NCIS: New Orleans – Man on Fire – Review: “Me Break the Rules? Never!”
3.3 – “Man on Fire”
Directed by Rob Morrow
Written by Gary Glasberg and Zach Strauss
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
The show starts with a woman standing in the middle of a basketball court with something in her hands. There is only one other person in the arena, a man with a gun and he’s pointing it at the woman. Uh oh! Make that two men in the arena. They fight it out and one takes a big fall from the rafters into the seats.
LaSalle is upset that Brody called Percy back but not him. Percy schools him in texting and calling etiquette. If you call someone, you can expect a call back. If you text them, you can expect a text back. I still miss Brody.
Gregorio busts in on the cute PerSalle (Percy + LaSalle) moment and sits down at Brody’s desk. That’s going to ruffle some feathers!
King enters the scene and immediately tells Percy and LaSalle that he’s borrowing Gregorio from the FBI for a while, at least until they can find and bust the hidden cartel supporters in NOLA.
Percy’s face is priceless when she hears the news. It’s a mixture of “what’s the disgusting smell” and “I think I’m going to hurl.”
LaSalle asks King if he thinks it’s a good idea to bring Gregorio on board. He doesn’t want to get into trouble again.
King says the fastest way to get Gregorio and the FBI out is to solve the cartel cases.
Petty Officer Barrett is the murder victim. He’s a recipient of the bronze star for bravery and doesn’t have anything on his record.
Gregorio is being a hard ass. She’s giving Percy and LaSalle crap about how they are collecting evidence.
Loretta finds evidence of a struggle.
Gregorio figures out that the assailant was on the catwalk when he attacked the victim.
The team finds a riffle. Could it be the murderer’s weapon?
According to Sebastian it’s a tranquilizer rifle used to hunt big game and here’s the kicker, it’s registered to the victim, Petty Officer Barrett.
Gregoiro cuts Sebastian off. What a jerk. She does find out that the alarms were tripped in two places. They come to the conclusion that there was a third person in the arena.
Gregorio wants to get the FBI involved. King doesn’t want too many chefs in the kitchen. I hope going to the FBI isn’t Gregorio’s idea every time something happens.
The victim received a threatening email the night he was murdered. Gregorio insults Patton saying that they should hand the email over to her FBI cyber-crime people. She thinks they can get it done faster. Patton is all, “Oh no you didn’t!” and manages to find the person who send the email in a matter of seconds. Suck it, Gregorio!
They found out a retired Army Ranger named Hank Clarkson was the one who sent the email. Since retiring, he’s been in trouble with the law.
Pride and Gregorio go to Clarkson’s house. Clarkson and his wife appears to be fighting. When Gregorio and Pride point their weapons at them, the wife screams that they are just trying to save their son. Save their son from what? Or from who?
Gregorio is being rough and trying to pull FBI protocol. Pride puts her in her place.
Clarkson’s wife tells Pride and Gregorio that their son Drew, a Petty Officer went to Mexico for rest and relaxation and that he hasn’t been heard from for three days. The Clarkson’s then explain that they received a ransom letter asking for a million dollars.
The navy and the government won’t pay the hostage money. His parents are upset and angry. Clarkson got in touch with a military contractor to negotiate with the kidnappers. Mrs. Clarkson said that she reached out to Barrett for help. She grew up with Barrett and thought that if he could get the drop on the kidnapper, even though they didn’t have the money, Barrett they could exchange the guy coming to pick up the money for their son.
Mr. Clarkson was worried and tried to scare off Barrett the night he was killed by writing the threatening email.
Gregorio figures out that Mrs. Clarkson was the third person at the arena.
Pride and the team watch the hostage video. Aw! That poor hostage!
LaSalle figures out that they have five hours until the Clarkson’s son is killed.
Gregorio’s contacts at the State Department figure out where Drew Clarkson, the hostage, was kidnapped in Mexico.
Gregorio has secured a warrant. She’s being a complete a-hole to the team and tells them that they are not sanctioned to go to Mexico to save the Clarkson’s son.
LaSalle is pissed. He asks King if they are going to listen to Gregorio. King says that they need to take it one step at a time and that the first step is finding Barrett's killer. That will give them a link to the kidnappers.
The team gets news that the negotiator was found hanging in the city.
Not good!
LaSalle is pissed. He tells Percy that he thinks that the FBI are trying to take over their station.
Uh oh! The negotiator has been tortured. His killer even cut out the negotiator’s tongue. Gross! Percy says that is a common tactic with South American gangs. This case is intense!
The team is back together preparing for the kidnapper’s to call Mr. and Mrs. Clarkson’s house. I hope the kidnapper doesn’t catch on!
The kidnapper wants to know if the family has the money. They say that they do. The kidnapper gives the Clarksons instructions on where they can drop off the money. The mother follows Gregorio’s instructions and says that she needs to hear her son’s voice first. The kidnapper reluctantly agrees and brings the phone to Drew. Sadly, the kidnappers figure out that the call is being traced and they point the gun at Drew. We hear a gunshot, which I assume was the kidnappers killing Drew. Mrs. Clarkson is hysterical. Gregorio looks shocked.
(Commercial break… I really like Target’s new ad campaigns. The music is always catchy and most importantly, they show a diverse representation of people who shop at their stores. Nice work, Target!)
