Season 2 Discussion

[neuromom]

I actually liked that episode overall. And I did cry at the end. As much as I hoped the kid would live, I AM glad that didn't go,that route, if only because , realistically, his chances were incredibly slim.

I loved Patton this ep! I always love him though! And I did NOT know that Darryl Mitchell is in a wheelchair for real. Much respect, man! As a mom of a disabled kid,,I love his attitude.

I may be a minority, but I did enjoy Annie Potts. Like another poster said, I think that she knows more than she is letting on. I think her "hardass" persona is just a facade, and how she deals with her daughter's death. The comments about slouching also made me think she was trying to deflect having to address the bigger issues. Even though she kept saying how important this kid was because of his skills, it was very apparent that she had genuine feelings for him. It was very sweet how she held his hand as they wheeled him into surgery. I hope they have some resolution with Brody and her mom at some point. (same for Chris and Cade)

[Trey]

I thought it was a pretty good episode.  I liked Sonja's puns:)

 

I wonder who the mystery man will turn out to be. I'm guessing it's someone we already know or there wouldn't be much point in hiding him.

[MyAimIsTrue]

The fiancé of Pride's daughter's friend goes missing during a blackout; and the team locates the man's dead body, which holds clues to the cause of the blackout.

[CooperTV]

It was bit of uneven in the beginning. Especially with Pride's flashbacks and the victim's wife. The wife was all self-righteous about it and blamed Pride for the husband's death but the husband was the idiot who decided to go to a bar alone on the day of the trial, so.

 

Then it went a little more smoothly, and the episode got some actual tension with Brody almost got killed via a booby-trap and Percy and Kind got ambushed.

[neuromom]

Finally got a chance to watch this. I thought it was a good episode, if for no other reason than I couldn't guess the outcome ahead of time. Like Trey mentioned, I think we probably know the "bad guy" ..but the only person I can think that we've already met (and I imagine we will see again at some point down the road regardless) is the sleazy politician played by Steven Weber.

"If you come back, and I'm still alive, I'm gonna fire your ass!" - loved that!

Even when the stories don't make sense to me, I still come back - for the cast. (Yes, even Sebastian!) I can overlook a LOT when it comes to plot and writing if I really like the characters and actors.

[laredhead]

Haven't seen Jay Thomas on any shows in a while, and this week he pops up on two.  NCIS New Orleans and Bones last night. 

[Saylii]

I was thoroughly confused with the timeline of Frankie's mother and the letters. The Wife said that Frankie's mom was the maid and started having sex with Gordon. The Wife found out about it and turned a blind eye. Then Frankie's mom got pregnant and Gordon ended things because the Wife told him to. How did Frankie's mom leave love letters in his desk until Frankie was at least 7? Surely Frankie would know who her mom worked for at 7 years old, especially if it was one of the biggest families in NOLA. And the Wife certainly wouldn't be okay with the mistress pregnant maid continuing employment. That whole premise irked me.

[CooperTV]

The murder of a marine provides clues to the first case that Pride and LaSalle ever worked on together, a murder that occurred right before Hurricane Katrina struck the city and washed away the evidence. Also, the team celebrates Thanksgiving together.

 

[laredhead]

My cable service kept cutting in and out during the entire show , but I managed to get the gist of the plot.  I did miss everything after they discovered Toby holding Frankie hostage.  Would someone please provide a very brief synopsis of what happened after that?

[Trey]

Yep, that made no sense at all with the letters.

 

And the whole blackout plot just to retrieve the letters seemed so way over the top.  And how did the son even know about the letters in the first place?

 

Then there was the wanton antique furniture abuse - that really hurt!

 

But I still enjoyed the episode despite the ridiculous plot holes.  The group is really coming together as a unit and I enjoy their interactions. 

 

I laughed at Sonja being caught out about fixing the generator.

[UncleChuck]

It's a good thing New Orleans has such a super-NCIS team on hand.

 

Because the New Orleans Power Company is totally INCOMPETENT.

Sure, a few cut wires can cause a domino effect and create a rolling blackout.  But NO WAY that competent electricians cannot repair the problem and restore power, even if it is just one sub-station at a time.  For the ENTIRE city to go multiple days without figuring out how to turn the lights back on is just silly.

