NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story

If last week's NCIS was mostly about Ziva's father (Enemies Foreign, 8.8), tonight's NCIS (the continuation of 8.8, Enemies Domestic, 8.9) was mostly about Leon.  And it turns out that neither is an enemy - neither to the good guys, nor to each other.  Rather, each is the target of enemies, foreign and domestic.

Last week, our team, aided by two Mossad agents, seemed to have succeeded in stopping the Palestinians (enemies foreign) from killing Eli David - until the last scene showed us Eli's loyal bodyguard Haddar dead on the floor.  So did the Palestinians outwit us and the Israelis?

Nope.   The death of Haddar - and the serious injury of Leon (who was with Eli and Haddar) was the work of a completely different enemy.  A domestic enemy.

Before we find out who this, we see a series of great flashbacks ... Leon is recruited in 1991 by Whitney Sharp (Catherine Dent) who at some point had a one-night stand with lucky Ducky ... Leon meets McCallister (Michael O'Neill) and Eli ...  These characters are perfected youthed (I made that word up, to indicated the opposite of aged) - the same actors play them as the 1991 characters.   And Leon, Whitney, and Eli, especially, really look much younger.

We also see Gibbs in 1999, with a slightly older Leon, about to go on assignment and meet Jenny.   This is the beginning not only of Gibbs' relationship with Jenny, but of his relationship with Leon, which is far deeper than we previously realized.

It is that relationship which makes Gibbs especially devoted to finding Leon's near killer, and to arming Leon with a knife in his hospital room, as Gibbs realizes that Leon not Eli was the real target of the bomb in the house.

I won't tell you the ending, but suffice to say one of the above people is the would-be killer, and Leon puts that knife to good use.


5-min podcast review of NCIS

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

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

NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father

As I noted in my review of last week's NCIS, this has been a season for fathers and their offspring.  Gibbs and his father, DiNozzo and his father, and tonight Ziva and her father, Eli David, head of the Mossad.

The problem Ziva has had with her father makes all the other parent-child difficulties pale in comparison.  Eli left her to die.   Tonight he explains to her that he had a whole country to protect, and could not sacrifice that even for his daughter.  That may well be true, but it's cold comfort to Ziva.

This makes her protecting him tonight from Palestinian assassins all the more difficult.  Eli's in the United States to bait the trap, but these are no run-of-the-mill assassins.  Indeed, they are connected in some way to a high-level meeting that Leon is attending, leaving Gibbs and team the task of keeping Eli alive.

Almost succeeding won't suffice in this case.  If they kill every assassin save one, and Eli is killed, NCIS and their Israeli allies (Malachi - a regular, first seen in NCIS episode Aliyah a few seasons back - and Liat, a blond Ziva) will have failed miserably.

And in the end of tonight's two-part story, that's just about on the edge of where our people stand.   Ziva and our team killed more than one terrorist, dismantled two automatic shooting devices, but when Eli and Leon were taken back to the safe house, they were vulnerable to someone on our side who had inside information.   (Best guesses are the characters played by The Shield's Catherine Dent and The Unit's Michael O'Neill.)

So Eli's bodyguard - Mossad Agent Hadar (played by Arnold Vosloo of The Mummy movies) - is dead (too bad, I like actor and the character).  Eli and Leon are missing, and NCIS, the Israelis, and the bigwigs at the meeting - likely one of whom is an evil apple - have their work cut out for next week, which means an exciting show for us.

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"

And see ee 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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                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle

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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 

Lie to Me 2.19: The Shield Reunion

Lie to Me 2.19 last night - a Shawn Ryan production - was a special treat for devotees of Ryan's masterpiece, The Shield.   Lightman encountered a cast of characters whose actors and actresses added up to a veritable Shield reunion.


Lightman and Zoe are witnessing an execution - of the first criminal Lightman helped convict (Zoe was the DA) - when Lightman realizes that the murderer's last words, that he didn't take the victim, the "Pied Piper" did, were no lie!   A great set-up for an episode of Lie to Me - and the convicted guy, who is executed despite Lightman's protests, is played by David Marciano (The  Shield's Detective Billings and more).

Meanwhile, the victim's parents - he was an 8-year-old boy - are played by Benito Martinez (The Shield's Captain Aceveda and more) and Catherine Dent (Officer Sofer on The Shield).   Kenneth Johnson (Lem!) plays a pornographer on Lie to Me who's not guilty of the crime in question,  Cathy Cahlin Ryan (Mackey's wife Corrine) a nutcase interviewed by Lightman under cover as a nutcase in a mental institution (a fine scene, and she provides key information),  and David Rees Snell (Ronnie from The Shield) plays none other than the co-killer.   I couldn't help thinking that's the path that Ronnie took after Mackie left him high and dry ....

Speaking of which - I missed Michael Chiklis and Walter Goggins on this episode of Lie to Me, but, hey, you can't have everything.   I'd love to see a movie that tells us where Mackie went, though...

As for Lie to Me, Shawn Ryan has turned it into an often exceptional show, and I'm sorry he won't be co-running it next season.   But he's left us a really fine foundation for excellent television.

See also The Shield in Perspective (no spoilers)  and  The Shield: Thoughts on What Might Happen after the Final Scene

And see also my reviews of Lie to Me and Bill O'Reilly, Saddam Hussein, and Ben Reynolds in Lie to Me 2.6 and Lie to Me 2.7: The Redeeming of Loker and Lie to Me 2.8 in Afghanistan and Viva Lightman and Las Vegas in Lie to Me 2.9 ... Lie to Me 2.11: Double Feature ... Lie to Me 2.12:  The One Prevarication ... Lie to Me 2.13: The Whole Truth and Rep Joe Wilson ... Lie to Me 2.14: Paranoids Can Have Real Enemies ... Lie to Me 2.15: Melissa George and Shawn Ryan ... Lie to Me 2.16: Ria's Sister ... Lie to Me 2.17: 'Poling on the Campaign Trail' ... Lie to Me 2.18: Lightman on the Darkside





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