NCIS - Troll - Review: "Kicking off the season-ending arc"

NCIS started its season-ending arc last Tuesday, and it involves terrorists recruiting teens via the internet.

A couple at a restaurant is nearly hit by a car driving into it, and the woman inside appears to be dead. The deceased is identified as Navy Ensign Janine Wilt and she was stabbed in her neck. A lot of her information is classified, but she does have a shirt from a nearby high school in her car. It turns out Wilt volunteered to coach the girls' basketball team. McGee learns that Wilt worked for the office of Naval Intelligence as a Cyber Warfare Engineer and Gibbs later learns from her C.O. that she was working on a Columbian drug ring. To decrypt her laptop, the team gets assistance from agent Ned Dorneget, now with the NCIS Cyber division. Dorneget discovers a lot of protection on her laptop, and discover that drug trafficker Alfredo Montez created a secure messaging system for the drug cartel. However, it turns out Montez' computer was hacked.

Meanwhile, Abby discovers that Wilt's killer was in the back of the car during the entire drive. Dorneget learns that Wilt remotely accessed a computer belonging to Adem Faruk Korkmaz. Korkmaz is a businessman for import and export, but when trying to get a warrant for his computer, the warrant is denied. Apparently, the NSA is interested in Korkmaz because of his business with Turkey. Bishop asks Jake for the laptop, but he can't do that. The next morning, however, he gives Gibbs a hard drive from the laptop. Dorneget and McGee find out that the Korkmaz was in a chat room. He denies going into a chat room, but recognizes that the username of his daughter Layna is among the chat room members. Layna was part of the basketball that Ensign Wilt coached.

Layna says she joined a chat room and was later invited for another one. However, that chat room was filled with hatred against everything so Layna quit. She then started to receive threatening messages and asked Wilt for help, who blocked the chat room. Layna recalls the username of the person who invited her for the chat room and that he was angry when she left. This turns out to be Bradley Simek, and his late father owned the murder weapon. Bradley makes a run for it when Tony and McGee come to pick him up. They also deduce that he has made a bomb with his 3D-printer and gunpowder. The team finds Bradley in a bus filled with passengers and they surround the bus. The passengers safely leave while Gibbs tries to talk the kid out of blowing himself up. However, even though Bradley claims he didn't kill Wilt, he blow himself up anyway.

Elsewhere, it is revealed that Jake and Gibbs have spent quite some time together and are even becoming friends. Jake does have some issues to work out with Bishop though. During the case, Bishop really pressures Jake for Korkmaz' laptop, but Jake says he can't give it to her. He can see something is up with her, and Bishop reveals she shot a man last week in Kabul. Jake is stunned to hear about this and says their marriage changed when she joined NCIS. The next morning, things are not quite well between the two as they almost completely ignore one another. They clearly have some issues to figure out.

Obviously, this episode was just the beginning of an arc that will go to the season finale and hopefully beyond. This episode was a good way to kick things off on that. It started with a distraction as the focus was on the Columbian drug ring, but later we came to the real purpose of this episode. I must say it was a bit confusing with the drug ring and all the technological stuff, but in the end it all made sense. The episode was a pretty fast-paced hour, but also made room for personal character moments. The fight between Bishop and Jake was another great moment in Bishop's character development. I like the fact that they addressed her first kill in Kabul and it's interesting to see how things have changed between Jake and Bishop after she left NSA to join NCIS.

As I wrote, this episode was just the beginning of the arc so there are some things left over from this episode that I hope will be addressed over the next two episodes. Bradley said he didn't kill Wilt and while I'm not sure I believe him, it is obvious he is not working alone. How many more teenagers have been recruited? And what have they been recruited for? More importantly, who is behind all this? Clearly there is some terrorist organization here, but to what extent? Are they foreign or domestic terrorists? If the press releases of the next episodes are any indication, this terrorist group is working on a global scale. Recruiting teens via the internet is a method that is currently being used by various terrorist organizations so the story of this arc is pretty believable. The story will continue in next week's episode and it will involve a pretty significant death.

What did you tink of "Troll"? Do you think Bradley killed Ensign Wilt? Were you shocked that Bradley blew himself up? Who do you think are behind all this? How far-reaching is this terrorist organization? And lastly, who do you think is going to die in the next episode? I would love to hear your opinions and theories in the comment section below.

The next episode, "The Lost Boys", airs Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS. Watch a promo for the episode below.

About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Stalker, Madam Secretary and the upcoming show American Odyssey. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder.

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