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S13.E10: Blood Brothers


MyAimIsTrue
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The Secretary of Defense calls on NCIS to help a sailor who is battling leukemia to locate a donor for a bone marrow transplant, after two of his siblings are killed in the line of duty.  Meanwhile, Bishop returns home to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.
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I find the show incredibly re-invigorated since Ziva and her endless drama left the show.  I like that the team feels like a team instead of people who barely tolerate each other.  I like that team Gibbs is no longer periodically embroiled in Mossad politics.   I like that Tony's relationship with the female team member has no hint of unresolved sexual tension but rather he is more of a big brother/mentor to her.  

 

As for tonight's episode I enjoyed it. Fornell is always a treat but usually when he is around Gibbs is off with him while the rest of the team is left to their own devices.  It was a nice change of pace that Fornell was mainly with Tony and to a lesser extent McGee while Gibbs was with Bishop. I also like that Gibbs admitted to one of his team members that he wasn't alright after the events of last year and he is seeking out help by talking to his doctor.  It is a refreshing change of pace that shows some much needed growth in the character.

Edited by camussie
  • Love 22
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Lindsay Wagner looks FANTASTIC.

 

I think if I was that mother who just learned she lost her second child to war with another in the hospital and the fourth underground, I would have just sat down in that hospital hallway and given up.

 

I was so happy to see Fornell!! And so much for "DiNote-zo" and his alone time. "Now that we're friends, can I call you Toby?"  HAAAA

 

I find it completely unbelievable that Tony did not have a line referencing Saving Private Ryan. COME ON. 

  • Love 9
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I'm really wanting the affair (still not buying it) drama to be over - really, Bishop, in what adolescent dream world were you going to come home for Thanksgiving, dump your husband's (putative) affair in your family's lap and start waving an ax around, and they were going to sense that you didn't want them involved? - but it was nice to see Gibbs acknowledge that one of his ducklings actually has parents who are not him.

 

Tony going all golden retriever because he was invited to Fornell's for Thanksgiving was cute as a bug's ear.

Edited by Julia
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Lindsey Wagner is 66...no way!  She looked fantastic and without those obvious signs of plastic surgery.  She looked like she could be Bishop's mother.  That is one thing I like about their casting department.  They don't put people in families that look like they can't possibly be related.  

I liked the episode nobody was over the top, Abby wasn't pushing Tony to do what she wanted him to do.  I liked how Tony caught the bad guy with that tap to the back of the head.  Bishop...well I think she grew up as the always smartest, semi-pampered, protected only girl in the familyand this thing with Jake is the first real obstacle she has ever faced in her life.  Most grown-ups  with real jobs don't have the luxery of running home to mommy when their husband cheats.

Trees in Oklahoma aren't usually green with full leaves by the end of Novemeber. Its always interesting to see that every non-DC/big city location for the show is usually protrayed as small minded and the people hicks...except for Jackson in Stillwater, PA (the people fit their stereotype).  I'm glad Bishop's family wasn't thrown into that box.

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I sort of missed it was baby brother bad and found himself over his head so turned good or did he just present himself to the FBI and Secret Service as a way to serve considering his heath restrictions?

  • Love 1
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Ziva was like nails on a chalkboard to me and I didn't watch again until she was gone. I too prefer the lack of her ridiculous never ending drama.

I also like that Tony is not the annoying goofball he used to be. A little of that goes a long way.

I keep thinking there was no affair. That it is a lie because whatever is going on is somehow a part of a clandestine operation that her husband can't talk about. Anyway, either way, I don't much care. Maybe the actor is leaving the show and so they cooked up an affair.

  • Love 5
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Just as betsyboo stated, I can't believe Tony didn't make a Saving Private Ryan reference!

 

I reallly wanted to see who Mr. Bishop was! I'm totally fankwanking it's Steve Austin! Well, we didn't seee him now, did we?

 

I actually SQUEED when I saw Fornell! So glad to see him back to his old, snarky self.

 

Jamie Lindsay looks fabuloso!!! Now I think I'll go back to Cozi and dvr The Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man.

