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Post by llyan on Jun 14, 2018 13:32:29 GMT
Donna Kauffman recaps classic ‘NCIS’ season 3, episode 21, ‘Bloodbath’: A nicely done Abby episode
By: Donna Kauffman | June 13, 2018 1:53 pm
It’s summertime and you know what that means! No new NCIS eps. Wah! But wait! I’m here for you with some classic NCIS episode recaps (and fab giveaways!) to help tide us over during the long, hot drought.
I read a TV Guide article (originally posted Jan. 17, 2012) where the cast discussed which episodes were their favorites and what it was about them that gave them that special designation. I thought it would be fun to give them the classic recap treatment.
Screenshot of Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
I’m kicking things off with an episode from 2006, directed by one of my fave NCIS directors, Dennis Smith. From alll the way back in season three, this is one of Pauley Perrette’s favorite episodes. As most of you know, she played the role of our much-beloved and recently departed Abby Sciuto. Here’s what she told TV Guide about the episode Bloodbath:
“It was one of the hardest episodes for me to do because Abby’s being stalked, and I’ve been hideously stalked in real life. I was afraid of how that was going to affect me — that’s like bringing my home life to work. I was scared in the beginning, but it ended up being really cathartic.”
Sounds harrowing, both personally and professionally. Not sure how I feel about that. Let’s dive in and see how it all plays out, shall we?
We open with a middle-age couple checking in to a motel. Wife is complaining about the roaches they encountered on their last stay. Husband is pooh-poohing her account, saying as an entomologist, he knows bugs and they didn’t see any roaches. The young room clerk assures them they’ll be fine, that they take pride in how clean their rooms are, but if the room isn’t to their satisfaction, he’ll give them a free upgrade. And we all know where this is going, right?
Young Clerk opens the door, and Husband and Wife enter what looks like a scene from a horror movie where body parts were put through a blender. (Yes, that awful.) Husband says, mildly, that they’ll take the upgrade. HA.
Cue awesome opening theme song and credits. Gibbs is so young! Hello, Tony! And Ziva! And Director Jenny! Ah, you’re all so missed.
Screenshot of Cote de Pablo as Ziva and Lauren Holly as Jenny in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Speaking of Director Shepard, she and Ziva are in her office, talking what sounds like tactical mission op planning, but turns out to be tactical couture discussion as they help Abby decide what shoes to wear to court. (You can imagine the options.) Heels is the unanimous decision. Now it’s time to talk clothing. Enter Tony, who says Abby could just go with the heels. Oh, Tony. (His easy comedic timing is most sorely missed!) He collects Ziva as it’s grab-your-gear time and says how he saved her before they started braiding each other’s hair. She teases that who knows what that might have led to, making Tony do a double take, and that’s the other thing I miss. Easy, is-it-flirtation-or-is-it-not? that doesn’t quite cross the line or diminish either partner.
Unfortunately, we go back to the gruesome scene, as the team processes the horror. (Here, I won’t be wanting any more of this popcorn. More for you.) The motel is part of off-base housing that is used by military personnel to house visiting family and the like. The previous occupants checked out two days earlier, and there was no forced entry. The team determines that the blood that is literally splattered everywhere (and I mean everywhere) is human, but they can’t identify any of the, uh, chunks of human detritus that are also strewn everywhere. Also, the suitcase full of what appears to be packets of cocaine would belie that this is a drug transaction gone horrifically awry.
Ducky chimes in that he’s noted that none of the, uh, leftovers have any muscle or bone, it’s all connective tissue, and appears to have been surgically excised from said muscle and bone, none of which appears to still be on the premises. So … does that mean they excised it while the person was still alive? Because, gah. And how did said perpetrator leave without a trail of … everything following in his wake? Ducky says there were three persons, and whoever did the dissecting is a trained professional. (A dang untidy one, but OK!)
