S14.E20: A Bowl of Cherries

[MyAimIsTrue]

After a vice admiral’s laptop is infected with ransomware, he enlists McGee and the NCIS team to track down the hacker before the computer virus eliminates his personal and professional files. Also, Alex takes time off to assist her mother, Marie Quinn, after she receives a “911” text.

[MyAimIsTrue]

The show is knocking it out of the park with guest stars lately as I love Mercedes Ruehl.

[AimingforYoko]

47 minutes ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

The show is knocking it out of the park with guest stars lately as I love Mercedes Ruehl.

I definitely wouldn't mind if she stuck around. And Bruce Boxleitner!

[CoyoteBlue]

Ugh, it's the next one in the long line of annoying-as-hell geriatric parents making drama for the agents. What's with the writers' obsession with crusty old people who are supposedly charming and quirky but really are embarrassing and difficult and belong in a home? I thought CBS had been getting away from their Old Fart Channel reputation.

[enoughcats]

20 minutes ago, CoyoteBlue said:

 

Ugh, it's the next one in the long line of annoying-as-hell geriatric parents making drama for the agents. What's with the writers' obsession with crusty old people who are supposedly charming and quirky but really are embarrassing and difficult and belong in a home? I thought CBS had been getting away from their Old Fart Channel reputation.

 

As a geriatric who has a bedroom we call Old Fart Bedroom for when we can't make it up the stairs, I agree totally.  In fact, after the episode Mr ECats, aka Mr. OF, asked why they were doing 'that' story again.  He pointed out that it was done well with Ducky and his mother,  and then there were the Bob Newhart appearances, the Congressional Medal of Honor winner who confessed to killing his buddy, and there may have been more.

Damn it, as a certified old fart who still has some brain cells working,  stories of dementia are not what we chose as must see TV.  

CBS can't be so demented as to think this will build viewership.

[betsyboo]

Being exactly where Quinn was 15 years ago hit a little too close to home. But while I don't want/need to see this storyline play out (I've barely recovered from Pa Walton dying!!), I thought both actresses nailed it. 

I'm going to keep repeating this until I am no longer embarrassed to admit it: I really like WV! He cracks me up! He's not Tony, and I don't think the writers are trying to make him so. He's a different kind of smarmy. The charm offensive with Mom Quinn was well played. "Moms love me." 

I bet Delilah could have unhacked it, Tim. 

I'm going to keep repeating this, too: FREE FORNELL!

[MyAimIsTrue]

I'm liking WV as well (much to my surprise) but still cannot stand the actress who plays Quinn and having her up against a powerhouse like Mercedes Ruehl just further showed me how crappy she is.

And yes, FREE FORNELL!

[roamyn]

Our Roku went out just as the perp was arrested.

Was it explained why he killed the homeless men or sent out the ransom ware?

I hope Quinn decides to take a permanent leave to deal w/her mother, and takes Bishop with her.  But if we could only lose one of them, I'd keep Quinn as she at least seems more competent- and if we could see more Mercedes.

 I do take offense at the "geriatric" comments, even tho I'm not there.  How what's going on in our personal lives, and the affect on our professional, is just as important as being qualified for a job.  If you want character development, then you need to see their personal issues.  And in a place that has 100s of employees, you're going to see more than one person affected by diseases like dementia & cancer.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Wait, whuuut? Scarecrow/Lee Stetson Bruce Boxleitner returned to play a different character? I loved his Navy Admiral he played a few years ago!

I've been lax in watching my shows as I've been on a Classic Bollywood kick, watching all the movies I have starring the BESTEST actor Amitabh Bachchan during his prime!????

Ahem☺️

Will have to watch tonight and see what's what!

[abbey]

Hmm totally missed Bruce Boxleitner in last night's episode.  Who did he play?

[enoughcats]

Boxleitner was the Admiral whose computer got the ransomwear.  Forget the hair color, look to the smile lines around his eyes.

[abbey]

thanks enoughcats!  I thought he looked slightly familiar.  I will have to watch again. 

[enoughcats]

12 hours ago, betsyboo said:

I'm going to keep repeating this until I am no longer embarrassed to admit it: I really like WV! He cracks me up! He's not Tony, and I don't think the writers are trying to make him so. He's a different kind of smarmy. The charm offensive with Mom Quinn was well played. "Moms love me." 

I like WV, but I didn't have a history with shows he was in earlier in his career. 