 

[krimimimi]

I was thoroughly confused with the timeline of Frankie's mother and the letters. The Wife said that Frankie's mom was the maid and started having sex with Gordon. The Wife found out about it and turned a blind eye. Then Frankie's mom got pregnant and Gordon ended things because the Wife told him to. How did Frankie's mom leave love letters in his desk until Frankie was at least 7? Surely Frankie would know who her mom worked for at 7 years old, especially if it was one of the biggest families in NOLA. And the Wife certainly wouldn't be okay with the mistress pregnant maid continuing employment. That whole premise irked me.

 

Yep, that made no sense at all with the letters.

 

And the whole blackout plot just to retrieve the letters seemed so way over the top.  And how did the son even know about the letters in the first place?

Lemme take a crack at this... So Frankie told her fiance the story that her mother had told her of how Mom used to leave letters to Frankie's Dad in his desk. That story isn't timestamped. She could have done it while the relationship was growing (and while they carried on given the wife's indifference), before Mom "fell" pregnant with Frankie and was banished from the household. And it makes some sense that when she kept in touch with the Dad in the years to come, for example updating him on Frankie's growth, that he put those letters together with the old ones in the hidden drawer. It's both practical and sentimental. If you think about that letter, it doesn't sound like something you'd write to a person you see every day, but to someone you haven't seen in a long time. So long after she stopped working there. And that's why Frankie has no memories of that family or her mother working for them. Clearly her mother also didn't want to tell her who the father was, so she probably wouldn't have mentioned the previous employers by name, and doesn't seem to have mentioned that the father was a married man, either.

 

Toby found out about the possibility of the letters thanks to the fiance. He showed up at the club and told Toby about the love letters and that's when Toby went stupid. Then Toby ransacked (and wantonly mangled) the furniture looking for the letters, but as he didn't know they were there for sure, stopped looking when he didn't find them and decided to address the possible living DNA evidence instead.

[crazycatlady58]

UncleChuck, not sure bout the electric company not being able to fix the problem, I have used that company and it did not seem THAT far off.

[JessDVD]

As soon as they mentioned that Frankie was Dad Fontaine's kid, that was the telegraph to the perp. If there is any unknown sibling/child, it is ALWAYS the one who now is not going to inherit the entire fortune.

[Prevailing Wind]

Wouldn't it be nice if, for once, the heir was super happy to get a half-sibling and screw the inheritance?

[kassygreene]

The letters were in a hidden compartment.  NCIS looked up the piece or the style and knew to look for the compartment (with a nice shout-out to Antiques Roadshow).  The paper was nicely crisp considering it had been through 20-something years (and Katrina) in that humidity,  

 

The greedy son (who apparently had issues with his father) was not much of a thinker - hidden compartments don't usually involve burrowing under upholstery, and if he was really serious about destroying 2 million in real property, he should have brought a sledge hammer.

 

The mother also rang true for me - an unfaithful husband while she was an exhausted mother with a newborn, and a son who wound up more like his father than he would have believed...  

 

There was very brief subtext left with both - the son resenting his father, the wife resigned to his cheating, and also seeming to have liked the housekeeper.  Surprised any of that survived to the final cut.

[MyAimIsTrue]

A string of Christmas burglaries turns deadly and the evidence leads the NCIS team to Wade’s adopted son, Danny. Also, Lasalle and Brody tease Sonja about the high stakes of drawing Pride in the team’s Secret Santa holiday exchange.

[buckboard]

I'm surprised that there are no posts yet for this episode, which I thought was one of the best of the series. Katrina had a major impact on those who lived through it and you could see that in Pride and LaSalle. I liked the reunion between Pride and the doc in the morgue. We visited NOLA two years after the storm and people were still greeting friends they had lost track of and talked to visitors about how the storm affected their lives, so I could definitely see two co-workers grateful to find that a friend had survived.

[Trey]

I thought it was a very good episode too.

 

I'm surprised that Chris was ever a selfish person.  He just always seems so kind.

