S15.E05: Fake It 'Til You Make It

[MyAimIsTrue]

After Reeves sees his friend get kidnapped, the NCIS team discovers the primary suspect disappeared two days ago with confidential military information. Also, an embarrassing photo from McGee’s teenage years becomes a popular meme.

[MyAimIsTrue]

Wow, the acting in this episode is painfully bad especially by Reeves' friend. 

I'm flipping over to the World Series.

[secnarf]

I had whatshername pegged from the get go - and I *never* see these things coming. It was quite predictable for me. She just seemed off. She actually really reminded me of a character on Buffy - Chanterelle/Lily (Lie To Me and Anne, respectively). I tried to see if it is the same actor but the IMDb for this episode was not up yet. Casting could have been better though - I had trouble telling apart the 'friend', the sponsor, and Jack Sloane. They all looked too similar to me.

I didn't mind a Clayton-centric episode since we have seen shockingly little of him thus far.

And with the meme, I was thinking how much fun Tony would have with this, and too bad he isn't here for it. So when McGee said it came from Paris, I knew right away that it was Tony. Nice way of not forgetting that he exists.

[Katy M]

Yeah, Melissa was ridiculously suspicious.  I didn't trust her at all.  

I loved the Dinozzo meme thing.  I was also thinking too bad this didn't happen in an earlier season throughout the whole epi.  

I like watching Jimmy getting used to his new role.  

The Clay/Ellie friendship was sweet.

But, have they really not mentioned Dinozzo in the year plus that Torres has been there.  They had to have. He was the original winner of the apartment, an dthey mentioned him, when they found the body under McGee's bed.  

Edited October 25, 2017 by Katy M

[pally]

20 minutes ago, Katy M said:

But, have they really not mentioned Dinozzo in the year plus that Torres has been there.  They had to have. He was the original winner of the apartment, an dthey mentioned him, when they found the body under McGee's bed.  

4

but Torres didn't know the picture was of DiNozzo. I loved the meme game and the little shout out to Bull. 
So who is the close friend of Gibbs's that is the alcoholic?  In his professions, he likely knows several but the hints at first, to me, seems to indicate Abby.  But, his comment about Tony being an "old friend" kind of shifted the arrow.

[Packerbrewerbadger]

The minute I saw the landlord, I said " It's always the landlord"of ..... at least on NCIS.  

Edited October 25, 2017 by Packerbrewerbadger

[NYGirl]

I've missed the past couple of weeks due to my Yankees being in the playoffs so I didn't know of this new woman.  I hated her at the get go.  I really really hate profilers.  There's no way they are always so right on the money so quickly.  That's what pulled me away from Criminal Minds.  Go away lady 

That being said I knew it was the girl right away.

I did enjoy seeing a lot of Clayton too.  I like him.  I also like Torres.  It seems he gets along good with McGee.

[secnarf]

14 minutes ago, forumfish said:

@secnarf, Melissa was played by Samaire Armstrong -- I will always think of her as Cho's girlfriend in The Mentalist.

I figured Gibbs' AA friend was probably Mike Franks.

Thanks! I have actually seen a bunch of things she has been in (including The Mentalist!) I just couldn't place her properly. Her voice reminded me too much of the character on Buffy.

[Sharpie66]

I am also calling Mike Franks as Gibbs’ friend in a program, but not a success story, given the beer drinking he did

I like getting Reaves backstory, and I thought the actor did a great job throughout. I also suspected the “victim” right away, and seeing her acting choices after getting busted by Reaves at the restaurant just highlighted what a bad actress they cast. Such a blatant “I’m a psychopath!” face.

[brgjoe]

I was also thinking it was her.  But I was also thinking, "Oh c'mon now, that is too obvious!  It has to be someone else.."  Maybe I have just watched this show for too long or something.  ;)

And yeah, I was also wishing Dinozzo would have been there to make fun of McGee's meme.  I was trying to think of all the 'McGee-isms" that he would have come up with.  (McThug, McGoon, McGangster, etc.)  So it was nice that in the end, Dinozzo was behind all.  And it was great seeing McGee get him back too.   Nicely done.

I liked the Clayton-centric episode.  Especially since we have hardly seen/heard him around at all 'til this point in the season.

[llewis823]

I really didn't care for the character of Clayton until tonight. He always just came off as so pompous. Now we know he is a real person with real feelings. Way to win me over NCIS!

