9.24 Till Death Do Us Part

Welcome to the finale! Can I say upfront that this time last year I was so ready to dump this show. I resolved to give season 9 four episodes to convince me to stay. It did, and I can honestly say that I've been surprised and relieved by this season. Just my opinion, but this one has been streets ahead of the last three. Tip o' the hat to Gary Glasberg. You've done a bang up job.

We begin with Team Gibbs combing Vance's abandoned SUV for clues to his whereabouts. Tony thinks it's necessary to go through the guy's luggage. He says he doesn't want to do it, but because Ziva has known him for longer than five minutes she's able to call bullshit. Tony *loves* snooping in peoples' private belongings. But Tony insists that he actually doesn't want to find out if Vance is a boxers or briefs man. I'm placing my bet on boxers or nothing. Strangely, McGee offers to do it for him. But no, Tony won't let anyone else near Vance's drawers.

Meanwhile, Tony's wearing this shirt:

I disapprove. But that's not important right now, because Special Agent Hotsauce has stopped by to tell Gibbs that although he was Vance's protection detail, the guy wanted to drive himself home so Agent Hotsauce let him. What IS IT with NCIS agents just letting their directors wander off unescorted? Have they learned nothing from Tony and Ziva's mondo screw up in the desert? Apparently not.

The good news is that I have another character to add to one of my spinoff shows along with Agent Sassy Pants from last week and Dorneget.

Well, hello there. Why don't you come on in and make yourself comfortable? In my pants.

Gibbs tells Hotsauce to go home and rest, and I have to say that Gibbs is much nicer to agents who aren't in his team. For Tony and McGee to get that treatment they have to bear witness to a team member's brains being blown out. Hotsauce wanders off and Gibbs stares out at the cows peacefully chewing their cud in the field. "Where are you, Leon?" he wonders aloud.

Ooh! Gibbs and Vance must have a telepathic connection, because Vance chooses THAT VERY MOMENT to open his eyes and respond. "Oh, you know, just having a kip in a crypt with a rotting corpse. I'm on a theme vacation. I paid $600 to pretend to live Buffy the Vampire Slayer's life for a weekend. It's crazy intense!" Vance pushes himself out of the crypt and looks down in horror at his bedfellow.

Totes realistic. Except that Vance's suit is still immaculate. He is CLEAN. He doesn't scream or weep at the sight, but just notes the, uh, note that's been pinned to the corpse's navy whites: Your king is vulnerable. Hmm, the king of the United States. Ryan Seacrest? Well, this episode is certainly heading in a direction I wasn't expecting.

Meanwhile, Gibbs is poking around Vance's office. I'd say that he's measuring up to see what size boat he can build in there, but he's said repeatedly that he isn't interested in the politics of the directorship. Which begs the question of why the last three directors (Vance, Shepard, Morrow) have all insisted on forcing him to look after the agency while they're away. Is there no other agent at Gibbs' level who IS interested in ascending to the throne?

McGee comes in to say that security footage of the NCIS garage shows that Vance got into his car by himself the night before without coming into the building. This scene is largely boring exposition, so my attention wandered to this:

Is it just me, or is Sean Murray looking less skeletal lately? Hope you're feeling better, hon.

Then Sam comes in (oh...good) and Gibbs bitches that she probably already knows everything he doesn't about Vance's disappearance. Sam's like 'Drop the sarcasm, peaches,' and insists that Leon's her friend and she wants to help. And then...Vance calls Gibbs and tells him he's dome with his Buffy vacation. He needs a ride home. That was kind of anticlimactic, no?

Down at the mausoleum, Vance says that he got kidnapped when he stopped to help three motorists with car trouble. Rookie mistake. Never stop for strangers on the side of the road, Vance. Didn't your mother ever tell you that? You'll just end up with crabs. Apparently. Vance was drugged, and he's not happy. McGee says that the corpse was that of a sailor whose family owns the land they're on. He was killed in the same accident as Richard Schiff's son. Vance thinks there's something fishy going on.

Speaking of fishy, Ziva thinks that the mausoleum smells like a can of rancid tuna. Nice. Jimmy expresses surprise that he is now comfortable with the smell of rotting flesh. I think Jimmy needs a holiday. You shouldn't get used to that, buddy.

Ducky brings a surprise gift for Gibbs out of the mausoleum. Ooh! What could it be? A bottle of whisky? A drop saw? A voucher for the all you can eat buffet at the MGM Grand? Nope, it's the jaw bone of a horse. That was my next guess. Sam says that it's a Biblical reference and recites something extremely unnerving about 1,000 men being slayed. See? It was a Buffy vacation. Told you so.