I'm not sure I'd call his character smarmy.  That may because of my age (there's that damned age, again), but I grew up watching Leave it to Beaver and for me, smarmy was defined by Eddie Haskell, who took it to a whole, lower level.  

I kept wanting Mom Quinn to be Mary Steenbergen but I was sure than wasn't the right ID.  Thanks to putting the right name with her. 

It's hard to write first meeting scenarios with characters when both sides are still being developed.  Meeting friends' parents in real life can be awkward enough.  

Edited April 5, 2017 by enoughcats
caught one spelling error

[tootsie]

Didn't the episode seem a tad hodgepodgey? Ransom ware and cryogenics and issues with mom and dependence on technology (ah, my man Gibbs, I like my flip phone, too) ... or maybe meant to be a vague commentary on the passage of time? Then again, maybe I'm simply looking for too much meaning on a Tuesday night. More likely, I guess. But thanks for the Bruce Boxleitner tip. That was a treat.

[HurricaneVal]

Yeah.  The writers on this show really can't let go of the "Daddy Issues" theme.  It is starting to make me wonder about Bellisario's and Harmon's own relationships with their fathers.  I mean, Quinn's father is dead, and her mother still thinks Quinn should get over her issues.  Of course, Quinn's mother thinks Quinn's father is still alive, but that's another story.  A story that was told very well by Ducky's story arc with his mother.

But...since Quinn is female, as is Bishop, they get to have mother issues.  Ducky was the exception to the rule, have we heard about his relationship with his father?  What's the scoop on Delilah's mother, I'm sure we'll hear about her issues someday...

Agree on the WV appreciation.  I just wish he wasn't such a (reportedly) crappy person in real life, but that scene where he was pouring on the charm?  Yeah.  That was a good character moment.  "Moms love me" indeed.  I liked the way he said it--matter of fact, slightly bragging but not really, and entirely to himself.  It was kind of like a personal test, "yeah, I still got it" confirming to himself that his undercover skills aren't getting rusty now that he's mostly on the other side of the surveillance. 

One question though...  What was up with the sunglasses on Gibbs during that scene?  None of the other characters were wearing shades, and we only saw them just that once.  Not to mention that I think this is the first time (?) that we've seen Gibbs wearing sunglasses.  It almost made me wonder if Mark Harmon had had some eye issues and forgot to lose the shades for that one scene.

Timmie, Timmie, Timmie...  You couldn't crack ransomware code that was written years ago by a college student?  Where is our Elf Lord super hacker?

Edited April 5, 2017 by HurricaneVal
more better words

[CoyoteBlue]

6 hours ago, roamyn said:

 I do take offense at the "geriatric" comments, even tho I'm not there.  How what's going on in our personal lives, and the affect on our professional, is just as important as being qualified for a job.  If you want character development, then you need to see their personal issues.  And in a place that has 100s of employees, you're going to see more than one person affected by diseases like dementia & cancer.

But on a team of 5, how likely is it that all of them have Auntie-Mame parents who like to show up at work and disrupt their busy children's lives with ridiculous bullshit? It's not just an "aging parents" issue, it's that all the parents are practically cookie-cutter types that we're supposed to be charmed by when they are actually hideously inappropriate and/or abusive. Don't get me started on Senior and the crap everyone regularly put Tony through for not embracing his abuser. (Which is part of the Auntie Mame theme - they're full of life and sassy and it's all about them 24x7! Why aren't you letting them into your lives and hearts, you ungrateful kids?!?)

It's just a little sad when I'm this relieved that Quinn's mom has dementia and her behavior is excusable. And won't have everyone telling Quinn to lighten up, her mother's delightful! [And even though I haaaaaaate that this is a go-to NCIS storyline, Mercedes Ruhl was delightful and played it just right, imho.]

Of course, then there was the crabby admiral willing to INFECT AN ENTIRE GOVERNMENT OFFICE with a machine-killing virus because 'Amurrika don't back down, dammit!' Please tell me they quietly retired his ass. To the same old-folks' home Mercedes Ruhl will be in soon.

[GHScorpiosRule]

YAY!!!! Vice Admiral Scarecrow Chase was the same character from last(?) season!!!?????

And I was Team Chase when McGee started whining about how he couldn't figure out how to decrypt the virus without having to pay.??????

Like $500 is some paltry sum?