Percy joins LaSalle at their headquarters. Gregorio hasn’t shown up for work yet. LaSalle is blaming the incident on Gregorio. Percy isn’t convinced it was all her fault. LaSalle says the case went the way it did because the FBI got involved. Percy says the FBI gave them the only leads that they had in the case, they just got in too late.
Patton’s super sweet computer skills have figured out that the bullet the kidnappers fired hit a brick wall, not the Clarkson’s son. Pride thinks Drew is still alive.
Pride thinks if they find Barrett's killer, that they will be able to find Drew’s kidnapper, and hopefully they will be able to find Drew still alive.
Pride goes to find Gregorio. She’s licking her wounds. Pride reassures her that she did the right thing and that connecting with the victims is part of the deal. He invites Gregorio to re-join him in the hunt to find Barrett's killer and Drew Clarkson.
Sebastian wins at science and manages to pull Barrett's killer’s fingerprint.
Percy tells him to crosscheck it with anyone who works at the stadium. That would explain how the killer was able to get into the stadium without setting off any major alarms.
They found their guy! Diego Martinez, who used to work at the stadium as private security and he was also a member of the Mexican Special Forces.
Unfortunately, the team is too late. Martinez left the country and recently landed in the same city that Drew was last seen in.
Gregorio joins the team and tells them that she has intel on Barrett's killer in Mexico. She also tells the team that she thinks she can get permission to go after Barrett's killer, Martinez, but not Drew Clarkson, the hostage.
Somehow I don’t think that’s going to fly with the team.
Eisner is pissed at Gregorio for pulling intel. Eisner knows that the kidnapper is most likely in the same compound as the hostage victim.
Gregorio assures him that they only want a warrant from the Mexican government to arrest Martinez. They will also need permission from the State Department. She says that it isn’t about the hostage victim. Yeah, right!
Eisner tells Pride that they cannot break protocol and rescue the hostage. If they do, he says that they will face criminal charges.
Ooh! Eisner tells Gregorio to watch Pride. What a jerk wad!
Mrs. Clarkson goes to visit the team before they head off to Mexico. She is devastated. She tells Pride that she knows that they did everything they could to bring Drew back. She wants Pride to promise to find the people who did this and bring them to justice.
PerSalle sit on the steps together and watch. They’re so cute!
Pride says he promises that he’s going to do more than that. He tells her that they think Drew is still alive and that they are going to do everything they can to bring him home, alive.
GO, PRIDE!
Gregorio and Eisner aren’t going to be happy about that promise!
Interesting, Gregorio speaks Spanish. She goes over the plan with LaSalle while Pride and Percy “gear up” nearby. Ha ha! Pride and Percy are talking to Patton and figuring out where the victim is located.
Pride tells Gregorio that they are going after Drew. Gregorio is irate! She tells Pride that Eisner will bury them both. Pride says he doesn’t care and that he is going to do the right thing and go rescue Drew.
Thanks to Patton, Pride and Percy find Drew’s possible holding location.
Percy tries to use her charm to distract the man behind the counter at Drew’s possible holding location.
Pride gets into a gunfight. YAY! He finds Drew and takes out the bad guys!
Uh oh! The gunfire brings a lot of angry people out of the woodwork.
Gregorio and LaSalle arrest Martinez moments before LaSalle hops in a military vehicle to save Pride, Percy, and Drew. Good driving, LaSalle!
We cut back to FBI headquarters in NOLA. Gregorio looks nervous. I would be too! Eisner is not someone I would want to piss off.
Eisner just got off the phone with the State Department. He says that they want to congratulate them on a job well done for arresting Martinez and successfully rescuing a hostage.
Eisner tells Gregorio she better not have broken protocol to rescue the hostage. He then pulls out a tape recorder and asks her to tell him exactly how it all went down.
Uh oh… Seeing as Gregorio is the new regular on the team, I can’t imagine she’ll snitch. But, that said, she isn’t exactly a team player… So, only time will tell!
Back at NCIS HQ, LaSalle and Percy are talking what they think Gregorio will or won’t do.
LaSalle says he doesn’t regret it and that he did the right thing. Get ‘em, LaSalle!
Gregorio walks through the doors. She tells the team that she told Eisner that while she and LaSalle were rescuing Martinez that Pride and Percy were under attack. While fighting back, Percy and Pride stumbled across the hostage.
Eisner allegedly bought the story. Gregorio adds that it helped that Eisner was made to look like the hero.
Ugh, I hate when people high up get off of other people’s victories and celebrate them as if they are their own!
LaSalle and Percy are extremely glad that Gregorio didn’t sell them out.
Pride drives Gregorio over to the Clarkson’s house to see the family reunited. Pride tells Gregorio that he brought her here to see who their team really is and what they are really about.
*******
My Thoughts: Another great episode! I’m glad Pride fought back against Gregorio. She pulled some major attitude, but I think she’s starting to understand the NOLA team, don’t you?
I’m worried about Eisner. He’s a major jerk wad. I think he’s going to pull something serious on the team before he leaves town.
I was bummed we didn’t get to see more of Sebastian or Loretta this episode. Also, where are Loretta’s adopted sons? I want to see them too!
Next week’s episode looks really good! Sebastian gets kidnapped. Episodes where one of the team member’s is kidnapped or hurt are always intense and emotionally charged.
Leave a comment below to let me know what you thought about this week’s episode and the preview for next week!