A so-very-young McGee is tracking previous guests who also happen to be surgeons or doctors and coming up empty. Tony is exhibiting his standard annoy-McGee behavior by wadding up papers with various quotes printed on them and tossing them toward McGee’s trash can and missing. Turns out that the quotes are from a calendar that was previously on McGee’s desk. He objects to Tony destroying it, telling him it was a gift. Tony mocks it right before we learn that the gift came from — say it with me — Gibbs. “Nice calendar, boss.” Heh.
Both McGee’s and Ziva’s digging into past residents has come up empty. We do learn that one of the maids had her key stolen, so that’s how the perp gained entry. Tony takes the lead and we go to the Screen of All Knowing. The blood spatter all came from a central point. Abby found bits of the smashed TV embedded in the bathroom mat, meaning the mat was wrapped around the TV to muffle the sound as the TV was broken. All adding up to show that the crime scene was staged. The victims were killed elsewhere. Gibbs tasks Tony with figuring out where the victims were killed, seeing as he’s doing most of the work anyway. Tony’s smug grin is cut short when he misses his chair and goes straight to the floor. Heh.
Ah, the laughter is short-lived as we go down to Ducky’s Digs where they have little sheets of connective tissue draped everywhere. (Seriously, you can have the rest of my Coke Zero now, too.) G-A-G. Ducky tells Palmer it’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. (Yeah, I’ll stick with the ones that have pictures of birdhouses and antique tea tins, thanks.) Enter Gibbs, and Ducky tells him that they have the remains of at least four different people and quite possibly more. However, it’s not a serial killer situation. As the camera pans around the various “meat puzzles,” Ducky says he realized while assembling them that the remains they have are the same kind of tissue that is left behind after surgery, meaning it’s highly likely the tissue they have is medical/surgical waste. (All snacking has officially ended. In fact, now seems like a good time to start a nice fasting regimen.) Now, could we please, please change the view? Ducky and Gibbs draw the conclusion that the team is being set up, but why and for what purpose?
Screenshot of Sean Murray as McGee and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Down in Abby Lab (thank you!), she is examining the contents of the white powder packets. Enter McGee who couldn’t wait for Abby to e-mail him the results. Abby quickly realizes that McGee came down in hopes of seeing Abby in her “court suit,” which looks remarkably like one of Director Jenny’s outfits. Abby says she just had to give a deposition and won’t have to go back. She suddenly freezes, says she smells almonds, then tells McGee they have to run, that whatever is in those packets has cyanide gas. They run out of the lab, with McGee literally dragging Abby out when she trips. They close the steel door, she hits the alarm, and the sign flashes that the lab is secured. We fade to a ruh-roh black-and-white.
We return to the hazmat team going over the lab. When Abby added her testing chemicals to the powder, it created a cyanide gas. She and McGee would have been dead within three minutes if they hadn’t gotten out when they did. Director Jenny, Gibbs and Tony discuss, and Gibbs thinks it’s all part of them being set up, but they still don’t know why or to what end. Jenny dismisses that it was someone targeting Abby, because who would want to do that? Tony maybe, but not Abby. HA. It must be something else. While McGee and Abby are getting cleansed from their exposure, Tony did a little digging into Abby and hands Gibbs a folder, saying she’s been hiding something.
Screenshot of David McCallum as Ducky and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
We don’t learn what as yet. Instead, we’re in Ducky’s Digs as Abby and McGee are breathing oxygen through masks while Ducky continues to work on getting them back to rights. Abby is embarrassed that she created the hazard with her testing chemicals, but adds that she couldn’t have possibly presumed that any drug dealer would cut his cocaine with cyanide. Ducky says their exposure was brief enough that they should be fine. Enter Gibbs, who concurs, saying the two of them don’t have permission to be sick. Heh. And aww.
Abby assures him she’s fine and apologizes again, saying it was a newbie accident and that the only thing that got damaged was her ego. Tony and Ziva tell her that they think it wasn’t an accident, that someone might be targeting her. Abby is all, “Who would want to kill me? Tony maybe, but …” Heh. Come to find out, Abby was dating a guy and things got a little out of hand. So much so it ended with her getting a restraining order against him. Gibbs asks her why she didn’t tell him. An embarrassed Abby says she wanted him restrained, not beaten to a pulp with a baseball bat. HA. Also, true!
