensic analysis that Kasie does in the lab. She went from a student, editing Ducky's book, to being also to perform every single thing that Abby did, just as well or better, with all kinds of computer expertise that I don't remember Abby having (they left that to McGee). Yet we never saw or heard how she magically acquired those abilities. How many of us would want a first-year med student operating on us? That's basically the analogy.  

[LuvMyShows]

I am generally terrible at figuring out who the perp is. So when we very first met the parole officer, I said to myself that he must be in on it, since that's the pattern they've adopted lately. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. When even I can figure out who the perp is, simply because he was the first alive character we saw interaction with, then it's time for the writers to switch things up!

[Skooma]

On 4/1/2025 at 5:41 PM, LuvMyShows said:

I am generally terrible at figuring out who the perp is. So when we very first met the parole officer, I said to myself that he must be in on it, since that's the pattern they've adopted lately. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. When even I can figure out who the perp is, simply because he was the first alive character we saw interaction with, then it's time for the writers to switch things up!

You found a very good tell for sure with this show.

If you look at an hour long whodunit it is is only 42 minutes of actual material because of endless commercials.  That means the writers can only shoehorn so many characters into a show with that limit.  

First I look at what characters early on were not really needed.  Like one show (forget which series) had a brother with his mother when she learns her other son was killed.  There was no real dramatic reason for that "brother" character to have to be there.  It could have been just the mother being told.  So of course it was the brother that was the murderer.  Those are the easy ones.

What they often try to do is have a red herring.  But as soon as the good guy team starts to seem sure one of the people is the guilty party and it is only a half hour into the show that kind of gives away that suspect was only the red herring so it was the only other person left as a possibility at that point.

I never read detective novels but my mother liked them.  A novel can actually make you guess based on actual clues.  A TV show is more a deconstruction of script, seemingly unnecessary characters at the time and the time factor of the show itself.

Well unless it is "Murder, She Wrote" where Jessica Fletcher figured out whodunit about 10 minutes before the hour when someone says some stray phrase that causes her light bulb to go on.  Stray phrases are hard to anticipate in advance. (Yes I've been watching some of these shows in syndication and Angela Lansbury was an absolute delight so who cares whodunit in the end).

Edited April 4 by Skooma