 

I was afraid that Billie had found the money and kept it so I was glad that she hadn't even found it.  Also glad they invited Billie and her daughter to their Thanksgiving dinner - a nice little reunion with the baby they had helped deliver.

[pcta]

I thought Lucas Black did a really fine job.

[laredhead]

They did a very good job of recreating the damage in New Orleans in one scene.  The temporary morgue in St. Gabriel was also a real place that was set up after the storm.  I live about 70 miles north of New Orleans, and my house is in the flight pattern of the helicopters that were ferrying evacuees and military back and forth from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.  Every time I hear a helicopter today it brings back those memories of the weeks after the storm.  I thought it was a good episode, but wish they had listed all of the names of the cast members who participate in the Thanksgiving dinner scene.

[BooksRule]

They did a very good job of recreating the damage in New Orleans in one scene.  The temporary morgue in St. Gabriel was also a real place that was set up after the storm.  I live about 70 miles north of New Orleans, and my house is in the flight pattern of the helicopters that were ferrying evacuees and military back and forth from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.  Every time I hear a helicopter today it brings back those memories of the weeks after the storm.

 

I agree that they did a good job.  I live about an hour east of New Orleans and we were virtually wiped out.  After all of the hoopla over the 10th anniversary of the storm, I had just about had enough of hearing more about Katrina, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one.  It was a good episode, though.  However, was LaSalle supposed to be that big of a jerk already or was he just a little arrogant and we're to understand that Katrina pushed him over the edge?  Lucas Black was excellent in the episode, too.

 

The sound of chainsaws used to give me 'hurricane flashbacks', but now helicopter sounds do.  And LaSalle and Sebastian's discussion over the smell of the boxes brought back that smell to me.  'Katrina stew'--it was disgusting.

Edited November 25, 2015 by BooksRule

[roseha]

I really liked this episode also, I'm a sucker for cold case stories and this one didn't disappoint. I didn't expect all the flashbacks but they were really well directed and acted by the cast (nice to also have Loretta appear).

It really is stunning to realize that it's been 10 years already since Katrina.

Edited November 26, 2015 by roseha

[sabretooth]

I was afraid that Billie had found the money and kept it so I was glad that she hadn't even found it.  Also glad they invited Billie and her daughter to their Thanksgiving dinner - a nice little reunion with the baby they had helped deliver.

 

I kept waiting for the reveal that the money was disguised as her baby bump and that she was in on the whole scheme. 

[neuromom]

I enjoyed that episode. It was nice to see how a Pride and Lasalle met. However, I was a bit sad when they showed Pride talking to his daughter on the phone, and remembering how TPTB just threw his marriage under the bus for really ridiculous reasons. Just once I would like to see a law enforcement marriage on TV that actually works.

I don't know if I would characterize early Lasalle as "selfish" . Assuming Black and his character are supposed to be about the same age, that puts Lasalle around 22-23 during Katrina. I've known police officers at that age that are so enamoured by the job, and "making their mark" by helping people and catching bad guys that they may come across as "selfish", even though their heart is really in the right place.,I think that Lasalle just needed some guidance with his interpersonal skills.

Now that I think about it, there were stories coming out of New Orleans during Katrina about looting of stores - and some of those doing the looting were NOLA officers...in uniform! It was common knowledge back then of the low pay of NO police officers, and perhaps lack of training standards. So, what I see is Lasalle doggedly trying to solve a murder and continuing to work through the storm when others in his position would have thrown in the towel and walked away. So I didn't see him as selfish - just young, immature and a little arrogant.

[Raja]

I enjoyed that episode. It was nice to see how a Pride and Lasalle met. However, I was a bit sad when they showed Pride talking to his daughter on the phone, and remembering how TPTB just threw his marriage under the bus for really ridiculous reasons. Just once I would like to see a law enforcement marriage on TV that actually works.

I don't know if I would characterize early Lasalle as "selfish" . Assuming Black and his character are supposed to be about the same age, that puts Lasalle around 22-23 during Katrina. I've known police officers at that age that are so enamoured by the job, and "making their mark" by helping people and catching bad guys that they may come across as "selfish", even though their heart is really in the right place.,I think that Lasalle just needed some guidance with his interpersonal skills.

