S14.E18: M.I.A.

[MyAimIsTrue]

To carry out a sailor's dying wish, Gibbs and the NCIS team re-investigate a murder case that was originally ruled an accidental death. Also, the case reminds Torres of a tragic time from his past.

[marina to]

Oh God, a Torres back story.  I guess it's necessary but god I have no interest.

[marina to]

Torres' story was actually ok. I liked the Lieutenant and appreciated that her connection with Torres wasn't a romantic one but rather warrior to warrior. I also really liked the opening where we had the conversation with the ghost of Collins and the in-between of Ellison. It was something different and much appreciated. Quinn punking McGee and Bishop was fun too.

They seem to be getting a better idea of how to work with the various parts. I've enjoyed the last few episodes.

[NYGirl]

I enjoyed tonight's episode.  I really like Torres so I liked his back story.  I think the episode was done to humanize him a little bit with the fans of the show.

[secnarf]

I agree that that was likely a reason, but it didn't work for me. Myself and nearly everybody I know have a friend and/or family member(s) who died from some type of cancer. He didn't really sell me on his experience being special.

Also, Ducky was speaking like someone who knows nothing about cancer, not a highly educated medical doctor. He knows nothing about the Lt's case. She needs to meet inclusion criteria to enter a trial. A phone call from a friend isn't good enough. And, nobody talks about a trial for 'advanced cancer'. The type of cancer, and often specific cellular features and staging, are crucial.

I did laugh at Quinn (whose name I still cannot remember and had to double-check) pretending to run that distance. The reveal felt a bit forced, though. Why did they steal/check her fitbit?

[betsyboo]

i enjoyed this ep. I may or may not have welled up at the end. I like that they struck up a friendship - even tho i'm sure we'll never hear another word about her when she dies in two weeks. I like Torres. I don't mind the ego because he can back it up. 

Gibbs' eyes when the father told him the daughter was going to die - GUTKICK.

I enjoyed the callback to McGee's apartment:  "From the guy with 4 dead bodies in his house."  "Five. It was five."

the most startling thing to me this ep was when Gibbs sailed into Autopsy and Ducky was sitting at his desk -- this was the first time i thought he looked old. It took him a fraction of a second more to stand and i feel like I don't remember him ever just sitting at his desk waiting. Sitting and working - yes, but not just waiting. sigh. Have been ignoring everyone else's comments about getting old. 

FREE FORNELL

[GHScorpiosRule]

❤️JOHN FINN!!!❤️

That's all I have so far as I'm watching.?

[Katy M]

The ending part of this episode bugged me.  When the lieutenant said she wished that he could have done more for him, and they said that she had because they liked his application to officers' training, or whatever, that they were posthumously making him an ensign.  He's dead. He's not going to care.  I have no idea if that gets his family more death benefits or whatever, but other than that, it's totally meaningless, IMO.

[NYGirl]

I don't know about you guys .. I think I'm in the minority here.  I've been watching since Day 1.  I like the new team (except Bishop) dynamics.  Finally McGee is actually treated like he's an equal rather than being ragged on day and night.  He is proving to be an asset to the team and I like seeing this.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I enjoyed this episode mostly because it was nice to see a human side of Torres.  The show is starting to gel for me again in terms of the characters even though I still don't give two shits about Quinn or her crappy acting.

[honeydo7]

With a friend currently undergoing strenuous, debilitating cancer treatments &  an elderly family member just diagnosed with terminal cancer, I was in tears by the end of this episode.  I thought Gibbs asking Sec Nav to posthumously commission the murdered enlisted man was classy.  And MH's smile when entering Laura's hospital room...................Amazing!

[GHScorpiosRule]

I don't care if this episode was supposed to "humanize" Torres.  His being an utter asswipe and dick, ruined what could have been a very good episode. Instead, it was just good.

And I see Bishop isn't suffering any ramifications from her killing Chen. And from her behavior, you wouldn't know that just recently she'd been on a murder/revenge mission. I know that under DPB, we would have seen something.????

[betsyboo]

3 hours ago, Katy M said:

The ending part of this episode bugged me.  When the lieutenant said she wished that he could have done more for him, and they said that she had because they liked his application to officers' training, or whatever, that they were posthumously making him an ensign.  He's dead. He's not going to care.  I have no idea if that gets his family more death benefits or whatever, but other than that, it's totally meaningless, IMO.

