NCIS - Episode 11.21/11.22 - Review: Two emotional episodes touch on heavy subjects

The latest two episodes of NCIS once again contained difficult real-life issues. Both episodes were emotional, setting the stage for what is (probably) gonna be a moving and heart-wrenching season finale. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Episode 21 revolved around an ongoing problem in the Navy: sexual assault on women. The victim in this case is Navy Ensign Holly Farrell. Her friend, the murder victim of the week, was found dead and the NCIS team discovered he knew something about a sexual assault on a fellow officer. While his murder turned out to be an accident and had nothing to do with the rape, the team still works the identify Farrell's attacker. This, however, is complicated by the fact that Farrell herself denies the entire thing from every happening. With the help of Abby and Special Agent Maureen Cabot from the Family and Sexual Violence division, she finally comes clean and admits the assault. She doesn't actually remember who raped her because she was drugged, but she did have a rape kit done. While there is no DNA evidence, Abby and McGee use it to find other women who were raped in the exact same way as Farrell. They find another Navy Officer and discover that there was only person who served on both ships: Commander Wexler. He confesses the rape and says he has raped more than nine woman during his career.

In the following episode, the team investigates the disappearance of Staff Sergeant Martin Roe, who was set to testify in an Army court-martial. The defendant, Army First Lieutenant Michael Waters, supposedly shot an Afghan civillian of which Roe had taken a picture. Waters says that this case is just an example of the ongoing Army-Navy rivalry, but he is the prime suspect in Roe's disappearance. This later becomes murder as Roe is found dead with a needle full of heroine in his arm which Abby and Ducky discover was not voluntarily put in his arm. As the team delves into Roe's life, they discover he was working on a story about homeless veterans. One of them, a man called Blue, was not only a friend of Abby but also a friend of Roe. He died of an apparant heart attack in a clinic, but Ducky performs an autopsy on him to confirm that. While the cause of death is indeed heart failure, Ducky discovers that both Blue's kidneys are missing. The team deduces that Roe saw his friend being on a ventilator to keep his organs viable after his death who were then sold on the black market. The mastermind behind the illegal selling of organs was the clinic's diretor, and he killed Roe to cover this up. Meanwhile, Abby was looking for Dave, Blue's dog, and found him with a homeless girl named Emma. Abby looks into her and discovers she is a runaway from her parents. After Abby shows her a video of her desperate mother still looking for her, Emma decides to call her parents.

Both of these episodes were quite emotional and as such featured more of Abby than we're used to, as she is the heart of our NCIS family. I think both episodes handled the subjects well and showed how they are still very much a problem. It's really sad that these problems are still present, and we would be naive to say that they aren't.

What did you think of these two episodes? Were you touched by the heavy subjects and all the emotions? Did the episodes handle the subjects in a good way?

Promo for episode 23:

About the Author - Daniel

Daniel (Veer95) is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, Crisis and The 100. He also likes to watch Arrow, The Tomorrow People, NCIS: LA, Nikita, The Blacklist, Under the Dome, Intelligence and Hostages.