Ducky and Jimmy examine the corpse, and Ducky reminds us that there was defective steel in the hull of the ship that Schiff's son and the corpse died on. He says that the Navy knew about it and intended to repair it, but it was considered a vulnerability rather than a danger. That's how accidents happen, kids. Complacency. Ducky thinks Schiff's using the corpse to tell them who's going to suffer next, namely NCIS. Jimmy's all innocent and 'It's not out fault!' but Gibbs knows better. Indirectly, it was.

Who's ready for some wedding talk? In the bullpen, Tony, Ziva and McGee remind us that Jimmy's getting married real soon (actually, I'm not sure if McGee has any lines here). Tony doesn't think they'll get to the wedding (he says the chances are "slim shady" and that reference is only about 10 years old). But they can't pout for too long because Gibbs strides in and wants them to track down an old case involving three 'kids' who played a joke on officers that didn't go down so well. Then he runs off to the Pentagon.

God, I feel like nothing is happening yet.

Let's push on, though. Gibbs barges into Sam's office and he finds Parker, Sam's son, sitting in her chair. Stupid name for a pretentious kid. Just look at this guy:

Tool.

(Yes, I know about the Parker on Bones and NO, I DO NOT CARE.)

So Parker's all, 'So, you're doing my mom?' and Gibbs is all, 'Ummm,' and we're all 'I DON'T CARE ABOUT DUMB PARKER! GET TO THE ACTION!' Parker gets off one good line about Gibbs being "tactile" with the wood in his basement (hey! I just stumbled upon a fun new euphemism!) before Sam strides in and gets all uncomfortable about the unplanned meeting of Gibbs and Parker. Lady's a control freak. Gibbs turns to more important matters and asks for more info on Richard Schiff's son. Why? Because he wants to use the info to screw with Schiff like Schiff's  screwing with them. Dude. Old Testament.

Meanwhile, Abby's having a mini meltdown like she does just about every day.

She's worried they won't make it to Jimmy's wedding and goes on a typical Abby riff to Ziva about how horrible that will be, even though they've got a bad guy targeting the Navy to catch. Ziva goes through the three stages of dealing with Abby.

First: Are you being serious right now?

Second: My God, you are. I must breathe through the urge to strangle you.

Third: You need to get a grip and focus.

Abby is just after some happy time for their little family. That's fair enough, and Abby's the one who always feels things to the bone so it follows she'd be bummed out here. But Ziva's got her rational pants on and says that if they WORK now, then they might be able to solve all this and get to Jimmy's wedding. Amazingly, Abby does find focus and tells Ziva that the horse jaw bone belongs to one of two kinds of horses that are used for racing. Then she says something about wanting wedding cake and shoos Ziva away to do her work. Ziva leaves with a smile instead of rolling her eyes like I would have (and did).

Is it just me or is Abby just getting more and more manic as the years go on?

Tony and McGee are in the NCIS basement with the file Gibbs wanted. Hi guys! It's fun when you two have a scene together.

Turns out that the case (headed by an Agent Larson and on which Gibbs was a participatory agent) involved a sailor videotaping a "steamy liaison" between a male and female agent. Wait...did we just get a clue as to the origin of rule 12? Or are we still thinking that it originated with Gibbs' epic fail of a relationship with Jenny, and this is just icing on the cake? Anyway, the sailor played it for the whole crew of his ship to see. Tony is predictably titillated by this news, and thinks they should track down a copy of the video.

Lemme see that, probie:

Turns out this was before YouTube and Facebook (10 years ago), so there's no tape. Geez, Tony, just watch some porn online. It'll literally take you two seconds to find. The sailor who filmed it was charged with a felony and the other two sailors involved were discharged. Must. Avoid. Sex. Joke. Of course, one of the discharged agents was Richard Schiff's son, and he was reassigned to the ship he died on.

It's finally coming together.

Gibbs, Vance and Sam in an exposition scene recapping everything we know so far. Thanks. I do like Sam's blazer, though.

Whoever is buying the women's blazers on this show is knocking it out of the park lately.

Vance gives us our next lead by informing us that Agent Larson is now retired and raises horses. FIELD TRIP!

At Larson's ranch, Ziva and Tony take a moment to talk retirement plans. She likes the ranch lifestyle, but Tony pooh-poohs that (he literally talks about manure). He wants to retire to an island and have naked servant women bring him drinks. McGee speaks for all of us when he calls that predictable.

