On naval housing, a couple are surprised when their shower spews blood, and NCIS soon discover a corpse in the water tank, and a curious message that leads them to an online video that not only shows them the murder being committed, but also gives three important clues that, after meeting with the roommates of the deceased, leads them to a second corpse - though this time the message rather specifically targets Gibbs. A second online messages contains clues that the team believe indicate Gibbs is the next victim, but it is Ducky which provides them a solid piece of evidence. The young lady who was the roommate of the first victim, Rose - and who has also developed a crush on Gibbs - provides them with a lead in the form of the man who made their music videos; very similar in style to the videos showing the murders. He is brought in for questioning, but dies at the time Ducky predicted. Angered that someone was murdered in his custody, Gibbs has his team working overtime to find any clue as to the killer and his fourth potential killing - until he begins to wonder if that is exactly what the killer wants them to do.
It's quite nice that NCIS does a Hallowe'en episode every year. There's something just a little kooky about them, and Abby always gets the chance to be mildly more bizarre than usual, as though there is something with the moon that night. However, and in a surprise move, it is Gibbs and DiNozzo who get to take the lead - DiNozzo having been sidelined for a fair while now, including virtually all of season five. That said, though, it surprises me that when we get a character called Sam Loomis, DiNozzo makes no mention of his name - particularly when he goes out of his way to mention Psycho when they find the bloody shower.
Ducky and Palmer make a small appearance, but sadly Ducky is becoming even less important to the plots than DiNozzo is these days. However, Ducky still gets marginally more screentime than new Director Vance, who returns after having not been seen for the past two episodes. There is something clearly wrong with making the NCIS Director a regular character when they can't find enough for that person to do. Both Rocky Carroll and Lauren Holly have skipped episodes in their run, making you wonder why they bothered to add them to the titles. Why not just return to giving them Guest Starring And credits as they did with Holly early on in Season Three and Alan Dale in the first two seasons (although Dale got "With" rather than "And")?
Anyway, enough trivia. Naama Kates is the guest star who stands out this week because, obviously she is pretty hot, but also her character develops an instant crush on Gibbs, which he just ignores, pointedly giving her character his card and telling her to call him in an emergency and only if it's an emergency. It's a nice touch, and as usual there is a nice bit of redirection suggesting she might actually be the killer in this episode.
Because this is a Halloween episode, there is a slightly more horror movie aspect to it, and getting marks for originality, the killer films the murders, and then intersperses the film with frames that hint at who, where and when the next murder will take place. I do have one small gripe though - at the second murder, Gibbs gets a message that specifically is addressed to him. However, Gibbs and DiNozzo go to the murder scene immediately after meeting the murderer for the first time. So, precisely how did the murderer know to address the message to Gibbs?
It's only a minor gripe, and let's face it, NCIS is the programme you don't dig too deeply into otherwise the flaws start to show. It's glossy and it's fun, and this episode is fabulous entertainment.
"A"
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