NCIS started its new season with a solid premiere that introduced us to a new bad guy, who will likely resurface again later this season.
Anyway, when Gibbs, McGee and Kevin are safely on the way home in a Navy helicopter, Sergei shoots their aircraft out of the sky. A lieutenant and a commander or dead on the scene, another lieutenant commander succumbs to her injuries later. The three NCIS employees survive, but have a much larger problem: Sergei and his mercenary group have come to finish the job. What follows is a heart-pounding race through the Russian forest. Gibbs and McGee are able to kill a few mercenaries, but they shoot back and injure Kevin in the leg.
Meanwhile, back in the States, the remaining team members do everything in their power to help Gibbs and McGee. Bishop pulls some strings at the NSA and Vance and DiNozzo contact the Russian counselor. However, an interesting twist is put in the case when Ducky goes to tell Kevin's sister that he's missing. Her story doesn't match up with Kevin's, who said he went to Russia to pick up the body of his deceased uncle. Now, that uncle is really dead, but unlike Kevin said his cause of death was not lung cancer. Instead, he was shot two times, which causes the team to wonder what Kevin is up to.
However, Vance later tells Gibbs that Sergei survived and that he will be gunning for them, to which Gibs replies: "Not if we find him first."
This was quite an action-packed premiere with various twists and turns. It was very nice to see Gibbs and McGee working together, and great to see how much effort the team in the US puts into finding the two. The premiere also had its emotional moments, most notably when Lt. commander Banks died. I find Sergei an interesting villain even though I don't think we have the full picture of him just yet. Is he really targeting NCIS because one of his friends died nine years ago?! Doesn't seem very believable to me. Besides, we have seen so many NCIS bad guys motivated by the need for revenge (e.g. Paloma Reynosa, Harper Dearing and Benham Parsa) that I feel a bit tired of that. They need to come up with something better and more original.
Overall, I enjoyed this premiere and am curious to see how the story with Sergei is handled. I'm excited for the new season and hope there will be more great episodes to come!
Side notes:
-Lol at the Russian counselor telling Vance and Tony to sit tight. As if they would even think about doing that for a second! Who does this guy think he is?
-Did anyone else have a flashback when Ducky pulled out a microchip of the uncle's body? Made me think of the whole EJ storyline back in the season 8 finale and season 9 premiere.
-I was hoping that McGee would mention his father when he and Kevin were talking about cancer, but alas he didn't. I'm still hoping to see that storyline get picked up again.
-Did Vance unintentionally promote the new CBS' show Madam Secretary? Or was that actually an off-screen crossover with Téa Leoni's new show?
What did you think of the season premiere? Did you like the introduction of new baddie Sergei? Do you think he will make for a great villain? Sound off in the comments below!
Here's the promo for next week's episode, which features Vance getting some heartbreaking news. Hmm, I'm scared too!
"-Did Vance unintentionally promote the new CBS' show Madam Secretary? Or was that actually an off-screen crossover with Téa Leoni's new show?"
ReplyDeleteNo. Madam Secretary, in this case refers to the Secretary of the Navy, Sarah Porter who was introduced in Season 11's 2nd episode.
I know, I was just joking ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great review, Daniel. I enjoyed the action-packed series premiere. I definitely agree with you, though, that Sergei coming back for revenge after 9 years seems very odd and - and being reminded of all the bad guys previously motivated by revenge makes me also think it's time for something new. Nice job. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great Review. I generally liked the Episode, though two things almost ruined it for me.
ReplyDelete1. The russian mook who guarded Commander Banks. All those comments about her being beautiful and the veiled rape threads. I realize that the point was to make him super bad so Gibbs could slit his throat but come on. That was just too over the top for me.
2. The whole plot point with the super virus and how it infiltrated the network through the powercord? I mean ncis has always been one of the worst offenders in terms of Hollywood Hacking, but as a Software Engineer that was almost too painful to watch for me. i actually had to pause the episode and calm down, so i wouldn't stop watching then and there.
Anyway just my 2 cents. Feel free to disagree.
Thank you, Tonya! Yes, I hope they give some logical explanation for Sergei coming back for revenge after 9 years. And hopefully he's not just driven by revenge but at this point that seems to be the case.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! The super virus felt a bit off. I'm not sure what they intended to do with that. It was basically just a plot device and did not necessarily contribute to the story.
ReplyDeleteEntire plot is contrived. Kevin would never have been allowed to travel to Russia in the first place with his clearance and technical skills. How could Denozo have gotten there so quickly? No agents of any kind located any closer. And Sergie who figured out with precision where the Helo would be on its exit from Russia (stupidly following the same route on exit even though they were already going to extraordinary efforts to get Kevan out) getting there from Moscow before it did, couldn't track Gibbs et al when they were just minutes behind them many times and knew where they were headed NCIS generally has a problem with time zones as do some of its brethren with scenes multiple time zones apart experiencing the same lighting or darkness. This was especially annoying in the NCIS arc with Kenai in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteAnd then add the nonsensical spread of the virus and the time it took to do its damage my wife and I are just about to give up on the entire NCIS.