I disagree. It may not entitle the family to more money, but a posthumous promotion to officer is recognition of the person's conduct and character at the time of his/her death during service. For the family to know that their loved one's grave marker or headstone or whatever is inscribed with the promotional rank can be very comforting. Especially, in this case, that the Navy considered him worthy (for lack of a better word) to become an officer - many enlisted men/women do not get that opportunity. Many Purple Stars are awarded posthumously.

[enoughcats]

I am way too old to be this shallow.  

That warning given:  I thought Gibbs was sending Torres to the hospital room to give the Lieutenant eye candy for her to enjoy. 

[honeydo7]

Katy,  I believe the team discovered Collins had no family & Gibbs took this case because of his respect for the general & allow Laura to stop feeling guilty/responsible for her colleague's death.  I believe posthumous military promotions for heroism & under other special circumstances are quite common.

[UncleChuck]

I agree that the posthumous promotion was a nice touch.  Sure, the poor dead Collins might not appreciate it, but it is a token of respect, a measure that his service was appreciated and acknowledged.  The grieving family would be touched.  Besides, we might as well stop giving funerals, memorial services and eulogies since the dead person won't be aware of them.  Such things are for the survivors.

[betsyboo]

28 minutes ago, UncleChuck said:

I agree that the posthumous promotion was a nice touch.  Sure, the poor dead Collins might not appreciate it, but it is a token of respect, a measure that his service was appreciated and acknowledged.  The grieving family would be touched.  Besides, we might as well stop giving funerals, memorial services and eulogies since the dead person won't be aware of them.  Such things are for the survivors.

thank you. you said it much better than I.

[Katy M]

37 minutes ago, UncleChuck said:

I agree that the posthumous promotion was a nice touch.  Sure, the poor dead Collins might not appreciate it, but it is a token of respect, a measure that his service was appreciated and acknowledged.  The grieving family would be touched.  Besides, we might as well stop giving funerals, memorial services and eulogies since the dead person won't be aware of them.  Such things are for the survivors.

I'm not saying that it was bad that they did it.  But, posthumous awards, funerals, memorial services, all that stuff is really for the living.  As you said.  So, I just don't see it as this having been some great accomplishment done for him.  But, it's just my opinion.

[MissLucas]

Decent episode. Most of the good stuff has already been mentioned but I wanted to add how much I liked Quinn and McGee out in the field. Did we have that pairing before? I remember Quinn and Bishop, Quinn and Gibbs and Quinn and Torres.

[brgjoe]

I also generally liked the episode. 

But while it was nice to reveal a story about what Torres had to go through with a loved one dealing with cancer, I really thought he was an a-hole to that poor women early on.  I get it that she reminded him of his girlfriend from the past.  And that he didn't want to live though that pain again.  But it's not her fault.  So why be such a jerk to her?  Be a professional.  You don't have to be all buddy-buddy with her.  Just do your job and stop being an ass to that poor dying woman.  At least he redeemed himself a bit to me at the end.

I am glad they didn't make the dead (now) ensign as being part of the drug smuggling thing.  I was afraid that was the direction they would go for awhile.   Generally thought everyone was competent too.  Enjoyed some of the humor thrown in as well -- which could be difficult with an episode such as this.  Though the marathon thing didn't work for me.   I just thought it was silly.

I wonder if we'll ever hear about that poor lieutenant ever again.

[HurricaneVal]

Is it my imagination, or much earlier in this season, when Torres was brought onto the team, didn't someone like perhaps McGee or Bishop or Abby say something disparaging about Torres like "What do you expect from someone who keeps a photograph of themselves on their desk."  Or "We though Tony had an ego, at least he didn't keep a photo of himself on his desk."  Or something like that.  At any rate, the key concept was that Torres had a photo of himself on his desk, which at casual observance appears to be a real ego issue.  Does anyone else remember a throwaway line like that? 

If it happened, then that would be indicative of some pretty tight writing this season, for a throwaway line at the beginning to have such a meaningful callback toward the end.  If it didn't happen, then perhaps I could become a writer on the show, retconning such things as DiNozzo Senior being an affable old man, or redeeming Jenny Shepard....

[lh25]

On 3/14/2017 at 7:54 PM, secnarf said:

I agree that that was likely a reason, but it didn't work for me. Myself and nearly everybody I know have a friend and/or family member(s) who died from some type of cancer. He didn't really sell me on his experience being special.