 

The minute McGee found those multiple passports and money, I knew that Sean was undercover or not a loser. I was half right. He wasn't a total bad guy, but he was, but then he went to the Feds and became their informant, so he wasn't a bonafide baddie.

 

Oh look! a guest star* who appeared on JAG! And totally knew he was in on it when he didn't leave the apartment when Tony and McGee were searching it.

 

Frankly, I just rolled my eyes at the whole Bishop making kindling and refusing to talk about Jake, and especially at her destroying her phone, which is used for work and not just used for when Jake calls. And not because she was letting out her anger/hurt, but the way she was doing it, there was something about it that just bugged.  And telling her family to back off? Okay, fine. But then why'd you come home and act the way you did, if you didn't want them to "stick their noses" into how you were handling it?

 

Funniest part was how Jimmy kept going on about the throbbing vein on Gibbs's face, not picking up on the cues from McGee and Tony's faces, to realize that Gibbs was right behind him.

  • Love 2
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I find the show incredibly re-invigorated

 

ME TOO!  I love that we now have characters that are normal people with normal problems.  I may not like what is happening with Bishop, but it's representative of real people with real problems.  Love Mama Bishop and Big Brother Bishop, and I want them both to come back.  Thought it was awesome that Tony went to Fornell's house for Turkey Day, but I wished we would have gotten one teeny, tiny scene at the house.  I'm sure it would have been hilarious, even though I don't doubt that Ducky would have included Tony in an instant.  The visual of Tony and Fornell eating a meal that Emily prepared was bound to be comedy gold!

  • Love 7
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Also amazed at the lack of any Saving Private Ryan references but loved the McNozzo and also how well Tony and Fornell work together. Though I don't understand why Tony wouldn't have also been having dinner with the group, or was he planning on eating two turkey dinners?

 

Way too much of Gibbs daddying Bishop. It strikes me that Gibbs hasn't been spending much time solving crimes with the team this year...and I can see how the show would work without him in that role. Not that I think the network would ever try it. 

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I like this episode. Then again I like Bishop and any issue I have with her is pure nitpickery. I like that Bishop doesnt suffer from Tragic Past Syndrome (TPS) or have unusually difficult parents.

I think Bishop did what anyone who is close to their family does when hit with hardship; she went home for a hug. I like that Gibbs followed her for moral support. I thought the scene between Gibbs and Bishop's mom was sweet. I also kinda loved later when Bishop and Gibbs talked and she pulled out a knife to peel potatoes. It's the small moments.

Edited by Chaos Theory
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 Way too much of Gibbs daddying Bishop. It strikes me that Gibbs hasn't been spending much time solving crimes with the team this year...and I can see how the show would work without him in that role. Not that I think the network would ever try it.

I thought Gibbs didn't actually daddy Bishop, and given she must be near Kelly's age it would be natural for him, but I find that they have an odd kind of friendship, I really like it.

  • Love 2
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Bishop and her constant tantrums are grating. You act all mopey around your family and throw a fit when they want to help- don't axe your phone in front of your mom if you don't want her to worry.

That poor mother.

I felt sorry for the inmate- yeah he's a killer, but he had reasons. He's getting punished, but Gibbs has done worse and is walking around and throwing shade at someone who killed for similar reasons. So annoying. It would have been nice to see his sentence get reduced a lot more than it did.

Edited by twoods
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Bishop has really come into her own since her introduction, she no longer feels like she's still standing in Ziva's shadow. Ziva was and still is my favorite of the female characters on this show and probably will remain as such, but Bishop is good enough I don't particularly miss having Ziva around anymore.

 

However, yeah, even if Bishop would never admit it she went to her family because she wanted them to meddle in her problems. If she truly didn't want them to do so and just leave her alone to figure things out on her own she would have found a hotel room somewhere and did whatever for a few days instead of imposing upon her family.

  • Love 2
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If she truly didn't want them to do so and just leave her alone to figure things out on her own she would have found a hotel room somewhere and did whatever for a few days instead of imposing upon her family

Some people might want family members around for the comfort, and not necessarily discuss about the problem.