Apparently, Lover Boy can’t accept that they’re over. He even has a website dedicated to all things Abby, his “dark angel.” Despite the fact that the guy cleans up crime scenes for a living, which would seem to give him access to some pretty gruesome stuff, perfect for setting up a fake crime scene, Abby insists he’s not the guy they’re looking for. Abby realizes they’re going to go talk to the guy anyway and asks Gibbs if he could please pick up her red studded dog collar while he’s there. Heh.
That evening, Gibbs, Tony and Ziva walk up to the offices of Lover Boy and hear loud music coming from inside. Peering inside, they see one guy sprawled across the counter, blood pooling, another on the floor, also in a pool of blood, and enter, guns drawn. Only to walk into the middle of a staged scene that Lover Boy was photographing for … what, I can’t imagine. Turns out the guy on the floor is a dummy, and LB tells them he was taking before and after shots for his new crime scene cleaning business brochure.
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
LB thinks they’ve come to hire him and starts handing out brochures, saying he’s never worked with NCIS before. Tony comments on how that might have been hard due to the restraining order against him. He starts to play it like he has no idea what they mean, until Gibbs removes what little personal space there is between them and informs him the only reason he’s still able to walk is because Gibbs didn’t know about him sooner. HA. LB immediately comes clean (such a bad pun) and is actually kind of kookily charming. He says he was trying to apologize to Abby, that he’s been in therapy and now he realizes that he was projecting his own issues onto her and now he’s sorry.
Ziva starts showing him photos of the crime scene, asking him if that looks familiar. He says no, but for two grand he could make it look good as new. HA. Gibbs doesn’t find him as amusing as I do and once again closes the breathable space between them. LB says he’s on antidepressants and he’s much better, even has a new girlfriend. Tony tells him if he has an alibi for the past few days, he’ll be golden. LB says that the full moon brings out the crazies, and given that, he’s spent the past two days with the metro police department. Golden alibi.
Back in HQ with the full moon gleaming in through the windows, Abby exclaims that there is no statistical proof between the phases of the moon and human behavior. Enter Gibbs and Tony, who tell Abby that LB’s alibi held up. He cleaned eight crime scenes in four days, surrounded by detectives the entire time. None of the scenes would have given him access to the kind of material found at their crime scene. Abby smiles, believing she is off the hook. Ziva says LB might have had an accomplice but admits that they can’t find anyone else in Abby’s orbit who looks good for the crime.
Gibbs wants suspects. Ziva says she’ll look up medical waste companies and see if any reported anything stolen or otherwise tampered with, and Tony says he’ll interview lodge personnel to see if anyone had a grudge with the cleaning staff. (If so, quite the grudge!) When McGee can’t come up with a task he should be tackling, Gibbs tells him to go home and take Abby with him. Abby swears she’s fine, that LB is her only stalker and since it’s not him, nothing to worry about. Gibbs says he doesn’t want her home alone. Aw.
Over at McGee’s place, Abby is playing video games and informs McGee when he enters that she’s completely reconfigured the game so it plays better. McGee turns the game off, says it’s bedtime. He’ll take the sleeping bag, she gets the bed. She says they’re both adults, they can sleep in the bed together, and teases him about keeping his hands to himself. She can’t find her toothbrush in her bag and McGee says he still has her old one in his bathroom. She smiles, says that’s creepy and teases him that maybe he should take the sleeping bag. It’s funny thinking back to the time when these two were together, and even now, when it’s not that far beyond that. Abby comes out of the bathroom with a cute ladybug toothbrush and says that’s not hers. She’s in underwear, tank and an unbuttoned shirt and the whole vibe is so … early days. Their dynamic was very different then. Now they seem a lot more siblinglike. Abby goes to leave, thinking her toothbrush fell out in his car. McGee says Gibbs would kill him if he found out he let Abby leave the apartment, so she says fine, he can go look. She says she’ll just use his toothbrush, and he caves. He tells her not to answer the door, she’s all, fine, whatever, and goes right back over and turns the video game back on.