While I didn't like the whole brooding Torres thing, I kind of get why this was so impactful to him.  They were young, like he said you don't expect your friends to die when you are so young, from something like cancer.  For me at least, at that age I was just getting my head around the idea of mortality and what it meant.  And someone he was thinking about sharing a life with, I get it.

I like the beginning, her dream/vision by the pop machine.  I was just commenting to my husband that the idea she couldn't have pop, and that it would taste good seemed odd for a cancer patient(I assumed she was from the scarf, kind of TV shorthand for Cancer) when they revealed it wasn't real. 

[Clanstarling]

On 3/14/2017 at 7:54 PM, secnarf said:

I agree that that was likely a reason, but it didn't work for me. Myself and nearly everybody I know have a friend and/or family member(s) who died from some type of cancer. He didn't really sell me on his experience being special.

Sure, pretty much all of us have had that experience. We all deal with it with varying degrees of success, but as hard as it was for me to lose someone as an adult, I imagine it would have been much harder if I was young and it was the first blow life dealt me. For me, that makes me relate to him more, rather than less. But mileage varies.

On 3/15/2017 at 8:29 AM, betsyboo said:

 Many Purple Stars are awarded posthumously.

And most Medals of Honor. As @UncleChuck said so well, it is for the living. The flag I was handed for my father's service didn't mean anything to him, he was dead and gone, but when the bearer looked me in the eyes as he was handing me the flag and gave the President's thanks for my father's service, that meant a great deal to me. Surprised me to no end, how much it moved me, as I tend to be a bit cynical about ceremony.

[GHScorpiosRule]

12 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Sure, pretty much all of us have had that experience. We all deal with it with varying degrees of success, but as hard as it was for me to lose someone as an adult, I imagine it would have been much harder if I was young and it was the first blow life dealt me. For me, that makes me relate to him more, rather than less. But mileage varies.

 

I agree that it's much harder to lose someone to Cancer or terminal illness as a child/teen, as opposed to when one is an adult. I've had it happen to me both times. My issue or problem with Torres, was his being a jerk to the Lieutenant, accusing her of expecting them to be "friends" when this was just a job, etc. There was just no need for it. Gah. I don't know if that makes sense. I should have posted before I took my goooood druuuugs pain meds.?

I can understand why Torres didn't want the duty, and no one was asking him to be chipper or act as the Lieutenant's friend, but he also didn't need to act like an asshole.

[Clanstarling]

14 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I agree that it's much harder to lose someone to Cancer or terminal illness as a child/teen, as opposed to when one is an adult. I've had it happen to me both times. My issue or problem with Torres, was his being a jerk to the Lieutenant, accusing her of expecting them to be "friends" when this was just a job, etc. There was just no need for it. Gah. I don't know if that makes sense. I should have posted before I took my goooood druuuugs pain meds.?

I can understand why Torres didn't want the duty, and no one was asking him to be chipper or act as the Lieutenant's friend, but he also didn't need to act like an asshole.

I agree.

[love2lovebadtv]

18 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I agree that it's much harder to lose someone to Cancer or terminal illness as a child/teen, as opposed to when one is an adult. I've had it happen to me both times. My issue or problem with Torres, was his being a jerk to the Lieutenant, accusing her of expecting them to be "friends" when this was just a job, etc. There was just no need for it. Gah. I don't know if that makes sense. I should have posted before I took my goooood druuuugs pain meds.?

I can understand why Torres didn't want the duty, and no one was asking him to be chipper or act as the Lieutenant's friend, but he also didn't need to act like an asshole.

I second the agreement. Even professional distance would have been acceptable, but not being downright mean & rude. Not to mention unprofessional. No one is saying that death didn't deeply impact him. And there's a chance he's never had another close friend his whole life. But it doesn't mean he can act that way when he's given a job to do. 

[xtwheeler]

On 3/15/2017 at 8:29 AM, betsyboo said:

I disagree. It may not entitle the family to more money, but a posthumous promotion to officer is recognition of the person's conduct and character at the time of his/her death during service. For the family to know that their loved one's grave marker or headstone or whatever is inscribed with the promotional rank can be very comforting. Especially, in this case, that the Navy considered him worthy (for lack of a better word) to become an officer - many enlisted men/women do not get that opportunity. Many Purple Stars are awarded posthumously.

Agreed. For the family of a member of the military, a posthumous honor like that is often incredibly meaningful. Of course nothing replaces your lost family member, but knowing that the military and country to which they dedicated their lives and service recognizes and appreciates them is deeply valued by most military families.