I ?????my ass off when Chase sent the ransomware to McGee's phone!

So I was BOOING at the end when Chase came to NCIS to apologize to McGee.

Such a joy to see Mercedes Ruhl! Last time I saw her on my screen was when she was on Psych.???

Loved Gibbs's eye rolls and sarcasm when his team acted like they'd never heard of actual maps. And his joy over how great his flip phone was!

I won't lie-I was hoping that Chase's wife was Amanda King Kate Jackson. Just because!??

What?

[secnarf]

59 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Like $500 is some paltry sum?

 

Many of these ransom hacks ask for tens of thousands of dollars - and those are figures released from several universities that have been hacked, which have much less sensitive data than a government organization or military. So, yeah, $500 is a paltry sum. Especially for an admiral. Of course, the cost balloons when it is $500 x however many computers the admiral decided to infect. Even at the end when he decides to pay the money anyways, he only talks about his $500 with no mention of how he screwed over a bunch of people much lower on the pay scale than himself (though really, none of them should have trouble affording $500 and since it's a work thing, the government should cover it).

The Admiral's issue with paying was more principle than the actual sum of money.

[GHScorpiosRule]

But he didn't mean to infect any computers-just McGee's in the hope that if McGee would try to fix his own or whatever. And the laptop of Chase's that got hacked didn't have any government or classified data-it was all personal and for him, after losing his wife-the pictures of her and them were what was so important and he didn't want to lose them.  And I got the impression that he was willing to pay not just for his, but the ones he got infected as well.

 I guess I'll be the only one who didn't blame him-because of McGee not even trying to see if he could decrypt it without the Vice Admiral having to pay. The way he blew him off as if he couldn't be bothered really pissed me off. If McGee had tried and couldn't do it, that's one thing. But he didn't. His response was: oh, you've been ransomeware'd and you have to pay the terrorists/hackers to fix it; I won't bother to try because...reasons can't because it's apparently beyond my skillz, skills I used to have but don't anymore.

Boy, an I finding a LOT of tables for one lately.?

[pally]

6 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Boxleitner was the Admiral whose computer got the ransomwear.  Forget the hair color, look to the smile lines around his eyes.

He was a repeat character.  He also appeared in Season 8's  Broken Arrow.

I thought this was one of the better balanced shows this season.  Even though there was a focus on Quinn, I didn't feel like I was being hit over the head with her.  Maybe that was due to so many scenes with Mercedes Ruehl

[enoughcats]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I won't lie-I was hoping that Chase's wife was Amanda King Kate Jackson. Just because!

Or:

I won't lie-I was hoping that Chase's wife was  Mira Furlan Amanda King Kate Jackson. Just because!

 

8 minutes ago, pally said:

He also appeared in Season 8's  Broken Arrow

I didn't recognize him in that one; I just checked and the actor I though he was, is and was at the time, deceased.

[MissLucas]

Since this is one of the few shows this side of Grace & Frankie that admits people over 60 exist I did not mind the story about Quinn's mum and her problems - especially not since it brought Mercedes Ruehl to my screen. But yeah, it also hit a bit too close to home for me.

Cryo-case was weird. McGee was acting OOC and I wondered why he and Abby were not going all geek wonder twins like in previous seasons - outsourcing a computer problem seemed weird until I realized plot demands it. But as someone who stubbornly refuses to get a smart phone I truly was with Gibbs and enjoyed his glee - flip phones rule.

[andromeda331]

6 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

But he didn't mean to infect any computers-just McGee's in the hope that if McGee would try to fix his own or whatever. And the laptop of Chase's that got hacked didn't have any government or classified data-it was all personal and for him, after losing his wife-the pictures of her and them were what was so important and he didn't want to lose them.  And I got the impression that he was willing to pay not just for his, but the ones he got infected as well.

 I guess I'll be the only one who didn't blame him-because of McGee not even trying to see if he could decrypt it without the Vice Admiral having to pay. The way he blew him off as if he couldn't be bothered really pissed me off. If McGee had tried and couldn't do it, that's one thing. But he didn't. His response was: oh, you've been ransomeware'd and you have to pay the terrorists/hackers to fix it; I won't bother to try because...reasons can't because it's apparently beyond my skillz, skills I used to have but don't anymore.

Boy, an I finding a LOT of tables for one lately.?