Screenshot of Sean Murray as McGee and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
A knock at the door has her running to answer it without checking. It’s McGee, who gets mad at her for opening the door. He needs his car keys to unlock the door and tells her if she doesn’t listen to him, he’ll tie her up. Abby thinks that sounds like fun, earning a McGee eye roll. He leaves, she goes back to the video game. Someone knocks at the door and she runs right back over and opens it. (And I groan because, come on. She’s trusting, sure, but don’t make her a stupid heroine.) Her smile fades because, yep. Hello, LB. Fade to black-and-white. (Also, how did he know she was at McGee’s place?)
LB comes in, he wants to start over. Abby grabs McGee’s old-fashioned typewriter and throws it at him. (I cringe. Not the typewriter!) LB is all quasi-charming, saying he’s there to save her after what happened in that apartment. She manages to cuff him to McGee’s industrial shelving and he’s touched that she kept the cuffs he gave her. Turns out, he has the keys to them on a chain around his neck. Her path to the exit blocked, she runs into the bedroom, yelling at him to go. He reminds her he can pick locks and picks the lock to the bedroom door. She runs to the bathroom and locks that door, then searches for something to use as a weapon. We see the door opening, someone entering ever-so-slowly, step by step, aaaaand Abby, standing on the closed toilet seat lid behind the shower, just barely refrains from beaning McGee with the lid to the commode. Great weapon choice. Abby runs and hugs him. They hear the sound of a scooter engine whining into the darkness and turn to see the open window. McGee shows her the toothbrush he found in his car.
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Michael Weatherly as DiNozzo in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
The next day at HQ we learn that LB has fled, McGee is ticked about his typewriter and the computer parts that were also injured in the melee. No one feels sorry for him. (But me! That typewriter, though … insert heart-faced emoji here.) Enter Tony, who pulls a data card from his camera. On the Screen of All Knowing, we get to see shots from LB’s place, where he has an entire shrine built to his undying love for Abby. It’s way past creepy. (It also kind of strikes me as … I don’t know … thoughtless, perhaps, that despite Pauley Perrette having a very high-profile case against her very scary stalker in real life, the show thought this was a great plot concept to center around her character. From her comments, it doesn’t sound like she was given yay-or-nay say-so on it, just “how am I going to handle this?” And please don’t @ me with how she ends up saying how cathartic it was and went so far as to claim it was a favorite episode. Even if that was their hope when crafting the plot — I don’t buy it, but let’s pretend that was the case — what a chance to be taking with someone’s emotional well-being.) Maybe I was better off not knowing the backstory.
Where were we? Oh, right. Putting a fictional character through a harrowing reprisal of a real-life situation suffered by the actress who portrays her. Got it. McGee has discovered that LB has found a way to worm into Abby’s computer so he’s been able to track her that way. His shrine shows he’s been tracking her quite intently and the new girlfriend was more of a one-date acquaintance at best. McGee says he can track back through the wormhole to find where LB is located, and Gibbs tells him to coordinate with Abby. McGee says he will, just as soon as someone convinces her to come out of the elevator.
Screenshot of Mark Harmon as Gibbs and Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Gibbs immediately goes to the elevator and opens it, spying Abby seated, tucked into a corner. He smiles paternally, enters and sits next to her. She tells him that only five out of the millions of deaths each year occur in elevators. She has a stun gun from Ziva, pepper spray from McGee and brass knuckles from Director Jenny. Gibbs tells her that no one will hurt her, he won’t allow it. This brings back memories from her last episode on the show, the one Gibbs recalls as he looks at her lying in a hospital bed, recovering from a gunshot wound. This is the relationship we all missed for the past season and a half while they danced around the fact that the two actors don’t film scenes together any longer, for whatever reason that no one wants to talk about, so everyone resorts to all kinds of other speculation. Whatever the reason, what a shame. This was a core relationship to the show. It was harder seeing what it had become, than to not see it at all. Bon soir, dark angel.