  • Love 3
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While Bishop shutting her family out was somewhat grating, I also found it incredibly realistic and human.  She wanted the comfort of "being home" but, as she was still processing Jake's bombshell, she wasn't ready to to really talk it out.  Still, she opened up to her brother and then only got angry when he decided he was going to take matters into his own hands and call Jake back himself.   

 

On a related not I thought the writers did a terrific job with the Bishop family dynamics.  From the mom continually offering people iced tea (such a southern thing) to her using her son's full name when he went off.  It was all great.  I also liked how we didn't see daddy Gibbs.  He was concerned about Bishop but that concern manifested itself as friendship rather than as a surrogate father.  

Edited by camussie
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Way too much of Gibbs daddying Bishop. It strikes me that Gibbs hasn't been spending much time solving crimes with the team this year...and I can see how the show would work without him in that role. Not that I think the network would ever try it. 

I think that is precisely the plan, the character is aging out of being able to be a Federal Agent and the show has spawned two out of three spin-off attempts. Or perhaps he is in line to be an agency director but that seems to be stretching it because of Gibbs' lack of academic credentials and rubbing those in power the wrong way even if it turns out that he was a SecNav's Drill Instructor along with his known service record back in the day. Just as CSI ran for years while trading off stars and the franchise still exit, in a sort of way.

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Bishop has really come into her own since her introduction, she no longer feels like she's still standing in Ziva's shadow. Ziva was and still is my favorite of the female characters on this show and probably will remain as such, but Bishop is good enough I don't particularly miss having Ziva around anymore.

 

I haven't decided yet how I feel about Ziva, and maybe that's for another thread, but I agree with most of this.  I used to feel a Ziva-shaped hole in the show for the last two seasons, but I don't anymore.  Not this season, and maybe Gibbs' getting shot has something to do with this. Bishop doesn't feel like she's filling in for Ziva, and the dynamics of the team have changed enough that I don't imagine what things would be like if she were there.  

 

I would like for the Jake-drama to end soon and am hopeful it will.  Otherwise, I don't find her more annoying than any of the characters have been.  I like the kind of agent she was in this episode and find her much more convincing in that role.

 

I think that is precisely the plan, the character is aging out of being able to be a Federal Agent and the show has spawned two out of three spin-off attempts.

 

 

I keep wondering what's going on with Gibbs and have heard the same opinion from other people I've talked to.  The writing at times seems to point in that direction, too, although after the show has painted Gibbs as the main hero, it's hard to believe he'd officially step back in any way.

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Love Fornell back and him and Tony .

 

Loved Bishops big brother , he was acting normal. Like Mum but i want to meet Dad, so you can see this difference they talk about. A real big change in Gibbs and not just the talking part, but telling a strange that he had a daughter , he normal just says no to the "Have you got kids ? "

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If I were the guy in Leavenworth, and I knew that the lead agent on the team of people who came to convince me to give my bone marrow had done all the things Gibbs had done and still was employed by NCIS, I would be ROYALLY pissed and seriously uninterested in donating aforementioned bone marrow. They should have reduced his sentence way more. It's not like he brutally murdered a bunch of innocent Iraqis or something.

 

Loved Bishop's family. Ready for this lame Jake affair plotline to be over, still don't buy the affair.

 

More Fornell, always more Fornell.

 

The Codfather? / We've been working together too long, was probably the best line of the season.

  • Love 1
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Lindsay Wagner looks FANTASTIC.

Doesn't she?! Thought she was perfect here. The only casting quibble I had was that I thought Bishop's brother should have been played by Christian Kane.

 

You know instead of destroying her phone, Bishop could have just blocked Jake's number. It's very easy to do. But I suppose it was more draaaaamaaaatic for her to chop an axe through it.

I had exactly the same thought. What a waste. Plus, think of all the numbers on that SIM card. Hope it's backed up somewhere.

  • Love 1
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I keep wondering why viewers question the change in Gibbs. When he "died", in the scene with Kellie at the beach, Kellie told him to let go. That's why the "change"at least to me. He really has let it go, but it's confusing to him that he can, that's why he talks to the Dr. I'm not shrink but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

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You know instead of destroying her phone, Bishop could have just blocked Jake's number. It's very easy to do. But I suppose it was more draaaaamaaaatic for her to chop an axe through it.

