“Blaze of Glory” introduces a new character to the NCIS team: Blaze, a college senior whose security clearance exceeds Nell’s. Hetty brings her on board to help infiltrate a college hacking group known as “Disavow.” The young, pretty blonde seems to catch Eric’s eye, which doesn’t make Nell too happy. When Eric begins paying quite a bit of attention to Blaze, Nell gets jealous. She doesn’t trust Eric around Blaze, but she should. Eric sees himself as a mentor to Blaze. He makes it very clear to Nell that Blaze is not his type. In fact, he goes out of his way to make sure Nell knows he isn’t interested, which I thought was very sweet.
The plot centers on a defense contractor missile test gone awry. The missile steered off course and blew up a private boat. Fortunately, nobody was on board. But NCIS must track down whoever hacked the company and accessed control of their weapons systems. The search leads them to a college student, Wyatt, whose father owns the boat; his girlfriend Malee; and his ex-roommate Josh (a hacker who is part of “Disavow”). In the end it turns out Wyatt hacked the system and blew up the boat to frame Josh because Malee told him Josh attempted to rape her. But she lied. In reality, she was part of a bombing group from Jakarta that used Wyatt to get the weapons information she needed. She even kills Wyatt’s father to gain access to the hard drive, but NCIS tracks her down before she can do any more harm.
It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a Nell-and-Eric-centered episode. Though I enjoyed seeing their story, Nell seemed overly jealous to me. Blaze was pretty, and Eric did get excited working with her. But he was always up front about his intentions. He didn’t want Nell to think anything was going on because it wasn’t. So sometimes Nell’s jealousy seemed a little overbearing and annoying. But I recognize jealousy isn't always rational. And I thought Eric dealt with her well. I enjoyed how even-keel he was. When Nell was anxious, he was calm. He’s a good balance to her character.
As for the rest of the episode, this was not one of my favorites. Unfortunately I found the plot of this episode pretty boring. Aside from a few good character moments, there wasn’t much to get me too excited. But not every episode can be a perfect ten.
The other team moment comes at the end of the episode after the case is tied up. The team celebrates at a puppet show, on Hetty’s request. She wants to teach them part of L.A. history, which they quickly learn includes Hetty being playmates with Liza Minnelli when she was young. She apparently attended Liza’s birthday party when she was five years old. What a great image! With that information, they toast the case. I love how it’s becoming a habit for them to toast their wins after a case goes well. They almost count on it. This time Granger points out they will toast with something wholesome – ice cream.
Callen was also amusing as he harassed Sam about the clowns in the marionette theater they had to visit. Sam, as we learned in previous episodes, hates clowns. More than that, he’s afraid of them. So it was funny when he wanted to stay outside the theater instead of going in. When he does go in, Callen made sure to point out the clown puppets in a way that teased his creeped-out friend.
They were also funny when someone steals Blaze’s backpack and Kensi and Deeks can’t follow them because they had a flat tire – part of their undercover ruse. It was such a great mimic to their fake squabbling when they start bickering for real over why they chose the flat tire for a cover story. I had to laugh when Deeks asks Kensi, “Are we still in character?”
I also loved Deeks’ line when they were checking out Josh’s messy college dorm room and Deeks says it brought back happy memories for him. Kensi gets excited for a minute, thinking he lived like this in college. But Deeks retorts back, “For a second there, I thought I was back in your bedroom.” The best part of this line was realizing that although Deeks was slamming her for having a messy bedroom, he was also complimenting her on how many happy memories he had shared in her bedroom. Yowsers! I love it when Deeks is cheeky like this (which is often).
Next they set up Blaze with a fake bedroom in the middle of NCIS so she can lure in Josh with her hacking skills. As Eric gives her guidance through an earpiece, Deeks notices – in front of Nell – that Blaze and Eric have a lot of chemistry together. To this, Eric immediately protests, not wanting Nell to think he likes Blaze. I thought that was sweet. His first concern was reassuring Nell. So he emphatically tells Deeks (in front of Nell) that Blaze is like a little sister to him. He emphasizes that he is training a junior agent and this is the educational process. Then Deeks decides to be a little stinker and push the issue further, asking Eric if he doesn’t think she’s hot. That puts Eric in a tough spot but I loved his reaction. He calmly and sincerely says, “She’s not my type.” He did everything he could to make sure Nell wouldn’t get the wrong idea and think he liked Blaze - until he ran to hug her after a job well done. That was a little overeager, and Deeks can’t leave it alone. He sarcastically comments this is all indeed very educational, to which Nell replies with some fire in her eyes, “Oh, yes, I’m learning a few things, too.”
By the end of the episode, Eric ditches out of their team celebration to meet Blaze and her friends. He tells a curious Nell where he is going. Again, he reassures her it is just coffee and mentoring them about their careers. But Nell does not appear convinced. She even asks him if that’s the story he’s sticking to – as if he’s lying – and Eric says yes. She doesn’t seem to trust him, though he hasn’t really given her a good reason to doubt him. But Eric looks sincere as he leaves.
When Eric returns that night – and Nell is still at work – he tells Nell how Blaze had really wanted him to meet her dad, thinking they had a lot in common. I got the impression that Eric liked hanging out with Blaze because he felt cool and young and hip with her, especially being invited to hang out with her friends. And learning she really wanted him to meet her dad was a blow to his ego. So maybe Nell was astute in seeing there were more reasons he wanted to go that night than just mentoring. But his reasons were still pretty innocent. I didn’t think they warranted an apology. In fact, I couldn’t quite figure out why he apologized to Nell since he didn’t really do anything wrong. But it was nice to see him sensitive to how Nell was feeling. There was definite tension between them when he arrived and he wanted to make things right.
- I like how everyone knows it’s a terrible thing to eat in Ops (Hetty hates it) and they all remind Eric of it when he forgets. He was funny as he realized what he was doing and quickly dried to consume his green candy.
- Sam is getting pretty hip with his texting language. When he says MTE (“My Thoughts Exactly”) to Callen, his partner looks pretty baffled. Sam has to explain why he knows these things – he texts with his daughter. She keeps him young.
- Sam and Callen sure get stopped by cops a lot! I found it amusing, considering how many times it’s happened.
- I was kind of shocked that the dentist dad died. I felt bad for Wyatt, whose actions killed his own father.
- Sam is a quick shot. When Malee turned to shoot him, he got to her first. That takes quick reflexes.
- I love the song “Blaze of Glory” by Bon Jovi. So the explanation of Blaze’s moniker made me laugh. (Though it was kind of a gross visual image of her being conceived at a concert. In public? I don’t want to know more.)
- I was hoping to get more on the potential Deeks secret this week, so I was disappointed when nothing was brought up at all. I guess we'll have to wait on that one - until closer to the season finale, I'm guessing.
What did you think of "Blaze of Glory?" Do you think Eric gave Nell reason to be jealous? Do you think he really liked Blaze? Should he have apologized? Join our discussion in the comments below.
