Ok. So I knew that Gibbs and McGee were going to make it home. It was always about the ‘how.’ And holy cow, I was blown away by the how!
Some random thoughts as I watch the episode again.
- I wasn’t sure how much I expected to see between the time that the finale ended and the premiere picked up but I was expecting a little more other than Torres threatening the pilot. Which, seriously, that pilot was seriously stone-faced when Torres pulled the gun on him. I wasn’t expecting fear but there wasn’t any reaction whatsoever!
- Palmer is old enough to know what phone booths are. I know they were going for the cheap millennial joke but Jimmy is more likely a Xennial (the bridge generation between Gen X and Millenials). I hate the name but there’s no denying that the sub-generation exists.
- World’s slowest moving escape plan. Not only did that make me laugh but it was my first hint that our boys would rescue themselves. I was glad to be right.
- Sneaky preview people. The scene where they see the men working on the uranium was reversed in the preview. I had been convinced that was Torres in the suit coming to rescue Gibbs and McGee.
- Nice touch with Torres staring at Gibbs’ reading glasses. It was subtle but it was a little sign of Torres’ guilt at leaving them behind.
- El Jefe rules by fear. It was predictable that it was going to backfire on him. Oh but it was satisfying.
- Hmmm. What was Gibbs trying to say with the wink to McGee?
- Smuggling uranium the ‘old-fashioned’ way? Yikes. Even a drug dealer has to know that’s a bad, bad, bad idea. Ok, from his ex-girlfriend, it seems like he didn't know that's what he was smuggling. Still... yikes. That's a crappy way to earn a living (pun intended.)
- But uh? Where did the uranium go once he got back to the US? And why didn’t anyone ask that?
- Jimmy goes clubbing? I really don’t want to picture that.
- That was the worst non-denial, denial from Bishop when she was talking to Delilah and I loved Delilah cottoning onto it right away. Not to mention her own little personal search for Gibbs and McGee in her dining room.
- When Jefe asked Gibbs ‘when is your birthday?’, it reminded me of the Star Trek episode where Picard was tortured and they kept asking him how many lights there were.
- Gibbs might have been physically tortured but McGee was being emotionally tortured. I’m not sure which is worse. Considering that Gibbs looked worse of the two of them, was it like that for the last two months?
- I seriously thought Gibbs was cracking up when he started singing.
- I totally bit into the ruse that McGee had cracked and gave in. He is desperate to get back to Delilah (and apparently really hungry!) And oh did that kill me when they phoofed to him eating as Gibbs was dragged by the door.
- Nice carving. No wonder Gibbs hit McGee so hard. I’d be pissed it was broken too.
- I knew as soon as they started fighting, it was a ruse. Sweet diversion to get the knife they needed.
- I didn’t catch it the first time through but as Gibbs looks at the knife, he says ‘That’s good work, Tim.’
- And there’s Delilah, totally predictable. Nice that it was Delilah who figured out how to find their bad guy and ultimately Gibbs and McGee.
- Kinda cliché that Tim makes friends with the sympathetic terrorist guy. But he did a good job portraying a guy who was stuck in a terrible situation. I wonder if we’ll see that St. Nicholas medal again? Also makes me wonder if McGee's baby is a girl.
- Loved McGee’s reaction to hearing Bishop on the phone: "Please tell me I’m not hallucinating!"
If I were McGee, I’d be asking the same thing if I were him.
- The whole time the committee was apologizing and giving Vance the pat on the back, I was screaming at the TV, “shut up and call the damn chopper!”
- I guess McGee gets his wedding ring back when he got his watch back? Although… he doesn’t have it at the end of the episode. Guess he’ll need to get a new one.
- Again… I knew they were going to make it but man was my heart pounding throughout the last few minutes of the episode.
- Nice timing of the alarm.
- Boy was that satisfying letting the guy McGee bonded with to have El Jefe. Nice payback to the brutality that El Jefe showed from the start.
- Nice work from Sean at the end. You could see how excited/scared/happy to see Delilah again. I kinda like that they weren’t crying. Those tears undoubtedly came off screen but the understated emotion was more powerful at least for me because it got really dusty in my house at the end there. It was a sweetly intimate reunion.
- On the other hand, it was kinda sad that Gibbs sat there at the end in the empty squad room. I know he finds solace in his work but it was sad that he didn’t have anyone to go home to. It’s also sad that he wasn’t going to partake in the welcome home party with everyone else. (Side note, I hope it’s a short party. McGee and Delilah have some serious catching up to do!)
Final thought: I loved that Gibbs and McGee took charge and facilitated their own rescue. (The bad guys should have known, you never keep suspects (or prisoners) in the same room.) They worked really well together and I hope that continues throughout the season. But their rescue couldn’t have happened without a bunch of pieces falling into place and not without the leg-work that the team in DC did. Nice work from everyone all around!