14.4 - Love Boat

GIBBS, QUINN AND PALMER TRAVEL OUT TO SEA AFTER THE BODY OF A NAVY LIEUTENANT IS DISCOVERED ON A DESTROYER DURING A TIGER CRUISE, WHEN CIVILIAN GUESTS ARE ALLOWED TO SPEND THE NIGHT ON THE SHIP, ON A REBROADCAST OF “NCIS,” TUESDAY, AUGUST 15

Margo Harshman Returns as Delilah Fielding

“Love Boat” – After the body of a navy lieutenant is discovered aboard a destroyer during a tiger cruise, when civilian guests are allowed to spend the night on the ship, Gibbs, Quinn and Palmer travel out to sea to investigate. Also, McGee contemplates the perfect proposal for Delilah Fielding (Margo Harshman), on a rebroadcast of NCIS, Tuesday, August 15 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network. (Originally broadcast 10/11/16.)

CHEAT TWEET: McGee (@seanhmurray) contemplates the perfect proposal while @ncis_CBS investigates a murder at sea 8/15 8pm bit.ly/2i02ArW

REGULAR CAST:

Mark Harmon (NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs)

Pauley Perrette (Forensic Specialist Abby Scuito)

Sean Murray (NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee)

Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS Special Agent Nicholas “Nick” Torres)

Jennifer Esposito (NCIS Special Agent Alexandra “Alex” Quinn)

Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer)

Emily Wickersham (Probationary Agent Eleanor “Ellie” Bishop)

Duane Henry (MI6 Officer Clayton Reeves)

Rocky Carroll (NCIS Director Leon Vance)

David McCallum (Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard)


GUEST CAST:

Margo Harshman (Delilah Fielding)

Andrea Grano (Navy Commander Eleadora Rey)

Andrew Bowen (Merrick Gomer)

Wilmer Calderon (Wayne Cribbage A.K.A. Tiger Dad)

Michael McMillian (David Kemmons)

Madalyn Horcher (Navy Seaman Jennifer Baxter)

Mike Wade (Navy Petty Officer First Class Tyrell Brown)

Darin Toonder (Curt Shapiro)

Hayley Erin (Kasey Powers)

Mary Gallagher (Betty Baxter)

Taj Speights (JaVale Brown)

Michele Panu (Kirstin Hoyle)

Jason David (Brock Gomer)


WRITTEN BY: Christopher J. Waild

DIRECTED BY: Terrence O’Hara

I added a poll for those watching the episode tonight.


For myself, I really enjoyed this episode.  It had a pretty good mystery and I enjoyed the through-story with McGee, the ring and the proposal.  

It wasn't hard to figure out that McGee was going to propose before the end of the episode, but it was still very sweet to see anyway! I also found the whole geeky, overly-planned but really far in the future proposal very typical of Tim. It actually reminded me of the episode where Delilah was hurt. He did everything to avoid going to the gala with Delilah because he was afraid things were going too well. Here, things are going really well and he wants to propose... but he's putting it off. In the case of the gala, it took Abby giving him a kick in the pants to fully commit to Delilah and go to the gala. Here, the kick in the pants came in the form of the 'cousin' regretting not proposing to his girlfriend.

Personally, I think the impromptu proposal in the elevator was better than his light and symmetry proposal! Tim was a man on a mission from the moment he left that conference room all the way to Ellie's desk where he expertly busted into it (Tony had to have taught him that move!) to get the ring. If Delilah hadn't been in the elevator, you just know he was going to her office and propose right then and there! But instead, they got the nice private proposal in the elevator and it was fun watching Delilah's transition from slightly scared to confused to her genuine response. Kudos to both Sean and Margo for that scene!

Other random thoughts:

- I was amused that the Seaman in the beginning was basically hiding from her mother that she was a garbage man. Hopefully the victim was already deceased before being squished by the compactor.

- I was really hoping the Commander would explain why it is called a Tiger cruise. Anyone know? Is it an acronym?

- The "#murderboat, murder ship, it's a ship, too late murderboat is already trending" exchange between Tim and Ellie still cracks me up.

- All of the suspects had reasonable motives for their behavior
-- The Cousin was appropriately squirrelly enough to make me suspect him for a while but in hindsight, his behavior makes sense when you know what he was hiding.

-- Also in hindsight, the guy who claimed to be calling Ralph (seasick) all night, dropped a clue about the murder with the picture of his kid on his phone. Nice little tidbit when you rewatch and know he's the murderer and why.

-- Also a nice little twist in hindsight was the redemption of singer's agent who was mean to the 'soccer dad' who wasn't really a soccer dad. He was genuinely trying to protect her and keep her secret. Although I do have to ask, were they sharing quarters?

-- Speaking of the 'soccer dad', even if his intentions were benign albeit creepy, he's really in big trouble for sneaking onto a navy ship using a stolen ID. I doubt he'll get off with just a slap on the wrist and he didn't even get the pictures he wanted. Although, how they didn't notice when he got on in the first place is baffling. Wouldn't you think that the sailor would have to collect or at least meet their Tiger when the Tiger joins the ship?

- It was subtle, but it was nice to see Senior Field Agent McGee here. He had Torres enter in the names of the crew and Tigers in case anyone 'popped' in the system. If not for that bright idea, the murderer might have been able to kidnap his son and get away.

Just watched it again on USA today. I remember when it originally aired that the playing with the drone scene bothered me. It seemed insensitive for Nick to be flying a drone around when that's how Delilah was crippled, in a drone strike. I would think Tim would have flashbacks too or maybe I'm overthinking it, but it still seemed odd.

Different kind of drone though. Essentially the gala was hit by a mini-plane type drone.  What Nick was flying was a toy helicopter in comparison.  I didn't think it was insensitive.  Given the episode, I don't think Tim or Delilah were bothered by it either.



Yeah, I'm not sorry that Quinn didn't stick around either. I like the actress but wasn't very fond of her character. It also never made sense to me that she would join Gibbs' team and be lower ranked than Tim since she trained him. I know he had more time in the position but it always felt like she was taking a demotion to join team Gibbs.

I still love how Tim proposed to Delilah. Of course he had a super nerdy plan that was waaaaay in the future as a way to delay/avoid popping the question. He really did need the 'shove' provided by the murder of the week to get his act together to propose sooner than later.