NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid

Whoah, one of the best NCIS episodes of the season - 8.18 - as Gibbs and DiNozzo try to get a kid (an 18-year old who looks much younger) to confess to the murder of his father (a former marine).   Vance is sure the kid is guilty, though he has steadfastly denied the charge.  Vance has a special interest in seeing the kid go down (first, his friend's appointment to the bench may be depend upon it, and next - which may be more primary - it turns out that Vance and the victim were friends).   Gibbs has no zest for this case, but Vance insists on putting Gibbs and the team on it, since it requires a great interrogator to break the kid, and Gibbs is one of the best ("who's the other," Gibbs retorts, in the best line of the show).

The first part of the show features DiNozzo and Gibbs doing a classic bad cop / good cop on the kid, powerfully played by Cameron Monaghan, who performed so well on Fringe last year (as what I called the kid who changed minds).  Now, Monaghan's character Nick certainly has volatile, unresolved feelings about his father, plus a history of drug abuse including on the night of the murder, and a neighbor who puts him at the scene of the crime.  But did Nick do it?

As Gibbs gradually begins to think maybe not, Vance gets more aggressive and insistent on getting a confession.  He takes over the interrogation, brandishing an axe (much like the one used on Nick's father), and gets the confession.

Now Gibbs, repulsed by Vance's methods, is less sure than ever about Nick's guilt.   Suffice to say Gibbs was right, and the team nabs the real killer.

But all's not well that ends well here.  Gibbs and Vance - who has been showing attitude to Gibbs all season - are on worse terms than ever.   This relationship may well beyond repair, and the only question may be how much more damage Vance will do before he goes.

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

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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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7

A powerful and effective episode 2.7 tonight of Fringe, which continues to pull itself away from the horror insano-gore of last year, towards a more rational, edge-of-your-seat kind of science fiction. In other words, this evolution of Fringe is for the good.

Tonight featured a 15-year old boy - well played by Cameron Monaghan - who, courtesy of Massive Dynamics, has a massively powerful and, when pushed to its limits, homicidal kind of mind control. That is, the kid can compel people around him to do his bidding, however otherwise they may feel, including killing anyone who gets in his way.

This provides the makings a top-notch police show episode, as Broyles, Olivia, Peter, Walter, and Astrid put their heads together to disarm - or dismind - the kid. But Peter comes under his control, and the story then pivots to Peter's struggle to prevent the kid from making Peter a killer, and Walter's determined effort to save his son. He doesn't "want to lose him again," and the only person in the room who knows the true meaning of that is Nina.

Walter's science succeeds, as it almost always does, but not before Peter is directed by the kid to shoot Broyles. Whether Peter is able to shift his arm a little, or because he's not a good shot (Broyles' explanation, not likely), Broyles is only hit in the arm, and the shot goes straight through (which is good).

The show ends with Peter and Walter talking about Peter's mother - is Peter at all beginning to realize that he came from an alternate reality? - and Nina sending an email to Bell, in the other reality.

Fringe needs more shows like this one. And next week's episode promises to be just what the doctor ordered - a show about the eternal bald Observer.

5-min podcast review of Fringe

See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6


See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

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