NCIS takes a leaf out of Law & Order's textbooks and we see a random couple discovering the body of the deceased in the pretitle sequence. Following that it takes about four minutes after the appearance of the murderer to realise who it is. Which, I suppose, makes for a pretty pointless episode of NCIS, but at the end of the day, all television shows get a little formulaic and as such it doesn't take too long to work out exactly what the formula is. If that means discovering the identity of a killer, I suppose that becomes the easy part. But then, apparently it takes some people very short time to work out a murderer in Agatha Christie.
Lo and behold, Gibbs' past comes back to haunt him as an old friend is forced to contact him and confess that he was having an affair with the victim and as he is a senator attempting to get an energy bill through, he is rather desperate to keep his name out of the public records until that bill goes through. Gibbs agrees and withholds everything from his team and from Vance, which seems somewhat uncharacteristic of him, though he later brings it straight to Vance when it becomes clear that they have little choice but to give up his evidence.
Meanwhile the rest of the team is at their entertaining best - DiNozzo confesses that he became a cop because he was nosy; Ziva gets the chance to play sex kitten; McGee falls afoul of Tony again and gets drenched in sewage; Vance is proving to be less and less of a thorn in Gibbs' side, and certainly seems to have a desire to build bridges; Ducky puts in a token appearance and actually says that he feels unneeded - the audience is feeling a similar thing, to be honest; and finally Abby undergoes a complete forensic investigation to discover who stole her chocolate muffin. This last plot thread is the highlight of the episode and produces some great moments as she attempts to gather the evidence.
It's a well made episode, but there is nothing to make it stand up and make you want to cheer.
"B-"
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