Ziva seems vaguely amused. She knows that won't happen.

Blah blah blah, Gibbs notices that the horses are spooked (he comes from a long line of horse traders, don't you know?), and the next thing you know, Larson's house explodes. They find Larson's body inside, and just as Tony wonders aloud how Richard Schiff knew they were there to see the explosion, McGee and Ziva rush over with a videocamera they found. Turns out Schiff was RIGHT THERE and taping them as they turned up. Ooh! Spying! Creepy. Seriously. That's utterly creepy. After the boom! Schiff turns the camera on himself and starts going on about how people need to learn from their mistakes and blah blah blah needless deaths, blah blah blah the Navy has major flaws, blah blah blah 'Imma comin' for ye!' Or words to that effect.

Vance is pissed that Schiff caught him and played him. Get over yourself, buddy. No one's perfect. Gibbs gives him a buck up, little camper speech, and Vance says he has 1,000 agents (call back to Sam's 1,000 slayed men from before?) who would all take a bullet for him and he can't protect them from Schiff. Gibbs says, "I wouldn't take a bullet for you," and it makes Vance chuckle, but that's a lie. Gibbs would be totally pissed if anyone other than him took Vance's bullet. I'm heading into slashfic territory again. I apologise. Vance tells Gibbs he wants Schiff gone.

So angry.

While the team is talking about Schiff's ex-wife, Abby and Jimmy stop by to ask if there's any chance that they'll make it to Jimmy's wedding. Gibbs' silence is answer enough, and Jimmy is a big boy and says he understands. It's fine. Totally fine, you guys!

Not fine, you guys. As he gives them all a free pass, saying he understands they won't be able to make it and no hard feelings, his voice just begins to crack and then he scurries away to autopsy. Aww, Jimmy.

He tries to talk to Ducky about it as they do Agent Larson's autopsy, but Ducky tries to fob him off by asserting that he doesn't want to have another conversation about Jimmy doing a Bette Midler number at his wedding. "I want to sing Wind Beneath My Wings to my bride. So, sue me!" Jimmy cries. Awesome. Ducky tells him he doesn't want to discuss it because he needs to find something to aid the investigation. "It's on my shoulders to protect those who protect us!" And then little Jimmy Palmer raises his voice to Ducky and says no, it's on both of their shoulders.

And this is where Jimmy begins to step into Ducky's shoes. More on that later.

Jimmy wonders if he should cancel the wedding, but Ducky won't hear of that. He says that work is important, but we can't take our loved ones for granted. That's kind of been the theme of the whole season, no? Jimmy is sad that his NCIS family won't be there, but Ducky assures him that he will be, and then Jimmy's face lights up and this happens:

That is about as adorable as a litter of Labrador puppies all wrapped up in sunshine. Just perfect.

Meanwhile, Gibbs is talking to Richard Schiff's ex-wife. She says that all that was good in Schiff died with their son, and he won't stop his plans. Scene.

Sam again. I swear, she's had more lines in her handful of episodes than Sean Murray's had all season. She runs a computer program and finds that one of Schiff's potential allies is Big Bad Scott Wolf! He sold Schiff the Watcher Fleet chip and...okay, do any of you even care? Seriously. I appreciate that they went to the trouble of working out this whole complex backstory and have it weaving and and out of itself, but...all you need to know is Schiff's a bad guy and he's trying to kill people. Okay? Good. Move on.

They talk about using Big Bad Wolf as a double agent to trap Schiff. Then Schiff calls from outside Parker's music class and says something menacing about Sam's ex-husband. Sam looks rattled and thinks Schiff might do something to her son. But of course he doesn't, because none of us in the viewing word are even remotely emotionally attached to Sam or her stupid kid. Icing the kid would be a waste.

It's a new day! Jimmy's in the bullpen to greet McGee, Ziva and Tony as they arrive and says he's getting on a plane in two hours to go to his wedding. Ziva says they wanted to see him off and hand over his wedding gifts. Ziva gives him the finest Israeli cotton sheets. Meh. I like sheets, but...meh. Do better, Ziva. She makes a comment to Jimmy about them being good to make a baby on, and Jimmy 'jokes' (maybe?) that expectations for the wedding night are high.

Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more!

McGee gives him a wireless long range security camera so that he can keep an eye on Breena when he's stuck at the office late at night. Uh...Tony, how about you sum up my feelings about this one:

Yeah. CREEPY. And not at all controlling. But Jimmy seems happy, especially when McGee says it'll double as a baby monitor some day. Two comments about babies? Minor arc for season ten?