Surrogate Daddy Gibbs had a long history of chucking his phones

  • Love 2
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I can't get behind the idea that Ellie was throwing a tantrum.  I don't think she was.  As far as she (and we) know at this point, Jake has admitted to having an affair.  At this moment, that's canon, and as she herself said, her vows meant something to her.

 

I'm also bugged by the notion that she snooped around, so this was apparently Jake's only play if it's not really an affair.  First, I don't like the idea that Jake would suddenly have to go from mild-mannered lawyer to protential informant.  As Bishop pointed out, he's not a spy.  She married a laywer.  This smacks of the days of Trent Cort or Ziva.  Why is it necessary to turn a lawyer into an operative or analyst? 

 

Second. maybe I'm interpreting meaning that isn't there, but the vibe that I'm getting from some comments here is that Bishop deserves this because she's been snooping.  One, I don't agree with that, and two, we know the history of Gibbs' team, but Bishop hasn't been there the whole time.  Everyone else has gotten several explicit warnings over the years about hacking, but they came pre-Bishop.  McGee's gotten several warnings about hacking.  Ditto Gibbs from Fornell and Vance.  The warnings have been ignored, but we've seen them being given.  We've heard that Jake and Ellie can't talk, but I don't remember him ever saying to Ellie 'NSA knows you've been snooping.  Back off."  Their estrangement has always been about them not being able to share like they used to, which is not the same thing as snooping.  If the writers were seriously going to base this whole situation on the fact that Ellie was snooping, then I think they at least needed to make it clear that it mattered to the NSA before now.

 

If Delilah and McGee were married and Delilah suddenly popped out "I'm having an affair" as a cover, that would make more sense to me.  Delilah's worked as an operative and I can remember at least two warnings to McGee right off the top of my head.  I could buy the justification for that sort of ruse, but not for Jake and Ellie.  The show may have that history, but it was used on the two characters that have the least amount of history for it to apply.

  • Love 1
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Bishop was the NSA's go to agent on terrorist organizations. As much as I think her descent into hacking was a huge disservice to her character, JMO for her character not to be clear that hacking classified data is bad would require her to be beaten with the idiot stick worse than the writers have so far.

I can seewhat you're saying about her deserving what's happening. For me, though, it's not that she deserves what's happening, it's that (if what I suspect is true) she painted Jake into a corner. What she's earned is, bluntly, arrest. I can't see them spending that much time establishing her professional boundary issues to stick in an affair from Jake.

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Bishop was the NSA's go to agent on terrorist organizations. As much as I think her descent into hacking was a huge disservice to her character, JMO for her character not to be clear that hacking classified data is bad would require her to be beaten with the idiot stick worse than the writers have so far.

 

But seriously, can't the same be said for McGee or Gibbs?  Like I said earlier, I can think of at least 2 times or McGee and 1 for Gibbs without really trying that hard.  In the context of the show's reality, to use your phrase (which I like) of the idiot stick, Gibbs and McGee have been beaten with it several times.  Yet, if this is actually an op that hinges on snooping, Ellie and Jake are the ones that carry the water?  They are the newest characters on the show with the least amount of historical connection to this trend of how Gibbs' team operates.

 

I can seewhat you're saying about her deserving what's happening. For me, though, it's not that she deserves what's happening, it's that (if what I suspect is true) she painted Jake into a corner. What she's earned is, bluntly, arrest. I can't see them spending that much time establishing her professional boundary issues to stick in an affair from Jake.

 

See, I don't think there's enough history, as it specifically pertains to Ellie and Jake, to say that she's painted him into a corner.  They have talked to each other about not being able to share, not about snooping.  This storyline would be perfect for Delilah and McGee.  Deliilah could easily say, "Tim, you left me no choice.  I know you like to hack.  You've been warned about it several times."  Viewers have seen the warnings.  This would not be something that came out of left field for McGee, but I feel that way about Bishop.  I have a hard time believing that Jake is pushed into a corner by something he (or anyone else at NSA) has never mentioned to Ellie before, whereas Gibbs and McGee have gotten multiple warnings.  I feel that the story has been assigned to the wrong characters and Ellie in particular is being punished for a history of action for which characters other than herself have been much more responsible over a much longer period of time.

