NCIS 14x18 "M. I. A." Review

SPOILERS

I really, really liked “M. I. A.”. There were many things done right in the episode. It was a nice mix of involving the main actors and bringing in one-off characters that you could really feel. The story of them trying to figure out who killed Collins felt a little predictable with a whole bunch of the same stuff being thrown at me (good guy standing up to sleazy guy, oh look it’s a drug operation). What I enjoyed more were the scenes with Laura, and especially those with Torres. And any excuse to see the softer side of Gibbs is a good one.

I just loved the opening scene. It was so short, but there were so many predictions running through my mind. At first I thought it was a guy visiting a girl in the hospital, but then some of their dialogue seemed a little odd. So I guessed the guy was hallucinating her, someone who had just died and he didn’t say good-bye or something. But it turns out this was some kind of dream on the girl, Laura’s, part, as she is nearing death and is still haunted by the death of her friend Collins. In a show that so rarely does anything fantastic (minus “Life Before His Eyes”, which is one of my favorites), this was an interesting change.

The little subplot about Team Gibbs training for a marathon seemed so realistic and was really cute. Abby’s Power-POW gave McGee the edge to catch up to the guy he was chasing. Torres is a superhuman. McGee and Bishop lost with a head start. Quinn cheated (not my favorite character, but that seemed in character for her). I wonder if they will bring it up again.

Team Gibbs meets up before a run.

Normally I try to predict who the bad guy will be. It’s usually someone I forgot about throughout the course of the episode (perhaps that’s a writing trick they often employ to keep a small element of surprise for the end reveal of who the bad guy is). That was definitely true in this case. I figured Holden was too obvious and was really banking on it being Nicole (until she turned up dead). Ah. It was Vinton. And drugs. Of course. Next time you watch an episode of a show like NCIS, pay close attention to the characters they introduce right at the beginning and are never seen or consulted again…until the evidence happens to lead the team right to them.

The most important part of the episode for me was when we see Torres completely vulnerable, sharing a very personal story about a dear friend he lost to cancer. It’s not that often we see him open up like this (not that we’ve known him for a long time). And the way he wants to keep hanging out with Laura at the end was very sweet. Good episode. Really good episode.

8/10