Then Tony hands over his present: the 'film' Contempt. I'll throw to Ziva to sum up my feelings this time:

That's a well-deserved eye roll. Lame, Tony. McGee points out that Tony got that for Christmas and he's regifting. But Jimmy isn't bothered. He hugs Tony, and then pulls McGee and Ziva in for a "group grope".

If you watch the scene again, Ziva really does look like she makes a grab for Tony's ass. The love in ends when Gibbs walks Big Bad Wolf through the bullpen. And we're thrust into another scene with Sam.

Blah blah blah, be a double agent for us, Big Bad Wolf. Blah blah blah, sounds like fun, especially if  this saves me from the death penalty. Well sure, Gibbs can absolutely make that happen. No need to question him further.

Scene to establish that Vance's car is parked right outside the NCIS building, and that they've leaked news to the media that Big Bad Wolf has escaped from prison. Then Sam texts Gibbs to tell him to get to her office.

GET TO THE GOOD PART ALREADY.

Blah blah blah, Schiff has paid off a judge to release Sam's ex-husband from prison. Sam tells Gibbs she's taking Parker and running away. Gibbs tries to tell her that running isn't the answer, but she leaves anyway. Oh. No. Please don't go. We'll miss you so much.

(Sorry, Jamie Lee Curtis. You're awesome. Your character, however, makes me want to stab myself with superheated knives just so that I have something more pleasant to look forward to than watching her for another five minutes.)

Bullpen. Tony and Ziva are busy trying to convince themselves that they don't like weddings and don't wish they were at Jimmy's right now. They rattle off a list of things to hate about weddings, including rubbery chicken and cheap wine, rental suits, children, garters, cake, the bouquet and inappropriate speeches. And the fittings! They both hate the fittings. And then their voices and expressions get softer as they list the things the 'hate', but both clearly look forward to about their own wedding/s.

The vows, the rings...

Ziva takes a moment to gaze over at him.

And then he gazes back.

"The kiss," he adds, and Ziva looks almost BASHFUL:

I always forget she has dimples.

Tony says that he doesn't know what he'd do if he had to deal with all that.

And Ziva seems to take him seriously. For a moment, she looks like her heart just broke.

Then she looks all nervous and her eyes dart around and don't really settle on him as she offers a solution to the problem: elope.

He appears to like this idea. And Ziva?

Agreement.

That was a really lovely scene. Of course Gibbs comes in now, and he's soon followed by McGee who says that Schiff has emailed the dummy account they set up for Big Bad Wolf. It's a meeting place for 0800 the next day.

Down in Florida, it's Breena! And she has a really ugly wedding dress.

Just my opinion.

Jimmy shows up at her room before the wedding, and can we just pause for a Dietzen Hotness Check?

Under control. Procede with the scene.

Jimmy tells Breena and her white teeth that he's been waiting for this day for ages and he loves her so much and it's great that her family all came for the day. But his family isn't there, and we all know that's eating at him.

Aww. For a moment Ii thought he was going to ask her to postpone, but that was because I forgot that Jimmy is the only sane person on this show. He wants to bring the wedding *forward* to right now instead of that afternoon so that he can then fly back to D.C. and help his family. Then they can go on their honeymoon. Yep, he's really stepping into Ducky's reliable shoes now. He's not going to leave his team behind. He's going to be there when they need him. Our little man has grown up!

Breena is not a crazy bride, so she greets this request with a white smile and is all, 'Yeah, that's cool. No problem.'

Wow. She is chilled. I like her. And she loves Jimmy. We all do!

By the way, Brian Dietzen nailed that scene. He's been nailing this whole episode. Great work.

Back to D.C. and the sting operation to catch Schiff using Big Bad Wolf. Lots of conspicuous agents are standing around conspicuously. A waitress hands Big Bad Wolf a package with a cell phone in it, and Schiff immediately calls. This guy has the greatest timing ever. Schiff tells Big Bad Wolf to tell Gibbs that he was never interested in Vance. He's interested in justice. Then he hangs up. WELL NO SHIT! That's what everyone has been saying for, like, three weeks! WE KNOW! God, that was so lame.

Moving on.

Everyone reconvenes in the bullpen, where Big Bad Wolf just casually sits at Gibbs' desk under the watchful eye of NO ONE, and I swear to God, you people need to lift your game.

