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