Now that I think about it, there were stories coming out of New Orleans during Katrina about looting of stores - and some of those doing the looting were NOLA officers...in uniform! It was common knowledge back then of the low pay of NO police officers, and perhaps lack of training standards. So, what I see is Lasalle doggedly trying to solve a murder and continuing to work through the storm when others in his position would have thrown in the towel and walked away. So I didn't see him as selfish - just young, immature and a little arrogant.

Didn't LaSalle make a comment about being a vice detective and just being there in the civil emergency he caught the murder case?

[Driad]

Off topic but … at the time of Katrina the media showed interviews with people affected.  This year for the tenth anniversary they showed updates on a few of the people but I wonder about the others.  Especially, there was a very articulate young boy in a blue shirt who was worried about his diabetic grandmother.  Is there a site or other source of information?

[MyAimIsTrue]

I remember that little boy from Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke."  Could be an interesting topic for a general talk thread within this forum so if you guys want to come up with a clever title for one (I suck at stuff like that) I'll be happy to create it.

[Julia]

Yeah, the man speaks sooth, girl can sing.

Also, really glad this turned out the way it did, because when they walked into that church (and wow, I would get married again to hold a wedding in that building) and heard waspy girl's story, all I could think was wow, the suspect who was wearing swag from the murder / robbery is practically standing over the body with a smoking gun and you assume she's the victim? Based on...?

[Saylii]

I may have watched too much TV, but at the end when Pride was standing in the street talking to his daughter about being late, I thought for sure he was going to get shot. Random, but that scene was staged so eerily.

[NYGirl]

I wonder how many ties they are going to fall back on Danny being suspected of some crime..

 

I loved the singing.

 

Good episode.  This is becoming my favorite NCIS.

[pcta]

Saddest Christmas song ever written.

[secnarf]

Yeah, the man speaks sooth, girl can sing.

Also, really glad this turned out the way it did, because when they walked into that church (and wow, I would get married again to hold a wedding in that building) and heard waspy girl's story, all I could think was wow, the suspect who was wearing swag from the murder / robbery is practically standing over the body with a smoking gun and you assume she's the victim? Based on...?

I had the same thought, but then I realized that the girl with the broach was blond - she was one of the other ones they interviewed.

 

I may have watched too much TV, but at the end when Pride was standing in the street talking to his daughter about being late, I thought for sure he was going to get shot. Random, but that scene was staged so eerily.

I was so tense in the last couple of minutes, waiting for the other shoe to drop - when Brody was texting her mom/looking at her phone I was sure something would happen...less so with the others, but then when Pride was on the phone with his daughter and getting into his car, I was fully expecting the car to blow up.

 

I definitely think it is from watching too much TV! And this awful trend of a winter finale + cliffhanger.

[BigBeagle]

Love any episode with a heaping dose of CCH Pounder, and this one didn't disappooint. Two parts I especially liked ... when Danny was about to talk to Pride and Mama Lion Wade put the brakes on, demanding he have an attorney ... and the "how about a hug" scene with Sebastian (too many times, he's little more than comic relief ... it was nice to see he's actually a part of the NOLA family).

[MyAimIsTrue]

Love any episode with a heaping dose of CCH Pounder,

 

Absolutely.

[Trey]

 

I wonder how many ties they are going to fall back on Danny being suspected of some crime..

Exactly what I was thinking!  Next time he'll just say "Screw you!" and move on.

[BooksRule]

If Pride said that one of the rules was that the cost of the Secret Santa gift had to be under $20, how did Sonja manage to wrangle a private cooking lesson for him from Emeril?  She said she pulled some strings, but those must have been some big strings!

[Trey]

 

If Pride said that one of the rules was that the cost of the Secret Santa gift had to be under $20, how did Sonja manage to wrangle a private cooking lesson for him from Emeril?  She said she pulled some strings, but those must have been some big strings!

 

She dropped the private cooking lesson idea and sang him a song instead.  I don't know how she originally planned to get him a private cooking lesson with Emeril for under $20 even with some big strings to pull. 

