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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

NCIS 9.3: McGee's Grandmother

A fine all-in-the-family NCIS 9.3 tonight, with Lily Tomlin play McGee's grandmother, Penelope, a 1960s radical with ties to a Vietnam War era government think tank.

Penelope comes into play because tonight's victim, Navy lieutenant Booth, has McGee's card in his wallet (a card eight years old) plus he was talking on the phone to someone right before he was killed, someone whom we thought was his extra-marital lover.   But the someone turns out to have been Penelope, who had given Lt. Booth the only one of McGee's cards she happened to have handy.

Not only was the Booth the target, so is Penelope, because think tanks from way back then have secrets that those who started the think tanks might never want revealed.   The killer is caught, Penelope is saved, and along the way we get
  • a fine scene with Gibbs interrogating Penelope
  • followed by Gibbs letting McGee take over (that's what Gibbs actually wanted)
  • fine scenes with McGee and his grandmother
  • DiNozzo calling McGee "Tim" (when was the last time that happened?)
  • Ducky taking Penelope out to dinner (a handsome couple, McCallum and Tomlin)
  • and McGee calling his father, under Penelope's influence, for the first time in 8 years.
As I mentioned last week, this season of NCIS is providing some good personal touches among the major characters -  more of the team as family than ever - especially with Gibbs and DiNozzo (last week), and this week with both Gibbs and DiNozzo to McGee.   Good to see.

See also NCIS 9.1: Unpacking Partial Amnesia ... NCIS 9.2: Lying to Yourself

And see also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father ... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid ... NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book ... NCIS 8.20: CIRay ... NCIS 8.21: Mask and Eye ... NCIS 8.22: "I'd Rather Have a Lead" ... NCIS 8.23: Answers and Questions ... NCIS Season 8 Finale

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I disagree with every point. Mcgee acted too childish to believe, the PC throwaways were awkward, the team acted as if they barely knew one another and Tomlin was not at her finest acting. It goes without saying that the story was ridiculous and would have played better with the NCIS LA group. Just my pont of view.
Is McGee ill? Did I miss that story line?

Paul Levinson said...

Hey, different strokes.

But even just considering Tomlin, her character one of the most appealing I've ever seen her play.

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