No, your not the only one. I was thinking the same thing. Had McGee tried and failed (although really with all his skills) that would be one thing. But McGee didn't try and blew him off.

[Clanstarling]

On 4/5/2017 at 5:12 AM, MyAimIsTrue said:

I'm liking WV as well (much to my surprise) but still cannot stand the actress who plays Quinn and having her up against a powerhouse like Mercedes Ruehl just further showed me how crappy she is.

And yes, FREE FORNELL!

Fornell's been gone so long, I'm starting to worry about Joe Spano.

23 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Since this is one of the few shows this side of Grace & Frankie that admits people over 60 exist I did not mind the story about Quinn's mum and her problems - especially not since it brought Mercedes Ruehl to my screen. But yeah, it also hit a bit too close to home for me.

Me too. My experience was quite different, but at the core it's the same. My not so charismatic father also showed up at my work at weird times - so I can handwave that one.

[j5cochran]

All of these comments on liking/loving WV are driving me crazy!  When did all of you folks come to West Virginia?

 

 

;-)

[enoughcats]

11 hours ago, j5cochran said:

 When did all of you folks come to West Virginia?

After we discovered the New River Gorge Bridge and Tudor's Biscuit world and their brown biscuit gravy?

Also the rhododendron in spring and mixed hardwood forests in fall.

[j5cochran]

3 minutes ago, enoughcats said:

After we discovered the New River Gorge Bridge and Tudor's Biscuit world and their brown biscuit gravy?

Also the rhododendron in spring and mixed hardwood forests in fall.

Come for the beautiful scenery; stay for the pepperoni rolls!

 

Oops, get back on topic, girl . . . I'm a long time computer geek, but it warms my heart (and other body parts) to see Gibbs solve problems with a flip phone and a map and a brain. Smart is the new sexy!

[ForReal]

I, too, was annoyed with McGee. Where's his law enforcement backbone? "Most people just pay." Really? Is that what he would have done had it happened to him? His character is becoming ineffective.

I was also annoyed that Bishop is "only a few shots" behind Gibbs. She's that good a shot? How? Did she do much shooting in her previous job? You'd think the other team members would have years more experience than her and would be closer in ability to Gibbs, although obviously, he's the man.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, ForReal said:

I was also annoyed that Bishop is "only a few shots" behind Gibbs. She's that good a shot? How? Did she do much shooting in her previous job? You'd think the other team members would have years more experience than her and would be closer in ability to Gibbs, although obviously, he's the man.

There's training, there's natural ability, which are two different (but complementary things), so I have no problem with Bishop being a great shot. Plus, wasn't she raised on a farm with a ton of brothers? I suspect she and her brothers did more than a little bit of shooting - and as driven as she is, she would have worked hard to be as good or better than them. (based on my own experience of dominating in a different "male" skill set because the males involved were condescending)

[enoughcats]

43 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

she would have worked hard to be as good or better than them. (based on my own experience of dominating in a different "male" skill set because the males involved were condescending)

In agreement (in part) and with understanding. 

My problem with Bishop is that I don't think we know her very well.  I have trouble integrating the woman who came into NCIS and sat on the floor and spread stuff around her with the woman who chose to leave working in the same branch as her husband with the woman who was so quiet about her newer private life that when he got shot and killed, she wasn't emotionally shattered, for at least a while. 

For that matter, I don't think we know McGee, either.  We may have thought we knew him, especially in his family episodes and the letter to his Father, but the current McGee ....who is he?

When a show is like this, with years and years of episodes, continuity of character is key.  

I don't know if the current writers can make the three newbies half as complex characters as Jennie Shepard and Gibbs' Dad.  

We got a bit of a backstory in this Ep. about the Brit, but darned if I can remember his name, but I'll never forget his face. 

Which isn't what you want in a spy, for whatever that's worth.

[ForReal]

I didn't in any way mean to imply that Bishop *couldn't* be a good shot because she's a woman, only that, as enoughcats pointed out, we haven't been shown that in her character. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, ForReal said:

I didn't in any way mean to imply that Bishop *couldn't* be a good shot because she's a woman, only that, as enoughcats pointed out, we haven't been shown that in her character. 

Not only that, but she had to be taught how to shoot; I seem to recall that when she first joined the team, there was a lot of "no guns while working at NSA, because she was an analyst" or something. So excuse me if I find it hard to believe she improved that much to be almost as good as Gibbs in two/three years.??