Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S14.E11: Willoughby


MyAimIsTrue
  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

I really am bored by this show now....and am so bummed Gibbs isn't still with Fornell. I find it a waste that this show would try a complex plot out with characters we haven't even gotten to know well...Anyone else confused by this episode or this entire series? It lacks pizzazz overall...

  • Love 3
Link to comment
3 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

You know, I don't really find any solace that the show fridged a guy this time. It's still so cliché.

Who was it? Qasim? I haven't watched it yet.  But it wouldn't be the first time. Back in season two, it was Pacci they killed.

Link to comment

I was incredibly confused about the plot. Are we supposed to know who Chen is from other episodes?

I wish either Quinn or Torres had got a chest full of lead. I liked Qasim much more than either of them.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I was wondering if anyone knows a way to find out more about the inspiration for the title Operation Willoughby?

My father was good friends from childhood until his death with a man named Willoughby who worked for SecNav.  I know NCIS sometimes has "inside jokes" or meanings to little elements in the show. Given Mr Willoughby's resume, and the rarity of the name, it seems possible that they named Operation Willoughby for him. Both Mr W and my parents are deceased now and despite being around the same age, I never was close to or in contact with Mr W's children.

From his obit:

After beginning his career in 1952 as a mechanical engineer for the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, he became an engineering program manager for a defense contractor in 1958. Seven years later, he took a job with NASA as director of Apollo reliability, quality and safety.

When Mr. Willoughby joined the Navy Department in 1973,, he brought with him an expertise in administering reliability programs to improve safety standards and to increase quality control.

In 1985, Mr. Willoughby was named director of reliability, maintainability and quality assurance in the office of the assistant secretary of the Navy. He later became director of product integrity in the office of the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. In those posts, he was responsible for the reliability, design and manufacturing quality of materials procured for the Navy's shipbuilding and logistics operations. He retired in 1995.

His other honors included the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award, the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Gold Medal.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
2 hours ago, NYGirl said:

Just when I was beginning to like Qasim... damn you show.

However, tonight's show was so boring and I was lost several times so I gave up and played Disney Emojis.

^ This. Knew right after the bit that had them together that the show was heading towards a piece of ice into our hearts bit.

Didn't mind it that much to be honest. Seen worse tv.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
20 minutes ago, JES004 said:

Seeing Claudia Christian was awesome.  She played Louise Moreau.  

Thank you so much for this.  The old "I knew I had seen her somewhere before" hit, but (darn it) Babylon 5 was so long ago.

3 minutes ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Didn't mind it that much to be honest. Seen worse tv.

In agreement (total agreement) that I've seen worse TV.  Already.this.year.  


But I have loved NCIS and really want the show I loved to come back.  The pace of action, the lack of common sense, I felt as if I were reading a Cliff Notes of what was a nuch richer story that somehow didn't get made.

  • Love 6
Link to comment

Are we still seeing Gary Glasberg's material, or is this the new show runners' stuff? Because I remember, with Pacci, I felt gutted, because we'd see him every now and then, as a recurring for the first two seasons, before we lost him. And it didn't come out of nowhere. We saw that he'd approached Gibbs for help, but Gibbs put him off, and then POW! We got the episode where he was killed.

Edited by GHScorpiosRule
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Jesus, what a downer of a episode! Poor Qasim-- he didn't deserve that! But no one on this show can be happy, I guess. 

When they didn't show Clayton getting off the plane I had about 30 seconds of worry before remembering Tony getting blow in season 4 or 5 and figured he would be ok. 

I know Operation Willoughby was mentioned in an earlier episode this season but have we heard anything about Chen before? Or he's just some major terrorist we are only just hearing about now? 

  • Love 5
Link to comment

Fucking show- now you're killing off characters just to give people extra baggage. Was Qasim's death really necessary? He could have been near death or push Bishop away after he nearly died, but they find a decent love interest for her and someone who doesn't make her as annoying and murdered him. I guess now that Tony is gone she is the resident punching bag. I knew that after seeing how cute they were together he was a goner.

I liked Reeves conversation with Gibbs- I don't mind the new characters because Abby has never been  my favorite. I do miss Palmer.

Edited by twoods
  • Love 9
Link to comment
Quote

Seeing Claudia Christian was awesome.  She played Louise Moreau.  

Which character was that?  The pilot's widow?  IMDB doesn't have her listed.

Was anyone else annoyed that Bishop called McGee MIG-ee? At first I thought she was calling him Mickey.

Edited by Driad
  • Love 1
Link to comment

I think Claudia Christian was the female member of the committee that met with Vance and who had a history with Chen and was in the interrogation room with Gibbs after they matched her voice with one of the unknown two who were leaking info to Chen.

The long hair (albeit blondish) over her face during interrogation were what reminded me of her Baby 5 character (boom chaka boom)

  • Love 4
Link to comment

Did not like Qasim being murdered. Why bother airing an episode with the cutesy back story "Which  NCIS Co-Worker is Bishop Dating?" introducing Qasim to her brothers, who all enthusiastically gave him their approval......then kill him off?  Maybe they intend to kill off any man Ellie gets interested in, like those Cartwright brothers on Bonanza, so they can have her eventually reconcile with her EX-----YUCK!