I couldn't place where I knew the actress who played Melissa, but just clicked on the post above to see - it was from the short lived series Resurrection. I had her pegged too. Her sponsor surprised me though - I thought for sure she was a baddie but then you could tell she was really surprised when her bf and Melissa's bf turned out to be the same guy. (Wouldn't she have wondered why she had not heard from him in awhile since he was dead?)

[honeydo7]

Loved the "tip of the hat," to DiNozzo in this episode & couldn't believe my eyes when I realized it was Ted Shakleford (Gary Ewing/Knots Landing) sitting next to Reeves in that last scene, at the AA meeting.  Maybe the writers could make him Clayton's sponsor & allow him to return for a couple more episodes this season.

[llewis823]

2 hours ago, honeydo7 said:

couldn't believe my eyes when I realized it was Ted Shakleford (Gary Ewing/Knots Landing) sitting next to Reeves in that last scene, at the AA meeting. 

I didn't even catch that. I'll have to rewatch that last scene.

[HurricaneVal]

16 hours ago, secnarf said:

And with the meme, I was thinking how much fun Tony would have with this, and too bad he isn't here for it. So when McGee said it came from Paris, I knew right away that it was Tony. Nice way of not forgetting that he exists.

As soon as I saw McGee with the afro, I knew it had to be Tony, but I doubted the writers would go there, they seem to be so allergic to even mentioning the Tony character.  But they proved me wrong!  I actually squeeed at the end when McGee said it originated in Paris, because that told me the writers actually went there, then we got to see the nerd photo of Tony with the glasses and mop hair.  But....  Haven't we seen that Tony photo before, in a much earlier season that was the source of some tweaking between the McGee, Tony, and Ziva or maybe even Kate?

I'm calling the AA friend out to be Fornell.  He really went off the rails when Diane was killed, and Gibbs took him to his cabin to detox.  But it could be Abby...she seemed "off" in this episode.  I forget, is this one of the threads where spoilers are OK?  Never mind, just in case I'm going to post my next thought in the spoiler/speculation thread.  Or maybe the media thread.

[Trey]

6 hours ago, honeydo7 said:

Loved the "tip of the hat," to DiNozzo in this episode

I did too.  I know McGee said something about taking the bull by the horns, or at least made some reference to Bull; that made me smile.

Since Eddie was not selling the classified information, was there any reason given why he would have brought home the laptop with all that information on it? 

[eel2178]

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I'm calling the AA friend out to be Fornell.  

That's what I was thinking, too. We haven't seen him drinking with Gibbs in the basement recently. Also, I can see Fornell trying to get Gibbs to go to meetings with him and causing a new rift between the two.

[eel2178]

18 hours ago, NYGirl said:

  I really really hate profilers.  

Totally, totally, totally agree. If they find unbuttered popcorn and baby wipes at the crime scene, then the profiler insists they are looking for someone with osteoporosis who wasn't potty-trained until he was in kindergarten. I totally made that one up, but the ones the writers come up with are equally inane. Try not to sprain anything making those huge, broad leaps.

[GHScorpiosRule]

The only profiler I ever liked was the original profiler in...Profiler.

[sabretooth]

5 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

As soon as I saw McGee with the afro, I knew it had to be Tony, but I doubted the writers would go there, they seem to be so allergic to even mentioning the Tony character.  But they proved me wrong!  I actually squeeed at the end when McGee said it originated in Paris, because that told me the writers actually went there, then we got to see the nerd photo of Tony with the glasses and mop hair.  But....  Haven't we seen that Tony photo before, in a much earlier season that was the source of some tweaking between the McGee, Tony, and Ziva or maybe even Kate?

I know the photo came up in one of the 'Tony's background' episodes, but darned if I can remember which one. 

I know that it would have been really hard to pull off, but I would have loved if the McGee photo had been a Thackery Binx photo. 

[MissLucas]

I know I need new glasses but I had no idea it was this bad. I thought Samaire Armstrong looked a lot like Ashley Jones and had troubles keeping the two characters apart. And to make matters worse they both look like Karen Gillan - to me at least.

Bello's character suffers the usual fate of new team members: they're always super-duper clever and awesome and you have to wonder how the team ever managed without them before. Things will hopefully settle down after a while. And there's a light argument for continuity to be made when it comes to profiling on this show: Kate used to profile, later it was Ducky - so the team did occasionally rely on profiling.

[MortysCleaningLady]

Best part of the episode?  Tony.

 

I knew the battered girlfriend was behind it as soon as she reached out to the MI6 guy at the meeting. 

 

I thought Franks was the recovering alcoholic, but it probably is Fornell.

