Let’s kick off our NCIS hiatus retrospective with the season
three bottle episode Boxed In. I’ve
picked it because I was reminded of it in the dying minutes of season nine when
Tony and Ziva ended up trapped (one assumes) an in elevator after an explosion.
Trapped, I say! Their spaces are getting smaller and smaller. Next time I
expect they’ll pay homage to Out of Sight and have them stuck in the trunk of a car together. Cool.
Boxed In begins with
Tony and Ziva wandering through a huge dock filled with shipping containers.
Tony’s relating a tale about his previous night’s activities, and telling Ziva
she should have been there. “You would have loved it! Two warriors squaring off
in the rain!” I was going to say that didn’t sound like a date, but I can actually
see Tony getting behind the idea of Ziva participating in a chick fight in the
rain. Ziva says she had plans with McGee, and Tony continues for a moment on
his story (“Mud glistening off their thongs…”) before his brain catches up with
his ears. He can’t believe she was with McGee, and Ziva explains that she made
him dinner. She likes to cook. And she throws in that Jimmy seemed to like it.
Tony is appalled. “Palmer? I’ve never even been to your place, and you’re
cooking dinner for McGeek and the autopsy gremlin?” My God, this is so early in
their partnership. It’s like they’re two different people. Except not really,
because this happens:
