NCIS – Is Gibbs Santa?

You have to be wondering that too, right? He makes toys in his basement (nice transition from the boats); and, um, then that thing at the end with the sack and the sled. Plus guest Ralph Waite, AKA Dad (Jack) Gibbs, said something about warming up the sled. And Jack looks a little like a beardless Santa. A stretch? Maybe. But just imagine, right?

And while we’re on the subject, how great a Santa was McGee? He co-opted MTAC to connect a little boy and his deployed mother before Christmas. Sweet move by Timmy, but couldn’t mom have been a little more emotional in seeing her son for the first time in who knows how long? On behalf of mothers everywhere, I call farce.

I loved the visiting Jack Gibbs. Getting to watch our Gibbs relate to his father was a gift we first received a little more than a year ago when Jack initially appeared. It was a bit strange to see him again all of a sudden, with no foundation for the repair of their relationship. Nevertheless, Waite made me forget all of that by popping up repeatedly at NCIS, swapping stories with Ducky in Gibbs’ basement (Ducky, I am shocked at your underhandedness), and interacting with Leroy (am I allowed to call him that?). What a great gift. Maybe give him to us a little more?

I also wanted to mention how thrown I was to see the upstairs of Gibbs’ house. He has a front door! A salon! Stain glass windows! I must say it was almost too much to take in. But in that entire house he doesn’t have a spare bedroom? And what did happen to his guest bedroom? It’s just too much for me….

Let’s try something I can actually handle. After watching recent episodes of The Forgotten and Law & Order: SVU, I started to wonder the following: how do writers come up with the creative ways in which bodies are discovered on these procedurals? They need something new each and every week, and more often than not the situations don’t have anything to do with the episode. NCIS is another show that must expend energy on creating opens that are little more than that. Yes, the scenario is worked into the rest of the plot, so that the dead Marine was out in the woods because…. But I wonder if they have a designated writer who does nothing but that (like the rumored team at Google that only designs their original homepages). Not to mention the casting they need to do just to find the pimp who chases the hooker who stumbles over the body (SVU). Well, I find it interesting, anyway.

Let’s see, what else? I always appreciate the little side-stories that hold no significance whatsoever that NCIS does so well. Tony landing grouchy Delores in Secret Santa, and then digging through her personnel file to find something to buy for her (why in the world was that childhood memory in there?). And I loved McGee’s line in reference to her: “I once wished her a happy Valentine’s Day … she claimed sexual harassment.”

Oh! And did anyone else catch Tony dropping the name of Chilly Willy in the beginning of the episode? I’ve been singing the theme song from that show recently because I saw a Chilly Willy doll at The Children’s Place recently. My son wasn’t into it. So how’d we end up owning one?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 15, 2009 @ 22:01 EST5EDT