  • Love 9
Link to comment

I was a little confused right at the beginning.  Before I had my glasses on, it looked like Daniel Dae Kim, aka Chin Ho Kelly from Hawaii 5-0 was on my screen, and I was wondering if this was an unadvertised crossover episode.  But then that was definitely not Chin Ho, so I was wondering why CBS would put such a high profile (heh, see what I did there?) actor into a guest role on one of their biggest shows...and then I found my glasses and realized I was seeing things incorrectly.  But that actor did have an amazing resemblance to my guy DDK. 

 

I'm in the minority in liking the new agents OK.  There's just so damn many of them that it is hard to sort through, and having that many characters sort of dilutes the plot.  The dialogue and action has to be spread across all the players and shared out, and that can make it difficult to follow the storyline.

  • Love 9
Link to comment
1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

The dialogue and action has to be spread across all the players and shared out, and that can make it difficult to follow the storyline.

Solution: stick two of them in a scruffy bathroom with a high window so they take turns standing on a toilet to see a building across the street.  Guess their budget for cameras and laptops when a show runner saw a toilet and a window. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

The whole Qasim relationship felt so forced that I really didn't mid that they had him killed. Still, you have to wonder how Delilah managed to survive so far. Chen carries more than a whiff of Eau de Frog around him and that's not very attractive.

I guess this was the episode to give us some background on Reeves too bad it got diluted by a very complicated plot and lots of drama plus some stupid tantrums (Abby and the bubble-wrap, nuff said). They kept the lid on 'Wiloughby' so tight that the exposition fairy had to do overtime this episode. And those of us who remember B5 had little trouble spotting the mole.

I might be in the minority but I enjoyed Torres and Quinn and their stake-out shenanigans. They had to carry the comic relief burden this time and I think they did quite well.

A mixed bag of an episode. That said they got some emotional beats right. I liked Gibbs exchange with Reeves and Reeves repeating Ma Gibbs words to Ellie at the end.

  • Love 7
Link to comment
18 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I was a little confused right at the beginning.  Before I had my glasses on, it looked like Daniel Dae Kim, aka Chin Ho Kelly from Hawaii 5-0 was on my screen,

I had my contacts in and thought it was Daniel Dae Kim at first as well, though he'll always be Jin from "Lost" to me.

  • Love 3
Link to comment
20 hours ago, MortysCleaningLady said:

Just popped out to ask why it couldn't have been Bishop.   We are swimming in agents right now and I like the two new newcomers far better than her.  

Coming out of lurkdom to like this 10,000 times.  Although, I have to use closed captioning because I can't understand anything Torres says.  Tone down the accent!

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I actually like all of the new characters, with the exception of Jennifer Esposito's - and that's because they haven't done anything with her to make her an individual. I was sad to see Qasim go - partly because he was an ethnic character.

I don't mind the accent since I don't have trouble understanding it. I haven't seen Valderrama on talk shows, so I don't know if it's his natural accent or not, but it seems to me that's the way I've always heard him speak (well, actually, I think I've heard him exaggerate the accent).

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I'm really, really not understanding this show's obsession with introducing minor characters that everyone likes (Pacci, Paula Cassidy, Jackie Vance, Dornegut, Mike Franks and Jenny Shepard intentionally not included in this list, now Qasim), and then killing them for absolutely no reason.

I had to ask Mr. DVD what show he put on when Daniel Dae Kim's doppelganger came on in the first scene. I had assumed it was NCIS but then there was Chin Ho Kelly.

I truly, honestly am trying to give the new agents a chance but it's getting harder. I can't even keep track of what's going on because there are so many of them and they all clog up the screen and we don't get any of the characters that I actually care about (Ducky, McGee, Jimmy, Bishop, in that order), because they're all relegated to 30 second appearances.

Link to comment

so glad I'm not the only one who thought DDK was guest starring as the bad guy! Wonder if DDK knows he has a twin? :)

As for the rest of the episode, I thought it was meh. I'm getting tired of Abby acting like a teenager. The show has been on for 14 years now, so she has to be at least in her 30s if not 40s. Isn't it time to grow up?

I liked Reeves and Gibbs and it was pretty cool to see that Gibbs has a bathroom lol! I don't remember seeing it before. Only thing that would have made the scene of him shaving even better is if he had just come out of the shower and was wearing only a towel. But I'm shallow ;)

  • Love 9
Link to comment

Wow. I guess I've turned into a cold-hearted monster, because seeing Qasim get shot, and then lying there, on life support? I felt nothing. Maybe it's because I don't remember his first appearance and that he didn't make enough appearances to make any kind of impact on me or make me care about him? Not like Pacci, Paula, Dornegut. Jennie and Franks's deaths I could see coming a mile away.