 

I like McGee and his relationshio with Delilah very much, but his character is much more deserving of this treatment because he has a long-standing issue with hacking.  I think it's too harsh to blow Ellie's marriage apart if the basis is on an action that McGee has similarly done for years before Bishop was even on the team.

Edited by Ohmo
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They have talked to each other about not being able to share, not about snooping.

 

I agree.  Much of the Bishops' drama since last season has been about how they are struggling to find a way to talk to each other now that they don't share the same NSA world.  It's like their work brought them together and in reality that's what defined them.  Without that, they didn't have much holding them together.  This is less soapy than being married to a spy.  Maybe that's what the storyline would end up being and Jake is really using this as a cover, and I'll deal with that if that happens.  

 

However, for the moment I prefer the more true to life storyline of two people drifting apart because their relationship didn't have much of a foundation.  Some relationships don't work, not because of covert operations but because or irreconcilable differences, we'd expect the former rather than the latter in this show, which is why going the more "real world" route would be more surprising.  In another thread, it was mentioned that Bishop's main function was to have a stable relationship, and if that's the case, it's beneficial to the character to move away from that because being the "married one" is not and should not be a defining characteristic.  I've liked Ellie before, but this season, I've really started to enjoy her and to imagine what she could be if she could define herself and be defined by more than her romantic relationship with a man.  

Edited by Betweenthisandthat
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My roomie is battling leukemia and will have a bone marrow transplant. They had those details so wrong. Irks me, that's all.

Yeah, I worked in BMT for a period of time and it was pretty annoying. For starters, actually using bone marrow in adults is pretty rare now - donors are typically given a drug to mobilize stem cells, and then blood is taken.

And if someone with leukemia is doing worse and the disease is progressing, a stem cell transplant is not even an option.

But both of those things added to the drama of the episode, which I suppose mattered more than getting major details right.

Would have been nice if they had at the very least told the guy that he didn't actually need to donate his marrow, because now the process (for adult recipients) is a lot less invasive than that - I think that's a big reason a lot of people are hesitant to donate, because they think it's so invasive. It's really not much different from donating blood, except you need to get the medication beforehand to mobilize the stem cells. It would have been nice if they had some sort of public service announcement promoting becoming a stem cell donor.

 

I hope things go well for your roommate.

  • Love 6
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I know I am late to the game but I think Ellie and Jake's marriage was based on common interests and a common job experience. Ellie said it herself; they talked about everything. Now that they can't go home at night and SITREP; its wearing on their relationship. Now they have to decide if a relationship built on a different set of experiences is something they both want.

Edited by Chaos Theory
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Also amazed at the lack of any Saving Private Ryan references but loved the McNozzo and also how well Tony and Fornell work together. Though I don't understand why Tony wouldn't have also been having dinner with the group, or was he planning on eating two turkey dinners?

IIRC, Tony said he wanted alone time in the beginning of the episode, since his father and Zoe were gone.

 

A real big change in Gibbs and not just the talking part, but telling a strange that he had a daughter , he normal just says no to the "Have you got kids ? "

It was a generous moment for Gibbs, wasn't it? Acknowledging his lost daughter was also letting the woman know he knew how difficult this was for her, that he shared some of her experience. For a person in her situation, I think it would have meant a lot. I am liking the more emotionally available Gibbs - still taciturn, still himself, but not as closed off.

 

Loved having Fornell back. The show always perks up when he's on.

 

As for Bishop, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to want to go to a "safe" place (home), yet want family to leave you alone until you're ready to really talk about it. I've certainly learned with my kids (and using my own experience) to back off until they actually ask for my help or opinion. On the other hand, destroying an expensive work phone is just a bit too dramatic for a practical person like Bishop.

Edited by clanstarling
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