NCIS Episode Review: 9.13 A Desperate Man

[dragonheart]

This episode sent me on an emotional roller coaster ride – my emotions ran the gamut from WTH to fangirl flail. I was a mess by the end of the hour and my dog thought I was completely nuts. Good thing my husband was watching UofL lose the ball game and was doing some yelling of his own or he might have given considerable thought to having me committed.

 

Since my emotions are still kind of all over the place – this probley will be too. My apologies, but I am just going to go with it and get it all down on paper before I get too lazy to do it.

I want to start off with what I didn’t like about this episode – there wasn’t much – but a few things are really starting to bother me:

·         McGee – what are they doing to him? I like McGee. I miss McGee. Please give him a little bone of a plot.

·         Same thing with Abby, Ducky, Jimmy, and even Vance.

·         Ziva, Tony and Gibbs are my three favorite characters, but even I have to admit it’s turning into their show with the others in “supporting” roles. Combine that with all the recurring actors for the last almost two seasons and we get little camera time for the rest of our team.

·         Passive Aggressive Ray? Since when? Okay, we don’t really know a lot about him – but that all just kind of felt OOC for him. I am not a Ray fan, but that just felt forced to me in order to push the premise of him being the killer.

 

 

I won’t give you a blow by blow because I am assuming you all watched the episode and will know what I am talking about.

 

I liked the case, it was interesting. I am torn between having Ray as the killer as pure genius or pure stupidity on the part of TPTB. I am going with pure genius for the shock value. It was fairly obvious about ¾ of the way thru the episode that was the way they were heading, but I would have never in a million years thought they would go there. Genius. Having yet another man betray Ziva? Stupid. I won’t even step up on that soapbox, but you all know what I am talking about. That particular plot device is old.

 

Tony being a real friend to Ziva throughout the whole episode shattered my shipper heart into a million gooey pieces. Honest, caring, selfless love on the part of Tony – he wanted Ziva to be certain in her decision (whichever way it went). He wasn’t going to influence her decision in anyway. He wanted her to come to the decision on her own so that there would be no regrets, no looking back and wondering ‘what if’. He wants to make sure that the path is really clear for him if they decide to go there (and I am sure they will). He has some ‘what ifs’ of his own that he is working through and he doesn’t want that for her. The look on his face when she said she might say yes shattered my heart into even smaller pieces. You could see the pain that revelation brought him but he put on the brave face and supported her because that’s what a real friend does, that’s what someone who loves you and wants you to be happy does. *hugs Tony*

 

Let’s talk about that face punch. I don’t condone violence in real life, but I got a perverse satisfaction in that face punch. It was a catharsis for me as well as for Ziva. Yeah, that felt good. Really good.

 

The “father/daughter” moment between Ziva & Gibbs afterwards – more gooey pieces of my heart.

 

The ending scene with Tony fixing Ziva’s phone – comforting her over the Ray mess, telling her that she would find someone some day (you know he wanted to say me! me! me!) more or less telling her that just being content with your life wouldn’t cut it – she deserved happiness. Again with the interruptions when she asked him if he was happy (urrgg).

 

The husband/Detective Burris asking how long they had been together and assuming they were a couple (continuing that theme) their reply that they were friends, really good friends. Someone please cap Tony’s face for me on that one – you can tell he wants to be more than friends.

 

This is what sent my already shattered gooey heart pieces into a mess of liquefied goo – the husband telling them to cherish each other every day - the look shared between them. OMG!

 

So just a little Tiva speculation on my part: We have gotten rid of obstacle #1 (EJ) and obstacle #2 (Ray). We just have one more (that we know of) standing in the way - Wendy. We know Tony must have some unresolved feelings concerning the breakup of his engagement (even though we knew nothing about that or her before Baltimore – kind of makes that whole Jeanne storyline a little less impactful if you ask me). I am kind of looking forward to meeting Wendy

1.      I want to see the woman that Tony proposed to and considered marrying

2.      I want to know why the wedding was called off

3.      I want that plot line resolved, so we can move on.

 

I am still of the same mind that we are moving closer and closer to having T/Z in a canon romantic relationship. The fact that GG spoke about it in this interview speaks volumes to that hypothesis. Do I think it will be easy? No. Are there still bumps in the road to happily ever after? Yes. Will we (the Tiva shippers) be ranting again (soon) that TPTB are jerking us around again? Maybe Yes. You know they are going to make us suffer – it keeps the interests up for both sides of the Tiva fence, generates internet chatter and publicity for the show which in turn generates higher advertising revenues. Crap, did I just reduce our ship to $ and ¢?

 

Just a little side observation: Did you notice that Det Burris partner was named Det Flowers? If you have read of any the Prey novels by John Sanford (Mark Harmon just starred in the first made for TV movie based on these novels as Det Lucas Davenport) you know that one of the Detectives in that series is named Flowers. I wonder if that was a not so subtle shout out to Mark’s TV role? You know me – I see subtext everywhere! (hee)

 

Comments

[whiteink]

I loved the punch. And just the whole thing. And the end with Tony and Ziva ... and wow. So much love ... so many fic ideas.

Lent however, feels a little bad for Ray ... so I think we'll see that come up in a fic. Still a Tiva story ... but looking at Ray a little differently. I'm actually a little excited to write it!

[dragonheart]

I am always interested to see what Lent comes up with even if the evil little bunny tries to kill me every now and again (grins)

[merzibelle]

It was an interesting episode, I'll give it that... but they're making my already complicated AU Tiva story even more complicated. Yesh! :D

[dragonheart]

yay! complicated is good. And T/Z are nothing if not complicated!

Can't wait until you finish it (remember, I am a smut fan) *gently prods MB*

[merzibelle]

Oh, it's immensely complicated. Not only is it vastly AU, set after Hiatus, but I toss in a few changes to Tony's background, a messy/nasty case involving a child who's close to Tony, and for added messiness - an engagement/wedding.

Now I just need to figure out if Ziva practices her religion and what Tony's middle name is!

[rebecca-in-blue.livejournal.com]

We know Tony must have some unresolved feelings concerning the breakup of his engagement (even though we knew nothing about that or her before Baltimore – kind of makes that whole Jeanne storyline a little less impactful if you ask me).

That is one thing that's bothered me since we found out about Wendy. I think the show has swept both Jeanne Benoit and Jenny Shepard under the rug. Tony and Gibbs really loved them and were strongly effected their relationships and how they ended - but it's like the writers have forgotten they ever existed!