I'm going to have to rewatch, because I was confused as all get out.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Wow. I guess I've turned into a cold-hearted monster, because seeing Qasim get shot, and then lying there, on life support? I felt nothing. Maybe it's because I don't remember his first appearance and that he didn't make enough appearances to make any kind of impact on me or make me care about him?

I don't remember Qasim either.  I know I missed a couple of episodes when I was out of the country in November and because this season is losing my interest I didn't care enough to watch them on demand to catch up.

Link to comment

My first thought in bumping off Qasim is that they are now going to shove an Ellie/Reeves relationship down our throat.  Not in the next couple of episodes but somewhere down the line.  I think they've been setting that one up since all the talk about Ellie/Reeves becoming friends "in Scotland".   Poor Qasim was just the placeholder to get us off the track of that for a short while.  

  • Love 7
Link to comment
On 1/4/2017 at 11:28 AM, enoughcats said:

I think Claudia Christian was the female member of the committee that met with Vance and who had a history with Chen and was in the interrogation room with Gibbs after they matched her voice with one of the unknown two who were leaking info to Chen.

The long hair (albeit blondish) over her face during interrogation were what reminded me of her Baby 5 character (boom chaka boom)

Yes, that was the character.  I don't know why she isn't on imdb.  Loved her on Babylon 5 - and she always had the most awesome hair.  I just rewatched the boom chaka boom episode.  

  • Love 1
Link to comment
3 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

She is on IMDb. I looked her up to see what else she's been on and for me, she's "hey it's that person!" as I've seen her on other shows.

We were talking about credits for this episode.  She isn't listed, or at least she wasn't listed the other day.  Not sure why.  When I was watching the episode, I was like 'hey, that's Claudia Christian'.  I like to be certain though (in case it was her doppelgänger), and forgot to check the credits before I deleted the episode. So I looked at imdb.  She wasn't listed there, nor was NCIS listed on her page.  She is listed now. 

Link to comment

Some times (or often times?) the guest actors aren't listed until after broadcast.  I learned this when Bradley Whitford was a Hey It's That Guy in The Mentalist (the Red John who wasn't Red John), who Jane killed in the food court.  I remember that scene with love because he was a prominent and in-focus background extra long enough for me to think gee, that's a very young Peter Jurasik.  But the part didn't show up in IMDB for a day, so I was wondering if I had lost my mind.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

"I liked Reeves and Gibbs and it was pretty cool to see that Gibbs has a bathroom lol! I don't remember seeing it before. Only thing that would have made the scene of him shaving even better is if he had just come out of the shower and was wearing only a towel. But I'm shallow ;) "

I had to rewind and watch that scene twice. Gibbs was in shorts, after all. Guess I'm shallow, too!

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Since it is an older show, I get the rehashing of old plot/story lines. Modern Family is having the same problem. The surviving a bomb detonation, stakeout hi jinx (I like the stakeout with Tony and McGee better) and killing off minor characters is so unnecessary, though.

Qasim was either gonna be a bad guy or a sacrificial lamb. I knew he was a goner when they kept emphasizing his "boring" translations. They keep Jake the Snake around but kill off Qasim. Come on writers!

I usually like Abby, but man this episode she was really bugging me. Maybe it is because I'm so upset they killed off another love interest.

Where the heck is Jimmy?! Something better not happen to Brianna or his kid.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Wrt all the new characters,  I think if they had been brought in over a longer period of time, we'd be hating them less.  I'm like many of you, I am just watching this show out of habit.

Link to comment
On 1/5/2017 at 9:27 AM, CarpeDiem54 said:

Coming out of lurkdom to like this 10,000 times.  Although, I have to use closed captioning because I can't understand anything Torres says.  Tone down the accent!

He should really work on that because he's not believable as someone who grew up in the States. His accent is that of someone who grew up speaking Spanish as a primary language, not as just a heritage language. 

Link to comment
On 1/18/2017 at 7:44 PM, love2lovebadtv said:

He should really work on that because he's not believable as someone who grew up in the States. His accent is that of someone who grew up speaking Spanish as a primary language, not as just a heritage language. 

My husband is Puerto Rican, 100% bilingual in English and Spanish and after 30 years on the mainland still has a heavy Spanish accent...sometimes I have to try really hard to make out what he's saying.

Torres character spent a lot of time living in South America...it's hard to lose an accent 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Coming a year late after finally joining the website to count me among those who could care less about Qasim's death. I don't mean to be cruel/callous, but we barely knew the guy. This is what, his second episode? When Jenny/Jackie/Diane were killed, we FELT IT. They'd been on-screen for years, their relationships with Gibbs/Vance were well established, and we were invested in them. This? Nothing. While I would have hated to see yet another Jamie Bamber character get killed off, it would have had a hell of a lot more emotional impact had that been Jake. Between her divorce and now this, it feels like the writers are rushing to give Bishop the same tragic love life that nearly every other character on the show/TV has. And it's fallen flat.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...