 

Dont know about the new girl and still hate Bishop.  

[JessDVD]

Yeah, I called that the girl was in on it too. I said after it was over that it's too bad there's no lucrative market for successfully IDing the perp in crime shows before the halfway point.

Them bringing up Tony made me realize I don't miss Tony as much as I thought I would, probably because I still sort of view Bull as Tony having moved to NY, changed his name, and launched a new career.

I'm hating psych chick less than I did initially, probably because they're writing her less annoyingly than they did before. I question the legitimacy of doing a psych profile on people and using that as the basis upon which to evaluate them. I'm sure that upbringing and personality play into one's propensity for crime, but I felt like they acted like her profiles meant the guy was totally fine and obviously the girl was not and that was that.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Zzzzzzzzzz....oh, was there an episode tonight? What happened? Yeah, that's how good I found it/enjoyed it. Because everyone has to have deeeep, dark, sekriths!

The only thing I enjoyed was the McGee Meme and was hoping there would have been a back and forth instead of Tony at the end!

[Chaos Theory]

Clayton isn’t on enough for me to care about him.  If Lethal Weapon hadn’t been preempted by Baseball i’d Have switched over to that this week.  Although I did like the case mainly because I do tend to like reveals where the girl is the bad guy.  

[enoughcats]

23 hours ago, sabretooth said:

came up in one of the 'Tony's background' episodes

I'm not sure it was from NCIS.  Tony also starred with Jessica Alba in Dark Angel and I have really vague memories of some odd costumes from that all too brief series. 

 

I was wrong. The photo is from 1983 when he was in high school according to this.

recent interview about that photo

Edited October 26, 2017 by enoughcats

[Clanstarling]

On 10/25/2017 at 10:42 AM, HurricaneVal said:

I'm calling the AA friend out to be Fornell.  He really went off the rails when Diane was killed, and Gibbs took him to his cabin to detox.  But it could be Abby...she seemed "off" in this episode.  I forget, is this one of the threads where spoilers are OK?  Never mind, just in case I'm going to post my next thought in the spoiler/speculation thread.  Or maybe the media thread.

I kind of thought it might be Abby - she realized what was going on with Clayton right away, and I agree she was a little off.

I had trouble with the two women myself - even when they were side by side. 

I also pegged her for the perp right off.

It wasn't a stellar episode, but I did enjoy the meme humor and the insight into Clayton.

The longer we go without a Fornell sighting, the more I worry about Joe Spano.

[enoughcats]

On 10/28/2017 at 0:16 PM, Clanstarling said:

The longer we go without a Fornell sighting, the more I worry about Joe Spano.

I checked his Imdb page and there's nothing for 2017.  I share your worry.  Of the side characters on NCIS, his development has been excellent.

[honeydo7]

Wondering if the actress who played the AA sponsor in this episode, is the same one who appears in a new Price Line TV Commerical as the BFF of Spokesperson Kaley/Penny from Big Bang Theory?

[OperaLover1229]

• I think it may be Gibbs’ former wife, Rebecca, I think her name was. In an earlier Episode, she and Gibbs talked about his walking in on her with another man and she used the excuse of her drinking but then she said something to the  effect that she had taken care of her problem and no life Niger drank.

Sorry, should be ..no longer drank.  

[roseha]

On 10/30/2017 at 0:15 PM, enoughcats said:

I checked his Imdb page and there's nothing for 2017.  I share your worry.  Of the side characters on NCIS, his development has been excellent.

I found Joe Spano on Twitter and he reports in a tweet from October that he has just filmed another episode on NCIS.

I honestly haven't watched lately but needless to say I am very glad to hear the news!

Edited November 1, 2017 by roseha

[laredhead]

Previews for next weeks episode show him in it.  Yay!

[roseha]

On 11/1/2017 at 9:16 AM, laredhead said:

Previews for next weeks episode show him in it.  Yay!

I'll have to tune in!

[VinceW]

On 11/1/2017 at 9:16 AM, laredhead said:

Previews for next weeks episode show him in it.  Yay!

Joe Spano Returns as Senior FBI Agent Fornell

"Burden of Proof" - After a convicted felon swears the NCIS agency framed him for murder a decade ago, Gibbs begins his own investigation, starting with a new autopsy by Ducky. Also, Senior FBI Agent Fornell (Joe Spano) joins the team, since he was the lead investigator in the original joint FBI and NCIS case, on NCIS, Tuesday, Nov. 7 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

RECURRING CAST:

Joe Spano (Senior FBI Agent T.C. Fornell)