Gibbs and Jenny share some banter in MTAC about the bigger plot arc from that season that we won’t get into here and how she chose the wrong time to give up caffeine. While she covets his coffee, Gibbs also explains that though LB’s company was used to clean all those crime scenes, giving him his alibi, that doesn’t mean the detectives on hand paid any actual attention to who, specifically, was doing the cleaning.
We also learn that Abby is being called back to court. Someone (aka LB) alerted the defense to the fact that she’s now in protective custody and Jenny explains that the defense attorneys plan to use the situation Abby is in to prove she makes bad choices and discredit her testimony. They don’t care if they’re being used to draw her into the open so LB has another shot at her. Jenny gives him the name of the defense attorney, a woman it turns out that Gibbs already knows, and he, in turn, leaves Jenny his cup of coffee. Gibbs says that if Defense Attorney wants to talk to Abby again, she can do it at NCIS HQ.
Screenshot of guest star Mimi Kuzyk as Ginger in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Enter DA Ginger and her diminutive client who is being sued for embezzling $10 million. He claims he’s innocent. DA Ginger tells him to button it. Ginger and Gibbs swap subpoenas. Hers says she gets to question Abby. His says he gets a copy of the e-mail that tipped them off to Abby’s situation. They face off, Ginger finally hands over a printout of the e-mail, which gets handed to McGee in hopes it helps them track down LB’s whereabouts. Gibbs takes Ginger to the elevator where Abby has set up office. Bert the Hippo is keeping her company. The night grows long and the agents are weary. McGee still hasn’t been able to narrow down LB’s location, but he’s working on it. Gibbs tries to send Ziva home, but as long as Gibbs is there, she’s staying. Tony and McGee concur. While there is a threat against Abby, they are staying.
Screenshot of guest star Eddie Jemison as Terry in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Abby has moved to her lab and set up a bedroll. She tells Ducky the elevator ceased to be cozy after she’d been interrogated for an hour by DA Ginger. Ducky gives her a whistle that will shatter her attacker’s eardrums. Which is cool and all, but what would keep it from shattering hers? I guess that’s better than getting killed, but … ouch!
McGee finally narrows down on LB’s location and it turns out he’s managed to tweak the computer into making himself a pass to get into the Navy Yard, where NCIS HQ is located. Ruh roh! Abby gets a call and thinks it’s from Palmer, but no. It’s LB, who says he really needs to see her. Abby isn’t a fan of that idea and tells him that in no uncertain terms. He tells her she’s not as safe as she thinks she is, and we see him behind her, peeking in through the window. (Now I’m not snacking AND I’ll be double-locking all the doors tonight.) Abby spies him at the window just as the team races in, guns drawn. LB takes off and Gibbs orders them to lock down the Navy Yard. He promises Abby they will find him. She says she can’t stay at the Navy Yard, but there is no safe place. If he can get to her there, he can get to her anywhere. Gibbs disagrees, and we know what that means.
Screenshot of Pauley Perrette as Abby and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Cue scene of a very tired, very drunk Abby absently sanding Gibbs’ boat and swilling his whiskey straight from the bottle as she has taken up residence in his basement. Enter Gibbs, who shows her how to sand with the grain, saying she should sleep. She says she tried, but only saw LB when her eyes were closed. She slurs her words as she tells him how she doesn’t get why people drink when they’re depressed given alcohol is a depressant. So, now she’s still depressed and nauseated. She says she feels guilty about the whole thing, and Gibbs does a little reverse psychology on her, making her defend herself until she realizes that she really isn’t to blame. Then he tells her that Tony called and they picked up LB and have him in custody.
Back at HQ, LB is in interrogation with Gibbs and Tony, while Abby and Jenny watch from the other side of the two-way glass. Abby is convinced that LB will find some loophole to crawl out of, but Jenny assures her that won’t happen. Abby, in horn rims and her court clothes, is picked up by a federal marshal to go make her court appearance. Jenny assures her Gibbs won’t let LB crawl anywhere but to jail.
