S13.E23: Dead Letter

[willowk]

I don't want Fornell to die, and it looks like he'll pull through, but think it would be great to see Gibbs have to parent Emily if Fornell dies and he became her guardian. Gibbs needs a bit of a personal life, and seeing him try to unbend enough to help Emily would be good.

And on Abby-I like her, but have never been a fan of all the kookiness they've loaded the character down with. Don't have to get rid of all of it, but most would be an improvement.

[Julia]

On 5/11/2016 at 5:32 PM, twoods said:

Emily was too shrill and annoying. Yeah her dad was dying but there is no need to be a bitch. Just like her annoying mom, whom I'm glad is still dead.

If I was a teenager who just lost my mother, and I found out that my father had a DNR order signed when he was a suicidal self-loathing alcoholic? I'd be as aggressive as I needed to be with a doctor who didn't know daddy from Adam's off ox but felt the need to tell me that I was wrong to want him to live. Hell, she went so far as to tell the grown ass man who the patient trusted with his durable power of attorney that she knew better than he did what the patient she didn't know wanted.

Even if it meant someone who was happy my mom was dead thought I was a bitch :)

Edited May 12, 2016 by Julia

[betsyboo]

1 hour ago, Julia said:

If I was a teenager who just lost my mother, and I found out that my father had a DNR order signed when he was a suicidal self-loathing alcoholic? I'd be as aggressive as I needed to be with a doctor who didn't know daddy from Adam's off ox but felt the need to tell me that I was wrong to want him to live. Hell, she went so far as to tell the grown ass man who the patient trusted with his durable power of attorney that she knew better than he did what the patient she didn't know wanted.

Even if it meant someone who was happy my mom was dead thought I was a bitch :)

he's not officially an alcoholic, is he? (I realize i'm splitting hairs...) I know he had a problem after Diane, but I didn't necessarily think we acknowledged it officially. He was opening a beer at Gibbs' when he was shot wasn't he?

[twoods]

2 hours ago, Julia said:

If I was a teenager who just lost my mother, and I found out that my father had a DNR order signed when he was a suicidal self-loathing alcoholic? I'd be as aggressive as I needed to be with a doctor who didn't know daddy from Adam's off ox but felt the need to tell me that I was wrong to want him to live. Hell, she went so far as to tell the grown ass man who the patient trusted with his durable power of attorney that she knew better than he did what the patient she didn't know wanted.

Even if it meant someone who was happy my mom was dead thought I was a bitch :)

She was also a bitch to the agents when she was trying to get to Gibbs house. And there was no need to imply that she wanted to shove a stick up the doctor's ass. That was out of line. I never remembered her being this shrill- it's as if the writers wanted to remind us that she was abrasive just like her mom. It was over the top IMO. And I will never be sorry for her mom being dead. I hated her, but what do I know- I loved Ziva :) 

Edited May 13, 2016 by twoods

[Ohmo]

3 hours ago, twoods said:

She was also a bitch to the agents when she was trying to get to Gibbs house. And there was no need to imply that she wanted to shove a stick up the doctor's ass. That was out of line. I never remembered her being this shrill- it's as if the writers wanted to remind us that she was abrasive just like her mom. It was over the top IMO. And I will never be sorry for her mom being dead. I hated her, but what do I know- I loved Ziva :) 

I guess everything's all relative because I'm on Team Emily (or is it Team Bitch)?  I've had family members in hospitals for a variety of serious conditions, and sometimes it has been necessary to advocate aggressively in certain situations.  Yeah, Emily could have been nicer about it, but I was glad that she was as engaged as she was about her father.  I give her a pass because she probably felt that she had to be rude to be noticed and heard because of her age.  Emily has no siblings.  Fornell is not married.  Emily was it until Gibbs showed up, and a DNR is a permanent decision.  Overall for her age, level of life experience, and the tenor of the situation, I think she acquitted herself well.  It was one of the few times I was glad Diane was a bitch.

