TVSquad

(S04E14) And that is why sweeps are so good. We finally got some answers concerning what Director Shepard has been doing with Tony for the last few months. Plus, those answers involved a big guest star, Armand Assante. Fun stuff.

I was happy to see them get going with the undercover story. And pretty happy with the results as well. The rest of the team stumbling into the middle of the ongoing La Grenouille investigation while following their own leads was a good way to do it. Having the tip come from Ziva's Mossad connections put it out of Shepard's court.

The thing that surprised me most about all of it was the revelation that Gibbs has been in the dark the whole time. There really did seem to be some hints that Gibbs was in on it. Just some clever misdirection from the writers I guess.

Anyway, back to the beginning. The Goliath portion of the story was well done. The only thing I'd mark it down for was Ziva's pretty eyes. They blew the big reveal of her and Tony taking off the masks because I had already made her even with her mask on. I probably should have recognized Tony too, having watched Michael Weatherly in all those Dark Angel episodes doing his Eyes Only bit.

That's a minor gripe though, because the aftermath was so much fun. The con the three of them ran on Goliath was interesting. I suspected that they weren't actually taking him to Zaire, but it was fun watching it play out. "Ares...Cancer...Virgo...Scorpio." I was a little confused by the encrypted satellite targeting system being called Ares though. That is a reference to JAG, as there was an episode called Ares in season one. The sticky wicket is that the JAG version of Ares was able to take over a destroyer, which seems to be a completely different thing than the NCIS Ares.

We got a pretty good investigation section of this episode. A few parts of it stood out for me. First, and foremost, when Trent Kort popped up on the plasma. It was a great moment, not only because it signaled that yes indeed, there are answers about Tony's undercover operation coming, but it also made for a great scene with Gibbs. He so clearly knew that Tony recognized Kort. There was so much tension there. It carried over nicely to the scene where Shepard told Gibbs to call off Ziva and McGee.

The Ziva/McGee surveillance of Haro was worth seeing just to hear McGee call her "sweet cheeks." I was a little disappointed in Ziva's skills though. She was a far cry short of inconspicuous. It wasn't very super-agent from Mossad of her. They needed McGee and Ziva to get made to get to the chase, but I would have preferred that Haro actually found them out through being clever, not dumb luck.

The showdown after Haro died was particularly good. It became very clear that everyone on the NCIS team works for Gibbs, not for Shepard. I liked how she put Tony on the spot and tried to get him on her side, but he fell right in line with Gibbs. It also highlighted what I think is the weak link in the NCIS cast chain. Lauren Holly. I like the character of Director Shepard and what that character represents, but I think the show would be so much better with a different actress playing the part. She had a lot to do in this episode, and seemed to stand out as not being up to the level of the rest of the show.

And what about undercover Ducky? I did have some reservations going in about how that would all turn out. I have to say though, it was really good. Ducky managed to remain cool under pressure and do a nice job in his assignment, all the while still being Ducky. It wasn't an unbelievable leap for the character to pull that off. Having Kort snap a picture and get on the phone asking someone to check the photo was a nice touch. I thought the jig was up and Ducky was going to get made.

Of course, he did, but not in the way that we suspected. Kort as an undercover CIA agent was a nice twist. It goes right back to the beginning of this episode where Shepard is wondering why nothing has turned up on him before. And it explains the call that caused Shepard to call off the hit on La Grenouille. Well done.

I'm sure that's not the last we'll see of Mr. Kort, or La Grenouille. There is still plenty of unfinished business there. And this all calls into question what is happening with Jeanne. It's not lost on me that her last name is the very french Benoit. Add that to the fact that Scottie Thompson is fluent in french, and La Grenouille's speech about how everything he does now is for his children and grandchildren, and you have my new theory. Tony was supposed to get close to La Grenouille's granddaughter. It's also worth noting that Ziva got a look at a picture of Jeanne. That could be important moving forward.

Overall, a very good episode. They managed to fill in a lot of the mystery surrounding what Tony and Shepard have been up to all season. But the escape of La Grenouille left enough questions that we still have some fun stuff to look forward to over the last eight or so episodes of the season.