Only, plot twist! LB insistently claims he wasn’t the one who tried to hurt Abby, that he’s been trying to help her (in his own twisted way). He says he had nothing to do with the cyanide and didn’t know she was in trouble until Gibbs and company came to his office that night. He went back over all of his many, oh-so-many, photos of her and found one guy’s face showing up again and again. LB also tells them he was only able to get into her computer and communication devices because someone else had already done it and he piggy-backed on them. Gibbs can tell he’s being truthful, and they put the disc in and look at the photos LB compiled. Sure enough, the same man’s face shows up again and again.
Down in the garage, Abby climbs in with the federal marshal and bingo! It’s That Guy!! Off they go, with Abby chattering away, while back at HQ, they learn that the real marshal had his tires slashed and hasn’t left yet. So the race is on to find the man who has Abby. She realizes when her phone rings and That Guy grabs her wrist to keep her from answering that something is wrong. She can’t open the door, either. No handles inside.
Meanwhile, the team is scrambling to find them. Gibbs and Tony are tearing through the streets while Jenny, Ziva and McGee work from HQ. McGee pins down his location, and Tony says they’re right where her phone is pinging. Gibbs pulls over in what looks like a warehouse area and jumps out, finds Abby’s (flip!) phone on the ground. They look around, and as a big tractor trailer pulls out, they spy the black government van. They hear screams coming from inside the van and race toward it.
Screenshot of Pauley Perrette as Abby in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
When they jerk the door open, That Guy comes tumbling out, one end of the stun gun stuck in his chest while Abby repeatedly keeps hitting the juice, making him scream each time. He looks a lot worse for wear. Abby, on the other hand, looks like a superhero in heels. She’s yelling at That Guy while she’s zapping him, making Gibbs (and me) chuckle. No rescue necessary.
Abby is leaving court, annoyed that all of her testimony was thrown out and DA Ginger’s smarmy client was let off the hook. She’s mostly annoyed because her testimony wasn’t tossed because of her bad taste in men but based on science. Ginger and Smarmy come over and Ginger tells Abby not to be upset. She always knew the science would get tossed because whether it works or not, “scent technology” remains unproven, and is therefore inadmissible. Ginger just used the whole bad judgment thing to throw the opposing lawyers off her planned attack.
Screenshot of Pauley Perrette as Abby and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
Abby tells Smarmy he wasn’t found innocent, just not proven guilty. Smarmy says he’ll be too busy sunning in Bora Bora to care. Which is when Gibbs and Tony cuff him and tell him he’s under arrest for hiring That Guy to try and kill Abby to keep her from testifying. He apparently didn’t pay TG enough of the money he embezzled to keep him from talking. They point to the beat-up TG who is standing by the police car, cuffed and looking annoyed. Ginger races after her client, telling him to keep quiet. HA. Good twist.
Our final scene is Gibbs back in interrogation with LB. He tells Gibbs he knows he was right, that he saved Abby’s life, figuring out who was after her. Gibbs tells him that he was a distraction who allowed TG to get as close to Abby as he did. LB denies this, of course, telling Gibbs how much he loves her. Gibbs then tells him how the police found his car, found the gun inside and the suicide note supposedly written by Abby. LB is all how that was a last resort, in case Abby didn’t realize how much they loved each other.
Screenshot of guest star Vincent Young as Mikel and Mark Harmon as Gibbs in the NCIS season three episode Bloodbath. NCIS airs on CBS.
He gets up and paces, looking at the two-way window, saying if Abby didn’t love him, why couldn’t she take her eyes off of him. This is when Gibbs gets up and walks out of the room, but not before switching off the lights, leaving the room on the other side of the two-way illuminated for LB to see. The empty room. He loses it, screams Abby’s name, over and over, as Gibbs walks down the hall. Fade to a final black-and-white.
Nicely done. Except for the quibble about the too-close-to-real-life part, definitely a classic ep. What did you think?
My next classic NCIS recap will be one of Rocky Carroll’s (aka Director Vance) favorite episodes, Internal Affairs from season five. Join me, won’t you?
happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2018/06/13/donna-kauffman-classic-ncis-recap-season-3-episode-21-bloodbath/
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