I thought the episode itself was well done.  I can totally buy Kort shooting anybody if push came to shove, and I like the idea that Jacob might not be a baddie.  Someone else in this thread mentioned Duane Henry's accent being difficult to understand.  I didn't feel that way all the time, but there were some pieces of dialogue that I did have trouble with.  I think the character of Clayton could be interesting depending on what is done with him.  I didn't like Tess at the beginning of the episode, but I liked the exchange between her and McGee in the car.  Thought it was promising for a good future partnership at work.

I hope Ziva is in that farmhouse, and she's actually dead.

It's sad to think that we only have one more episode with our Very Special Agent.  Sigh.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Ohmo

[MissLucas]

I was okay with Agent Monroe until she pulled that really weird interrogation technique which would have been pretty creepy  if genders were reversed. In her case it was both inappropriate and ridiculous, I was hoping the guy would repeat the race-track story just to see what she was going to do. Add me to the list wishing MI6 guy could stay - not bothered by realism after NCIS already managed to snatch an agent from Mossad.

[Clanstarling]

50 minutes ago, MissLucas said:

I was okay with Agent Monroe until she pulled that really weird interrogation technique which would have been pretty creepy  if genders were reversed. In her case it was both inappropriate and ridiculous, I was hoping the guy would repeat the race-track story just to see what she was going to do. Add me to the list wishing MI6 guy could stay - not bothered by realism after NCIS already managed to snatch an agent from Mossad.

I agree. I thought it was plenty creepy without reversing the genders. Besides, I'm not sure how rubbing yourself up against your...victim(?) would break him and make him confess.

[Julia]

There's this weird convention on this show where if women behave in a sexually aggressive way it terrifies men. 

[JessDVD]

I've never quite figured out if the mentality is, the man is so turned on by her wiles that he'll say whatever they want in hopes she'll do it more, or the man is so creeped out and disgusted by her creepy behavior that he'll say whatever they want to make her stop. Either way, I heartily wish they would stop because it's not doing the population of professional women who would like to be taken seriously ANY favors.

[Lee4U]

I'm going to take a wild guess that the writers for this show are all men or at least most are.  They usually write this sort of thing (and "romances") in the most juvenile of ways.  

[Clanstarling]

7 minutes ago, JessDVD said:

I've never quite figured out if the mentality is, the man is so turned on by her wiles that he'll say whatever they want in hopes she'll do it more, or the man is so creeped out and disgusted by her creepy behavior that he'll say whatever they want to make her stop. Either way, I heartily wish they would stop because it's not doing the population of professional women who would like to be taken seriously ANY favors.

Made me laugh. Totally agree about undermining professional women - but then this show also has Abby. So they have a lot to answer for.

[Julia]

Yeah, I don't see the Harvard Business School writing up the case study on Coping with your coworker who's grossly inappropriate (with everybody female who isn't either his boss or dating his boss) by talking about sex til he flees. 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Julia

[catray]

Throwing it out into the universe that I'm going to pissed if they kill Ziva off screen (offing yet another woman on this show). They already ruined her character; do they need to kill her too? 

I totally agree, not enough MW in these last few episodes. 

Glad it looks like Fornell will pull through-- I agree that Emily's shrillness is a good reminder of who her mother is but I could have done with a few less violent threats. 

I like the new potential probie/MI6 agent; he's cute and seems fun. The FBI lady... Hmm. Undecided. I like that she's blunt and takes no crap but that interrogation scene was super weird and awkward. Please no more of that! 

I'm not really all that upset over Kort turning to the dark side. He's a snakey bastard so it works for me. Again, this case seems ridiculously twisted with the British, Americans, Russians and also the Israelis (because of course) but whatever. 

[secnarf]

Spoiler

Well, as far as we know, they *did* kill Ziva off-screen

. Whether or not they'll leave it at that is totally debatable, though, but at this point I don't really think "if" is necessary.

[betsyboo]

@secnarf Alert! I believe the poster above you is only just watching the end of this past season and has not yet gotten to the finale. Spoiler!!

[MyAimIsTrue]

@secnarf, I added spoiler tags to your post since those events happened in a later episode.  Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.  Thanks!

[secnarf]

Sorry! I clicked on the thread and it jumps right to the last post, so that's all I saw - and I was really tired and not paying attention to the thread topic. Also I'm pretty bad at remembering what happens in which episode.

Thanks for adding the spoiler tags!