'What am I up to? Nothing! Just chillin'. Sittin' here at Gibbs' desk right next to his computer and not doing you guys should worry about. Carry on.' I know he *doesn't* do anything evil (that we know of, yet) but my God.

So Gibbs makes a couple of Gibbs leaps in logic and works out that Richard Schiff was after Vance's car, not Vance. Because he knew Vance would have to park right beside the NCIS building while there's heightened security around him. So he must have put a bomb in Vance's car.

Cue evacuation!

But not before Big Bad Wolf reminds us that he used to work bomb disposal. So Gibbs takes him out to Vance's car and the two of them start ripping it apart as they search for the bomb. Ooh, Big Bad Wolf's going to redeem himself!

In the bullpen, McGee is downloading all of Schiff's files to a thumb drive. Vance yells at him to get out of the building. But Vance himself is heading to his office...

Tony and Ziva are clearing the building of people. When they think they have everyone, Tony tells her to get out. Ziva grabs his arm and firmly says that she's not going anywhere without him.

Nice turnabout from season four's Sandblast when they found a bomb and Ziva stayed to diffuse it. Instead of leaving, Tony stayed with her. And the whole Somalia thing, where he wouldn't leave without her either.

Back to Gibbs and Big Bad Wolf. They find the bomb in the lining of a back seat or something, and I don't know anything about bombs, but this one looks like it might be a big deal.

Gibbs sees Abby through the window of her lab, and Big Bad Wolf tells him to go grab her. Gibbs decides to listen, and runs off to save Abby while Big Bad Wolf handles the bomb. But then the cell phone attached to the bomb rings, and it's the detonation. Big Bad Wolf looks down at it like he can't believe he didn't even get to try to defuse it, and then...

In the lab, Gibbs reaches Abby just as the windows of her lab blow out with the bomb.

In the bullpen, McGee is alone as he approaches the windows at gets thrown back as the windows explode.

He's in the bottom right corner. No one from the team is with him. I found that really sad.

In the elevator, Ziva tackles Tony to the ground as the lift violently shakes and the ceiling starts falling in.

Indulge me for a moment, but I love that they've both got one arm around each other as they fight to be the one who gives cover to the other, but they're also holding hands. Love it.

No shot of Vance. Presumably he was in his office. And presumably Big Bad Wolf is dead.

AND THEN!

Oh God, and then.

Cut to Ducky walking along a beach in Florida in his tuxedo. There's a storm rolling in as his cell phone rings, and someone he doesn't know (he has to confirm that he is Doctor Mallard) gives him the news of the bombing.

He's horrified, and says he'll come back immediately. Then he gets as far as telling them not to touch any of the deceased before...

I can't even.

Okay. This:

He has a freaking heart attack! On the beach! By himself! Because Jimmy is on his way back to D.C. already to help his family and step into Ducky's shoes! Oh God!

Ducky falls to the sand and into the waves. Unmoving. Unblinking. Dead? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I TOLD YOU last week that I CAN'T DEAL with Ducky possibly dying. You know, I read a spoiler (fan speculation, actually, of someone who heard something from someone) a while ago about Ducky having a heart attack at the wedding. I didn't give it much thought, but it was in the back of my head when I was watching this episode. And I still can't believe they did it.

The final shot of the season is far and away the most beautifully filmed thing I've seen on this show for a long time. Ducky, alone and motionless as a Florida storm rolls in and threatening to take him out to sea.

Stunning.

You know what? The good bits of this episode were really, really good. Ducky's possible death, the shots of everyone in the explosion, every single one of Jimmy's scenes, Tony and Ziva's discussion about marriage, and Agent Hotsauce. I  loved all of that.

But the exposition scenes? The Sam scenes? My God, they dragged painfully. And I'm so upset that as much as I love Richard Schiff, I just don't feel that he had a strong enough part to play. I really liked that he wasn't a super-villain and he wasn't OTT evil. But I just felt like there wasn't enough meat for a guy of his calibre to really get into. Such a shame.

I expect we'll see him again next season. And Sam. I don't think Ducky will die, but I think we'll see more Jimmy and less of him. I'm not worried about Gibbs, Abby, Tony or Ziva, even though Weatherly and Perrette haven't got contracts for next season yet.

The ones I'll be wondering about are Vance and McGee. Vance because it wasn't clear where he was, and McGee because, you guys, Sean Murray looks like he needs a long break. And it feels like they've created Dorneget to be just like Tim Classic. I don't want McGee to die. I love him. But as of tonight, I'm a bit nervous for our little Timmy.

What did you think?