[Julia]

Did anyone catch why he's pissed at Emeril?

[neuromom]

That was a great episode. I pegged the Commanders daughter as the suspect from the beginning , because of the the backstory over how she lost her mom at 6 , and apparently her dad remarried pretty recently. But, then I actually fell for the red herring of Alonzo. That girl was sure a cold blooded bitch though.

Loved seeing the mother/son dynamic with Loretta and Danny. I really like that kid. And CCH Pounder - as solid as ever!

And Sebastian- "can I give you a hug?" Awwwwwww

[BooksRule]

Did anyone catch why he's pissed at Emeril?

 

I wondered as well.  I know that she dropped the idea after Brody made a comment about something that happened at a gumbo cookoff.  Maybe Pride won over Emeril?

[laredhead]

I also kept thinking that they were going to do something terrible to one of the characters in the last scene where they were all headed off to their respective families and plans for Christmas.  Was so glad the show had a nice, drama free ending. 

[Julia]

That was a great episode. I pegged the Commanders daughter as the suspect from the beginning , because of the the backstory over how she lost her mom at 6 , and apparently her dad remarried pretty recently. But, then I actually fell for the red herring of Alonzo. That girl was sure a cold blooded bitch though.

Loved seeing the mother/son dynamic with Loretta and Danny. I really like that kid. And CCH Pounder - as solid as ever!

And Sebastian- "can I give you a hug?" Awwwwwww

I didn't twig, but they used almost exactly the same plot on the mothership, only with a grade-school-aged sociopathic daughter. And I really enjoyed watching CCH Pounder being unsettled and badass. She only ever seems to get to be zen and in control.

I wondered as well. I know that she dropped the idea after Brody made a comment about something that happened at a gumbo cookoff. Maybe Pride won over Emeril?

OH, OK. I missed that part. I think, though, it must have been Pride who had the bad blood, because the only way Emeril's doing that for $20 is as a favor.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Julia

[MyAimIsTrue]

While Special Agent Pride and the New Orleans team investigate a Russian sleeper agent who was involved with Abby’s brother, Luca, Sebastian flies to D.C. to partner with Abby on the forensics in the case. Also, Bishop drives through the night to deliver a package and work the case with the New Orleans team.

Crossover with NCIS season 13, episode 12.

[Linderhill]

I can't say that I'm particularly excited to see Sebastian and Abby teamed up.  But then I'm not really a fan of his even if he has gotten marginally better this season.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I just hope the crossover isn't too gimmicky.  I liked it when the mothership people went out to LA to establish that franchise but the episode to New Orleans felt forced to me.

[pcta]

Sebastian and Abby - OK - like them both. But really not looking forward to a double dose of Bishop - don't know why TPTB seem so enamored with the character.

[Julia]

Sebastian and Abby - OK - like them both.

 

I think Abby is at her best when she's with her geek peeps. They can be a little aggressive with Abby - she's quirky!!, but she doesn't ever seem to notice the package a person is wrapped in.

[Raja]

Sebastian and Abby - OK - like them both. But really not looking forward to a double dose of Bishop - don't know why TPTB seem so enamored with the character.

She's new and married allowing for something different in story telling after all these years. It is the Cousin Oliver trope for old shows

[Julia]

She's new and married allowing for something different in story telling after all these years. It is the Cousin Oliver trope for old shows

I think they're just having trouble fixing the damage they did to the character during their flop-sweat panic about Ziva - who, love her or hate her, at the time had the highest female Q Score on TV - leaving. I get that they needed that character to succeed really badly, but they basically wrote manic pixie dream Wesley and it backfired on them (although ironically enough the high Q went to Paulie Perette and the show was just as popular).

I'm sure there were other ways to fix that - the whole sitting on a chair like a grownup and not schooling people twice or three times her age in their area of expertise thing was working fine for me - but letting a character grow on the audience takes time. If they are starting to plan for what the show is going to look like with less or no Mark Harmon, they may not feel as if they have the time. And besides, this is NCIS, where character growth always comes from blowing things up, granted those things are generally the women in Gibbs' life. So, marriage, loss of marriage, and with any luck less screen time moving forward.